Parents whose children died or were disabled in China's devastating earthquake will be allowed to have more children after lawmakers in the hardest-hit province waived strict family-planning controls, state media reported today.

Parents whose children were crushed to death in schools that collapsed in China’s mighty earthquake say they are no longer being allowed to march, wave banners and vent their rage in public.

Pandas living in an earthquake-hit area of south west China have been evacuated to temporary shelters because of the continuing threat of landslides and other hazards, a local forestry bureau report said today.

Rebuilding in two of China’s provinces hit by last month’s massive earthquake should be complete by 2010, Premier Wen Jiabao said today.

Weeks of rain pushed rivers over their banks in southern China, killing at least 112 people and displacing more than 1.27 million as the region braced for more downpours.

Hundreds of grieving parents blocked the road into an earthquake-flattened town as Chinese police sought to quell a rising wave of public anger over schools that collapsed and killed thousands of children.

Evacuees began returning from temporary camps today after Chinese authorities declared the flood threat over from an earthquake-formed lake drained successfully the day before.

China has declared the crisis over an overflowing dam is over after the lake's level dropped rapidly.

The massive lake caused by the Chinese earthquake was still rising today despite military efforts to blast away the wall of debris that created it.

A Chinese state news agency reported a “relatively strong” aftershock has rocked a quake-formed lake that has been threatening to burst.

Soldiers blew up wooden houses and other debris today in a lake formed by China’s deadly earthquake to speed the flow of water into a diversion channel and ease the threat of flooding for more than 1 million people in the sprawling disaster zone.

Chinese police blocked access today to a school that collapsed in last month’s earthquake, a day after they broke up a protest by parents of students who died in the disaster.

Chinese police dragged away more than 100 parents today as they were protesting the deaths of their children in poorly constructed schools that collapsed in last month’s earthquake.

Chinese authorities prepared to begin draining a swelling earthquake-formed lake today after evacuating nearly 200,000 people and warning more than a million others to be ready to leave quickly.

Chinese authorities began evacuating earthquake relief workers from a flood-risk zone today, in a drill that put 1.3 million people on alert to quickly leave if an earthquake-spawned lake breached a dam.

More than a million people may have to urgently evacuate a Chinese valley threatened with flooding from a lake created by the earthquake.

More than a million people have been ordered to evacuate a valley in central China threatened with flooding from a growing lake formed by the earthquake.

A stockpile of chemicals being used to disinfect an earthquake-shattered Chinese town caught fire injuring scores of soldiers today.

China struggled to keep roads open to provide a lifeline for quake survivors today while the government warned that rebuilding after the disaster would be “arduous”.

China has asked Japanese soldiers to deliver earthquake aid in what would be the first significant military contact between them since the Second World War.

A Chinese government spokesman says the death toll in the earthquake more than two weeks ago has risen to 68,109.

About 80,000 people have been evacuated downstream of an unstable earthquake-created dam threatening to collapse, while Chinese troops rushed to carve a trench to drain the water before it flooded the valley.

Another 80,000 people were being hurried to safety today from the path of floods building up behind earthquake debris in China.

Chinese soldiers using massive earth-moving equipment prepared to blast away part of a landslide today to ease the flooding threat from a river blocked up by the huge earthquake.

Chinese quake rescuers struggled with flooded rivers and dams in danger of collapse threatening to add to the devastation today.

Three reservoirs hit by the Chinese earthquake are in danger of collapsing, the government said today.

A Chinese government spokesman today said the death toll from the earthquake that struck two weeks ago had risen to 65,080.

The Taoiseach Brian Cowen is due to sign an official book of condolences today for the victims of the recent earthquake in China.

China’s strict one-child policy is making some exceptions for certain families affected by the devastating earthquake two weeks ago.

A Chinese news agency has reported that an aftershock has killed one person and injured 260 others in Sichuan province.

China’s Water Ministry says 69 dams are in danger of bursting in Sichuan province in the wake of an earthquake nearly two weeks ago.

Rescuers rushed to reach 24 coal miners trapped underground by China’s earthquake almost two weeks ago, officials said today as the government sharply raised the death toll and warned it could exceed 80,000.

China’s earthquake death toll has passed 60,000 and could rise to 80,000 or more, Premier Wen Jiabao said today as he and UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon visited the disaster area.

The Sichuan provincial government says the region’s death toll from last week’s earthquake in China has passed the 55,000 mark, with nearly 25,000 others still missing.

China’s commerce minister took the unusual step of thanking foreign companies on national television today for donating earthquake aid, dismissing accusations spread on Chinese websites that they were doing too little.

China said today the toll of dead and missing from last week’s powerful earthquake had jumped to more than 80,000, while the government appealed for millions of tents to shelter homeless survivors.

China said the death toll from last week’s powerful earthquake has jumped to more than 51,000, while the government appealed today for millions of tents to shelter homeless survivors.

The Olympic torch relay has resumed its run through China as the country ended a three-day national mourning period for the victims of last week’s deadly earthquake.

A Chinese news agency says a woman has been rescued nine days after being trapped in a tunnel at a hydropower plant by the massive earthquake to hit Sichuan province.

The Tibetan government-in-exile has asked for a temporary stop to protests against China as the country grapples with the aftermath of an earthquake that has killed 40,000 and left millions more homeless.

A woman who survived by drinking rainwater was rescued alive today after being trapped in the rubble of China’s earthquake for more than 195 hours.

China said it was struggling to find shelter for many of the five million people whose homes were destroyed in last week’s earthquake, while the region remained jittery today over warnings of aftershocks.

One of three giant pandas that went missing after China’s massive earthquake has returned safely to a nature reserve, according to reports.

Construction workers put down their tools, drivers stopped suddenly in the street, and rescuers briefly paused in their increasingly vain search for survivors amid the rubble of China’s earthquake devastation.