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. - Rescue crews and search dogs hunted for survivors or bodies Sunday in the piles of debris left by a tornado that rumbled through this former mining town a day earlier, killing at least seven people.
The same storm system killed at least 14 others in Missouri and one person in Georgia.
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.
BAGHDAD - The United States military has ordered a court-martial for a Canadian civilian contractor charged with aggravated assault while working as an army translator in Iraq.
It's the first such military prosecution since the Vietnam War.
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.
MADISON, Wis. - A medical helicopter has crashed in Wisconsin, killing three people on board.
The dead include a doctor, a nurse and the pilot.
ISTANBUL, Turkey - Emine Yaman lies in bed, her legs rigid, her feet prone to sores and swelling. Paralyzed by a bullet her husband fired into her chest, she is the face of domestic violence in a country still struggling to discard long-held cultural practices that denigrate women.
She wears diapers and reaches for a knotted sheet hanging from an overhead bar to shift her upper body. The weak bones in her 40-year-old hips, knees and left arm have broken since the shooting in 1999. Infections induce fevers and she takes antibiotics. A municipal doctor sometimes visits her bare apartment beside a highway in Turkey's biggest city.
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.
