SANTIAGO ATITLAN, Guatemala - Authorities reaching communities previously cut off by floodwaters raised the number of Guatemalans whose homes were damaged, destroyed or threatened by new rainfall to 200,000.

Emergency response teams assessed the damage to isolated villages deep in the mountains of San Marcos province, near the border with Mexico, for the first time Tuesday - nearly a week after relentless rain caused flooding and mudslides.

Agriculture Secretary Alvaro Aguilar said officials had now reached 95 percent of the 515 estimated communities affected by flooding.

The death toll stood at 652, but the number of missing whose bodies may never be recovered rose to nearly 600, meaning more than 1,200 people may have been killed in Guatemala.

Another 133 people died in El Salvador, Mexico, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Honduras due to the heavy rains by Hurricane Stan.

Nowhere was the devastation more widespread than Guatemala. Some 120,000 residents continue to live in shelters after flooding forced them to flee their homes.

In all, 200,000 people were considered "directly affected," meaning that their homes were damaged, destroyed or rendered temporarily uninhabitable.

JIUQUAN, China - A rocket carrying two Chinese astronauts blasted off today from a base in China's desert northwest, returning the country's manned space program to orbit two years after its history-making first flight.The mission, reportedly due to last up to five days, is an effort by the communist government to declare its status as a rising world power with technological triumphs to match its rapid economic growth. It is only the third country to launch a human into orbit on its own, after Russia and the United States.By The Associated Press