It has been used to coordinate requests for relief efforts, track victims in camps and shelters, and coordinate volunteers in the 2005 Pakistan earthquake, the 2006 mud slide in the Philippines, the 2007 earthquake in Peru and the 2008 earthquake in China.
Safety in schools has been a major public concern in China since a devastating earthquake in Sichuan province in 2008 killed tens of thousands of people.
Accounts of the deadly attacks last fall in Mumbai, India, the May 2008 earthquake in China and last week's plane crash show what used to be just a virtual gathering place to communicate pet peeves or plans for the weekend has evolved into a go-to spot for eyewitness news -- sometimes even before mainstream media has had time to crack the story.
Meanwhile, the death toll from this month's earthquake in China reached 62, 664, a government official said Sunday.
The death toll from a massive earthquake in China's Sichuan province was expected to soar Tuesday, as rescue workers scrambled to find survivors buried beneath rubble and debris.
"If anything, Twitter reminds me that everyone is human and they all have their own views and a paradigm through which they see the world, " said Hultquist who had a unique appreciation of the quick, firsthand tweets that came after the earthquake in China last year.
You know that the Web isn't quite done with reinventing humanity when, in the space of a week, a cyclone kills 100, 000 people in Myanmar and an earthquake kills 70, 000 in China.
The world has marveled at the derring-do of rescuers in the wake of southwestern China's killer earthquake and been heartened by the degree of official willingness to let outsiders share in the national grief.
It appears to be the most devastating earthquake to hit China in more than three decades.
After the May 12 (2008) Sichuan earthquake, there was a huge development in charity in China.
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Yao also continues to work with the Yao Ming Foundation building schools in earthquake-affected regions in Sichuan and other provinces in China.
The other market in focus on Monday was China, where stocks were reacting to an earthquake that hit Sichuan province over the weekend.
Two years ago, when China was hit by a magnitude 8.0 earthquake in the Sichuan province, Japanese rescuers helped with clean up and rescue.
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The other market in focus on Monday was China, where stocks were slightly lower after an earthquake hit Sichuan province over the weekend.
As Japan rebuilds from the March 11 earthquake, it could drive up the prices of commodities in which China also imports, mainly oil and iron ore.
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Experts also warn that rain may bring secondary disasters such as mudslides and damage to dams in the days or even months after Saturday's earthquake, South China Morning Post adds.
The China Earthquake Networks Center said it had recorded 264 aftershocks, two of which topped 5.0 in magnitude, since the original quake struck.
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