Tornado smashes Arkansas town; 3 dead
DENNING, Ark., May 25 (UPI) -- Tornadoes tormented the middle of America Wednesday morning, reportedly "destroying" a small town in Arkansas.
The National Weather Service office in Tulsa, Okla., released a statement saying it appeared "Denning has been destroyed," KFSM-TV, Fort Smith, Ark., reported. At least three deaths were reported.
Franklin County sheriff's deputies said many are missing and several residents are thought to be trapped in their homes.
The tornado that hit Denning is part of the same system that devastated Joplin, Mo., 160 miles to the north, Sunday, and was up to a mile wide right before it landed, Weather Service meteorologists said.
In Joplin, rescue workers kept searching for survivors in the rubble left by Sunday's massive EF-5 tornado that killed at least 124 people, ABC News reported.
Thirty-six tornadoes were reported in seven states Tuesday, with 12 deaths confirmed in Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas.
In Oklahoma, at least eight people were killed and dozens hurt by multiple tornadoes Tuesday, The Oklahoman reported.
Cherokee Ballard, a spokeswoman for the state medical examiner, said the fatalities included four in Canadian County, two in Logan County, one in Grady County, and a child who died Wednesday morning.
More severe weather and a risk of tornadoes was forecast for a vast swath of the Midwest for Wednesday.
Obama to stress U.S., U.K. alliance
LONDON, May 25 (UPI) -- U.S. President Obama's speech to the British Parliament will emphasize the responsibility both nations carry for global security, a White House adviser said.
In a briefing with reporters Tuesday, the senior national security adviser said the president's Wednesday address will underscore "both the essential nature of the U.S.-U.K. alliance as well as the broader trans-Atlantic alliance to global security and prosperity."
"I think he'll speak to the fact that we've obviously come through a very difficult decade, but in some respects we're turning a corner insofar as we've successfully ended our combat mission in Iraq, removed 100,000 troops," the adviser said. "The British forces of course have left Iraq. Our efforts to dismantle, defeat -- disrupt and defeat al-Qaida have weakened that organization, of course, including the killing of Osama bin Laden recently."
The adviser said the allies are "working very hard every day to advance a global economic recovery."
At the same time, the adviser said, the administration recognizes the world has changed since the end of World War II and the Cold War.
Gadhafi resignation demand may be dropped
LONDON, May 25 (UPI) -- Britain and France are softening their demand that Moammar Gadhafi resign before NATO attacks in Libya stop, a senior European diplomat said Wednesday.
The Daily Telegraph quoted the official, who was not named, as saying "more member states, including the most hard-line, are more flexible than before on the problem" in a bid to help mediation efforts in Tripoli by Abdel Elah al-Khatib, a United Nations special representative.
A British diplomat said rebel leaders in Benghazi were being encouraged to negotiate with Gadhafi regime figures who "do not have blood on their hands." Rebels have refused to talk until the dictator resigns.
"As long as there is a cease-fire leading to a transition from Colonel Gadhafi, we believe that talks could take place without Colonel Gadhafi leaving, though he could not have power over the negotiations," a British official said. "It needs a clear vision of a political process that leads to the demise of the regime."
The stand represents a change from earlier demands that Gadhafi go immediately.
Khatib was reported to be discussing an eventual transfer of power following an immediate cease-fire.
Report: Iran worked on nuclear trigger
NEW YORK, May 25 (UPI) -- The international nuclear watchdog says it has unspecified evidence Iran worked on technology designed to set off a nuclear weapon.
The revelation came in the middle of a nine-page report by the International Atomic Energy Agency released Tuesday, The New York Times reported. The IAEA reports to the United Nations.
The Times quoted the report as saying the organization has evidence Iran conducted work on sophisticated nuclear triggering technology, but did not say where the evidence came from or provide many details.
The IAEA report said Iran appears to have recovered from the Stuxnet computer worm, which was designed to cripple Iran's nuclear fuel production.
The IAEA, in a separate report on Syria, also said the first time the country was "very likely" building a secret nuclear reactor, which wasn't reported to the agency, the Times reported.
Israel bombed the site in 2007. The CIA released pre-bombing photos of the reactor in 2008, the Times said, but the agency was skeptical of evidence provided by the Bush administration.
Toll rises in attack on police station
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, May 25 (UPI) -- A suicide bomb attack Wednesday on a police station in Peshawar, Pakistan, killed and wounded several people, and destroyed the building, officials said.
The attacker rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into the building, police said.
At least seven police officers died in the attack, CNN reported, quoting senior police official Muhammad Ejaz Khan.
Khan said 23 others, including police and civilians were injured in the blast, adding several more people were still under the debris.
The state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported 28 people were injured, four of them seriously.
The report said several police officers were in the building when the explosives-laden car rammed into the two-story facility, destroying it.
The attack was claimed by the banned Pakistani Taliban, which has escalated its violence since the May 2 killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces during a raid on his compound in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad.
