Fair election runoff impossible in Zimbabwe, report says

Violence by government agents and supporters is making it impossible to hold a fair presidential runoff election later this month between President Robert Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, according to a New York-based Human Rights Watch report.

The report said Zimbabwe was suffering the worst election violence in its history, overwhelmingly perpetrated by the ruling ZANU-PF party against Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) activists and supporters in advance of the June 27 runoff vote.

Unless it is stopped, there is no chance of free and fair runoff elections, Human Rights Watch warned.

Hongye Village, China

Spillway dug as lake swells

A quake-formed lake continued to swell Monday even though soldiers used dynamite and anti-tank weapons to blow up boulders in a diversion channel to try to speed its drainage.

Authorities remained on alert after yet another aftershock jarred the Tangjiashan lake, which could flood more than 1.3 million people downstream if the water flow is not controlled.

The flow in the channel increased after more than 10 explosions, but it was still not keeping up with the water gushing into the lake from the blocked river behind the dam.

On Monday, about 120 troops were sent to reinforce the operation to drain the lake, which formed when a landslide set off by the powerful May 12 earthquake blocked the flow of the Tongkou River. Crews were deepening the diversion channel and digging a second spillway, Xinhua said.

The water level was more than 6 feet above the mouth of the spillway and rising, Xinhua said.

More than 250,000 people downstream from Tangjiashan lake have been evacuated.

United Nations

TB impeding fight against AIDS

The spread of tuberculosis (TB) is undermining recent gains made against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, U.N. officials said Monday.

TB and AIDS are now epidemic in many areas of the world, and the two infectious diseases must be addressed together, said the officials, who spoke from the United Nations' first high-level meeting on the interaction of the two diseases.

TB, an airborne disease, is the most important medical complication of infection with HIV. It also is the No. 1 killer among HIV-infected people in Africa and a leading cause of their death elsewhere, the officials said.

At least 700,000 TB cases develop among HIV-infected people each year, and this year an estimated 230,000 HIV-infected people will die from TB.

Athens, Greece

Villages evacuated in quake-hit area

Authorities evacuated three villages in southwestern Greece on Monday after seismologists warned a strong aftershock was expected in areas where a powerful earthquake killed two people and injured more than 200.

The quake, which had a preliminary magnitude of 6.5, struck Sunday near the western port city of Patras, about 120 miles west of Athens.

It flattened or severely damaged 200 houses in the provinces of Ahaia and Ilia and left more than 800 buildings with lighter damage and cracks, state NET television said.

Dozens of aftershocks have rattled the area, the Athens Geodynamic Institute said. A strong aftershock of a magnitude of 5 to 5.5 was expected in the coming days or possibly weeks, seismologist Giannis Kalogeras said.

Yangon, Myanmar

U.N. steps up delivery of aid

U.N. helicopters loaded with relief supplies reached areas of Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta Monday that have been cut off from regular aid since a devastating cyclone five weeks ago, an official said.

Four of the five aircraft that arrived over the weekend got to work shuttling emergency supplies, such as rice and water-purification systems, to villages around the hardest-hit towns of Bogale and Labutta, said Paul Risley, a U.N. World Food Program spokesman.

A total of four flights flew Monday to seven locations in the delta, and six more sites were expected to be reached today, he said.

U.N. officials and aid groups have criticized Myanmar's military regime for restricting access to the delta, saying it has prevented enough food, water and shelter from reaching desperate survivors.

Seoul, South Korea

Cabinet offers to quit over beef imports

South Korea's entire Cabinet offered to resign today after a public uproar over the planned resumption of U.S. beef imports, despite concerns of mad-cow disease.

Prime Minister Han Seung-soo tendered his resignation as did other government ministers to President Lee Myung-bak, a spokesman at the prime minister's office said.

South Korea agreed in April to lift most quarantine restrictions imposed on U.S. beef over fears of mad-cow disease. The decision has sparked weeks of fierce protests amid perceptions the government did not do enough to protect citizens.

Also

Somalia: The government signed an agreement Monday with an opposition alliance calling for an end to violence and the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops, whose presence has stoked an increasingly bloody Islamic insurgency.

Netherlands: The Dutch government says it will lift a long-standing ban on pit bulls because it did not lead to any decrease in bite incidents.

Ukraine: Rescue teams found 23 miners alive after an explosion at a coal mine in eastern Ukraine, but one miner was confirmed dead and 13 were missing more than 24 hours after the blast, an official said.

Bahrain: The USS Russell, a U.S. Navy ship, rescued a small boat carrying 70 people, some suffering from severe dehydration, in the Gulf of Aden between Yemen and Somalia, the military said Monday.

Algeria: The Defense Ministry on Monday denied reports that weekend bombing attacks at the Beni Amrane train station killed 13 people, saying that only two people died.

Ivory Coast: President Laurent Gbagbo, opposition leader and key electoral officials told the U.N. Security Council on Monday that a repeatedly delayed presidential vote can take place Nov. 30.

Pakistan: Lawyers rallied against President Pervez Musharraf on Monday, burning him in effigy, calling for his ouster and demanding the reinstatement of judges.

Seattle Times news services