WORLD BRIEFING / CHINA

Authorities have evacuated more than 300,000 people from their homes in southern China after heavy rain toppled houses, flooded roads and damaged a dam, Chinese state news media said.

Three people have died in the three days of rain, and four are missing in Jiangxi and Guangxi provinces, the official New China News Agency said.

The rains caused 287 rural houses in Guangxi to topple and inundated Rongshui county, causing the Rong River to overflow its banks. More than 70,000 people in the province have been moved, the news agency said.

And 80,000 people were forced from their homes in southern Jiangxi province, where crops were damaged.

The rain destroyed a 44-foot section of a dike near the base of the Kama Reservoir in Guangxi, the news agency said, and 150,000 people who lived downstream were moved to safety.