China earthquake: Villagers rescued after 16 days

Forty villagers stranded on a remote mountainside by the Sichuan earthquake for 16 days have been plucked to safety by helicopter. Residents and men working near the village of Yangjiagou had eaten nothing but reserves of rice mixed with local wild herbs since the earthquake and subsequent landslides cut them off on May 12. Eight were mining company workers who had taken refuge in a cave, while five more were trapped in a phosphorus mine. Their late rescue demonstrates the difficulties rescuers have faced reaching all those affected by the quake. While some of the bigger towns struck were close to main roads and less than an hour's drive from major airports, others were in the wild Sichuanese mountains where soldiers with supplies had to be dropped by parachute.