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Dozens Feared Dead in 2nd Myanmar Landslide in a Month


FILE - Excavators search for bodies in Hpakant, Kachin State, Myanmar, Nov. 24, 2015. Dozens of people are missing and feared dead after a landslide Friday in the same area where at least 100 people died in a similar disaster last month.
FILE - Excavators search for bodies in Hpakant, Kachin State, Myanmar, Nov. 24, 2015. Dozens of people are missing and feared dead after a landslide Friday in the same area where at least 100 people died in a similar disaster last month.

Dozens of people are missing and feared dead after a landslide in a jade-mining area of northern Myanmar, where at least 100 people died in a similar disaster last month.

Rescue workers have begun searching for bodies in Friday's landslide in Hpakant, Kachin state, center of Myanmar's jade-mining industry. Officials say they have no word yet on how many people may have died or been injured.

Late last month, at least 100 people died in a landslide near a jade mine in Hpakant. Two days after the landslide, rescue workers were still pulling bodies from the rubble.

Hpakant in Kachin state is located about 950 kilometers northeast of Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city, and is home to some of the world's highest-quality jade.

Global Witness, an organization that investigates the misuse of revenue from natural resources, put the value of Myanmar's jade production as high as $31 billion in 2014. But it says the local population sees little benefit.

Most of the mining in the area is done by large industrial firms, leaving locals only the chance to hunt through the rubble searching for pieces of jade that were overlooked.

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