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Rains kill 33 people in China
BEIJING, Aug 03 (AP): Flooding and landslides triggered by torrential rains killed 33 people in northern and northwestern China, a government news agency reported Thursday.
Two days of floods caused by heavy rains and hailstorms that pounded Chifeng city in the northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous
Region from July 27 left nine people dead, the Xinhua News Agency said.
In northwestern Gansu province, floods and landslides killed 18 people and left one missing between late June and July 17, the report said, citing the provincial flood bureau. It said another six people were killed and one missing in flooding since July 27.
It didn't explain the reason for the delay in announcing the fatalities.
Oil prices drop, hurricane
fears recede
LONDON (Internet): Oil prices fell Thursday as fears receded that a tropical storm blowing through the Caribbean could damage oil facilities in the Gulf of Mexico.
Light sweet crude for September delivery fell 56 cents to $75.25 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On London's ICE Futures exchange, September Brent crude fell 65 cents to $76.24 a barrel.
Analysts said the decline was triggered in part by news that Tropical Storm Chris was weakening and was unlikely to affect Gulf oil facilities.
15 civilians killed in Sri Lanka
TRINCOMALEE (Reuters): Artillery fire killed at least 15 civilians sheltering from fighting in northeast Sri Lanka Thursday, the army said, as troops battled Tamil Tiger rebels and the island slipped back toward civil war.
More than 800 people have died this year and ambushes, air strikes and naval clashes had become commonplace, but it was a dispute over a rebel-held water supply that led to the first major ground fighting last week since a 2002 ceasefire
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