Callous China destroy homes in pursuit of Space Domination

China's callous disregard for human life has brought further tragedy to its beleaguered population.

Debris from the rocket carrying China's first moon rover plummeted to earth in a village more than a thousand kilometres from the launch site, crashing into two homes, a report said Tuesday.

The incident about nine minutes after the launch of the Chang'e-3 mission early Monday happened in Suining county in the central province of Hunan, which has been hit by space wreckage nearly 20 times, the Xiaoxiang Morning Post said.

"Three of the roof beams have crashed down on our house, and a big hole has been punched into our barn," one local resident told the paper.

"The huge sound scared the living daylights out of me," said another.

A picture showed a somewhat baffled-looking villager peering at the curved shape of what appeared to be a rocket nose-cone, below a gaping hole in his roof.

Authorities gave the residents 10,800 yuan ($1,800) and 5,200 yuan in compensation, the paper said. No one was injured.

A Long March-3B carrier rocket, China's most powerful such vehicle, blasted off at around 1:30 am Monday from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in southwestern China.

The lunar rover mission is part of China's ambitious space programme, which has the goal of establishing a permanent space station by 2020 and eventually sending a human to the moon.

But debris from China's numerous space launches has frequently found its way to Suining county, which has been hit by rocket parts nearly 20 times since the early 1990s, the Xiaoxiang Morning Post reported.

Last May wreckage from a rocket sent up by the Xichang Launch Centre crashed into homes and hit a high-voltage wire in the area, according to the Shanghai Daily News.

In October 2011 a steel frame weighing more than 250 kilograms (550 pounds) landed in a field after another satellite launch, and other wreckage pierced a house roof.

Japan finds rich Rare Earth deposits on seabed

Japanese researchers said Thursday they have found a rich deposit of rare earths on the Pacific seabed, with reports suggesting it could be up to 30 times more concentrated than Chinese reserves.

Mud samples taken from 5,800 metres (19,000 feet) below the waves contained highly concentrated amounts of the precious minerals, which are vital for high-tech manufacturing and used in products including wind turbines and iPods.

The proving of resources is significant for Japan, which currently relies largely on China. China has a near-monopoly hold on Rare Earth elements; around 90 percent of the world's supply of rare earths.

Manufacturers have complained in the past that Beijing restricts exports of the materials at times of tension.

"Rare Earths are necessary for cutting-edge technologies. Japan faces an urgent task to secure stable supplies," said a statement by researchers from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology and the University of Tokyo.

The samples, taken from the seabed near Minamitori island some 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles) southeast of Tokyo, were 10 times more concentrated than that of mud collected from the seabed near Hawaii, the researchers said.

The concentration was 20 to 30 times higher than that from Chinese mines, Japanese media said.

Scientists believe the seabed contains about 6.8 million tonnes of the materials, the equivalent of 220 to 230 years worth of rare earths used in Japan.

But despite the desire to move away from dependence on oppressive China, the cost of extracting supplies from such a depth and in such hostile conditions may prove problematic.

In its afternoon edition, the mass-selling news provider Yomiuri Shimbun said there had been no successful commercial mining below 5,000 metres.

The researchers said they plan to continue their survey, which began in January, to further study rare earth resources and find out how extensive the deposits are.