Gunmen robbed four commercial ships anchored near the southern oil hub of Basra in a rare attack off the Iraqi coast, the U.S. Navy said Sunday.

They are Britain's "Forgotten army" from the Second World War, former prisoners-of-war who spent three years in brutal Japanese camps after the fall of Malaya and Singapore.

As the Obama administration continues to add to the aid package for flood-stricken Pakistan - already the largest humanitarian response from any single country - officials acknowledge that they are seeking to use the efforts to burnish the United States' dismal image there.

More American helicopters arrived in Pakistan to help ferry aid to flood victims as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was expected to visit Sunday in areas affected by the disaster the government estimates has made 20 million people homeless.

New Yorkers gave some patriotic pecks to celebrate the anniversary of the end of World War II.