world

Aftershocks hit Pakistan as aid arrives

By Alyson Brodsy and Sadaqat Jan · Wednesday, Oct. 12,2005 11:25 p.m.

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan -- Rescue efforts gave way to aid relief, as hopes faded Wednesday of finding more survivors in Pakistan's devastated quake zone. Still, miracles emerged amid the misery: A Russian team rescued a 5-year-old girl trapped for nearly 100 hours under the rubble of her family home. Trucks and helicopters with aid from dozens of countries choked up roads to the crumbling towns of the Himalayan region of Kashmir, but the hungry and homeless in hard-hit areas remained isolated four days after the temblor.

Bush, first lady defend Miers' nomination

By Alyson Brodsy and Deb Riechmann · Wednesday, Oct. 12,2005 1:06 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush and his wife, Laura, offered a double-barreled defense of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers on Tuesday while the White House worked to dampen opposition from the right and win confirmation for the president's pick.

Liberia votes for 1st post-war leader

By Alyson Brodsy · Wednesday, Oct. 12,2005 1:05 a.m.

MONROVIA, Liberia -- With U.N. tanks and troops standing guard, Liberians waited in long lines Tuesday to vote for the country's first postwar president, who many hope will bring stability to one of Africa's most turbulent countries. Turnout appeared to be strong, with some voters lining up hours before the polls opened in churches, schools and long-shuttered banks. Many sat on benches or huddled under umbrellas to shelter them from the broiling tropical sun.

Iraqis reach possible unity on constitution

By Lee Keath · Wednesday, Oct. 12,2005 1:04 a.m.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqi negotiators reached a breakthrough deal on the constitution Tuesday, and at least one Sunni Arab party said it would now urge its followers to approve the charter in this weekend's referendum. Suicide bombings and other attacks killed more than 50 people in the insurgent campaign aimed at intimidating voters.

DeLay attorneys subpoena Earle

By Alyson Brodsy · Wednesday, Oct. 12,2005 1:02 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Lawyers for indicted Rep. Tom DeLay on Tuesday subpoenaed the prosecuting Texas district attorney in an effort to show he acted improperly with grand jurors. The subpoena for Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, filed in Austin, asked that the prosecutor and two of his assistants appear in court to explain their conduct.

Rain halts some aid flights to quake victims

By Alyson Brodsy and Sadaqat Jan · Wednesday, Oct. 12,2005 12:59 a.m.

MUZAFFARAB, Pakistan -- Heavy rain and hail forced the cancellation of some relief flights to earthquake-stricken regions Tuesday and survivors scuffled over the badly needed food. Officials estimated that the death toll would surpass 35,000. Emergency workers in the northern town of Balakot pulled a teenage boy from the rubble, 78 hours after Saturday's quake.

Earthquake death toll up to 30,000

By Joanna Borns · Tuesday, Oct. 11,2005 1:21 a.m.

When senior Rakshay Dhariwal first heard an earthquake hit Saturday in South Asia, he didn't know if his family in New Delhi was safe. "I was very afraid," Dhariwal said. "I ran and checked the Internet." Once he saw New Delhi was not hard-hit by the quake, he stopped worrying and his family called to let him know they were safe. Dhariwal's family owns a plantation in northern India that was affected by the tremors. Some of the plantation workers were hospitalized and houses were damaged.

Death toll rises in Iraq

By Alyson Brodsy and Robert Burns · Tuesday, Oct. 11,2005 12:08 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The National Guard and Reserves are suffering a strikingly higher share of U.S. casualties in Iraq, their portion of total American military deaths nearly doubling since last year.

Guatemala landslides bury, kill hundreds

By Alyson Brodsy · Tuesday, Oct. 11,2005 12:07 a.m.

GUATEMALA CITY -- Guatemalan officials said they would abandon communities buried by landslides and declare them mass graveyards as reports of devastation trickled in from some of the more than 100 communities cut off from the outside world after killer mudslides.

Pakistan still waits for relief

By Alyson Brodsy and Sadaqat Jan · Tuesday, Oct. 11,2005 12:06 a.m.

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan -- For two days, the young tailor lay trapped under concrete slabs and wood beams, dead bodies flanking him, in what used to be a two-story building. On Monday, British rescuers pulled the dusty, wide-eyed man into the sunlight.

New Orleans officers charged in beating

By Alyson Brodsy and Mary Foster · Tuesday, Oct. 11,2005 12:04 a.m.

NEW ORLEANS -- Three New Orleans police officers are facing battery charges after investigators reviewed a videotape showing two patrolmen repeatedly punching a 64-year--old man accused of public intoxication and a third officer grabbing and shoving an Associated Press Television News producer who helped capture the confrontation on tape.

Guatemala declares landslide areas cemeteries for hundreds feared dead, missing

By Alyson Brodsy · Monday, Oct. 10,2005 12:27 a.m.

GUATEMALA CITY -- Dozens of foreign tourists fled devastated lakeside Mayan towns on foot and by helicopter Sunday as Guatemalan officials said they would abandon communities buried by landslides and declare them mass graveyards.

Officials: NYC terror plot uncorroborated

By Alyson Brodsy and Michael Weissenstein · Monday, Oct. 10,2005 12:26 a.m.

NEW YORK -- A reported plot to bomb city subways with remote-controlled explosives has not been corroborated after days of investigation, law enforcement officials said Sunday amid an easing sense of concern. Interrogations of suspects captured in Iraq last week after an informant's tip about bomb-laden suitcases and baby carriages have yet to yield evidence that the plot was real, officials said.

Rescuers search rubble for survivors

By Alyson Brodsy and Sadaqat Jan · Monday, Oct. 10,2005 12:25 a.m.

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan -- Rescuers struggled to reach remote, mountainous areas Sunday after Pakistan's worst-ever earthquake wiped out entire villages, buried roads in rubble and knocked out electricity and water supplies. The death toll stood at 20,000 and was expected to rise. In this devastated Himalayan city, wounded covered by shawls lay in the street, and villagers used sledgehammers to break through the rubble of flattened schools and homes seeking survivors.

Death toll rises after landslide

By Alyson Brodsy · Friday, Oct. 7,2005 2:15 a.m.

GUATEMALA CITY -- Rescue workers in Guatemala pulled dozens of bodies from a massive mudslide and from a swollen river Thursday, raising to at least 236 the number of people killed from five days of pounding rains in Central America and Mexico.

New York increases subway security threat

By Alyson Brodsy · Friday, Oct. 7,2005 1:13 a.m.

NEW YORK -- Authorities stepped up mass transit security Thursday after receiving a credible threat that the city's subway system could be the target of a terrorist attack in coming days.

Rove to testify in leak case

By Alyson Brodsy and John Solomon · Friday, Oct. 7,2005 1:12 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Federal prosecutors have accepted an offer from presidential adviser Karl Rove to give 11th hour testimony in the case of a CIA officer's leaked identity and have warned they cannot guarantee he won't be indicted, according to sources directly familiar with the investigation.

Iraqi constitution draft to be voted on next week

By Alyson Brodsy and Thomas Wagner · Friday, Oct. 7,2005 1:11 a.m.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- On Thursday, Iraqis began picking up copies of the draft constitution they will vote on next week, after the country's Shiite-led parliament ended a bitter dispute with Sunni legislators about how the referendum will be conducted.

Bush lashes out at Islamic radicals

By Alyson Brodsy and Tom Raum · Friday, Oct. 7,2005 1:10 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush, trying to reverse a slide in public support for the war in Iraq, said Thursday that Islamic radicals are seeking to "enslave whole nations and intimidate the world," calling that a prime reason not to cut and run in Iraq. "There's always a temptation in the middle of a long struggle to seek the quiet life, to escape the duties and problems of the world and to hope the enemy grows weary of fanaticism and tired of murder," he said, seeking to address calls from anti-war activists for a U.S. troop withdrawal.

DeLay, successor swapped donations

By Alyson Brodsy · Wednesday, Oct. 5,2005 10 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- Tom DeLay deliberately raised more money than he needed to throw parties at the 2000 presidential convention, then diverted some of the excess to longtime ally Roy Blunt through a series of donations that benefited both men's causes, according to campaign documents reviewed by The Associated Press.