Condolences continue to flow in after earthquake

BEIJING - Many foreign leaders sent condolences to Chinese leaders on Tuesday and Wednesday as the country was dealing with the aftermath of a deadly earthquake in its southwestern Sichuan province.

The leaders include Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah; Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas; Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz; King of Morocco Mohammed VI; Eritrean President Issayas Aferwerki; President of Cote d'Ivoire Alassane Ouattara; Guinean President Alpha Conde; Uruguayan President Jose Mujica; Chilean President Sebastian Pinera; Guyanese President Donald Ramotar; Peruvian President Ollanta Humala Tasso; President of the Swiss Federal Council Ueli Maurer; Greek President Karolos Papoulias; and Finnish President Sauli Niinisto.

The leaders sending condolences also include rotating President of Bosnia and Herzegovina's presidency Nebojsa Radmanovic; Pakistani caretaker Prime Minister Hazar Khan Khoso; Azerbaijani Prime Minister Artur Rasizade; Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili; Italian President Mario Monti; Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras; Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski; Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt;Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen; Tonga's Deputy Prime Minister Samiu Vaipulu; Speaker of South Korea's National Assembly Kang Chang-hee; President of Japan's House of Councillors Hirata Kenji; Chairman of the lower house of Kazakhstan's parliament Nurlan Nigmatulin; Ukraine's Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Rybak; President of Ecuador's National Assembly Fernando Cordero; Lithuania's Parliament Speaker Vydas Gedvilas; member of Bosnia and Herzegovina's presidency Bakir Izetbegovic; and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim.

Meanwhile, Mozambican President Armando Emilio Guebuza; Albanian President Bujar Nishani; Mozambican Prime Minister Alberto Vaquina; European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, and the foreign ministers of Afghanistan, Djibouti, Peru, Portugal and other countries also expressed condolences to Chinese leaders.

A 7.0-magnitude earthquake jolted Lushan County of China's Sichuan province on Saturday, leaving 196 people dead and 11,470 others injured. Twenty-one people remained missing.