Rescuers searched for earthquake victims amid the debris of a hospital in Dujiangyan on Monday night.

On Tuesday morning, Wang Guofei and his younger brother drove to look for their mother in the rugged southwestern county of Beichuan, where at least 5,000 people have died as a result of Monday’s earthquake. But the road had been washed out by a landslide, and Mr. Wang said he would return the next day and search for his mother on foot.

“She has potatoes,” he said. “She can live for a while.”
Edward Wong (’98) together with Jake Hooker report for The New York Times.

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Photo via New York Times via Reuters.

A earthquake devastated southwestern China on Monday, killing as many as 10,000 people and trapping hundreds of others under flattened buildings, state media reported. After an update on the impact of the quake, Time Magazine’s Beijing correspondent, Austin Ramzy (’03), discusses details and rescue efforts on PBS’s Online News Hour.

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Earthquake map from the USGS.

The Indian government has been mining low-grade uranium on tribal lands for decades, but it plans to expand production so that nuclear power will eventually meet a quarter of India’s energy needs. The risks of pursuing that policy made international headlines in 2006 when a uranium waste pipeline burst in the east of the country, creating a devastating spill. FRONTLINE/World reporter Sonia Narang (’08) travels to this remote area to find out how the mines are affecting the health and traditions of villagers, and forcing thousands off their lands.

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Since security is all about preventing any major threat to human life, the effect of the deadly cyclone that hit Burma last Saturday must be seen from a serious human security perspective. However, the Burmese military junta is far from comprehending such a humane concept. Min Zin (VS ‘01), comments in the Thailand-based English language news magazine The Irrawaddy.

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BEIJING — A team of climbers trudged through snow and ice to carry the Olympic torch to the summit of Mount Everest on Thursday, fulfilling a long-held goal of the Chinese government to have the Olympic flame lit on top of the world’s highest mountain. Edward Wong (’98) reports for The New York Times.

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Everyone is running out of words to express their feelings about the Burmese generals. What the generals are doing is making the world furious. It’s time to call their actions a humanitarian crime.

It’s impossible to find logical reasons for the junta’s rejection of adequate help from the UN, the US, the EU and the world’s relief agencies. Clearly, it’s hubris, xenophobia, fear and a callous disregard for the lives of the Burmese people.

“It’s a crime against humanity,” Pierre Fouilland of the Comité de Secours Internationaux, a French disaster rescue agency, told Reuters after he was denied a visa by the Burmese embassy in Bangkok. “It should be against the law. It’s like they are taking a gun and shooting their own people.” Kyaw Zwa Moe (VS ‘06), comments in the Thailand-based English language news magazine The Irrawaddy.

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DUJIANGYAN, China — The children who were considered fortunate escaped with a broken bone or a severed limb. The others, hundreds of them, were carried out to be buried, and their remaining classmates lay crushed beneath the rubble of the schoolhouse. Edward Wong (’98) reports for The New York Times.


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After nearly two decades in power, Burma’s ruling junta should be showing signs of wear and tear. Indeed, observers are constantly on the lookout for evidence of a split within the ranks of the regime’s top leadership.

Not surprisingly, they often find what they’re looking for. But rarely, if ever, do these internal strains signal the sort of real weakness that could undermine the junta’s hold on power.

Kyaw Zwa Moe (VS ‘06), comments in the Thailand-based English language news magazine The Irrawaddy.

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Photography by Taro Taylor via Flickr.

The Internet is wildly popular in Iran, and blogging has become a vital source of information and analysis due to the systematic rollbacks of press freedoms (such as they were) during the last few years. Censorship and self-censorship takes its toll, as does intimidation and imprisonment of bloggers. But how-to-blog sites are among the most visited by Iranians, I reckon an indication that huge numbers of Iranians feel they have something to say and are doing their best to say it.

That brings me to Omid Memarian, one of Iran’s most courageous bloggers. TIME magazine’s Scott MacLeod writes on Omid Memarian (’08).

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Over half of Mumbai’s 13 million live in slums. Dharavi has the dubious distinction of being the biggest slum of all. But a plan to raze and rebuild this area - populatd by over 500,000 is underway. In September 2007 twenty six of the world’s largest developers put in bids for the chance to undertake
this massive project.

The redevelopment plan’s mastermind, Mukesh Mehta, says that he’s taken all the factors into consideration; rehousing slumdwellers, providing employment, upgrading utilities as well as ensuring that top-level developers will be in charge of the massive undertaking.

But over half a million people live and work in this bustling beehive of a slum, and many aren’t happy about a plan that will radically change their world. Charlotte Buchen (’07) produced this video for CurrentTV.