■ India
Flooding maroons 1 million
At least 1 million people were marooned yesterday by flooding in the eastern state of West Bengal after five days of torrential rains left 14 dead, officials said. Relief workers were using boats to ferry supplies of puffed rice and molasses to hundreds of villages cut off by the floods. At least two rivers in southern Sunderbans region had breached their banks, flooding 60 villages, officials said, and large areas of the paddy-growing state were submerged by muddy flood waters. They said more than a dozen people had been killed by collapsed walls in houses and electrocution. Weather officials said the rains had been triggered by a low-pressure system over the Bay of Bengal.
■ Nepal
News banned on FM radio
Nepal on Sunday banned all FM radio stations operating from Kathmandu from airing news-oriented programs and backed the order with the threat of punishment. Information and Communications Ministry spokesman Ratna Raj Pandey and the ministry's acting secretary Suresh Man Shrestha issued the directive to more than a dozen representatives of FM stations. The move enforced an ordinance King Gyanendra issued on Oct. 9 that also imposed strict controls over media ownership and publications and outlined fines for defamation and limits to imports of foreign publications.
■ Japan
S Korean minister to visit
South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon will visit Japan next week, Japan's Foreign Ministry announced yesterday, amid rising tensions between the two countries following the Japanese prime minister's visit to a Tokyo war shrine. Ban, who had announced just last week that he probably would delay his trip, will visit Japan on Oct. 27-29 and meet with Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura and other officials, a ministry announcement said. Trouble flared between Japan and South Korea last week when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited Yasukuni Shrine, which critics -- including South Korea -- consider a glorification of Japan's wartime past.
■ China
Officials warn of AIDS threat
China, once accused of being slow to acknowledge the threat of AIDS, could have as many as 10 million HIV carriers in five years if no effective preventive measures are taken, state media said yesterday, echoing a grim UN warning. China says it has 840,000 HIV-AIDS cases among its 1.3 billion population, but experts say at least 1 million poor farmers were infected in botched blood-selling schemes in Henan Province alone.
■ Thailand
Thousands check for flu
Thailand has assigned 900,000 volunteers to perform house-to-house checks for signs of the deadly avian influenza virus, Health Minister Suchai Charoenratanakul said yesterday. The initiative, to be coordinated by more than 9,700 local health offices, comes as Thailand tries to combat bird flu following the country's 13th death from the virus. The volunteer program, also involves bringing possibly infected subjects to nearby hospitals. Some 957 hospitals across the country have been ordered to ask possibly infected patients whether they lived in affected areas or had any contact with sick or dead chickens before they fell ill, Suchai said in a statement.
■ Argentina
Voters back president, wife
President Nestor Kirchner strengthened his support in Congress during legislative elections on Sunday, while his wife scored a resounding victory in an important Senate race. Cristina Kirchner defeated her opponent by some 25 points, exit polls showed, helping to expand the left-of-center president's political base in Buenos Aires. Many candidates backed by Kirchner were also headed for wins. The result was a victory for the president, who had described the balloting as a plebiscite on his rule.
■ United States
Local folks bemused by Brit
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw joined US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for a weekend tour of her home state to promote the Anglo-American alliance, but Alabamans struggled to name him. "You're the English guy," Joyce Delahoussaye said as she shook hands with the foreign minister. "I've seen you on TV and they said you were from England." "He's Mr. England," she said, introducing Straw to her son, Randy, as the two diplomats met displaced victims of Hurricane Katrina in Pelham. At a ceremony to unveil statues in Birmingham, speakers variously called the visitor Mr. Shaw and Mr. Snow. They also mangled his title, appointing him secretary of state to the Commonwealth of the United Kingdom.
■ United States
Miers so far lacks votes
Harriet Miers, nominated by President George W. Bush to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court, currently lacks the votes for her confirmation by the Senate, despite an intense White House campaign to sell her candidacy. "I think, if you were to hold the vote today, she would not get a majority, either in the Judiciary Committee or on the floor," Democratic Senator Charles Schumer said on Sunday. "I think you have concern on these three areas -- qualification, independence, judicial philosophy -- by people of both parties and all political stripes," Schumer said.
■ United States
Adopted kids kept in cages
An insurance agent said he warned child welfare officials last year that he saw cage-like beds in the home of 11 adopted special-needs children more than a year before authorities intervened. County Prosecutor Russ Leffler confirmed that authorities had been alerted, but didn't know why child welfare officials didn't intervene until last month. The children, ages 1 to 14, suffer from ailments such as autism, fetal alcohol syndrome, HIV and eating disorders. They were taken from Michael and Sharen Gravelle's home and placed in foster homes while authorities investigate why the couple put some of the children in homemade wooden cages to sleep and occasionally as punishment. No charges have been filed, and the couple denies harming the children.
■ United Kingdom
Teen killed near riot scene
A teenager was shot dead in the central England city of Birmingham close to the scene of weekend rioting, but it was unclear whether the killing was related to the disturbances. The 18-year old youth suffered fatal gunshot wounds shortly after midnight, about a mile from where the worst of the weekend violence occurred. Two men have been arrested. The violence broke out after a public meeting to address community concerns over an alleged sex attack on a teenage girl. Up to 50 youths rampaged through the area and several men were stabbed, one 23-year-old fatally.
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