From The New York Times:
The death toll from a tropical storm that pummeled southern China rose to 523 on Saturday as the central government dispatched a team of investigators to assess the full scope of the disaster and to determine whether local authorities had deliberately understated the number of dead.
The team sent by the Ministry of Civil Affairs was expected to focus on Hunan Province, where local officials initially reported 92 deaths from the storm. But on Friday provincial officials revised the number of fatalities in Hunan to 345 people. The change came after the Chinese media discovered more bodies and questioned whether local officials were hiding the true toll. [Full Text]
Related news via CDT.
