April 3, 2006

More Iraqis than ever have been buying weapons, adding an unnerving level of firepower to the streets.

The split came as Condoleezza Rice and the British minister paid an urgent visit to convey that their patience for Iraq's political paralysis was wearing thin.

Chris Burke is fired by Tuesday's Children, charity he founded to help families of 9/11 victims, after acknowledging he improperly diverted $311,000; Burke, whose brother died in collapse of World Trade Center, says he spent most of money he diverted on needs of 9/11 families that Tuesday's Children would not cover; charity officials say he used money to pay his mortgage and credit cards; Burke's parents turn over $500,000 in stock as restitution and as buffer in case he took more money than initial investigation showed; photo (M)

Iraq's dominant Shiite political bloc fractured Sunday when its most powerful faction publicly demanded that the incumbent Shiite prime minister resign over his inability to form a unified government. The split came as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Jack Straw, the British foreign minister, paid an urgent visit to Iraqi leaders here to convey in the most forceful terms yet that their patience for the country's political paralysis was wearing thin. It was not clear whether the joint visit by Ms. Rice and Mr. Straw, the top emissaries of the two countries that led the invasion of Iraq three years ago, played a direct role in the splintering of the Shiite bloc, and whether that schism would lead to forward movement on forming a new government, which has been stalled for months.

Persistent labor shortages at hundreds of Chinese factories have led experts to conclude that the economy is undergoing a profound change that will ripple through the global market for manufactured goods. The shortage of workers is pushing up wages and swelling the ranks of the country's middle class, and it could make Chinese-made products less of a bargain worldwide. International manufacturers are already talking about moving factories to lower-cost countries like Vietnam.