Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez checked in to a military hospital Saturday night to begin a third round of chemotherapy, this time getting the cancer treatment at home rather than Cuba.

Chavez walked into the Dr. Carlos Arvelo Military Hospital accompanied by his daughter Maria and aides. He said his treatment has been going well and aims to prevent reappearance of cancer cells more than two months after he underwent surgery.

Super-typhoon Nanmadol killed at least seven people and left flattened bridges and blocked roads in its wake as it slowly moved away from the Philippines, officials said on Sunday.

The toll of dead and missing is likely to rise as officials assess the full impact of the storm, the strongest to hit the country this year, said Emilia Tadeo of the civil defense damage report section.

The death toll from Irene has risen to 12 across five eastern U.S. states, emergency officials said Sunday, as the hurricane was downgraded to a tropical storm, passing New York City.

Half of the deaths were in North Carolina, where Irene made landfall early Saturday morning with 85 mile (140 kilometer) per hour winds, before heading up the eastern seaboard and scoring a rare direct hit on New York.

Al-Qaida's number two Atiyah abd al-Rahman has been killed in Pakistan, the United States said Saturday, claiming another "tremendous" blow to the group following the death of Osama bin Laden.

A senior U.S. official said that Rahman was killed in tribal Waziristan on August 22 after being deeply involved in directing operations for al-Qaida. The official did not divulge the exact circumstances of his death.

Mali's most radical Tuareg rebel chief, who never agreed to disarm, died in an accident late Friday, his family said, but observers suggested the death could be linked to the unfolding chaos in Libya.

Ibrahim Ag Bahanga never totally joined in north Mali's peace process that resulted from a 2006 accord between the Malian government and Tuareg rebels, who have been fighting sporadically since the 1990s.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Saturday urged some 370,000 New Yorkers to heed mandatory evacuation orders and leave "right now," as Hurricane Irene approached, threatening a massive flood surge.

"We urge everyone in the evacuation zone not to wait until there are gale-force winds and driving rain to leave, not to wait until the public transportation system starts slowing down today," Bloomberg said.

Taliban fighters killed 25 Pakistani troops in a cross-border raid Saturday, the military said, blaming alleged inaction by Afghanistan and NATO in the latest flaring of tensions between the neighbors.

Some 200 to 300 "terrorists" based in Afghanistan attacked seven paramilitary Frontier Corps checkposts in the northwestern district of Chitral early Saturday morning, Pakistan's military said in a statement.

A suicide car bomb exploded near a bank killing at least four people and wounding 22 others Saturday in Lashkar Gah, the capital of south Afghanistan's volatile Helmand province.

At least one child was known to have died in the blast, police said, adding that policemen and soldiers were among the wounded after the bomber struck as dozens queued to receive their salaries ahead of a religious festival.

British army bomb disposal experts were called in to the city of Canterbury and the center was partly evacuated after the discovery of a suspect package, but the device was a hoax, police said Saturday.

Police were also investigating a suspicious fire at a shop and reports of suspicious activity at the cricket ground in the historic city in southeast England. It was not known if the incidents were linked.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il told China Friday he was ready to resume six-party nuclear talks without preconditions, as he traveled through the Asian nation, China's state media said.

Kim, who travels by armored train and is on his way back from an official visit to Russia, made the comments in a meeting with Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo in northeast China's Heilongjiang province.