Vietnam braces for Typhoon Cimaron, plans mass evacuationsHANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam braced for Typhoon Cimaron and planned mass evacuations after the storm slammed the northern Philippines, leaving at least 15 people dead in landslides and flooding, state media reported Tuesday.
Originally a super typhoon, Cimaron quickly lost strength after slamming ashore in the northeastern Philippine province of Isabela late Sunday and cutting across Luzon island Monday with winds of 75 mph and gusts of up to 130 mph.
Philippine forecasters said that it could intensify over the South China Sea before making landfall along Vietnam's central coast by Saturday morning.
At least 15 people drowned or were killed by falling trees and another 15 were injured in the northern Philippines, local officials reported.
Tuesday's Communist Party newspaper Nhan Dan (People) quoted Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung as telling disaster officials that evacuation of people from high-risk areas must be completed by Thursday afternoon.
The deputy prime minister also ordered provincial governments to recall fishing boats still operating in the South China Sea and banned other fishing boats from leaving port.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, who is currently in China, dispatched Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong to the central region to direct emergency operations, Nhan Dan said.
Last month's Typhoon Xangsane left 230 people dead and missing as it ripped through Manila and neighboring provinces and later killed 69 people in central Vietnam.
Cimaron slams Philippines as a maximum category five storm or "Super Typhoon" MANILA, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Typhoon Cimaron churned towards central Vietnam on Tuesday after killing at least 10 people and displacing thousands in the northern Philippines with fierce winds and raging waters.
Cimaron slammed into Luzon, the Philippines' most populated island and its rice bowl, on Sunday night as a maximum category five storm or "super typhoon", tearing up trees, power lines and roofs and destroying houses and roads.
The typhoon, the second to hit the Philippines in over a month, weakened as it swept out of the archipelago on Monday and was churning westwards towards Vietnam with winds of 120 km (75 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 150 km per hour.
Storm tracker www.tropicalstormrisk.com showed Cimaron picking up speed and tipping northwards en route to Vietnam, bringing stormy weather to Hong Kong and the Chinese island of Hainan on Wednesday morning.
Cimarno is expected to hit Vietnam as a category 1 typhoon on Friday morning.
At least five people were reported drowned or killed by falling trees in the Philippine coastal province of Isabela, according to local mayor Renato Candido. There were at least five other reported fatalities, disaster officials said.
The Office of Civil Defense said police were still verifying reports of several landslides.
THOUSANDS EVACUATED
Over 2,000 people were evacuated to makeshift accommodation while nearly 180,000 were affected by wind damage, landslides and flooding. Power was slowly returning to four provinces.
The storm disrupted thousands of travellers on the move for the Roman Catholic festivals of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day on Nov. 1 and 2, when millions of Filipinos throng cemeteries to honour their dead.
Cimaron was estimated to have destroyed around 114 million pesos ($2.3 million) worth of crops, fisheries and livestock. The bill for damage to roads, bridges and schools was put at 25 million pesos.
The Department of Agriculture has said the typhoon destroyed around 8 percent of rice and corn due for harvesting before the end of the year.
Cimaron crashed into the archipelago just weeks after Typhoon Xangsane raked the Philippines and Vietnam, killing at least 169 people and taking a heavy toll on electricity networks, roads and crops.
The Philippines cut its annual agricultural growth target to around 4 percent for 2006 from at least 5 percent due to the destruction by Xangsane.
Blowing snow in northern Plains results in scary driving conditionsWILLISTON, N.D. (AP) — At least 3 inches of snow fell here overnight, and more was expected from a fast-moving winter storm in northern North Dakota.
Highway Patrol Capt. Alan Billehus said drivers seemed to be prepared early Monday morning.
"We've been pretty fortunate," he said shortly after 9 a.m. "The east-west roads are in pretty good driving condition. The north-south roads are compacted snow. We've had one vehicle in the ditch south of Williston on U.S. 85 and one rollover near Stanley, on U.S. 2."
Billehus said he knew of no major injuries.
"I think there was enough warning that people prepared themselves for this," he said.
"It's tapering off. When it was still dark out, you couldn't see anything," said Greg Westlake, manager of the Farmers Union Oil station near Kenmare. He estimated that area had more than 4 inches of snow from about midnight to 7 a.m.
The National Weather Service issued winter storm watches and warnings for west and central areas north of Interstate 94, continuing into the northeast on Tuesday.
Forecasters said up to 8 inches of snow was possible in some areas, and wind speeds up to 35 mph could blow the snow around and make travel hazardous.
Temperatures Monday were expected to peak in the 30s and 40s in the morning and then fall throughout the afternoon, the weather service said. Overnight lows were forecast in the teens and lower 20s.
Scientists uncover new bird flu strainWASHINGTON - Scientists have discovered a new strain of bird flu that appears to sidestep current vaccines. It's infecting people as well as poultry in Asia, and some researchers fear its evolution may have been steered by the vaccination programs designed to protect poultry from earlier types of the H5N1 flu.
The discovery by Yi Guan of the University of Hong Kong and colleagues is reported in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The new variant has become the primary version of the bird flu in several provinces of China and has spread to Hong Kong, Laos, Malaysia and Thailand, the researchers report. It is being called H5N1 Fujian-like, to distinguish it from earlier Hong Kong and Vietnam variants.
"We don't know what is driving this," report co-author Dr. Robert G. Webster of St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., said in a telephone interview.
Heavy rains kill at least 17 in Somali capitalMOGADISHU (AFP) - Torrential rains have killed at least 17 people in the Somali capital overnight, bringing the death toll to 27 as a result of floods across the shattered African nation in the past week, officials and witnesses said.
They said the victims, mainly children and the elderly, died after their mud-walled houses collapsed under heavy rain that pummelled several Mogadishu districts late Saturday, leaving hundreds homeless and destroying property of unknown value.
Medics said relatives recovered more bodies from the the drenched debris after the overnight downpour.
"The death toll has now reached 17. Some people have been recovered from houses that collapsed last night," said Abdullahi Sheikh Ali, nurse in the capital's Arafat hospital on Sunday.
A pharmacist who treated injured victims said that a woman and one child were killed in the city's northern Suuq-Bacad district while five children were found dead inside a collapsed house in a nearby neighbourhood.
"It was a tragedy," said pharmacist Omar Mohamed Ali. "I treated four family members but the mother and a three-year-old child had died by the time I arrived at the scene."
"The rain was so heavy and their house was old and collapsed," he added.
The bodies of five children were recoved from another house in Wardhigley district south of Mogadishu.
Abdulahi Shirwa Nur, a relative of the dead children, told AFP the walls of the house had caved in.
A neighbour, Amino Abduweli Rage, said: "It was about 8:30 pm (1730 GMT) when I was awoken by people shouting 'help.' I rushed to the scene and found people digging a collapsed part of a house and they recovered bodies of five children."
Three of the casualties were among the elderly living in a displaced people's camp in northern Mogadishu.
"In this camp, three people were drowned. All of them were elder people," said Sheikh Nur Hilowle, the chairman of the camp. Mogadishu is home to at least 250,000 people displaced by the conflict that has raged across the Horn of Africa nation for the past 15 years.
Residents said that at least 61 houses were destroyed by the heavy seven-hour downpour.
In August, thousands of Mogadishu residents were forced to flee to higher ground by flooding which destroyed dozens of makeshift homes.
Last week, heavy rains also killed at least 10 people in the country's southern Gedo region, which was recently hit by a scorching drought that put millions on people on the verge of starvation.
Eight killed by storms in Syria and LebanonDAMASCUS (AFP) - Six Syrians and two Lebanese have died after torrential downpours hit both countries in the past two days, media and police sources said.
The official Syrian news agency SANA said six people, two of them firemen, had drowned in the northeast in the past two days, while police in Lebanon reported two deaths in the north of the country.
Three victims' bodies were recovered and searches were continuing for the three others, SANA said on Sunday.
Police in Lebanon said a four-year-old boy and a shepherd, 16, died on Saturday.
The boy drowned after being swept away by floodwaters in an irrigation channel, and the shepherd was killed by a bolt of lightning.
Lebanese weather forecasters said they expected further heavy rainfall until Wednesday, and also snowfall above 1,800 metres (5,940 feet).
Cork, oak trees dying for unknown reasons: conservation groupLISBON (AFP) - Cork and oak trees are losing their leaves and drying up for unknown reasons at an alarming rate, a World Wildlife Fund official warned at the start of a two-day conference in Portugal called to discuss the issue.
The problem is killing trees in Portugal, the world's biggest producer of cork, as well as in Mediterranean countries in southern Europe, said Luis Silva, the global conservation group's forest officer for Portugal.
"We don't know yet if it is a disease or if the mortality is caused by climatic factors and this is why the issue is being studied," he told the Lusa news agency at the conference held in the southern town of Evora.
The gathering was organized by the World Wildlife Fund together with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Association for Mediterranean Forests and Portugal's agriculture ministry.
It is being attended by experts from Portugal, Spain, France, Algeria, Tunisia and the United States.
"This conference aims to boost the scientific discussion of the problems of the abnormal mortality affecting cork and oak plantations," Portugal's agriculture ministry said in a statement.
Portugal produces 160,000 tonnes of cork per year. Neighbouring Spain is the second-biggest producer of cork followed by Algeria, Italy, Morocco, Tunisia and France.
15 die as typhoon lashes PhilippinesMANILA, Philippines - A powerful typhoon swept across the northern Philippines on Monday, killing more than 15 people in a barrage of landslides, uprooted trees and flooding.
Cimaron, the second major typhoon to hit the north in as many months, had maximum winds of 109 miles per hour and gusts of up to 130 mph when it came ashore. The storm stalled over the Philippines and was expected to stay in the area until Tuesday afternoon.
Five people were reported drowned or killed by falling trees and 15 were injured in the coastal town of Dinapigue in Isabela province. Mayor Renato Candido said 90 percent of the houses were damaged in the town of 5,000 residents.
Police in Isabela, about 210 miles northeast of Manila, also reported a 29-year-old farmer drowned when his boat overturned amid strong currents.
Four people drowned in Neuva Vizcaya province, while landslides killed a 4-year-old girl in Bugias, a mountain town in Benguet province, and a 53-year-old man in nearby Kalinga province. The Kalinga landslide injured 11 people, including seven children.
A woman and her 6-year-old son drowned Sunday night in Aurora province when their hut atop a riverbank was swept away by strong currents at the height of the typhoon's fury, said village leader Tito Padua. One man in the province was killed by a falling tree.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, on a visit to China, called for prayers Sunday as she ordered schools and government work suspended. Domestic flights to the north were canceled.
Although Cimaron — which means "wild ox" in the Philippine language — did not appear to be drenching the mudslide-prone area as badly as feared, rising rivers made at least five bridges impassable. Officials said water was released from at least one major dam to prevent overflowing.
The typhoon threatened commemorations for All Saints' Day on Wednesday, a public holiday when millions travel to cemeteries to remember their dead, some leaving days in advance for outlying provinces. Officials warned people to cancel trips to threatened areas.
Last month, Typhoon Xangsane left 230 people dead and missing as it ripped through Manila and neighboring provinces. About 20 typhoons and tropical storms lash the country each year.
At least two deaths reported from Northeast windstormNEW YORK (AP) — Howling winds slicing across the Northeast over the weekend tore into trees and power lines, leaving thousands of customers still without power Monday. The storm contributed to at least two deaths and hampered the search for a man who fell off a cruise ship.
More than 100,000 utility customers throughout the region, including 44,000 in Maine and 38,000 in upstate New York, lost power when winds gusted up as high as 79 mph.
"The leaves are coming off the trees and the voting signs are on the ground," said Dawn Banks, a resident of Mattydale in Onondaga County. The Halloween headstones on her lawn, each weighing between 10 to 15 pounds, were "blowing about pretty good," Banks said.
Electricity was largely restored in many areas by Monday morning, but in Maine more than 23,000 homes and businesses were still without power. Around 9,000 customers still lacked power in upstate New York and at least 3,000 in New Hampshire.
In Massachusetts, Nantucket's 10,000 residents temporarily lost 911 service Sunday and thousands more in the state lost power.
In Deerfield, Mass., a 58-year-old motorcyclist was killed by a downed tree, police officer D.N. Bates said. And in New Hampshire, a 36-year-old man drowned Saturday when his kayak overturned on a rain-swollen river, state officials said.
Another man was missing after falling off a cruise ship on New Hampshire's Lake Winnipesaukee during a party late Saturday, and authorities said it was doubtful he could have survived for long in the 50-degree water.
Searchers who battled high winds and driving rain found nothing, and the dangerous weather forced officials to suspend the search for the man Sunday. It was expected to resume later Monday.
Meteorologist John Cristantello said the high winds were caused by a stronger-than-normal low pressure system that passed through Pennsylvania and New York on its way to southeastern Canada.
A 165-foot crane with a wrecking ball at a hospital construction site toppled in a Portland, Maine, neighborhood Sunday morning. Three houses were hit but no injuries were reported.
The wrecking ball narrowly missed a passing car.
"The first thing I saw was the ball coming down really fast about 10 feet from us," said Colleen Mowatt, 48, whose boyfriend hit the brakes just in time. "It hit the roadway, and the rest of the crane just fell on the buildings in front of us."
A wind gust of 79 mph was reported in Sedgwick, Maine, on Saturday, and rainfall across the state totaled more than 3 inches.
The winds caused problems at major airports, including Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, where delays were reported all weekend.
In New Jersey's Washington Township, a couple was injured when a 150-foot oak tree fell onto their home. Authorities said David Monahan, 48, and his wife, Denise, 43, both suffered head lacerations when the tree, which was between 4 and 5 feet in diameter, fell through their family room and a bedroom.
In parts of upstate New York, the wind was combined with heavy lake-effect snow. At least 10 inches fell of snow in Old Forge in Herkimer County.
John Quinlan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albany, said the agency's weather observers in the Adirondacks had difficulty accurately measuring snowfall totals later Sunday because of winds gusting to more than 50 mph.
Andria DeLisle Heath, executive director of the American Red Cross Mohawk Valley (N.Y.) Chapter, said blackouts were scattered and short in duration. "As power comes on in some places, it seems to go off in others," she said.
The weather observatory atop New Hampshire's 6,288-foot Mount Washington, famous for severe weather at almost any time of the year, reported sustained wind of 100 mph and a gust to 114 mph.
2nd snowiest October on record at Mount WashingtonMOUNT WASHINGTON (AP) — While rain poured on most of the state this weekend, its tallest mountain got more than 10 inches of snow.
That brought the total for the month to nearly 40 inches, making it the second snowiest October on record, according to the Mount Washington Observatory.
It also was windy atop the 6,288-foot peak. Weather observer Jim Salge said winds that peaked at 144 mph sent up swirling snow and made for near zero-visibility. He said the weekend was among the windiest he has experienced in four years at the observatory.
The highest wind speed on the Earth's surface, 231 mph, was recorded at the summit in April 1934.
The snowiest October at the summit was last year, when 78.9 inches fell. Severe flooding occurred in some of the rest of the state that month.
Prior to that, the record had been 34.4 inches in 1969.
Welcome to This Sunday
Revelations
11:17 "We give you thanks, Lord God, the Almighty, the one who is and who was; because you have taken your great power, and reigned.
11:18 The nations were angry, and your wrath came, as did the time for the dead to be judged, and to give your bondservants the prophets, their reward, as well as to the saints, and those who fear your name, to the small and the great; and to destroy those who destroy the earth."waiting for Sunday to drownStrong typhoon rips northern PhilippinesMANILA, Philippines - One of the strongest typhoons to hit the storm-prone Philippines in years battered the mountainous north late Sunday, and the country's president urged people to prepare for the worst.
"Let us all pray," President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said in a message on nationwide radio as she ordered schools and government offices closed in the affected area and temporarily banned bus trips there.
Typhoon Cimaron lashed Isabela province with sustained winds of 121 mph and gusts of up to 143 mph, the Philippine weather bureau said. Hours earlier, the region was placed under the highest of a four-step warning system to advise residents to abandon vulnerable coasts and mountains.
"The wind is really blowing strong. Trees are swaying and I can hear tin roof sheets banging about. Large areas are without light. We're expecting the worst," Armand Araneta, a provincial Office of Civil Defense officer, told The Associated Press by phone from Isabela.
The storm was expected to disrupt the national All Saints' Day holiday, on Wednesday, when millions travel to cemeteries to remember their dead, some leaving days in advance for outlying provinces. Officials warned people to cancel trips to threatened areas.
"We know in our culture that we should visit our dead, but this is not an ordinary typhoon, it's a super typhoon," a government official, Graciano Yumul, warned. "People could figure in many accidents if they don't listen."
Arroyo, who is visiting China, urged authorities and residents in the four northern provinces to stay home during the 16th typhoon to hit the country this year.
"I appeal to you not to venture out," Arroyo said in her radio message.
The storm was expected to weaken over land, but still should maintain typhoon strength as it emerges into the South China Sea, forecasters said.
Cimaron — the Philippine word for wild ox — is potentially devastating to a region prone to deadly mudslides. Forecasters said the last time a typhoon this strong struck the Philippines was in December 2004, although in that case, the storm was deflected by a mountain range and casualties were minimal.
Last month, Typhoon Xangsane left 230 people dead and missing in Manila and neighboring provinces.
Wind KOs power to thousands in the EastNEW YORK - Thousands of homes and businesses had no electricity Sunday from Maryland to Maine as a storm system blasted the region with winds gusting to more than 50 mph, knocking over trees and a construction crane. The storm was blamed for at least two deaths.
Gusts of 70 mph were possible Sunday in northern New York state, the National Weather Service said.
A falling tree killed a motorcyclist in Massachusetts, police said. In New Hampshire, one man was missing after falling off a cruise ship on Lake Winnipesaukee during the storm late Saturday, and one man drowned when his kayak overturned on a rain-swollen river, state officials said.
In hard-hit Maine, a 165-foot crane with a wrecking ball attached toppled in one of the most populous neighborhoods of Portland, falling on three houses. No injuries were reported.
The wrecking ball narrowly missed a car.
"The first thing I saw was the ball coming down really fast about 10 feet from us," said Colleen Mowatt, 48, of Gorham, Maine, whose boyfriend hit the brakes in the nick of time. "It hit the roadway, and the rest of the crane just fell on the buildings in front of us."
Utilities in Maine reported 44,000 customers still in the dark at midday Sunday and gusts up to 50 mph were causing new failures even as crews tried to restore service.
New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport, one of three major airports for the New York City region, had delays up to 2 1/2 hours, mostly for incoming flights, authorities said.
Willimantic, Conn., reported 3.54 inches of rain Saturday, and New York City's Central Park measured 2.54.
Power failures elsewhere across the region still affected more than two dozen communities Sunday across New Hampshire; 9,500 homes and businesses in Massachusetts; 1,500 customers in Rhode Island; 6,400 in Connecticut; 2,900 in Maryland; 5,000 in New Jersey; 4,700 on New York's Long Island; and 15,500 in upstate New York, state and utility officials said.
The weather observatory atop New Hampshire's 6,288-foot Mount Washington, famous for severe weather, reported sustained wind of 100 mph and a gust to 114 mph. The peak also got 11 inches of snow overnight, for an October total of 39 inches.
The storm produced heavy lake effect snowfall in parts of New York state downwind from Lake Ontario, including 9 inches at Old Forge, the weather service said. A winter storm warning was in effect for the area Sunday, with as much as 18 inches of snow possible at higher elevations.
The wind, rain and snow were produced by a stronger-than-normal low pressure system that passed through Pennsylvania and New York on its way to southeastern Canada, the weather service said.
California Wildfire - "There is only One who can Judge you."SOBOBA HOT SPRINGS, Calif. - The mother of one of the four firefighters who died battling a wildfire that authorities blamed on arsonists urged those who set it to turn themselves in Saturday.
“I firmly believe you didn’t believe that things were going to turn out the way they did, but they did,” said Bonnie McKay, whose son Jason, 27, died Thursday. “Don’t let the remorse eat you alive. Come forward. ... I for one will try not to judge you. There is only one who can judge you.”
Meanwhile, firefighters took advantage of calm weather and dissipating Santa Ana winds, making headway against the 62-square-mile conflagration by dumping water and retardant on flames using a fleet of helicopters and airplanes, including a DC-10 jumbo jet.
Fears that fire will spread
Still, forestry officials worried about the fire spreading in one area.
Scott McLean, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry, said the southeastern flank was threatening to spread to Black Mountain, a forested area even steeper than where it is burning now that is difficult to access.
“If it goes there, the fire is going to hell in a handbasket,” said McLean from the command post in Beaumont, 90 miles east of Los Angeles.
Typhoon Cimaron
Typhoon Cimaron is forecast to strike the Philippines at about 12:00 GMT on 29 October. Data supplied by the US Navy and Air Force Joint Typhoon Warning Center suggest that the point of landfall will be near 16.7 N, 123.1 E. Cimaron is expected to bring 1-minute maximum sustained winds to the region of around 222 km/h (138 mph). Wind gusts in the area may be considerably higher.
According to the Saffir-Simpson damage scale the potential property damage and flooding from a storm of Cimaron's strength (category 4) at landfall includes:
- Storm surge generally 4.0-5.5 metres (13-18 feet) above normal.
- Curtainwall failures with some complete roof structure failures on small residences.
- Shrubs, trees, and all signs are blown down.
- Complete destruction of mobile homes.
- Extensive damage to doors and windows.
- Low-lying escape routes may be cut by rising water 3-5 hours before arrival of the centre of the storm.
- Major damage to lower floors of structures near the shore.
- Terrain lower than 3 metres (10 feet) above sea level may be flooded requiring massive evacuation of residential areas as far inland as 10 km (6 miles).
There is also the potential for flooding further inland due to heavy rain.
Rains, floods kill six in S.Lanka, displace manyCOLOMBO, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Torrential rains and flooding have killed six people in southern and western Sri Lanka and forced around 18,000 families from their homes, a top disaster relief official said on Saturday.
"We are providing dry rations to the affected people," said N.D. Hettiarachchi, director general of the National Disaster Management Centre.
The heavy rains since Thursday had also triggered landslides in some areas, blocking roads, newspapers reported.
Media showed people using makeshift rafts to escape flooded houses in some areas. In other parts, schoolchildren in uniform walked home in knee-deep water carrying their bicycles.
Tornado causes damage in Florida townAPALACHICOLA, Fla. - This seaside town was without power Saturday after a tornado tore through the area, damaging nearly 50 buildings and slightly injuring two people, authorities said.
All 1,600 customers in the area remained in the dark late Saturday but were expected to have power at some point Sunday morning, said Progress Energy spokeswoman Tanya Evans.
By Saturday evening, George E. Weems Hospital had reopened its lab using generator power; workers covered the roof with tarps and the broken windows with boards.
American Red Cross damage assessors said three homes were destroyed and 43 were damaged in Friday afternoon's tornado.
Butch Baker, Franklin County's emergency management director, said witnesses confirmed it was a tornado that struck the town of 2,500, about 65 miles southwest of Tallahassee.
Two people went to a hospital with minor injuries, Baker said.
"It was like a black wall," Helen Reese, an admission clerk at George E. Weems Memorial Hospital, told The News Herald of Panama City. "It was coming right at us. It was a horrible noise."
The twister damaged the roofs of an elementary school, Baker said.
Thousands feared displaced in Ethiopian floods
Residents of the Southern Nationalities, Nations and People's State in Ethiopia walk through flooded lands after massive flashfloods in Tolta. Thousands of people may be displaced in southeast Ethiopia after raging floods washed away their homes in the wake of torrential rains that have pounded the region in recent days.(AFP/File/Abraham Fisseha)ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - Thousands of people may be displaced in southeast Ethiopia after raging floods washed away their homes in the wake of torrential rains that have pounded the region in recent days.
Sesay Tadesse, spokesman for the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Agency (DPPA) said that up to 10,000 people may have been displaced in one area in the Kibre Dehar region, about 700 kilometres (435 miles) southeast of the capital Addis Ababa.
"We received the reports about the toll of this river flooding, but we need to confirm with our organisation in the region of Kibre Dehar," Sesay told AFP Saturday.
He said they had sent a team to the region to assess the situation after the River Wabe Shabelle breached its banks.
"We are following up carefully the situation. We have a regional office there and they will verify and monitor the situation and check the figures," he said.
"According to our team there, which has not yet been able to go on the ground to check, an estimated 10,000 people could be affected only in Kelafo," Sesay said, in reference to one of the affected areas in the region.
In addition, he said they were preparing to send some 1,800 tonnes of food supplies to those affected.
At least 639 people were killed when unusually heavy rains sparked massive flooding in the country's eastern, northern and southern regions in August, at the height of the July to September rainy season.
And a total of 357,000 people were affected by those floods, said to be the the worst in decades, according to the United Nations humanitarian agency.
Ethiopia, home to some 70 million people, has faced heavy floods and droughts in recent years along with other countries in the Horn of Africa which have endured cycles of deadly weather for decades.
Flood claims two lives in southeast Turkey
Floods in Erdine earlier in the year. A wife and a husband were killed in the mainly Kurdish province of Sanliurfa in Turkey's southeast as floods caused by torrential rain hit the region.(AFP/File/Str)ANKARA (AFP) - A wife and a husband were killed in the mainly Kurdish province of Sanliurfa in Turkey's southeast as floods caused by torrential rain hit the region.
The bodies of the victims, who went missing overnight, were recovered by the security forces in a stream near the village of Sarikuyu on Saturday, Anatolia news agency reported on Saturday.
The floods damaged many homes, shops, roads and bridges across the impoverished province and dozens of livestock perished, Anatolia reported.
Electricity and telephone services were cut in several villages, it said, adding that civil defense teams and security forces were dispatched to help residents.
R.I.P.Women's rights leader killed
Violence in Iraq killed at least three people and wounded scores more on Saturday.
Police were also investigating the killing of a women's rights leader in Iraq.
Gunmen reportedly stormed Faliha Ahmed Hassan's house in Hawija, about 43 miles southwest of Kirkuk, and shot her to death on Friday evening.
Moderate quake shakes Central AmericaMANAGUA, Nicaragua, Oct 27 (Reuters) - A moderate 5.5-magnitude earthquake shook rural Nicaragua on Friday, close to the border with El Salvador and Honduras, the U.S. Geological Survey said in a preliminary report.
No damage or injuries were reported in the quake, which hit at 6:53 p.m. (8:53 p.m. EDT/0053 GMT on Saturday), 45 miles (70 km) northwest of the Nicaraguan city of Chinandega and 70 miles (115 km) south-southwest of Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
Crews struggle to contain California blaze
A wall of fire approaches Highway 243 in Banning, Calif., Thursday, Oct 26, 2006. A wildfire set by an arsonist and driven by fierce Santa Ana winds killed four federal firefighters and drove hundreds of people from their homes Thursday, authorities said. Hundreds more were left stranded in a recreational vehicle park. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
Children's bicycles are among the ruins of a house destroyed in the deadly Esperanza Fire in the San Jacinto Mountains near Banning, California, west of Palm Springs. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency as firefighters battled to contain a deliberately set wildfire that has claimed the lives of four firefighters.(AFP/Getty Images)HEMET, Calif. - Working through the night, crews struggled to build fire lines to contain a wind-stoked wildfire that killed four firefighters as it raced through the canyons of Southern California.
Meanwhile, investigators continued searching for leads into whomever set the blaze, which left a fifth firefighter hospitalized in critical condition with burns over 90 percent of his body.
Though the fire made no big charges Friday and burned primarily within itself, smoke, darkness and weather hampered firefighters' efforts.
"We still have pretty strong winds on it, and it's in some pretty steep, inaccessible terrain," said Don Feely, a California Department of Forestry spokesman.
The fire that broke out early Thursday in uninhabited brushland about 90 miles east of Los Angeles grew to more than 62 square miles by Friday night, authorities said. It was 25 percent contained.
Investigators were looking into whether the wildfire was related to other blazes in recent months, including a canyon fire last weekend, though a sheriff's spokesman said there was no immediate indication of a serial arsonist.
Residents said they saw two young men leaving the area where the fire broke out west of the San Jacinto Mountains.
A reward for information leading to the arsonist soared to $500,000 Friday, as $100,000 posted by Riverside County quickly multiplied with matching offers from the state, neighboring San Bernardino County, Rancho Mirage resident Tim Blixseth and the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, which has a casino.
The fire destroyed about 10 structures, including homes, forced 700 people to flee, and flushed coyotes and other wildlife into the open.
Santa Ana winds gusted to 45 mph but kept the fire through undeveloped land, away from homes in Riverside County. More than 2,070 firefighters worked to corral the flames and a DC-10 jet capable of dropping 12,000-gallon loads of retardant joined a fleet of firefighting helicopters and airtankers.
About 400 people remained evacuated Friday night from the tiny town of Poppet Flat.
Typhoon Cimaron
Typhoon Cimaron is forecast to strike the Philippines at about 12:00 GMT on 29 October. Data supplied by the US Navy and Air Force Joint Typhoon Warning Center suggest that the point of landfall will be near 16.7 N, 123.0 E. Cimaron is expected to bring 1-minute maximum sustained winds to the region of around 185 km/h (114 mph). Wind gusts in the area may be considerably higher.
According to the Saffir-Simpson damage scale the potential property damage and flooding from a storm of Cimaron's strength (category 3) at landfall includes:
- Storm surge generally 2.7-3.7 metres (9-12 feet) above normal.
- Some structural damage to small residences and utility buildings with a minor amount of curtainwall failures.
- Damage to shrubbery and trees with foliage blown off trees and large trees blown down.
- Mobile homes and poorly constructed signs are destroyed.
- Low-lying escape routes are cut by rising water 3-5 hours before arrival of the centre of the storm.
- Flooding near the coast destroys smaller structures with larger structures damaged by battering from floating debris.
- Terrain continuously lower than 1.5 metres (5 feet) above mean sea level may be flooded inland 13 km (8 miles) or more.
- Evacuation of low-lying residences within several blocks of the shoreline may be required.
There is also the potential for flooding further inland due to heavy rain.
Cuba says dengue outbreak caused deaths, no figures HAVANA, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Cuba is containing an outbreak of dengue fever that has caused a number of deaths, the Pan-American Health Organization said this week, citing a Cuban government report that gave no figures.
Cuba's Minister of Health Jose Ramon Balaguer informed the Washington-based PAHO on Aug 1 that Cuba was facing an outbreak of classic dengue in four of its 14 provinces.
An updated Health Ministry report on Oct. 13, posted on PAHO's Web site this week, said the outbreak had spread in territorial terms, but the number of cases was dropping.
"All cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever have taken place in the adult population and have, in a limited number of cases, produced deaths associated with pre-existing chronic pathologies," it said.
Cuba has not said how many people died of dengue. But the Caribbean nation stepped up a campaign in August to eradicate the Aedes Aegypti mosquito that transmits the virus.
Health workers have gone door-to-door spraying homes with smoke. Large Soviet-era Antonov 2 biplanes regularly roar over roof-tops spraying insecticide to kill the eggs.
Most people who get infected by dengue develop a fever and rash, but recover in five days. The more virulent hemorrhagic form of the fever kills 1 in 20 of those infected.
Significant storm hits america's northeast
2 dozen tornadoes hit KansasULYSSES, Kan. - Powerful thunderstorms spawned two dozen tornadoes in southwest Kansas in less than two hours Thursday, damaging a hospital roof and downing fences and sheds.
Many of the tornadoes were weak, and no injuries were reported as they touched down in a corridor roughly 20 miles wide and 110 miles long from near Ulysses in Grant County to north of Protection in Comanche County.
At one point just before 5 p.m., storm chasers reported two tornadoes moving on either side of U.S. 283 in Ford County, about 20 miles south of Dodge City.
Two minutes later, a trained spotter in Ford County reported a separate tornado with a debris cloud estimated at one mile wide.
Nine patients at Bob Wilson Memorial Hospital in Ulysses were moved to other rooms after a layer of the roof over the intensive care unit was blown off about 4:30 p.m., hospital officials said. An older wood roof remained in place, but crews covered it with tarp to prevent water damage.
Staff at the National Weather Service in Dodge City tallied 24 separate tornadoes in all from 3:50 p.m. to 5:40 p.m.
The outbreak was fed by the same weather system that brought heavy snow to eastern Colorado. Forecaster Jennifer Ritterling, of the weather service bureau in Dodge City, said tornado outbreaks sometimes hit the Plains in September and October when conditions are right.
Luis Castillo, a firefighter with the California Dept. of Forestry, battles the Esperanza Fire along Highway 97 in Gilman Hot Springs, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 27, 2006.Deadly Southern California wildfire called arson; 4 firefighters killed
Tinder-dry conditions contributed to the rapid spread of the flames
Firefighters from the California Department of Forestry prepare to battle the Esperanza Fire at it burns next to a home in Banning, Calif., 90 miles east of Los Angeles Friday, Oct. 27, 2006. Fire crews were working Friday to hold the western edge of a fast-moving blaze that raced across 15 miles of terrain with the help of hot, dry Santa Ana winds, killing four firefighters who became trapped by a wall of flames. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)CABAZON, Calif. — A wind-driven wildfire that has destroyed 24,000 acres of land in Southern California jumped a highway barrier today, threatening a canyon that crews are using as a staging area for firefighters, fire engines and helicopters.
Four U.S. forest service firefighters have been killed since the Esperanza Wildfire, believed to be the work of an arsonist, erupted early Thursday. A fifth firefighter is in critical condition.
The fire has destroyed 10 structures, including five homes, and almost 38 square miles of forest in the San Jacinto Mountains west of Palm Springs. It is burning in a south-southwesterly direction, with 25 mph gusts of wind out of the east.
Firefighters at the Lamb Canyon landfill, which is being used as a staging area, were watching from the east side of Highway 79 today when fire suddenly jumped the roadway and exploded into 25-feet high flames. Crews screamed "water" and pulled out their hoses to attack the oncoming flames.
Firefighters were also worried about some 120 to 140 children being sheltered at a special needs school in Beaumont. Crews were preparing to set a backfire around the facility to protect it and made plans to remove the children if conditions worsened.
"We don't anticipate needing to evacuate them, but just in case, we have buses on scene," said Phil Rawlings, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. About half of the children are residential students and the rest are drop-in, day care students.
The unpredictable winds have been merciless, driving flames forward and preventing crews during the night from mounting aerial assaults with water and fire retardant.
More than 1,100 firefighters, armed with 171 engines, 15 air tankers and 22 helicopters, are battling the blaze, but Incident Commander Rick Henson, with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said today that officials are still "critically short" on resources to battle the blaze. Only 5% of the wildfire has been contained and fire officials say they cannot predict when it will be brought under control.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proclaimed a state of emergency for Riverside County.
"We had a lot of fire activity overnight," Bill Peters, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry told the Associated Press. "Normally the fire dies down and the winds let up but that didn't happen last night. It burned like it was daytime."
As daylight broke today, firefighters were finally able to prepare aerial equipment to begin dropping water and fire retardant on the blaze.
"We're going to be here, and we're going to hit it hard," said Riverside County fire Chief John Hawkins.
Around 700 people have been evacuated from homes mainly in the Twin Pines, Poppet Flats and Silent Valley area.
Charles Miner, who had burns on his face and right hand, said he told his mother and sister to get out as he struggled to save his $50,000 backhoe.
He shook his head when asked if his house was still standing. "It's not," he said. "I watched it. It's burnt to the ground."
Timo Harju, 61, said he could see the fire's glow inside his hilltop house when he awakened around 4:30 a.m. Thursday.
He said he grabbed his two dogs and rushed from the house after looking out a window at a fire raging in a nearby valley.
"The whole thing was ablaze with flame," he said. "It was the most spectacular view. A terrible view, but spectacular."
Hundreds of people were riding out the fire at the Silent Valley RV Park, about 35 miles west of Palm Springs. Campers were protected by a firebreak that had been created around the camp years ago. "It may be a bit smoky, but they are fine," said Riverside County Fire Department Capt. Julie Hutchinson.
Riverside County's fire chief Hawkins says an arsonist set the blaze around 1 a.m. Thursday in alignment with the wild Santa Ana winds, also known as the Devil Winds, that roar through these hills and canyons, especially in October.
"It was set to go," Hawkins said.
A $300,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the arsonist, who would face murder charges.
"Turn that scum in, please," said Riverside County Supervisor Marion Ashley.
Three firefighters were killed on the scene when flames engulfed them so suddenly they were not able to scramble to protective shelter. The fourth died in the hospital. All were based in Alandale, a small community near Idyllwild.
Killed were engine Capt. Mark Loutzenhiser, 44, of Idyllwild; engine operator Jess McLean, 27, of Beaumont; assistant engine operator Jason McKay, 27, of Phelan; and firefighter Daniel Hoover-Najera, 20, of San Jacinto.
A fifth firefighter — identified as Pablo Cerda, 23, of Fountain Valley — had burns over almost his entire body and also had severe respiratory damage, officials said. Loutzenhiser was a father of five, said Pat Boss, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman.
The deaths brought to 19 the number of California firefighters killed in the line of duty over the past year, according to statistics kept by California Professional Firefighters, a lobbying organization.
It was the deadliest wildfire in the United States since July 10, 2001, when four firefighters were killed in Washington's Okanogan National Forest.
"You don't kill four federal employees," Bill Peters, public information officer for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said. "Whoever did this has incurred the wrath of the federal government."
As the Esperanza wildfire raged, another sprung up in neighboring Orange County, about 50 miles southwest. There, firefighters were battling a brush fire that started overnight and forced the evacuation of about 140 people from a campground in the Cleveland National Forest near the city of Lake Elsinore, said Orange County Fire Capt. Steve Miller.
Tropical storm Cimaron
Tropical storm Cimaron is forecast to strike the Philippines at about 06:00 GMT on 29 October. Data supplied by the US Navy and Air Force Joint Typhoon Warning Center suggest that the point of landfall will be near 15.3 N, 123.0 E. Cimaron is expected to bring 1-minute maximum sustained winds to the region of around 101 km/h (63 mph). Wind gusts in the area may be considerably higher.
Deadly spinach scare appears over as investigators look to wild pigs as culpritsWASHINGTON (AP) — After a month without any reports of illness from tainted spinach, health officials say the deadly outbreak of bacteria that killed three people and sickened more than 200 others nationally appears to be over.
Investigators also have linked the fatal strain of E. coli to wild pigs that may have spread the bacteria by trampling fences surrounding a spinach field in California.
"All evidence points to this outbreak having concluded," Kevin Reilly of the California Department of Health Services said Thursday. No one has become ill from eating contaminated spinach since Sept. 25.
Samples taken from a wild pig, as well as from stream water and cattle on the ranch, have tested positive for the same strain of E. coli implicated in the outbreak, Reilly said in a conference call with reporters.
Still, investigators continue to look at three other ranches in the areas in seeking the source of the contaminated fresh spinach.
"We are not saying this is the source at this point," Reilly said of the ranch.
The outbreak sickened 204 people in 26 states and one Canadian province, he said.
Wild pigs are one "real clear vehicle" that could explain how E. coli spread from cattle on the ranch to the spinach field less than a mile away, Reilly said. The pigs could have tracked the bacteria into the field or spread it through their droppings, he said.
Investigators also are looking at runoff, flooding, irrigation water, fertilizer and other wildlife, including deer, as possible sources.
Investigators first recovered the same strain of bacteria earlier this month from three cattle manure specimens collected on the ranch. On Thursday, Reilly said the strain had been isolated from six other samples collected on the ranch, including from cattle.
The finds mark the first time that investigators have identified a possible source for any of the multiple E. coli outbreaks linked to the heavily agricultural area.
Reilly refused to give a location for the ranch, other than to say it's in a valley in the area of San Benito and Monterey counties.
Investigators have taken roughly 750 samples from the four ranches. They've found generic E. coli on all four ranches — the bug is commonly found in cattle — but turned up the particular strain involved in the outbreak on only one.
"We have no evidence to suggest people should not be eating spinach from other places — except from these four ranches," said Jack Guzewich of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
Women under attack in Iraq, AfghanistanUNITED NATIONS - Women are facing increasing violence in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia, especially when they speak out publicly to defend women's rights, a senior U.N. official told the U.N. Security Council.
Noeleen Heyzer, executive director of the U.N. Development Fund for Women, called on for fresh efforts to ensure the safety of women in countries emerging from conflicts, to provide them with jobs, and ensure that they receive justice, including compensation for rape.
"What UNIFEM is seeing on the ground — in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia — is that public space for women in these situations is shrinking," Heyzer said Thursday. "Women are becoming assassination targets when they dare defend women's rights in public decision-making."
Heyzer spoke at a daylong open council meeting on implementation of a 2000 resolution that called for women to be included in decision-making positions at every level of striking and building on peace deals. It also called for the prosecution of crimes against women and increased protection of women and girls during war.
Undersecretary-General for Peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno said that, in the past year, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became the first woman head of state in Africa, Liberia adopted an anti-rape law, women in Sierra Leone pushed for laws on human trafficking, inheritance and property rights and women in East Timor submitted a draft domestic violence bill to parliament.
Despite these positive developments, he said, women face widespread insecurity and in many societies violence is still used as a tool to control and regulate the actions of women and girls seeking to rebuild their homes and communities.
"In Afghanistan, attacks on school establishments put the lives of girls at risk when they attempt to exercise their basic rights to education," Guehenno said. "Women and girls are raped when they go out to fetch firewood in Darfur. In Liberia, over 40 percent of women and girls surveyed have been victims of sexual violence. In the eastern Congo, over 12,000 rapes of women and girls have been reported in the last six months alone."
Assistant Secretary-General Rachel Mayanja, the U.N. special adviser on women's issues, said that from Congo and Sudan to Somalia and East Timor, she said, "women continue to be exposed to violence or targeted by parties to the conflict ... lacking the basic means of survival and health care."
At the same time, Mayanja said, they remain "underrepresented in decision-making, particularly on war and peace issues."
Assistant Secretary-General Carolyn McAskie, who is in charge of supporting the new U.N. Peacebuilding Commission which was established this year to help countries emerging from conflict, said her office will try to ensure that "space is created for women's active participation in political, economic and social life."
"We cannot ignore the voices of the women from the time we broker peace onwards," McAskie said. "Peacemaking is not just an exercise involving combatants, it must involve all of society, and that means women."
At the end of the meeting, the council said it "remains deeply concerned by the pervasiveness of all forms of violence against women in armed conflicts." and reiterated its strong condemnation of all acts of sexual misconduct by U.N. peacekeeping personnel.
Allegations of sexual abuse have also been reported in peacekeeping missions in Congo, Bosnia, Kosovo, Cambodia, East Timor and West Africa.
Significant storm impacts much of AmericaTropical Storm Paul floods MexicoSAN JOSE DEL CABO, Mexico - The remnants of Tropical Storm Paul made landfall on Mexico's mainland Thursday, triggering floods that caused mostly superficial damage to 5,000 houses, officials said.
An elderly woman died in a car crash on a rainy road and officials were investigating whether the death was directly connected to the storm, said Jorge Tallaeche, a spokesman for the civil protection service of the Pacific state of Sinaloa, where the storm hit land.
Paul, which had been a hurricane earlier in the week, weakened to a tropical depression before making landfall near the Sinaloan town of La Reforma. After hitting land it quickly dissipated.
However, it unleashed floods that forced more than 5,000 families to evacuate their homes, Tallaeche said. Most of the damage was superficial, with the houses' structures left intact, he said.
Gov. Jesus Aguilar Padilla said he would ask the federal government to declare the zone a disaster area.
Some of the worst flooding was in the village of Villa Juarez, where a canal overflowed and sent more than 3 feet of water into the streets.
On Monday, Paul neared Category 3 hurricane status, with winds reaching 110 mph.
In September, Hurricane John battered Baja California, killing five people and destroying 160 homes. Later that month, Hurricane Lane threatened the resort region but ended up hitting the resort town of Mazatlan, causing relatively minor damage.
San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas are popular with sports fishermen and celebrities and famous for its deep-sea fishing, golf courses and beaches flanked by cactus-dotted deserts.
Colorado digs out, restores power after stormDENVER - Coloradans were digging out Friday after a massive autumn storm left up to 2 feet of snow in the mountains and 4-foot drifts on the Eastern Plains.
Hundreds of miles of highways had been shut down the day before as the biggest October storm in years barreled through the state, but all major routes had reopened by Friday and traffic was moving smoothly.
"Not too shabby," state Department of Transportation spokesman Gene Towne said.
Dozens of schools on the plains were closed Friday, and lawns across the state were littered with broken tree limbs that crashed down under the weight of the wet snow.
The falling branches played havoc with power lines, and up to 90,000 customers in the Denver area alone lost electricity during the storm, Xcel Energy spokesman Tom Henley.
He called the storm "devastating."
Crews had restored power to all but 1,400 by Friday morning, but Henley said it could take until Friday night to get all of them back on line.
Another 20,000 customers lost power in Colorado Springs but service was restored to all but about 1,000 by Friday, the city-owned utility said.
Flights back to normal
Denver International Airport and United Airlines officials said operations were back to normal by Friday. At least 110 flights were canceled Thursday, most of them by United, the airport's busiest carrier.
The storm began late Wednesday and turned highways wet and slushy across the state. At one point, snow was falling at a rate of about 3 inches an hour in Denver.
The storm shut down dozens of schools, courthouses, voting centers Thursday and even chased office employees home early from a sheriff's office.
Small towns in the mountains and foothills just west of Denver appeared to get the heaviest snowfall, with Evergreen reporting 25 inches and Conifer reporting 22 inches and 4-foot drifts. Two feet fell in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Denver International Airport got 5 inches. Some suburbs reported up to 10 inches of snow that fell at about 3 inches an hour before the storm moved east onto the Plains, where it caused more trouble.
Jackknifed trucks
A 15-inch snowfall blew into 3- and 4-foot drifts about 30 miles southeast of Denver Thursday night. A 150-mile stretch of Interstate 70 was closed from Denver to Burlington, near the Kansas line, after falling temperatures turned slush to ice.
"There's an awful lot of trucks jackknifed in the median or across the road," said Dick Hormann, who was waiting out the delay at the Flying J Travel Plaza restaurant in Limon, about 70 miles southeast of Denver. "There's a lot of rigs across the road in both directions."
At least one ski resort, Keystone, announced it would open Nov. 3, a week earlier than planned.
"This storm really put them over the top," said Molly Cuffe, a spokeswoman for the industry group Colorado Ski Country USA.
The storm also was welcome for water utilities and farmers, as the closely watched mountain snowpack — which provides much of the state's water — got an early boost.
"We've probably got a good three-week jump on the season," said Mike Gillespie of the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service, which tracks Colorado's mountain snow.
Large October snowstorms are common in Colorado, but this was the strongest in several years, National Weather Service spokesman Carl Burroughs said.
"We haven't had a real good storm like this in a while," he said. "It dumped a lot of snow pretty quick and then moved on."
Strong earthquake felt in southern ItalyROME, Oct 26 (Reuters) - An earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale rocked southern Italy on Thursday, sending people running into the streets but causing no known casualties, officials said.
The National Geophysics Institute said the quake was centred deep in the Mediterranean Sea. It was felt in the southern regions of Puglia, Calabria and Basilicata as well as in Messina, Palermo and other cities on the island of Sicily.
The Civil Protection department in Rome said there were no reports of damage or injuries from the quake, which struck at 4:28 p.m (1428 GMT).
"The quake was strong and people ran into the streets," a Civil Protection spokesman said.
Officials added, however, that any damage would be limited because the epicentre of the quake was very deep -- more than 200 km (120 miles) -- below the sea.
"This was very strong but it was also very deep so I don't expect too many problems," said Enzo Boschi, president of the National Geophysics Institute.
The last major earthquake to hit southern Italy was in 1980 when some 3,000 people died. A quake near Messina, Sicily, in 1908 killed between 70,000 and 100,000 people.
Both registered about 7.2 on the Richter scale.
Floods declared a major incidentPolice have declared the flooding in the Highlands as a major incident.
Northern Constabulary have warned of more extreme weather with heavy rain and winds reaching 80mph.
In Dingwall, Coastguard crews have assisted in evacuating residents from their homes and children and elderly people given shelter at the academy.
Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service have dealt with more than 160 calls since 0900 BST in the Ross and Cromarty areas.
Storms have also flooded houses and premises in Kirkwall in Orkney where most schools have been closed.
Flood water in Dingwall also lapped at the windows of cars in the police car park and water poured down the High Street.
There are fears high tides will worsen conditions for Dingwall, where water is already up to 4ft in some parts of the town.
Local councillor and Dingwall resident Margaret Paterson said: "This is just so distressing and there are so many people who don't know where to turn to.
"Their homes are flooding and some have moved upstairs. We have tried to get people out of their homes.
"Elderly and young children have been taken up to Dingwall Academy."
Golspie and Fortrose are also affected.
Highland and Islands Fire and Rescue Service, Scottish Ambulance Service, Highland Council and roads agency Transerv are involved.
Firefighters in Easter Ross are trying to divert water away from homes after overnight floods.
More than a foot of water is reported to have affected the village of Evanton, with a minor landslide nearby and some flooding in Dingwall.
The Met Office has issued a heavy rain warning for the Highlands, Moray, Aberdeenshire and the Northern Isles.
Superintendent Andy Cowie, the officer co-ordinating with emergency services at Northern Constabulary's incident room, said small communities have been among the hardest hit.
He said: "The changing weather situation continues to give us some concern, however, all agencies are working closely together to try to ensure minimum disruption to people's lives."
"I would urge people to take heed of police warnings and not to travel through road closed signs for their own and the safety of emergency services personnel."
"It has been some of the heaviest continuous rain I can remember in 70 years."
Ken Humphreys
Ross-shire farmer
Muslims attend Eid al-Fitr prayers to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan, on the rubbles of a mosque which was destroyed by last year's earthquake, in Balakot, 180km (112 miles) from Islamabad October 25, 2006.
Reuters/STR/PAKISTANThird time lucky for Mexico resort as storm missesLOS CABOS, Mexico, Oct 25 (Reuters) - The Mexican beach resort of Los Cabos escaped serious damage from a cyclone for the third time in two months on Wednesday when Tropical Storm Paul skirted it and blew toward the mainland.
Rescuers working in the rain evacuated more than 1,500 people on Tuesday night from shantytowns near the Baja California resort. High waves killed a Mexican fisherman and swept away a U.S. tourist, who is presumed dead.
The storm, at one point a moderate Category 2 hurricane, lost strength and changed direction, moving away from Los Cabos. The resort is made up of the towns of Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo.
American tourists sipped rum with their breakfast at one sunny hotel terrace. Bartender Antonio Lemus was awed at the area's good fortune of barely escaping a triplet of powerful storms this hurricane season.
"Three times we were on the verge, and at the last minute they dissipated or swerved," he said. "They're saying around here the hand of God touched Cabo San Lucas."
Last month, Hurricane Lane threatened Los Cabos before dodging the region and carrying fierce winds and rain into the western state of Sinaloa.
Two weeks earlier, Hurricane John, with winds of 115 mph (185 kph), barreled toward the tip of Baja California and sent hundreds of tourists fleeing to the airport before it lost strength and veered to the northeast, instead hitting state capital La Paz and killing at least three people.
LASHING RAIN
The edge of the latest storm lashed Los Cabos with rain and winds on Tuesday night. Die-hard vacationers waded through calf-deep rainwater clutching plastic beer cups to reach nightspots like the Cabo Wabo bar, which were buzzing despite the weather.
Police banged on flimsy doors in poor neighborhoods in danger of being flooded to evacuate the most vulnerable.
Women clutching toddlers and small bundles of basic possessions ran to buses that carried them to schools converted into makeshift shelters.
John Bryan Skoor, a 65-year-old from Washington state, was swept off a beach at Los Cabos by a wave and is presumed dead, a U.S. consulate official said.
A Mexican fisherman was also killed in the storm, state officials told Reuters.
By Wednesday morning, Paul had passed east of the Baja California peninsula and headed across the Sea of Cortez toward the coast, where it was expected to strike the farming state of Sinaloa. Paul's winds reached 45 mph (75 kph).
A tropical storm warning was in effect for Sinaloa on the western mainland, where three people were killed by Lane last month.
"This general motion is expected to continue during the next 24 hours taking the center of Paul into mainland Mexico within the warning area later today," the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said.
Damage to tomatoes, one of Sinaloa's main farming products and a staple in Mexican cuisine, led to a shortage after Lane hit in September, causing a spike in the country's inflation.
World's coral reefs in dangerSea temperatures are rising, weakening the reefs' resistance to increased pollutants, such as runoff from construction sites and toxins from boat paints. The fragile reefs are hosts to countless marine plants and animals.
"Think of it as a high school chemistry class," said Billy Causey, the Caribbean and Gulf Mexico director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
"You mix some chemicals together and nothing happens. You crank up the Bunsen burner and all of a sudden things start bubbling around. That's what's happening. That global Bunsen burner is cranking up."
Report of troops with skull irks GermansBERLIN - Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed disgust Wednesday at photos that appeared to show German troops in Afghanistan posing with a human skull and pledged that any soldiers found to be involved would be punished severely.
The macabre pictures were published by Germany's biggest-selling daily, Bild, which said they showed German peacekeepers near the Afghan capital of Kabul in early 2003.
The uniformed men were seen holding up the skull and posing with it on a jeep; one is seen exposing himself with the skull. Bild's headline declared: "German soldiers desecrate a dead person."
The newspaper said it was unclear where the skull came from, but cited an unidentified serviceman as saying it may have come from a suspected "mass grave" outside Kabul.
Bild, which would not identify the source of the photos, said it was unclear whether the skull belonged to an Afghan or dated back to the Soviet occupation in the 1980s.
"We all saw pictures today that are shocking, that are repugnant and that can be excused by nothing," Merkel said during a speech in Berlin. "The government will investigate the soldiers who play a role and act with full severity."
Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung earlier told reporters that "we are conducting the investigation at full steam." If the incident is confirmed, he added, those involved will face "disciplinary or even criminal measures."
"Anyone who behaves this way has no place in the Bundeswehr," Jung said, referring to the German military.
Military chief of staff Gen. Wolfgang Schneiderhan said two suspects had been identified and were being questioned. One of them is still with the military and the other has left, he said.
Prosecutors in Potsdam, where the military has its command center for deployments abroad, opened an investigation after the pictures were published, spokesman Wilfried Lehmann said. Possible charges include disturbing the peace of the dead, he said.
Tropical storm hits Mexico, U.S. tourist missingLOS CABOS, Mexico (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Paul lashed Mexico's Baja California peninsula with rain and winds on Tuesday and high waves slamming into a beach resort washed away a U.S. tourist who is presumed dead.
The military, police and civil protection workers began evacuating some 1,500 people from poorly built houses as the storm took aim at the Los Cabos resort, popular with foreign visitors for its golf courses, yachting and sports fishing.
A large wave swept away a U.S. tourist from Washington state who was walking on the beach at Los Cabos.
"He is considered missing. It would be very difficult for him to be found alive," said firefighter Gabriel Garcia.
Paul faded to a tropical storm from a hurricane, with winds near 45 mph (75 kph).
The storm was about 130 miles southwest of Los Cabos and was expected on Wednesday to sweep close by the resort, made up of the towns of Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo, before moving across the Sea of Cortez and hitting the mainland state of Sinaloa.
Authorities shut the Cabos San Lucas port, frustrating sports fishermen who converged on the resort this week for a major competition involving up to 200 boats.
"I hope we can fish tomorrow but we probably won't be able to. They don't want anybody getting thrown off their boats," said Dan Helzer, a retiree from California who was part of a fishing team on a boat called Black Gold.
The resort escaped serious damage from two hurricanes earlier this year that veered away at the last moment.
'IT'S SCARY'
Mexican residents of the Tierra y Libertad (Land and Freedom) shantytown district followed the news, concerned the dried-up creek bed where they live could be drenched by flash floods as often before in storms.
"It's scary," said resident Maria Mariano Reyes, who lives in a flimsy shack without plumbing. "Water comes in from both sides of the house and we're stuck in the middle," she said.
Police drove round endangered areas asking people by loudspeakers to leave their homes and go to shelters.
Rain forced tourists to cancel scuba diving trips and golf.
Bob Bisbee, who founded the annual fishing tournament 26 years ago, stood in a tackle shop surrounded by radios and fishing lines on reels. He checked the Web page of the Miami-based U.S. National Hurricane Center.
"I'm not worried yet," he said of the storm. "It's trying to make up its mind what it's going to do.
"If the port is closed tomorrow, we'll fish on Thursday. If it's closed on Thursday, we'll fish on Friday. If we don't fish on Friday and we have to cancel, we'll have a nice big banquet and we'll do it next year."
Competitors pay more than $60,000 to enter all the categories in Bisbee's competition and last year's top prizewinner walked away with more than $1 million.
Sinaloa state, an important agricultural area, took a hit from Hurricane Lane last month and was in Paul's sights again.
Lane, which killed three people, seriously damaged tomato crops in the state, helping push inflation in Mexico to its highest monthly rate in six years.
Storms batter Portugal, killing 1 and causing widespread floodingLISBON, Portugal (AP) — A river burst its banks and swept a packed school bus off the road Wednesday after a night of heavy storms that authorities said caused the death of one person.
A bus taking 52 children aged between seven and 14 to a school in central Portugal was knocked into a ditch by the current from a river that flooded surrounding countryside, officials said.
Emergency workers up to their waists in fast-flowing, muddy water formed a human chain and pulled the children and three adults from the bus, television pictures showed.
Nobody was hurt in the accident in Soure, a farming town 90 miles north of Lisbon, but the driver was shaken and received counseling, officials said.
In nearby Pombal, the local mayor told the national news agency Lusa that an elderly woman died when her home flooded. He did not provide details, but the local fire department said the woman was bedridden.
A woman in the same area was evacuated by helicopter after flood waters reached the first floor of her rural home, a local official said. The fire department was also helping rescue stranded livestock.
A school in the same area was evacuated midmorning when another swollen river burst its banks and flood levels started to rise. Some other schools canceled classes.
Three towns in central Portugal were on flood alert as river levels rose and dams approached their limits.
The Civil Protection Service said it responded to 679 incidents of flooding, 335 fallen trees and 19 landslides.
Dozens of roads were reported closed, mostly in central and northern areas.
Trains stopped running on part of the country's main north-south rail line between Lisbon and Porto because of flooding, rail company Caminhos de Ferro Portugueses said. Trains in the southern Algarve region also ground to a halt after a tree fell on a power line and cut the electricity supply.
On Monday, a German couple died in the Madeira Islands when their car was swept from a cliff and into the sea by a mudslide that occurred after days of heavy rain.
Quake of 5.2 hits Istanbul, second in daysISTANBUL, Oct 24 (Reuters) - An earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale hit northwestern Turkey on Tuesday and was felt in Istanbul, just days after another quake of the same size in the area, Turkey's earthquake monitoring centre said.
CNN Turk quoted local officials saying the earthquake had caused no deaths or damage and they had no reports of injuries.
The quake's epicentre was in the Sea of Marmara, which lies alongside Istanbul, and the shocks were briefly felt in Turkey's largest city of 12 million residents.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake was of 5 magnitude and was centred 29 km (40 miles south of Istanbul.
On Friday another small quake hit the province of Balikesir, which lies across the Marmara from Istanbul, but there were no injuries.
Turkey, which lies on a major fault line, has suffered devastating earthquakes in the past and in August 1999 nearly 18,000 people were killed in a quake, also centred in the Sea of Marmara.
Istanbul residents are jumpy as scientists have predicted a major earthquake is likely to hit in the next 30 years.
Brightly coloured danger spotsIf a picture can tell a thousand words, a brightly coloured map is nearly always better than a hundred words of technical jargon. Now the U.N.'s humanitarian people in Asia have cottoned on to this - they've jazzed up their website and included a load of useful maps.
This seems to be something of a trend, following hot on the heels of World Bank maps doing something pretty similar, but these hazard maps from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs are pretty far-reaching.
You can look up storms across Asia and the Pacific over the past 50 years, fires in the past nine years, or drought and flooding in the past 20. You can see where the region's volcanoes and fault lines are and track the storm seasons across Asia. Or you can put the whole lot together in one big red, blue and yellow map.
The website also has country profiles with a snazzy bar chart showing how much of the country is exposed to which natural hazards - quakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, floods, drought, you name it.
Dozens flooded out of homes in Texas
By Andrew Nenque, The Beaumont Enterprise via AP
A horse is seen in flood water overflowing from Village Creek Friday, Oct. 20, 2006, in a south Hardin County neighborhood north of Beaumont, Texas.
VIDOR, Texas (AP) — Flooding forced dozens of people from their homes Monday, including some residents who have been living in government trailers since Hurricane Rita struck southeast Texas last year.
Heavy rains saturated the area last week and flowed downstream into the Neches River, which spilled over its banks and rose nearly 8 feet above flood stage Monday.
Although the river later dropped by about 2 inches, the water was expected to remain high through Thursday, said Jeff Kelley, emergency management coordinator for Orange County, about 100 miles northeast of Houston.
Kelley estimated about 40 homes had been destroyed as of Sunday. About 60 others were damaged, officials said.
Authorities in neighboring Hardin County estimated at least 100 homes had been damaged.
The Sabine River also was out of its banks. Officials in Newton County officials said at least three bridges have been washed out.
Officials continued assessing damage Monday. It varied from home to home because some had been built on stilts, while others sit at ground level. In some cases, water was up to the roof lines.
The area was hit hard by Rita last year, and Kelley said a number of Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers were still in the area.
Gov. Rick Perry declared nine counties disaster areas. He also ordered state agencies to be on standby for rescue efforts if the remnants of Hurricane Paul bring more rain in the coming days. Paul was roaring toward the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula late Monday.
USA's trees under relentless attack from bugs, blight
Egg masses of the hemlock woolly adelgid look like cottony tufts on twig stems. The insects suck the sap of the tree, halting new growth and killing the tree within a few seasons.DENVER — Some of the USA's most treasured tree species, from ash and aspen to white pine and Hawaii's native wiliwili, are under attack by insects and diseases in a growing assault coast to coast.
Some of the killers are foreign pests brought here in cargo or by travelers. Others are homegrown insects at epidemic levels because of drought and unusual warmth. This year has been the warmest on record.
The Agriculture Department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service finished adopting new rules this summer barring cargo from abroad unless crates and pallets are treated with chemicals or heat to kill any bugs in the wood.
"We're at one of those points in time where it's all happening at once," says Wayne Shepperd of the U.S. Forest Service.
The mountain pine beetle, a native, has ravaged millions of acres of Western forests. Trees were weakened by drought or subjected to worse infestations because warmer temperatures allowed the bugs to multiply faster. The emerald ash borer from Asia is killing species that have no natural defenses.
Ash borers can spread in diseased trees cut up for firewood. The Agriculture Department airs radio ads in eight states and has billboards that warn: "Pack marshmallows, not firewood."
California's Big Sur region and Sonoma and Humboldt counties have "tons of new mortality this year" from sudden oak death, another disease, says Katie Palmieri of the California Oak Mortality Task Force. "Entire hillsides are just gone."
A nursery shipment is blamed for spreading the hemlock woolly adelgid into Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina. The park hopes to save older hemlocks by using insecticides and beetles that eat the aphid-like bugs.
Scientists don't yet know what is killing aspens across much of the West. "This die-back just occurs, boom, and we're not seeing new sprouting" of trees, Shepperd says. He says drought is a possible cause, but "we see (aspen) dying in wet areas, too, so I'm not convinced it's drought alone."
A study this year in BioScience said exotic bugs and diseases "pose the most serious current threat to the forests of eastern North America."
Trouble's a brewin'Quake of 5.2 hits Istanbul, second in daysISTANBUL, Oct 24 (Reuters) - An earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale hit northwestern Turkey on Tuesday and was felt in Istanbul, just days after another quake of the same size in the area, Turkey's earthquake monitoring centre said.
CNN Turk quoted local officials saying the earthquake had caused no deaths or damage and they had no reports of injuries.
The quake's epicentre was in the Sea of Marmara, which lies alongside Istanbul, and the shocks were briefly felt in Turkey's largest city of 12 million residents.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake was of 5 magnitude and was centred 29 km (40 miles south of Istanbul.
On Friday another small quake hit the province of Balikesir, which lies across the Marmara from Istanbul, but there were no injuries.
Turkey, which lies on a major fault line, has suffered devastating earthquakes in the past and in August 1999 nearly 18,000 people were killed in a quake, also centred in the Sea of Marmara.
Istanbul residents are jumpy as scientists have predicted a major earthquake is likely to hit in the next 30 years.
Deep quake hits northern IndonesiaJAKARTA (AFP) - A 5.6-magnitude earthquake has hit Indonesia's northernmost region off Sulawesi island, a meteorology agency official said.
The quake, which hit at 8:19 am (0019 GMT), was centered 61 kilometers (38 miles) under the floor of the Sulawesi Sea, some 288 kilometers north of Sangihe island near the maritime border with the Philippines, said Yudo of the meteorology agency here.
"It was too deep to be felt on the surface," he said, adding that several aftershocks also registered but all were weaker than the initial jolt.
A 5.2-magnitude aftershock hit more than four hours later, at 12:45 pm (0445 GMT) centered 97 kilometers (60.14 miles) under the ocean floor at about the same location as the earlier temblor's center, said another meteorology official, Puji.
The Indonesian archipelago sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire where continental plates meet, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.
Indonesia was the nation worst hit by the earthquake-triggered Asian tsunami in December 2004, which killed some 168,000 people in Aceh province.
A 7.7-magnitude earthquake in July on the south coast of the main island of Java also killed more than 600 people.
Strong quake hits Japan, no concern over tsunamisTOKYO (AFP) - A strong earthquake of magnitude 6.8 struck close to islands in southern Japan, but there were no concerns over tsunamis and no immediate reports of damage or casualties, officials said.
The tremor struck at 6:18 am (2118 GMT) with its epicenter 800 kilometers (496 miles) south of Tokyo, close to the Izu islands, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
"You don't have to worry about disastrous tsunamis that could lead to damages, as certain time has passed since the quake," an official at the agency told AFP about two hours after the tremor.
He added that the agency will keep monitoring the sea level and that "some sea-level changes may be observed due to this quake."
Japan lies at the junction of four tectonic plates and endures about 20 percent of the world's most powerful earthquakes, which frequently jolt Tokyo and other major cities.
On Friday two strong undersea earthquakes struck Japan but with no reports of damages of casualties.
Hurricane Paul is now a Tropical Storm
Alvin Hernandez, of Huntington Beach, Calif., walks along the beach after surfing near San Jose del Cabo, Mexico, as Hurricane Paul nears. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)SAN JOSE DEL CABO, Mexico - Hurricane Paul weakened to a tropical storm Tuesday, easing the threat to rain-sodden resorts at the tip of the Baja California peninsula.
Paul, which had been the third hurricane this season to threaten the area, had maximum sustained winds near 65 mph and was moving north at about 7 mph, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
Forecasters predicted the storm was likely to weaken further but could still dump up to 10 inches of rain in the mountains on Mexico's mainland, causing severe flooding.
Streets were already flooded with ankle-deep water in the resort of Cabo San Lucas, where authorities closed schools and opened eight shelters Tuesday. Officials were searching for the body of an American man who reportedly drowned while swimming in surging waves Monday.
Francisco Cota, civil defense director for the two resort cities of San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas, had warned that about 2,000 to 3,000 families could be evacuated from flood-risk areas to 49 shelters, mostly schools.
"October Nightmare - The Night the Trees Wept"
Photo by Bill Wippert/Buffalo News
The nightmare was only starting on Oct. 12, as motorists guided their cars under and arounf leaf-covererd tree limbs that collapsed under nearly two feet of heavy, wet snow.They'll talk about the Great October Surprise and recall the gut-wrenching sound, like fire crackers, of huge oaks and maples breaking under the weight of wet snow.
They'll remember the homes and businesses, hundreds of thousands of them, that went days upon days without heat and electricity.
And they'll talk about the people, 13 in all, who perished, including the three senior citizens who died of carbon monoxide poisoning while trying to keep themselves warm with generators.
It was unlike anything people here had ever seen, an early season storm with tremendous internal energy, a storm fueled by that most dangerous combination of all - a warm Lake Erie and rapidly dropping air temperatures.
The perfect storm, said one meteorologist. And when it hit, it stuck around like an unwanted in-law, wreaking havoc for 16 hours and bringing Buffalo and its northern suburbs to its knees.
"The whole world turned topsy-turvy," said meteorologist Tom Niziol of the National Weather Service. "This was uncharted territory. This was an animal we've never had to deal with before."
1,680 pounds of beef recalled for E. coliHARTFORD, Conn. - A Connecticut company is recalling about 1,680 pounds of ground beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli, state officials and the company said Monday.
Omaha Beef Co. Inc., based in Danbury, Conn., recalled its 10-pound boxes of hamburger patties and 5- and 10-pound bags of hamburger. Each package carries the establishment number "Est. 2769" and USDA inspection code "101861."
An unspecified problem was discovered through routine federal food safety inspection testing, the state Department of Consumer Protection said. The federal Food Safety Inspection Service received no reports of illnesses associated with the products, the state agency said.
Experts fear major resurgence of polioGENEVA - More than 250,000 people could contract polio every year if Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan fail to eradicate the crippling virus, public health experts said on Thursday.
"the bacteria are coming to take us down
that's my prediction
it's the answer to this culture
of the quick fix prescription"AngloGold says 5 miners missing after rock fallJOHANNESBURG, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Rescue teams battled to find five missing South African miners on Tuesday after a rock fall at a deep-level mine owned by AngloGold Ashanti Ltd , the world's third-biggest gold producer.
Almost 24 hours after the incident took place rescue workers were still searching for the men 2,600 metres (1.67 miles) below the surface at the TauTona mine near Carletonville, southwest of Johannesburg and no contact had been made with them, the company said.
Alan Fine, a spokesman for AngloGold, told Reuters the use of explosives to blast ore in the mine, which normally takes place in the late afternoons, was halted after the incident.
This meant no new ore was being removed from underground, but he said the mine was not shut as work on already-retrieved ore was continuing.
"Routine underground work is not carrying on as normal. All new blasting was halted after the incident," Fine said.
The TauTona mine produced 120,000 ounces of gold during the quarter to end June, around 8.5 percent of the group total.
"There has been no contact with the missing workers; the mine is well-ventilated, the real question is whether the rocks fell on them," he added, speaking from the mine.
MINISTER CONCERNED
At least five miners have been killed and 10 injured so far this year at the TauTona mine, one of the deepest in the world, in separate incidents in January and February due to rock falls.
A similar incident at the mine killed two workers last July.
South Africa's Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said she was concerned by the "unacceptable" number of miners dying in the country's mines.
"In view of an industry-accepted target of zero fatalities, gold mines ... are the worst performers," she said in a statement. Sonjica added she would visit the mine on Tuesday.
The damage that took place on Monday hit a production panel 2,700 metres below the surface and was caused by two seismic events about 25 minutes apart that registered a magnitude of 1.9 and 2.3 on the Richter scale, AngloGold said.
Fine said deep-level gold mines often experienced such events -- some more serious than others.
Two employees were rescued immediately after the rock fall.
One suffered minor injuries and the second had back injuries and was in a stable condition in hospital, the company said.
AngloGold, whose biggest shareholder is Anglo American Plc , said it had notified the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) about the incident and rescue operations.
Shares in AngloGold traded 1.99 percent higher at 313.51 rand by 1304 GMT as a weaker rand helped the sector resist the impact of a softer gold price.
Humans living far beyond planet's means: WWFBEIJING (Reuters) - Humans are stripping nature at an unprecedented rate and will need two planets' worth of natural resources every year by 2050 on current trends, the WWF conservation group said on Tuesday.
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Populations of many species, from fish to mammals, had fallen by about a third from 1970 to 2003 largely because of human threats such as pollution, clearing of forests and overfishing, the group also said in a two-yearly report.
"For more than 20 years we have exceeded the earth's ability to support a consumptive lifestyle that is unsustainable and we cannot afford to continue down this path," WWF Director-General James Leape said, launching the WWF's 2006 Living Planet Report.
"If everyone around the world lived as those in America, we would need five planets to support us," Leape, an American, said in Beijing.
People in the United Arab Emirates were placing most stress per capita on the planet ahead of those in the United States, Finland and Canada, the report said.
Australia was also living well beyond its means.
The average Australian used 6.6 "global" hectares to support their developed lifestyle, ranking behind the United States and Canada, but ahead of the United Kingdom, Russia, China and Japan.
"If the rest of the world led the kind of lifestyles we do here in Australia, we would require three-and-a-half planets to provide the resources we use and to absorb the waste," said Greg Bourne, WWF-Australia chief executive officer.
Everyone would have to change lifestyles -- cutting use of fossil fuels and improving management of everything from farming to fisheries.
"As countries work to improve the well-being of their people, they risk bypassing the goal of sustainability," said Leape, speaking in an energy-efficient building at Beijing's prestigous Tsinghua University.
"It is inevitable that this disconnect will eventually limit the abilities of poor countries to develop and rich countries to maintain their prosperity," he added.
The report said humans' "ecological footprint" -- the demand people place on the natural world -- was 25 percent greater than the planet's annual ability to provide everything from food to energy and recycle all human waste in 2003.
In the previous report, the 2001 overshoot was 21 percent.
"On current projections humanity, will be using two planets' worth of natural resources by 2050 -- if those resources have not run out by then," the latest report said.
"People are turning resources into waste faster than nature can turn waste back into resources."
PAKISTAN: Eid travel brings dengue fever northRAWALPINDI, 24 October (IRIN) - An outbreak of the deadly dengue virus in southern Pakistan has now spread to the north, partly because more people have been travelling across the country for Eid, medical officials say.
The four-day national Eid ul-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of Ramadan, started on Tuesday and has seen thousands boarding trains, buses or coaches to visit family or return home.
Microbiologist Dr Abbas Hayat, head of the pathology department at Rawalpindi Medical College, close to the capital, Islamabad, expressed apprehension that "as more and more people arrive from areas in Sindh where the disease is endemic, there is a danger the epidemic will spread".
Mosquitoes spreading the disease have ended up in buses or trains heading north; or those already infected with the virus in the south have been bitten by local mosquitoes at their destination, causing the disease to spread further.
Most often, the viral infection manifests itself as high fever, body aches and joint pains and most victims recover within a fortnight. However, in some cases, the disease takes the form of dengue haemorrahagic fever, which can cause uncontrollable bleeding, leading to death if not treated swiftly.
There have been cases in Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), in the Islamabad and the city of Rawalpindi that lies adjacent to it.
Hundreds of patients are in hospital in the Islamabad and Rawalpindi areas and on Monday Rawalpindi saw its first confirmed death from the disease.
Mehreen Bano, 14, a patient brought to the Cantonment General Hospital (CGH) in Rawalpindi from the nearby village of Pindigheb, died within an hour of being admitted. The girl was reported to have been suffering high fever and nose bleeds for several days.
"Mehreen was brought to the hospital on Monday morning, but her condition was severe and she died within half an hour," Dr Shafiqur Rehman, the medical officer at the CGH, told IRIN. Out of 77 blood samples sent for testing from the Rawalpindi area to the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad, 14 have tested positive for the dengue virus. It is believed dozens more, currently either in hospital or discharged after initial treatment, could be suffering from the disease.
However, a severe shortage of testing kits at hospitals has made it difficult to determine the numbers infected. Hospitals across the country are currently demanding testing kits, with more and more suspected patients coming in daily.
The long Eid break has added to the problems in acquiring new kits and pharmaceutical companies involved in importing the kits say it could be two weeks or longer before more can be brought in. "It is a case of market dynamics. The demand is unusual and we were not ready for it, Peshawar-based pharmacist Fazal Afzal said.
Health experts across the country have warned that the dengue epidemic could assume still more serious proportions over the coming days, due to a continuing lack of sufficient public awareness and a failure to take measures to prevent breeding of the Aedes mosquito, which carries the virus.
The onset of colder weather, which would kill of the mosquitoes, is seen as the main hope in stopping the rapid spread of the disease.
There have so far been 432 confirmed cases of dengue in the southern port city of Karachi, the capital of the Sindh province. At least 12 people have died since the outbreak hit in mid-September, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said. While more than 160 patients are still hospitalised in Karachi, the epicentre of the mosquito-transmitted epidemic. At least another 1,500 people in the province are thought to be infected.
All hospitals in Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Islamabad have been placed on high alert, and isolation wards have been set up at them for patients showing symptoms of dengue.
Manatee finds way to MemphisMEMPHIS, Tennessee (AP) -- An adventurous manatee strayed far from its usual coastal habitat to make an appearance on a Mississippi River tributary near downtown Memphis on Monday.
The distance on the curvy river from near its delta in Louisiana to Memphis is more than 725 miles, according to Army Corps of Engineers charts.
"I got a call about 3 p.m. about either a hippo or a manatee in the water," said Andy Tweed, an officer with the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency. Officers from the agency and zoologists from the Memphis Zoo confirmed the sighting and observed the animal from boats.
The endangered species generally prefers warm coastal waters ranging from Alabama to South Carolina, although there were sightings this August along the East Coast up to Rhode Island.
In winter months, they usually stay in coastal waters off Florida, often congregating near the warm-water discharges of power plants.
"If he did swim from Florida, he's doing really well," Tweed said, estimating its size between eight and 10 feet, and its weight up to 1,000 pounds.
Tennessee officials were working with experts in Florida to decide what to do next. The agency planned to track the animal again Tuesday morning by helicopter and restrict private boat traffic in the harbor of the Wolf River, a tributary that meets the Mississippi just north of downtown Memphis.
