9-story building collapses with residents still inside

A nine-story residential building in southwest China collapsed following a landslide yesterday, and 16 people remained missing hours later, the city government said. The collapse occurred at about 11:30 a.m. in Guiyang city, leaving a pile of steel, bricks and other rubble. By early evening, the city government said 98 residents had been found safe. It was still trying to contact 16 others, and cellphone signals of 15 of them had been traced to the site. The government said in a statement that heavy rainfall led to the collapse of the building with 35 households and that people in the surrounding area had been evacuated. More than 100 rescuers were at the scene and no casualties had been found by mid-afternoon, it said. More than 100 rescuers were combing the debris with sniffer dogs and life detectors. Rescuers pulled out a man surnamed Zhang who lived on the ground floor. He told the state-run Xinhua news agency that he had been awoken by loud noises and was about to run from the building when he was buried by falling debris. Residents of nearby buildings were evacuated following the accident.

Xi: Religions must be free of foreign influence

President Xi Jinping has warned that religions in China must be independent from foreign influence as Beijing asks domestic religious groups to adapt to Chinese society and pledge loyalty to the state. China is ruled by the atheist Communist Party and Beijing tries to control a variety of religions and their spread. Xi made the remarks yesterday at a high-profile meeting seeking to unite non-Communist Party groups and individuals. His words have been widely reported in state media. Beijing believes that foreign, hostile forces can use religions to infiltrate Chinese society and eventually subvert the party rule. However, Beijing never clarifies what constitute the foreign forces.