Flooding kills 54 in Vietnam

Hanoi, Vietnam

The death toll from nearly a week of flooding across northern and central Vietnam stood today at 54 and parts of the capital remainded under water, but rains were easing and floodwaters receding in many areas.

Hanoi alone recorded 18 deaths since heavy rains started lashing the city Friday, authorities said. Elsewhere, 34 deaths have been reported, authorities said.

More rains were expected in the capital and some northern provinces today and Tuesday, but weather forecasters said they would be lighter than the downpours that soaked the capital over the weekend.

More than 20 inches of rain have fallen in Hanoi in the past three days, the heaviest rains in more than two decades.

Moscow

Thousands protest at U.S. Embassy

Thousands of Russians from the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi gathered in front of the U.S. Embassy Sunday night carrying jack-o'-lanterns inked with the names of war victims and charging the war in Georgia was part of a U.S. plot to improve Sen. John McCain's electoral prospects.

As music by Johnny Cash and the Allman Brothers played from loudspeakers, a stream of young people climbed off buses from far-flung provincial capitals. They held the pumpkins aloft for a moment of silence as a deep bass thumped and carnival-style lights played on the embassy's facade.

In a film projected on several large screens, an actor playing President Bush (though with a heavy Russian accent) delivered a speech in which he gloated over the United States' control over world affairs.

Toluca, Mexico

11 police officers killed in three days

Eleven policemen have been shot to death near Mexico City in a three-day string of drug-gang attacks, prosecutors said Sunday.

Mexico State prosecutor Alberto Bazbaz said 10 suspects believed linked to drug gangs have been arrested in the killings, which mainly occurred on highways and at police checkpoints around Mexico's capital. He said evidence indicates low-level traffickers and criminals, rather than organized cartel hit squads, were responsible.

In Tijuana, on the northern border across from San Diego, Calif., police found two decapitated bodies wrapped in blankets in a vacant lot Sunday. Meanwhile, federal police reported this weekend that they arrested Antonio Galarza, the reputed leader of the violent Gulf drug cartel for the border city of Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas.

Jerusalem

Spy chief fears extremist plot

The head of Israel's internal security service said Sunday he is "very concerned" Jewish extremists could assassinate an Israeli leader to foil peace moves with the Palestinians.

Violence by hard-line Jewish settlers in the West Bank has increased recently, and this week, Israel marks the 13th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by an Israeli opponent of his negotiations.

"Just ahead of the anniversary of Rabin's murder, the Shin Bet sees in the group we're talking about on the extreme right a willingness to use firearms in order to halt diplomatic processes and harm political leaders," Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin said. "The Shin Bet is very concerned about this."

Diskin spoke at the weekly Israeli Cabinet meeting, and his statement was released by another meeting participant who spoke on condition of anonymity because the session was closed.

Dominican Republic

Migrants lost at sea ate dead to survive

Five migrants rescued after 15 days lost at sea ate their dead comrades to stay alive, a Dominican official said Sunday.

One of the five, the only woman in the group, died Sunday in a hospital after the group was rescued Saturday near the Turks and Caicos Islands, said Dominican Minister of Tourism Francisco Javier Garcia.

Garcia said the remaining four, part of a large group of migrants, told him that without food, they ate from the corpse of the last person to die.

A total of 33 Dominican migrants were trying to reach Puerto Rico by boat when they were reported missing by relatives in mid-October. Survivors said they lost their way after the captain abandoned ship.

Bodies of the other dead were thrown into the sea, Garcia said they told him.

Also

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak, Malaysia's No. 2 leader, secured the top post in the ruling party Sunday, making it virtually certain he will succeed the country's unpopular prime minister by April.

The Associated Press