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Global

China scales back homeless number after quake


    SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China Saturday scaled back its initial estimates of the number of people displaced by a 6.0 magnitude earthquake in southwestern Yunnan province, saying 250,000 rather than 400,000 people had been left homeless.

    "The miscalculation was due in part to the chaos in the aftermath of the quake," the official Xinhua news agency cited deputy provincial governor Cao Jianfang as saying.

    The quake killed one person and injured about 300.

    The quake struck Thursday at 7:19 p.m. (12:19 p.m. British time) in Guantun township, in a mountainous area about 200 km (125 miles) northwest of the provincial capital, Kunming.

    The U.S. Geological Service estimated the severity of the quake at 5.7 at a depth of about 10 km (6 miles).

    The area has regularly suffered earthquakes and aftershocks since an 8.0 quake in neighbouring Sichuan in May 2008 killed about 80,000 people.

    (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Sugita Katyal)