AP - The Red Cross estimated Wednesday that the cyclone death toll in Myanmar could be as high as 128,000 — a much higher figure than the government tally. The U.N. warned a second wave of deaths will follow unless the military regime lets in more aid quickly.

AP - The moment that a devastating earthquake struck central China, the hills surrounding the city of Chengdu shook, people ran outside in confused panic, and a thick, white cloud of dust enveloped a mountain reserve.

AP - Democrat John Edwards is endorsing former rival Barack Obama, fresh signs of the party establishment embracing the likely nominee even as Hillary Rodham Clinton refuses to give up her long-shot candidacy.

AP - Cindy McCain, whose husband has been a critic of the violence in Sudan, sold off more than $2 million in mutual funds whose holdings include companies that do business in the African nation.

AP - A woman accused of booking johns for a high-priced call girl ring pleaded guilty Wednesday to money laundering and promoting prostitution in the federal probe that brought down "Client No. 9," former Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

AP - The Interior Department declared the polar bear a threatened species Wednesday because of the loss of Arctic sea ice but also cautioned the decision should not be viewed as a path to address global warming.

AP - Astronomers have discovered the youngest known supernova in the Milky Way galaxy, still just a baby at 140 years old. The scientists, who announced their findings Wednesday, used a radio observatory in New Mexico and NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory in space to identify when the supernova, or stellar, explosion occurred. They put the star-dying event at sometime around 1868.

AP - Angelina Jolie is indeed expecting twins, and it was Jack Black who let the news slip with a "Brady Bunch" crack. Long rumored to have two children by Brad Pitt on the way, Jolie confirmed the news during a side-by-side "Today" show interview with Black, her "Kung Fu Panda" co-star. The two are in Cannes, France, promoting the animated film.

AP - Hold on, NFL. Spygate isn't over. Not if the "incensed" Pittsburgh Steelers fan in Congress has anything to do with it. Sen. Arlen Specter on Wednesday called for an independent investigation of the New England Patriots' taping of opposing coaches' signals, possibly similar to the high-profile Mitchell Report on performance enhancing drugs in baseball.

Reuters - Hillary Clinton met top donors on Wednesday to plead for money for her uphill White House bid, and front-runner Barack Obama courted blue-collar voters in Michigan with promises of help for the ailing car industry.

Reuters - The death toll from China's deadliest earthquake in decades climbed to nearly 15,000 on Wednesday, as officials warned of calamities downstream from broken rivers and dams strained to bursting point.

Reuters - U.S. President George W. Bush backed Lebanon's government and Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts at the start of a Middle East visit on Wednesday in which he praised Israel at 60 as a model for regional democracy.

Reuters - The United States said on Wednesday six world powers had no plans to offer Iran security guarantees to encourage it to suspend nuclear activity, hours after Russia floated the idea.

Reuters - Lebanon's government cancelled measures on Wednesday that angered the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement and triggered the worst internal conflict since the country's 1975-90 civil war.

Reuters - The United Nations estimated those affected by the Myanmar cyclone at up to 2.5 million on Wednesday and called an urgent meeting of big donors and Asian states as the Myanmar junta continued to limit foreign aid.

Reuters - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez hopes prickly relations with the United States will improve when his archfoe George W. Bush leaves the Oval Office in January, the socialist leader said on Wednesday.

AFP - More than 40,000 people were dead, missing or buried under rubble in China's southwest, officials said Wednesday, as the full horror of its devastating earthquake began to emerge.

AFP - Visiting US President George W. Bush paid a 60th anniversary tribute to Israel as a democracy challenged by "terrorists" on Wednesday just before a rocket attack wounded 14 people in a shopping mall.