Hundreds dead or missing after floods

SEOUL -- Heavy rains spawned flooding that left hundreds dead or missing in North Korea and destroyed more than 30,000 homes, the country's state media reported today. Preliminary information cited massive casualties after the storms that began last week, but gave no specific figures. It said the rain also flooded tens of thousands of acres of farmland. Hardest hit appeared to be Kangwon Province, where homes for more than 20,000 families were partly or completely destroyed. The effects reached to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. (AP)

China

BEIJING -- At least 20 people were killed and 39 were missing after a bridge under construction in southern China collapsed today, state media said, and 400 police had been sent to the scene to keep order. Twenty-two people were injured in the collapse of the 1,000-foot bridge, which blocked a highway during the evening rush hour. The bridge was being built in Fenghuang County, a popular tourist destination in southeastern Hunan Province. The bridge's collapse came as state media reported that China would fix more than 6,000 damaged or dangerous bridges across the country. (Reuters)

Russia

MOSCOW -- An explosion derailed several cars on a Russian passenger train traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg late yesterday, injuring at least 27 people, officials said. The train's driver heard a loud bang from underneath the locomotive immediately before the incident happened near the city of Novgorod, about 300 miles northwest of Moscow, Alexander Pirkov, an adviser to Russian Railways' top executive, said in televised comments. A railways spokeswoman told Reuters an improvised bomb caused the explosion. In all, 12 cars and a locomotive of the "Nevsky Express" derailed and 215 passengers and 20 crew were on the train. (AP)

Iran

TEHRAN -- Judicial officials have wrapped up their investigation of two Iranian-American academics accused of conspiring to destabilize Iran, but no decision has been reached on whether to put the prisoners on trial, a top prosecutor said. "Investigation into Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh is over," Tehran Deputy Prosecutor Hasan Haddad said late Sunday, according to the official IRNA news agency. He said no decision on a possible trial would be made until the two scholars completed "some written work" that he did not describe. United Nations UNITED NATIONS -- Computer hackers posted an antiwar message on the UN's official website, claiming that US and Israeli policies in the Middle East were taking innocent lives, the United Nations said. The first attack on a UN Web page reserved for statements from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon occurred at about 9 a.m. Sunday morning, UN spokeswoman Michele Montas said. The website of the UN Department of Public Information was then attacked, as was the UN Cyberschoolbus site for teachers and students and the UN Economic and Social Council's site. (AP)