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As reports trickle in, China storm toll doubles

By TIMES WIRES
Published July 22, 2006

BEIJING - China's death toll from tropical storm Bilis more than doubled to 482 after a hard-hit inland province reported a sharp rise in fatalities, state media said Friday.

Authorities in Hunan province said 346 people died in floods triggered by the storm, while 89 others were missing, the Xinhua News Agency said. The province previously reported 92 deaths.

Bilis slammed into China's southeastern coast on July 14 and churned inland, triggering flooding and landslides. Nearly 3-million people were forced to flee their homes, the government said.

The higher death toll in Hunan included 197 victims in the village of Zixing, where a state television reporter found the local government had underreported the number of deaths, Xinhua said.

Luo Xiwu, a Communist Party official from Zixing, was quoted by Xinhua as saying the disaster caused a "breakdown of communication and traffic systems," which made it hard for authorities to collect information on deaths and damage.

Operation against Taliban likely to expand nationwide

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - NATO's top commander said Friday the alliance likely will expand its Afghan mission by year's end to include the entire country, including the lawless east.

The Dutch military said its commandos killed 18 militants in an operation to clear hills near a base for its forces deploying in the insurgency-wracked south, where NATO is preparing to take over the security command by the end of this month.

The State Department announced Friday that Afghanistan's major creditors have canceled $10.4-billion in debt, another major reduction in the country's debt to Germany, Russia and the United States.

Elsewhere ...

Arrests in India: Police in Bombay, India, announced Friday the arrests of three men they said were being questioned in connection with last week's serial bombings, but they offered no details about the nature of their involvement. They were the first arrests since the July 11 bombings on Bombay's commuter train line.

Russian released: A former Russian nuclear energy minister who is wanted in the United States on federal conspiracy and money laundering charges was released from prison on bail Friday by Russia's supreme court. Yevgeny O. Adamov has been the subject of a long legal tug-of-war between Russia and the United States, which accuses him of diverting about $9 million in U.S. aid for nuclear security to shell companies and personal accounts.

[Last modified July 22, 2006, 00:47:00]