RAY SUAREZ: The head of the CIA offered an upbeat assessment today on the war against al-Qaida. Director Michael Hayden said the terror group has suffered losses around the world.
He told the Washington Post al-Qaida is "essentially defeated" in Iraq and Saudi Arabia and on the defensive elsewhere. He said the group has lost clout as a lot of the Islamic world pushes back.
Just last summer, the CIA warned al-Qaida was regrouping.
The U.S. commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan had a warning of his own today. General Dan McNeill said Islamic militants could be a threat there for years, unless Pakistan cracks down on border sanctuaries. He criticized peace agreements between the Pakistani government and militant groups.
GEN. DAN MCNEILL, Commander, International Security Assistance Force: We've also monitored and recorded in the past what happens when there's peace negotiations, so-called peace negotiations, with these terrorists and extremists inside those sanctuaries. And when there has been, there has been a spike in the untoward events on our side of the border.
RAY SUAREZ: NATO has reported violence in eastern Afghanistan increased 50 percent this April over a year ago.
In Iraq today, thousands of Shiites protested against talks on a long-term security deal with the U.S. They marched in Baghdad and other cities, answering a call from Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The security agreement is expected to be finished by July.
Amid the protests, Iraq wound down its least violent month in years. An average of 17 Iraqis a day were killed during May, but that was the lowest since December of 2005.
And at least 18 U.S. troops died, the lowest total of the entire five-year war. In April, 52 Americans were killed in Iraq.
The Democratic presidential marathon headed toward a vital weekend today. Party leaders planned to meet tomorrow on what to do about Michigan and Florida. The two states were stripped of their delegates for voting too early. The Puerto Rico primary was set for Sunday, and Hillary Clinton campaigned there today.
Barack Obama was in Montana, after criticizing a Catholic priest and supporter. The Reverend Michael Pfleger had said Clinton felt entitled to the Democratic nomination in part because she's white. We'll have more on the campaign right after this news summary.
More than a million people in China faced the prospect of emergency evacuations today. A huge lake in Sichuan province threatened to burst. It formed when the May 12th earthquake triggered landslides that blocked a river.
We have a report narrated by Julian Rush of Independent Television News.
JULIAN RUSH, ITN's Channel 4 News Correspondent: Millions of cubic meters of water now flood the steep mountain valley above Beichuan. The quake triggered a huge landslide that blocked the river.
In a desperate race against time, Chinese engineers are trying to cut a channel through the land slip to release the waters before they spill over the dam.
They reckon they've got about 10 days before that happens, assuming it doesn't rain or the dam bursts first. So far, the bulldozers have cut just a third of the spillway.
China has been throwing huge resources at the effort, but bad weather has hindered the work. There's now a very real fear that towns and cities downstream could be wiped out or flooded if the dams burst.
And with the rain and the aftershocks, the earth is still moving. Chinese television filming this landslide in a nearby mountain valley.
EARTHQUAKE SURVIVOR (through translator): It's not possible to live there anymore, no way. The bottom of our house has fallen away. We can't stay there anymore, so we've left.
JULIAN RUSH: She's abandoned her home in a village below the lake, another refugee among the five million left homeless. With other villagers, they've collected what's left of their belongings.
EARTHQUAKE SURVIVOR (through translator): I would never have thought something like this could happen in my life, something I just can't face. It's impossible to put it into words.
JULIAN RUSH: Tents are now home to some of the nearly 200,000 who have already been evacuated to avoid the potential deluge. Here in Mianyang, officials will spend the weekend rehearsing procedures for evacuated a further 1.3 million people to higher ground.
RAY SUAREZ: As of today, the earthquake toll stood at nearly 69,000 dead with more than 18,000 still missing.
Chinese officials also announced some 8,000 children have been reunited with their parents. We'll have more on China, with a report from Margaret Warner, later in the program tonight.
Relief workers in Myanmar charged today the military government is forcing cyclone victims out of shelters and refugee camps. A U.N. representative made the accusation at a meeting of aid group workers, and a church official also told of refugees being sent back to devastated villages with scant supplies.
In Thailand, a senior U.N. official cautioned against any such action.
TERJE SKAVDAL, U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: It's now critical that all population movements, including those people returning to their homes to rebuild their livelihoods, are voluntary and done on a consultative basis. Our movement in and out of camps seemed to be fluid and predictable, but more than 260,000 people living in temporary settlements in port and townships, we do not endorse premature return to areas where there are no services.
RAY SUAREZ: The government of Myanmar has announced the relief phase is over and it's time for reconstruction to begin.
In U.S. economic news today, the Commerce Department reported consumer spending edged up just 0.2 percent last month. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost more than 7 points today to close at 12,638. The Nasdaq rose 14 points to close at 2,522. For the week, the Dow gained more than 1 percent. The Nasdaq rose more than 3 percent.
Award-winning comedian Harvey Korman died at a hospital in Los Angeles on Thursday. He had complications from a ruptured abdominal aneurysm. Korman was famous as the main sidekick on the long-running "Carol Burnett Show" on TV. He also played the outlandish Hedley Lamarr in the Western satire "Blazing Saddles." Korman won four Emmy awards during his career. He was 81 years old.
