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China: Rescuers Brave Freezing Cold to Find Quake Survivors

A man walks on the rubble next to a damaged house following the earthquake that rocked Gansu's Jishishan county, in Haidong, Qinghai province, China December 20, 2023. REUTERS/Xiaoyu Yin
A man walks on the rubble next to a damaged house following the earthquake that rocked Gansu's Jishishan county, in Haidong, Qinghai province, China December 20, 2023. REUTERS/Xiaoyu Yin
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China: Rescuers Brave Freezing Cold to Find Quake Survivors

A man walks on the rubble next to a damaged house following the earthquake that rocked Gansu's Jishishan county, in Haidong, Qinghai province, China December 20, 2023. REUTERS/Xiaoyu Yin
A man walks on the rubble next to a damaged house following the earthquake that rocked Gansu's Jishishan county, in Haidong, Qinghai province, China December 20, 2023. REUTERS/Xiaoyu Yin

Braving sub-zero conditions, thousands of rescuers faced an uphill task on Wednesday finding and treating survivors of a strong earthquake that rocked a remote area in China's northwestern Gansu province more than a day ago.
In Gansu, 113 people had been found dead as of 9 a.m. on Wednesday (0100 GMT), and 782 were injured, authorities said.
The death toll in Qinghai rose to 18 with 198 injured as of 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
Seventy-eight people have been found alive in Gansu, where rescue operations ended on Tuesday afternoon, state and local media said, as focus shifted to treating the wounded and resettling residents with the months-long winter at the top of mind.
The magnitude-6.2 earthquake jolted Jishishan county near the border straddling Gansu and Qinghai provinces a minute before midnight on Monday, sending frightened residents out of homes into the cold in the dead of the night.
It damaged roads, power and water lines as well as agricultural production facilities, and triggered landslides and mudslides, Reuters reported. Authorities continued to restrict vehicles from entering affected highways.
Emergency responses have been activated, with thousands of personnel from various departments dispatched into the mountainous disaster zone to look for survivors and resettle them.
In Gansu, more than 207,000 homes were wrecked and nearly 15,000 houses collapsed, affecting more than 145,000 people.
More than 128,000 emergency supply items, including tents, quilts, tent lights and folding beds, were delivered while food such as steamed buns and instant noodles were provided to the victims, state television CCTV said.
The quake-stricken area is geographically a transition zone between two plateaus, featuring terrains of altitudes ranging from 1,800 to 4,300 meters (5,906 to 14,108 feet) with "very complex" topography, CCTV said.
Recovery from Monday night's earthquake has been further challenged by the powerful cold snap that has gripped most of China since last week. Temperatures around the quake epicenter in Gansu fell to about minus 15 degrees Celsius (5 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday night.
According to local media citing researchers, people trapped under rubble exposed to minus 10 C conditions without help run the risk of developing hypothermia and may only be able to live for five to 10 hours if uninjured.

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World

10 Police, 18 Militants Killed in Pakistan's Northwest

A wounded policeman receives treatment at a hospital in Kohat in northwestern Pakistan on November 11, 2026 following an attack on a police convoy. Basit SHAH / AFP
A wounded policeman receives treatment at a hospital in Kohat in northwestern Pakistan on November 11, 2026 following an attack on a police convoy. Basit SHAH / AFP
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10 Police, 18 Militants Killed in Pakistan's Northwest

A wounded policeman receives treatment at a hospital in Kohat in northwestern Pakistan on November 11, 2026 following an attack on a police convoy. Basit SHAH / AFP
A wounded policeman receives treatment at a hospital in Kohat in northwestern Pakistan on November 11, 2026 following an attack on a police convoy. Basit SHAH / AFP

Gunmen attacked police during an operation against illegal gold mining in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing 10 officers, while 18 militants died in the ensuing fighting, an official police statement said.

A statement by provincial police in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said officers were returning from a mine in the Gumbat area of Kohat district when militants opened fire on them.

In addition to the 10 police and 18 militant deaths, 12 police personnel were wounded, the statement said.

In the aftermath of the clashes, the Pakistani Taliban, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for a series of attacks across the country, including one on a police convoy in the Gumbat area.

Earlier, a senior administrative official in Kohat told AFP that militants set two police vehicles on fire during the assault, while two other police vehicles and one private vehicle were missing.

Another senior administrative official in the Orakzai area of Kohat said that 10 militants belonging to the TTP were killed during a separate operation in the district.

A large quantity of weapons was also recovered from the militants, the official added.

Security forces are battling an intensifying militancy in the border province they say emanates from Afghanistan, an accusation its Taliban government denies.

A spokesman for a local emergency service earlier on Wednesday said there had been a "firing incident involving police personnel" in Kohat district, adding that rescue workers were treating a dozen wounded officers.

- 'Open war' -

Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have been fraught since the Taliban authorities took power in 2021, and worsened after deadly border clashes in October last year that led to near-total closure of the border.

Clashes subsided after mediation, but the conflict intensified again in February, with Pakistan declaring "an open war" on its neighbor.

In a statement, Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the attack, expressed his sorrow over the deaths of the police and said "national determination to completely eradicate terrorism from the country is unwavering".

Pakistan's foreign minister Ishaq Dar said he was "deeply grieved by the loss of precious lives in a cowardly terrorist attack on our police personnel in Kohat".

Islamabad accuses Kabul of allowing militants responsible for deadly attacks on Pakistani territory to operate from its soil. Afghanistan's Taliban authorities have denied the allegations.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed in fighting between the two countries since October last year, according to figures from the United Nations' mission in Afghanistan.

Earlier this month, militants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa killed two police officers assigned to protect a polio vaccination team travelling near the Afghan border.

The province was placed under emergency rule last month in a move authorities said came in reaction to the failure by the provincial government to act against militancy.

The imposition of emergency measures sidelined the last remaining bastion of power for jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

The special constitutional measures also set off a province-wide crackdown on Khan's supporters, with hundreds of detentions.

World

China Tells US Ready to Strengthen Cooperation

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks during a press conference after the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Foreign Ministers Meeting in Beijing Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP)
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks during a press conference after the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Foreign Ministers Meeting in Beijing Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP)
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China Tells US Ready to Strengthen Cooperation

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks during a press conference after the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Foreign Ministers Meeting in Beijing Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP)
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks during a press conference after the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Foreign Ministers Meeting in Beijing Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP)

China's top diplomat Wang Yi told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday Beijing was "willing to strengthen" cooperation with Washington, the Chinese foreign ministry said.

Wang and Rubio spoke by phone ahead of an expected meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the November 18-19 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference in China's Shenzhen.

The two countries reached an agreement to calm trade tensions during last year's APEC summit in South Korea after they had exchanged tariff escalations earlier in 2025.

"(China) is willing to strengthen communication and cooperation with the US," Wang told Rubio during a "constructive" call, the ministry said in a statement.

Wang added that the countries would support each other in hosting the 2026 APEC summit and G20 summit in the United States.

Beijing stands ready to "properly handle differences and sensitive issues" with Washington, Wang said, adding that "stability" in US-China ties had been "hard won".

Next week's APEC summit could also see a trilateral meeting with Trump, Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, after each country said they were in discussions about such talks.

Trump said Sunday he would likely be meeting Xi and Putin to discuss ending the Iran war.

World

Italy Evacuates Hundreds of Schools Due to Bomb Alert, with Threats in Scotland and Ireland

Policemen stand outside the "Virgilio" middle school after children have been evacuated due to a bomb alert, in Rome on November 11, 2026. (AFP)
Policemen stand outside the "Virgilio" middle school after children have been evacuated due to a bomb alert, in Rome on November 11, 2026. (AFP)
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Italy Evacuates Hundreds of Schools Due to Bomb Alert, with Threats in Scotland and Ireland

Policemen stand outside the "Virgilio" middle school after children have been evacuated due to a bomb alert, in Rome on November 11, 2026. (AFP)
Policemen stand outside the "Virgilio" middle school after children have been evacuated due to a bomb alert, in Rome on November 11, 2026. (AFP)

Italian authorities evacuated hundreds of schools Wednesday after an emailed bomb threat, the latest in a series of disruptions affecting European institutions following recent hoaxes aimed at airlines and broadcasters.

Schools in Ireland, Scotland and Northern Ireland received similar threats, but no evacuations were reported.

The Italian Education Ministry said the email threat was received by over 6,300 schools, but it was not immediately known how many had been evacuated.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said there was no indication of any “concrete danger” to schools and that the threats appeared aimed at “generating alarm and concern.” She said investigations were underway and that she had called a meeting of ministers for later Wednesday.

The anonymous email also threatened Meloni, according to copies obtained by Italian media, including the LaPresse news agency. She did not address the personal threat in her statement, and her office had no immediate comment.

The email purported to come from the leader of an otherwise unknown group with an anti-woman name and contained particularly violent threats. It was signed with the same Russian name used in last week’s threats against European broadcasters.

Authorities have not attributed the threats to any group or state, and no evidence has emerged linking the hoaxes to a government.

Threats reported in other countries

Police in Northern Ireland said they were conducting “urgent inquiries” after a threatening email was sent to hundreds of schools. Police in Scotland said they were treating similar messages as hoaxes and were not requiring schools to evacuate.

“Our assessment remains that they do not represent a credible threat,” Police Scotland said.

Police in Ireland also said they were aware of a “generic communication” sent to several educational institutions.

Rome students learn of threat after evacuation

“These are very delicate considerations, because there is always the risk that there is someone else behind the madman,” Italian Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara told reporters. “Given that so many schools are involved, the real risk is almost non-existent.”

At Rome’s Mamiani high school, students poured into the streets, mistaking the alarm for the recess bell. They learned of the bomb threat only after they were outside.

“They are saying it was a bomb alert because an email arrived from Russian hackers in which they said they would have killed everyone. It was pretty violent,” said Anita Bartocci, an 18-year-old student.

Hoax pattern emerges

Bomb threats targeted dozens of flights across Europe last week, following a string of hoaxes that forced flight diversions and left airlines scrambling to keep passengers safe and minimize disruption.

False bomb threats are relatively common, but so many in such a short period are unusual. No suspicious items were found and no one was injured. Still, the threats raised concerns because they followed other disruptions across Europe, including attacks on supermarket refrigeration systems and drone incursions.

Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said the emailed threats were aimed at “sowing terror, or creating concern.”

“It’s too easy. Any one of us can use the available means and instruments to send an email to a school, a daycare, an airline, saying that there’s a bomb,” Crosetto told reporters at an event Wednesday.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Saturday that his personal data had been leaked to the dark web, an encrypted part of the internet. PM Meloni blamed pro-Russian hackers.

The company overseeing construction of the Brenner Base Tunnel, which will connect Austria and Italy, also said over the weekend that it had been hacked last month.