DHAKA, Bangladesh — The U.S. Navy prepared today to deliver much-needed food and medical supplies to hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshis stricken by Cyclone Sidr, a top U.S. military commander said.

The arrival of the USS Kearsarge off the Bangladesh coast came as authorities and aid workers warned that the South Asian country faces acute food shortages after the devastating storm ravaged crops and destroyed infrastructure across a large swath of the country.

The first ship arrived Thursday and Keating said a second ship, the USS Essex, would arrive in the coming days.

The U.S. ships are each carrying about 20 helicopters, which will help in delivering water, food and medical supplies to survivors in remote areas, U.S. officials said.

The official death toll stood at 3,199. The Disaster Management Ministry said the cyclone destroyed 458,804 houses.

BAGHDAD — A bomb exploded in a pet market in central Baghdad today, killing at least 13 people and wounding dozens, Iraqi police said, shattering the festive atmosphere as people strolled past the animal stalls.Hours later, a suicide car bomber struck a police checkpoint in the northern city of Mosul, killing three policemen and 10 civilians.The attacks were among the deadliest in recent weeks, underscoring warnings by senior American commanders that extremists still pose a threat to Iraq's fragile security despite a downturn in violence since a U.S.-Iraqi security plan began in mid-February.

HONOLULU — The top U.S. military commander in the Pacific said he's "perplexed and concerned" by China's last-minute decision to deny a U.S. aircraft carrier entry to Hong Kong for a previously scheduled port visit.The USS Kitty Hawk and its escort ships were due to dock there for a four-day visit Wednesday until they were refused access. Hundreds of family members had flown to Hong Kong to spend Thanksgiving with their sailors."It's hard to put any kind of positive spin on this," Adm. Timothy Keating told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Thursday while flying back to the U.S. after visiting troops in Iraq. "I'm perplexed and concerned."China later reversed its decision and said the ships could enter on humanitarian grounds, but the notice came while the vessels were already on their way back to their home ports. The vessels chose not to turn around.Hong Kong has long been a favored port of call for the U.S. military, but Beijing's approval has been required since July 1, 1997, when Britain handed the former colony back to China.

LUCKNOW, India — A series of near-simultaneous explosions ripped through courthouse complexes today in three north Indian cities, with blasts going off in Lucknow, Varanasi and Faizabad, killing at least 10 lawyers and injuring dozens of other people, officials said.Federal authorities blamed militants trying to spark unrest between India's Hindu majority and Muslim minority, though a legal group noted all the blasts came in a state where lawyers had decided earlier this year not to defend terrorist suspects.At least seven lawyers were killed in three explosions in Varanasi, one of Hinduism's holiest cities, said Brij Lal, a top official in Uttar Pradesh state, where all three cities are located. In Faizabad, a pair of bombs killed three lawyers and injured 10 to 12 more, Lal said.A series of terrorist bombings have ripped across India in the past two years. In August, a pair of explosions killed 43 people in the southern city of Hyderabad.