Thousands of homeless people have spent the night in freezing temperatures.

Officials say 617 people died and 9,980 were injured when the quake hit early on Wednesday – 313 remain missing.

Rescuers continued to search with their bare hands and shovels, as emergency convoys and heavy lifting gear streamed into the disaster zone in Yushu county.

“Freezing weather, high altitude and thin air have all made rescue efforts difficult,” Hou Shike, deputy head of China International Search and Rescue, told official news agency Xinhua.

As well as the remote location, which sits at an altitude of around 13,000ft (4,000m), more logistical problems were posed by the fact the quake knocked out phone and power lines and triggered landslides.

Several schools collapsed and at least 66 pupils and 10 teachers were among the dead, Xinhua reported. Emergency workers were seen removing dust-covered dead infants from rubble.

State broadcaster CCTV showed anxious parents waiting overnight outside Yushu Vocational School, where 22 students, mostly girls, were reported dead.

The scenes of flattened schools echoed the quake that hit neighboring Sichuan province two years ago, leaving nearly 90,000 people dead.

Revelations of shoddy construction and lax building rules infuriated grieving parents in the aftermath of that disaster.

About 900 people have been pulled out alive since the 6.9-magnitude quake struck Qinghai on Wednesday morning, at the shallow depth of 10km (six miles).

Rescuers saved one girl who was trapped for more than 12 hours under debris.

As she was placed on a stretcher, she could be heard saying: “I’m sorry for the trouble. Thank you, I will never forget this.”

Chinese President Hu Jintao called for an all-out emergency effort and some 5,000 rescuers, including 700 soldiers, have been sent to the area.

The civil affairs ministry said it would also send 5,000 tents, as local officials in Yushu reported a lack of shelter, medicines and medical equipment.

In the township of Jiegu, 85% of buildings were destroyed, officials say.

A hotel manager in Jiegu, Ren Yu, said it was like being in a war zone.

“Some of the people have broken legs or arms but all they can get now is an injection,” he said. “They were crying in pain.”

Forecasters predicted wind and sleet in the coming days, putting homeless victims of the tremor at risk of exposure.

The region is prone to earthquakes but, according to the US Geological Survey, this was the strongest tremor within 100km of the area since 1976.

Since the passing of  Teddy Pendergrass, interest in Stephanie Mills has heightened. The singer who he performed “Two Hearts” with, has also performed on the “Mo’nique Show.”

Born in 1957, she is an American Grammy Award winning R&B and soul singer, and is also a former Broadway star, and was known as “the little girl with the big voice.”

Mills who was also romantically linked to Michael Jackson as they were filming The Wiz, began her career when she did her first play at age 9. It was only two years after that she won an Amateur Night at the world famous Apollo Theater an amazing six times.

This was the catapult to her being cast in her first Broadway role, in the musical Maggie Flynn, playing an orphaned child of a runaway slave.

She also had the opportunity to open for the Isley Brothers in 1973, and just a year after was discovered by Jermaine Jackson of the Jackson 5, where she was signed to the Motown Records label.

It was in 1975, that she portrayed Dorothy in an African American adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, entitled The Wiz. Her performance of “Home”, not only made her a star, but was covered by Diana Ross, and also Whitney Houston.

Her first Gold Record, was for the album What Cha Gonna Do With My Lovin,made with 20th Century Fox record label in 1979. She also found success with Sweet Sensation in 1980, which also featured Mill’s biggest chart success, the song, “Never Knew Love Like This Before,” produced by Reggie Lucas in which she won the Grammy for.

In 1981, the song Two Hearts in which she recorded with Teddy Pendegrass, was another top hit for her.

Her success continued, till around 1985, then peaked again with her release of If I Were Your Woman in 1987 under RCA Records.

The hits continued for Mills with her Home album released in 1989, including the hit “The Comfort of a Man,” and also “Something in the Way You Make Me Feel,” which became another platinum record for her.

Stephanie Mills also had a comeback in 2000, with singles recorded with Bebe Winans and rapper DMX, she also gained a lot of interest on urban contemporary radio.

She now has her own label called JM Records.

(CNN) — A major earthquake struck southern Haiti on Tuesday, knocking down buildings and power lines and inflicting what its ambassador to the United States called a catastrophe for the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation.

Several eyewitnesses reported heavy damage and bodies in the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, where concrete-block homes line steep hillsides. There was no estimate of the dead and wounded Tuesday evening, but the U.S. State Department has been told to expect “serious loss of life,” department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters in Washington.

“The only thing I can do now is pray and hope for the best,” the ambassador, Raymond Alcide Joseph, told CNN.

Pictures sent to CNN’s iReport show homes and small businesses in Haiti that have collapsed.

Are you there? Submit an iReport

The magnitude 7.0 quake — the most powerful to hit Haiti in a century — struck shortly before 5 p.m. and was centered about 10 miles (15 kilometers) southwest of Port-au-Prince, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. It could be felt strongly in eastern Cuba, more than 200 miles away, witnesses said.

Mike Godfrey, an American contractor working for the U.S. Agency for International Development, said “a huge plume of dust and smoke rose up over the city” within minutes of the quake — “a blanket that completely covered the city and obscured it for about 20 minutes.”

Witnesses reported damaged buildings throughout the capital, including the president’s residence and century-old homes nearby, and The Associated Press reported that a hospital collapsed. President Rene Preval is safe, Joseph said, but there was no estimate of the dead and wounded Tuesday evening.

He said an official of his government told him houses had crumbled “on the right side of the street and the left side of the street.”

“He said it is a catastrophe of major proportions,” Joseph said.

Impact Your World: How you can help

Frank Williams, the Haitian director of the relief agency World Vision International, said the quake left people “pretty much screaming” all around Port-au-Prince. He said the agency’s building shook for about 35 seconds, “and portions of things on the building fell off.”

“None of our staff were injured, but lots of walls are falling down,” Williams said. “Many of our staff have tried to leave, but were unsuccessful because the walls from buildings and private residences are falling into the streets, so that it has pretty much blocked significantly most of the traffic.”

The United States, France, Canada and governments across Latin America were gearing up to help Haiti, after a massive 7.0 earthquake leveled buildings and caused an unknown number of casualties.

US President Barack Obama said his government stood “ready to assist the people of Haiti,” as the State Department, USAID and United States Southern Command mobilized, the White House said, “to coordinate an assessment and any such assistance.”

In Paris, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said France “expresses its complete solidarity” with Haiti, adding that his ministry’s crisis center had begun working “to mobilize and dispatch without delay urgent aid to Port-au-Prince.”

Canada, which hosts an 80,000-strong Haitian community, said it was “deeply concerned” with events unfolding in Haiti.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Canadian officials “are making contact with trusted humanitarian partners with a presence in the region to identify humanitarian needs resulting from this earthquake.”

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he was “very concerned” with the situation in Haiti, including the fate of some 1,200 Brazilian members of the 7,000-strong UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti, known as MINUSTAH, which Brazil leads.

A MINUSTAH employee in Haiti told AFP that the force’s headquarters had been largely destroyed in the quake.

In Bogota, the president’s office said Colombia was “under alert and ready to respond to the Haitian authorities’ call for help,” adding that the defense ministry and emergency management services were coordinating upcoming assistance efforts.

Venezuela said it would send a 50-member “humanitarian assistance team” to Haiti in the next few hours. Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said the team would leave for Port-au-Prince early Wednesday bearing food and medical supplies for stricken Haitians.

Maduro also said he has been unable to contact Venezuela’s ambassador to Haiti or Haitian authorities since the earthquake struck.

In Panama, the country’s Vice President Juan Carlos Varela pledged that his government would provide assistance to the United Nations’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Varela pledged to provide “all the infrastructure required for the logistical coordination of cooperation that should be sent to this brother country.”

Peru said its 205 peacekeeping troops in MINUSTAH would help in rescue efforts in Haiti, adding that none of the soldiers was injured in the quake.

“The military personnel has nothing to report and will lend support to the quake victims to the best of their abilities,” Peru’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

Mexico’s foreign ministry said it was keeping close watch on Haiti and had “activated a protection plan for Mexicans facing an emergency” in Haiti.

In the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, President Leonel Fernández called on the international community to help Haiti overcome a “real tragedy.” He said his government was at the ready to send assistance.

A government spokesman said a Dominican Air Force plane was ready to pick up quake victims and that it was sending a team of sniffer dogs to search for victims in the rubble.

Meanwhile, in nearby Cuba — only 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Haiti — people in the eastern coastal town of Baracoa were evacuated to higher ground as a precaution, after the earthquake triggered a tsunami alert, the civil defense agency said.

The tsunami alert was lifted later, but Cuba said it “remains vigilant for possible aftershocks and rising sea levels in the eastern provinces,” an agency statement said.

The initial quake was felt in Cuba’s eastern province of Santiago de Cuba.

The possession of an impeccable face is a beginning, people can easily remember your name, can easily match your name with your face, but to gain others appreciation and admiration, to have it all, you need to do more work.

A charm person is she who knows the importance of first impression; she will do what ever it takes to impress others at the first sight. Don’t be surprised that she might have a GHD UK hair styler  in her purse; she just needs to be sure that her hair is perfect. This friend of mine, Yoyo seems to have it all. She is a born beauty yet she knows how to care about others, how to make others comfortable around her. She is liked by both her male and female friends and that is something new because women tend to hate those who are the center of attention all the time. Her secrets are simple.

Yoyo smiles a lot, so it breaks the first obstacle standing between her and this stranger with whom she will be having a long conversation with. She never underestimates the importance of being considerate, she is not judgmental, she is not a pessimist, she is a good listener, she knows when to speak and when to shut up, she is well informed of the situation her friends are in so if something bad or unfavorable happens she could offer her help without them asking, she is working to make a living and she has a mind of her own, she is honesty, she is charitable, she is confident, she is patient, and most impressive she is humorous, How could you not like her?

Yoyo has set a great example for those friends of hers, being with her is like learning those useful lessons about how to live, how to get along with people.

Those qualities she holds can be applied to all the other women out there with cheap ugg boots. Stop complaining how few friends you have, stop thinking what a loser you are just because you are not the popular one, you are offered an opportunity to make a difference. The time has come for the history to be changed, there is such thing as to have it all if you grasp the true meaning of this term, the harmonious relationships you have with different people, it is hard to do but the good news is that, it is never too late to learn.

So the world is atwitter about the opening of the Burj Dubai, the massive spire that is the world’s tallest building. Clocking in at an astounding 2,717 feet high, the skyscraper cost $1.5 billion to build and towers over a proposed business park development anchoring the United Arab Emirates’ fading boomtown. But what exactly do you do with a building this big, once you’ve built it? Heavy.com got hold of some documentation on the structure’s tenants and uses, and we’re ripping off the veil of secrecy to share them with you.

- The next 33 floors are devoted to a massive shopping mall that dwarfs the legendary Mall of America. Shoppers can purchase clothing items from Victoria’s Secret, Abercrombie & Fitch and other Western retailers. Unfortunately, none of these clothes may be worn publicly in the heavily Muslim United Arab Emirates, so they are seized at the exit and burned.

- A team of six genetically engineered window-washers will spend their entire lives on the exterior of the building’s aluminum and glass facade. Specially bred to secrete a soapy substance from their salivary glands, they will lick the windows clean over the course of two weeks before starting all over again. They are forbidden from falling in love with human women, so don’t even ask.

- The lower floors are occupied by the Armani Hotel, decorated by famed designer Giorgio Armani. Out back, in a tin shack held together by baling wire, is the Ed Hardy Motel, decorated by Christian Audigier. At any time, the Jersey Shore cast can be seen fistfighting in the motel’s bar.

- The world’s smallest Quiznos is opening inside a Coleman cooler on Mezzanine B. Inside is half a sandwich and a pack of matches.

- The majority of the building is used for office space, boasting such multinational corporations as Quiznos, Quiznos UK and International Chemical Manufacturing, Inc. These corporations lay title to their floors by rule of combat – in front of each elevator bank there is a 10×10 square of land with two curved scimitars and a computerized referee. A representative from any corporation can place a challenge to the occupying company’s champion and, if he can manage to kill him, the lease for the floor is transferred automatically.

- A dwarf positioned in the top of the spire can drop a Jelly Belly brand jellybean down a cleverly constructed narrow chute to a waiting child’s mouth positioned at a specially marked location in the first floor atrium. The jellybean will increase to terminal velocity of 65 miles per hour by the time it reaches the child’s mouth, exploding into a flavor sensation unlike any before experienced. All parents must sign waivers and the cost of this service is $400 per jellybean.

From retirements to a recession to the inauguration of a new president, 2009 was a year of great change.

Take a look back at the Tallahassee Democrat’s Top 10 stories of 2009 and how they affected residents of the Big Bend.

FSU retirements

For Florida State University, 2009 was marked by endings.

Dec. 1, legendary football coach Bobby Bowden announced his retirement after 34 seasons at FSU.

T.K. Wetherell, the university’s colorful president for the past seven years, announced his resignation in June. Their stories were deeply intertwined.

In the 1960s, Wetherell played football at FSU, and the speedy receiver’s position coach was Bowden. Throughout his tenure as president, Wetherell kept his hand in the university’s athletic programs.

Bowden, a College Football Hall of Famer and the second all-time winningest coach in NCAA history, guided his team to 14-straight top-five finishes, including two national championships.

“Bobby Bowden is not only one of the most outstanding college football coaches in history but also a great man whom you would want as a mentor to your children,” Wetherell said.

Said Bowden: “I think (Wetherell) worked extremely hard for the things he felt were in the best interest of Florida State University.”

And while Wetherell intends to continue teaching at FSU after Eric Barron takes over as president, Bowden heads to his final game, the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville on Friday, against the same team he coached many years ago, West Virginia.

The Recession

Storefronts emptied. Schools, universities, private businesses and government experienced layoffs and budget cuts. In November, Florida’s unemployment rate rose to 11.5 percent, within a half-point of a state record. More than a million people statewide were out of work. In Leon County, the rate was 7.9 percent.

Kimberly Moore, chief executive officer of Workforce Plus, chalked the county’s lower rate up to comparatively stable state government, university and health-care work forces.

Caroline Brevard Elementary and Belle Vue Middle schools, Palmer Munroe Community Center and the Academic Resource Center were closed.

FSU and local government were hard hit by layoffs. At FSU, 149 faculty and staff have been either laid off, not been asked back after their contracts expired or have received layoff notices. Florida laid off 201 state workers in the fiscal year 2008-2009 but had a total loss of 4,832 positions.

Obama’s inauguration

Tuskegee Airmen, Havana Elementary beta club students, the Florida A&M University Marching 100 and the Boys’ Choir of Tallahassee traveled to Washington, D.C., and watched history unfold Jan. 20 as Barack Obama, America’s first black president, was inaugurated. In Leon County, 61.6 percent of the electorate voted for Obama.

“This is historic,” Marching 100 member Dante Davis said before heading to the inauguration. “This is a once-in-a lifetime thing.”

Davis and his 420 bandmates traveled to the nation’s capital via bus and braved icy weather to march in the inaugural parade.

Rachel Hoffman case

The 2008 death of police informant Rachel Hoffman, 23, was in the public eye through 2009. Hoffman’s parents, Margie Weiss and Irv Hoffman, lobbied the Legislature to pass “Rachel’s Law.” The law protects confidential informants by requiring agencies to consider an informant’s age, maturity and potential of physical harm. The law went into effect July 1, a year after Hoffman’s death.

Six months later, Deneilo Bradshaw, one of two men accused of killing Hoffman, stood trial. On Dec. 18, after a three-week trial, a jury found Bradshaw guilty of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The trial was of great interest to the public, with 760,810 minutes of live trial video viewed on Tallahassee.com.

Andrea Green, Bradshaw’s stepbrother-in-law, will be tried in October.

Extreme Makeover

Feb. 20, Ty Pennington of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” knocked on the door of George and Barbara Kadzis, parents of six children — including one biological son and five disabled children adopted from China — and offered them a new home.

Tallahasseeans swarmed Queen Anna Drive, a small street in eastern Leon County, as volunteers and spectators.

Just 48 hours after the family moved into the new home, George succumbed to brain cancer.

He never saw the finished product.

“He wanted his family to have a safe home, and, in the end, that’s what he got,” said Julie Roberts, president of JKR Consulting, who worked with the family.

Sheriff Harvey

Steve Brown, friend of Wakulla Sheriff David Harvey, said the sheriff had two drinks at Wildwood Country Club the February night he clipped a car with a woman and her daughter in it. Harvey then left the scene, something he would pay for with three months of unsupervised administrative probation, damage fees, court costs and a public apology.

Before anyone had time to forget, Harvey found himself embroiled in a second controversy over ownership of that same country club.

The state Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco brought charges against Harvey based on a Florida law that says sheriffs cannot have a business interest in establishments that sell alcohol.

In September, State Attorney Willie Meggs decided not to pursue charges. Some cried leniency.

“He’s the most powerful man in the county,” said Dana Peck, a county resident who believes Harvey’s image may be tarnished but his influence remains.

The ABT is still seeking to revoke the club’s license.

H1N1

America watched in April as the feared swine flu spread state by state. It was officially in Leon County by May.

Hand-sanitizing stations were installed at schools, churches and businesses. In June, H1N1 claimed its first Florida resident, a 9-year-old boy from Miami. By Dec 22, 186 Floridians had died from H1N1, though none were in Leon County.

Schools worked to educate parents and students about the flu as well as the importance of washing hands and staying home if sick.

By September, the Leon County Health Department stopped testing for swine flu because, according to medical director Marjorie Kirsch, there were too many cases. As many as 1,178 H1N1-related hospitalizations were reported by Dec. 15, but Kirsch said the reported number is likely lower than the actual number.

With October came the vaccine, which brought a new set of problems. Some parents, leery of a new drug, did not want their children vaccinated. Those who did found the vaccine was in short supply.

The county health department finally was able to procure enough of the vaccine to give shots to all school children whose parents wanted them to have it.

Bye-bye biomass

The biomass plant that Biomass Gas and Electric proposed to build near a south-side neighborhood did not get off to a good start. Within the first month of debate, several organizations said they did not want to see the plant built off Roberts Avenue, and by Jan. 23 the $150-million project was nixed altogether, a decision met with cheers and jeers.

The plant would have produced electricity by heating wood chips, which would produce gas and steam that powered turbines.

In August, BG&E decided to build in Port St. Joe.

Bioenergy did finally find its way to the Big Bend in early December when bioenergy company Adage was approved to build a $250-million plant at the Gretna Industrial Park.

The great debates

Tallahassee was a hotbed for debates this year from drilling to health care.

“The strong interest in town-hall meetings throughout North Florida shows that the public is very engaged on the important issues facing the country today, health care in particular,” said U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd, who attended two town-hall-style forums on health care.

Boyd ended up voting against the health-care plan, which passed in the House, 220-215.

In April State Rep. Dean Cannon proposed lifting a two-decade ban and allowing oil and natural-gas exploration between 3 and 10 miles off the Florida coast. It passed in the House, 70-43, but never made it to the Senate floor.

Forums popped up among several groups. A symposium hosted by FSU, the Tallahassee Democrat and other Gannett Florida properties included a televised and live webcast forum on energy exploration. Topics ranged from jobs and the economy to negative effects on the environment and tourism.

“It’s being served up as the economy vs. the environment,” said Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples.

Other town-hall meetings locally focused on children, teens, Star Metro and crime.

2010 campaigns

As the legislative session came to a close, the 2010 elections were jump-started by the resignation of Sen. Mel Martinez and the May 2 announcement that Gov. Charlie Crist would run for the empty seat. Former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio had already thrown his hat in the ring.

Crist’s announcement set off a chain of other race contenders, including Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum and Democrat Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink announcing their candidacies for governor. State Sen. Paula Dockery announced her run, as well. Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, said he would run for CFO, and Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp is running for attorney general.

Other notable stories

The Top 10 stories of the year we chose weren’t the only major news. Check out some of the other stories that made headlines in 2009:

The National Collegiate Athletic Association was found in violation of state public-records law after the Democrat and other media outlets took the NCAA to court. A possible Florida Supreme Court appeal is pending.

In an investigation of 31 graves and reports of abuse at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement concluded the school and staff did not cause or contribute to the deaths of those buried in the graveyard.

Withlacoochee and Suwannee river floods triggered road closures and damaged homes across the Big Bend.

Gaines Street revitalization began amid protests from bicyclists and concerned residents.

The Tallahassee Fire Department functionally consolidated with Emergency Medical Services, and the public received new fees.

A rash of suspicious incidents involving strangers and children occurred across the city.

Former City Commissioner Alan Katz resigned, and commissioners replaced him with Gil Ziffer. Controversy bloomed over the legality of such an appointment under the city charter.

The body of soldier Scott Speicher was found in Iraq after he had gone missing in action 18 years before.

A Monticello house fire left three dead, including a mother and her two children.

At the Monticello Watermelon Festival, Corteze Woody, 18, crashed into the back of a parked ambulance and then hit a parked SUV, killing one.

Curtis Brown, 26, was killed after being caught in the crossfire of a shootout at the Lake Bradford McDonald’s/Circle K.

The 400-member Florida Army National Guard 779th Engineering Battalion left for a yearlong deployment to Iraq.

A small plane on a grass runway in Leon County clipped a Jeep, killing Dennis Boyle and Carmen Langston.

New Years Eve is fast approaching and there are some celebrations happening around the state. Promoters of a party at the Hilton Bayfront say their celebration is the hottest “New Year’s Eve Ticket on the West Coast.” Of course this party is not free, but they are offering an all inclusive package of drinks, food and music. In Los Angeles the Kress Hollywood is selling tickets to their New Years bash. Promoters say they will sell out of the $60 – $200 tickets before Thursday’s big event. They have three levels of tickets beginning with General Admission to VIP. The Kress is located at 6608 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles (Hollywood) CA.

There is a party at the New York Playhouse called “New York Nights, the Black and White Ball”. Tickets for this event start at $150, but quickly ratchet-up to $6,487.50 for the VIP treatment. The DJ will be DJ Reach. Playhouse Hollywood Los Angeles CA , 6506 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles (Hollywood) CA.

Adam Lambert will be performing at the Gridlock 2010 party. Hosted by Pamela Anderson, party tickets start at $150 but rocket to $2,500 for VIP. There will be 15 live bands. Here is the address: Paramount Pictures Studio Backlot Los Angeles CA , 5555 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles CA

The EPIC NYE 2010 All Access party will be held at the Vanguard in Los Angeles. Tickets start $20. The Diamond tickets sell for $2,000 and there is also an “after hours pass” for 3 am until 11 am. Vanguard Los Angeles CA , 6021 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles (Hollywood) CA

The MYHouse party should be a big hit. Tickets start at $125 but go up to $3,500 for a table for 20 people. The party runs through 2 am. My House Los Angeles CA , 7080 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles CA

Get Some new year gift!