The death toll in the massive mudslide in northwest China's Gansu Province has risen to 1,144, with 600 still missing as of 4:30 p.m. on August 12, the provincial department of civil affairs said.

Officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo say at least 50 people died when the overloaded truck were traveling in plunged into Africa's deepest lake.

More than 700 firefighters are battling a dozen forest blazes raging in northern Portugal, said government agencies  on August 12.

Cambodia has asked Thailand to postpone indefinitely the General Border Committee (GBC) meeting scheduled for August 27-28 in Bangkok.

The US says it is on target to end combat operations in Iraq by the end of August and meet its deadline for removing all troops by the end of 2011.

The start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan coincided in Pakistan on August 11 with the nation's worst natural disaster, the staggering scope of human suffering revealing itself in wretched ways.

The number of people confirmed to have died after massive landslides in north-western China has risen to 1,117, with 627 others missing, officials say.

The global H1N1 pandemic is over, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization said on August 10.

Hopes of finding survivors of China's worst mudslides faded on August 11 as the death toll reached 702 with more than 1,000 people still missing under waves of rock and sludge.

The United Nations is launching an appeal to help 13.8 million people hit by floods that have devastated swathes of the country and created one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters.