Iran

Death toll in quake rises to at least 500

Rescue teams using dogs and heavy machinery pulled more bodies from the ruins of flattened villages in central Iran on Wednesday, and officials raised the death toll from a powerful earthquake to at least 500. The count was expected to rise even higher.

Teams were hampered by bad weather and the mountainous terrain, working in a cold, heavy rain after a night during which temperatures dropped below freezing.

Many survivors huddled in tents, trying to escape the chill, after the magnitude 6.4 struck early Tuesday, damaging some 40 villages with a combined population of 30,000 people and leaving many homeless. Rescue workers were still digging out survivors and bodies in the three most isolated villages.

China

Clinton signs agreement on pediatric AIDS drugs

Former President Clinton signed an agreement with China on Wednesday to provide a year’s supply of AIDS drugs to 200 children to help Beijing battle the disease.

The program is part of a three-year, $10 million deal reached last year between the Clinton Foundation and China’s Health Ministry.

The Chinese government says an estimated 840,000 people nationwide have been infected with the AIDS virus. The U.N. AIDS agency says the number of infections could increase to 10 million within five years if urgent action is not taken.

No details were released about the pediatric drug program, including which children will be selected for treatment or where they live.

Germany

British soldiers guilty of abusing Iraqis

A military jury convicted two British servicemen Wednesday on charges of involvement in abusing Iraqi civilians in 2003.

The panel of seven senior officers found Lance Cpl. Mark Cooley, 25, and Cpl. Daniel Kenyon, 33, guilty after a monthlong trial at a British base in Osnabrueck.

A third defendant, Lance Cpl. Darren Larkin, 30, had already pleaded guilty but awaits sentencing with Kenyon and Cooley.

The charges relate to the abuse of Iraqi civilians suspected of looting a humanitarian aid warehouse outside Basra in May 2003. Photos of the incidents, which included tying up a detainee and hoisting him on a fork lift, provoked dismay in Britain after being published in newspapers, leading to comparisons with the scandal over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison.

Paris

Michelin’s guide to rate New York restaurants

When the Michelin guide comes out in France, chefs rise or fall like so many souffles. Now it is venturing across the Atlantic to rate the eateries of New York City.

The Big Apple is the first stop for Michelin’s anonymous snoopers, who then plan to sniff and sample their way through restaurants across the country for an American collection.

The new guide, due out in November, will rate some 500 restaurants in all five boroughs of New York City and about 50 hotels in Manhattan, Michelin announced Wednesday.

If the New York guide is well-accepted, San Francisco is next on the list, Michelin said, with tentative plans for a guide there in November 2006. Other cities would follow in the next five years.

Lebanon

Government signals willingness to resign

Lebanon’s pro-Syrian prime minister said Wednesday he was willing to resign in an effort to contain growing anger at his government and Damascus over the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Prime Minister Omar Karami made the offer to step down in a newspaper interview. “I am ready to resign on condition that we agree on a new government in order to avoid falling into a constitutional vacuum,” he told the daily An-Nahar.

Karami said he would seek a vote of confidence in Parliament on Monday, when lawmakers meet to discuss Hariri’s assassination in a Feb. 14 bombing in Beirut that also killed 16 others. The debate was requested by opposition legislators.

The government holds a majority in parliament but might lose it amid the unprecedented hostility toward Syria and its Lebanese allies over Hariri’s death.

Vatican City

Pope makes half-hour public appearance

Pope John Paul II made his longest public appearance Wednesday since his hospitalization, but it was broadcast by video hookup after the Vatican canceled his planned appearance at his apartment window after rain and winds lashed Rome.

The change was in line with the caution the Vatican has been showing since the 84-year-old pontiff was rushed to the hospital Feb. 1 with breathing difficulties following a bout with the flu.

Flanked by two aides as he sat in his studio, he read a statement in six languages. The audience lasted 30 minutes — the longest time the pope has appeared in public since returning to the Vatican on Feb. 10. Fully alert, he waved and gave his blessing at the end.