China death toll continues to climb

China launches three-day mourning period

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Officials asked for the horns of cars, trains and ships and air raid sirens to sound as people fell silent at 2:28 p.m. exactly one week after the quake splintered thousands of buildings and killed an estimated 50,000 people. Chinese news portal sina.com said the government had ordered all visitors to online entertainment and game pages to be redirected to Web sites dedicated to commemorating earthquake victims.

The Olympic torch relay a potent symbol of national pride in the countdown to August's much anticipated Beijing games was also suspended during the mourning period.

The national flag in Tiananmen Square, which is raised in a solemn ceremony every morning at dawn, fluttered at half staff.

To mark the mourning period, the logos of all newspapers were printed in black and the National Grand Theater canceled or postponed all performances. Trade on China's stock and commodities exchanges will be suspended for three minutes, the Securities Regulatory Commission said on its Web site.

Hope for survivors dwindle

Hope of finding more trapped survivors dwindled, and preventing hunger and disease among the homeless became more pressing.

"It will soon be too late" to find trapped survivors, said Koji Fujiya, deputy leader of a Japanese rescue team working in Beichuan, a town reduced to rubble. His team pulled 10 bodies out of Beichuan's high school Sunday.

The steady run of rescue news flashed by the official Xinhua News Agency has slowed. Just three rescues were reported Sunday, including a woman in Yingxiu town who was reached by soldiers who dug a 15-foot tunnel through the wreckage of a flattened power station and had to amputate both her legs to set free, after 150 hours.

"She was in a delirious state" and told rescuers to leave her alone, thinking she was already in a hospital, Xinhua quoted rescuer Ma Gang as saying. "We fed her milk and water, and her family was there to reassure her."

Dozens of aftershocks have rumbled through the region, extending the damage and fear of survivors. A magnitude 6 temblor on Sunday killed three people, injured more than 1,000 and caused further damage to houses and roads, Xinhua reported.

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