Haiti

Flood toll passes 1,070

The death toll from floods in Haiti has risen to more than 1,070 and could reach 2,000, the government’s civil protection agency said Wednesday.

The vast majority of the dead, as well as some 1,250 people reported missing, are from Gonaives, Haiti’s third-largest city.

Workers with the international aid agency CARE were nearly mobbed Wednesday as they handed out loaves of bread, the first food in days for some in Gonaives. The crowd was brought under control by U.N. peacekeepers who fired into the air. No one was hurt.

Jerusalem

Female suicide bomber kills two at bus stop

A Palestinian teenager blew herself up at a busy Jerusalem bus station Wednesday, killing two Israeli policemen who stopped her for a security check and wounding 16 bystanders in an attack that evaded Israel’s clampdown on the West Bank for the Jewish holidays.

Hours later, an Israeli helicopter fired a missile in a Gaza refugee camp, wounding 12 people, Palestinians said.

Also Wednesday, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon dropped a plan to evacuate 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip simultaneously at the beginning of next year, reverting to an earlier formula — a staged pullout in the summer of 2005.

Sharon also hinted that Israel might one day assassinate Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, as it did with two leaders of the Islamic militant group Hamas responsible for scores of suicide bombings.

Afghanistan

U.S. soldier’s death is third this week

An attack on a patrol killed an American soldier, the third U.S. fatality this week in Afghanistan, the military said Wednesday, amid a flurry of attacks that wounded over a dozen Americans in the run-up to the Oct. 9 presidential election.

Meanwhile, a group of 11 prisoners, including a former Taliban commander, arrived home from the U.S. jail at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Another 10 detainees were transferred from Afghanistan to the U.S. naval base, the Pentagon said.

The soldier died in an attack on a security patrol on Monday in Khost province. The military had already announced the death of two U.S. troops Monday in another incident, an attack in neighboring Paktika province.

Mexico

Former pop star cleared of charges

Gloria Trevi, a former pop music superstar, has been cleared by a judge on charges of kidnapping, rape and corruption of minors after she spent nearly five years in prison.

A judge in the state of Chihuahua ruled Tuesday that there was insufficient evidence to support the charges against Trevi and she walked out of Chihuahua prison late in the day. She was met by cheering fans, and told a national television audience she was ready to resume her singing career.

Prosecutors had alleged that Trevi, 36, and her former boyfriend and manager, Sergio Andrade, sexually abused girls after kidnapping them into a traveling entourage.

Trevi and Andrade were arrested in Brazil in January 2000, after accusations surfaced about the cult-like captivity of young girls.

China

Summer flooding kills more than 1,000 people

Flooding in China during this summer’s rainy season killed 1,029 people, the government said Wednesday.

Heavy rains also destroyed tens of thousands of houses and caused $7.8 billion in damage during the three-month rainy season, which ended Sept. 15, according to the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

The toll was far below that of 1998, when 4,150 people were killed in flooding in heavily populated areas along the Yangtze River and in the northeast. Since then, China has invested heavily in dikes and flood-warning stations.