Tornadoes Kill 10 People in Eastern China

This aerial view shows damaged buildings after a tornado hit the city of Suqian, in China's eastern Jiangsu province on September 20, 2023. (Photo by AFP)
This aerial view shows damaged buildings after a tornado hit the city of Suqian, in China's eastern Jiangsu province on September 20, 2023. (Photo by AFP)
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Tornadoes Kill 10 People in Eastern China

This aerial view shows damaged buildings after a tornado hit the city of Suqian, in China's eastern Jiangsu province on September 20, 2023. (Photo by AFP)
This aerial view shows damaged buildings after a tornado hit the city of Suqian, in China's eastern Jiangsu province on September 20, 2023. (Photo by AFP)

Two tornadoes within hours killed 10 people and seriously injured four others in eastern China, state media said Wednesday.
The first tornado hit parts of Suqian city in Jiangsu province on Tuesday afternoon, state broadcaster CCTV said. It destroyed 137 homes and damaged crop land and pig farms. Five people died and four were injured.
A second tornado in the evening killed five people in Yancheng city, which is in the same province about 190 kilometers southeast of Suqian, The Associated Press reported.
Videos posted online of the first tornado showed cars that had been tossed about, including at least one flipped onto its side, and debris swirling in the air above a several story-high building.
CCTV said that power and road service had been restored in the Suqian area.
Tornadoes are rare in China but have caused deaths in Jiangsu in recent years. One person in the province was killed in a tornado last year and four died in 2021. Another tornado killed eight people in the city of Wuhan the same day.



China Discovers Cluster of New Mpox Strain

A woman walks on the Youyi Bridge at the Liangmahe river in Beijing, China on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
A woman walks on the Youyi Bridge at the Liangmahe river in Beijing, China on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
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China Discovers Cluster of New Mpox Strain

A woman walks on the Youyi Bridge at the Liangmahe river in Beijing, China on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
A woman walks on the Youyi Bridge at the Liangmahe river in Beijing, China on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Chinese health authorities said on Thursday they had detected the new mutated mpox strain clade Ib as the viral infection spreads to more countries after the World Health Organization declared a global public health emergency last year.
China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention said it had found a cluster outbreak of the Ib subclade that started with the infection a foreigner who has a history of travel and residence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Reuters reported.
Four further cases have been found in people infected after close contact with the foreigner. The patients' symptoms are mild and include skin rash and blisters.
Mpox spreads through close contact and causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions on the body. Although usually mild, it can be fatal in rare cases.
WHO last August declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years, following an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that spread to neighboring countries.
The outbreak in DRC began with the spread of an endemic strain, known as clade I. But the clade Ib variant appears to spread more easily through routine close contact, including sexual contact.
The variant has spread from DRC to neighboring countries, including Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, triggering the emergency declaration from the WHO.
China said in August last year it would monitor people and goods entering the country for mpox.
The country's National Health Commission said mpox would be managed as a Category B infectious disease, enabling officials to take emergency measures such as restricting gatherings, suspending work and school, and sealing off areas when there is an outbreak of a disease.