More victims turn up as waters recede in Haiti

GONAIVES, Haiti -- Cemetery workers trudge through the water with a wooden cart, fetching dozens of bloated corpses from the muck and carting them off for burial. The city's 15 police officers have buried dozens more, and nobody knows how many were swept out to sea.

In this sodden city with no working morgue, nobody is counting the dead. And after four tropical storms in less than a month, Haiti's death toll will never be known.

"The water is bringing us the bodies," cemetery director Jules Jean-Baptiste Jeudy said Tuesday. "If they have a family, then they get a coffin. If we just find them on the street, we just bury them."

Working without electricity, face masks or gloves, Jeudy and his 10 employees roam the streets of this low-lying coastal city where Tropical Storm Hanna and Hurricane Ike sent rivers of mud up to the rooftops. Other Gonaives residents have taken it upon themselves to bury their relatives or neighbors. Officials say at least 331 people have been killed in the storms in this desperately poor Caribbean nation. In the hard-hit region of Artibonite, which includes Gonaives, Hanna killed at least 172.

Mexico's postal blues remade in hot pink

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's notoriously unreliable postal service is getting the shock treatment -- shocking pink, that is.

Infamous for lost packages and tardy delivery, the postal service is getting a hot-pink makeover to try to brighten up its image, win back customers -- and pull it out of the red.

Changes include a new logo, new uniforms and pink-and-lime-green painted post offices. Some will also sell cut-rate rice, beans and powdered milk alongside stamps. Coffee mugs and envelopes -- something the post office didn't sell before -- will also be available, but only in hot pink and lime green.

The service's new symbol -- a white carrier pigeon holding a letter in its beak -- hit the streets Tuesday, a day after President Felipe Calderon unveiled the new look at a gala ceremony. The government hopes the new image and services will help the post office break even next year, after annual losses of up to $50 million.

Officials promise high-speed Internet access at post offices where clerks still struggle with manual typewriters and sort mail by hand.

Out are the dingy blue-and-white paint and threadbare uniforms the postal service has used for decades. The trendy new color scheme was chosen because "we want to be very visible ... in colors as brilliant, as vibrant as Mexico," said Purificacion Carpinteyro, who oversaw the remake and wore a hot-pink dress to Monday's ceremony.

All 1,450 post offices will be painted with the new colors, both inside and out.

TV journalist escapes assassination in Iraq

BAGHDAD -- An Iraqi journalist for one of the Middle East's best-known satellite television stations escaped assassination Tuesday when a bomb was found under the seat of his car as he prepared to leave home for work.

The attempt against Jawad al-Hattab, Baghdad bureau manager for Al-Arabiya television, illustrates the dangers facing Iraq despite the decline in violence.

President Bush cited those dangers when he announced Tuesday that he would keep U.S. troop strength mostly intact through 2008.

Al-Hattab's driver and a security guard discovered the laptop-sized bomb as they waited to pick up the correspondent at his home in central Baghdad, according to the station's executive editor Nabil Khatib.

The two moved away from the car and summoned police but the device exploded before they arrived, heavily damaging the vehicle and setting it on fire, Khatib said.

"It appears that it was timed to explode while al-Hattab was driving to the office," Khatib said, calling the blast "an attempt on his life and an attack against the station." Al-Arabiya, based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is among the most popular Arabic TV news stations and has been criticized by Iraqi hard-liners who believe it is too pro-Western.

Thai court removes prime minister

BANGKOK, Thailand -- A Thai court removed the prime minister Tuesday for taking pay to host a TV cooking show, setting off wild celebrations by protesters occupying his office compound. But rejoicing could be short-lived -- the ruling party vowed to put him back in power.

The Constitutional Court's ruling took Samak Sundaravej at least temporarily out of the cross-hairs of the People's Alliance for Democracy, a rightist movement that seized the Government House complex two weeks ago seeking to force the prime minister's resignation.

But the ruling seemed unlikely to end the political crisis brought on by the alliance's demands for a sea change in Thai politics, beginning with Samak's ouster and eventually moving Thailand away from democracy in favor of a mostly appointed legislature.

After the verdict, Samak's political party vowed to re-elect him as prime minister, as allowed by law.

Protesters said they would hold on to Government House while waiting to see who Parliament selects as prime minister, a vote expected Friday. If Samak or anyone tied to disgraced former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is picked, the occupation will continue, alliance spokesman Suriyasai Katasila said.

Russia to keep 7,600 troops in 2 Georgia regions

TBILISI, Georgia -- Russia announced Tuesday it would keep 7,600 troops in Abkhazia and South Ossetia for the foreseeable future, asserting power in the breakaway regions even as it began a pullout from positions deeper in Georgia.

The Kremlin's plans for a heavy military footprint in the enclaves mock Georgia's hopes that a revised peace agreement will lead to a complete Russian withdrawal from the fractured country at the heart of a bitter fray between Moscow and the West.

The deal that emerged from a day of frantic French diplomacy Monday may defuse tension by removing Russian forces from positions they hold in Georgia weeks after last month's war. But it left serious questions unanswered.

After hours of talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev promised to withdraw all Russian forces from positions outside Abkhazia and South Ossetia within about a month.

Medvedev's pledge seemed like a startling concession from Moscow, which had adamantly claimed to have met its obligations under the cease-fire brokered by Sarkozy last month. As recently as Sunday, Georgia said Russia was reinforcing its positions around a key port.

But even as it promises to pull back from positions outside South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Russia is strengthening its grip on the separatist regions themselves. That runs counter to Western demands that they remain a part of Georgia and casts a shadow over President Mikhail Saakashvili's hopes of uniting the nation.

American performer: Israeli security made me dance

JERUSALEM -- A performer with the famed Alvin Ailey dance troupe on Tuesday said he was twice forced to perform steps for Israeli airport security officers to prove his identity before he was permitted to enter the country.

Abdur-Rahim Jackson, an eight-year veteran of the dance ensemble, said he was singled out by Israel's renowned airport security because he has a Muslim name. He called the experience embarrassing and said at one point, one of the officers even suggested he change his name.

"To be greeted like this because of my name, it took me back a little bit," said Jackson, who is black.

Israel is the first stop on a six-nation tour celebrating the New York-based dance company's 50th anniversary. Earlier this year, Congress passed a resolution calling the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater a "vital American cultural ambassador to the world."

Jackson said he was pulled aside from other members of the troupe when they arrived at Israel's international airport on Sunday night. He said he was taken to a holding room, where he was asked about the origins of his name. When he explained he was part of the dance group, he was asked to perform.

"I stood up. I asked what type of dance?" he explained. "He said, "Just do anything.' I just moved around."

Minutes later, he said a female officer put him through a similar interrogation and asked him to dance again.

"The only time I'm really expected to dance is when I'm performing," he said.

Malaysia to punish official for racist remarks

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- A senior official will be punished for his racist outburst warning Malaysia's ethnic Chinese minority not to become greedy for political and economic power, the prime minister said Tuesday.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the leaders of Malaysia's 14-party ruling coalition unanimously rejected Ahmad Ismail's remarks and that they "want swift and firm action to be taken" against him.

Ahmad, a district chief in the United Malays National Organization ruling party, claimed that the Malay majority was losing patience with minorities, particularly ethnic Chinese politicians.

"I urge the Chinese not to become like the Jewish in America, where it is not enough that they control the economy, but they also want to dominate politics," Ahmad told a news conference late Monday in northern Penang state.

"Consider this a warning from the Malays," Ahmad said. "The patience of the Malays has a limit. Do not push us against the wall, for we will be forced to turn back and push the Chinese for our own survival."

Abe Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation League, an American Jewish advocacy group, called the remarks an example of "classic anti-Semitism."