Welcome to 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."

Tropical Storm Paul



Israel suspends flu vaccinations after 4 die

US 'arrogant and stupid' in Iraq

Mr Fernandez, an Arabic speaker who is director of public diplomacy in the state department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, told Qatar-based al-Jazeera that the world was "witnessing failure in Iraq".

"That's not the failure of the United States alone, but it is a disaster for the region," he said.

"I think there is great room for strong criticism, because without doubt, there was arrogance and stupidity by the United States in Iraq."

However, state department spokesman Sean McCormack said: "What he [Alberto Fernandez] says is that it is not an accurate quote."

Mr McCormack also denied that the US had been guilty of arrogance or stupidity saying that history would be the judge of US actions in Iraq.

The BBC Monitoring Service has confirmed that Mr Fernandez did use the words "arrogance and stupidity" in his interview.

Iraq death rate estimates defended by researchers

LOS ANGELES, Oct 21 (Reuters) - A controversial estimate by public health experts that hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died because of the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq is likely an accurate assessment, researchers said on Saturday.

"Over the last 25 years, this sort of methodology has been used more and more often, especially by relief agencies in times of emergency," said Dr. David Rush, a professor and epidemiologist at Tufts University in Boston.

The study, published earlier this month by the Lancet medical journal, employed a method known as "cluster sampling" in which data are collected through interviews with randomly selected households.

Critics, including President George W. Bush, have said the results are not credible, but Rush said traditional methods for determining death rates, such as counting bodies, are highly inaccurate for civilian populations in times of war.

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad estimated with 95 percent certainty that the war and its aftermath have resulted in the deaths of between 426,000 and 794,000 Iraqis.

Red Cross lambasts US terror law

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has expressed concern over a newly-approved US anti-terrorism law.

ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger said the law raised "questions" about its compliance with the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war.

ICRC criticism
"Our preliminary reading of the new legislation raises certain concerns and questions," Mr Kellenberger said.

"The very broad definition of who is an 'unlawful enemy combatant' and the fact that there is not an explicit prohibition on the admission of evidence attained by coercion are examples."

Mr Kellenberger said the ICRC would discuss its concern with the White House, such as how the law "omits certain violations from the list of acts that are war crimes under US domestic law".

"These include the prohibition of outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, and the prohibition of the denial of the right to a fair trial, which is a basic protection provided for in international law," he said.

'Sexual terrorism' in South Kivu leaves HIV in its wake

BUKAVU, 22 October (IRIN) - In 2004 the United Nation's World Health Organisation estimated there were 25,000 survivors of sexual violence in South Kivu, the Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern province, but those working to rebuild shattered lives consider this a fraction of the real number.

"I have no doubt that over 100,000 women have been raped in this province," said Christine Schuler-Deschryver, of the German Technical Corporation (GTZ), who remained in Bukavu, the provincial capital, during the war, and registered more than 14,000 rape survivors.

The people of South Kivu lived through 10 years of unfathomable violence inflicted by foreign rebel groups and Congolese militia as they fought each other. Most notorious are the Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda (FDLR), comprised mostly of Rwandan Hutu militiamen who fled across the border after the 1994 genocide in their country. Many local people blame them for spreading the virus.

"It was the Interahamwe [Rwandan Hutu génocidaires] that brought AIDS," said Honorata Zakumwilo, 54, who was raped and tortured by the Interahamwe for 14 months. "They would cry out 'A manger' [food time] but they weren't calling for dinner, they were calling for us." The sexual atrocities and humiliation Honorata was subjected to are hard to comprehend. "We were sexual slaves, but simply raping us wasn't enough."

Storms, floods hit Greece for second time this week


Flood damaged cars lay on the shore in Almirida, near Hania port on Crete island, 18 October 2006. Torrential rains caused flooding in parts of southern Greece, just three days after storms triggered a state of emergency elsewhere in the region, authorities said.(AFP/File)

ATHENS (AFP) - Torrential rains caused flooding in parts of southern Greece, just three days after storms triggered a state of emergency elsewhere in the region, authorities said.

Around 30 homes were flooded in the southern Peloponnese and several occupants had to be rescued by firemen. Three cars were swept away by torrents, while landslides halted road traffic in parts of the region.

On Tuesday parts of the Aegean islands, a tourist destination east of the Peloponnese, were struck by storms that flooded homes, hotels and businesses and forced many ships into port.

A state of emergency was declared in parts of the Aegean on Wednesday, when three British tourists were reported drowned on the islands of Rhodes and Crete as a result of the extreme weather.

Fear of dengue fever spreads

LAHORE, 20 October (IRIN) - Fear of the black and white striped mosquito responsible for spreading dengue fever has been keeping thousands of people indoors across the Pakistani provinces of Sindh and the Punjab.

Levels of concern have risen sharply, since the first cases of dengue virus - causing high fever, severe body aches and sometimes death if left untreated - were reported several weeks ago. There have been at least 20 deaths, almost all in the southern province of Sindh.

But the disease has now reached the Punjab. One woman suspected of having the disease in the town of Chakwal, about 80 km south of the federal capital Islamabad, died three days ago.

The deadly virus, carried by the Aedes mosquito, is not normally a hazard in Pakistan. Indeed little is known about the disease in the country, with some doctors in Lahore confessing they were forced to look up text books to confirm causes and symptoms, after first reports of the disease came in.

Dengue is more commonly found in South East Asia – but this year, it has rampaged across India with scores hospitalised. There have been at least 93 confirmed dengue deaths in India over the past six weeks.

Tropical storm Paul heads for Mexico's Baja coast

MEXICO CITY, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Paul formed off Mexico's Pacific Coast on Saturday and looked set to turn into a hurricane as it headed toward luxury resorts on the Baja California Peninsula, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Charts showed Paul passing near the tip of the desert peninsula popular with U.S. tourists next week, before heading for the Mexican mainland across the narrow Sea of Cortez.

Hurricanes that enter the Sea of Cortez, surrounded on three sides by land, tend to fizzle out after running aground, posing no risk to the United States.

Paul was moving west with maximum winds near 50 mph (85 kph) and was expected to veer toward the peninsula and strengthen in coming days due to climatic factors including warm ocean currents, the hurricane center said.

"Paul is currently on a strengthening trend," it said.

The luxury resorts and golf courses of Los Cabos, on the tip of Baja California, which extends down from the U.S. mainland, had two narrow hurricane escapes last month.

Hurricane Lane missed the resorts in mid-September before crashing into the mainland and leaving a path of destruction on the Pacific Coast, killing three close to areas Paul could hit later next week according to projections.

Two weeks earlier, Hurricane John forced tourists to flee the resorts of Los Cabos but left the posh holiday spots unharmed. Three people, including a Briton, died when it slammed ashore farther north on the peninsula.

Crossing their fingers that they would have a lucky escape for the third time in two months, civil protection officials in the resort of San Jose del Cabo said it was too early to begin evacuations but that they were tracking Paul carefully.

"You just don't know with these things," said local civil protection spokesman Salvador Banaga. "In my opinion we've been a bit too lucky."

More human remains found at ground zero

NEW YORK - Workers recovered more human remains Saturday from several manholes as the city began a new search for Sept. 11 victims.

The search was ordered after the surprise discovery of dozens of bones in an abandoned manhole this week.

Utility and city officials on Saturday hand-removed material from other manholes after tearing into the pavement on a service road along the site's western edge. It was then sifted onsite by forensic officials for fragments of human remains, said deputy mayor Edward Skyler.

City officials said that about 15 more pieces of remains had been recovered, bringing the total to nearly 100 this week.

Upset relatives of some Sept. 11 victims called for a federally led new search for remains in and around ground zero after construction workers discovered bones in one manhole excavated as part of work on a transit hub, officials said.

The 80 bones and fragments found earlier this week ranged from a little less than an inch to 12 inches long, said Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for the city medical examiner's office. The bones possibly include ribs, arms, legs and vertebra, she said.

The active search for the dead ended at the site in 2002 after a massive cleanup of 1.5 million tons of debris. About 20,000 pieces of human remains were found, but the DNA in thousands of those pieces was too damaged by heat, humidity and time to yield matches in the many tests forensic scientists have tried over the years.

More than 40 percent of the 2,749 Sept. 11 victims in New York have never been identified.

Houston homicides spike; evacuees cited

HOUSTON - Evacuees from Hurricane Katrina have contributed to an increase in Houston's annual murder rate, which could climb this year to its highest level in more than a decade, police said.

Houston had 316 homicides as of Oct. 16. That's an increase of 25 percent from the 252 slayings tallied at this time last year, putting the city on pace to record nearly 400 killings before the end of 2006.

"We recognize that the homicide rate is up as far as raw numbers and as well as percentages relative to the population," Capt. Dwayne Ready said. "We also recognize that Katrina evacuees continue to have an impact on the murder rate."

When Katrina swamped New Orleans last year, 250,000 people fled to Houston. As many as 150,000 evacuees remain in the city.

Houston's homicide rate has been much higher in the past, especially 1981, when the city was dubbed the nation's murder capital with 701 slayings. Even if the city reaches 400 homicides, Ready said, "it's not a bleak picture."

At least 65 slayings in 2006 have been classified as Katrina-related, meaning either the victim, suspect or both evacuated to Houston after Katrina. Police have not kept records of how evacuees have affected crime rates other than homicide.

The murder rate began to rise at the end of last year, when the city recorded 334 homicides. During the previous 10 years, Houston never exceeded the 316 slayings counted in 1995.

Horror in the French Quarter
A love story born in Katrina's shadow comes to a grisly close.

A part-time bartender, Zack Bowen was known in the Quarter for his strapping good looks and easy charm. Addie Hall was artsier, writing poetry and talking religion until dawn. The night the hurricane hit, Hall offered Bowen a place to stay. They soon fell in love. Both, it seems, had baggage. Bowen had served as a military policeman in Kosovo and Iraq, where, according to co-workers quoted in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, an incident involving a child had "messed him over." Hall was molested as a young girl, friends say, and later suffered through a string of abusive relationships. After Katrina, Bowen and Hall refused to leave the Quarter, fashioning fly swatters from plastic plates and mixing drinks for passersby. But the couple fought constantly. On Oct. 4, according to landlord Leo Watermeier, a furious Bowen claimed that Hall, who had signed the lease alone, was "kicking [him] out." Moments later, Watermeier ran into Hall. "I caught him cheating on me," she said. Hall was not seen alive again.

With its nocturnal denizens and dead-end aura, the Quarter has long attracted "people on the edge," says local doyenne JoAnn Clevenger. "Over the past 50 years, I've seen plenty of them spiral out." After killing Hall, Bowen went on a bender—"good food, good drugs, good strippers," he wrote—but was haunted by his "entire lack of remorse." Earlier this month, he cleaned the tub where he'd dismembered his girlfriend and set the AC to 60 degrees to delay the rotting of her remains. The night he died, a hotel surveillance camera captured Bowen walking to the edge of the terrace, looking over, then turning away, again and again. After one last drink, he threw himself over.

UK veil debate 'may trigger riots'


Young Muslim women in Blackburn, England.

LONDON, England (AP) -- A heated debate over veils that cover the faces of some British Muslim women is growing ugly and could trigger riots, the head of Britain's race relations watchdog warned on Sunday.

Britons are becoming increasingly polarized along racial and religious lines, and if they don't talk respectfully about their differences, bad feeling will mount and could fuel unrest, Commission for Racial Equality chairman Trevor Phillips wrote in The Sunday Times newspaper.

An angry debate "is the last thing Britain needs," wrote Phillips, whose commission is an independent, government-funded body created by law in 1976 and charged with fighting discrimination and encouraging good race relations.

"This could be the trigger for the grim spiral that produced riots in the north of England five years ago. Only this time the conflict would be much worse. We need to chill," he wrote.

Ani DiFranco, frankly

This summer, you received a "Woman of Courage" award from the National Organization For Women, the first musician to get the honor. What was that like?

It was very powerful to be there amidst a lot of women who are continuing to do that work, in an age where a lot of young women don't identify themselves as feminists. They can't even say the word. It was very reassuring to be among women who have dedicated their lives to the work of feminism.

But it was inescapably apparent, the huge break in the continuum. I looked around, and I couldn't help but notice that there was this old guard, these women in their 50s and 60s who have been on the case. And the day I was there, at least, was the Young Feminists Conference Day, and there was lots of little 20-not-muches. And there was this huge glaring absence in the middle. I felt like the only 30-something.

It's not accidental, you know? I think in the '80s and '90s, there was this huge right-wing cultural campaign where feminism was not only taken out of the culture, it was taken out of our language. At a time in which we should all be identifying as feminists, men and women who think that women are people, too -- which is most of us -- it's really quite bizarre that we can't even say the word now. It's been so taken from us. And if you can't say the word, you can't embody the concept.

Sheryl Crow on Music, Politics

CROW: I’ve written political songs in the past. For instance, I wrote a song called “Redemption Day” that came out on my second or third record. And it’s interesting, because people will hear it. It's not like the old days where people felt like anthems were being written for them.

I am more interested in doing it now, because I’m much more less consumed with what’s going on in pop radio. I think what’s happening in our business—although I feel like it’s slightly karmic, it is what it is. It’s a failing business. And we have to figure out new ways to get what I feel like should be messages with integrity out to the American people, or to people in general, because the people are starving for it. I think they really are ready for that.

Tori Amos, Clash Magazine

"You have to sense what is going on in the world—it’s a really disturbing place right now. A few years ago I had more confidence that people would make the right choices for our leaders in America and they didn’t. So therefore it’s time to take the gloves off."