World News
May 11, 2008YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's monumental task of feeding and sheltering 1.5 million cyclone survivors suffered yet another blow Sunday when a boat laden with relief supplies - one of the first international shipments - sank on its way to the disaster zone.
Meanwhile, as the official death toll jumped to more than 28,000, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband warned that "malign neglect" by the country's military rulers was creating a "humanitarian catastrophe of genuinely epic proportions."
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.
As the bloated bodies rise and fall with the current on the Pyapon River, women scrub clothes along the river bank, villagers bathe to cool themselves and a lone child sits on a dock staring aimlessly into the water.
But with little aid getting through to desperate cyclone survivors, the dead have largely been forgotten - left to decay where the brackish waters carried them or waiting to be pulled out to sea by the rising tides.
PICHER, Okla. - Crews and search dogs hunted Sunday for survivors or bodies in piles of debris after tornadoes and storms rumbled across the region a day earlier and killed at least 21 people in three states.
Six people died in Picher, once a bustling mining center of 20,000 that dwindled to about 800 people as families fled lead pollution there, and officials held out hope that they wouldn't find any more bodies.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - U-N and Haitian authorities say an overloaded ferry has sunk off the Caribbean country's southern coast, killing at least 11 people.
A U-N peacekeeping mission official says most of the 100 people aboard the crowded ferry were able to swim to safety.
WASHINGTON - Families claiming that a mercury-based preservative in vaccines triggers autism will challenge mainstream medicine Monday as they take their case to a federal court.
They seek vindication and financial redress from a government fund that helps people injured by shots.
EASLEY, S.C. - Pickens County's chief prosecutor says he made a deal with Canadian authorities not to seek the death penalty so he could get a suspect returned to the state to stand trial on a murder charge.
Bob Ariail said there was no reasonable alternative to agreeing to drop the death penalty from consideration in the case against Roger Eugene Shephard.
BEIRUT - Lebanon hung between fears of all-out civil war and hopes of political compromise Sunday even as government supporters and opponents battled with rockets and machine-guns in the mountains overlooking the capital.
Clashes shifted to outside Beirut over the weekend and fighting on Sunday saw the collapse of pro-government forces in the Aley region near the capital, a stronghold of anti-Syrian Druse leader Walid Jumblatt.
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.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. - Raechelle Romero was always running from something, starting at 15: from tough relationships with her dad and stepmother, foster homes, abusive boyfriends.
Eventually, the troubled teenager ended up on the streets, working as a prostitute. A fight over a bag of cocaine got her sent to prison for attempted murder in 1996. At just 22, she was forced to give up her two-year-old son to the one person she could count on - her mother.
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.
WACO, Texas - President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush didn't share their daughter's wedding with the world on Saturday.
But Bush eagerly shared their joy on Sunday over the marriage of daughter Jenna to Henry Hager, telling reporters he and his wife feel "mighty blessed."
HARARE, Zimbabwe - The presidential run-off election pitting President Robert Mugabe against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai will not take place in the next few weeks as required by law, the head of the electoral commission said in an interview published Sunday.
Tsvangirai announced on the weekend that he would participate in a run-off against Mugabe - but insisted the vote be held, as the law requires, within 21 days of the May 2 announcement of results from the first vote.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - It isn't visible from the road for obvious reasons.
The field is set back behind a tree line at least half a kilometre from a busy highway that connects Kandahar city with an even wider swath of parched farmland in the Panjwaii and Zhari districts to the west.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Canadian military engineers have taken the first step in plans to rebuild dilapidated apartments that serve as barracks for Afghan National Army soldiers and their families in the Kandahar area.
On Sunday, the engineers inspected the barracks, mostly bombed out shells of 1960s-style apartments originally built by American involved in airport construction.
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.
