(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-05-19 20:32

BEIJING  -- Three bilingual websites, offering news and information about the Sichuan quake in Chinese and English, were launched by China's official news organizations here on Monday, a week after the earthquake struck.

The three sites -- www.xhwenchuan.cn, www.512gov.cn and www.wenchuan.cn -- were established by the Xinhua News Agency, the People's Daily and the China Central Television Station, respectively.

The sites will provide the latest news on rescue efforts, the situation of survivors and infrastructure reconstruction.

They will also post knowledge about sanitation and health, as well as psychological counseling for survivors. The sites hope to help survivors link up with their relatives and orphans find new lives, and to collect public suggestions on reconstruction.

More than 34,073 people were confirmed dead in last week's 8.0 quake in Sichuan Province and And 245,108 people were injured as of 12:00 a.m. Monday.

The State Council, or the cabinet, on Sunday ordered a nationwide mourning ceremony and three-day mourning period for the dead, starting on Monday. The torch relay for the 2008 Beijing Olympics was suspended from Monday to Wednesday.

Flags are flying at half-mast across China and all public amusements have been suspended from Monday, as the country of 1.3 billion people enters the three-day mourning period.