China mourns quake victims

BEIJING, April 21 (UPI) -- China Wednesday had a national day of mourning for the more than 2,000 victims of a major earthquake in Qinghai province a week ago.

Flags were lowered to half-mast across the country, newspapers and Web sites turned black-and-white and entertainment programs shut down for the day, BBC News reports.

The Beijing Times puts the number of people killed by the 6.9-magnitude earthquake at 2,064, with nearly 200 hundred people unaccounted for. Officials say 12,000 people were injured.

Relief work is ongoing in and around the quake's epicenter, the town of Jiegu in the remote Yushu County in the Tibetan highlands.

The Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader born in the affected region and revered by many of the quake's victims, asked Beijing to return to the area. The Chinese government, which sees in the Dalai Lama a separatist, ignored the request.