Toll from flooding mounts in Vietnam

Much of Vietnam’s capital remained under water Sunday as the death toll from the city’s worst flooding in two decades climbed to 18, disaster officials and state media reported.

Floods caused by heavy rain have killed at least 50 people across northern and central Vietnam in the past week and sent food prices skyrocketing.

Rain ended Sunday morning but resumed in the afternoon in Hanoi, where many streets remained submerged under up to three feet of water. More rain was expected in the city in the next few days, according to the national forecast center.

Officials warned that the flooding could worsen.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia

Saudis say plot targeted U.S. city

Saudi Arabia foiled a 2003 terror plot by militants who planned to hijack a plane and blow it up over a densely populated American city, a Saudi official said Sunday.

The official said the plan, first reported in the government-guided Al-Watan newspaper, was for the attackers to transit through the U.S. to another destination so they could avoid applying for hard-to-get American visas required for Saudis. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the militants were preparing to execute the alleged plot when it was halted.

The Saudi official said the alleged hijacking plan was one of 160 terror plots the kingdom announced last month that it had foiled. At the time, authorities provided no details.

BAGHDAD

Iraqis expect quick response on pact

Iraq expects an American response to requested changes in a draft security pact soon after this week’s U.S. presidential election, an aide to the prime minister said Sunday.

Another Iraqi official said the U.S. indicated it would accept all the proposed changes except one – greater Iraqi legal control over American soldiers and contractors.

KABUL, Afghanistan

Afghan minister’s brother abducted

Gunmen in Pakistan kidnapped the brother of Afghanistan’s finance minister as he was returning to his mother’s home from prayers, Afghan officials said Sunday.

He was at least the third person with ties to the Afghan government to be abducted in Pakistan’s lawless border region, used by al-Qaida and Taliban militants as a base to attacks U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.