In a picture taken on July 4, 2011 a firefighter uses a rope to rescue a group of 36 Chinese villagers stranded on a section of road which was destroyed by a mudslide in Yinxiu county, in southwest China's Sichuan province, as summer downpours have pummelled large swathes of south and central China in June.  China said that 279 people died in natural disasters in June and another 93 had gone missing, as the country was hit by floods, mudslides and earthquakes. AFP