In Asia, Typhoon Morakot has been downgraded to a tropical storm, but not before it caused widespread destruction in several countries, from China to the Philippines. Meanwhile, Japan has been hit with a series of powerful earthquakes.

Officials in China have released the names of 5,335 children who died in the devastating earthquake in Sichuan Province last year, many of them in classrooms that crumbled in the quake. Parents and activists disputed the findings.