LITTLE ROCK — Around the world Rescuers flood hit area The Chinese government accelerated its rescue-and-recovery operation Wednesday, dispatching hundreds of busloads of civilian rescue teams, paramilitary police and youthful volunteers toward earthquake-ravaged regions.
Lines of buses and cars, many with red banners carrying political slogans, filled highways leading north from the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu, near the epicenter of Monday's quake.
They were joined by trucks carrying cranes, front-end loaders and tarps. Li Chengyun, the vice governor of Sichuan, estimated that 26,000 people were still buried under collapsed buildings and that another 14,000 were missing, according to the official New China News Agency. As rescue teams reached more isolated towns and villages, it became clear that the death toll could eventually reach 50,000. On Wednesday, the number of confirmed dead rose to nearly 15,000, according to a government estimate.
Around the nation Oil stockpiling targeted Congress voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to challenge President Bush to temporarily halt the daily shipmentof thousands of barrels of oil into the government's emergency reserve.
Lawmakers disagreed on what, if any, impact the suspension might have on gasoline prices and acknowledged it was but "a modest step" in addressing public anger over soaring energy costs.
Bush has refused to halt shipments of about 70,000 barrels of oil a day into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a system of salt caverns on the Gulf Coast. The reserve, created to respond to major oil supply disruptions, holds 701 million barrels and is at 97 percent of capacity.
Clinton wins W. Va.
Hillary Rodham Clinton coasted to a large but largely symbolic victory in West Virginia on Tuesday, handing Barack Obama one of his worst defeats of the campaign yet scarcely slowing his march toward the Democratic presidential nomination. "The White House is won in the swing states. And I am winning the swing states," Clinton told cheering supporters at a victory rally. She coupled praise for Obama with a pledge to persevere in a campaign where she has become the decided underdog. "This race isn't over yet," she said. "Neither of us has the total delegates it takes to win." Obama looked ahead to the Oregon primary later in the month and the general election campaign against Republican John McCain, but the defeat underscored his weakness among blue-collar voters who will be pivotal in the fall.
Edwards backs Obama Democrat John Edwards endorsed former rival Barack Obama on Wednesday in Grand Rapids, Mich., a sign that the party establishment is embracing Obama as the likely nominee even as Hillary Rodham Clinton refuses to give
up on her candidacy. The endorsement
came a day after West Virginia's blue
collar voters rejected Obama. Tues
day night's lopsided loss to Clinton
highlighted Obama's challenge to win
over the "Hillary Democrats" - white,
working-class voters who also support
ed Edwards in large numbers before heexited the race. Appearing with Obama at a crowded rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., Edwards said Obama is "one man who knows in his heart that it is time to create one America, not two." Edwards, who received a thunderous ovation when Obama introduced him to a crowd of several thousand, said, "Brothers and sisters, we must come together as Democrats" to defeat presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain. "We are here tonight because the Democratic voters have made their choice, and so have I."Around the state Missouri bank affected Fallout from the failure of ANB Financial of Rogers spread to Missouri on Monday as Great Southern Bancorp of Springfield, Mo., admitted it was forced to write off $35 million in loans it made to ANB. Great Southern, a publicly traded bank with $2.5 billion in assets, said its $30 million loan to ANB was the single largest loan the Missouri bank had. Great Southern shares closed down $1.41, or almost 10 percent, at $13.15 in heavy trading on the Nasdaq exchange. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency closed ANB, which had $2 billion in assets, on Friday, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed as receiver. ANB's nine branches in Northwest Arkansas opened as Pulaski Bank & Trust Co. of Little Rock on Monday. Pulaski Bank is a subsidiary of IberiaBank Corp. of Lafayette, La. IberiaBank closed up 90 cents a share, or 1.8 percent, at $50.04 in trading on the Nasdaq.
Perspective, Pages 99 on 05/18/2008