China jails quake rubble looter

Millions were left homeless by last month's earthquake

A Chinese court has jailed a man for over seven years for looting buildings which collapsed in last month's quake disaster in Sichuan province.

The court heard that in the space of four days, the Mianzhu man stole cash, jewellery, cigarettes, mobile phones, digital cameras and a motorcycle.

The judge described his actions as vile, saying he had stolen from people who had already suffered great losses.

The court in Shifang had to meet in a tent because of the quake devastation.

The case was heard as efforts continued to ease a dangerously swollen quake lake at Tangjiashan.

The authorities have warned that the lake, formed by a landslide after the 12 May tremors, could burst at any time.

The authorities said they could begin draining some of the 200m sq m (700m sq ft) of water behind the dam of mud and rock on Friday, the state news agency reported.

By Friday morning, the water level had climbed to within just 50cm (20in) of the lowest point on a long sluice channel that Chinese soldiers dug last week, it said.

Evacuees' waiting games Mapping quake zone

Plans are in place to quickly evacuate an estimated 1.3m people who live in the surrounding area if the lake on the River Jian just above the town of Beichuan bursts.

More than 250,000 people downstream have already been moved to higher ground.

Meanwhile, talks between Tibetan and Chinese officials scheduled for next week have been postponed because of the quake, an aide to the Dalai Lama said.

Talks in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen in early May were the first since violent anti-Beijing in Tibet's main city of Lhasa, and ended with an agreement to meet again on 11 June.

But Tenzin Taklha, a senior aide to the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, said on Friday the meeting had been put off while China focused on the disaster in Sichuan.

Last month's quake killed more than 69,000 people and left another 18,000 missing and millions more homeless.