Nation/World Snapshots

By The Associated Press - 05/28/2008

Chinese soldiers evacuate villages under flood threat MIANYANG, China (AP) — About 80,000 people were evacuated Tuesday from downstream of an unstable earthquake-created dam that is threatening to collapse, and troops rushed to carve a trench to drain the water before it floods the valley.

The threat of flooding from dozens of lakes swelling behind walls of mud and rubble that have plugged narrow valleys in parts of the disaster zone is adding a new worry for millions of survivors.

More than 30 villages were emptied and the people were being sent to camps like the one outside Jiangyou, where an Associated Press reporter saw 12-15 people crammed into each of about 40 government-issued tents pitched on a hillside overlooking the river.

“We were told that so far it is the safest place for us to stay if the dam of the lake crashes,” said Liu Yuhua, whose village of Huangshi was one of those emptied. “But we will have to move farther uphill if the situation turns out to be worse.” Troops on Tuesday used explosives to blow up tree stumps that were hampering heavy-duty excavators that were airlifted by helicopter in recent days to the newly formed Tangjiashan lake near the town of Beichuan, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Number of troops with PTSD jumped 50 percent in 2007 WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of troops with new cases of post-traumatic stress disorder jumped by roughly 50 percent in 2007 amid the military buildup in Iraq and increased violence there and in Afghanistan.

Records show roughly 40,000 troops have been diagnosed with the illness, also known as PTSD, since 2003. Officials believe that many more are likely keeping their illness a secret.

“I don’t think right now we ... have good numbers,” Army Surgeon General Eric Schoomaker said Tuesday.

Defense officials had not previously disclosed the number of PTSD cases from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Army statistics showed there were nearly 14,000 newly diagnosed cases across the services in 2007 compared with more than 9,500 new cases the previous year and 1,632 in 2003.

Radio glitch delays moving Phoenix lander arm TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A glitch with a Mars orbiter relaying commands from Earth delayed plans Tuesday to move the robotic arm on the Phoenix Mars Lander during its second day of activities, an inconvenience but no major problem, NASA officials said.

A “transient event” on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter turned its UHF radio off, cutting off communication between it and the lander, said Fuk Li, manager of the Mars exploration program for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

But Li and others said it is not a significant problem.

“All this is is a one-day hiccup in being able to move the arm around, so it’s no big deal,” said Ed Sedivy, space program for Lockheed-Martin Corp. in Denver.

Li said the orbiter turned itself off during the event — possibly caused by a cosmic ray — as it was programmed to do, but he said orbiter team members were trying to get the radio back on.

McCain, Bush campaign together PHOENIX (AP) — John McCain’s complex relationship with President Bush can be summed up with a simple saying: can’t live with him, can’t live without him.

The president’s own popularity is bottom-of-the-barrel low. Even allies privately fret that he’s an albatross for the Republican looking to succeed him. Voters are crying out for change amid a prolonged Iraq war and a weakened economy.

But Bush also is beloved among GOP loyalists. He’s a proven campaigner who can raise serious money. Those are huge assets as Arizona Sen. McCain works to rally the Republican base and fill his coffers while facing the Democrats’ unrivaled enthusiasm and record-breaking fundraising.

The president and his would-be successor were appearing together Tuesday for the first time in nearly three months at a fundraiser with GOP faithful at a private home, without the media to document it.