A tropical storm packing maximum winds of 95 kilometers (59 miles) an hour was barrelling toward the Philippines, which said it was the reason for cancelling next week's summit meeting in Cebu.(AFP/Hoang Dinh Nam)

Tropical storm heads toward Philippines

CEBU, Philippines (AFP) - A tropical storm packing maximum winds of 95 kilometers (59 miles) an hour was barrelling toward the Philippines, which said it was the reason for cancelling summit meetings here next week.

At 4:00 pm (0800 GMT) Tropical Storm Utor was 350 kilometers (200 miles) east-southeast of the central island of Samar heading west towards Cebu, the resort island where the ASEAN and East Asia Summits were to take place.

It will be the fourth tropical storm or typhoon in as many months to hit the Philippines, with previous storms causing widespread damage and leaving nearly 2,000 people dead or missing.

Utor is expected to make landfall on Saturday on the island of Samar, roughly 200 kilometres away from Cebu.

Joel Desusa, a forecaster with the Philippine weather bureau, said: "Ninety-five kilometers may not sound very strong but it is enough to cause serious damage here in the Philippines. It can uproot trees and destroy huts."

Desusa said the storm was expected to keep to its current path over Samar and northern Cebu towards the northern tip of the western island of Palawan.

"After then we expect it will intensify into a typhoon with winds in excess of 145 kilometers an hour as it heads into the South China Sea."

The storm comes days after Typhoon Durian slammed into the country's Bicol region, leaving more than 1,300 dead or missing.

"It could have a big impact on the area," said Florentino Sison, operations chief of the civil defense agency.

Anthony Golez, deputy director of the civil defense office, said those hit by typhoon Durian in Bicol may have to be moved to special "holding areas" for about 12 hours until the storm passes.

Cedric Daep, head of the provincial disaster coordinating center, said the mayors of the affected towns were meeting to discuss when people would be evacuated and where they could be moved.

Evacuations could begin on Saturday, he said, adding that as many as 20,000 families may be forced to seek shelter at the holding areas.

Hundreds of houses are still covered with mud and most of the region still has no power, telephone or water services.

The postponement of the summits was announced one day after Britain, the United States, Australia and other governments warned of a possible imminent terror attack on Cebu.

Officials insisted that the postponement was due to the weather.

Somali refugees displaced by floods cross a swollen river in northeast Kenya, November 2006. The United Nations has said that fresh rains have caused new flooding in northeast Kenya, compounding the misery of stricken Somali refugees at relief camps.(AFP/UNHCR/File/Brendan Bannon)

U.N. sees major health risks from African floods

GENEVA, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Up to 1.8 million people are at risk from cholera, measles, malaria and other killer diseases following major floods across the Horn of Africa, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday.

The United Nations agency said it was deeply concerned about health conditions in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia after heavy rains in October and November damaged water and sanitation systems there and forced people into crowded living spaces.

At least 150 people have been killed and more than 1 million displaced by the worst floods for years across the region.

Reports of diarrhoeal diseases, malaria, and acute respiratory infections have risen two- to three-fold, the WHO said, without giving figures. Cholera has been reported in the region and would spread if floods continue into early 2007, it added.

"We are already experiencing a serious situation where people are dying from diseases related to the water and sanitation situation. Malaria will become a very serious problem in the weeks to come," David Okello, the WHO's representative in Kenya, said in a statement.

Many health problems are endemic to the region, which is especially vulnerable because of its low vaccination coverage rates, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told journalists in Geneva. It also lacks laboratory facilities to quickly confirm the outbreak of epidemic-prone diseases.

The UNHCR refugee agency said that with the help of the U.S. military it would make an emergency airdrop of 240 tonnes of aid to help thousands of people in the flooded Dadaab refugee camps in northern Kenya.

The aid would include plastic sheets, blankets and mosquito nets for the camp's 130,000 mainly Somali refugees who have been cut off for weeks.

UNICEF, the United Nations children's agency, said on Friday it urgently needed $24.2 million to provide emergency health, nutrition, water and other supplies to the Horn of Africa after the floods.

It also cited concern about tension between Somalia and Ethiopia which it said could trigger widespread displacement within Somalia and into flood-affected northeastern Kenya, further exacerbating health and humanitarian problems.

Bird flu could force changes to African traditions

BAMAKO, Dec 7 (Reuters) - African customs such as using children to rear village poultry could expose people to deadly bird flu and must be addressed to lower the risk of human infection, delegates said at a summit this week.

Experts from around the world are meeting in Mali's capital Bamako to discuss how to fight the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus and prevent it causing a human influenza pandemic.

"In Africa, it is the children's job, supervised by the women, to look after the poultry," Neil Ford, a communications adviser for the U.N. Children's Fund UNICEF in West Africa, said in a presentation to delegates late on Wednesday.

This tradition was held in high esteem by African communities as it developed children's sense of responsibility, Ford said, but it also exposed them to diseases carried by the birds -- and potentially H5N1, which has killed 154 humans around the world since 2003.

"We have to come up with solutions that are compatible with (Africans') lives and traditions," he said.

Delegates from African countries noted many of their traditions involved live poultry.

In many countries, chickens are presented as gifts to visitors and to mark special occasions, or are slaughtered in religious ceremonies.

In Benin, the West African home of voodoo, a particularly risky form of sacrifice involves participants killing a chicken by ripping out the bird's throat with their teeth.

In open-air markets throughout Africa, birds are kept tightly packed in cages with little or no separation of species, and are slaughtered, plucked and butchered on the spot with scant regard for international hygiene or disease control standards.

UNICEF's Ford said international agencies helping fight bird flu in Africa needed to talk to communities to find ways of reducing the risk of infection, both among birds and among people tending poultry.

For example, he said, it was common in villages for those tending poultry -- often children -- to single out sick chickens, slaughter them and pluck them to be cooked, in order to minimise losses in small households with little food to spare.

Although thorough cooking kills the flu virus, such practices expose the person slaughtering and preparing the bird if it is carrying avian influenza.

Changing attitudes and practices to reduce the risk of infection will take time.

"Its not going to happen very quickly, certainly not universal behaviour change," U.N. bird flu coordinator David Nabarro said in an interview.

"Make sure that you see this as a long-term issue, not something that is going to be deal with overnight."

Ebola 'kills over 5,000 gorillas'

More than 5,000 gorillas may have died in recent outbreaks of the Ebola virus in central Africa, a study says.

Scientists warn that, coupled with the commercial hunting of gorillas, it may be enough to push them to extinction.

The study, published in the US journal Science, looked at gorilla colonies in Republic of Congo and Gabon. Ebola is also blamed for many chimpanzee deaths.

One of the most virulent viruses known, Ebola has killed more than 1,000 people since it was first recorded in 1976.

Ebola causes viral haemorrhagic fever - massive internal and external bleeding - which can kill up to 90% of those infected.

Scientists are still working on a vaccine and there is no known cure.

Ape-to-ape transmission

The latest study, carried out by an international team, has confirmed previous concerns about how badly the virus is affecting gorillas.

"Add commercial hunting to the mix, and we have a recipe for rapid ecological extinction," the report says.

"Ape species that were abundant and widely distributed a decade ago are rapidly being reduced to remnant populations."

The researchers, led by Magdalena Bermejo of the University of Barcelona, focused on western gorillas, one of two gorilla species. The other is the eastern gorilla.

In 2002 and 2003, several outbreaks of Ebola flared up in human populations in Gabon and Congo.

The researchers found a "massive die-off" in gorillas in Congo's Lossi Sanctuary between 2002 and 2004.

"The Lossi outbreak killed about as many gorillas as survive in the entire eastern gorilla species," the study says.

The researchers concluded that the apes were not only infected by other species, such as fruit bats, but were also transmitting the virus among themselves.

Ebola was passing from group to group of the endangered animals, they found, and appeared to be spreading faster than in humans.

Outbreaks of the disease in humans have sometimes been traced to the bushmeat trade.

According to World Health Organization figures, Ebola killed 1,200 people between the first recorded human outbreak in 1976 and 2004.

Tornado hit UK homes face demolition

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Some of the houses caught in the path of a tornado that battered a London suburb may have to be torn down, council officials said on Friday.

Hundreds of people spent the night with friends or in temporary housing after the tornado tore through Kensal Rise, leaving a trail of destruction.

Six people were injured and up to 150 homes were damaged in less than a minute on Thursday. Brent Council said 24 houses were uninhabitable.

Borough surveyor Andy Hardy told the BBC that some houses had severe structural damage and may have to be demolished.

Surveyors and fire crews will assess the damage as the clean-up continues.

Witnesses said the skies darkened before the tornado arrived, ripping up trees and hurling roof tiles through the air.

"It was about the width of two houses, sucking everything in its path," Caroline Phillips, 47, told the Daily Mail. "I could see dustbin lids swirling around it.

"The sky was black and there was lightning flashing. It crossed my mind: This is just like 'The Wizard of Oz'."

One man was taken to hospital with head injuries. Five other adults were treated for shock and minor injuries after the tornado struck at around 1100 GMT.

More than 20 fire engines were sent to the scene and cordoned off the area. Police patrolled the streets early on Friday.

The London tornado was rated at T4 on a scale of 0 to 10. This means winds were moving at between 115 and 136 mph (185-219 kph), rating the tornado as severe, said a spokesman for the Meteorological Office.

Britain experiences between 30 and 40 tornadoes in an average year, he said, but most were weak and they rarely hit built-up areas. In July 2005, a tornado in Birmingham, central England, damaged dozens of homes.

The cost in London could run into millions of pounds. Houses in the area cost an average 550,000 pounds ($1.08 million), a local estate agent said. The Association of British Insurers said most home insurance policies would cover the costs.

Vietnam storm: 73 dead, 21 missing

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Searchers in a southern Vietnam province recovered 14 more bodies, bringing Tropical Storm Durian's nationwide death toll to 73 with 21 others still missing, officials said Thursday.

More than 10,000 soldiers, police and young people in Ba Ria Vung Tau province, where the 14 bodies were recovered Wednesday, were mobilized to clear fallen trees from streets, help rebuild houses and put up electric polls, said provincial Deputy Governor Ho Van Nien.

Ten others were still missing in the province, Nien said. Thirty-four people were previously confirmed dead.

"Many areas here still look devastated," he said. "Some nice resorts disappeared as if they had never been on the beach."

Hundreds of hotels, resorts and seafood processing plants were seriously damaged. Losses could be in the hundred of millions of dollars (euros), Nien said.

"Our top priorities now are to search for missing people, and provide assistance to ensure that nobody is hungry," he said.

In Ben Tre province, another 14 people were killed, about 460 others were injured and hundreds of thousands more were displaced, said deputy provincial governor Nguyen Quoc Bao.

Eleven more deaths and 11 more missing people were reported in six other southern provinces after the storm hit Wednesday morning.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, who postponed a planned trip to Malaysia, toured Ba Ria Vung Tau province Wednesday to access the damage. He urged the local government to speed up storm recovery efforts, state media reported Thursday.

Last week, Typhoon Durian triggered rains and mudslides in the Philippines, leaving more than 1,000 people dead or missing. It was later downgraded to a tropical storm.

This satellite image from NASA taken on December 5, 2006 shows smoke from bush fires in southeastern Australia. At left is Melbourne and Port Phillip Bay.

Australia braces for fiery weekend

CANBERRA, Australia (Reuters) -- Bushfires threatened dozens of hamlets in Australia's southeast on Friday as authorities closed schools and braced for a horror weekend of soaring temperatures and gusting winds.

Army reinforcements have been sent to Victoria state to help more than 2,000 local and New Zealand firefighters struggling to contain 31 blazes, mostly burning in the rugged, inaccessible mountains of the Victorian Alps.

With temperatures nearing 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) expected on Saturday and Sunday, state Premier Steve Bracks said residents had to decide early whether to flee or defend homes during what is expected to be one of the worst fire weekends in memory.

"It's as important having people with plans ready to put out spot fires ahead of the major front, or fires or activity ahead of the major front, and to stop that really catching on in a town or a community," Bracks said. Firefighters say Australia faces an extreme fire danger this summer amid drought that has turned many rural areas into a tinder box. Scientists fear climate change will bring more frequent higher temperatures and less rainfall to the country.

Authorities said blazes stretching 150 kilometers (93 miles) from the central King Valley to the Victorian coast could destroy more than 600,000 hectares (1.4 million acres) in coming days as fires merge in the face of strong northerly winds.

People in the Mount Buller ski resort were already fleeing on Friday, with fires expected to race towards the village on Saturday. Thick smoke plumes covered the major towns of Shepparton and Benalla, and stretched 300 kilometers (186 miles) north to the national capital Canberra. The bushfire forced the closure of 24 schools in communities under direct threat including Clifton Creek, Dargo, Lindenow, Maffra and Omeo, and state fire chief Russell Rees advised evacuees to depart early.

"Late evacuation is deadly," Rees warned.

The fires, mostly sparked by lightning strikes, have already burned across 150,000 hectares (370,000 acres) and are being fought by 350 tankers, bulldozers and 30 water-bombing aircraft.

Bushfires are a regular feature of Australia's summer. In January 2005, the deadliest bushfires in 22 years killed nine people in South Australia.

Four people were killed and 530 homes destroyed in Canberra in 2003. That same year, bushfires fueled by drought ravaged a slice of Australia three times the size of Britain.

Over the past 40 years, more than 250 people have been killed in bushfires in Australia.

Scientists Spot 'Tsunami' on the Sun

A major flare on the Sun earlier this week generated what scientists are calling a solar tsunami.

The tsunami-like shock wave, formally called a Moreton wave, rolled across the hot surface, destroying two visible filaments of cool gas on opposite sides of the visible face of the Sun.

Astronomers using a prototype of a new solar telescope in New Mexico recorded the action.

"These large scale 'blast' waves occur infrequently, however, are very powerful," said K. S. Balasubramaniam of the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Sunspot, NM, "They quickly propagate in a matter of minutes covering the whole Sun, sweeping away filamentary material."

It is unusual to see such an event from a ground-based observatory, Balasubramaniam said. And it was also unusual that it occurred near solar minimum, when the Sun is at its least active during an 11-year cycle.

But solar activity can come at any time. Flares like this one are spawned by sunspots, which are dark, cool regions that cap magnetic activity below. When the caps pop, colossal doses of superheated matter and radiation are unleashed.

Sunspot 929 began kicking up flares Tuesday, when a major X-9 event was detected by a space-based observatory.

When another flare erupted Wednesday, the NSO's Optical Solar Patrol Network (OSPAN) was watching.

A shock wave propagated like the splash from a rock thrown into a pond. This was seen as a brightening from compressed and heated hydrogen gas. Astronomers enhanced the contrast of the images to bring out the detail, and they created an animation of the event.

Later, the shock wave swept across two dark filaments widely seprated on the solar surface, and they disappeared for a few minutes. Scientists are unsure whether the filaments were blown off or were compressed so they were temporarily invisible, according to an NSO statement.

Forecasters say there is a 40 percent chance of more major flares through this weekend. Skywatchers in Alaska, Canada and the very northernmost United States should be on the lookout for colorful Northern Lights generated by the space storminess.