Residents ride a boat through the flooded streets of Pingyao in eastern China today. Typhoon Morakot has led to the evacuation of 1.4 million people in China, while triggering a massive landslide that toppled at least six apartment buildings and burying a number of residents in eastern China.

CISHAN, Taiwan — Taiwan's military rescued about 300 people today after a mudslide touched off by Typhoon Morakot consumed a village, but scores remained missing. A helicopter on a relief operation in the area crashed into a mountain with three crew aboard.

Chen Chung-hsien, an official in charge of the relief effort, said it was unclear if the two pilots and one technician had survived the crash near Wutai in Pingtung county, where the chopper was delivering food and trying to reach villagers.

Morakot, which triggered the worst flooding in Taiwan in 50 years, dumped as much as 80 inches of rain over the weekend before moving on to China.

Taiwanese authorities put the confirmed death toll from Morakot at 50 and listed 58 people as missing, not including the residents missing in Shiao Lin, whose fate has been unclear since Sunday's mudslide. At least 400 people there are unaccounted for.

In China's Fujian province, where the storm headed after Taiwan, authorities ordered 1.5 million people to leave the area, sending them to schools, government offices, hospitals and the homes of relatives, where they will remain until the rain stops and waters recede, the Civil Affairs Ministry said.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Clashes with insurgents killed three American troops in southern Afghanistan, where roadside bombs also killed nine civilians, officials said today.A Polish soldier, 22 Taliban insurgents and two Afghan soldiers also died in violence nine days ahead of the country's second-ever presidential election. A record number of U.S. and NATO troops are working to protect the country ahead of the Aug. 20 vote, which Taliban militants have vowed to disrupt.NATO said the Americans died in separate "hostile fire incidents." It did not disclose the exact location of the attacks. The first died of wounds suffered in an incident that occurred Saturday, another died Sunday and the third died Monday, a NATO statement said

MUNICH — A 90-year-old former German army officer was convicted today of murdering 10 Italian civilians who were herded into a barn that was blown up.The Munich state court convicted World War II veteran Josef Scheungraber on 10 counts of murder and sentenced him to life in prison.Scheungraber was a 25-year-old Wehrmacht lieutenant during the June 1944 killings in Falzano di Cortona, near the Tuscan town of Arezzo.The court found that, after partisans had killed two German soldiers, Scheungraber ordered 11 civilians to be herded into a barn that was then destroyed. One teenage boy survived the blast.