Supplies needed 'immediately' to stave off worsening famine

The food crisis in southern Africa is worsening, according to the United Nations. A senior UN official said the intensity of the crisis was increasing faster than expected and said the situation had deteriorated most in Zambia and Zimbabwe, where a disaster could only be averted by urgent action. The BBC reported that almost 14.5 million people in the region are now in urgent need of food aid. World Food Programme (WFP) director James Morris told the BBC that drought had combined with the HIV/AIDS pandemic and politics to create "a crisis of incredible proportions." His latest assessment of the crisis affecting Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Angola, Swaziland and Lesotho was conducted as a new planting season begins. However, Zambia has rejected food aid citing concerns over the genetically modified nature of the UN offerings. "Prospects for next year's harvest are bleak unless small-scale farmers immediately receive adequate supplies of seeds and fertilizer in time for the planting season, just one month away," according to a WFP release. In Zimbabwe, the government-sponsored seizures of white-owned farms are being blamed for worsening the food shortages.

National:Washington, D.C.

U.S. warplanes strike, destroy defenses in Iraqi "no-fly" zones

In response to Iraqi anti-aircraft fire, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that U.S. and British warplanes have recently "changed tactics" and are striking methodically to destroy air defenses in "no-fly" zones in Iraq, according to Reuters. "I directed it. I don't like the idea of our planes being shot at," said Rumsfeld. While these tit-for-tat exchanges have waxed and waned over more than a decade, U.S. and British warplanes patrolling the zones have launched 38 strikes this year and the pace has increased sharply in the past two months. Rumsfeld would not specify when they had changed tactics. "[It was] less than a year and more than a week [ago]," he said, according to Reuters. "Less than six months and more than a month [ago]." Iraq does not recognize the no-fly zones, set up after the 1991 Gulf War to protect Kurdish minorities in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south from attack by Baghdad's military. Rumsfeld said that Chinese experts were helping Iraq upgrade their air defenses with fiber optic cables in 2001, but said on Monday he did not know if such aid was still being given.

Local:Amherst, Massachusetts

Vandals destroy windshields of 28 cars in UMass vicinity

University of Massachusetts police are investigating the destruction of more than two dozen car windshields early Sunday morning, according to The Daily Hampshire Gazette. The cars, parked in three different locations, seemed to have been jumped on; but police could not say whether the windows were smashed with foreign objects or stomped on. Thirteen cars were damaged at North Village, a UMass-owned family apartment complex on North Pleasant Street mainly surrounded by undergraduate housing. One car was found at Immanuel Lutheran Church on North Pleasant Street and 14 cars were vandalized in Lot 22 near the Southwest residential complex, according to The Gazette. UMass police don't know whether the same people caused all the damage. "It's very sad they destroy property, no matter what," said Audrey Figarella of North Village, who had two vehicles damaged, according to The Gazette. "But when you find the windshield broken on a car you depend on to get to work, it's really sad. A couple of the single moms don't have insurance coverage [for broken auto glass]. Nobody heard glass being broken … we're so used to the constant noise all night."