A major earthquake struck China, jolting cities as far away as Bangkok and prompting evacuations of office buildings in Beijing and across China. Chinese media said the quake death toll in one Sichuan county was estimated at more than 8,500 people. Video

The United States government launched its first airlift of relief supplies to cyclone-ravaged Myanmar with the landing of a military airplane in the south Asian country Monday morning.

Philippine president Gloria Arroyo has pardoned nine army officers convicted of a 2003 coup plot.

AP - A massive earthquake struck central China on Monday, killing more than 8,500 people, trapping nearly 900 students under the rubble of their school and spilling ammonia from a chemical plant, state media reported.

AP - The Environmental Protection Agency was preparing to conduct air and soil tests to check for high lead levels Monday after a deadly tornado blew through Picher, a town so polluted with lead-filled mining waste that it's a Superfund site.

AP - Democratic presidential contenders Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton were preparing for Tuesday's primary in West Virginia, a contest that Clinton is heavily favored to win but which likely won't dent Obama's almost insurmountable lead in the delegate count.

Laura Neuman was raped when she was 18 years old. It took nearly 20 years to identify her attacker, even though he'd been arrested six times before her attack and at least six times afterward.

Manchester United chief executive David Gill promises Sir Alex Ferguson further funds to strengthen his squad this summer.

A robot which cares for millions of frozen biological samples is among four finalists for a top engineering award.

A massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed more than 8,500 people in China and left hundreds trapped under rubble, state run media report. Some 900 students are reported buried under a collapsed school. China's Seismological Bureau said the quake affected more than half the country's provinces and municipalities.

The Supreme Court said it couldn't intervene in a case over the rights of apartheid victims to sue U.S. corporations because four of the nine justices had to sit out because of apparent conflicts.

The Gates Foundation will name a new chief executive officer Monday, replacing Patty Stonesifer who has announced plans to leave in January 2009.

More aid has reached Burma after the first US aid plane landed in Rangoon, nine days after the cyclone.

There are fears that thousands of people are dead after an earthquake in south-western China.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has pledged to reform the social care system for England's ageing population.