Death toll in China earthquake rises to 149, two still missing after a week

Gansu bore the brunt of the quake's wrath. More than 200,000 homes were wrecked and 15,000 were on the brink of collapse, Chinese state media reported. Displacing 145,000 people, the powerful tremors killed 117 people in the province as of Dec. 22, with 781 wounded. The epicentre of the quake straddled the provinces of Gansu and Qinghai in an area where many of China's Hui people, a tight-knit ethnic minority characterised by its distinctive Muslim identity, are found. Beijing: One of China's most powerful earthquakes in recent years killed at least 149 people in a remote northwestern region, according to…