"well I know it’s just a Spring Haze
but I don’t much like the look of it
And if Omens are a God-send..."


~Tori Amos

Haze brings misery, health problems in Indonesia

PELALAWAN, Indonesia, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Thick smoke from bush and forest fires in Indonesia has forced schools to close and brought misery to residents, officials said on Friday, with no sign of firefighters in one hard-hit area.

A vast blanket of smoke, or haze as it is known locally, occurs every year in Indonesia, angering neighbours Singapore and Malaysia who have long demanded Jakarta do more to stop the dry-season fires being lit by farmers and big companies.

This year's haze appears to be worse than last year and has rekindled memories of a choking cloud of smoke that covered a large part of Southeast Asia in 1997-98, sickening large numbers of people and costing local economies billions of dollars.

Students in Palangkaraya, the capital of Central Kalimantan province, and other areas on the Indonesian side of Borneo island have been told to stay at home since Tuesday due to the worsening haze, said Beryn, an official at the local education ministry.

He said he and his family had been forced to use masks even at home and people complained of headaches, nausea and respiratory problems.

"I'm telling you honestly, my eyes hurt. We breathe with difficulty and our throats are dry and itchy," he told Reuters.

The smoke from bush and forest forest fires on Borneo and Sumatra island is an annual regional hazard during the dry season but this year's haze appeared worse than last year, Beryn said.

Thousands evacuated from N.C. town

APEX, N.C. - As many as 17,000 residents were asked to evacuate early Friday as firefighters waited for daylight to battle a hazardous materials fire that shot flames some 150 feet into the sky.

What happened to the drought?

It filled acres of column inches in the newspapers and on the net, and hours of air time on the television and radio - Britain's worst drought for almost 100 years.

The official statistics were frightening: the South East has less water per person than the desert states of Syria and Sudan, while the rest of the country has less than the whole of Europe, apart from Belgium and Cyprus.

There was a real sense of emergency, it was going to be 1976 all over again. People were told they faced having standpipes in the streets and nearly 13 million of us were banned from using hosepipes.

But the standpipes never materialised and, just a few months on, parks and gardens are looking green and fresh again. So what happened to the drought?

We're still in it, according to the experts, and have been for nearly two years in southern England. Since November 2004, rainfall below the long term average for 1961 to 1990 has been recorded in 18 out of 22 months.

Historic Memphis church burns, sparks other fires

MEMPHIS, Tennessee (AP) -- Fire swept through a historic downtown church early Friday, collapsing its steeple and flicking off embers that set fire to two other buildings, one of them 22 stories tall.

No injuries were immediately reported.

The First United Methodist Church, built in 1893, was largely destroyed. Its roof caved in, the steeple toppled, and some of the walls crumbled onto the streets. The flames then spread to two other buildings about three blocks from the church, including the Lincoln American Tower, once the tallest building in Memphis.

A developer was renovating one of the buildings into condominiums.

The Rev. Martha Wagley, pastor of the church, said members of her congregation gathered on the sidewalks as the building burned, crying and hugging and telling stories of who was "married and buried" in the building and things that had happened in worship services.

Wagley said her church is a "seven day a week" church with a food pantry and other ministries to people downtown.

Space debris punched hole in shuttle

NEW YORK (AP) -- NASA workers inspecting space shuttle Atlantis this week discovered that a tiny piece of space debris had punched a hole in a radiator panel during the shuttle's recent mission, but officials said the damage never endangered the crew.

The debris struck a panel that extends from payload bay doors on the shuttle. It wasn't clear exactly what the object was, but it did not hit the sensitive tiles or thermal panels that help protect the shuttle when it returns to Earth.

The impact left a hole about one-tenth of an inch in diameter, NASA reported Thursday on its Web site.

The damage "didn't endanger the spacecraft or the crew, nor did it affect mission operations," NASA said. The radiators were brought inside the bay before the shuttle's landing last month, so the damaged area did not encounter searing heat during re-entry through Earth's atmosphere.

In 2003, space shuttle Columbia broke apart during re-entry when superheated gases entered a hole in the shuttle's wing. A breakaway chunk of hard foam from Columbia's external fuel tank had punctured that wing during liftoff. After the Columbia disaster, NASA began intense inspections of the shuttle, both by camera during liftoff and by the astronauts once in space.

Straw veil call sparks Muslim fury

LONDON, England -- A senior British Cabinet minister has sparked fury by saying that Muslim women who wore full veils made community relations more difficult.

Jack Straw wrote in a newspaper that a veil was "a visible statement of separation and difference" and that he was more comfortable dealing with female visitors to his local political office with their faces uncovered.

But Muslim leaders in Straw's Blackburn constituency in northwest England said many Muslim women would find his comments "offensive and disturbing."

Straw, leader of the House of Commons and the former foreign secretary, said he was concerned that "wearing the full veil was bound to make better, positive relations between the two communities more difficult."

Asked on Friday if he would like veils to be discarded altogether, Straw said: "Yes. It needs to be made clear I am not talking about being prescriptive but with all the caveats, yes, I would rather."

"You cannot force people where they live, that's a matter of choice and economics, but you can be concerned about the implications of separateness and I am," he told the BBC.

Straw originally wrote in the Lancashire Telegraph that he asked women to remove their veils in his constituency office. "I felt uncomfortable about talking to someone 'face to face' who I could not see," he wrote. No one had refused his request, he said.

Straw pointed out that he defended Muslims' rights to wear head scarves and that wearing a full veil "breaks no laws."

But opposition politicians rounded on his comments. Conservative policy director Oliver Letwin said it would be a "dangerous doctrine" to instruct people how to dress, while Liberal Democrat chairman Simon Hughes described the remarks as "insensitive and surprising."

And Straw faced criticism in his own constituency. The Lancashire Council of Mosques said the Commons leader had "misunderstood" the issue and it was "deeply concerned" by his "very insensitive and unwise" statement.

"For such a seasoned and astute politician to make such a comment that has shocked his Muslim constituents seems ill judged and misconceived," a spokesman told the Press Association.

"Many of these women find Mr. Straw's comments both offensive and disturbing."

The radical Hizb ut-Tahrir organization said the Muslim community "does not need lessons in dress from Jack Straw."

"He has once again shown that for Cabinet ministers it is open season on Muslims and Islam," said spokesperson Nazreen Nawaz.

Tonight's Full Moon 12 Percent Bigger

Tonight's full Moon will be almost 12 percent bigger than some of the full Moons this year, according to NASA, setting up a fine viewing opportunity when it rises in the evening.

The reason: The Moon is near perigee, the point on its slightly out-of-round orbit that is closest to Earth.

This Moon is called the Harvest Moon, owing to its timing of being nearest the autumnal equinox. Farmers in the past relied on it to harvest all night. The Harvest Moon is not always closer and bigger than normal.

The Moon will rise around 6 p.m. local time. It will be officially "full" at 11:13 p.m. ET, though the Moon is never really full.

It's Harvest Time.

Revelations
14:14 I looked, and behold, a white cloud; and on the cloud one sitting like a son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.

14:15 Another angel came out from the temple, crying with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, "Send forth your sickle, and reap; for the hour to reap has come; for the harvest of the earth is ripe!"

14:16 He who sat on the cloud thrust his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.

14:17 Another angel came out from the temple which is in heaven. He also had a sharp sickle.

14:18 Another angel came out from the altar, he who has power over fire, and he called with a great voice to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, "Send forth your sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for the earth's grapes are fully ripe!"

14:19 The angel thrust his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vintage of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.

14:20 The winepress was trodden outside of the city, and blood came out from the winepress, even to the bridles of the horses, as far as one thousand six hundred stadia.




Ex-Pres. Bush pleads for more Pakistan quake aid

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 6 (Reuters) - More than $90 million in pledges made to Pakistan after a devastating earthquake a year ago has yet to be delivered and is urgently needed, former U.S. President George Bush said on Friday.

Bush, a special envoy of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan for the South Asia earthquake, said about two thirds of the $255 million budgeted for an early recovery plan had been received. But the rest of the money promised by various donor nations has not yet been paid.

"I want to highlight the fact that we're still missing $94 million, which is critical for bridging the gap from relief to recovery," Bush told a news conference at U.N. headquarters ahead of the Oct. 8 first anniversary of the disaster.

The earthquake killed more than 73,000 people in Pakistan and 1,500 in Indian Kashmir and left more than 3 million people destitute.

Bush, whose job as a special envoy ends in January, said areas still underfunded are water and sanitation, housing, and support to vulnerable people.

"In terms of getting the pledges turned into something meaningful, we have made a start by contacting the different donor countries," he said. "I'm not satisfied that they have responded totally the way we would like."

Bush said he was concerned about donor fatigue, because so many humanitarian efforts around the world need funding, like the ongoing recovery from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed about 230,000 people.

A month after the quake, international donors pledged $6.5 billion for Pakistan to help it through the relief, recovery and reconstruction phases of the crisis.

Reconstruction costs had been put at $3.6 billion originally, but that figure greatly underestimated the number of new houses needed.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said on Thursday the amount now required was $4.4 billion, leaving Pakistan $800 million short.

His Judgment Is Not Good News.

starfucker just like my Daddy
selling his baby
just like my Daddy
gonna strike a deal make him feel
like a Congressman
it runs in the family

Bad News for the Burning Bush Family.