Myanmar accused of "criminal neglect"

In the strongest remarks yet by a high-ranking U.S. official, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday that Myanmar was guilty of "criminal neglect" for blocking large-scale international aid to cyclone victims, and that more Burmese civilians would perish unless the military regime reverses its policy.

But despite their rising frustration with Myanmar's leaders, Gates said defense ministers meeting in Singapore over the weekend had unanimously opposed any plan to forcibly provide relief supplies.

As a result, he said, it was probably a matter of days before the Pentagon withdrew four Navy ships carrying supplies that have been waiting off Myanmar's coast for permission to ferry their cargo to areas hit by the storm.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Myanmar had given permission for 95 American C-130 cargo planes to land in Yangon, the country's main city, but that much more could be brought in from the Navy vessels. The flights have ferried in more than 1.5 million pounds of supplies, mostly food, water, mosquito netting and plastic sheeting for shelters.

At least 135,000 people are dead or missing since a cyclone struck Myanmar on May 3.

Skopje, Macedonia

Prime minister declares victory

Macedonia's prime minister declared victory Sunday in the Balkan country's parliamentary election after a vote that was marred by gunbattles that left one person dead and eight wounded.

Nikola Gruevski said his center-right VMRO-DPMNE had won enough votes to gain a majority of parliament's 120 seats, and opposition leader Radmila Sekerinska conceded defeat.

Jovan Josifovski, the head of the state election commission, said with votes from 97 percent of polling stations counted, VMRO won 48.21 percent of the vote — far ahead of the Social Democrats' 23.19 percent.

The Democratic Party of Albanians had about 10.33 percent, while the rival ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration had about 11.23 percent.

São Paulo, Brazil

U.N.: Police killings go unpunished

Thousands of killings by Brazilian police are going largely unpunished because of public approval for a perceived crackdown on crime, a U.N. envoy said Sunday.

U.N. special envoy Philip Alston investigated the killings in November and will present his findings to a U.N. Human Rights Council session that opens today in Geneva.

Clashes with police killed a record 1,260 civilians in Rio de Janeiro state last year — nearly the same number of all people killed in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, where a combined 1,328 homicides occurred in 2007. The tally omitted statistics from about one-third of precincts because they did not have computers.

Most police killings occurred during armed confrontations with civilians, according to a January report by Brazil's Institute of Public Safety. Alston said the deaths were "politically driven" because they are "popular among those who want rapid results and shows of force."

Rio de Janeiro state police did not respond to requests for comment Sunday.

Monrovia, Liberia

8 suffocated during soccer match

At least eight people suffocated at an overcrowded stadium during a soccer match between Liberia and Gambia on Sunday, a doctor and an aid worker said.

The 33,000-seat Samuel K. Doe stadium in Monrovia was packed beyond capacity for the World Cup qualifying match.

The rowdy crowd pushed up against a metal bar, causing the bar to snap and sending dozens of people careening onto the floor below. They fell onto others at the game, crushing them.

Trinidad, Bolivia

2 states pass autonomy measures

Bolivians in two opposition-controlled states voted overwhelmingly Sunday for autonomy measures that aim to shield the country's remote Amazon basin from President Evo Morales' leftist reforms.

The Amazonian states of Beni and Pando passed autonomy measures by more than 80 percent of the vote, according to preliminary vote counts released Sunday.

Morales' quest to empower Bolivia's long-oppressed Indian majority has alienated a more mixed-race population in the eastern lowlands and fueled old grudges here against the national government centered in La Paz.

Also

Belize: Tropical Storm Arthur weakened to a tropical depression Sunday after soaking the Yucatán Peninsula but still threatened to cause dangerous flooding and mudslides in Mexico, Belize and Guatemala.

Kuwait: Muslim hard-liners in parliament walked out of the body's inaugural meeting Sunday to protest two female Cabinet ministers who were not wearing headscarves.

South Africa: Authorities on Sunday started moving nearly 10,000 foreigners displaced by xenophobic violence into organized camps in the Johannesburg area.

Honduras: Workers have recovered the flight recorder from a commercial Airbus A-320 jetliner that overshot a runway in Honduras, killing five people, and hope it will provide clues to the cause of Friday's crash, the airline's president said Sunday.

Switzerland: Voters overwhelmingly rejected an anti-immigrant initiative that would have made it harder for foreigners to gain citizenship, according to referendum results released Sunday.

Seattle Times news services