World | WPN World People News

The 2010 rainy season in West Africa has opened with hail storms in Guinea and the heaviest rain in 50 years in northern Chad. Floods have killed at least 80 people and destroyed homes, bridges, septic tanks, livestock, crops and food stocks; dams have broken, and wells and latrines and have been submerged.

Forest fires raged across Russia on Friday, destroying villages, surrounding one southern city and killing at least 25 people, including three firefighters. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin consoled survivors at one smoldering village and urged officials to redouble their efforts against the blazes.

Federal regulators have announced plans to step up scrutiny of sleep apnea and other health issues affecting truckers, a move that has put them on notice to get healthy.

The United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC), which settles the damage claims of those who suffered losses due to Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait, today made $650 million available to nine successful claimants.

Heavy smog has been covering Russia's capital due to forest fires which have been raging for three days.

Residents of the Carteret Islands off Papua New Guinea have been pleading for help from the international community since their homes began sinking into the ocean.

The Australian-born founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, has defended the placement of tens of thousands of classified US military files on his website.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and Japan have partnered to conserve and manage the birthplace of Buddha in southern Nepal.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened to cut off oil supplies to the United States should his country be invaded by Colombia, a U.S. ally.

More than two million Guineans do not have enough to eat, basic health services are a shambles and the country is in a fragile transition from decades of military rule, yet most aid donors do not see Guinea as an "emergency".