Rio Tinto joins BHP and Vale to end annual ore pricing

Rio Tinto has followed rival mining firms and says it is negotiating new iron ore supply contracts priced for three months rather than a year.

The move ends years of tradition and is seen as a demonstration of the power the miners have over their customers.

Demand is at record levels, especially from China, whose appetite for ore and other commodities continues to grow.

Last month, BHP Billiton and Vale agreed quarterly contracts with some Asian steel mills.

Japan and South Korea seem to have accepted the change, but China's position is less certain.

China has been strongly opposed to a move to shorter-term pricing, which exposes it to price rises over the year.

However, Brian Redican, chief economist at Macquarie bank in Australia, said: "The shortage of iron ore means if the Chinese won't sign up to fixed prices at the quarterly rate they will be forced to buy it on the open market where prices are about 15%-20% higher.

"It would be cutting off its nose to spite its face."

The old yearly pricing system caused huge friction. When the spot - open market - price fell significantly below the annual price, customers complained, and when it rose above the set price, it was the miners that were unhappy.

The most recently struck contracts are, on average, priced 100% higher than last year's prices.

Last month, four Rio Tinto executives were jailed after being found guilty of bribery and stealing secrets by a Chinese court.

One of the four - Australian national Stern Hu - had been Rio Tinto's lead negotiator in talks with Chinese steel mills to try to settle a price for China to buy iron ore from Australian mining companies.

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China to build new international airport in Sri Lanka

China is to lend Sri Lanka about $200m (£133m) to build a second international airport in the south of the island.

Another $100m from Beijing will help boost the island's railway network, Sri Lanka's foreign ministry said.

The new airport will be near a vast sea port which is being largely funded with Chinese money.

China is financing a growing number of such projects in Sri Lanka, which some see as an attempt to undermine Indian influence in the region.

The two countries are vying for contracts in Sri Lanka following the end of more than 20 years of civil war.

'Best terms'

Last week, the Sri Lankan government said China was supplying more than half of all the construction and development loans it was receiving.

Work has already started on the airport.

It is close to the massive sea port under construction at Hambantota, which is largely being funded by the Chinese government's lending arm, the Export-Import Bank.

Both projects have the same Chinese state-owned company as contractor, says the BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo.

The projects Beijing is financing include a host of road improvements in the formerly war-torn north, a huge theatre in the capital and coal power plants, our correspondent says.

They are built by Chinese contractors and use large numbers of Chinese workers.

Analysts in Sri Lanka say there is some unhappiness among Sri Lankan companies and workers who feel they are missing out.

They say Chinese interest rates are higher than those levied by Japan or the Asian Development Bank - but that Chinese projects happen more quickly and with fewer advance studies.

The government, however, says China is simply offering the best terms.

Some officials in India, Sri Lanka's neighbour and China's rival, have said they fear Beijing is trying to undermine Delhi's influence in the region through its economic assistance.

India, for its part, has just announced a credit of $70m to help upgrade Sri Lanka's southern railway line.

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Vatican forced to defend itself over abuse cases

As accusations of historic sexual abuse by Roman Catholics emerge in another European country, the Vatican has insisted it has dealt with "the very serious issue" promptly and decisively.

After recent revelations of widespread abuse in Ireland, and claims of similar mistreatment of children by priests in Austria and Germany, Catholic bishops in the Netherlands have now set up an independent inquiry to look into allegations there.

More than 200 reports of abuse have been made to a victims' support organisation in the last few days.

Dutch bishops have offered their apologies to those who were abused.

The Church in Ireland is already struggling to repair relations with a disillusioned public after three official reports in the past five years detailed abuse stretching over several decades and condemned the Church for keeping it secret.

Pope Benedict is expected to issue a letter to be read out in Catholic churches in Ireland later this month, in which he will respond publicly to the scandal.

'Wall of silence'

The allegations from Germany are particularly sensitive, because the Pope was born in the country, and because they include a choir led by his brother Georg.

Reports surfaced last month that Catholic priests had sexually abused more than 170 children at Jesuit schools in Germany.

Those have been followed by fresh allegations of abuse at three Catholic schools in Bavaria, and within a boys' choir that was directed for 30 years by Monsignor Georg Ratzinger.

Monsignor Ratzinger said he was aware that children had been beaten at schools attended by the choristers.

However, he said he knew nothing of the kind of sex abuse now being reported.

In Austria the head of a Benedictine monastery in Salzburg has resigned after admitting to sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy more than four decades ago.

Criticism of the Church has intensified in Germany, with an accusation by the justice minister that bishops behaved secretively in dealing with even severe cases of abuse.

Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said: "In many schools there was a wall of silence allowing for abuse and violence."

Church officials called the minister's remarks "absurd", and the Vatican insisted that Roman Catholic leaders had "shown a desire for transparency".

Authority at risk

Its spokesman, Frederico Lombardi said the Church had accelerated the process of unearthing abuse by encouraging victims to speak out about old cases.

Fr Lombardi acknowledged "the gravity of the anguish the Church is going through", adding that it was striving for better protection for children as well as its own "purification".

However, he insisted that the problem of sex abuse - although especially reprehensible when it happened inside the Church - was a problem belonging to the whole of society.

The Church is already fighting a battle against secularisation in Western Europe, and the steady erosion of its influence.

There are demands for modernisation, especially the ending of celibacy for priests, fiercely resisted by Pope Benedict.

The experience of the Catholic Church in the United States shows how damaging a long drawn out scandal of sex abuse could be to the Church's authority and prestige in Europe too.

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Tigers still learning to roar

Nobody could have predicted back in 2000 that a format of the game designed to capitalise on long English summer evenings could have mushroomed into the same format that has Bollywood superstars falling over themselves to get involved with.

But if the Noughties will be regarded as the decade in which cricket discovered Twenty20, it's also coming up to the 10th anniversary of Bangladesh's bow as a Test-playing nation. Their record reads like this: played 64, won three, drawn six, lost 55.

It's not exactly the most compelling run of results. And if we really wanted to twist the knife we could attach some mighty great asterisks to those three victories.

The first was against a hopelessly green Zimbabwe side who had eight players aged 21 or younger. And their two wins in the Caribbean last year were achieved when 13 top West Indians went on strike.

But whereas the inexorable rise of Twenty20 has come out of the blue, Bangladesh's struggles to gain a foothold on the Test ladder in their first decade of five-day cricket have been more predictable.

New Zealand spent 26 years lurching from one defeat to another before registering their first Test victory, while India took 20.

Test cricket is an attritional game. It is no good dominating for a couple of sessions or even a couple of days. You can work desperately hard to forge a match-winning position and then fritter it away with a couple of silly shots or a shoddy hour of bowling.

Frustratingly for the romantics who yearn for giant-killings it just hasn't quite happened for Bangladesh. They so nearly humbled Pakistan in 2003 only for Inzamam-ul-Haq to tear up the fairytale script in his hometown, Multan.

And Australia were hurtling towards a dramatic defeat in Fatullah in 2006, whereupon Ricky Ponting hit a spoiling century as Bangladesh's long-suffering spinner Mohammad Rafique appeared to be circling for the kill.

I asked Dav Whatmore, about to embark on his first season at the helm of IPL glamour team Kolkata Knight Riders, to reflect on Bangladesh's decade, and found him frustratingly guarded. Whatmore was Bangladesh coach from 2003 to 2007 when they are generally acknowledged to have made significant progress, particularly in one-day internationals.

They famously triumphed over Australia in Cardiff during that period, before dumping India out of the World Cup in the Caribbean in 2007 and beating pre-tournament favourites South Africa in the Super Eight stage.

Whatmore left after what appeared a breakthrough tournament for Bangladesh, but the team have not really picked up and reached the next level since then.

However he is reluctant to make general observations about the team, sensitive as he is to the negative criticism which he believes does them no favours at all.

If there is one mantra that he clings to it is this: "I would really, really hope that the Bangladesh Cricket Board will ensure their domestic competitions are as strong as they can possibly be.

"I'm a big, big believer that the national team is a product of what you do domestically. Bangladesh needs a good, vibrant one-day competition, a strong four-day competition, and the Twenty20 game should also be looked after."

My e-mail to the BCB requesting an interview with current coach Jamie Siddons went unanswered, so I contacted the popular, long-standing fans forum banglacricket.com to get a view about the current state of the game.

Editor Razab Quasem Chowdhury gave me an excellent assessment. "I think Bangladesh has the wherewithal to be a mid-range power with the occasional season on top," he says.

"We will never have the money, talent-pool or first-class infrastructure of an India, Australia or England but given the enthusiasm for the sport I can see us easily being consistently a number four or number five in world cricket."

Four players to keep an eye on, he says, are Tamim Iqbal, the 20-year-old left-hander who hit 125 in the first one-day international against England, skipper Shakib Al Hasan, ranked the third best bowler in ODIs, wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim and fast bowler Rubel Hossain.

"They will carry the flame for us," says Chowdhury. "The main reason is their mental maturity. They are the first generation of cricketers who were 'born' into Test-hood in that Bangladesh was already a Test-playing country in their formative years. "As such they are more able to handle the mental demands placed on an international player."

Even if its slow, low pitches are not conducive to getting the most out of young fast-bowling prodigies, Bangladesh should have enough going for it to make a serious fist of being a top player in world cricket.

Though football is making a comeback, cricket remains the number one sport for this densely-populated nation bordered on three sides by India, the uber-power in cricket. And the talent pool that comes with having 160 million inhabitants, around 40 times more than New Zealand, should also be a positive factor.

The game also has a rich pageantry in the country, the capital, Dhaka, having staged seven Tests hosted by Pakistan between 1955 and 1969 before Bangladesh's independence was established in 1972.

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Bombers fail to derail Iraq's election success

These elections will certainly be seen as a big success - despite the depressing level of violence, which demonstrates that it is still altogether untrue to suggest that Iraq is now a country at peace.

But it is reasonable now to include Iraq in the world's list of democracies.

This is the second parliamentary election in seven years which has been properly conducted.

The threat to the polls here does not come from government interference with the voting system or the count.

It comes from small groups of extremists - mostly supporters of al-Qaeda, or of the former dictator, Saddam Hussein - who simply cannot accept the democratic process here.

Political weakness

Nevertheless, the system of democracy with which Iraq has been lumbered scarcely helps this process.

A single glance at the ballot paper shows how unwieldy and awkward it is: there are more than 6,000 candidates, from more than 80 parties, chasing a mere 325 parliamentary seats.

This fragmentation ensures that, whatever the results on election day, there will be weeks, perhaps months, of negotiation before a new coalition government can be formed. And that means more political weakness, and a further drop in the respect in which politicians here are held.

Whether the moderate Islamist Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki stays in power, or the more secular Iyad Allawi comes back in, we will not know for some time.

Either way, Shia Muslims will continue to rule this country, and it is not clear how many politicians from the embittered Sunni minority can be induced to join the new government.

The extremists will not end their campaign just because Sunni politicians decide to join the government. But there will be even less support for them among the Sunni population if the new government is genuinely open and inclusive.

Mindless nihilism

The attacks we saw on election day ensure that Iraq is still one of the world's two or three most violent countries. The intensive campaign of sectarian killing is as strong as ever.

In Shaab, a Shia area of Baghdad, two bombs went off in blocks of flats just as the polls were opening. I watched as dozens of firemen and civil defence workers pulled at the wreckage of a building to rescue people whom we could hear calling out from under the slabs of concrete.

They spotted someone as a lump of masonry fell away, but the foot and hand we could see in the rubble were motionless. The man was dead.

Meanwhile the voice of the woman who had been calling out was getting fainter. She was trapped somewhere on the first floor of the building, and it was difficult and dangerous for the rescuers to reach her.

The first time we realised that they were getting close was when they passed a bottle of water through to her. Half an hour later a shout went up from the crowd of people watching: "Allahu Akbar!" ("God is great!")

They brought her out gently, lowered her to the ground, and put her on a stretcher. Her eyes were open; she seemed to be fully aware of what was going on.

It was a small victory over the ferocity of an attack on entirely innocent people. Yet altogether in Baghdad on election day, at least 35 people have been killed, and 89 injured.

The campaign of sectarian killing is beginning to seem like mindless nihilism, rather some sort of clear-cut political strategy.

Having completely failed to derail the democratic process here, it is hard to see what the extremists can do now. Other than raise the level of violence even more, of course.

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Australia to review tsunami warnings

Tsunami warnings in Australia are to be reviewed after thousands of beachgoers shrugged off alerts following Chile's huge earthquake.

Lifeguards struggled to clear beaches in Queensland and New South Wales as people either returned to the water or came down to watch the tsunami arrive.

Attorney-General Robert McClelland said police and emergency services may be used in future.

Pacific states went on alert after the quake but most areas were unaffected.

The waves that hit Australia's east coast were hardly noticeable.

Mr McClelland described the response to the tsunami warning as "disappointing but understandable".

"People saw the earthquake, of course, literally thousands of kilometres away and didn't appreciate the dangers," he said.

Amateur video shows tsunami sweeping through Chilean town of Penco

"Emergency responders provide public warnings. They [people] should abide by them because they are not lightly given, they are not given at a drop of a hat."

He said he had asked state emergency ministers and surf life-saving organisations in New South Wales and Queensland to review the reaction and look at ways of educating the public about tsunamis.

In Chile, the official death toll from the 8.8 magnitude quake has been reduced to 452 from 800, but hundreds of people are still missing.

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Adjusting to Swedish life after the Andijan massacre

Five years ago, soldiers opened fire on demonstrators in the city of Andijan, Uzbekistan, killing hundreds. Terrorists, said the government. Peaceful protesters, said human rights groups. The BBC's Monica Whitlock was expelled - but she met up again recently with one group of survivors, this time in Sweden.
This place," says Bahram, shouting somewhat, "is amazing! You can't imagine! The schools, the hospitals! The way they live! And nothing's done by hand! Even the baking! Even cleaning the street! They have these little carts... you just press a button. The police! They smile at you and say 'Hey!'"

It was good to see him again. We last met in Andijan on a hot afternoon in May, 2005, as the demonstration reached its height.

Bahram had been desperately worried that things were about to implode.

The next day, the troops moved in. His son was shot dead.

Bahram disappeared - a cake-shop owner, a grandfather, hiding and moving from house to house, country to country - until the United Nations found him.

And now here we were on the Baltic coast. Frozen ships in a bay of ice. Quiet streets. Glittering shops. Prints of warm boots in the snow.

It is another world - a looking glass through which the Uzbeks see themselves and their country.

So even as Sweden amazes and delights Bahram, it breaks his heart. "If we had just a fragment of this development in Uzbekistan," he says. "If I could take just a tiny part of this when I go home..."

Tapped phones

Bahram, and all the Andijanis, are sure they will go home - one day. Until then, they try to stay in touch as best they can.

They gaze into computer screens to catch a glimpse through Skype of families they've left behind.

Back home, relatives upload shaky photos of weddings and children they've never seen.

Piercing sunshine, blue skies, yellow dust - it's home but behind glass. A reflection.

They can't chat on the phone, only "Hello and how are you?". Uzbek phones are, of course, tapped.

Somehow this slight, virtual contact only underlines how very far away the Andijanis are.

Bahram parcels out his days in tiny, manageable steps that keep him from tipping into despair. Breakfast. Prayers. Language lessons through the internet. Watering the plants on every window sill. Lunch - cooked by Andijani women and brought over hot. Prayers. Television time - and another day is done, another notch on the long measure of days that have already become years.

He has not acquired nor desired any possessions in this rich land. No distractions. He spends this measured time, instead, thinking, peering deeply into the looking glass.

"Here in Sweden there are laws," he says. "And even the government obeys them! There was a minister who did not pay his TV licence - and he lost his job. Can you imagine? And the way they treat people! We saw a prison and do you know, in the canteen, the prisoners take a tray and chose the food they want. Different salads, meats, yogurt… everything. Fresh! In prison! Oh my lord above!"

Lucky escape

Back home, Bahram spent six years accused, like thousands of people in Uzbekistan, of conspiring against the state.

He was beaten daily and his legs frozen with ice water. The Swedish doctors have now fixed his legs.

The younger Andijanis, too, reflect deeply on the extraordinary shift in their lives: "We have learnt so much by being here," says Shamshuddin.

Five years ago, aged 29, he lay among the dead and dying in the square at Andijan. By luck alone, he escaped.

He walked through the night out of Uzbekistan and into Kyrgyzstan. And there was the outside world: the foreign press, cameras, the United Nations.

He went to a Red Cross camp and became a news item - an image, a refugee.

"Only a day," he says. "On 13 May I had hopes, a family, my wife, three children, a house, a car, a business. By 14 May? Nothing. Not even a passport. I even wore another man's clothes, in another man's country. Just a day, and I was… somebody else."

Poised to leave

Shamshuddin has kept his mind together with the most extraordinary resolve during his five lonely years in Sweden.

He's learnt Swedish, worked hard, bought a car, set up a business and plans to open a cafe in Stockholm. And just before we arrived - the greatest news. His wife and family arrived in Sweden to join him, including the son he'd only seen as a new baby, now six years old.

They're already dressed in the bright, cosy clothes of Swedish children, swinging back-packs on their way to school.

For some survivors, the clock stopped on that day in May. Only the pain of separation is real. Others, like Bahram and Shamshuddin, have managed to find some meaning in their transformation.

Yet all the Uzbeks we met living along the frozen Baltic coast all have the air of people poised to leave again.

Arriving with nothing, they could sweep their lives into suitcases in half an hour, happily leaving behind this fancy new country - if it was safe to go home.

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Sex infection frankness is 'key to long relationship'

Young people think frank conversations about their sex lives signal that a relationship will last, says a survey.

The government-funded Populus poll of more than 1,200 15 to 24-year-olds cited talking about sexual infections and a person's sexual past as key.

They even thought this was a better sign of a relationship getting serious than meeting parents.

But 73% admitted that they did not talk about sexually transmitted diseases before having sex with a new partner.

And 30% said they felt uncomfortable asking a new partner to use a condom.

Relationship milestones

The research, which was condu

Top of the list was "talking openly together about sexual history and discussing sexually transmitted infections tests together", which 70% thought important.

This was ahead of "meeting the parents", which was thought significant by 66%, and "not always having to wear make-up", cited by 47%.

Much lower down were "meeting friends", 40%, and "being given space in the cupboard to leave clothes", 30%.

Too embarrassing

The survey showed that while young people valued openness about sexual diseases, many were too embarrassed to talk frankly with their partners.

While half of respondents thought that a new partner who was unwilling to discuss these topics would not be around for long, a quarter confessed they were too embarrassed to talk to their partner about safe sex, sexually transmitted infections and contraception.

Paula Hall, from the relationship charity Relate, said she was not surprised that people thought openness about sexual health was important for the success of a relationship.

"If people are not intimate enough to be open about this, the relationship is unlikely to go far."

She said the findings were both "encouraging" and "depressing".

"The fact that discussion of sexual infection is so high up young peoples' agenda is really good," she said.

But she said it was "worrying that this is still an embarrassing topic, even among today's generation of kids who expect a high degree of openness in their relationships".

Modern relationships

Dr Catherine Hood, spokesperson for the "Sex. Worth Talking About" campaign, said: "These findings reveal much about the modern relationship game.

"While many young couples realise the significance of being able to talk openly about accepting tests for sexually transmitted infections, sheer embarrassment is preventing them from doing so, and potentially risking their sexual health as well as the future of their relationship."

She stressed the importance of young people being tested for chlamydia, a sexually transmitted infection which often doesn't have any symptoms.

"If left untreated, chlamydia can lead to infertility and other serious health problems, and so it's vital that new couples take responsibility for their own sexual health by talking openly about safe sex," she added.

cted on behalf of the government's "Sex. Worth Talking About" campaign, provides a snapshot of the milestones that this generation think important for a lasting relationship.

She stressed the importance of young people being tested for chlamydia, a sexually transmitted infection which often doesn't have any symptoms.

"If left untreated, chlamydia can lead to infertility and other serious health problems, and so it's vital that new couples take responsibility for their own sexual health by talking openly about safe sex," she added.

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Guus Hiddink is ideal to lead Ivory Coast to World Cup

There is perhaps no-one who embodies the image of the global game more than the much-travelled frequent flier Guus Hiddink.

The 63-year-old Dutchman has been approached to take on the challenge of leading a talented but stuttering Ivory Coast side to the World Cup.

Vahid Halilhodzic was relieved of his duties last week following a disappointing Africa Cup of Nations campaign and they have since suffered a deflating 2-0 defeat to Hiddink's former team, South Korea, in London on Wednesday.

Were he to take on the challenge of taking the Elephants to South Africa, it would cap a remarkable period of globetrotting for Hiddink, even by the standards of one of the busiest and most in-demand coaches in the game.

The past 12 months have already seen him commit to three different coaching roles.

Just weeks ago, he confirmed he would not be renewing his contract with Russia and accepted the post of Turkey's national coach.

Never one to remain idle, however, the Dutch coach is considering filling the time between his contract with Russia expiring in June and moving to Istanbul in August, by making the Ivory Coast the fourth team he has led to a World Cup finals, following the Netherlands (1998), South Korea (2002)and Australia (2006).

Hiddink is not averse to a bit of multi-tasking, having commuted between the Netherlands and Australia in the lead-up to the 2006 World Cup, in his dual role as PSV Eindhoven and Socceroos coach.

In Germany, he led the Australians to the last 16 in only their second World Cup appearance, a feat the Ivorians will at least hope to emulate this time around.

To do that, though, they will need an international coach of Hiddink's experience, after finding themselves in another tough group - a fate that prevented them from progressing in Germany four years ago.

On that occasion they ended up as underdogs in a group that included Argentina and the Netherlands, and now the Ivorians will have to overcome the odds once more after being drawn against Brazil, Portugal and North Korea in Group G.

Hiddink would certainly relish the opportunity to reunite with Elephants captain Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou, having led Chelsea to victory in England's FA Cup final last year during a short period in charge of the London club, when he was again balancing dual responsibilities, this time with the Russians.

His stock was at its highest at that time, after proving highly popular in England and he looked certain to lead the Russians to South Africa until Slovenia became the only second-seeded European play-off team to progress with a shock win over Hiddink's highly fancied team

Since that rare blemish on his polished CV, Hiddink has been looking for a new challenge, and has certainly already found one with a young Turkish squad in the midst of a period of transition.

However, there is a more immediate challenge that must surely be tempting for a man who doesn't shirk from one - that of trying to inspire the best from an Ivory Coast side, which is arguably the most talented of all the African teams competing on their home continent this summer.

He has had previous success in using home continent advantage to get the best out of a side, having exceeded expectations by getting South Korea to a World Cup semi-final as co-hosts eight years ago - an achievement which earned him honorary South Korean citizenship.

Four years later, he earned national hero status once again, becoming "Aussie Guus" down under when he managed to break the Socceroos cycle of perennially failing at the final hurdle to qualify for the finals.

And despite his disappointment with Russia, the fact that he was also linked with Nigeria, another of the African qualifiers to seek a new coach ahead of June, shows just how in demand he remains around the world.

Whether he can become an honorary Ivorian will of course depend on him being able to get the Elephants out of one of the toughest groups in South Africa, but given his track record, few would bet against it.

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Chile quake reconstruction 'to take up to four years'

Chile's reconstruction will take "three to four years" as the country recovers from the earthquake that killed some 800 people, its president has said.

"There are rural areas where everything has tumbled to the ground... infrastructure has been destroyed," Michelle Bachelet told Chilean radio.

It would take foreign aid and most of the mandate of President-elect Sebastian Pinera to rebuild, she added.

Three days of national mourning have been declared, to begin on Sunday.

Tremors have continued to rock the nation after Saturday's 8.8 magnitude earthquake, one of the strongest recorded.

One of 6.3 hit the north of the country, 255km (160 miles) north-east of Antofagasta and 1,260km north of the capital Santiago, the US Geological Survey said.

On Wednesday, strong aftershocks of magnitude 5.5 and higher were felt in several cities, including Santiago, and prompted tsunami warnings, which were later lifted.

'Government of reconstruction'

The cost of the damage, which Ms Bachelet described as "enormous", has so far been estimated at between $15bn and $30bn.Chile has the resources for a number of actions, but we will have to ask for credit from the World Bank and other entities," Ms Bachelet said.

President-elect Pinera is set to take office next week.

He said his government would be one of reconstruction, with a plan of four clear stages - "to cope with the emergency needs of citizens, find people who are still missing, provide prompt and timely assistance to the sick and wounded, and restore law and order so that people can return to peace".

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is to visit Chile on Friday to assess the damage and meet Ms Bachelet and Mr Pinera.

An 18-hour nightly curfew remains in place in Concepcion, Chile's second largest city, and six other towns badly affected by the earthquake.

Officials have said 802 people are confirmed to have died, of whom 279 have been identified. But there are reports of many people still missing in the coastal town of Constitucion.

About two million Chileans are believed to have been affected by Saturday's 8.8 magnitude earthquake, the seventh most powerful on record and the worst disaster to befall Chile in 50 years.

The epicentre of the quake was 115km north-east of Concepcion and 325km south-west of the capital Santiago.

About 1.5 million homes in Chile have been damaged.

Most of the collapsed buildings were of older design - including many historic structures.

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