Troops hike to quake-buried Chinese villages

Mourning, moment of silence
Still, prospects for survivors in the quake zone dwindled. Only 58 people were pulled from demolished buildings across the quake area so far, China Seismological Bureau spokesman Zhang Hongwei told Xinhua.

Weeping parents held a vigil outside a collapsed school in the town of Juyuan, where more than 900 high school students were initially trapped. Only one survivor has been found: a girl pulled free by rescue team.

Bowing to public calls, Beijing Olympics organizers scaled down the boisterous ongoing torch relay, saying Wednesday's leg in the southeastern city of Ruijin will begin with a minute of silence and more somber ceremonies. People along the route, which next month is scheduled to arrive in quake-hit areas, would be asked for donations, an organizing committee spokesman said.

In the areas around Mianyang, more than 7,300 people died and another 18,000 were believed trapped in rubble, most in Beichuan. Amid the rubble, CCTV showed the six-story Beichuan Hotel listing, half its first story collapsed. Medical teams tried to treat the wounded in dirt courtyards littered with broken furniture and concrete.

Air drops in difficult areas
Though Wen and others called for air drops of emergency supplies to hard-to-reach areas, rain impeded efforts for a second day, and Xinhua said a group of paratroopers called off a rescue mission.

Strong aftershocks — one of magnitude-6, according to Chinese seismologists — hit Chengdu, the region's usually busy commercial center. A KFC outlet ran out of chicken and cooking oil.

Expressions of sympathy and offers of help poured in from Japan and the European Union. Russia was sending a plane with 30 tons of relief supplies, the Interfax news agency said. Chinese President Hu Jintao discussed the disaster by phone with President Bush.

The U.S. is offering an initial $500,000 in relief in anticipation of an appeal by the International Red Cross, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

While welcoming the support, the Chinese government suggested that aid would be confined to supplies and money, not foreign personnel.

"We welcome funds and supplies. We can't accommodate personnel at this point," Wang Zhenyao, the Civil Affairs Ministry's top disaster relief official, told reporters in Beijing.

Dalai Lama offers prayers for victims
The Dalai Lama, who has been vilified by Chinese authorities who blame him for recent unrest in Tibet, offered prayers for the victims. The epicenter skirts the Tibetan highlands, where some communities staged anti-government protests in March.

Seismologists said the quake was on a level the region sees once every 50 to 100 years. The region's last strong quake was in 1933, when a magnitude 7.5 quake killed more than 9,300 people. Monday's quake was powered up the pent-up stress, experts said.

"I don't think this is unheard of," said Amy Vaughn of the U.S. Geological Survey. "It's more an issue of how long and how much stress has been built up in this region."

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