Workers in Philippines recover 4 more bodies

Workers in Philippinesrecover 4 more bodies
GUINSAUGON, Philippines -- Catholic faithful, above, carry a statue of Jesus through the streets near this devastated village on southern Leyte island. It was another day of frustration Wednesday with no sign of survivors as rescue workers tried to find an elementary school buried by a landslide under 100 feet of mud. Heavy rain forced troops to call off work, and a 2-ton drill brought in by U.S. Marines sat idle with its braces missing. Up to 300 children and teachers were thought to have been trapped in the school when a mountainside collapsed Friday after two weeks of heavy rain, burying the farming village of Guinsaugon in a 100-acre blanket of mud. No one has been found alive since just hours after the disaster. The official death toll has reached 107, based on the number of bodies recovered, but officials fear it could surpass 1,000. Four more bodies were pulled out Wednesday, but none near the school site.
Saudi Arabia rejectsU.S. approach to Hamas
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi Arabia became on Wednesday the second Arab ally in two days to reject the U.S. strategy of financially isolating Hamas if the militant group does not moderate its policies as leader of the Palestinians. As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sat nearby, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said through a translator, "We wish not to link financial assistance to the Palestinian people to issues other than their dire humanitarian needs." A day earlier, Rice had stood by as Saud's Egyptian counterpart said it was premature to cut off aid to a Hamas-led government. Saud and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said the world should not "prejudge" Hamas, whose sweep in Palestinian elections last month stunned Washington and threw the Israeli-Palestinian peace process into new turmoil.
British bank robbery netsequivalent of $43.5M
LONDON -- A gang of armed robbers impersonating police officers tied up employees at a southern England security company and stole the equivalent of $43.5 million, the Bank of England said Wednesday in disclosing one of the largest bank robberies in British history. The money, about 25 million pounds in bank notes, was stolen overnight from a cash center at Tonbridge in Kent county, a bank spokesman said on condition of anonymity, according to bank policy. No one was injured in the robbery. The bank spokesman also said it was possible that more than $43.5 million was stolen, but the final figure will not be known until the security company completes its accounting.
Charges filed in N.Y. caseof body-parts snatching
NEW YORK -- The head of a biomedical firm has been charged with plotting to steal bone and other tissue from cadavers at New York City funeral homes and sell it nationwide for transplants, a law enforcement official said Wednesday. It is the latest development in a burgeoning scandal involving scores of funeral homes and hundreds of looted bodies, including that of "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke, who died of cancer in 2004. Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes was expected to announce indictments today alleging that Michael Mastromarino, owner of Biomedical Tissue Services of Fort Lee, N.J., ran an illicit body parts ring, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the indictments still were sealed. Three co-conspirators also will be charged, the official said. The district attorney's office declined to comment. Mastromarino's lawyer, Mario Gallucci, said in a statement that his client had followed existing rules regulating the harvesting of tissue donated by families at funeral homes.
2 ex-officials: U.S. shouldjoin Iran nuclear talks
WASHINGTON -- Former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer called on the United States Wednesday to join now-sidelined European negotiations designed to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. His appeal for a joint approach drew support from Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was former President Carter's national security adviser. Appearing together to discuss foreign policy problems at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Brzezinski criticized the Bush administration for leaving the negotiations to the European Union. A better approach, he said, was the one the administration is taking in trying to halt North Korea's nuclear weapons program. There, the United States joined China, Japan, South Korea and Russia in the negotiations and held some direct talks with the Pyongyang government, he said. But on Iran, Brzezinski said, "We are unwilling to be part of any active solution."
Associated Press