U.S. envoy puts pressure on President Musharraf

U.S. envoy puts pressure
on President Musharraf

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s military ruler faced intense U.S. pressure Saturday to end emergency rule and restore democracy, with Washington’s No. 2 diplomat personally delivering what many here see as a sharp warning from a once staunch ally.

Whether President Gen. Pervez Musharraf was ready to listen was the question. He says the two-week long emergency — which has seen opponents jailed, judges purged and independent TV stations muffled — is needed to hold a peaceful vote in the country beset by an increasingly potent Islamic insurgency.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte’s trip was seen as a last best chance to persuade him and avoid political turmoil in Pakistan, a key front in the war on terror. The diplomat was expected to make his only public comment at a news conference scheduled for early today, just ahead of his departure.

Rescuers try to reach
survivors of cyclone

DHAKA, Bangladesh — Hundreds of thousands of survivors were stuck Saturday behind roads blocked by fallen trees, iron roofs and thick sludge as rescue workers fought to reach towns along Bangladesh’s coast that were ravaged by a powerful cyclone that killed at least 1,723 people.

Tropical Cyclone Sidr, the deadliest storm to hit the country in a decade, destroyed tens of thousands of homes in southwest Bangladesh on Thursday and ruined much-needed crops just before harvest season in this impoverished, low-lying South Asian country. More than a million coastal villagers were forced to evacuate to government shelters.

The official death toll rose to 1,723, and authorities feared the figure could rise further as the country works to recover.

The government scrambled Saturday to join international agencies and local officials in the rescue mission, deploying military helicopters, thousands of troops and naval ships.

Rescuers trying to get food and water to people stranded by flooding struggled to clear roads that were so bad they said they’ll have to return on bicycles.

Former officer’s third wife
was killed, experts say

CHICAGO — Amid the search for a former police officer’s fourth wife, a renowned pathologist said Saturday he has examined a previous wife’s exhumed remains and determined she was killed.

Former New York City chief medical examiner Dr. Michael Baden said he analyzed Kathleen Savio’s remains at the request of her relatives, who disagree with an earlier ruling that her death was an accident. He concluded she died after a struggle, and her body was placed in the bathtub where she was found.

“I’m convinced she was the victim of a murder. ‘Who done it’ is up to the police to resolve,” Baden said in a telephone interview.

Results of a separate, official autopsy will not be available for several days, authorities said.

A coroner’s jury initially ruled that Savio’s 2004 death was an accidental drowning. But now, with Drew Peterson’s fourth wife missing for more than two weeks, authorities are re-examining the circumstances of Savio’s death.

Chavez: U.S. attack
would raise oil prices

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — In his opening address of a rare OPEC summit, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned the United States on Saturday that oil prices would further surge if the U.S. contemplates an attack against his country or Iran.

Minutes after Chavez declared that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries should “assert itself as an active political agent,” Saudi King Abdullah appeared to rebuke the Venezuelan, insisting that “OPEC has always acted moderately and wisely.”

“Oil shouldn’t be a tool for conflict; it should be a tool for development,” said the king, a close U.S. ally whose country is the world’s largest oil producer.

43 militants killed in
clashes in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — A series of clashes in southern Afghanistan left 43 suspected Taliban militants dead, while a roadside bomb killed two NATO soldiers, officials said Saturday.

Twenty-three Taliban militants were killed during a U.S.-led coalition operation aimed at disrupting a weapons transfer in southern Afghanistan, the coalition said Saturday.

A truck apparently full of Taliban weapons exploded during the operation in Helmand province’s Garmsir district. Coalition troops detained 11 people suspected of being part of a weapons running operation.

Associated Press