To celebrate July Fourth, Americans shoot off fireworks — a colorful reminder of the struggle for independence.
LEBANON
The U.N.'s lead food aid agency said yesterday it has raised the money to cover an emergency funding shortfall due to soaring world food and fuel prices, thanks in large part to a last-minute $500 million donation from Saudi Arabia.
NAYPYITAW, Burma (AP) — Burma's ruling junta said yesterday it will let foreign aid workers and commercial ships help survivors in the cyclone-ravaged Irrawaddy River Delta, but refused to relent on accepting aid from U.S., French and British military ships.
China warned today that the death toll from a massive earthquake two weeks ago could take a major leap and pass 80,000, suggesting the government may be giving up hope of finding more survivors. 9:12 p.m. Video: Displaced pandas get new home
While the situation in Burma has gone from bad to worse to unspeakable in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, a soulless regime prepares, incredibly, to hustle starving voters to the polls this weekend for a sham constitutional plebiscite to solidify its rule. Burmese Gen. Than Shwe agreed Wednesday to allow some foreign aid workers to enter the country, but little has changed. This looks to be diplomatic maneuvering by a regime so preoccupied with self-preservation that it deprives its own people their right to the same if it means allowing much foreign influence.
BANGLADESH
KATMANDU, Nepal (Agence France-Presse) - Post-election violence briefly shut down Katmandu this week, and local reports said yesterday that Nepal's embattled king was preparing to leave his palace shortly.
NEW YORK — Sen. Barack Obama would talk directly with adversaries, without the fig leaf of multilateralism.
