Three days' mourning for earthquake victims

CHINA has declared three days of national mourning for earthquake victims and ordered a suspension of the Olympic torch relay, after revising the magnitude of last Monday's quake to 8.0 from 7.8 on the Richter scale and raising the death toll to nearly 32,500.

The State Council, China's Cabinet, said the mourning period would start today and include three minutes of silence observed nationwide at 2:28pm, exactly a week after the quake struck Sichuan.

The public is asked to stand in silence for three minutes, while automobiles, trains and ships will sound their sirens.