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SHIFANG, China: A woman emerged alive on Wednesday after being trapped for nine days in a tunnel following China's earthquake, as the government ordered budget cuts to fund a multi-billion-dollar relief package.
Rescuers plucked to safety the woman who had been stuck in the water tunnel of a hydropower plant in southwestern Sichuan province's quake-ravaged town of Shifang, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.
Cui Changhui was airlifted to a hospital and her life was not in danger, even though she suffered fractures to her right arm, ribs and lower back, it said, without giving her age.
It was the latest amazing survival story that has given much cheer to many Chinese as they try to cope with the May 12 earthquake that the government said on Wednesday had killed or left missing more than 74,000 people.
But she was the only person rescued on Wednesday and with hopes fading of finding any more survivors, relief work focused on the desperate plight of the 5.2 million people left homeless.
The Cabinet, in a meeting chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao, ordered 70 billion yuan (10 billion dollars) for reconstruction and 25 billion yuan (3.6 billion dollars) for relief operations.
The central government budget would be slashed by five percent this year to allow for the more than 13 billion-dollar package, it said.
"We have the determination, the confidence and the capability to overcome all difficulties and obstacles," Wen said, according to a government statement.
The government said the confirmed number of people killed in the 8.0-magnitude tremor had risen to 41,353. But with another 32,666 still listed as missing, the death toll was likely to soar.
Across many cities in Sichuan, bulldozers were levelling ground to set up camps as the stench of death floated in the air, according to AFP reporters there.
"We don't have anything. We don't know where we're going to find money to rebuild our village," said Ma Jingsuan, 52, who was one of 7,000 people seeking refuge among a sea of blue tents on the fringes of Sichuan's Mianzhu city.
"We're entirely dependent on the government."
The Communist Party chief in Beichuan county said that authorities planned to rebuild the county seat, where 8,600 of the 13,000 residents died, in an entirely different area in the plains.
"Safety is the top priority in selecting a new location and reconstruction," party chief Song Ming was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
Meanwhile, authorities across the quake zone were working frantically to ensure people had access to clean water, a must to avoid potentially deadly epidemics of diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea.
Doctors in the region were also ordered to test all quake survivors who needed medical treatment for a potentially deadly bacterial infection, known as gas gangrene, that has led to 30 people having amputations.
There have been no reports of a major outbreak, but gangrene patients have been isolated to stop infections from spreading.
China's health ministry has sent more than 3,500 specialists in epidemic control to Sichuan.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown praised China's relief effort, contrasting it with the "slow" response from military-ruled Myanmar after its massive cyclone earlier this month.
"I think that the rescue effort in China has been one that has been heroic and thousands of lives have been saved," Brown said.
Tibet's government-in-exile called for a temporary halt to protests around the world against China's rule of the Himalayan region out of respect for the quake victims.
China has faced some criticism for not allowing in specialist search and rescue teams from overseas immediately after the quake, and then only allowing in small contingents from a few countries.
However, China has been more open in the campaign to look after the displaced, and plane loads of aid from countries as diverse as Ukraine, Russia, the United States and Singapore have landed in the southwest.
Chinese state media has predicted that the earthquake will trim 0.2 percentage points this year from the country's soaring growth.
But Premier Wen said the disaster in the predominantly agricultural area would not hit the world's fourth largest economy as a whole.
The earthquake "has created serious repercussions for the economy of the disaster area and has added new uncertain factors to the nation's overall economy, but it has not changed the fundamentals of economic development," he said.
Two men were detained in Gansu province for making crank calls to a school warning that another earthquake was imminent, Xinhua said. The false rumour caused panic among pupils who fled the building. - AFP/de
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