ISLAMABAD:   About 800,000 people have been cut off by floods in Pakistan and are only reachable by air, the United Nations said Tuesday, adding it needs at least 40 more helicopters to ferry lifesaving aid to increasingly desperate people.

The appeal was an indication of the massive problems facing the relief effort in Pakistan more than three weeks after the floods hit the country, affecting more than 17 million people and raising concerns about possible social unrest and political instability.

"These unprecedented floods pose unprecedented logistical challenges, and this requires an extraordinary effort by the international community," said John Holmes, U.N. under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs.

BEIRUT:   Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Tuesday called on Lebanon to consider building a nuclear power plant in the energy-starved nation.

"I call on the Lebanese government to seriously consider ... building a nuclear power plant for the peaceful purpose of generating electricity, which would be more cost-efficient than the plan the government has endorsed," Nasrallah said in a speech broadcast via video link.

"Iran's Bushehr nuclear facility, which will provide a large part of Iran's electricity needs, cost much less than the (Lebanese) state's reform plan," Nasrallah said in a speech to mark an iftar, the evening meal that breaks the dawn-to-dusk Ramadan fast.

BEIJING:   A Chinese passenger jet broke apart as it approached a fog-shrouded runway in the country's northeast and burst into flames as it hit the ground Tuesday, killing 43 people and injuring 53 others, state media said.

The Henan Airlines plane with 91 passengers and five crew crashed in a grassy area near the Lindu airport on the outskirts of Yichun, a city of about 1 million people in Heilongjiang province, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Xinhua quoted Hua Jingwei, an Yichun publicity official, as saying that some passengers were thrown from the cabin before the broken plane hit the ground.

BEIRUT:   Lebanese Shiite and Sunni groups fought street battles  using machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades for more than four hours Tuesday, killing three people and wounding several others just blocks from a busy downtown packed with summer tourists.

The dead included a Hezbollah official and his aide, security officials said.

Lebanese soldiers cordoned off the area during the worst of the fighting, but the crackle of sniper fire and blasts from rocket-propelled grenades were audible for hours.

COPIAPO:   Each of the 33 miners trapped a half-mile underground lived on two spoonfuls of tuna, a sip of milk, a bite of crackers and a morsel of peaches. Every other day.

They were so careful in eating what was supposed to be a two-day emergency supply that when the outside world finally reached them 17 days after a mine collapse, they still had some food left.

The discipline the men have already shown will be essential during the four months it may take rescuers to dig a hole wide enough to get them out of their shelter. The first communications with the trapped miners, now able to talk through a fixed line with their rescuers above — show how determined they have been to stay alive.

MADRID:   Despite wind and heat Spanish firefighters said they hoped to contain Tuesday a blaze on the resort island of Ibiza that has forced the evacuation of more than 1,000 partygoers and scorched hundreds of hectares.

All the Mediterranean island's firefighters have been mobilised to combat the blaze, which threatened a hotel and around 30 homes.

"The heat has made the work (of the firefighters) difficult," said a spokesman for the island's emergency services.