News Buzz: China's Quake, West Virginia's Vote, and More

A day after the massive 7.9-magnitude earthquake in China, the death toll has soared, with the official Xinhua News Agency reporting that 12,000 are dead and 18,645 more are still buried in the rubble. Rescue efforts have been difficult because of bad weather and the remoteness of the areas hardest hit by the quake. Officials said there is little prospect that many survivors would be found under the rubble.

Voters in West Virginia will head to the polls today to pick between Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, but even a double-digit win for Clinton at this stage may not matter. Obama, who is weeks away from clinching the Democratic nomination, continues to steadily amass superdelegates and has turned his attention to the general election and John McCain. The Clinton campaign argues that Obama is a weak general election candidate because he isn't able to win primaries in states like West Virginia and Kentucky, which holds a primary next week.

Shoppers aren't shopping nearly enough, as retail sales dipped for the second time in two months. The Commerce Department reported today that retail sales were down 0.2 percent last month. The latest drop was led by a decline in auto sales, which decreased by 2.8 percent, the biggest drop that industry had seen in 10 months. Excluding autos, retail sales actually improved by 0.5 percent, which was a better performance than expected.