BEIJING, March 18 (Reuters) - China is to pay for a group wedding of 40 survivors who lost spouses in last year's Sichuan earthquake to help them make new families, and officials will be given priority, a newspaper said on Wednesday. "Twenty families will finally be chosen, 10 of which must have one official at least, and the other 10 couples will be ordinary people," the Sichuan-based Tianfu Morning Post said, citing a government announcement. The May 12 earthquake killed more than 80,000 people, flattening towns and villages in southwest China and leaving millions of people homeless. There are no figures for how many people lost their spouses in the disaster, but newspapers have reported stories of local government officials killing themselves after losing relatives and working under huge mental pressure in rescue and rehabilitation work. The group wedding will be held next Month and each couple can invite eight friends to the ceremony, the newspaper said. After the ceremony, the couples will be given a free trip to the southern tropical island of Hainan. (Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Nick Macfie and Jerry Norton)
Protesters, who were recently made unemployed, sit with their belongings in the foyer of the China Resource Building as police and security staff surround them in central Beijing March 16, 2009. ...
