BEIJING, May 12 (UPI) -- Chinese disaster officials rapidly increased the death toll from Monday's devastating earthquake in southwestern China, pushing it above 8,500.

The 7.9-magnitude temblor was centered in Wenchuan County in remote Sichuan province, which has a population of 112,000. In nearby Beichuan County, 80 percent of the buildings were reported destroyed and an estimated 3,000 were reported dead there alone.

State-run media put the overall death toll at 8,533 with 10,000 more injured in Sichuan, Gansu, Chongqing and Yunnan provinces, CNN reported

Xinhua reported hundreds were buried in the collapse of two chemical plants. Some 80 tons of ammonia leaked out and 6,000 people were evacuated, CNN said.

Reports said 50 bodies were pulled from the rubble of a high school in Wenchuan County, where 900 students were feared buried.

"Some buried teenagers were struggling to break loose from underneath the ruins while others were crying out for help," Xinhua reported.

Xinhua said Premier Wen Jiabao was on hand to direct the rescue efforts.

Tremors were felt in other parts of China, as well Hanoi, Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan.

"This is a very dangerous earthquake," Bruce Presgrave, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey, told CNN.

Communication with China's Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center has been cut off, State Forestry Administration officials said. About 130 giant pandas are living in the center and another 150 wild pandas roam the Wolong reserve.

Venues for the 2008 Summer Olympics weren't damaged, Xinhua reported.

A quake that measured 7.5 on the Richter scale killed more than 10,000 people in the same area in 1933. The country's worst earthquake, on July 28, 1976, in Hebei province, killed more than 240,000.

Myanmar lists 32,000 killed in cyclone

YANGON, Myanmar, May 12 (UPI) -- State television in Myanmar Monday updated the death toll from this month's cyclone to nearly 32,000.

The report monitored in Bangkok by The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) said 31,938 people were dead and another 29,770 were missing. The United Nations has estimated that between 62,000 and 100,000 people died in the disaster.

A U.N. official said outside aid was still at a trickle due to the government's refusal to open its borders to foreign relief crews.

The Times said a possible breakthrough came Monday when the government allowed a U.S. military C-130 to land in the former Burma. The plane carried supplies along with U.S. Navy Adm. Timothy Keating, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific.

"We told them we could come in during the day and leave at night, that they could put Burmese officials on our planes and ships and that we would provide our own fuel," Keating told the Times in a telephone interview. "We told them we wouldn't stay a day longer than they wanted."

U.S. seeks extradition of radical cleric

LONDON, May 12 (UPI) -- Lawyers for radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza want Britain's High Court to deny a request to extradite their client to the United States to face terror charges.

The Egyptian-born cleric is serving a seven-year prison term in England for inciting his followers to kill non-believers, The Sun reported Monday.

He is wanted in the United States on charges of attempting to set up an al-Qaida training camp in Oregon.

His lawyers argue that extraditing Hamza would violate his human rights.

They also say evidence against him should be blocked because it was gained by torture.

Hamza was arrested at his home in May 2004 under a streamlined Anglo-American extradition treaty.

Extradition proceedings were put on hold until his British trial and appeal process had been completed.

Apartheid suits to go forward

WASHINGTON, May 12 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court, unable to act because four justices had conflicts of interest, Monday allowed apartheid-related suits against companies to go forward.

But the 34 U.S. and foreign companies turned away by the high court still have a chance to have the suits dismissed. The companies allegedly profited by South Africa's racial laws, which ended in 1994.

A federal appeals court in New York rejected the companies' assertion that the reparations lawsuits couldn't be brought against private corporations under the 1789 Aliens Tort Act but didn't deal with their assertion that the suits should be dismissed out of "deference" to the executive branch. The U.S. Justice Department has taken the side of the corporations in court.

The high court rejection of the case means the case now returns to a federal judge in Brooklyn for a ruling on the "deference" argument, SCOTUSBLOG.com reported.

The U.S. Supreme Court must have six sitting justices to have a quorum. In an order Monday, the court said John Roberts' title='Chief Justice John Roberts' class='tpstyle'>Chief Justice John Roberts and Anthony Kennedy' title='Justices Anthony Kennedy' class='tpstyle'>Justices Anthony Kennedy, Stephen Breyer and Samuel Alito took no part in the decision to reject the cases. Though the court offered no explanation, the recusals usually mean justices or their close relatives have stock in the companies in the case.

(No. 07-919, American Isuzu Motors, et al vs. Ntsebeza, et al.)

Barr to run as Libertarian for president

WASHINGTON, May 12 (UPI) -- Former Republican and Georgia Rep. Bob Barr Monday joined the U.S. presidential fray, announcing he would seek the Libertarian Party's nomination.

At a National Press Club news conference in Washington, Barr said the Democratic and Republican candidates for president have failed to conduct a full and fair debate on the issues.

"My name is Bob Barr and I'm a candidate for the presidency of the United States of America," Barr declared.

During a question-and-answer session, Barr chastised the Bush administration for its role in Iraq and said U.S. troops "need to be brought home." The money being spent on the war, he said, should be returned to taxpayers.

Barr said as commander-in-chief, he would seek an immediate review of all foreign bases and close those that do not serve the direct interests of the United States.

Earlier, in an interview with Fox News, Barr said he believes he has a realistic chance of getting elected, even though the Libertarian Party's best showing was 1.32 percent in 1980.

"The American people are truly becoming, if not already, fed up with the two-party, status quo system," Barr said.

"I think people are serious when they say, we want a change; we want somebody in Washington who will cut back on the scope, the power and the oppressive size of the federal government and return power, money, and influence to the people, where it ought to reside in the first place."