BEIJING — Floods caused by heavy rains in northeastern China stranded tens of thousands of residents without power today, as the worst flooding in more than a decade continues to affect the country.

Floods this year have killed at least 823 people with 437 missing and have caused tens of billions of dollars in damage, the State Flood Control and Drought Prevention reported. More heavy rains are expected for the southeast, southwest and northeast parts of the country through Thursday.

About 30,000 residents in Kouqian town were trapped after torrential rains drenched the northeastern province of Jilin today, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Water began flooding the town after the nearby Xingshan Reservoir and the Wende and Songhua rivers overflowed.

Flooding has hit areas all over China. In Wuhan city in central Hubei province, thousands of workers sandbagged riverbanks and checked reservoirs in preparation for potential floods expected to flow from the swollen Yangtze and Han rivers, an official with the Yangtze Water Resources Commission said today. He was surnamed Zhang but refused to give his full name, as is common with Chinese officials.

CAIRO — Al-Qaida's No. 2 slammed France's push to ban the Islamic full-face veil and urged Muslim women to be "holy warriors" in the defense of their headdress against the "secular Western crusade" in a new audio message released today on militant websites.In the 47-minute recording, Ayman al-Zawahri said the drive by France and other European nations to ban the veil amounted to discrimination against Muslim women."Every single woman who defends her veil is a holy warrior ... in the face of the secular Western crusade," he said."France, with all its power and clout, can't touch the head-cover of a nun, but it can assault any face-veiled woman."Al-Zawahri also urged Muslims in Europe to support their women in resisting the Western ban on the veil."We must call upon our girls, our sisters and our mothers to put on the veil. We must support them and defend them."France, Belgium and Spain are debating legislation that would ban the veil. Other nations in Europe too have struggled to balance national identities with growing Muslim populations with cultural practices that clash with their own.

BAGHDAD — A sandstorm downed an Iraqi military helicopter today, killing its five-man crew, while midmorning Baghdad bombings claimed the lives of six people, officials said.Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mohammed al-Askari said the helicopter was flying to provide air protection to Shiite pilgrims traveling by road to the holy city of Karbala, when it crashed in the sandstorm early in the morning.The crash is under investigation, and no other details were immediately available, al-Askari said.Thousands of pilgrims are headed to Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, for an important religious holiday marking the birth of a Shiite saint known as the "Hidden Imam" who disappeared in the ninth century.Such mass displays of devotion by Shiites have often been targeted by Sunni extremists. Just a day earlier, six people were killed and dozens more wounded when a female suicide bomber blew herself up near a Karbala security checkpoint.Meanwhile, two midmorning bombings in Baghdad killed six people and injured 15 others in the eastern Shiite slum of Sadr City, police and health officials said.