Sponsors of several House bills focused on breast cancer today urged support for the legislation, bolstering their appeals by repeating the frightening death statistics and recounting harrowing tales of pain and suffering from denied hospital care. The House subcommittee on Health, Energy and Commerce met today to consider the pending bills in conjunction with Breast Cancer Awareness Month. They would support breast cancer education, encourage efforts to improve diagnosis and help breast cancer victims.

"Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed form of cancer diagnosed in women," subcommittee chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., acknowledged to the key sponsors of the breast cancer legislation.
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Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., told of a Kansas woman who was only allowed one nigRep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., told of a Kansas woman who was only allowed one night in the hospital after a modified radical mastectomy, an Arizona woman who was discharged from the hospital two hours after a double bilateral mastectomy, and another woman not covered for an overnight stay after a mastectomy, who later developed complications from the lack of medical care.

"A member of my staff in Michigan was victim of these unscrupulous policies," said Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich. "She succumbed to cancer. The way the insurance companies treated her was an outrage."

During this 25th annual Breast Cancer Awareness month, Congress is helping to focus on the efforts to stem the deadly disease as it considers the four bills.

DeLauro has introduced HR 1691, the Breast Cancer Patient Protection bill, which would require that after breast surgery, "adequate recovery time in the hospital should not be negotiable."

Her bill does not mandate a 48-hour hospital stay after a mastectomy, but it does insure that the doctor and patient will determine the length, not the insurance company.

DeLauro has 236 co-sponsors for the bill, and enjoys the support of many cancer support organizations, including Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the American Cancer Society, Breastcancer.org and others. Nearly 24 million people have signed a Lifetime Television petition calling for the bill to be passed.

With her arms outstretched, DeLauro pleaded for an affirmative vote: "Let's do this. Let's do this for the women of this nation."

Rescuers struggled through mud and pounding rain today to clear mountain roads and retrieve more than 160 bodies from dozens of landslides that buried villages and cut off towns in the rain-soaked northern Philippines.

The latest calamity brought the death toll to more than 450 from the Philippines' worst flooding in 40 years after back-to-back storms started pounding the north of the country on 26 September.

More than 160 people were killed in landslides in Benguet and Mountain Province along the Cordillera mountain range, about 125 miles (200km) north of Manila, officials in the two provinces said. The fatalities included 120 in Benguet, governor Nestor Fongwan said, while 23 died in Mountain Province, according to governor Max Dalog. A further 25 people died in Baguio, city relief administrator Peter Fianza said.

Landslides blocked the roads to the mountain city of Baguio in the heart of the Cordillera region. The only way to reach the isolated mountain communities was by foot, with military helicopters unable to fly because of the storms, said Lt Col Ernesto Torres, spokesman for the government's disaster relief agency.

"We are focused on rescue at this time," he said. "It is raining nonstop."

About 100 landslides have struck the region since the weekend, said Rex Manuel, another relief official.

Seventeen bodies have been recovered so far from Kibungan village in Benguet's La Trinidad township, which was almost entirely buried in mud and debris yesterday. Up to 40 villagers were estimated to have died, while more than 100 were moved to safety.

Rescuers in the hillside villages used pulleys to transport the dead they retrieved from a pile of rubble and mud.

TV footage showed the bodies arriving in black bags in a hall in Baguio, where relatives wept. "There was a sudden rumble above us, and then the houses at the bottom were gone, including them," said Melody Coronel, pointing to the relatives she found among the dead.

In Buyagan village, also in La Trinidad, only three out of about 100 houses remained visible after Thursday night's landslide buried most structures there. Some 50 residents were saved, but it was not clear how many died, Manuel said.

In neighbouring Mountain Province's Tadian township, at least 28 people were reported missing and several bodies were recovered after the side of a mountain collapsed.

Another landslide hit a second village in Tadian early Friday. No immediate casualty reports were available.

Forecasters said tropical depression Parma was still lingering off the north-eastern coast and dumped rain overnight. It hit land more than a week ago, the second major storm to hit the country in two weeks.

Thousands of residents of coastal Pangasinan province, about 105 miles (170km) north of Manila, were rescued from rooftops after dams released excess water from recent heavy rains, inundating 30 out of 46 towns along the Agno River.

"There was really heavy rain, so water had to be released from the dam, otherwise it would have been more dangerous," said the government's chief forecaster Nathaniel Cruz. "Even our office was flooded and our staff had to move to the rooftop. It's near the river that they were monitoring."The government's disaster relief agency said it had requested that the US embassy redeploy hundreds of American troops from the massive clean-up in and around the capital, Manila, to the flood-hit areas in the north.

The two parties had been in talks about the sale for a number of months.

GM is in the process of selling and winding up a number of brands as it looks to reorganise after emerging from bankruptcy protection in July.

At the start of this month, the troubled carmaker announced it would be winding down its Saturn brand.

This was after the proposed sale to Penske Automotive Group collapsed.

GM has already announced that it is discontinuing the Pontiac brand, and is close to finalising the sale of its European brands Saab, Opel and Vauxhall.


GM BRANDS
BRANDS STAYING
Chevrolet
GMC
Cadillac
Buick
BRANDS GOING/GONE
Pontiac (discontinued)
Saturn (discontinued)
Hummer (sold)
Saab (to be sold)
Opel (to be sold)
Vauxhall (to be sold)

GM plans to reinvent itself by concentrating on fewer brands following bankruptcy protection, made necessary after car sales plummeted during the downturn.

'Next generation'

Under the terms of the Hummer deal, Tengzhong will take an 80% stake in the company, with the remaining 20% going to Hong Kong entrepreneur Suolong Duoji.

The current Hummer management team will continue to run the company.

The deal is still subject to regulatory approval.

"Hummer is a strong global niche brand and this agreement signifies another important milestone in writing the next chapter of both GM and Hummer," said GM boss Fritz Henderson.

The company also said it would be focusing on improving efficiency, including the introduction of diesel engines.

"We are excited about some of the initiatives already underway at Hummer that we believe our investment will be able to accelerate, particularly related to the creation of the next generation of more fuel efficient vehicles to meet not only future regulations but also customer expectations," said Yang Yi, chief executive of Tengzhong.

Star struck

Hummers were originally built as military off-road vehicles by a company called AM General.

The brand took off as US motorists flocked to the sport utility vehicles favoured by celebrities including Arnold Schwarzenegger.

GM bought the Hummer brand in 1999, but sales have suffered recently as the gas-guzzling performance and military image have become less popular.

Hummers weigh up to five tons and have fuel consumption of around 15 miles per gallon.

Tengzhong specialises in making equipment for the road, construction and energy industries.

It is based in China's Sichuan province.

A suicide car bomb exploded outside the heavily guarded Indian Embassy in downtown Kabul this morning, killing at least 17 and injuring 84, according to Afghanistan's Ministry of Interior. The large explosion gutted a nearby market, shattered windows and severely damaged two United Nations armored SUVs that were driving by. The vehicles were empty except for drivers, the U.N. said, and they were not injured.

But the car bomb, which Afghan officials said was loaded into a Toyota 4Runner, was large enough to be felt more than a mile away. The deputy speaker of Afghanistan's parliament, who lives down the street, told ABC News that the blast was five times stronger than the one that last hit the Indian Embassy in July 2008, a car bomb that killed nearly 60 people. Security since that blast has been strengthened around the Indian Embassy, which is in a highly protected part of town, across the street from the Ministry of Interior.

But security in Kabul has deteriorated markedly in the past few months. From January to August, there was only a single major suicide attack in Kabul. Since mid-August, there has been five. This is the first of the five that was not against foreign forces.

In the past two days, security around the city has been stepped up after officials received intelligence that two suicide car bombers had entered the city. And there were unconfirmed reports this morning that the second car bomb may be circulating in town.

In New Delhi, India's Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao told reporters that the Indian Embassy was the target.

"I believe the suicide bomb was directed at the embassy since the suicide bomber came up to the outer perimeter wall of the embassy in a car loaded with explosives," Rao told reporters, according The Associated Press.

MANILA, Philippines—Officials say rescuers have retrieved more than 160 dead from dozens of landslides that buried villages and cut off towns in the rain-soaked northern Philippines.

About 450 people have been killed in the country's worst flooding in 40 years after back-to-back storms started pounding the country's north Sept. 26.

Officials in the two worst-hit provinces say more than 160 people have died in Benguet and Mountain Province along the Cordillera mountain range, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) north of Manila.

Gov. Nestor Fongwan said Friday the fatalities include 120 in Benguet, while Mountain Province Gov. Max Dalog put the death toll in his region to 23. Another 25 people died in Baguio city.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- Dozens of landslides in the rain-soaked mountains of the northern Philippines killed an estimated 100 people, as a lingering storm and excess water from dams turned a portion of one province into "one big river," officials said Friday.

The latest calamity brought the death toll to more than 400 from the Philippines' worst flooding in 40 years after back-to-back storms started pounding the country's north Sept. 26.

About 100 people were feared dead in landslides in two provinces -- Benguet and Mountain Province -- along the Cordillera mountain range, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) north of Manila, said Olive Luces, regional Office of Civil Defense director.

Landslides blocked the roads to the mountain city of Baguio in the heart of the Cordillera region and exact figures were hard to get.

"We are still accounting, but all in all our estimate is there were about 100 dead in the four major landslides," Luces said. "Retrieval operations are ongoing."

About 100 landslides have struck the region since the weekend, said Rex Manuel, another relief official.

Seventeen bodies have been recovered so far from Kibungan village in Benguet's La Trinidad township, which was almost entirely buried in mud and debris late Thursday, Manuel said. Up to 40 villagers were estimated to have died, while more than 100 were moved to safety, he said.

In Buyagan village, also in La Trinidad, only three out of about 100 houses remained visible after Thursday night's landslide buried most structures there. Some 50 residents were saved but it was not clear how many died, Manuel said.

In neighboring Mountain Province's Tadian township, at least 28 people were reported missing and several bodies were recovered after the side of a mountain collapsed.

Another landslide hit a second village in Tadian early Friday. No immediate casualty reports were available.

Forecasters said Tropical Depression Parma was still lingering off the northeastern coast for more than a week, dumping rains overnight. It was the second major storm to hit the country in two weeks.

Thousands of residents of Pangasinan province, about 105 miles (170 kilometers) north of Manila, fled to rooftops and scrambled for safety after dams released excess water from recent heavy rains.

Pangasinan provincial Vice Gov. Marlyn Primicias said she was getting frantic text messages from residents asking to be rescued, adding: "Eastern Pangasinan has become one big river."

Heavy rains, plus water discharged late Thursday night from a dam in Pangasinan, inundated 30 out of 46 towns along the Agno River in the coastal province, said Boots Velasco, the province's information officer.

"There was really heavy rain, so water had to be released from the dam, otherwise it would have been more dangerous," said the government's chief forecaster Nathaniel Cruz. "Even our office was flooded and our staff had to move to the rooftop. It's near the river that they were monitoring."

Heavy army trucks could not penetrate the area, and Primicias appealed for helicopters and boats to move people out of danger.

Mayor Nonato Abrenica of the Pangasinan's Villasis township said rain and water released from a nearby dam caused floods to rise quickly, isolating his town. He asked for food, water and medicines to be airlifted and for boats to rescue stranded residents.

The government's disaster relief agency said it had requested that the U.S. Embassy redeploy hundreds of American troops from the massive cleanup in and around the capital, Manila, to the flood-hit areas in the north.

Two U.S. Navy ships were positioning in the Lingayen Gulf in Pangasinan to provide helicopters and rubber boats for the rescue mission in the province, said U.S. Marine Capt. Jorge Escatell.

WASHINGTON -- NASA's moon probe has separated into two pieces as planned, a major milestone toward a Friday morning double-barreled crash into the lunar surface.

The smaller probe with five cameras and four other scientific instruments is now trailing behind a 2.2-ton empty rocket hull.

That hull will smack into the moon first Friday morning while the smaller probe measures the debris the big hull kicks up. Then the smaller probe, called LCROSS (EL-cross), which is short for Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, will hit the moon four minutes later.

Cameras across the world and in space will look at the lunar dirt kicked up and search for some form of water in it.

Pakistan’s Taliban appears to be in a state of disarray following the apparent killing of their commander Baitullah Mehsud. The Pakistani Taliban, considered a key Al-Qaeda facilitator by Washington, was allegedly killed in a US drone attack, according to Pakistani intelligence reports on Friday. However, Islamabad is still seeking confirmation.



Although the Taliban commander’s death has yet to be confirmed, it seems a deadly power-struggle has already begun. There were unconfirmed reports over the weekend of a fatal gun battle at a meeting of top Taliban commanders convened to discuss the choice of a successor to Mehsud.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said these reports from the lawless region of South Waziristan were being investigated.

The commanders were reportedly Hakimullah Mehsud, a deputy to Baitullah Mehsud and the warlord's main spokesman, and Wali-ur Rehman, a senior commander in Mehsud's umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) movement.



Despite the apparent internal turmoil among the Taliban, security analyst Hasan Askari warned that the threat was not over and said Pakistani authorities would have to re-establish control in the tribal areas.



"The current situation practically shows that the government does not really have access to the area, which makes it difficult to verify the information that is coming through diverse sources," Askari said.



FRANCE 24’s correspondent visited the Red Mosque, which is a bastion of extremists amid the current turmoil. For the worshippers at the Red Mosque, Mehsud’s death does not mean the end of the road for the Taliban in the region.



“Killing Meshud doesn't mean an end to this war because this war is an ideological battle. Killing an ideology isn't easy.” Iftikar Khan told FRANCE 24.



However, for now, Mehsud’s death could prove advantageous to the Pakistani government.

Du Xiaodon is a student from Shanghai who occasionally works at Ikea.

The average monthly income for someone from Beijing, Shanghai or Shenzhen - where Ikea has shops - is around 3,000 to 4,000 RMB [€300 - €400]. An EKTORP sofa itself costs 3,500 RMB - the same price as in the US and Europe. So I think that's why most people go there to do window shopping rather than real shopping. You see a lot of people with cameras. Some of them simply want to have pictures of the pretty furniture, others are design imitators, who then use the image to get a carpenter to copy it.

It's true that people go for ‘outings' to Ikea with their kids, and they do sit down in the chairs and have a lie down on the beds. But they only stay for a few minutes. There are few people sleeping like you see in the photos put online.

Ikea hasn't made any complaints about their Chinese shoppers. I think the company is optimistic about its market in China. They built five stores in the country between 2005 and 2009, and their sales have increased 25% each year, while only 10% in the rest of the world."
Xiaodong Du's picture

Xiaodong Du

* China
* College student, translator, blogger, business consultancy part timer

For most people, Ikea is the place where you spend Saturday afternoon waiting in a long queue to pay for some inexpensive furniture. Not for the Chinese. They've discovered that spending the day reading, sleeping and chatting on a brand new black sofa is much cheaper if you don't leave the shop with it.

For some weeks now, Chinese Web users have been amusing themselves by posting photos taken in Shanghai's Ikea store. Passers-by stop to stare at what appears to be residents of the Swedish chain. It's not only the beds and the sofas that attract nap-seekers. The restaurant is pretty popular too. It seems that coffee, biscuits and re-fill soda in an air-conditioned canteen is a great way to spend your weekend in Shanghai.

A former Ikea worker posted this comment on an online forum:

"I worked in the bed section of Ikea. We often had to ask clients to leave because they were snoring. They were very angry to be woken up and some even made complaints to the manager."

LONDON, Oct. 3 -- Henry Kissinger once famously asked, "Who do I call if I want to call Europe?" The answer, thanks to the Irish, may soon be the president of Europe.

Irish voters have removed the single greatest barrier to regionwide adoption of the Lisbon Treaty, which would further integrate the European Union -- the world's largest political and economic alliance encompassing almost 500 million people in 27 countries. According to official results of a referendum released Saturday, 67 percent of voters supported the charter.

The treaty would, among other things, create a full-time E.U. president and secretary of state, more closely linking the region's foreign policies and affording the alliance new clout on the world stage.

Irish voters rejected the treaty in a vote last year. But reassured that the European Union would not demand changes to its antiabortion laws or military neutrality, Ireland switched gears in a second referendum Friday.

"The Irish people have spoken with a clear and resounding voice," Prime Minister Brian Cowen, who has led the charge for the treaty's approval, said in a statement to reporters in Dublin. "It is a good day for Ireland, and a good day for Europe."

The results illustrate how the global financial crisis has forced hard-hit nations such as Ireland to find new value in their E.U. membership, reenergizing a project in cross-border governance that some said would never work.

The about-face, analysts say, appeared to be driven at least in part by fear.

Ireland is experiencing one of the worst economic downturns in the industrialized world after an unprecedented boom. It now views the E.U. as a lifeline to larger countries with more stable economies, including Germany and France. A repeat of a no vote, many Irish believed, would have reduced their influence with European partners at precisely the time when their investment, grants and loans are needed most, analysts said.

"The country is in dire straits, and we will be isolated politically if we vote no," said Jean Kennedy, 49, an auctioneer who voted Friday in south Dublin.
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Analysts note that the treaty would not drastically change European politics. It would fortify the power of the European Parliament on regional issues including security, agriculture and transportation, but E.U. nations would largely remain autonomous on the vast majority of issues.

Instead, many are pointing to the creation of a new leadership structure and the streamlining of E.U. decision-making, and its corps of diplomats and bureaucrats overseas, as the most important outcome of a ratified treaty.

The full-time E.U. president, to be elected by Europe's leaders for 2 1/2 -year terms, would replace a part-time system that rotates the seat every six months among standing leaders of member nations. The position is envisioned to be filled with a major European statesman, similar to the U.N. secretary general.

"This isn't going to change decision-making in Europe overwhelmingly. The European Union will remain a union of nations where issues of life, love and death, particularly on tax, social security and other issues, will continue to be set nationally," said Maurice Fraser, an associate fellow at Chatham House, a London-based think tank. "But by creating a central actor in the form of the new E.U. presidency, it should lead to a more credible status for the E.U. in international affairs."

Poland and the Czech Republic also must still ratify the Lisbon Treaty. Neither nation is holding a referendum, as the Irish did. Though Polish and Czech leaders are widely known as E.U. skeptics, analysts nevertheless think both nations will ratify the treaty before January.

But Irish rejection of the treaty probably would have killed it, setting back the goal of European integration by years, analysts say.

"A no vote would have weakened the E.U., cast doubt on the future of the euro and on the European project itself," said Hugo Brady, senior research fellow for the Center for European Reform in Brussels. "The E.U. will be breathing a sigh of relief."

Special correspondent Brendan Howard in Dublin contributed to this report.

ISTANBUL—A key panel of the International Monetary Fund said Sunday that it supports giving more voting power to emerging market and developing countries, warning that the legitimacy of the institution was at stake.The group's International Monetary and Financial Committee said it backs a shift of at least 5 percent of voting power from countries with ample representation to those with little influence. The move would seek to reflect changes in the global economy, with strong growth in countries that once lagged far behind the elite club of rich nations.

"Quota reform is crucial for increasing the legitimacy and effectiveness of the Fund," the committee said in a statement. It planned to review progress at its next meeting in Washington on April 24, and sought an agreement on the voting shift by January 2011. The change would then be subject to approval by the legislatures of some member countries.

"This is a process that will take time. It won't happen overnight," said committee chairman Youssef Boutros-Ghali. "We are reforming an organization that is complex, sophisticated and reaching every corner of the world economy."

The committee, which sets the IMF's agenda, said it was also committed to protecting the voting share of its poorest members. Panel members include IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and other finance chiefs.

The announcement came at the IMF's annual meeting, held this year in Istanbul. It followed a decision at a Pittsburgh forum that the G-20 nations would become the world's main economic decision-making forum, effectively taking over the role of the G-7 group of rich countries.

Earlier Sunday, Geithner said "a more representative, responsive and accountable governance structure is essential to strengthening the IMF's legitimacy."

He noted that G-20 countries had committed to shift some control in the IMF to countries with relatively little input. The Group of 20 includes developing economic powerhouses such as China, India and Brazil.

Geithner said the IMF should outline soon how the proposed transfer of voting power can occur. He said reform of the IMF's executive board was vital to modernizing the Washington-based institution, which represents 186 countries. The U.S. recommends reducing the board size while preserving the current number of emerging market and developing country chairs.

The IMF is usually headed by a European and the World Bank by an American. It has received pledges of more money to help poor countries struggling to emerge from the global economic crisis, and a broader range of nations wants to have more say in how the funds are handled.

Aid agency OXFAM says current voting formulas at the IMF give Luxembourg more weight than the Philippines, which has almost 200 times the population. It said the 5 percent shift in voting power was insufficient.

"They need to give more voice to the poorest countries, have fewer European seats on the Board, and get rid of the U.S. veto," said Caroline Pearce, OXFAM policy adviser. She said the IMF can only be relevant if it gives "countries hardest hit by the financial crisis a say in their own destiny."

The U.S. has a 17 percent voting stake in the IMF, effectively giving it veto power because major decisions require an 85-percent majority to pass.

SOLIDAR, a European network of non-governmental organizations, said the calls for a 5 percent shift amounted to "grandstanding" that distracted attention from the harsh impact of IMF austerity policies in nations including Ethiopia and Latvia.

"Governments are still being forced to cut pensions, jobs in the public sector, unemployment benefits, teacher's salaries, and the list goes on," Andrea Maksimovic of SOLIDAR said in a statement.

The IMF has often been criticized for allegedly imposing tough measures on countries in exchange for loans and without sufficient regard for the impact on the poor.

IMF officials say they have shown more flexibility in recent years. John Lipsky, the IMF's No 2. official, has said the IMF is undertaking "substantial efforts" toward internal reform that will provide "a fair shake for all our members."

At the Istanbul conference, a group of 35 heavily indebted countries welcomed the G-20's new role as a leader in global economic decisions, but said poor nations also needed representation to express their financing needs.

"We need at least one seat so that almost 1 billion Africans can express their views," said Lazare Essimi Menye, Cameroon's finance minister.

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Eight American soldiers were killed when Taliban fighters ambushed two remote outposts in eastern Afghanistan in one of the deadliest attacks on U.S. troops since the war began.

"This was a complex attack in a difficult area," said Army Col. Randy George in a statement released Sunday.

The soldiers were preparing to vacate the isolated outposts located in Nuristan province near the Pakistan border when Taliban fighters attacked from positions in the surrounding mountains early Saturday morning.

Nuristan is the province where nine U.S. soldiers were killed when their outpost was overrun by militants in July 2008, prompting an investigation into whether the troops were neglected by senior commanders.

On Friday, two U.S. soldiers, including one from the upstate Fort Drum-based 10th Mountain Division, were killed by a man dressed as an Afghan police officer in Wardak province, south of Kabul.

Three other U.S. troops were killed this month in separate attacks across the country, bringing the October death toll to 13.

Last month, 37 U.S. troops were killed in Afghanistan.

The deaths came as White House National Security Advisor Jim Jones hit the Sunday morning talk show circuit declaring that the Taliban was "very diminished" in Afghanistan.

"I don't foresee the return of the Taliban," Jones said on CNN's "State of the Union." "Afghanistan is not in imminent danger of falling."

That's in stark contrast to the assessment of the top U.S. commander on the ground, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who warned recently that the insurgency could win if a new strategy -- including more U.S. troops -- wasn't put in place.

Jones criticized media leaks surrounding McChrystal's review of the war, saying "ideally, it's best for military advice to come up through the chain of command."

But he said he agreed that more troops are "a portion of the answer, but not the total answer" to winning the war in Afghanistan.

President Obama is expected to announce his strategy for the war this month and whether that includes adding more troops to the more than 68,000 troops expected there by the end of the year.

The full extent of the damage caused by the earthquake that struck the Indonesian Island of Sumatra is still being assessed. In the city of Padang the collapse of a number of tall buildings caused a large number of casualties but many other buildings were still intact. This VOA correspondent traveled to some small villages to the North where few people were killed but damage to houses was massive.Earthquake victims throughout the affected areas of Southwest Sumatra are sorting through the collapsed remains of their homes and their lives, and wondering what to do next.

The taller buildings that collapsed in the city of Padang will almost certainly be rebuilt. Large businesses and public organizations have the resources, the labor force or overriding social need to make reconstruction a priority.

For the poor, the future is not so certain.

In some farming villages in the nearby district of Pariaman hundreds died when landslides caused by the quake buried the houses and those within.

In other villages few have died or have been severely injured. At an emergency medical tent set up to care for earthquake victims, Dr. David Joba has treated a number of people for shock but nothing serious.

He says about five or six people have mild coughs.

But the homes in these villages have sustained massive damage from the quake. House after house has either collapsed or has severe structural damage. Some houses were a pile of rubble. Others were teetering, the walls ruptured, the roofs full of holes. Broken glass and piles of bricks covered the ground.

Families are now living in makeshift tents. They are reacting to their loss in a variety of ways.

One family in the village of Lansano lost the small store they operated, the school they ran and their home. When asked what they will do, the mother responds with determination that life go on.

She says they will wake up again!

In the village of Barung, Iza Wati's home is in ruins and she is distraught.

She says what will happen she does not know. What can I do? she asks.

Adi Kato runs a small radio station that is affiliated with VOA in Padang, but his family's home is in Barung. He was born in the house in 1944. Now the ceiling has fallen, and the brick and mortar exterior has crumbled. His mother's picture still hangs on the inside wall. He says he and other poor people hurt by the earthquake need help from foreign countries, like the United States to rebuild.

"But we have no money," said Kato. "We hope US aid can help me."

His plea was echoed by many villagers. They want to rebuild their lives but they cannot do it by themselves.

TEHRAN, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- An Iranian official said a meeting between Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and U.S. envoy William Burns in Geneva was held at the request of the American side, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Sunday.

"The meeting of the U.S. delegation with the Iranian delegation was held at the request of the Americans," Iran's Supreme National Security Council Undersecretary for Foreign Policy Affairs Ali Baqeri was quoted as saying.

"The meeting was held merely within the framework of Iran's proposed package," he said, adding that the two sides discussed the ways for continuing the path to attain the goals specified at the Geneva meeting.

On Thursday, Jalili held talks with top envoys from the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany in Geneva, Switzerland. They agreed to hold a second round of meeting focusing on Iran's nuclear issue by the end of this month.

"Given that Iran is now a nuclear state, it will develop the industry in the geographical and software arenas and will establish new installations within the boundaries of IAEA rules and regulations," Fars quoted Baqeri as saying.

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed ElBaradei said Sunday at a joint press conference in Tehran with Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, that the UN nuclear watchdog would inspect Iran's newly disclosed uranium plant near Qom on Oct. 25. TEHRAN, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed ElBaradei said Sunday that the UN nuclear watchdog would inspect Iran's new uranium plant near Qom on Oct. 25.Full story