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BEIJING – Two aftershocks caused more than 420,000 houses to collapse in China’s quake zone, a state news agency said on Tuesday.

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The houses in Qingchuan county were damaged after the temblors hit the region on Tuesday, Xinhua News Agency reported. The U.S. Geological Survey said one of the aftershocks measured magnitude 5.7.

Meanwhile, Chinese officials rushed to evacuate another 80,000 people in the path of potential floodwaters building up behind a quake-spawned dam, as soldiers scraped a channel to try to drain away the threat.

Emergency workers would try to complete the evacuation by midnight Tuesday, taking the number of people moved out of the threatened valley to almost 160,000, from more than 30 townships, the official Xinhua New Agency reported.

The Tangjiashan lake in northern Sichuan province, formed when a massive landslide blocked a river, is one of dozens of fragile dams created during the earthquake that pose a new destructive threat in the disaster zone.

Soldiers hauled explosives through the mountains to reach the area, and the official Chinese Daily said Tuesday on its Web site they were “preparing to dynamite the barrier.” State television showed live footage of heavy earth-moving equipment being used to carve out a 200-yard channel to drain the water.

“We are prepared to get rid of the trees by chopping and explosion. After that, the second batch of equipment will be moved in,” Liu Ning, chief engineer at the Ministry of Water Resources, was quoted as saying on CCTV.

The lake is swelling behind a landslide near Beichuan, one of the towns hit hardest by the May 12 tremor that devastated Sichuan.

Jitters among survivors
Aftershocks have rumbled across the region since the major quake adding to jitters among survivors and in some cases causing more damage.

A major temblor Sunday knocked down thousands of buildings that had survived the initial quake, and killed eight people.

One quake expert said Tuesday that aftershocks in the area could continue for several months.

“Judging from previous earthquakes of a similar magnitude, this time the aftershocks may last for two or three months,” He Yongnian, a former deputy director of China Seismological Bureau, was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

The aftershocks were likely to grow weaker as time passed, he said.

Death toll rises by 2,000 in a day
The number of deaths from China’s massive quake has climbed further toward an expected toll of 80,000 or more. The Cabinet said Tuesday that 67,183 people were confirmed killed — up by about 2,000 from a day earlier — and 20,790 were still missing.

Also Tuesday, health officials said higher-than-normal rates of stomach pains and fever had been reported among the millions of quake survivors, but that no major disease outbreaks had occurred.

Some 5 million people were left homeless by the quake, and many of them are living in tents or makeshift communities that are clustered throughout the disaster zone.

Qi Xiaoqiu, the director of disease prevention at the health ministry, told reporters in Beijing on Tuesday the quake had knocked out much of the region’s health infrastructure, 12 field hospitals had been erected and tens of thousands of health professionals were working in the zone.

“With the destruction by the quake, the living and sanitary conditions have worsened for the local population,” Qi said. “Their physical conditions are weakened (and they are) more vulnerable to disease.”

Diseases such as tuberculosis, hepatitis and diarrhea remained a threat, but so far there had been no outbreaks reported, he said.

About 1,800 soldiers clambered up mountain paths to reach Tangjiashan with plans to blast through the debris and drain the water, the Xinhua reported.

It did not say when the blasting operation would take place.

Villages swallowed by floodwaters
The Tangjiashan lake is one of dozens caused when the magnitude 7.9 quake sent millions of tons of earth and rock tumbling into some of the region’s narrow valleys. Some rising floodwaters have already swallowed villages.

Tangjiashan now holds 34 billion gallons of water, Liu said.

Pressure is building behind the dams as rivers and streams feed into the newly formed lakes. Officials fear the loose soil and debris walls of the dams could crumble easily, especially once the water level reaches the top and begins cascading over.

Adding to the threat, thunderstorms were forecast for parts of Sichuan this week — a foretaste of the coming summer rainy season that accounts for more than 70 percent of the 2 feet of rain that falls on the area each year.

Also in northern Sichuan in Qingchuan county, 1,300 people have been evacuated from Guanzhuang because of landslide worries. Local official Li Guoping said plans were being drawn up to evacuate all 23,000 people in the area if needed.

He said landslides that blocked rivers had formed 10 lakes, but only three had the potential to be dangerous if there were heavy rains.

“I worry about the start of the rainy season,” Li said

WASHINGTON – Top executives of the five largest oil companies tried to shift anger over high prices to a debate over supplies Wednesday, leading a senator to accuse them of acting like “hapless victims” while racking up record profits.

Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told the executives there’s “a disconnect” between normal supply and demand and the skyrocketing price of oil — surpassing $130 a barrel even as the oil leaders testified — that the industry has yet to explain.

J. Stephen Simon, executive vice president of Exxon Mobil Corp., said profits have been huge “in absolute terms” but must be viewed in the context of the massive scale of the industry.” He also said high earnings are needed “in the current up cycle” to pay for investments in the long term when profits will be down.

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BEICHUAN, China – A government warning of a major aftershock sent thousands of panicked survivors running into the darkened streets Monday night following an unprecedented display of mourning for more than 34,000 people killed in a powerful earthquake one week ago.

In shattered Sichuan province, quake-weary residents carried pillows, blankets and chairs from homes into the open or slept in cars after a statement from the National Seismology Bureau was read on television warning that there was a “rather great” chance of an aftershock measuring magnitude 6 to 7. Such jolts could cause major damage.

People in the provincial capital of Chengdu got in their cars and drove east — toward plains and away from the quake zone to the northwest. At intersections outside the city, clusters of people slept on bedrolls. Cars were parked along a service road to a highway, their drivers sleeping on the sidewalk.

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Hours after Thursday’s landmark ruling by the California Supreme Court striking down a state law banning gay marriage, the 50-year-old daytime host announced during a taping of The Ellen DeGeneres Show that she and the 35-year-old former Ally McBeal star plan to swap vows.

In the episode scheduled to air later today, studio audience members greeted DeGeneres’ news with thunderous applause and a standing ovation as De Rossi watched from the sidelines.

Separately, in an interview with The Advocate Thursday, DeGeneres said she was ready to go bridal.

“I’m thrilled that the California Supreme Court overturned the ban on gay marriage,” she told the magazine. “I can’t wait to get married. We all deserve the same rights, and I believe that someday…not allowing gays to marry will seem as absurd as not allowing women to vote.”

DeGeneres and the Aussie actress have been together for four years.

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NEW YORK – Drivers have long known that slowing down on the highway means getting more miles to the gallon. Now airlines are trying it, too — adding a few minutes to flights to save millions on fuel.

Southwest Airlines started flying slower about two months ago, and projects it will save $42 million in fuel this year by extending each flight by one to three minutes.

On one Northwest Airlines flight from Paris to Minneapolis earlier this week alone, flying slower saved 162 gallons of fuel, saving the airline $535. It added eight minutes to the flight, extending it to eight hours, 58 minutes.

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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Thirteen hours after his former pastor startled some with a defiant performance that was televised nationwide, Barack Obama urged 18,000 supporters to stay calm and shrug off such “distractions.”

By the next afternoon, however, his tone was dramatically different.

The Illinois senator summoned reporters Tuesday to say he was outraged by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s “divisive and destructive” remarks, scrambling to contain the flare-up in a controversy that has dogged him since clips of some of Wright’s most objectionable remarks began circulating on TV and the Internet.

WASHINGTON – Sen. Barack Obama’s ties to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright could hurt his presidential hopes. So could his comment about “bitter” small-town America clinging to guns and religion. And Americans might question Sen. Hillary Clinton’s honesty and trustworthiness.

But according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, the bigger problem appears to be John McCain’s ties to President Bush.

In the survey, 43 percent of registered voters say they have major concerns that McCain is too closely aligned with the current administration.

By comparison:

• 36 percent have major concerns that Clinton seems to change her position on some issues (like driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants and the North American Free Trade Agreement, which her husband signed but which she now opposes)
• 34 percent say they’re bothered by Obama’s “bitter” remarks
• 32 percent have a major problem with the Illinois senator’s past associations with Wright and the 1960s radical William Ayers
• 27 percent have serious concerns that Bill Clinton would have too much influence on U.S. policy decisions if his wife is elected

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