The death toll from China's massive earthquake could reach more than 50,000, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday, quoting rescue headquarters.

The road leading to the epicenter of Monday's massive Chinese earthquake still wasn't clear of obstacles, but stretches of it have been transformed into major staging areas.

Chinese doctors amputated a teenage girl's crushed legs on Thursday, the only way they could pull her alive from the wreckage of her school three days after an earthquake flattened swathes of the country's southwest.

The Democratic presidential candidate interpreted the president's remark to Israel's Knesset as a slam against him, but the White House denied the comment was in any way directed at the Illinois senator.

Firefighters made major gains against a wildfire that has charred thousands of acres along the Atlantic coast as police questioned a man seen tossing a Molotov cocktail into nearby woods.