World News
May 11, 2008YANGON, Myanmar - More food reached Myanmar's hungry cyclone victims as roads were cleared of fallen trees, but a British aid group warned that up to 1.5 million face death if they do not get clean water and sanitation soon.
"It's really crucial that people get access to clean water sources and sanitation to avoid unnecessary deaths and suffering," Oxfam's regional chief Sarah Ireland told reporters in Bangkok, Thailand.
YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's state television says the death toll in last week's cyclone has jumped by about 5,000 to 28,458.
It says that the number of missing now stands at 33,416.
YANGON, Myanmar - A Red Cross boat carrying rice and drinking water for cyclone victims sank Sunday, while the death toll jumped to more than 28,000 and aid groups warned of a humanitarian catastrophe.
The double-decker boat that sank was carrying supplies for more than 1,000 people and was the first Red Cross shipment to the disaster area, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said. All four relief workers on board were safe, it said.
PICHER, Okla. - Many have fled this depressed, pollution-scarred mining town. Those who have chosen to stay or have not yet relocated face a new heartache.
A tornado ripped through a 20-block swath of Picher late Saturday afternoon, killing at least seven people. The same storm system then moved into southwest Missouri where tornadoes took the lives of at least 12 others, authorities said.
KATHMANDU, Nepal - Police detained more than 600 female Tibetan protesters, including many Buddhist nuns, on Sunday after breaking up several demonstrations in Nepal's capital against China's recent crackdown in Tibet.
The protesters held three separate rallies in Kathmandu but were quickly stopped by police.
KHARTOUM, Sudan - Sudan has severed relations with Chad, accusing it of supporting rebels who staged Saturday's surprise attack on Khartoum.
Sudanese officials also say a top leader of the Darfur rebels is still hiding somewhere in the capital area.
BEIJING - China has established a homegrown company to make passenger jumbo jets, state media reported Sunday - a step forward in the country's quest to become less dependent on Boeing and Airbus.
China Commercial Aircraft Co. was established in Shanghai with registered capital of US$2.7 billion, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
WASHINGTON - Barack Obama has overtaken Hillary Rodham Clinton in superdelegate endorsements for the first time.
Obama picked up four superdelegate endorsements, including two from the Virgin Islands who had previously endorsed Clinton.
YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's military rulers held a referendum Saturday aimed at solidifying their hold on power while brazenly turning cyclone relief efforts into a propaganda campaign.
In some cases, generals' names were scribbled onto boxes of foreign aid before being distributed.
BANGKOK, Thailand - Military-ruled Myanmar, among the globe's poorest and most authoritarian countries, is reeling from a natural disaster of such magnitude that both the people's suffering and political aftershocks are certain to persist long after the last emergency aid has been doled out.
As bloated bodies are counted and survivors face disease and hunger in the wake of cyclone Nargis, dramatic scenarios are foreseen in a country that has changed little since an army coup 46 years ago.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan risks political crisis unless its ruling coalition can agree on how to restore judges ousted by President Pervez Musharraf, a cabinet minister has warned.
Musharraf imposed emergency rule and purged the Supreme Court in November in order to halt legal challenges to his U.S.-backed presidency.
CRAWFORD, Texas - Jenna Bush couldn't see herself getting married at the White House surrounded by antique furniture and oil portraits of presidents.
She and Henry Hager said "I do" Saturday at President Bush's ranch in Crawford where the corn is thigh-high, roads are named Cattle Drive and the Texas flag is painted on the rooftops of barns.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Jenna Bush picked "You Are So Beautiful," the ballad made famous by Joe Cocker, for the father-daughter dance with President Bush at her wedding reception Saturday night in Texas, the band leader said.
Tyrone Smith of Nashville and his 10-piece party band, The Tyrone Smith Revue, were hired to play at the reception in Crawford.
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Dozens of suspected Islamic insurgents ambushed a military convoy transporting bodyguards for the interior and finance ministers, killing four soldiers.
Also on Saturday, a gunfight between Islamic militias and Ethiopian troops in Mogadishu left two civilians dead.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The Dominican Republic has expanded subsidies on basic food staples to maintain calm after deadly food riots recently struck neighbouring Haiti.
Trucks loaded with milk, chicken, eggs and other food staples have been rumbling across the Caribbean nation, where almost half of 9.5 million residents live in poverty.
QUITO, Ecuador - President Rafael Correa said Saturday he has no confidence in the World Bank arbitration branch that is hearing U.S. oil company Occidental's lawsuit against Ecuador.
Ecuador handed over its sovereignty when it signed international accords binding it to the bank's International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes, Correa said during his weekly radio address.
ST. PAUL, Minn. - The man picked by the John McCain campaign to run the 2008 Republican National Convention resigned Saturday after a report that his lobbying firm used to represent the military regime in Myanmar.
Doug Goodyear resigned as convention co-ordinator and issued a two sentence statement:
PANAMA CITY, Panama - Panamanian investigators asked health authorities Saturday to track down patients whose names appeared on 6,000 bottles of medication contaminated with a chemical commonly found in antifreeze and brake fluid.
The bottles were handed over to the government two years ago when at least 116 people died after taking poisonous cough syrup, antihistamine tablets, calamine lotion and rash ointment made at a government laboratory.
