CHENGDU, China -- As health concerns intensified and aid poured in from across China and the world, Beijing on Sunday announced three days of mourning to commemorate the likely 50,000 deaths from the massive earthquake in Sichuan. Monday afternoon, exactly one week after the 7.9 earthquake destroyed so many lives and communities, China will ask its 1.2 billion people to observe three minutes of silence before sounding their car, truck, train, ship and air-raid horns in a collective cry of grief.

Sunday, China raised the death toll to 32,476 in what has become a daily grim ritual of moving 3,000 to 4,000 from the missing column to the dead column.

Three more people were reported alive after being pulled from the rubble Sunday. They'd been buried for at least 139 hours. But the momentum inexorably was shifting from finding the missing to caring for the injured, ensuring that epidemics don't break out and clearing roads.

The road to Beichuan was filled with hundreds of relief vehicles loaded with bags of rice, instant noodles, bottled water and tents. "Let's unite with one heart to fight this natural disaster," said a sign on a large blue relief truck.

TOKYO -- About 16,000 residents were evacuated from their homes in Chofu, western Tokyo, on Sunday, while work was carried out to remove an unexploded bomb believed to have been dropped during World War II.

The city government issued an evacuation order for about 8,000 households within a 500-meter radius of a construction site where the bomb was discovered.

The residents were evacuated to four primary and middle schools and other nearby facilities. City government officials visited houses and apartment buildings to ensure residents had been safely evacuated from the area after a siren had sounded at 8 a.m. to notify them of the operation.

About 140 inpatients at a hospital in the area were reportedly transferred to a nearby hospital.

A two-kilometer section of National Highway Route 20, known as the Koshu Kaido, was closed to traffic, and public transport also was suspended while the work was carried out.

Ground Self-Defense Force members began the operation to defuse the bomb at 11 a.m., and the city government called off the alert and declared the area safe at 11:36 a.m.

The city government said the U.S.-made bomb, which is about 1.8 meters long, has a diameter of about 60 centimeters and weighs one ton, was discovered about three meters underground while work was being carried out to lay underground railway lines near Kokuryo Station on the Keio Line on March 27.

BAGHDAD -- A U.S. Army soldier was removed from Iraq after he shot a Quran full of bullets and marked it with graffiti, the U.S. military announced Sunday.

U.S. military officials, fearing a backlash as a result of the desecration, moved quickly to resolve the case after Iraqi police found the desecrated book May 11 at a shooting range in the predominantly Sunni Muslim area of Radwaniya in western Baghdad.

They briefed tribal leaders on their investigation and expressed regret for the damage to the Quran, the Islamic holy book.

So far, there has been no public outcry over the desecration.

"This incident is not representative of the professionalism of our soldiers or the respect they have for all faiths," said Col. Bill Buckner.

YANGON, Myanmar -- The leader of Myanmar's ruling junta made his first visit to a refugee camp Sunday, patting the heads of babies and shaking hands with cyclone survivors, amid growing international criticism over the government's handling of the crisis.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, rebuffed so far in attempts to discuss the situation with the junta's leaders, announced he would go to the disaster zone Wednesday to try to ramp up aid efforts.

A senior British official hinted a breakthrough may also be near that would allow foreign military ships to join the relief effort, but warnings grew of a potential second wave of death among children hard-hit by the lack of fresh water and proper shelter.

Myanmar's state-run media lashed out at critics, detailing the regime's response. State television featured footage of junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe inspecting supplies and comforting victims in relatively clean and neat rows of blue tents.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Mobs rampaged through poor suburbs of Johannesburg in a frenzy of anti-foreigner violence over the weekend, killing at least seven people, injuring dozens and forcing hundreds to seek refuge at police stations.

The attacks capped a week of mounting violence that started in the sprawling township of Alexandra. Angry residents there accused foreigners -- many of them Zimbabweans who fled their own country's economic collapse -- of taking scarce jobs and housing.

Police and government officials say organized criminals are also taking advantage of the anti-foreigner sentiment by using it as a cover for looting and shooting sprees. President Thabo Mbeki said Sunday that he would set up a panel of experts to investigate. African National Congress President Jacob Zuma, who is likely to succeed Mbeki next year, condemned the attacks.

Bin Laden lashes out at Arab leaders

CAIRO, Egypt -- Osama bin Laden released a new message on Sunday denouncing Arab leaders for sacrificing the Palestinians and saying the head of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah did not really have the strength to take on Israel.

In his second audio message in three days focusing on the Palestinians, the al-Qaida leader said the only way to liberate Palestine is to fight the Arab regimes that are protecting Israel. And he called on Muslim militants in Egypt to help break the blockade of Gaza.

Bin Laden said Muslims should ignore the Islamic prohibition against raising arms against fellow Muslims, claiming it was legitimate to rise up against leaders who are not governing according to Islamic law. Those leaders, he said, came to power "either by a military coup or with backing from foreign forces."

"Those [Arab] kings and leaders sacrificed Palestine and Al-Aqsa to keep their crowns," bin Laden said, referring to Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, one of Islam's holiest sites. "But we will not be relieved of this responsibility."

His 22-minute audiotape was posted on an Islamic militant Web site where al-Qaida leaders have issued past statements. The voice sounded like bin Laden's, although the authenticity of the tape could not be independently verified.

Bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri frequently attack Arab leaders as traitors and sellouts. But they are increasingly focusing on the Palestinian issue in recent messages, aiming to increase their appeal to an Arab public widely sympathetic to the Palestinian plight.