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At 9:38 a.m. on Friday, about 200 mourners rang handbells to mark the moment three years ago when New Orleans’ levees were breached by high waters from Hurricane Katrina, flooding most of the city and leading to the deaths of about 1,600 people.

Eighty-five victims of the storm left unclaimed by any survivors were finally laid to rest as another deadly storm, Hurricane Gustav, strengthened in the Gulf of Mexico and threatened the city.

A horsedrawn carriage carried the last seven gleaming coffins to the mausoleum on Friday, while jazz trumpeter Ken Ferdinand played “Amazing Grace.” The other 78 victims were interred on Thursday in a scramble to beat an evacuation order expected Saturday.

“We look ahead to a better day, as we also prepare ourselves for another threat,” Mayor Ray Nagin said as he helped lift and guide the last coffin into the tomb.

The audience at the memorial service sat under the hot sun because tarps intended to shelter them were requisitioned for the approaching storm. Gustav also canceled a planned eight-block jazz funeral procession for the service.

Gustav was swirling at an agonizingly slow pace near Jamaica on Friday after being blamed for at least 71 deaths in its path. Forecasters said it could hit the Louisiana coast early next week as a major hurricane: the first in the state since Katrina.

“I think God is reminding us that on the eve of Katrina, God can bring nature back,” said retired Army Gen. Russell Honore, who was credited with taking control of the mayhem following Katrina. Honore said if Gustav spares New Orleans, it should be a reminder that more work needs to be done with Katrina recovery.

The memorial itself is an example of the pained rebuilding. A relatively small $1.2 million project in the multibillion dollar Katrina recovery, it had been stalled for nearly a year until officials made a last-ditch effort to construct it by the third anniversary. It’s still missing plaques that will identify all the known victims.

Julia Powers, a forensic specialist on loan from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help the New Orleans coroner with the unclaimed dead, said her work will not be done with the burial. About 50 of the 85 unclaimed bodies have been identified, but some families were dispersed by Katrina and could not be located. Others were too poor, or too distant a relative to bury the bodies themselves.

“We’re not done exhausting all leads,” Powers said. “A good thing about the mausoleums is that caskets can be removed later if a family should come forth and want to bury them themselves.”

In coastal Mississippi, also devastated by Katrina, a morning memorial was held in the town of Waveland. In neighboring Bay St. Louis, officials chose not to mark the anniversary.

“We decided not to look backward. We decided to look forward with all the progress we’ve made,” said Harold “Buz” Olsen, director of administration for Bay St. Louis.

A surge of violence continued unabated in Pakistan’s tribal border region Thursday, with a car bomb blasting a bus filled with Pakistani police and government workers off a bridge and killing eight people aboard.

More than 200 people have died in Taliban bombings and clashes since longtime U.S. ally Pervez Musharraf quit as president and triggered a power struggle that caused the country’s ruling coalition to collapse.

U.S. officials have been pressing for more action against insurgent strongholds in Pakistan’s wild border region.

Pakistan’s military insists it is doing what it can to contain militants and prevent them from moving against NATO and Afghan troops on the other side of the Afghan-Pakistan border.

Pakistan’s army chief secretly met the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other top American commanders Tuesday on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Indian Ocean to talk about what else could be done.

The meeting was the latest of several between Adm. Mike Mullen and General Ashfaq Kayani.

A U.S. official familiar with the discussion said the meeting was “more collaborative,” compared to a similar one a month ago when Mullen took a “more firm tone” in warning Kayani that Islamabad was not doing enough to counter militants.

Mullen declined to give details about discussions with Kayani, but said he has been moving in the right direction.

Pakistani Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said the commanders analyzed the security situation in the region and that no new agreements were struck.

The turmoil in Pakistan has left the party long led by slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in a position to dominate the government and it has been toughening its stance against Islamist extremists.

However, its one-time coalition partner on Thursday echoed widespread opposition to Pakistan’s role in the U.S.-led war against terrorism.

A leader of the party called for a halt to Pakistan’s weeks-old military offensive in the border region, saying the estimated 200,000 people who have fled the fighting to makeshift camps were suffering too much.

“Talking through the language of the bullet should be stopped,” Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told reporters.

Thursday’s powerful blast incinerated the car in which the bomb was hidden and left a massive crater in the middle of the long, concrete bridge near the city of Bannu.

The badly damaged bus smashed through a railing and tumbled about 30 feet into a riverbed.

Jalil Khan, the local police chief, said the bus was en route to a local prison to pick up several inmates. He said seven policemen and an education department official who had hitched a ride were killed.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, though police said militants were the likely culprits.

Meanwhile, the military said government troops killed 23 militants in clashes Wednesday in the restive Swat Valley. The military has been battling Islamic extremists there for months.

Spokesman Maj. Murad Khan said helicopter gunships fired on militants riding in two vehicles and in a suspected hideout. Troops later counted 23 bodies and found arms and ammunition.

In other violence, Khan said two paramilitary troops died when militants attacked their convoy in South Waziristan. He said troops shot dead a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle before he could approach them.

According to an official and a witness, volunteers guarding a tribal council in the Salarzai area of Bajur on Thursday shot and killed another suicide bomber before he could strike.

The dead man was carrying an explosives-filled vest, said Fazl Rabi, a local police commander. Two accomplices were captured, he said.

Spokesmen for the militants could not be reached for comment.

Police used stun guns and beat parishioners protesting the arrest of fellow church members who have demanded the return of land they say was taken by Vietnam’s communist government in the early 1960s, a Catholic priest said Thursday

About 300 people gathered in front of the police station to pray for the release of those arrested. Some five hours after the crowd arrived, several hundred police officers used force to break up the crowd, witnesses said.

“We came to pray peacefully,” said Nguyen Thi Phuc, a church member who had blood on her face and shirt. “Why did they have to beat us?”

State-run television did not mention the confrontation. Vietnamese officials could not be reached for comment on Thursday night.

Earlier in the day, police had arrested two church members, accusing them of knocking down a fence that surrounds land parishioners want returned to the church, according to state-owned television.

Nguyen Van Khai, a priest at the Thai Ha church in Hanoi, said four church members were arrested.

The parishioners have been holding round-the-clock prayer vigils for nearly two weeks over the land issue. On Aug. 15, the day the vigils began, church members knocked down a section of a fence surrounding the property and placed several statues of the Virgin Mary inside.

Police arrested seven demonstrators, and several people suffered minor injuries during the confrontation, said Khai, whose congregation totals several thousand.

“We will continue to pray peacefully, demanding that the government give us justice,” Khai said, vowing that the church members would continue their vigil Friday.

Although religious freedom has been growing in Vietnam recently, the state closely monitors religious organizations and only recognizes a half-dozen officially sanctioned faiths, including Catholicism.

Catholicism is Vietnam’s second-largest faith — after Buddhism — with more than 6 million adherents.

In the years after Vietnam’s communist government took power in 1954, many church properties and other private lands were taken over by the government.

Although demonstrations of any kind are rare in Vietnam, church members have been asserting themselves more boldly in recent months.

Earlier this year, Catholic leaders organized prayer vigils at a parcel of land near Hanoi’s main cathedral, demanding the return of that site, which once housed the Vatican’s embassy in Vietnam.

China and four Central Asian nations signed a statement Thursday supporting Russia’s role in the Caucasus but also expressing “deep concern” over the Georgia conflict and calling for a negotiated settlement.

In a joint statement, the leaders of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan said they “support the active role of Russia in assisting peace and cooperation in the region.”

The six in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) also “express their deep concern over the recent tensions surrounding the South Ossetia question and call for the sides to peacefully resolve existing problems through dialogue.”

Echoing language used in the West over the conflict, a portion of the statement also said the summit members supported the principle of “territorial integrity” of states.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the statement showed a “united position” on the Georgia conflict, and Kremlin officials indicated they were happy with its phrasing.

China’s foreign ministry reiterated, however, its concern over Russia’s decision to recognise two breakaway Georgian provinces as independent states, and experts were split on how to interpret the Dushanbe statement.

Unequivocal Chinese support would be a diplomatic coup for Russia, which has found itself largely isolated since its military move into Georgia on August 8.

“It’s not resounding support for Russia,” commented Macha Lipman of the Carnegie Moscow Center, the Russian office of a US-based think tank. “Every country took into account their interests.”

Fyodor Lukyanov, a respected independent analyst who edits the magazine Russia in Global Policy, differed.

“The SCO statement is a great victory by Russia, which has so far been in a vacuum” over Georgia. “They openly demonstrated their support for Russia in its standoff with Georgia.”

Russia sent forces into Georgia in response to Tbilisi’s offensive to retake South Ossetia, and hundreds of troops remain in what Moscow is calling a “peacekeeping” mission but Georgia has denounced as an occupation force.

Medvedev asserted that the summit had sent a clear message to the West, which has sharply criticised Moscow.

“I hope it will serve as a serious signal to those who try to turn black into white and justify this aggression,” he said.

The SCO statement made no explicit mention of Russia’s decision to recognise the rebel provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.

Speaking before the statement was signed, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters in Beijing: “China expresses concern over the latest developments in the situation in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

“We are fully aware of the complicated history and reality of the issues of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and given our consistent position on such issues, we hope the relevant countries properly resolve the issues through dialogue and consultation.”

China, which is battling separatist claims on its own territory, called for “dialogue and consultation”.

The president of energy-rich Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, sounded a note more in favor of Moscow.

After the summit, Nazarbayev said he related “with understanding to all the measures taken by Russia” when he held a one-on-one meeting with Medvedev.

“I would very much like international opinion to move toward peace and understanding, without constant announcements about the Cold War,” he said.

Belarus, which is closely tied to Moscow, said Russia “had no moral” choice but to recognise the independence of the two Georgian regions.

Russian news agencies later quoted the Belarussian ambassador to Moscow as saying Belarus may “soon” recognise the two Georgian provinces.

A statement from the Belarus presidency called for another Moscow-dominated regional grouping, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), to make a joint statement on the conflict at its meeting on September 5.

The CSTO comprises Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

In the face of Western criticism, the Kremlin has angrily argued that Russia used military force only in response to a Georgian attack against South Ossetia, where tens of thousands of Russian citizens live.

Asif Ali Zardari, the man poised to become Pakistan’s next president, is still known as “Mr. 10 Percent” because of corruption allegations. Now his own lawyers say he may have suffered from mental health problems within the past year.

That has left many Pakistanis wondering: Is this the best man for the job?

“People have short memories, but not that short,” said Rafat Saeed, 42, as he parked his car in the bustling city of Karachi following a week of political turmoil and relentless violence by Islamic militants.

“His name is synonymous with corruption!”

Friends and family say Zardari, widower of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, is fine now and fit to rule. But the questions over his psychological state are not likely to go away soon.

The United States and other Western nations nervously watched the ruling coalition collapse this week after the two main parties forced Musharraf — a close ally in the war on terrorism — to resign as president rather than face impeachment.

Zardari’s party is now in a position to dominate the 5-month-old civilian government, especially if the 53-year-old Zardari, recently cleared of all graft charges, is elected president by lawmakers in a Sept. 6 vote, as is widely expected.

If he wins, he will be one of the most powerful civilian leaders in Pakistan’s 61-year history, retaining many of the powers accumulated during Musharraf’s nine-year rule, from the right to dissolve Parliament to appointing heads of the armed forces.

But he has many demons in his past.

With $60 million in a Swiss bank account, corruption allegations dating to his wife’s time in power will not go away any time soon. Then, in recent days, questions emerged about the state of Zardari’s mental health.

In a corruption case brought against him by the Pakistani government, Zardari’s own lawyers told a London court last year that he recently suffered from dementia and other psychological problems — an apparent attempt to delay proceedings.

They claimed it was the result of years spent in Pakistani jails — where Zardari says he was placed in solitary confinement, tortured and living in fear for his life before he was released in 2004. The claims of mental illness were first reported in the Financial Times.

Friends, family and party members insist, however, that he’s healthy now and fit to rule.

“He was under stress, no doubt,” said Wajid Hasan, Pakistan’s ambassador in Britain and a longtime friend of Zardari’s, adding that the diagnosis is now more than a year old.

“He was never prescribed drugs, he only received counseling,” Hasan said. “I have spent long periods of time with him in the past two years … He’s been alert. He’s been steady.”

But his political rivals disagree.

“A ‘patient’ shouldn’t be allowed to run for president,” argued Sadiqul Farooq, spokesman for the party headed by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the junior party in the coalition that walked out this week.

Zardari, who earned the nickname “Mr. 10 Percent” while serving as minister for investment and environment when Bhutto was prime minister, was accused of pocketing commissions on contracts — from Polish tractors to licenses to import gold.

He says the allegations were part of a smear campaign to keep Bhutto from returning from self-exile after her government collapsed in 1996.

Pakistani investigators accused them at one point of spiriting $1.5 billion out of the country.

Swiss prosecutor Daniel Zappelli said Thursday that some $60 million that had been in Swiss bank accounts since the 1990s would be unfrozen, following a request by Pakistani authorities.

He declined to identify the owner of the funds, citing privacy rules. But Hassan Habib at the Pakistani Embassy in Bern said he believed it belonged to “the late prime minister Bhutto, or her husband, or it was a joint account.”

Among the skepticism, some in Pakistan are willing to cut Zardari some slack.

Imran Ibrahim, a 27-year-old stockbroker, notes that few Pakistani political leaders are squeaky clean, either using their position to line their own pockets or to help enrich family and friends.

“No one is free of flaws,” Ibrahim said. “I think he’s better than many of the others out there. Plus, he was the husband of Benazir Bhutto, who dreamed of a prosperous Pakistan. He’ll live out her dream, or at least he’ll try.”

Bhutto was killed in a Dec. 27 attack as she was campaigning for parliamentary elections. Zardari immediately took the reins of her Pakistan People’s Party, surprising many as he rallied supporters.

A former polo player from a wealthy landowning family, Zardari had shown little interest in politics, but quickly proved it wasn’t due to lack of skill. By forming an unlikely alliance with Sharif, a bitter rival, they forced Musharraf from power.

The moment the former military ruler was gone, however, rifts in the coalition emerged.

Sharif accused Zardari of breaking promises to immediately restore judges ousted by Musharraf or to dramatically scale back the powers of the presidency.

Eventually, Sharif quit the coalition, saying his party would prefer to sit in the opposition.

Zardari’s People’s Party has begun forging new partnerships with smaller parties in Parliament, which could make it even more dominant.

Ishtiaq Ahmad, a professor of politics at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, said Zardari’s widely perceived duplicity toward Sharif reawakened old doubts.

“He may be an expert in Darwinian politics, but people perceive a sheer lack of leadership qualities,” said Ahmad.

The United States — worried about a burgeoning Islamic militancy, especially in the volatile northwest, a rumored hiding place of Osama bin Laden — hopes the country will remain an ally in the war on terror.

It saw the Oxford-educated Bhutto, an outspoken critic of Islamic extremists, as a potential ally and last year pushed for her rapprochement with Musharraf. The hope was that they could form a pro-Western alliance and galvanize the campaign against the Taliban and al-Qaida.

The negotiations paved the way for her return — including an agreement by Musharraf to order the closing of long-standing corruption cases against the couple — but later fell apart.

In March, Pakistani courts acquitted Zardari in the last case still pending against him, involving the import of a German luxury limousine. When the government told judicial authorities in Switzerland and Britain that no crime had been committed, the European courts had little choice but to end their proceedings.

Anti-American sentiment runs high in this Muslim country, largely over the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and many people worry Zardari is too close to Washington.

The 5-month-old civilian government dabbled in peace talks with the militants after taking power, something Musharraf briefly tried as well.

But it has increasingly relied on force to try to beat back insurgents. Officials say hundreds have been killed and more than 200,000 people forced to flee their homes in recent weeks.