BAGHDAD -- The followers of Moktada al-Sadr, a radical cleric who led the Shiite insurgency against the American occupation, have emerged as Iraq's equivalent of Lazarus in elections last week, defying ritual predictions of their demise and now threatening to realign the nation's balance of power.

Their apparent success in the March 7 vote for Parliament -- perhaps second only to the followers of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki as the largest Shiite bloc -- underscores a striking trend in Iraqi politics: a collapse in support for many former exiles who collaborated with the United States after the 2003 invasion.

Although rivals disparaged the Sadrists' election campaign, documents and interviews show an unprecedented discipline that has thrust the group to the brink of perhaps its greatest political influence in Iraq.

The outcome completes a striking arc of a populist movement that inherited the mantle of a slain ayatollah, then forged a martial culture in its fight with the American military in 2004.

After years of defeats, fragmentation and doubt even by its own clerics about its prospects in this election, the movement has embraced the political process, while remaining steadfast in opposition to any ties with the United States. It was never going to be easy to form a new postelection government -- and the Sadrists' unpredictability, along with a new confidence, may now make it that much harder.

FOND-DES-BLANCS, Haiti -- Before the earthquake that changed everything, Chlotilde Pelteau and her husband lived a supremely urban existence. A cosmetics vendor and a mechanic, they both enjoyed a steady clientele and a hectic daily routine, serenaded by the beeping cars and general hubbub of Port-au-Prince.

Now, as roosters crow and goats bleat, Ms. Pelteau, 29, toils by day on a craggy hillside in the isolated hamlet of Nan Roc (In the Rocks), which she had abandoned at 14 for a life of greater opportunity. At night, she, her husband and their two children sleep cheek-to-jowl with a dozen relatives in the small mud house where she grew up.

"With everything destroyed, what could I do but come back?" said Ms. Pelteau, wearing a floral skirt as she poked corn seeds deep into arid soil unlikely to yield enough food to sustain her rail-thin parents, much less those who fled the shattered capital city to rejoin them.

Life has come full circle for many Haitians who originally migrated to escape the grinding poverty of the countryside. Since the early 1980s, rural Haitians have moved at a steady clip to Port-au-Prince in search of schools, jobs and government services. After the earthquake, more than 600,000 returned to the countryside, according to the government, putting a serious strain on desperately poor communities that have received little emergency assistance.

More than 45,000 Sacramento County residents joined the ranks of the medically uninsured in the past two years, according to a new report that further illustrates the staggering depth of the recession: a surge of 2 million Californians without health insurance.

One in four Californians, or 8.2 million people, now lack coverage, according to UCLA researchers.

The study, released Tuesday, quickly became a talking point in the national debate over health care legislation, which could culminate later this week in a dramatic up-or-down vote on Capitol Hill.

California's newly uninsured include 400,000 children. In all, 1.5 million children in California have no health insurance, the study says.

"Given the economic conditions, we knew something was going to change, because 2009 was a terrible year," said Shana Alex Lavarreda, director of health insurance studies at UCLA and the lead author of the report.

"We didn't think it was going to be this huge. The numbers startled us. This is the biggest jump we've seen in decades."

KAMPALA (Reuters) - Ugandan security forces shot and wounded at least seven people on Wednesday after fire destroyed a royal tomb, heightening tensions between the government and the powerful Bugandan kingdom.

A Reuters witness said the shooting happened when security forces were clearing Bugandan loyalists from the charred remains of the tombs where their royalty are buried, so President Yoweri Museveni could visit the site gutted by fire on Tuesday night.

The cause of the blaze which destroyed the thatched-roof mausoleum and many centuries-old royal artefacts at the UNESCO World Heritage Site has not been identified, but some angry protesters suspected foul play.

"They have a wide conspiracy of destroying everything that marks there was a great kingdom called Buganda, and this is one of them," loyalist Jemba Erisa told Reuters at the tombs.

The Baganda are Uganda's largest tribe and were instrumental in Museveni coming to power 24 years ago. Museveni based his five-year military struggle in the kingdom's heartland and support by the Baganda has helped him stay in power.

But relations have been increasingly strained since Museveni last year blocked the reigning Bugandan monarch, or Kabaka, Ronald Mutebi, from visiting a part of his kingdom.

Clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police have continued in the occupied West Bank despite the reopening of access to and from the area. 

Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, ordered the closure to be lifted on Wednesday, five days after imposing it citing security reasons.

Officials also reopened the al-Aqsa mosque compound in East Jerusalem, where dozens of people were injured on Tuesday as Palestinian demonstrators clashed with Israeli security forces.

"Access to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is now free for both Muslim worshippers and tourists," Micky Rosenfeld, an Israeli police spokesman, said, using the Jewish name for the site.

It had been closed to Muslim men under the age of 50 and all non-Muslims.