Death Toll | featured news

The massive flooding that has covered about one-fifth of Pakistan has claimed the lives of more than 1,500 people, authorities said Saturday.

The death toll from the mudslides in a northwestern Chinese province now stands at 1,407, state-run Xinhua news agency said Friday, citing the government.

The death toll climbed to more than 1,300 in Pakistan on Wednesday as the nation's military and emergency services struggled to cope with the flood waters that have washed across the landscape.

The government has had difficulties getting aid to the affected area, and at times receiving accurate information. On Sunday, officials reduced the number of dead to 730, saying that earlier reports on Sunday, reaching as high at 1,100, were not credible.

Officials in Brazil fear the death toll may rise as a result of persistent rain and flooding that has punished the northeastern states of Pernambuco and Alagoas, killing 33 people and leaving thousands homeless, officials said.

The houses lie vacant with their triangular rooftops peeking through the brown, murky water. Abandoned cars dot impassable highways, while rotting furniture floats through city streets.

Rescuers spread out Sunday to scour neighborhoods of splintered homes and twisted debris in Mississippi, a day after storms that spawned multiple tornadoes sliced through the state and killed 10 people, including three children.

Tibetan monks prayed over hundreds of bodies Friday at a makeshift morgue next to their monastery after powerful earthquakes destroyed the town of Jiegu in  China, killing  least 1,144.

The death toll from two bombs that struck a crowded market in Iraq's mainly Sunni Diyala province rose to 59, police said on Saturday, as politicians started coalition talks to form a new government.

The death toll from Chile's earthquake has more than doubled to 708 and is expected to rise further, President Michelle Bachelet has said.