Yaks freeze too

Peking - Weeks of blizzards and snowstorms have killed 650,000 yaks and other livestock, and the weather is threatening up to 60,000 Tibetan herders with starvation in Qinghai province, writes Teresa Poole.

With temperatures plummeting to below minus 40C, the Tibetan plateau hasbeen stricken by the worst weather in years. Officials put the losses at more than pounds 14m for the Yushu herders. "We expect 1 million animals to have died by the time spring comes," said an official. "It is no longer possible to try to save the cattle, only the people."