Cuba Won't Let Blogger Travel To U.s :

A Cuban blogger who has criticized her government has been denied permission to travel to New York to pick up a prestigious journalism award

Yoani Sanchez had hoped to go to Columbia University for a Wednesday ceremony to receive her Maria Moors Cabot Prize, the oldest international award in journalism.

In May, Cuban authorities denied Sanchez permission to fly to Madrid to accept the Ortega y Gasset Prize in digital journalism for creating Generation Y, which gets more than 1 million hits a month. Around the same time, Time magazine deemed Sanchez one of the world's 100 most influential people.

Her commentaries shed light on taboo topics such as harassment and the thriving black market. And she is openly critical of the government. In one recent entry, she complained she can't find detergent in stores despite warnings about the spread of H1N1 flu.

Iran test-fires missiles :

Iran test-fired missiles on Sunday to show it was prepared to head off any military threat, four days before the Islamic Republic is due to hold rare talks with world powers worried about its nuclear ambitions.



An Iranian official warned "fabricated Western clamor" over the new plant would negatively affect the talks at which the six powers want Iran to agree to open its facilities to inspection to prove its program is for power and not nuclear weapons.

The missiles, fired at targets around the country Sunday, included the Fateh-110, a short-range ground-to-ground missile, and Tondar-69, a short-range naval missile.

U.S. President Barack Obama said , the discovery of the secret nuclear plant in Iran showed a "disturbing pattern" of evasion by Tehran that added urgency to its talks on Thursday with world powers.

Obama warned Iran on Friday it would face "sanctions that bite" if it did not come clean.

Flooding engulfs Manila :

Downpours subsided temporarily in the Philippines on Sunday, a day after Tropical Storm Ketsana pummeled the capital Manila with its heaviest rainfall in more than 40 years.



Though the Philippines is no stranger to floods, Saturday''s downpours approached a record, with a month''s worth of rain falling within six hours. The average rainfall for the entire month of September is 391 mm (15.4 inches), said Gilberto Teodoro, secretary of national defense and chairman of the National Disaster Coordinating Council.


Flood spawned by the rainfall killed at least 51 people with at least 21 others missing, the government said.

More than 80 percent of the capital was under water that swallowed whole houses and buses.