World News
May 15, 2008BEIJING - China warned Thursday that the death toll from this week's earthquake could soar to 50,000 as the government issued a rare public appeal for rescue equipment as it struggled to cope with the disaster. Rescue workers broke through key roads to the epicentre in the race to find survivors.
More than 72 hours after the quake rattled central China, rescuers appeared to shift from going through downed buildings for survivors to the grim duty of searching for bodies in Monday's tremor.
YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar state television says the official cyclone death toll to has climbed to more than 43,000.
The figure, broadcast Thursday night, was almost 5,000 more than that released Wednesday by the military government. The number of missing has remained at nearly 28,000 for at least two days.
JERUSALEM - President George W. Bush denounced anti-Semitism today in a speech to the Israeli parliament, taking issue especially with those who want to wipe the Jewish state off the map.
Bush told the Knesset that religious liberty is fundamental to civilized society.
JAIPUR, India - A previously unknown Islamic militant group claimed Thursday to have carried out deadly bombings in the historic Indian city of Jaipur by planting bicycles packed with explosives on the city's crowded streets, police said.
The claim of responsibility for Tuesday's attacks, which killed 61 people, was reportedly made in videos and an e-mail sent to Indian television stations and a Hindu nationalist political party, said Pankaj Singh, the city's inspector-general of police.
WASHINGTON - Newly released disclosure forms show the value of assets held by President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, were around $7 million last year, little changed from 2006.
Documents covering the assets held by Vice-President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynn, were also largely unchanged, though almost triple those held by the president and his wife.
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Hezbollah's deputy leader Sheik Naim Kassem says the group will "return things" to normal after the government reversed key decisions that had triggered days of conflict.
Kassem's comments today came after a meeting with an Arab delegation that is trying to find a solution to Lebanon's worst crisis since the end of the 1975-90 civil war.
YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar has announced that a military-backed constitution was overwhelmingly approved by voters in last week's referendum.
State radio says that the draft constitution, which critics say is designed to solidify the military's rule, was approved by over 92 per cent of the 22 million eligible voters. It put turnout at more than 99 per cent. Voting has been postponed in two regions battered by a deadly cyclone but the results of the late balloting cannot mathematically affect the outcome.
MADRID, Spain - The sister of Spain's Crown Princess Letizia is a celebrity whether she likes it or not.
So says a Spanish judge who turned down a request from 35-year-old Telmar Ortiz for a restraining order against some 50 media outlets. Ortiz argued that news organizations have been harassing her and her companion, Enrique Martin Llop, despite the fact that she is not a celebrity in her own right.
ATHENS - Major Greek unions are again on strike to protest government privatization plans and changes to the country's pension system.
The strikes Thursday disrupted transportation, banking services and the country's main telecom company. Police clashed briefly with strikers in Athens, firing tear gas to prevent bank employees from entering the headquarters of the National Bank of Greece.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Democrat John Edwards endorsed former rival Barack Obama on Wednesday, in a move designed to help solidify support for the party's likely presidential nominee even as Hillary Rodham Clinton refuses to give up her long-shot candidacy.
Edwards made a surprise appearance with Obama in Grand Rapids, Mich., as the Illinois senator campaigns in a critical general election battleground state.
HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe's state media says the country's presidential run-off election between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai will be held by July 31.
The date isn't sitting well with the opposition. A July 31 vote would mean a run-off almost three months after official results of the March 29 election were announced after an already long delay on May 2.
WASHINGTON - There's no question Barack Obama has been having trouble with a wide swath of voters lately - especially blue-collar workers.
Analysts say it's debatable whether the same struggle in the Democratic nomination fight against Hillary Clinton would plague him in the presidential race this fall.
KABUL - At least 12 people have been killed and 27 wounded in a suicide bomb attack in western Afghanistan.
Officials say a suicide bomber wearing a burka attacked a police patrol at a crowded market in the Dilaram district of Farah province.
TAIPEI, Taiwan - Taiwan's new leader says unification with China is unlikely to happen "in our lifetimes."
Ma Ying-jeou says in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press that Beijing's Communist system is the main stumbling block.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A Nashville 911 operator has been fired after he was recorded saying that he didn't "give a s-" about what happened to a woman who had just called to report her ex-boyfriend was threatening her.
Emergency Communications Center spokeswoman Amanda Sluss said Wednesday that Frank Roth was in training during the February incident and was fired a month later.
BHUBANESHWAR, India - Police say a poor Indian worker and his four-year-old daughter were crushed to death by a bus after the conductor pushed them off for not having the fare for the journey.
Police officer Suresh Mishra says the bus conductor, who collects the fares, was arrested and charged with unintentional murder.
DALLAS - An HIV-positive man convicted of spitting into the eye and mouth of a Dallas police officer has been sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Because a jury found that Willie Campbell used his saliva as a deadly weapon, the 42-year-old will have to serve half his sentence before becoming eligible for parole.
DUJIANGYAN, China - Modern apartment buildings and schools crumbled, smoothly paved highways buckled and bridges collapsed - their flimsy construction no match for the awesome forces of nature.
As the death toll soars from the powerful earthquake that ravaged China's Sichuan province, the scale of the devastation is raising questions about the quality of China's recent construction boom.
