In brief: African migrant death toll hits 194

LAMPEDUSA, Italy – Pairs of divers plumbed calmer seas off the Italian island of Lampedusa on Sunday to recover the corpses of would-be asylum seekers who died when a fishing boat packed with 500 African migrants capsized within sight of land. By nightfall, 83 bodies had been retrieved, including one child, raising the official death toll to 194. About 150 more are believed to still be missing.

Iraq blasts kill 33, including 12 children

BAGHDAD – Deadly attacks in Iraq killed at least 33 people Sunday, including a dozen children slain when a suicide bomber detonated the explosives-laden car he was driving near their elementary school in the north of the country, officials said.

Sunday’s blasts began around 9:30 a.m. in the Shiite Turkomen village of Qabak, just outside the town of Tal Afar.

One car bomb in the tiny village targeted an elementary school while children ages 6 to 12 were in class as another struck a nearby police station, Tal Afar mayor Abdul Aal al-Obeidi said. The dead included 12 children, the school principal and two policemen. Another 90 people were wounded.

Typhoon in China kills two, cuts power

BEIJING – A typhoon slammed into southeastern China today with powerful winds and heavy rains that killed two people, cut power, canceled flights and suspended train services.

Typhoon Fitow struck Fuding city of Fujian province with winds of up to 94 miles an hour in the early morning hours, then slowed before weakening to a tropical storm, the National Meteorological Center said.

More than half a million people had been evacuated and fishing boats were called back to shore while authorities issued their highest warning Sunday as the typhoon approached.

The provincial flood relief agency in Zhejiang, which neighbors Fujian, said 574,000 people had been evacuated by Sunday evening and 35,800 vessels returned to shore. Fujian’s government said 177,000 people had been moved to safety and nearly 30,000 fishing boats called back.