Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/696762
XINHUAVIAAP The remains of a steel tower are photographed in Funing County, in east China's Jiangsu Province, on Thursday a er a tornado hit the area. ByChristopherBodeen The Associated Press BEIJING A tornado and hailstorm struck the out- skirts of an eastern Chi- nese city on Thursday, killing at least 78 peo- ple and destroying build- ings, smashing trees and flipping vehicles on their roofs. The tornado hit a densely populated area of farms and factories near the city of Yancheng in Jiangsu province, about 500 miles south of Bei- jing. Nearly 500 people were injured, 200 of them crit- ically, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Roads were blocked with trees, downed power lines and other debris. Heavy rain and the possibility of further hailstorms and more tornadoes compli- cated rescue efforts, state broadcaster CCTV re- ported. The disaster has been declared a national-level emergency, and on a trip to Uzbekistan, Chinese President Xi Jinping or- dered central government bodies to provide all nec- essary assistance. Tents and other emer- gency supplies were al- ready being sent from Bei- jing, CCTV said. The network showed people carrying the in- jured to hospitals, cars and trucks lying upside down, street light poles snapped in half, and steel electric- ity pylons crumpled and lying on their side. Power and telephone communi- cations were knocked out over a broad area. "I heard the gales and ran upstairs to shut the windows," Xinhua quoted Xie Litian, 62, as saying. "I had hardly reached the top of the stairs when I heard a boom and saw the entire wall with the windows on it torn away." The roof then collapsed as he raced downstairs, Xie said. After sheltering in a corner for 20 min- utes, he emerged to find the neighborhood trans- formed into a wasteland. "It was like the end of the world," he said. Jiangsu is a coastal province north of Shang- hai. Yancheng is an ancient city with more than 8 mil- lion people. Powerful tornado st ri ke s ea st C hi na ; over 70 reported dead SEVERE WEATHER By Susannah George The Associated Press FALLUJAH,IRAQ Iraqi com- manders are preparing to dislodge Islamic State group fighters from pock- ets of territory in Fallu- jah's northern and western neighborhoods where the militants have dug in af- ter largely fleeing their po- sitions in the city center last week. Before Iraqi forces rolled into central Fallujah under cover of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, they were bogged down for weeks, trying to pushthroughdeepdefensive trenches,tunnelsandhouses convertedintobunkersbyIS militants on the city's south- ern edge. Now looking to the city's north, Iraqi command- ers expect to encounter a similarly fierce fight. "It's not going to be easy," Iraqi special forces Brig. Gen. Ali Jameel said of the upcoming battle for the last pockets of IS resis- tance where an estimated 100 militants are largely surrounded. "They are going to fight to the death because they have nowhere to run," he said. Prime Minister Haider al- Abadi launched the offen- sive to retake Fallujah from the Islamic State group on May 22. The Sunni-led ex- tremist group has held the city west of Baghdad for more than two years. Last week, Iraqi forces raised their flag above a government complex in cen- tral Fallujah and declared victory, saying 80 percent of Fallujah was under their control. It was some much- needed positive news for al- Abadi amid growing anti- government protests and civil unrest in Baghdad. But nearly a week later, Iraq appears to have only a fragile hold on the territory its forces claim to have lib- erated. The U.S.-led coali- tion, which has been con- ducting airstrikes in the offensive, said Tuesday that only a third of Fallujah can be described as "cleared," while other territory re- mains contested. One of the militants' re- maining strongholds is Fal- lujah's Jolan neighborhood, the northwestern corner of the city that was also the scene of some of the most persistent skirmishes be- tween U.S. forces and in- surgents in 2004 and 2007. Its jumble of narrow streets and dense concen- tration of residential build- ings is expected to make it harder to use airstrikes and Iraqi armor. Additionally, thousands of civilians are still believed to be trapped in the IS-held territory, ac- cording to the United Na- tions. Capt. Muthhour Sabaar of the Anbar provincial po- lice said his men fought alongside the Iraqi mili- tary's elite special forces as they pushed into central Fallujah last week from the south. Since then, his men have moved north and west. "This fight will be our hardest yet," he said. The defenses in the remain- ing IS neighborhoods are expected to mirror what his forces encountered in the southern edge — the trenches, tunnels and for- tified houses that are now shredded and collapsed from artillery fire and air- strikes. Once his forces moved farther into the city from the south, there were no elaborate fortifications. "Here, (IS fighters) just ran away. Honestly, there were no defenses at all," Sabaar said, gesturing to the Nazzal neighborhood just south of the main east- west highway that roughly divides the city. The safest routes through the city snake in and out of main thoroughfares. As one convoy of armored vehicles moved along the main high- way, special forces Corp. Ahmad Ahmad pointed to the liberated territory, in- cluding the Khalifa Mosque, one of the city's largest. "It's cleared, but only from the outside. We don't know about the inside yet," Ahmad said. Iraqi forces advanced so quickly that teams specializing in de- fusing bombs were unable to keep up. Along a road in central Fallujah, destruction is in- termittent. Sabaar, the provincial po- lice captain, said the fight- ing on these streets was nothing like what he saw earlier this year in Ramadi, where hundreds of home- made bombs made prog- ress painfully slow. "Daesh believed this city was like a capital for them," Sabaar said, using the Ara- bic acronym for the Islamic State group. "They never thought Iraqi forces would be able to break the city's walls." Overall, the level of de- struction in Fallujah ap- pears to be less than in Ra- madi, where Iraqi forces and the coalition were crit- icized because many parts of the city were mostly de- stroyed in the fighting. Iraqi and coalition officials coun- tered that most of the de- struction in Ramadi was caused by IS explosives. IRAQ Troops focus on IS militants in Fallujah By Raphael Satter and Jill Lawless The Associated Press LONDON TheBritishpound seesawed wildly Friday and betting markets dramat- ically shortened the odds on Britain leaving the Euro- pean Union as increasingly mixed signals challenged earlier market anticipation of a narrow victory for "re- main." The pound initially soared as polls closed and two opinion surveys put "re- main" ahead and two lead- ing supporters of the "leave" campaign said it appeared the pro-EU side had won. But it then suffered its big- gest fall in years, plummet- ing from about $1.50 to al- most $1.40 as results began to show stronger-than-ex- pected support for quitting the bloc. With just about 6 mil- lion of an expected 16 mil- lion votes counted, the re- sult was effectively a 50-50 split — but "remain" was underperforming analysts' expectations. "Few 'remain' strong- holds are doing better than expected," said John Curtice, a University of Strathclyde political scien- tist and BBC election an- alyst. "There are far more places where 'leave' are do- ing better than expected." "It may be possible that the experts are going to have egg on their face later on tonight," he said. The Betfair market pre- dicted a 51 percent chance of Britain leaving the EU — the first time in the refer- endum campaign the op- tion has become the favor- ite. Bookies' odds on Brexit also shortened to as short as 6-5. They had been 5-1 only hours earlier, as polls pointed to a "remain" win. The first results, from England's working-class northeast, were a smaller- than-expected "remain" win in Newcastle and a big- ger-than-expected "leave" vote in nearby Sunderland. The "leave" side also out- performed expectations in other areas of England, though "remain" was ahead in early Scottish results. There was better news in London, where the first dis- tricts to declare had strong "remain" majorities. A vote to leave the EU would destabilize the 28-na- tion trading bloc, created from the ashes of World War II to keep the peace in Europe. A "remain" vote would nonetheless leave Britain divided and the EU scrambling to reform. As the polls closed Thurs- day, U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage set a downbeat tone for the supporters of a British exit — or Brexit — from the EU, telling Sky News television "it looks like 'remain' will edge it" in the referendum, sending the pound to a 2016 peak of $1.50. But he walked back those comments later, telling re- porters at a "leave" party in central London that "maybe just under half, maybe just over half of the country" had voted to pull Britain out of the EU. The most recent polls had suggested "remain" had a narrow lead. Pollster Ipsos MORI said a survey conducted on Wednesday and Thursday suggested the "remain" side would win Britain's EU ref- erendum by a margin of 54 percent to 46 percent. Earlier Thursday, the firm had released a poll that indicated a 52-48 victory for "remain." That phone poll of 1,592 people had a mar- gin of error of plus or minus three percentage points. But the firm's chief execu- tive, Ben Page, said contin- ued polling on Thursday suggested a bigger swing to "remain" that gave the 54-46 result. The overseas territory of Gibraltar was the first to re- port results late Thursday, and as expected the British enclave reported an over- whelming vote for "remain" — 96 percent. There as elsewhere, turn- out appeared high. Officials in Gibraltar said almost 84 percent of eligible voters turned out to cast ballots; witnesses and reporters elsewhere said turnout was higher than in last year's general election, which was 66 percent. High turnout had been expected to boost the "re- main" vote, because "leave" supporters are thought to be more motivated. But high turnout in working- class areas that typically have lower tallies could also boost the "leave" vote. "I think it is going to be really close," said photogra- pher Antony Crolla, 49, out- side a London polling sta- tion. That was certainly the case in Newcastle, a city which had been expected to deliver a resounding victory for "remain." In- stead, the pro-Europe side squeaked by with 50.7 per- cent of the vote. In Sunder- land, 61 percent of voters chose "leave," a bigger-than expected margin. Polls had for months suggested a close battle, al- though the past few days have seen some indication of momentum swinging to- ward the "remain" side. But torrential rains, especially in the "remain" stronghold of London, raised fears of diminished turnout. Lon- don's Fire Brigade took 550 weather-related calls as the capital was hit by heavy precipitation, thun- derstorms and lightning strikes. Some polling sta- tions were forced to close because of flooding. Prime Minister David Cameron, who called the referendum and led the "remain" campaign, faces an uncertain future which- ever side wins. Almost half the lawmakers from his Conservative Party backed an EU exit, and the "leave" campaign was led by po- tential leadership rivals, including former London Mayor Boris Johnson. If "leave" wins, he may have no choice but to re- sign. BRITAIN Pound takes wild ride as EU referendum results come in LIAM MCBURNEY — PA Counters begin to tally ballot papers at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in Belfast, Northern Ireland, as counting gets underway in the referendum on the UK membership of the European Union late Thursday. P.O.Box220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 Support our classrooms, keep kids reading. DONATE YOUR VACATION newspaper dollars to the Newspaper In Education Program HELP OUR CHILDREN Formoredetailscall Circulation Department (530) 737-5047 | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM FRIDAY, JUNE 24, 2016 8 B