BEIJING Workers struggled to repair a broken dyke in south China where persistent heavy rains and devastating floods have so far left at least 379 people dead, state media and government agencies said.Bulldozers dumped rocks and soil to repair a breach in the dykes hemming in the Fu River, in Jiangxi province, which forced over 100,000 people from their homes earlier this week.More water may be
TORONTO/MIAMI President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron were expected to discuss London-based BP Plc and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill on Saturday as stormy weather raised fears that clean-up operations could be disrupted.The oil spill, the worst in U.S history, is overshadowing the first meeting between Obama and Cameron since the prime minister took office last month, wh
ON BARATARIA BAY, La. While oil companies have spent billions of dollars to drill deeper and farther out to sea, relatively little money and research have gone into finding new, improved ways to respond to oil spills in deepsea conditions like those in the Gulf of Mexico.Experts say the massive Gulf spill has exposed a failure by the industry and the federal government to commit adequate resource
HONG KONG Democracy activists are not the only ones unhappy with a slow pace of electoral reform in Hong Kong.Environmentalists blame the city's political setup — which guarantees a strong voice for business — for stymieing efforts to clean up Hong Kong's increasingly dirty air. The city's dysfunctional political system is holding back environmental reform, said Joanne Ooi, head of
HONIARA, Solomon Islands A powerful earthquake struck underwater off the Solomon Islands, but there was no immediate word of damage and no tsunami alert was issued.Saturday's quake had a magnitude of 6.9, the U.S Geological Survey said.It was centered 35 miles (55 kilometers) west-southwest of San Christobal in the Solomon Islands at a depth of 22 miles (35 kilometers) under the ocean's floor.T
HUNTSVILLE, Canada British Prime Minister David Cameron warned against the destruction of BP as its shares plummeted close to a 14-year low amid the battle against the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.The new British leader, who will hold his first bilateral talks Saturday with US President Barack Obama, said it was important for transparency over the British company's liability in the catastrophe. I
LOS ANGELES Attention skygazers: A portion of the moon will cross into the Earth's shadow Saturday during a partial lunar eclipse visible in the western United States and Canada, the Pacific and eastern Asia.For West Coast viewers, the eclipse will occur in the pre-dawn hours.It will begin at 3:17 a.m.PDT and end about three hours later.During a lunar eclipse, the Earth blocks out some of the su
MIAMI The first tropical depression of the Atlantic hurricane season has formed in the Western Caribbean and is headed west, but forecasters can't yet say if it will pass over the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami said early Saturday that the storm has winds of about 35 mph (55 kph) and was expected to resume a west-northwestward motion