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Tens of thousands of refugees now live around this stadium - their homes were destroyed in the earthquake.

Names ring out on the loudspeaker of people who are still missing.

Many of the homeless are children who have gotten separated from their parents. Their big concern is who will take care of them in the days to come, especially if it turns out that their parents are among the tens of thousands killed by the quake.

The Chinese government already is working to sign people who may want adopt some of those orphans.

He began looking around the ruined city, when he noticed a large number of people fleeing from something, and said, "There are a lot of people going there now. I mean, I'm talking hundreds [of people] going to this area, and I'm following behind them. And they're all at a good jog."

It was not long before he started to get worried, saying, "They're saying get out, get out, get out. This is not good."

Schearf said another journalist he ran into told him a dam upstream had broken and that floodwaters were coming. "He said get going, get going, get going. You need to get to high ground fast."

Secretary-General Ban arrived by helicopter in the ruins of Yingxiu, a small town near the epicenter of the massive quake. Yingxiu lost about two-thirds of its 10,000 inhabitants, and there are almost no safe buildings left standing.

In a meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, the U.N. chief applauded him and the rapid response of his government.

"This is a natural disaster," he said. "This can be overcome, if we cooperate and we work hard. You have been working hard, and you have been demonstrating your leadership extraordinarily. The whole world, the United Nations, stands behind you and supports you."

Since Monday's earthquake, though, the secretary said Chinese officials he met with in Beijing and Shanghai this week had other, more urgent, things they wanted to discuss.

"I met with the Minister of Science and Technology today," said Leavitt. "He asked for some advice from people within our department on how to contain infectious disease, during the period following this kind of natural disaster. When the systems break down, infectious disease is one of the concerns that we all have."

Food prices are rising in many countries. Economic policy makers warn that the effect of rising food prices could push millions of people into poverty. Aid organizations are concerned that they will not be able to feed the poorest people.

The rising cost of food caused riots in a number of countries in recent weeks. International officials met this month to take steps in an effort to ease the problem.

The finance ministers and central bankers of 24 advanced and developing countries are discussing reforms collectively advanced by the G7 group of industrialized nations - in other words Europe, North America, and Japan.

Christine Lagarde is the French economy minister.

"The fact that we are asking for more transparency, more disclosure by the banks, on the one hand; the fact that we're asking for better liquidity by the banks as well, is certainly going to help the current crisis," he said.

Lagarde spoke to Bloomberg television.

The G7 proposals are usually accepted by the IMF's governing board.

On Friday evening, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson hosted a meeting of his colleagues from Europe, Canada and Japan along with commercial bankers impacted by the current credit squeeze, the world's most significant financial turmoil since the Asian financial crisis 10 years ago.