WORLD BRIEFS

CARIBBEAN: Tropical storm threatens Haiti

Aid workers rushed Monday to prepare for a hurricane that forecasters said could hit Haiti this week. It's a formidable challenge in a nation already coping with a cholera epidemic and trying to help hundreds of thousands living in tent camps nearly 10 months after a devastating earthquake. Tropical Storm Tomas would be the first major storm to strike Haiti since the Jan. 12 earthquake killed as many as 300,000 people. In 2008, the storms Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike battered Haiti in the space of a month, killing nearly 800 people. Tomas, after weakening back to a tropical storm Sunday, was swirling westward in the middle of the Caribbean and expected to veer toward Haiti.

CHINA: Massive head-counting begins

China kicked off a once-a-decade census Monday, a whirlwind 10-day head count that sees 6 million census takers scrutinize apartment blocks, scour migrant areas and scan rural villages to document massive demographic changes in the world's most populous country. And they aim to count every person. The 2000 tally put the population at 1.295 billion people, but missed migrant workers living in cities for less than six months. In the 10 years since, there has been an extensive shift in the population base as tens of millions of migrant workers have poured into urban areas looking for work. It is the first time China will count people where they live and not where their resident certificate, or hukou, is legally registered. The change will find the true size of the giant cities, the populations of which up to now have been estimates. Unlike the U.S. census, in which residents are asked to fill out and mail in forms in a yearlong undertaking, Chinese census-takers plan to go door-to-door, asking questions about education level, family history, employment situation, and resident status.

IRAN: Delay in trial for U.S. hikers

The trial of two American hikers accused of spying and illegally entering the Islamic Republic has been postponed because a third hiker released on bail has not been summoned to court, a judiciary spokesman said Monday in Tehran. Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal remain in Evin prison after Sarah Shourd was released in September on $500,000 bail. They had been scheduled to appear before a judge Saturday. The delay could mean Iran will demand Shourd return from the United States to face trial.

BRITAIN: Thatcher, 85, out of hospital

Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher returned home Monday after two weeks in a hospital. The Conservative icon fell ill with the flu last month and had to skip an official reception honoring her 85th birthday.