China cremates earthquake victims as toll rises
Buddhist monks rushed to cremate hundreds of China quake victims over sanitation fears on Saturday as hopes dimmed of finding further survivors, with the death toll rising to more than 1,300.
The scale of the calamity and fears of disease forced a break from traditional Tibetan "sky burials" in which corpses are left on mountaintops to decompose or be consumed by vultures. "We have never had a disaster like this. We have never had so many people die. Cremation is the only way to send these souls off," said Jiemi Zhangsuo, head of the area's main Buddhist monastery that handled the ceremony. (AFP)
