Doctors fight cholera outbreak

Kibati, Congo

Doctors struggled Sunday to contain an outbreak of cholera in a sprawling Congo refugee camp near Goma as renewed fighting ignited fears that patients could scatter and launch an epidemic.

Congolese soldiers and rebels were seen near Goma, where rebel leader Laurent Nkunda declared a cease-fire Oct. 29.

Doctors Without Borders said it treated 13 new cases of cholera at the Kibati refugee camp Sunday and has seen 45 cases since Friday. The agency's Dr. Rafaela Gentilini said shortages of water and latrines were making the outbreak "really dangerous."

Beijing

6.5 quake rattles Northwest China

A strong, magnitude-6.5 earthquake struck remote northwestern China today, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The quake struck the Qinghai province at a depth of 6.2 miles this morning, the agency said. The USGS said the quake's epicenter was located 1,120 miles west of Beijing.

Camaguey, Cuba

Hurricane Paloma a tropical depression

Hurricane Paloma leveled hundreds of homes along Cuba's southern coast before rapidly losing power over land Sunday, weakening from a dangerous Category 4 storm to a tropical depression.

Crashing surf and a powerful sea surge sent waves almost a mile inland as the storm ravaged Santa Cruz del Sur, the coastal community where it roared ashore Saturday night.

Authorities said the storm toppled a major communications tower, interrupted electricity and phone service, but no storm-related deaths were reported.

Moscow

Russians investigate fatal sub accident

Prosecutors opened a negligence probe Sunday into an accident aboard a new, nuclear-powered Russian submarine that killed 20 people, saying the victims appeared to have suffocated after a fire-safety system flooded two sections of the vessel with a gas that displaces oxygen.

A navy spokesman, Capt. Igor Dygalo, said the vessel was not damaged in Saturday night's test run in the Sea of Japan and returned to a Pacific Coast military shipyard on its own power.

Dygalo said the accident, in which 21 people were injured, occurred in compartments near the bow of the submarine, far from the nuclear reactor near the stern that powers the vessel. The reactor was operating properly and radiation levels were normal, he said.

Jakarta, Indonesia

Bali executions spark outrage

Hours after the executions of three men for their roles in the Bali bombings of 2002, nearly 1,000 Islamic extremists shouted "God is great" in Arabic and threatened revenge as the bodies of two of the men arrived in their hometown, Tenggulun, in East Java on Sunday.

A similar scene erupted in the West Java village of Serang, where police struggled to restrain a raucous crowd carrying the coffin of Imam Samudra, the third man executed for the bombings.

Meanwhile, at the site of the bombings, which killed 202 people, families of the victims laid wreaths and prayed.

The three bombers — Samudra, Amrozi Nurhasyim and Mukhlas, also known as Ali Ghufron — were executed early Sunday.

Indonesian officials increased security Sunday, and several hotels on the island of Java and the Australian Embassy received bomb threats but no bombs were found.

South Africa

Opposition rejects deal to share control

Negotiations to form a unity government in Zimbabwe fell apart today after opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai rejected a proposal to share control of the police ministry with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe.

South African leaders emerged from a nearly 12-hour summit with the proposal to push Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, head of a smaller opposition group, into the power-sharing government they agreed to form more than a month ago.

Without a government, and without a breakthrough at the summit, Zimbabwe is without leaders to resolve a spiraling economic crisis.

Tsvangirai said his party disagreed "totally" with the recommendation that both he and Mugabe name ministers in charge of police and other functions of the Home Affairs Ministry.

Mugabe and his entourage left the summit without commenting.

Paris

French say "yes, we can!" too

Inspired by Barack Obama, the French first lady and other leading figures say it's time for France to stamp out racism and shake up a white political and social elite that smacks of colonial times.

A manifesto published Sunday — subtitled "Oui, nous pouvons!", the French translation of Obama's campaign slogan "Yes, we can!" — urges affirmative action-like policies and other steps to turn French ideals of equality into reality for millions of blacks, Arabs and other alienated minorities.

"Our prejudices are insidious," Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, a singer and wife of President Nicolas Sarkozy, told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper, which published the manifesto. She said she hoped the "Obama effect" would reshape French society.

Seattle Times news services