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Saudis boost oil production

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, May 16 (UPI) -- Saudi officials said Friday that oil production in the country is being increased by 300,000 barrels a day to meet the demands of its customers.

Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi made the announcement after U.S. President George W. Bush asked Saudi King Abdullah to increase oil production as a means of offsetting U.S. gas prices, The Washington Post reported Friday.

"On May 10, we increased our response to our customers by 300,000 barrels because they asked for it," Naimi said. "So our production for June will be 9.45 million barrels per day."

The official said the increase followed requests from "about 50 customers worldwide." He said most of the extra oil is bound for the United States.

Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, said at the briefing that Bush had sought such an increase during his meeting with Abdullah, The New York Times reported.

"The president showed great concern for the impact on the American economy," adding, "We of course sympathize with that."

The announcement came as oil prices reached nearly $128 a barrel Friday, the Financial Times reported.

McCain: Hamas statement mischaracterized

WASHINGTON, May 16 (UPI) -- The campaign of Republican presidential contender John McCain said Friday that a 2006 statement McCain made about dialogue with Hamas had been mischaracterized.

Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for the presumptive nominee's campaign, said accusations from James Rubin, a former U.S. State Department official under U.S. President Bill Clinton, that McCain, R-Ariz., had supported unconditional dialogue with the Palestinian extremist group in 2006 were misleading, CNN reported Friday.

"There should be no confusion, John McCain has always believed that serious engagement would require mandatory conditions and Hamas must change itself fundamentally -- renounce violence, abandon its goal of eradicating Israel and accept a two-state solution," Bounds said.

The spokesman produced a statement McCain made in 2006 that urged Hamas to renounce violence. However, he didn't say taking such a step would be a precondition for dialogue with the United States.

Rubin said McCain performed "the ultimate flip-flop in American politics" when he criticized Democratic presidential contender Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., for his stated willingness to meet with leaders of hostile countries, including Iran, after supporting dialogue with Hamas.

Death toll from Chinese quake at 22,069

BEIJING, May 16 (UPI) -- The official death toll from the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck China this week has reached 22,069 people, authorities said Friday.

State Council emergency response office officials said 21,577 of those killed in Monday's quake were in the Sichuan Province, which saw its official death toll increase by nearly 2,000 from earlier totals, China's official state-run Xinhua news agency said.

The remaining casualties all occurred in neighboring regions such as the Gansu and Shaanxi provinces, the emergency officials said.

Friday's increase in casualties came one day after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said the final death toll from the natural disaster could ultimately be more than 50,000 people.

Xinhua said Wen has been in quake-hit areas since the disaster initially occurred, expressing hope for survivors.

"We won't give up if there is even the slightest hope of finding more survivors," Wen said of ongoing rescue efforts.

Myanmar increases estimate of cyclone toll

YANGON, Myanmar, May 16 (UPI) -- The Myanmar government Friday increased its estimate of those killed by Cyclone Nargis to 78,000, approaching the 100,000 suggested by the United Nations.

On Thursday, the official government figure was 43,318 dead, The New York Times reported. State-run broadcasters and newspapers did not say why the estimate jumped so sharply.

The military junta also almost doubled the number of missing to 55,917. The number of injured escalated from 1,403 to 19,359.

The military government of the country formerly known as Burma has kept foreign aid agencies from the areas devastated by the storm, which hit two weeks ago. The worst-affected areas were the capital, Yangon or Rangoon, and the low-lying Irrawaddy Delta.

The International Red Cross estimates that as many as 128,000 people may already have died, a number aid workers say could grow unless food and medical teams are brought in.

Iran calls U.N. sanctions illegal

TEHRAN, May 16 (UPI) -- Iran Friday branded as "illegal" U.N. Security Council sanctions imposed on Tehran for its refusal to give up its uranium enrichment program.

In a letter that also went to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Iran singled out the United States and its allies for their pursuit of the sanctions, Iran's Fars News Agency said.

The letter accompanied an Iranian proposal for "constructive negotiations" and proposed solutions for a number of issues.

Iran said it "believes that there is an extensive range of security issues, regional and international developments, nuclear energy, terrorism, democracy, etc., that provide a substantive potential for cooperation."

A copy was passed along to Javier Solana, the chief EU foreign policy official. He said he would share its contents with Germany, France and Britain.

Iraq: Military arrests 14 terror suspects

MOSUL, Iraq, May 16 (UPI) -- Multi-National Force and Iraqi soldiers took 14 terrorist suspects into custody in northern Iraq, an official said Friday.

A military source said anti-terror operations in the Mosul area lasted from Saturday until Thursday and led to 833 arrests, KUNA reported Friday.

In other news, a car blast hit an Iraqi law enforcement building in Fallujah, injuring four police officers, Press TV said Friday.

In another incidence of violence, armed fighters in Baghdad opened fire on an Iranian Embassy convoy, killing one person and injuring an Iraqi and three Iranians, officials said.

Two Iranian diplomats were severely wounded in the Thursday attack, which took place as the convoy was traveling to a Shiite shrine in Kazimiyah, Iranian Embassy spokesman Manoucher Taslimi said Friday.