World in brief: Troops sent to keep order amid calamity

The government sent the army Saturday to stop looting fueled by rising desperation in earthquake-shattered Peru, where tens of thousands were without fresh water and shivering families huddled in makeshift shelters at the center of the devastation.

In a soccer stadium in the port city of Pisco, more than 500 people rushed a lone truck that ran out of little packets of crackers, candy and toilet paper, screaming that they had not eaten and accusing rescue workers of keeping supplies for themselves.

As many as 80 percent of the people in quake-hit urban areas may not have access to clean water and many rural communities still have not been reached to assess the damage, said Dominic Nutt, part of an emergency assessment team in Peru for the aid agency Save the Children.

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Allan Wagner said the death toll from Wednesday’s magnitude 8 quake had risen to 540, up from the previous figure of 510 provided by firefighters.

Beijing

Typhoon prompts coastal evacuation

More than 900,000 people were evacuated along China’s southeast coast as a typhoon roared toward the mainland Saturday after killing at least one person on Taiwan.

Airline flights and ferry services were canceled along a stretch of coastline from Zhejiang province to Guangdong province in the southeast, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Typhoon Sepat was expected to hit land late Saturday or early today along the Fujian coast with sustained winds of 90 mph, Xinhua said, citing the provincial weather bureau. It said the bureau had issued its highest-level storm alert.

Bettmeralp, Switzerland

Hundreds bare for climate message

Hundreds of naked people formed a “living sculpture” on Switzerland’s Aletsch glacier Saturday, hoping to raise awareness about climate change.

The photo shoot by Spencer Tunick, the New York artist famous for his pictures of nude gatherings in public settings worldwide, was designed to draw attention to the effects of global warming on Switzerland’s shrinking glaciers.

Temperatures during the shoot hovered around 50 degrees.