12,000 refugees flee

12,000 refugees flee

GENEVA — Up to 12,000 refugees fled Sudan’s Darfur region to neighboring Chad over the weekend after airstrikes by the Sudanese military, and thousands more may be coming, the U.N. refugee agency said Sunday. The agency was bringing emergency assistance to the Chad border where the Darfur refugees were giving detailed descriptions of air attacks Friday on three West Darfur towns. The refugees are “destitute and terrified,” said Helene Caux, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees based in Geneva. “They told of their villages being looted and burned, and encircled by militia.”

Chavez threatens oil sales

CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez on Sunday threatened to cut off oil sales to the United States in an “economic war” if Exxon Mobil Corp. wins court judgments to seize billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets. Exxon Mobil has gone after the assets of state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA in U.S., British and Dutch courts as it challenges the nationalization of a multibillion-dollar oil project by Chavez’s government. A British court has issued an injunction freezing as much as $12 billion in assets. “If you end up freezing [Venezuelan assets] and it harms us, we’re going to harm you,” Chavez said during his weekly radio and television program, “Hello, President.” “Do you know how? We aren’t going to send oil to the United States. Take note, Mr. Bush, Mr. Danger.”

S. Carolina wildfires

CONWAY, S.C. — Wind-whipped wildfires across the rain-starved Carolinas chased churchgoers from worship Sunday and forced residents to flee dozens of homes threatened by flames. At least one business and an unknown number of homes and small structures were damaged by a blaze near the South Carolina coast, though no injuries were reported, authorities said. About 60 homes were briefly evacuated Sunday afternoon as the blaze sent smoke billowing above this city of about 11,000 people about 15 miles northwest of Myrtle Beach.

Report: 6th body found

PORT WENTWORTH, Ga. — Search crews recovered another body Sunday from a sugar refinery devastated by a massive explosion, raising the number of confirmed deaths to six, the state’s top elected fire official said. Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner John Oxendine told The Associated Press crews removed the body from the debris of the Imperial Sugar refinery shortly before ending search operations at sunset. He told the AP he got the news from Port Wentworth Fire Chief Greg Long. Savannah Fire Department Capt.

Actor Roy Scheider dies

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Roy Scheider, the actor best known for his role as a police chief in the blockbuster movie “Jaws,” has died. He was 75. Scheider died Sunday at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences hospital in Little Rock, hospital spokesman David Robinson said. The hospital did not release his cause of death. However, hospital spokeswoman Leslie Taylor said Scheider had been treated for multiple myeloma at the hospital’s Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy for the past two years. Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss starred in the 1975 movie “Jaws,” which was widely hailed as the film that launched the era of the Hollywood blockbuster. It was the first film to earn $100 million at the box office.

Ill astronaut still resting

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Shuttle Atlantis’ sick German astronaut looked and sounded well Sunday as he helped a crewmate prepare for a spacewalk that should have been his. In an extremely unusual move, NASA pulled Hans Schlegel off the spacewalk to help install the European lab, Columbus, at the international space station, and delayed the work until today, one day later than planned. Schlegel, 56, was fine for Thursday’s liftoff and became ill in orbit, European Space Agency officials said, adding that the condition was neither life-threatening nor contagious. Even though he did not look sick, spacewalks are strenuous and an astronaut needs to be in top form, they said. d for Atlantis’ space station visit.

Marine faces rape charge

TOKYO — Japanese police have arrested a U.S. Marine accused of raping a 14-year-old girl in southern Japan, authorities said today. Tyrone Luther Hadnott, 38, of Camp Courtney in Okinawa, is accused of raping the girl in a parked car Sunday evening, an Okinawa police official said on condition of anonymity, citing policy. Okinawa police took custody of the Marine for investigation, the official said.

Associated Press