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More than 260 dead in Bangladesh storm

DHAKA, Bangladesh, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- A devastating cyclone on the southwestern coast of Bangladesh has killed more than 260 people and displaced thousands of others.

The storm, which made landfall Thursday evening, has left at least 500 fishing trawlers -- staffed by more than 3,000 fisherman -- missing, PTI reported Friday.

Officials said Bangladeshi Army troops and Air Force helicopters were called in to assist with rescue operations.

The officials said the Barguna district was one of the hardest-hit by the storm, with 118 people in the area killed. Reports are still pending from some areas affected by the cyclone, including the Khulna and Barisal districts and the island of Dubla Chor.

Meanwhile, the country's weather office said the sun was shining Friday, but there was a chance of rain later in the day, as the storm continues to flounder north of the country's coast in a weakened form, PTI said.

U.S. envoy on tough Pakistan mission

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- John Negroponte's trip to Pakistan may be President Pervez Musharraf's last chance to keep his U.S. support before the United States looks to another leader.

The U.S. deputy secretary of state traveled to Pakistan to help resolve the worsening political crisis brought on by Musharraf's emergency decree but Britain's Independent reports the visit comes at a time of indications U.S. President George Bush's administration may be ready to switch its support to an alternative leader.

Negroponte will meet both Musharraf and Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani, who may take over from Musharraf if and when the latter gives up his military chief title to become a civilian president, the report said.

A western diplomat in Islamabad told the newspaper: "You can expect (Negroponte) will be saying the same things that the U.S. has been saying in public -- end the emergency, take off the uniform, hold the elections, free the media and release the prisoners. I do not think he will be saying it is time to go but he will be saying it is time to change."

The Independent reported it is not clear if the Bush administration has decided to give up on Musharraf but reports indicate a growing number of U.S. officials say they believe it is time to start talking to others such as Kiyani.

Cold virus strain kills 10

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said 10 people have been killed by a potent new form of the common cold virus.

The virus, adenovirus serotype 14, has sickened more than 360 people in Texas, Oregon, Washington and New York, including at least 53 who have been hospitalized since May 2006, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

One U.S. soldier was killed by the strain and 106 others infected at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.

"Adenoviruses have been known to cause severe disease in the very young and the very old and people with medical problems," said Dr. John Su, a CDC infectious diseases investigator and co-author of the report. "What brought this to our attention is that it can cause severe respiratory diseases in otherwise healthy adults."

Researchers said the cause of the virus' mutation and the source of the outbreaks were not known Thursday.

David Metzgar, microbiologist and lead author of the paper, said his team found evidence that the strain dates back to 2001 in California.

Report: FEMA still wasting money

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- A U.S. government report said the Federal Emergency Management Agency wasted about $30 million in 2006 maintaining disaster-relief trailers.

The report -- by Congress' non-partisan investigative wing, the Government Accountability Office -- said FEMA misspent the funds by failing to accept contracts with the lowest bids for maintaining trailers occupied by Hurricane Katrina survivors in Mississippi, The Washington Post reported Friday.

FEMA wasted $16 million on accepting higher bids and an additional $15 million on inspections the government agency could not prove actually took place, preventative maintenance with falsified documents and emergency repairs on non-FEMA trailers, the report said.

"Over 2 years have passed since the storms and FEMA is still wasting tens of millions of taxpayer dollars as a result of poor management and ineffective controls," the report said.

The GAO said the matter is being referred to the U.S. Justice Department for investigation.

"The American taxpayer should be outraged -- as I am -- that in a six-month period FEMA managed to waste approximately half of the $60 million it spent" on trailers in Mississippi alone, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., chairman of the Senate homeland security committee, said in a statement.

House panel OKs product safety reform bill

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- A House subcommittee has approved a measure overhauling the U.S. consumer product safety system.

But, the bill, passed in Washington Thursday with bipartisan support, faces a probable rocky road to approval because of significant differences in the Senate version.

The House proposal, which Congressional Democrats hope to have in place before the holiday shopping season ends, would seek to shore up the declining Consumer Product Safety Commission with more funding and other reforms, The Washington Post said Friday.

Under the plan, it would be mandatory that all toys be tested by independent labs, the maximum penalty for companies not reporting safety problems would be hiked from $1.8 million to $10 million and the time given firms to report product hazards would be reduced considerably, a major sticking point between the two versions.

The House bill would increase the commission's annual funding over four years from $63 million to $100 million.