US flood aid wins friends in Pakistan

US flood aid wins friends in Pakistan

KALAM, Pakistan

U.S. Army choppers carrying emergency food and water buzzed over the swollen river and washed-out bridges, landing in the valley once controlled by the Taliban. They returned laden with grateful Pakistani flood survivors — newly won friends in a country where many regard America as the No. 1 enemy.

With Pakistan reeling from two weeks of flooding that has killed 1,500 and affected nearly 14 million people, the aid-and-rescue mission by the U.S. military gives Washington a chance to strengthen a sometimes troubled alliance that is crucial to fighting militancy in the region and ensuring a stable Afghanistan.

Besides helping those trapped by the high water, the U.S. assistance already is having another effect: The Pakistani Taliban denounced it and urged a boycott of Western aid.

Storm delays work on Gulf relief well

NEW ORLEANS

An approaching tropical depression forced crews to suspend drilling Tuesday on the final stretch of a relief well aimed at shooting a permanent underground plug into BP’s broken oil well in the Gulf of Mexico.

Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said the suspension could mean a delay of two or three days in completing the relief well, one of the last steps toward ending any threat from the well that spewed more than 200 million gallons of oil over three months before a temporary cap sealed it in mid-July.

Crews will pop in a temporary plug to keep what they’ve drilled so far safe, but they won’t send workers back to land. They have about 30 to 50 feet left to drill.

Census comes in $1.6B under budget

WASHINGTON

The U.S. Census Bureau is $1.6 billion under budget for conducting the 2010 survey, primarily due to avoiding the catastrophic problems that some had predicted, top Obama administration officials said Tuesday.

T he census, which is conducted every 10 years to gather statistics on the U.S. population, is 22 percent under budget, according to the bureau.

In response to doomsday predictions of possible glitches in new survey software, Congress allocated a contingency fund to tap if anything arose that would hinder the survey.

Search for fugitives in Mont., Canada

CODY, Wyo.

Authorities focused Tuesday on western Montana and southwest Canada in the search for an escaped convict from Arizona and his suspected accomplice.

U.S. marshals said there have been reports that the accomplice, Casslyn Welch, was spotted Sunday at a restaurant in St. Mary, Mont., near Glacier National Park.

Montana’s acting marshal, Rod Ostermiller, said there were multiple other tips from the Glacier area, but he didn’t say whether any included sightings of escapee John McCluskey.

Colombia, Venezuela restore relations

SANTA MARTA, Colombia

The presidents of Colombia and Venezuela announced Tuesday they will restore diplomatic relations severed 20 days ago by Caracas, ending a dispute over allegations that Colombian rebels have camps in Venezuela.

The rapprochement came in a meeting between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Colombia’s new leader, Juan Manuel Santos, in the city of Santa Marta on Colombia’s Caribbean coast.

Chavez said the countries are starting down a new road after eight years of often prickly relations under Santos’ predecessor, Alvaro Uribe.

Combined dispatches