Sudan official: British teacher likely to be cleared

Khartoum, Sudan

A British teacher arrested for allowing her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad will probably be cleared and released soon, a spokesman for the Sudanese embassy in London said Tuesday.

Gillian Gibbons was arrested Sunday and faced possible charges of insulting religion — a crime punishable by up to 40 lashes. She was questioned by Sudanese authorities on Tuesday.

Asked about the potential punishments — six months imprisonment or 40 lashes — embassy spokesman Khalid al Mubarak said: "My impression is that the whole thing could probably be settled amicably long before we reach stages like these."

Gibbons was arrested after one of her pupils' parents complained, accusing her of naming the bear after Islam's prophet and founder. Muhammad is a common name among Muslim men, but giving the prophet's name to an animal would be seen as insulting by many Muslims.

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Navy delivers aid to cyclone survivors

Survivors of a cyclone that devastated the southwestern Bangladesh coast greeted U.S. Navy teams Tuesday as they delivered clean water, food and medical supplies to thousands of people left hungry and homeless.

Helicopters from the USS Kearsarge, a multipurpose U.S. ship anchored off the Bangladesh coast, have been airlifting water containers to remote areas of the country's worst-affected districts of Dublar Char, Bagherat and Barguna, said Bangladesh Chief of Army Staff Gen. Moeen U. Ahmed.

The official death toll from the cyclone, which hit Bangladesh Nov. 15, has hit 3,243, another 1,180 are missing, and 34,500 people were injured, according to the government's Food and Disaster Management Ministry.

Ponce Enriquez, Ecuador

Mine accident details revised

Rescue workers on Tuesday dispelled reports that dozens of miners were trapped in a powerful explosion at a gold mine that killed one worker and injured 36 more, Ecuadorean officials said.

Army Col. Armando Balcazar told a news conference at the site that all miners were accounted for — backing away from earlier official reports that 60 were trapped.

Monday evening's explosion occurred in the Liga de Oro mine's munitions storehouse, which Balcazar said contained some 100 sticks of dynamite.

He blamed the blast on "human error" by the 25-year-old miner who was killed.

Balcazar said almost half of the mining camp's buildings were destroyed and two of the 36 injured were in serious but stable condition.

Seattle Times news services