PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - The death toll in the collapse of a ramshackle school in Haiti rose above 90 on Saturday after rescue workers uncovered a room full of dead, many of them children, officials said.

Civil protection service head Alta Jean-Baptiste said there were 84 people confirmed dead and 150 injured as of noon. Another civil protection official, Michel Joseph Jr., said he had seen eight more bodies, bringing the count to 92.

"We haven't been able to get them out yet," Joseph said as rescue workers arrived from the United States and the French Caribbean island of Martinique to help the ill-equipped and impoverished country and U.N. peacekeepers posted there search for survivors.

Officials said 700 children were enrolled at the three-story La Promesse school, but it was not known how many were in the building when it caved in on Friday while class was in session.

The disaster struck as the poorest country in the Americas struggled to recover from four tropical storms and hurricanes that killed more than 800 people and destroyed 60 percent of its crops in August and September.

Rescuers worked frantically at the school site on the outskirts of Port-of Prince, the Haitian capital, bringing in a crane to lift blocks of concrete. Firefighters from Virginia and rescue workers from Martinique brought sniffer dogs. The search was set to continue for a second night.

MINISTER ARRESTED

President Rene Preval said the church school had been built with hardly any structural steel or cement to...

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Federal investigators said Sunday they plan to get the cell phone records of two teenagers and the engineer of a commuter train to determine whether text messages played a part in a collision that killed 25 people.

The Metrolink train had failed to stop for a red signal, triggering the Friday collision with a freight train, according to the commuter train's operators. In addition to the 25 fatalities, more than 130 passengers were injured.

On Sunday, Kitty Higgins of the National Transportation Safety Board said investigators have been in touch with two teenagers who told a local television station that they had been exchanging text messages with the Metrolink train engineer before the collision.

The engineer, who has not been identified officially, was a subcontractor employed by another company and died in the crash.

"We have been in contact with them and their families. They have been fully cooperative," Higgins told reporters. "We are going to be obtaining records from their cell phones and of the deceased ... to begin to determine what might have happened and what if any role [cell phones] might have played in this accident."

Metrolink forbids train operators from using cell phones or other electronic devices while on duty, she said.

One of the teens, a 15-year-old train enthusiast, told KCBS-TV that he had been talking shop with the engineer and received a text message one minute before the crash.

Higgins would not say what the teens and their families...

Power outages caused by Hurricane Ike may last for up to a month, officials warn. HOUSTON -- Heavy rains and thunderstorms pummeled Houston this morning, hampering rescue efforts along the Gulf Coast and the restoration of full power and water for many residents of the country's fourth-largest city in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.

Officials with local utility companies warned residents that it may be as long as a month before power has been restored across the Houston area and harder-hit communities to the south like Galveston. Crews must hack their way through downed trees and flooded and debris-clogged roadways in their efforts to repair power lines.

As many as 5 million people in southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana are without electricity, according to state and local officials.

The wide power outages, in addition to several main arteries through Houston now shut down by floods caused by the morning's rains, prompted city and county officials to institute an overnight curfew for the entire city through next week.

The lack of power and dwindling supplies of fuel and perishable food has residents here in Houston nervously making runs across the city to scavenge and horde for the days to come.

In addition, residents who evacuated before Ike made landfall early Saturday morning -- reportedly 1 million people from all along the Gulf Coast area -- have started to return to the Houston area, only to find they are unable to either reach their homes or fill their gas tanks. As the...

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani security forces have killed 20 militants in fighting in a northwestern region on the Afghan border, a security official said on Thursday, as sharp differences on terrorism surfaced with the United States.

An intensifying insurgency in Afghanistan has brought more pressure on Pakistan to go after militants operating out of sanctuaries in remote enclaves on its side of the border. It has also led to a sharp increase in U.S. strikes on militants in Pakistan.

The new government in Islamabad says it is committed to the campaign against militancy, launched after the September 11 attacks seven years ago, but bans incursions by U.S. troops.

In the latest fighting in the Bajaur region, Pakistani security forces backed by helicopter gunships killed 20 militants in an attack on a militant stronghold in the village of Rashkai that began on Wednesday, security officials said.

"We've almost taken control of the area. Our troops are advancing and the operation is likely to be finished today," said an official who declined to be identified.

A military official said four soldiers were also killed and some Arabs were among the dead militants.

Militants in Bajaur, where some analysts believed top al Qaeda leaders have been hiding, frequently cross into Afghanistan to attack Western troops and government forces there.

Violence in Afghanistan has soared over the past two years as al Qaeda and Taliban fighters have regrouped and the U.S. military said on Wednesday it was not winning there and would revise its...

After more than three years out of professional cycling, Lance Armstrong — the cancer survivor and seven-time Tour de France winner — announced Tuesday that he would emerge from retirement and climb back onto his bike.

Lance Armstrong during the Tour de France in 2005. In an emailed statement, Armstrong said he wants to return to cycling to “raise awareness of the global cancer burden.”

In an e-mailed statement, Armstrong said he had discussed his comeback with his family and friends and decided to go ahead with it in order to “raise awareness of the global cancer burden.”

Armstrong, who turns 37 next week, did not explain his specific plans to compete again on an elite level, saying he would discuss his strategy at the Clinton Global Initiative on Sept. 24 in New York City.

He did not mention any possible team affiliations, but an article published Monday on the Web site of VeloNews, a prominent cycling publication, said Armstrong would join the Astana team next year. Johan Bruyneel, Armstrong’s former team manager, is the team manager of Astana.

The VeloNews story, citing “sources familiar with the developing situation,” said Armstrong will compete in five road races, including the Tour de France. The other events are the Amgen Tour of California, Paris-Nice, the Tour de Georgia and the Dauphiné Libéré.

In an article published Tuesday on the Web site of the magazine Vanity Fair, Armstrong discussed his comeback. He said he would contact President Nicolas Sarkozy of France to plead...