Blaze threatens hundreds of California homes
Crews brace for ‘explosive conditions’ with Santa Ana wind on the horizon

LOCKWOOD VALLEY, Calif. - Fire crews raced Thursday to contain the fifth-largest fire in California history before the region’s seasonal Santa Ana winds arrived in full force, but low humidity and irregular winds were complicating the effort, threatening hundreds of rural Southern California dwellings.

“We are expecting extremely low humidities today and winds,” Greg Cleveland, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Fire Department, told MSNBC. “This is what’s contributed to this fire jumping the fire lines here a couple of days ago.”

A key to controlling the fire, Cleveland said, is “for us not to get our Santa Ana winds, which we get at this time. We’re just now coming into our Santa Ana wind condition period.”

Fire reaches the size of Chicago
Nearly 4,200 firefighters were working to corral the fire in Los Padres National Forest, about 70 miles north of Los Angeles. By Thursday morning, it was 41 percent contained after chewing through almost 160,000 acres of wilderness, or nearly 249 square miles, roughly the size of Chicago, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

Kim reported from Lockwood Valley that the stubborn blaze had sparked some gallows humor in the area. Firefighters and residents have taken to calling it the “Day-to-Day-to-Day-to-Day Fire” and the “Groundhog Day Fire” — because just when crews think they have a handle on it, it explodes again.

'Mud volcano' forcing 3,000 families to move


An aerial view shows houses flooded with mud in Sidoarjo in Indonesia's East Java province on September 27, 2006. Environmental group Greenpeace on Wednesday dumped 700 kg (1,540 lb) of mud at the welfare ministry in protest over the government's handling of a mudflow disaster. The mud has swamped four villages over an area larger than Monaco, displacing more than 10,000 people.

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesia will resettle more than 3,000 families whose houses have been swamped by mud surging from a gas exploration site and will dump the sludge into the sea to avoid more destruction, the government said Wednesday.

The mud appeared four months ago after an accident occurred deep in a drilling shaft on the seismically charged island of Java. It now covers more than 665 acres and is currently being contained by an ever-expanding network of dams that are breached almost daily.

Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto said efforts would continue to cap the so-called mud volcano, which has been streaming from the ground at a rate of 1.7 million cubic feet a day.

Jakarta minister may sue Greenpeace over mud protest

JAKARTA, Sept 28 (Reuters) - An Indonesian minister at the centre of controversy surrounding a mudflow that has swamped villages may sue Greenpeace after the environmental group dumped mud at his office building, an aide said on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Greenpeace activists poured buckets of greyish mud taken from the inundated East Java site -- which has grown into an area of mud ponds larger than Monaco -- in front of the office of chief people's welfare minister Aburizal Bakrie.

Much of it landed on a layer of white cloth Greenpeace had spread out, but some spilled onto the pavement.

A business group owned by Bakrie's family holds a controlling stake in Lapindo Brantas, the company blamed for the mudflow from an exploratory gas well in East Java's Sidoarjo region.

The firm has denied the mud is directly linked to the drilling operation.

"What the minister wants is that things happening to Lapindo should not be connected to the ministry," said Lalu Mara Satriawangsa, a ministry official who previously worked as a spokesman for the Bakrie family's conglomeration.

Lapindo is controlled by listed firm PT Energi Mega Persada, in turn controlled by the Bakrie group. Another Bakrie-controlled firm, miner PT Bumi Resources Tbk has plans to buy out PT Energi in an all-share deal.

"Yesterday's demonstration was very unethical. They have conducted a rally without permission and they have dumped dirt at a government office," Satriawangsa said.

"We are talking to (lawyers) and ministry officials about whether we should launch a suit," the aide said in a news conference.

Police were present during the Wednesday protest but did not intervene when Greenpeace activists dumped about 700 kg (1,540 lb) of mud just in front of the ministry's gate.

Greenpeace Southeast Asia director Emmy Hafild told reporters during the protest it was "shameless" for Bakrie to distance himself from the disaster.

The mud has submerged four villages, displacing more than 10,000 people. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered the resettlement of around 15,000 residents within 400 hectares (1,000 acres) of the mud-hit area.

Lapindo earlier moved many displaced residents to shelters, including a huge new market turned into a complex of wooden cubicles. It has also promised 5 million rupiah ($549) in rent for two years for each family that lost property.

'It is a war,' says one official of locust plague


What at first glance might appear to be butterflies are actually locusts in a field just outside Cancun, Mexico, on Monday. This four-year-old girl seems unphased by the invaders.

MEXICO CITY - Clouds of locusts have descended around the Mexican beach resort of Cancun, destroying corn crops and worrying officials in a region still recovering from the devastating fury of last year’s Hurricane Wilma.

Traveling in dark fogs, locusts are grasshoppers that have entered a swarming phase, capable of covering large distances and rapidly stripping fields of vegetation.

“Imagine, they fly in the form of a flock. Imagine the width of a street,” government official Martin Rodriguez said Tuesday, describing the fields around Cancun on the Yucatan Peninsula.

Towns have formed pesticide-armed brigades and are winning the war against the 3-week-old plague that has left tourist areas unharmed, authorities said.

Squads wait until night when the flying insects are roosting on plants to blast them. They carry motorized backpack pumps to shoot chemicals in a crusade that has affected from 2,000 to 2,500 acres of farm land.

“It is a war, effectively,” said German Parra, a senior agriculture official in the Gulf state of Quintana Roo, home of tourist resorts Cancun and Playa del Carmen.

Hot weather and an absence of mobility-limiting hurricanes have allowed the insects to breed more than normal but authorities hope to end the infestation in the next eight days.

Locusts, which typically come to the region in four-year cycles, are most famous as one of the 10 biblical plagues of Egypt. “We hope that God will take pity on us and help us,” said Parra with a laugh.

Record Number Of Plague Cases

DURANGO, C.O. -- The San Juan Basin Health Department confirmed the fourth case of plague in La Plata County Monday. That is the highest number of plague cases ever for one year in the entire state of Colorado. The plague can be fatal in about one out of every seven people infected.

Samoa quake 'triggered tsunami'

A strong earthquake near the South Pacific nation of Samoa has triggered a small tsunami, a warning centre says.
Sea level readings following the quake, which had a magnitude of up to 7.0, indicated a tsunami was generated, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said.

But it said a "destructive Pacific-wide tsunami" was not expected.

The quake struck some 300km (185 miles) south-west of Samoa. Waves of eight centimetres high were reported in the American Samoan town of Pago Pago.

One policeman in the capital Apia said buildings swayed and shook for about five minutes, but there was no damage or casualties.

"It was not so strong," he told the Associated Press.

While ruling out an ocean-wide tsunami, the Hawaii-based warning centre said the tsunami "may have been destructive along coasts near the earthquake epicentre".

1918 flu virus's secrets revealed

An experiment to reconstruct the deadly 1918 flu virus has given a new insight into how the infection took hold.
Scientists discovered a severe immune system reaction was triggered when mice were infected with the recreated virus.

The US team believe the extreme immune response could have provoked the body to begin killing its own cells, making the flu even deadlier.

The study, published in Nature, may aid the hunt for new treatments. The 1918 pandemic took about 50 million lives.

Paul Hunter, professor of health protection from the University of East Anglia, said: "People who have died from the current form of bird flu have died in the same sort of fashion as the people who died during the 1918 pandemic. It is an extraordinarily unpleasant death.

"Clearly the difference between the virus now and the one around in 1918 is that the current one has yet to develop the ability to spread swiftly from person to person.

"It is very important to study the 1918 flu to understand the current avian flu virus."

2.6 billion people lack basic sanitation- UN report

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Some 2.6 billion people in the world, mainly in Africa and Asia, lack access to basic sanitation, increasing the risk of diarrhea and other diseases fatal to children, said a U.N. report released on Thursday.

"Despite commendable progress, an estimated 425 million children under the age of 18 still do not have access to an improved water supply and over 980 million do not have access to adequate sanitation, said Anne Veneman, UNICEF's executive director and a former U.S. secretary of agriculture.

Manila whipped as storm weakens over Philippines

MANILA, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Typhoon Xangsane weakened to a tropical storm over the Philippines on Thursday but fierce winds and driving rains killed at least eight people, displaced nearly 5,500 and devastated parts of the central islands and Manila.

Xangsane, which crashed into the centre of the country on Wednesday with winds of up to 130 kph (81 mph) and gusts of 160 kph, is expected to strengthen back to a typhoon when it reaches the South China Sea on Friday morning.

The storm roared through the capital city, emptying the sprawling streets as most of Manila's 12 million residents took shelter from uprooted trees, overturned trucks and cars and other flying debris.

"It sounded like a train passed on the roof," said one occupant of a fourth-floor apartment. "Then the roof in one of our rooms was gone. I can now see the sky."

The storm is headed westward and is expected to reach the Vietnam coastline early on Sunday.

"It will likely regenerate to a typhoon when it reaches the South China Sea," weather specialist Renato Molina told Reuters.

But the weather bureau said it had spotted a new depression thousands of miles to the east of the Philippines which may develop into a storm and enter the country's area of responsibility by Saturday.

Violent winds and seas stranded around 3,500 ferry passengers and killed at least eight people. A further five were feared dead after heavy rains triggered a mudslide south of Manila.

Rescue efforts have been hampered by power failure, blocked roads and cut communication lines, forcing dozens of people in the central Philippines to take refuge on roofs.

Power was interrupted in wide areas of the main island of Luzon, including Manila, forcing the suspension of train services. Taxi drivers were reluctant to take to the road.

"It's too dangerous," said one cab driver, Armando Legaspi. "Trees were falling left and right. So many things were flying out there. Visibility was also poor and I was so afraid the wind could flip my car."

Agriculture officials said an initial estimate showed 60 million pesos ($1.19 million) worth of crops, particularly fruit trees, had been destroyed.

Xangsane was the 13th typhoon to hit the Philippines this year, disaster officials said.

Ninth Tropical Depression of 2006 forms

MIAMI - The ninth tropical depression of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season remained in the central Atlantic on Thursday, but was not expected to become a hurricane or threaten land, forecasters said.

The depression was expected to intensify and was close to tropical storm strength, the National Hurricane Center said.

At 5:00 a.m. EDT, the depression's center was located about 685 miles east-southeast of Bermuda and moving toward the northwest near 12 mph. This general motion was expected to continue during the next day, forecasters said.

The depression, which formed Wednesday, had top sustained winds near 35 mph. If the storm's winds reach 39 mph it will become Tropical Storm Isaac.

Fishermen: Seal numbers out of control

CHATHAM, Mass. - In the waters and beaches off this Cape Cod town, the shiny scalps and whiskered snouts of the gray seal are everywhere. They bask in the sun, mug for boaters and, fisherman say, eat way too many fish.

The thousands of gray seals off Chatham show the success of a federal law that protects all marine mammals, including the Cape's once-sparse seal population, which had been thinned in part by a killing bounty.

But the 1972 law didn't plan any curbs once populations rebounded, and fishermen say the ubiquitous and voracious seals are destroying their businesses and there's no way to stop them.

"The population is getting out of control," said Ernie Eldredge, a Chatham fisherman for 40 years.

Fishermen have few ideas how to manage the seals without killing them, something that no one is openly advocating and which a public enamored with the friendly animals would not easily accept. Peter Baker of the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fisherman's Association said he's convinced "there are strategies for managing seal populations that don't include clubbing baby seals."

Robert Prescott, director of the Massachusetts Audubon Society's Wellfleet Bay sanctuary, said fishermen are too quick to blame the seals for declining fish catches. Environmental conditions or overfishing may be much more at fault, he said.

"It's way too complex to just point a finger at the seals," he said.

Prescott, of the Audubon Society, said he understands the dilemma fisherman face, but is unconvinced there's a growing imbalance between seals and fish. He added no scientific paper he's seen proves they're eating valuable commercial species.

Fishermen don't always realize they aren't the sea's only predators, he said.

"They feel they have the right to every single fish in the ocean, and nature doesn't," he said.

Earthquake hits off India's Andaman Islands

NEW DELHI (AFP) - An earthquake measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale has struck off India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which were badly hit by the December 2004 tsunami.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

"The intensity of the earthquake was moderate. It was recorded north of the Andaman Islands this evening," an official at the Indian Meteorological Department said Thursday.

No tremors were felt in the archipelago -- a chain of more than 500 islands in the Indian Ocean -- the official said.

The US Geological Survey said the epicentre was 257 kilometers (160 miles) east of Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman Islands and 384 kilometers (238 miles) west of Mergui in Myanmar.