IN BRIEF

Beijing

Disaster status report released

Natural disasters killed 230 people in July in China, and another 44 remain missing, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the National Commission for Disaster Reduction. A total of 2.8 million people were displaced, the authorities said in a report on Tuesday. About 73,000 houses were destroyed and some 600,000 houses damaged. About 8.84 million hectares of crops were damaged, with 920,000 hectares completely destroyed. Natural disasters in July caused 135 billion yuan ($20 billion) of direct economic losses, according to the report.