World datelines

S. Korea: Ship lifted

SEOUL — South Korea lifted part of a warship from the sea, nearly three weeks after it mysteriously exploded and sank with dozens of sailors trapped inside. Salvage workers found the bodies of 36 crew members in the retrieved vessel. Fifty-eight crew members were rescued shortly after the 1,200-ton Cheonan split into two pieces after exploding March 26 during a routine patrol near the tense border with North Korea. So far, 38 bodies have been recovered, while eight sailors remain unaccounted for.

Mexico: Fake artifacts

MEXICO CITY — A collection of supposed pre-Hispanic artifacts seized from a controversial private antiquities dealer in Germany contains many pieces that are fake, Mexico's government archaeology agency said Thursday. The National Institute of Anthropology and History said most of the larger, impressive pieces seized by German authorities from Costa Rican dealer Leonardo Patterson are modern copies of ancient artifacts. Of 1,029 sculptures, pots and figurines had determined 252 are fakes, experts say.

China: Aftermath

JIEGU — Armed with life detectors, rescuers searched for survivors today more than 48 hours after an earthquake leveled homes in western China, killing at least 760 people. Many survivors shivered through a second night outdoors as they waited for tents to arrive in the remote, mountainous Tibetan corner. People with broken arms or legs cried in pain as medical teams could offer little more than injections. A doctor at the Qinghai provincial hospital, where the severely injured were taken, said she had no idea how many were being treated because there was no time to count them all.

Kyrgyzstan: Fleeing

OSH — The deposed president of Kyrgyzstan left the country Thursday for neighboring Kazakhstan, allaying fears of a civil war in the Central Asian nation, which hosts a key U.S. military base supporting the war in Afghanistan. The presidents of the United States, Russia and Kazakhstan helped arrange for Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to leave the country, Kazakhstan said in its role as the rotating chair of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Britain: TV debate

LONDON — British voters fixed their eyes on television screens for the first U.S.-style political debate Thursday — a historic event billed as an exciting prelude to one of the closest elections in years. But a life-sapping format of 76 rules sterilized many of the exchanges — there were no real gaffes, no visible beads of sweat and no bloodletting. Initial polls handed a surprising victory to the third place Liberal Democrats' Nick Clegg. The 43-year-old looked relaxed and spoke confidently and passionately about topics ranging from immigration to greed in the banking industry.