China receives direct aid from US for flood relief

The United States has for the first time given China direct aid for disaster relief after severe flooding in the southwestern province of Sichuan, the US Embassy announced.

The aid, $25,000 from disaster relief funds available to US chiefs of mission throughout the world, was to be used to buy food, clothing, and fertilizer.

The floods, the most serious in the Yangtze Valley since the communist takeover in 1949, killed more than 900 people and left 1.5 million homeless.