Jane Macartney the reports for Times (London), from Chengdu:
Two foreign search-and-rescue workers and their four sniffer dogs picked over the rubble left by China’s earthquake in search of bodies. They were working almost side by side with Chinese teams.
The Foreign Ministry appealed to the international community for tents. The Commerce Minister went out of his way to thank foreign companies for millions of dollars of donations. Speaking on national television he told Chinese that charges of foreign miserliness were false.
Tens of millions of Chinese sat gripped by moment-by-moment coverage of the unfolding disaster on state-run television. The stodgy evening news broadcast was replaced by 24-hour scenes of rescues, of paratroops jumping into inaccessible villages, of weeping relatives and of ragged shocked survivors. These scenes are unprecedented in China.
