World News from the BBC
Almost 600 people are now known to have died in the devastating floods and mudslides in southeastern Brazil. Soldiers have been sent to the worst-affected areas to help with the rescue efforts. In Nova Friburgo, where more than 250 people were killed, officials say they are having to bury bodies without being able to identify them first because there's not enough room in the mortuary. Some remote mountainous areas still haven't been reached.
The United Nations is
appealing for
millions of dollars in emergency aid for Sri Lanka to
compensate
those who've been affected by the floods and to help them replant their crops. More than 300,000 people in eastern and central Sri Lanka have been displaced. A UN official said clean drinking water was a major problem as tens of thousands of wells have been
contaminate
d.
The French health ministry is promising major changes to regulations for licensing drugs after a report said up to 2,000 people died from a diabetes drug that should have been withdrawn from the market 10 years earlier.
From Paris, David Chazan reports.
A government report said the drug known as Mediator should have been banned as early as 1999 when it began to emerge that it could cause heart disease. Several other European countries and the United States then withdrew it, but it remained on sale in France for another 10 years. The Health Minister Xavier Bertrand said it was now his duty to rebuild the regulatory system to protect the public. His statement is being seen as an