By Tania Branigan in Beijing, guardian.co.uk, Nov. 19, 2012

Five homeless children have been found dead in a rubbish bin where they probably suffocated while sheltering from the cold, authorities in south-west China have said. The boys, aged around 10, were found by an elderly rag picker on Friday morning, Beijing News reported. An initial investigation suggested they died of carbon monoxide poisoning, possibly due to burning charcoal inside the bin, [....] Residents said the boys had been living in a nearby shelter they built from a tarpaulin, cement blocks and plywood [....]

According to the ministry of civil affairs, there were an estimated one to one and a half million children living without parental care, mostly on the streets of towns and cities, in 2008. That did not include children working on the streets with migrant parents.

Last year the government ordered officials to place a higher priority on helping street children without parental care and to seek them out to provide help.[....]