China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) has deployed 251,000 soldiers to battle the chaos caused by the unusually heavy snow around the southern part of the country by 1 a.m. on Friday, according to a military source.

A new, high-tech identification system developed in Japan will improve accuracy and significantly reduce the time it takes to identify victims of mass disasters, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

A young Canberra scientist has been awarded a scholarship to travel to the United States to study disaster contingency planning. David Newth has today received a CSIRO award for excellence in young scientists.

Disasters are getting worse it seems but the federal government's preparedness has been limited to helping after a disaster has occurred. On the other hand, local organizations often do not have the resources or the training to effectively react. Federal and state support must now be given to programs that enable local governments to work effectively with communities to prepare for and respond to all disasters.

President George W. Bush signed a major disaster declaration. The federal money will be sent to people, devastated by the California wildfires, whose property losses are not covered by insurance.

Officials at the United Nations say they would like to review disaster management policy in West Africa, where recent floods have killed hundreds and left hundreds of thousands displaced. They say the floods have shown more focus should be put on long-term solutions rather than just quick fixes. One idea is using micro-credit to help avert future problems.

A powerful storm has hit China's southeastern coast, where authorities evacuated more than one million people after the storm killed five in Taiwan.

A new Oak Ridge National Laboratory initiative could help avert disasters in Tennessee, Mississippi and South Carolina and also lead to more information about climate change.

The fate of 181 miners trapped in two flooded coal mines in east China's Shandong Province since Friday remains unknown even as rescuers say their chances of survival was slim.

Monsoon floods have killed at least 22 people and affected more than 10 million people in northern and northeastern India, local radio reported Thursday.

Continued rain has brought more misery to survivors of landslides and floods in in central Indonesia, where weather-related disasters have killed at least 65 people.

Former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan is launching a new organization to improve humanitarian assistance around the world. Mr. Annan says the new organization, called the Global Humanitarian Forum, will help people in poor countries play a greater role in finding solutions to their developmental and humanitarian problems.