News For Sunday Sep 7, 2008 News For Sunday Sep 7, 2008

World World

Ike's floods kill 58, add insult to Haiti's misery - Added 1 minute ago

Haitians took to their roofs to escape rising floodwaters for the second time in a week on Sunday as squalls from Hurricane Ike killed 58 people and collapsed a bridge that cut the last land route into the starving city...

US re-examines Afghan civilian deaths from attack - Added 31 minutes ago

The U.S. military said Sunday it has new evidence about civilian casualties from an American attack that Afghanistan says killed scores of women and children and it is sending a senior officer to the country to review...

Chavez opponents call state media coverage unfair - Added 1 hour ago

In speech after speech, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stares at the television camera and unleashes a hail of colorful insults against his opponents. "Oligarchs," "fascists," "mafia bosses" and "coup mongers" are...

Ike ebbs to Category 3 hurricane nearing Cuba - Added 2 hours ago

UTEP officials say Hall of Fame basketball coach Don Haskins has died. ...

Democrats retain veto power in Hong Kong election - Added 2 hours ago

Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp has won more than a third of seats in legislative elections, retaining its veto power over major legislation. Results announced Monday show the opposition has claimed at least 22 of 60...

A look at death toll from Atlantic storms - Added 3 hours ago

A look at deaths so far from the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season: Six of 10 named storms so far this Atlantic hurricane season have caused deaths, mostly due to floods and mudslides: _ Arthur: 5 in Belize; 2 in...

Venezuela, Russia may hold joint naval exercises - Added 4 hours ago

President Hugo Chavez said Sunday that Venezuelan and Russian ships could soon hold joint naval exercises in the Caribbean _ a move that would likely raise concerns in Washington. "Russia's naval fleet is welcome...

Egypt rock slide toll rises to 32 - Added 5 hours ago

Hopes diminished Sunday for finding survivors among hundreds of people believed trapped beneath massive boulders that destroyed an impoverished neighborhood on Cairo's outskirts, killing at least 32 people, including...

CERN fires up new atom smasher to near Big Bang - Added 7 hours ago

It has been called an Alice in Wonderland investigation into the makeup of the universe _ or dangerous tampering with nature that could spell doomsday. Whatever the case, the most powerful atom-smasher ever built comes...

Georgian president vows to reclaim 2 provinces - Added 7 hours ago

On the eve of a European Union shuttle mission to convince Russia to pull its troops back to prewar positions, Georgia's president vowed Sunday to regain control of two breakaway provinces with the help of "the rest of...

Canada's prime minister calls early election - Added 7 hours ago

Canada's prime minister on Sunday triggered an early election, dissolving Parliament in a bid to bolster his party's grip on power in a vote next month that will be the country's third national ballot in four years. ...

Iraqi parliament faces urgent national issues - Added 7 hours ago

Iraqi lawmakers end their summer break this week facing urgent tasks of approving a new election law and signing off on a still-unfinished security pact with the U.S. _ key steps in laying the foundation for a lasting...

Sarkozy: unlikely diplomat in Russia-Georgia fight - Added 8 hours ago

He's not known for his diplomatic graces, but blunt-talking French President Nicolas Sarkozy looks like Europe's best bet for making peace between Russia and Georgia. Paris, unlike Washington, can claim to be an...

Israel police: Indict Olmert on corruption charges - Added 8 hours ago

Israel's police recommended Sunday that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert should be indicted in a string of corruption cases, according to an official document. The police statement said they want to indict Olmert in affairs...

Vast model ship armada on display in Germany - Added 8 hours ago

For Peter Tamm, the passion that launched a thousand ships _ and Hamburg's newest museum along the port city's old docks _ began with a gift from his mother in 1934. "A 500-gross tonnage coaster from the North...

Health chiefs battle to bring back Iraqi doctors - Added 9 hours ago

A kidney specialist who fled Iraq's bombings, kidnappings and sectarian killings 20 months ago has reported back to work at his Baghdad hospital _ one of some 800 doctors who have returned over the summer. Doctors are...

China's new prosperity fuels fitness craze - Added 9 hours ago

Several days a week, Wu Ruiyao hits the gym, where she sweats on a treadmill, tones her abs in a group exercise or stretches under the guidance of a personal trainer. The 90-minute workout is routine to Wu, a...

50,000 villagers in flooded India refuse to leave - Added 9 hours ago

At least 50,000 people in India have refused to abandon their homes in flood-ravaged northern Indian despite pleas by authorities to evacuate, an official said Sunday. Newspaper advertisements also urged thousands of...

Pakistan suicide blast death toll reaches 35 - Added 11 hours ago

The death toll in a massive suicide blast in Pakistan's militant-plagued northwest reached 35, officials said Sunday, as the country prepared for Benazir Bhutto's widower to take over as president. The attack Saturday...

Israel's government puts off evacuation discussion - Added 12 hours ago

Israel's government on Sunday postponed discussion of landmark legislation that would pay Jewish settlers to leave their homes in the West Bank, but said it would take up the matter next week. At the opening of the...

Police: Bombs explode at Afghan police HQ, 6 dead - Added 12 hours ago

Two suicide attackers detonated bombs inside the police headquarters in Afghanistan's second-largest city Sunday, killing six policemen, officials said. The bombers attacked Gen. Abdul Raziq, a border police commander,...

India jubilant over nuclear trade waiver - Added 13 hours ago

India's government and business groups were jubilant Sunday over a hard-won endorsement from nations that supply nuclear material and technology, a decision that paves the way for a landmark civil nuclear energy accord...

Unknown powder sent to US diplomats in Pakistan - Added 13 hours ago

Two American diplomatic outposts in Pakistan received envelopes containing an unknown white powder last week, sparking a security scare, a U.S. Embassy spokesman said Sunday. Tests are being conducted on the substance,...

Cheney holds talks in Italy on Georgia crisis - Added 15 hours ago

Vice President Dick Cheney renewed his call for cooperation between Europe and Washington over the Georgia crisis, Italy's foreign minister said Sunday. Franco Frattini said that during talks he and Cheney expressed...

Landslides leave 27 dead or missing in Philippines - Added 16 hours ago

Two landslides triggered by heavy rains buried more than 20 houses in a remote gold-mining village in the southern Philippines, leaving at least 11 people dead and 16 others missing, officials said Sunday. Small stone...

Sri Lankan air force attacks rebel camps - Added 16 hours ago

Sri Lanka's air force launched attacks on two Tamil separatist camps in the embattled north Sunday, and infantry clashes elsewhere in the region killed eight rebels and three soldiers, the military said. Helicopter...

Early results in Angola give ruling party lead - Added 16 hours ago

Angolan election officials say early parliamentary results give the ruling party a big lead over a former rebel group. The officials said late Saturday that more than 2 million votes had been counted. They did not say...

Haitians flee Gonaives before Ike reaches island - Added 17 hours ago

Hundreds of people fled this waterlogged city Saturday for higher ground as powerful Hurricane Ike threatened to unleash heavy rain and compound a disaster caused by a previous storm. At the local jail, emaciated...

Rebels: Government assault in Darfur thwarted - Added 17 hours ago

A Darfur rebel group says it has successfully repelled a government assault in North Darfur, but the Sudanese government denies it carried out any operations in the area. The Sudan Liberation Movement says in a...

Myanmar says no sign of Suu Kyi hunger strike - Added 18 hours ago

A Myanmar junta official said Sunday there is "no indication" that detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is on a hunger strike but implied the government has not sent anyone to make sure. The 63-year-old Suu Kyi...

Thai leader dismisses talk of military coup - Added 18 hours ago

Thailand's embattled prime minister denied a rift with the army Sunday and dismissed the possibility of a coup when he travels to the U.N. General Assembly in New York later this month. Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej...

Flood in China coal mine traps 23 people - Added 20 hours ago

Twenty-three people were trapped in a flooded coal mine in central China, authorities said Sunday. The flood swamped the mine in Yuzhou city of Henan province early Sunday morning, trapping 23 people, the State...

Bhutto widower elected Pakistani president - Added 21 hours ago

Benazir Bhutto's widower swept Pakistan's presidential election on Saturday, offering hope for stability to a nuclear-armed country feeling intense U.S. pressure to crack down on Islamic militants. In a grim reminder...

Hurricane Ike near Turks and Caicos; Cuba braces - Added 22 hours ago

The National Hurricane Center in Miami says the large eye of an "extremely dangerous" Hurricane Ike is lurking "near or over" the Turks and Caicos islands as a fierce Category 4 storm. The center said at 11 p.m. EDT...

Cuba declines US disaster assessment after Gustav - Added 1 day ago

Cuba politely declined a U.S. offer to send a disaster assessment team to the island after Hurricane Gustav, saying Saturday it would rather Washington suspend restrictions on travel and the sale of food and other...

US military deaths in Afghanistan region at 513 - Added 1 day ago

As of Saturday, Sept. 6, 2008, at least 513 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense...

US military deaths in Iraq war at 4,155 - Added 1 day ago

As of Saturday, Sept. 6, 2008, at least 4,155 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military civilians...

Protests greet Turkish president in Armenia - Added 1 day ago

Thousands of Armenians lined the streets of the capital Saturday to protest the first-ever visit by a Turkish leader and to demand that Turkey acknowledge the World War I massacres of Armenian civilians as genocide. ...

Honduras issues 1,051-year sentence in massacre - Added 1 day ago

A Honduran court has sentenced a former prison official to 1,051 years in jail for the deaths of 69 people in a 2003 prison massacre. The three-judge panel announced its largely symbolic verdict against prison official...

Swazis hold 40th birthday of king, independence - Added 1 day ago

The Swazi king, bare-chested and wearing a traditional leopard skin loin cloth, celebrated his 40th birthday and his nation's 40th independence day in lavish style Saturday _ hosting an extravaganza that contrasted...

45-nation group OKs landmark US-India nuke deal - Added 1 day ago

The U.S. gained key international backing Saturday for a bitterly contested plan to sell peaceful nuclear technology to India _ a South Asia powerhouse that has tested atomic weapons but has refused to sign global...

Challenges that Pakistan's new president will face - Added 1 day ago

The following are some of the major challenges facing Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of slain ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was elected Pakistan's president by lawmakers Saturday. MILITANTS The government must...

Suicide bomber kills 6 at outdoor market in Iraq - Added 1 day ago

A suicide car bomber blasted an outdoor market Saturday in a northern Iraqi city, killing six people and wounding 54, police and hospital authorities said. The attack in the mainly Turkomen city of Tal Afar took place...

Blast, clashes in northwest Pakistan kills 54 - Added 1 day ago

A pickup truck packed with explosives blew up a police security checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan Saturday, killing at least 30 people and injuring dozens more, the day after a foiled militant kidnap attempt led to...

In Israel, era of mass immigration ends - Added 1 day ago

Melissa Schwab is no Zionist zealot. She's not an Orthodox Jew seeking to be nearer to God. She didn't flee anti-Semitism. So why move nearly 9,000 miles from her home in Hawaii and settle in life-on-the-edge Israel?...

Catholics assert themselves in Hanoi land dispute - Added 1 day ago

!!-- pobj:HAN103-0904081858 -->At a vacant lot in downtown Hanoi, Catholics have gathered to worship the Virgin Mary _ and pressure the communist authorities. For the second time this year, the city's Catholics have...

Price increases push US soy beyond reach of poor - Added 1 day ago

With the dollar a day he earns scrounging for scrap metal and paper, Jumadi can't buy his family beef or even chicken. But until now, the rail-thin scavenger could at least afford soy. His wife and two children snacked...

Mexico undergoes legal revolution - Added 1 day ago

Mexico is in the midst of a legal revolution, and Cristal Gonzalez is on the front lines. The U.S.-trained lawyer is one of a growing number of Mexican attorneys putting judges, lawyers, investigators and clerks...

Spanish minister backtracks on migrant visa plan - Added 1 day ago

Spain's labor minister has backtracked from a much criticized proposal to drastically slash the number of work visas available to migrant workers. Labor Minister Celestino Corbacho had said it did not make sense to...

Woman's body found in suitcase in Tokyo hotel - Added 1 day ago

The dead body of an unidentified woman was found curled up in a suitcase in a Tokyo hotel room, a day after the foul smell of her body prompted the evacuation of dozens of guests, police said Saturday. Police are...