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tens of thousands of thatch homes, but officials said massive evacuation efforts had spared the east coast from widespread loss of life.
• The storm, the strongest to hit India in more than a decade, destroyed hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of crops, but more than 18 hours after it made landfall in Orissa state, officials said they knew of only nine fatalities.
• The final death toll will almost certainly climb, and parts of the cyclone-battered coast remain isolated by downed communication links and blocked roads, but the evacuation of nearly 1 million people appeared to have saved many lives.
• "Damage to property is extensive," said Amitabh Thakur, the top police officer in the Orissa district worst-hit by the cyclone. "But few lives have been lost," he said, crediting the mass evacuations.
• A cargo ship carrying iron ore, the MV Bingo, sank Saturday as the cyclone barreled through the Bay of Bengal, coast guard officials said. The crew of 18 -- including 17 Chinese and one Indonesian -- got into a lifeboat but had not been located by midday Sunday.
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Senate leaders take the lead in hunt for deal on shutdown and debt limit as clock ticks down
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Racing the calendar and the financial markets, Senate leaders have taken the helm in the search for a deal to end the partial government shutdown and avert a federal default.
• "This should be seen as something very positive, even though we don't have anything done yet, and long ways to go," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Saturday, describing his opening conversation hours earlier with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
• "The real conversation that matters now is the one taking place between McConnell and Reid," said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.
• Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., were also involved in the high-level bargaining.
• Sunday marked the 13th day of a federal shutdown that has continued to idle 350,000 government workers, left hundreds of thousands of others working without pay and curtailed everything from veterans' services to environmental inspections.
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