Floods

Monsoon floods have killed 10 more people in Bangladesh and in India's remote northeast and stranded more than a million villagers, as weather forecasters warned that the region's rivers continued to swell. Officials in Bangladesh said Tuesday that the latest victims were four children, bringing the nation's death toll from a weeklong deluge to 59. The fatalities occurred Monday in the southern and southeastern districts of Cox's Bazar, Bhola and Feni, government relief officials said.

Flooding has devastated villages and crops in southern China, killing at least 204 people and leaving 79 missing at the start of the summer flood season on Wednesday, the government said Sunday. Hunan province was the worst hit, with the death toll rising to 75 Sunday, the official New China News Agency said. Forty-six people in the province were missing.

Victims of last month's flash floods will be eligible for federal financial assistance, officials announced Wednesday. Recognizing that the mudslides and flooding were directly related to October's wildfires, federal officials have extended the period of eligibility to Feb. 2. Prior to the extension, fire-related losses had to have occurred prior to Dec. 2.

Here in Pakistan's southern Punjab province, the tawny waters of the Indus and Chenab rivers have swallowed up vast swaths of verdant rice paddies, sugar cane fields and mango orchards that usually feed the nation. Floodwaters have submerged the village of Basti Dopiwala, leaving farmers and their families stranded on a small patch of dry land to ponder survival without the fields that sustain them. Along the banks of the Chenab, the river gently laps the boughs of mango trees that stretch to the horizon and are a source of national pride.

THE PHILIPPINES * Floods and a landslide in the Philippines killed at least six people in the latest weather-related disaster to hit Manila and nearby provinces, officials said. Three people drowned in floods in the capital, and a landslide in San Pablo city, south of Manila, killed three others, including a child, disaster relief officials said.

Floods sweeping across Siberia reportedly killed eight people and trapped campers and mushroom pickers in the region's vast forests. Floods struck suddenly after heavy rains this week, forcing the evacuation of dozens of villages near Siberia's Lake Baikal. Three people were killed in Buryatia province and five in the Irkutsk region, the Interfax news agency reported.

Chinese officials today began a three-day drill to ensure that they can quickly relocate 1.3 million people at risk if a lake created by this month's devastating earthquake floods the area. Soldiers and dozens of earthmovers have been working around the clock to carve diversion channels from the swelling Tangjiashan lake in the Mianyang region, one of dozens of lakes formed after chunks of mountains gave way and clogged raging rivers. The crews have been hampered by heavy rain and the threat of aftershocks that could trigger more landslides.

Heavy rains spread floods to a seventh district of Malawi, destroying homes and crops in a country already struggling with food shortages. President Bakili Muluzi declared a state of disaster in affected areas. The floods have killed at least seven people and damaged bridges and electricity lines, causing power outages. Tens of thousands have been made homeless this month as rains have pounded the southern African country.

Flooding forced several thousand people from their homes and closed the New Jersey Statehouse. No deaths or injuries were reported after two days of torrential rain, but acting Gov. Richard J. Codey estimated that property damage would approach $30 million. Bridges across the Delaware River north of Trenton were closed as the river surged over its banks.

A week of heavy rains set off massive flooding in southeastern Mexico, where tens of thousands fled for shelters in the states of Tabasco and Chiapas. At least 20,000 people had sought shelter in Tabasco's oil-rich capital of Villahermosa, where floodwaters reached the rooftops of homes, and Gov. Andres Granier was urging residents to evacuate.