World News
May 9, 2008GENEVA - Myanmar's military leaders seized aid shipments headed for cyclone survivors and told the top U.S. diplomat there Friday that they're not ready to let in foreign aid workers despite warnings the country is on the verge of a medical catastrophe.
Another 10 centimetres of rain was forecast to fall next week as more than one million people waited for food, clean water, shelter and medicine to reach them. Diplomats and aid groups warned number of dead could eventually exceed 100,000 because of illnesses and said thousands of children may have been orphaned.
BAGHDAD - Shiite militants launched rockets toward the fortified Green Zone on Friday, taking advantage of a sandstorm that gave cover from attacks by U.S. aircraft. Some rockets fell short, including one that damaged the British Broadcasting Corp. bureau.
At least seven other rocket explosions were heard. But U.S. authorities did not confirm any strikes inside the Green Zone, which includes the U.S. Embassy and much of the Iraqi government.
HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe's opposition says no one from that party will meet with the visiting South African president.
It also says he should be replaced as mediator in the country's political crisis. President Robert Mugabe met Thabo Mbeki at the airport as the South African leader arrived. It's his third visit as mediator on behalf of the Southern African Development Community.
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - The message travels among Guantanamo detainees in whispers between recreation areas and shouts through slots in cell doors: Don't trust the Americans. Boycott.
Guards call it the Detainee News Network, and it is now prompting inmates to turn their backs on their war-crimes trials at this U.S. naval station in southeast Cuba.
BANGKOK, Thailand - Myanmar's refusal to let foreign aid workers into the country has not stopped donors around the world, both large and small, from trying to help.
Besides the tens of millions of dollars in aid pledged by governments, help is also being offered by smaller groups and companies.
JERUSALEM - Calls are mounting for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's resignation as police probe allegations that he accepted hundreds of thousands of campaign dollars in cash-stuffed envelopes from a U.S. citizen.
The investigation into Olmert's fiscal conduct is the fifth in two years and threatens to force him from office. It also could derail troubled peace talks with the Palestinians.
BEIRUT - Hezbollah gunmen have seized nearly all of the Lebanese capital's Muslim sector from forces loyal to the U.S.-backed government.
Security officials say at least 11 people have been killed and more than 20 wounded in three days of street battles in West Beirut.
BERLIN - Berlin's Holocaust memorial was playing host Friday to an open-air concert with musicians spreading out across a field of concrete slabs to perform a modern experimental piece.
The performance by the Kammersymphonie Berlin of composer Harald Weiss' new piece "Vor dem Verstummen" ("Before Silence Falls") was being held to mark the third anniversary of the monument's opening to the public.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Pakistani authorities and pro-Taliban militants are declaring a ceasefire in the volatile Swat Valley.
Officials say it's the latest bid to curtail an explosion of violence along the Afghan border. The ceasefire follows talks between representatives of the North West Frontier provincial government and a militant leader whose armed followers grabbed control of much of the valley last year.
JERUSALEM - Rescue workers say mortar shells fired from the Gaza Strip have killed and Israeli man and wounded three other people.
The radio station of Gaza's ruling Hamas movement says Hamas fighters have claimed responsibility for the mortar fire on the southern Israeli town of Kfar Aza.
VIENNA, Austria - An Austrian judge has ordered continued custody for a man suspecting of imprisoning his daughter for two decades and fathering her children.
The decision to extend the pretrial custody of Josef Fritzl was made Friday during a routine, closed-door session required under Austrian law.
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Somali police are fortifying their headquarters in Mongadishu after Islamic insurgents attacked the facility in the heart of capital on Thursday.
Police officer Dalmar Mohamed Hassan said two policemen and five insurgents died when the rebels attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy submachine-guns.
BANGKOK, Thailand - In the eyes of Myanmar's military leaders, everyone is a potential enemy. Even foreign aid workers.
As the international community waits to deliver desperately needed aid to Myanmar's cyclone survivors, it is getting a lesson in the mind-set of the country's military rulers: reclusive, xenophobic generals whose junta has held power for almost half a century.
WASHINGTON - The movement of so-called superdelegates to Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama continues to gain steam.
Obama spokesman Dan Pfeiffer says the Illinois senator expects to be officially endorsed by two more congressmen Friday.
INDEPENDENCE, Calif. - National Park Service officials in California say the Death Valley ranch where Charles Manson was arrested will be closed for a second time this year to search for possible human remains.
A news release says Barker Ranch will be closed for up to four days later this month.
WASHINGTON - The Democratic nomination fight isn't over yet but Republican John McCain seems to have known for a while who he'll be facing this fall in the race for the White House.
And it isn't Hillary Clinton. She's been getting off easy for weeks while McCain has focused more and more of his attacks on Barack Obama.
SEOUL, South Korea - North Koreans are dying because of food shortages in rural areas, and a massive famine is just a matter of time, a South Korean aid group said Friday.
The food situation was as bad as the famine that hit the country in the mid-1990s, which left as many as two million people dead, Seoul-based Good Friends - a Buddhist-affiliated group that sends food and other aid to the North - cited an unidentified North Korean official Friday as saying.
BEIJING - Passengers riding the subway and major bus routes in Beijing will undergo strict security checks starting at the end of June ahead of the Olympics, police said Friday.
All subway lines and major bus stations will be equipped with security checkpoints, a spokesman for the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau Public Transportation Division said. Like many Chinese officials he gave only his surname, Chen.
