Prophecy, Drought, Earthquakes, Famine, Pestilence, War, and Strange Weather.

[Soldier4Christ]

Earthquake Rattles Three Argentine Provinces

Buenos Aires, Oct 5 (Prensa Latina) A 5.6 magnitude earthquake hit Wednesday the northern Argentine province of Tucuman and was felt in neighboring Catamarca and Santiago del Estero, with no human losses.

According to the National Institute of Seismic Prevention (INPRES) the trembling registered at 07:59 local time and its epicenter was located 50 kilometers southeast of San Miguel de Tucuman city.

The quake intensity reached 3 or 4 degrees on the Mercalli Modified Scale in Tucuman capital, and 3 degrees in Estero and Catamarca, noted the INPRES.

The seismic activity, which lasted less than 10 seconds, caused a big shake and alarm among the people, although calm quickly returned after verifying there were no human or material losses.

Experts said that Tucuman is an active zone, crossed by an important geological fault.

[Soldier4Christ]

Earthquake Hits Indonesia's Aceh Province
Earthquake Strikes Indonesia's Tsunami-Ravaged Aceh Province; No Reports of Serious Damage
The Associated Press

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - A strong earthquake rocked Indonesia's tsunami-ravaged Aceh province on Wednesday, causing panicked residents to flee their homes and run to higher ground for fearing a tsunami. But there were no immediate reports of serious damage or threat of tsunami.

The magnitude 5.6 quake was centered about 30 miles southeast of the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics office said on its Web Site.

State news agency Antara reported that scores of people ran to higher ground, fearing an impending tsunami.

"It caused panic among people. Some ran out of houses," said local seismologist Erida Wati.

Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra Island, has seen almost daily earthquakes since the massive temblor on Dec. 26 that produced a deadly tsunami, killing more than 176,000 people in 11 countries. Aceh was the hardest hit spot with more than 130,000 dead.

Earthquakes of magnitude 6 and below are not considered strong enough to trigger a tsunami.

[Soldier4Christ]

 Toll of storms and landslides tops 160 in Central America
The Associated Press

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2005
GUATEMALA CITY Rescue workers on Thursday searched for victims of a mudslide near a volcano-ringed lake in Guatemala that is popular with tourists, as the death toll from heavy rains and flooding in Central America climbed above 160.
 
Downpours have battered Central America since the weekend, causing rivers to overflow and huge chunks of land to give way. Most of the deaths have reportedly come from landslides triggered by the heavy rains.
 
The storms killed at least 79 people in Guatemala and 62 in El Salvador. Nine people died in Nicaragua, four in Honduras and one in Costa Rica. Six people died in the Mexican state of Chiapas.
 
Forecasters at the U.S. Hurricane Center said that the rain was likely to continue for several days.
 
The hardest hit area appeared to be a town in Guatemala that is close to Lake Atitlán, a freshwater reserve situated approximately 150 kilometers, or 95 miles, west of Guatemala City.
 
Emergency officials said that 15 bodies had been pulled from the mud in the lake area, and that the death toll likely would rise when authorities were able to step up search efforts. Search and rescue efforts have been hindered by the continued rainfall.
 
"We have 79 deaths, but we have not finished a final count," Benedicto Girón, a spokesman for Guatemala's emergency response officials, said late Wednesday.
 
In El Salvador, President Tony Saca said 62 people had died, mostly from landslides caused by several days of nonstop rain throughout the country. Some 40,000 people in El Salvador fled their homes.
 
In southern Mexico, the states of Chiapas, Veracruz and Oaxaca suffered flooding caused by Hurricane Stan, which hit the Mexican coast early Tuesday and brought more rain to areas that had already been flooded by previous storms.
 
In the Mexican city of Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala, flood waters destroyed bridges, engulfed highways and left the area mostly without electricity and phone service.
 
Governor Pablo Salazar of Chiapas warned that continued rain meant it was likely that the worst was yet to come.
 
President Vicente Fox of Mexico visited the state and asked that families in Chiapas "first dedicate all of their attention to protecting their lives, their health and their family members."
 
In the neighboring state of Oaxaca, personnel from the Mexican Army and Navy were mobilized Wednesday to help evacuate eight cities near a river that was close to unleashing floodwaters.
 
Authorities in the Mexican state of Veracruz, which took a direct hit from Hurricane Stan, said three people were killed and seven injured in the state. About 38,000 people in the state were forced to leave their homes, moving temporarily to higher ground.
 
 

[Soldier4Christ]

 Northern Plains Recover From Winter Storm

By JAMES MacPHERSON, Associated Press Writer

Roads reopened and the lights came back on for thousands of customers Thursday as the northern Plains recovered from a storm that blasted in from the Rockies.

Travelers were trapped as the snowfall reached as high as 24 inches in a band stretching across North Dakota, from Dickinson in the southwest to Langdon in the northeast. Winds gusted to 50 mph in Minot.

The National Weather Service said the wintry weather was among the earliest on record in the state.

Interstate 94, the state's main east-west artery, was reopened west of Bismarck at midmorning, but authorities warned that many other roads remained coated in ice.

National Guard soldiers worked with state troopers and other workers to rescue stranded motorists using snow plows, buses, heavy trucks and bulldozers, along with a piece of utility equipment that runs on tank-like tracks. No injuries were reported.

About 60 bus passengers who had been stuck for hours got hot meals, free T-shirts and cots in the Dickinson State University student union, courtesy of student volunteers.

William Jordan, of Conway, N.C., said he was grateful for the help but added, "This place, North Dakota, is terrible, man. It's cold."

At least 11,000 customers lost electricity, but most had it back by Thursday morning.

The Red Cross opened a shelter in Minot, the first time it had done so there because of weather, said Allan McGeough, the city chapter's executive director.

Crews trying to clean up fallen trees in Minot were hampered by snow and ice. "A lot of the stuff is frozen to the ground," said Alan Walter, the city's public works director.

A lineman for an electric cooperative was reported missing for hours after he ventured out on a snowmobile to check on a power outage. He was found at a farm and "he's fine," said Janice Koeser, an assistant at McKenzie County Electric Cooperative in Watford City. The cooperative had no more details, she said.

The storm came just a few days after North Dakota had temperatures in the 90s. Warmer weather was forecast to return in the coming days.

[Shammu]

Though Peace Holds, Famine Threatens Southern Sudan

Haider Rizvi, OneWorld US Thu Oct 6, 7:04 AM ET

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 6 (One World) - Extreme hunger and malnutrition could take the lives of hundreds of thousands of children in southern Sudan if the world fails to take immediate action, humanitarian aid activists are warning.

Nearly 300,000 children under the age of five are malnourished, according to a recent nutritional survey that shows that more than 20 percent of southern Sudan's seven million people are already facing extreme hunger.

Alarmed by the report's findings that predicts a possible famine in the region, aid and relief groups are calling for urgent coordination among the various United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations.

"There is still no concentrated effort to stop extreme hunger, despite unacceptably high rates of malnutrition," says Onesmus Muinde, a nutritionist for Action Against Hunger, an international relief network, also known by its French name Action Contre la Faim, or ACF.

ACF's report on southern Sudan shows a speedy increase in the level of malnutrition. Last year it stood at 19 percent, which is already four points above the emergency level. But this year's figures show 20.7 percent of the population suffering from malnutrition.

This is a kind of malnutrition that "can kill if not treated," say ACF researchers.

The report identifies "erratic and unevenly" distributed rainfall and inter-clan conflicts as major factors responsible for the worsening food security situation.

Last month, a severe shortage of jet fuel forced the UN's food agency to reduce its deliveries of food aid to southern Sudan by half. UN officials said insufficient contributions and the late arrival of donor funds prevented them from pre-positioning food early this year.

In addition to southern Sudan, tens of thousands of internally displaced people in the Darfur region are also becoming increasingly vulnerable to the deadly threat of hunger and starvation caused by disruptions in food supply by militia groups.

"Life in Western Sudan has become more and more desperate," says a statement from Christian Aid, a U.K.-based aid group, which is actively taking part in relief efforts in the region.

Last week, three Christian Aid workers were kidnapped at gunpoint while visiting an internally displaced people's camp. The group says such incidents are taking place frequently as security situation in the region continues to worsen.

"The situation is deteriorating and this is making it hazardous for non-governmental organizations to operate in the region," says Stephanie Brigden, Christian Aid's senior policy officer. "As a result, many people in Darfur are not getting the assistance they need."

UN officials monitoring the situation in Darfur are equally concerned about relief efforts. During the past two weeks, more than 30 civilians have died and thousands have fled makeshift camps in the Darfur region as a result of attacks by armed Arab men on horses and camels.

Last week, Jan Egeland, the UN's top relief coordinator, told reporters that if the violence continued to escalate and if it continued to be "so dangerous to the 11,000 unarmed humanitarian workers, the UN might not be able to sustain their operations.

"As we speak, we have had to suspend action in many areas, tens of thousands of people will not get any assistance because it is too dangerous," he said.

"My question is, is this a repeat of the so-called safe areas of Bosnia again?" Egeland asked. "We keep people alive, we give them food, we give them medicine, but we do not protect them, or protect our own unarmed staff."

Since such security obstacles are not prevalent in southern Sudan, where an agreement signed by the government and rebels in January provides some hope for relative peace, activists like Muinde say they see no reason for delay in taking action against hunger.

The peace agreement, according to ACF, gives non-governmental organizations the momentous opportunity to end malnutrition in Sudan, as well as to start long-term programs to build up food availability, increase access to clean water, and improve childcare practices.

Immediate steps are needed to address the problem of hunger because now it is threatening to turn an already "horrible cyclical problem" into a "severe malnutrition emergency," the group says.

"Why must we wait for the future?" asks Muinde. "We have the means to stop this crisis; but not the resources."

Though Peace Holds, Famine Threatens Southern Sudan

[Soldier4Christ]

Breaking News


Earthquake Rocks El Salvador, Guatemala

The Associated Press

A strong undersea earthquake rocked El Salvador and Guatemala on Friday. It was not immediately known if there were damages or injuries.

The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 5.5. A magnitude-5 earthquake can cause considerable damage.

Salvadoran government officials warned people to evacuate areas made vulnerable by five days of heavy rains blamed for 67 deaths.

The quake also was felt in neighboring Guatemala, where 150 people have died from flooding and landslides caused by heavy rains.

The earthquake was centered in the Pacific Ocean, 35 miles southwest of San Salvador, according to the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo.

[Soldier4Christ]

Earthquake Kills 1,700 in 3 Asia Nations
7.6-Magnitude Earthquake Kills More Than 1,700 People in Pakistan, India, Afghanistan
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA
The Associated Press

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A powerful 7.6-magnitude earthquake near the Pakistan-India border Saturday reduced villages to rubble, triggered landslides and flattened an apartment building. More than 1,700 people were killed in both nations, and a Pakistan army spokesman called the devastation "a national tragedy."

In the capitals of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, buildings shook and walls swayed for about a minute, and panicked people ran from their homes and offices. Tremors continued for hours afterward. Communications throughout the region were cut.

About 1,000 people were killed in Pakistani Kashmir, said Sardar Mohammed Anwar, the top government official in the area.

"This is my conservative guess, and the death toll could be much higher," Anwar told Pakistan's Aaj television station.

He said most homes in Muzaffarabad, the area's capital, were damaged, and schools and hospitals had collapsed.

[Soldier4Christ]

Big quake rocks Indian subcontinent
Sat Oct 8, 2005 1:29 AM ET

NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A major earthquake with a magnitude of at least 7.6 struck Pakistan on Saturday and was felt across the Indian subcontinent, sending people fleeing from their homes into the streets.

There was no immediate word of any serious casualties.

Pakistan's private Geo TV channel reported that the top floors of a 12-storey apartment block in Islamabad had collapsed and an unknown number of people were trapped inside.

The quake was also felt in the Pakistani and Afghan capitals.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) highlighted a large earthquake on its Website between Indian- and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir with a magnitude of 7.6.

It described the quake as "major", saying it took place at 0350 GMT at a depth of 10km (6.2 miles). It was centered 95 km (60 miles) northeast of Islamabad and 125 km (75 miles) northwest of Srinagar.

The USGS's David Applegate told CNN that because the epicenter was relatively close to the surface, the quake was likely to have been felt over a large area.

Japanese quake experts put the magnitude at 7.8. Tokyo measures earthquakes according to a technique similar to the Richter scale but adjusted for Japan's geological characteristics.

"We can say that it was one of the strongest earthquakes (ever) felt in Islamabad," said Mohammad Hanif, an official at the Pakistan Meteorological Department.

SCREAMING IN FEAR

Witnesses and Reuters correspondents could hear people screaming in fear inside their houses in Islamabad during the quake -- which lasted for about a minute -- and car and house alarms were set off by the shaking.

Minutes later sirens could be heard as the emergency services began racing through Islamabad, a city of close to a million people.

The situation was still tense, witnesses said, with residents listening and watching the crows -- which are believed to fall silent immediately before an earthquake.

In Lahore, closer to the epicenter, at least nine people were injured, including eight officials of the paramilitary rangers, who were caught when the roof of their office collapsed, police said.

Screaming people rushed out of apartment buildings in the Indian capital, New Delhi, as the tremors began, a Reuters reporter said.

Indian government officials and the meteorological office said earlier that the quake measured 6.8, and was centered west of Muzaffarabad in Pakistani Kashmir.

Reuters reporters in the Afghan capital, Kabul, also felt the tremors.

Indian officials said the quake was felt throughout northern and central India.

"People are still gathered outside their homes and buildings," a resident of Delhi told Reuters. "They are a bit scared to go back into their homes at the moment.

The area where the quake took place is known for its frequent seismic activity and experts have long predicted an imminent major earthquake in the Himalayan region.

[Soldier4Christ]

Subtropical depression forms near Bermuda; could become Vince

MIAMI A subtropical depression formed today in the open Atlantic, prompting Bermuda to issue a tropical storm watch.
The system could strengthen into Tropical Storm Vince later in the day, which would make it the 20th named storm in one of the busiest hurricane seasons on record.

At 10 a-m today, the depression's center was about 450 miles southeast of Bermuda. It was moving toward the northwest at about 15 miles an hour. It had top sustained winds of about 35 miles per hour, but was expected to strengthen even if it didn't become a tropical storm.

Long-term forecasts showed the system either reaching the United States mainland in about five days, or curving farther out to sea after passing Bermuda. But hurricane specialist Jack Beven says it appears the system might not survive if it gets closer to the U-S because of other weather in the area.

[Soldier4Christ]

Aleutian volcano begins to quake

TANAGA: Temblors are far too tiny to be felt on the surface.

By DOUG O'HARRA
Anchorage Daily News

Published: October 7, 2005
Last Modified: October 7, 2005 at 12:48 AM

A sleepy volcano in the western Aleutian Islands began stirring this month, trembling with tiny earthquakes six to 12 miles underground, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory.

The swarm beneath 5,925-foot Tanaga marks the first sign of unrest since the observatory wired the rugged cone with its own network of sensors two years ago, said volcanologist Rick Wessels of the U.S. Geological Survey. The volcano was last known to erupt in 1914.

Like other Aleutian Arc volcanoes, Tanaga gapes beneath one of the world's busiest airline routes, with dozens of flights jetting between North America and Asia there every day. Volcanic ash blasted five to six miles into the sky can damage or shut down jet engines, so the observatory listens and watches for eruptions around the clock.

Most Aleutian volcanoes produce tiny quakes every day, but Tanaga had been remarkably quiet for reasons that remain unclear, Wessels said.

"It had one reasonably measurable event every month or so, and now it's gone to several per hour," he said.

Tanaga rises steeply on its own uninhabited island, 63 miles from the nearest community in Adak and more than 1,200 miles southwest of Anchorage. It's one of 28 volcanoes monitored by the observatory for seismic action, hot spots and smoky plumes -- including the 11,070-foot Mount Spurr that looms on the horizon 80 miles due west of Anchorage.

Spurr, which last dusted Anchorage with ash during its 1992 eruption, continued to gurgle with its own quake swarm this week and remained under a restless "yellow" alert.

"It had some nice little seismic events going on this morning, at least a half dozen measurable ones," Wessels said Thursday.

Meanwhile, Tanaga, far to the west, began rumbling late Oct. 1 and has since produced 15 to 68 tiny earthquakes every day. Centered about a mile and half northeast of the summit, the quakes ranged from magnitude .5 to 1.7, far too small to be felt on the surface.

This unrest doesn't necessarily mean Tanaga will erupt anytime soon, and the volcano's alert was not raised from the dormant "green" status, Wessels said.

"We put out a release so that everybody knows that this volcano is doing something neat and interesting," he said.

The last known eruption of Tanaga occurred in 1914, when lava was seen flowing down its steep slopes. Smoke was reported from the summit in 1829, 1791 and 1763-70. But the volcano is so little seen that no one really knows its habits.

The new quakes aren't the kind of tremors produced when molten rock begins oozing toward the surface, Wessels said. A more likely cause may be hot gas shattering rocks under immense pressure far underground.

They could also be regular old earthquakes, related to the Pacific tectonic plate moving along the Aleutian Arc.

"Sometimes these volcanoes have to adjust themselves to the stress," Wessels said.

[Shammu]

Engineers: New Cause of New Orleans Flood

By BRETT MARTEL, Associated Press Writer Sat Oct 8, 1:07 AM ET

NEW ORLEANS - Much of the city flooded not because water rushed over the tops of levees, but because two of the storm barriers that ring New Orleans actually shifted and then collapsed, a team of independent engineers said Friday.

The preliminary analysis contradicts initial reports by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which said water may have pushed over the top of the levees, eroding the earthen embankments that support the flood walls.

The independent engineers said the shifting of the barriers was understandable and did not assign blame or speculate about design flaws that the storm surge from Hurricane Katrina may have exposed.

"Levees tend to be built in very difficult situations on poor site conditions because you're essentially turning marshy land into land you can stabilize and do things on," said civil engineering professor Raymond Seed, who led a team from the University of California at Berkeley.

The California team worked with the American Society of Civil Engineers and Army engineers for several days this week before releasing the findings. More research is planned.

The question of what caused the flooding at the 17th Street Canal and the London Avenue Canal has been debated since the storm. The findings Friday show that soil from one levee was pushed back 35 feet, and that soil from the other apparently heaved upward from its base.

The independent engineers agreed that some of the worst flooding in the city stemmed from water in an industrial canal flowing over the top of a levee. But their report prompted a concession from Army engineers.

Soil giving way beneath the flood walls, causing the walls to collapse, was "certainly a possibility," said Paul Mlakar, a senior research scientist with the Corps.

Seed said the problems likely stemmed from different types of soil that make it difficult to build levees of consistent strength. The technology exists to compensate for such weaknesses if taxpayers are willing to absorb the cost, he added.

"The cost of a significantly stronger system would have been much smaller than current damage. The problem is, the current damage wasn't a sure bet," Seed said. "If it's a long-shot bet, it's very hard to get money spent up front. And so the American way is sort of take your chances."

Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29 and the massive flooding in the Lakeview, Mid City and Gentilly neighborhoods followed the next day, when waters from Lake Pontchartrain backed into canals and blew through the shifted levees.

Engineers: New Cause of New Orleans Flood

Much of the city flooded not because water rushed over the tops of levees, but because two of the storm barriers that ring New Orleans actually shifted and then collapsed, a team of independent engineers said Friday.

Hmmmmmm, levees don't shift, only the hand of God could cause them to shift.

[Shammu]

617 Killed in Central America Rain, Floods

By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer 7 minutes ago

SANTIAGO ATITLAN, Guatemala - Dozens of Mayan Indians used hand tools to dig through hardening mud on Saturday, searching for bodies under a landslide that swallowed a Guatemalan neighborhood and pushed the regionwide death toll from a week of pounding rains to 617.
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Hardest hit was the lakeside town of Santiago Atitlan, where the side of a volcano collapsed, killing at least 208 people. Officials said the victims were among 508 people killed and another 337 missing in Guatemala.

The rest of the dead were scattered throughout
El Salvador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras and Costa Rica.

The mud-spattered body of 3-year-old Mari Taxachoy Tzina was pulled Saturday from the home where she died. Her father, Gaspar, buried her in a common grave at the local cemetery.

"That's my wife, my two daughters, my son — I'm only missing one more son," he said, explaining how he had buried almost his entire family.

"You always think about saving your family, but I couldn't," said Gaspar, a laborer who returned from work in Guatemala City to find his house gone, replaced by a blank face of mud.

Guatemala has borne the brunt of heavy rains exacerbated by Hurricane Stan, which made landfall Tuesday on the Mexican Gulf Coast before quickly weakening to a tropical depression.

Governments in Central America and Mexico were still struggling Saturday to reach isolated areas devastated by flooding and landslides. Many roads had yet to be cleared.

On the banks of Lake Atitlan, a popular tourist destination, dozens of Mayan Indians swarmed over a vast bed of caked mud that covered trees and houses, looking for those still missing after Wednesday's landslide.

Primitive wooden coffins piled up in the cemetery, waiting for bodies. Villagers held sprigs of native herbs to ward off odors as they dug mass graves for bodies that likely would be buried without names.

"Entire families have disappeared," said Diego Sojuel, of the Santiago Atitlan municipal aid committee. "In some cases, there is no one that can identify the cadavers. And in other cases, it is because of the state of decomposition that we are going to have to bury them without names."

Tourists worked alongside local residents digging trenches 10-feet deep through mud strewn with bits of tin roofing, clothing, papers and bedding.

Chris Needham, 24, of London, paused to wonder aloud whether some areas might eventually have to be declared a burial ground.

"That's people's families under there," he said. "They're not going to stop digging. I wouldn't stop."

Guatemalan officials organized an air-rescue squad of their own helicopters as well as those lent by the United States and neighboring Mexico, but bad weather has limited flights.

Colombia announced Saturday it will fly in 10 tons of food, cleaning materials and first-aid equipment to help victims in Central America and Mexico.

In Mexico, President
Vicente Fox visited devastated southern Chiapas state and delivered aid to hundreds living in shelters. Some victims said they still had not heard from missing family members.

"I want them to look for my brother, Leonardo Maldonado, who is 27. He lives with us, but he went to work and I haven't heard anything from him," said Maria del Carmen, an evacuee.

In Guatemala, government workers have used heavy machinery to clear fallen trees and earth from the InterAmerican Highway. The country's important Pacific coast highway remained impassable, however, after raging rivers destroyed five bridges.

The disaster started gradually in communities ringing Lake Atitlan, where creeks and rivers began spilling their banks on Wednesday as rains soaked cornfields that climb steep, deforested hillsides.

Martin Ramirez Tacaxoy, 41, a farmer, said his sister came by to wake him up to tell him the nearby river was rising.

But because the continuing rains had been so gentle, many other people went back to sleep — until the wall of earth came.

"It was a roar, it was like an earthquake," said Ramirez Tacaxoy, who pulled out three of his neighbors, some severally wounded from mud that had buried them, in some cases up to their necks. "Some people on the edges where able to grab hold of coffee trees, and we pulled them out. But many remained underneath."

Survivors struggled to describe the thunderous roar of the mud that buried entire families.

"I saw it coming. I leaned up against the wall," Pablo Gaspar, 16, a firewood collector, said, gasping on his hospital bed after being rescued from the muck. "Then the wall collapsed on me."

He lost six family members, including both his parents.

617 Killed in Central America Rain, Floods

This is an update on Pastor Roger's post.

[Shammu]

Quake Kills More Than 3,000 in South Asia

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 22 minutes ago

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A huge earthquake triggered landslides, toppled an apartment building and flattened villages of mud-brick homes Saturday, killing more than 3,000 people across a mountainous swath touching Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.

The casualty toll from the 7.6-magnitude tremor was rising early Sunday as rescuers struggled to dig people from the wreckage, their work made more difficult as rain and hail turned dirt and debris into sticky muck. The worst damage was in Pakistan, where the dead included 250 girls crushed at a school and 200 soldiers on duty in the Himalayas.

For hours, aftershocks rattled an area stretching from Afghanistan across northern Pakistan into India's portion of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. Hospitals moved quake victims onto lawns, fearing tremors could cause more damage.

The earthquake, which struck just before 9 a.m., caused buildings to sway for about a minute in the capitals of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, an area some 625 miles across. Panicked people ran from homes and offices, and communications were cut to many areas.

Most of the devastation occurred in the mountains of northern Pakistan. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered about 60 miles northeast of the capital, Islamabad, in the forested mountains of Pakistani Kashmir.

"It is a national tragedy," said Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, Pakistan's chief army spokesman. "This is the worst earthquake in recent times."

In Mansehra, a shopowner named Haji Fazal Ilahi stood vigil over the body of his 14-year-old daughter, which lay under a sheet on a hospital mattress. He said his wife, another daughter and a brother also died when the family's house fell.

"I could see rocks and homes tumbling down the mountains," said Ilahi, who was driving to his village of Garlat when the quake struck. "When I reached my village, there was nothing left of my home."

India's government offered condolences and assistance to Pakistan, a longtime rival with which it has been pursuing peace efforts after fighting three wars since independence from British rule in 1947, two of them over Kashmir.

"While parts of India have also suffered from this unexpected natural disaster, we are prepared to extend any assistance with rescue and relief which you may deem appropriate," Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a message to Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

India reported at least 250 people killed and 800 injured when the quake collapsed 2,700 houses and other buildings in Jammu-Kashmir state. Most of the deaths occurred in the border towns of Uri, Tangdar and Punch and in the city of Srinagar, said B.B. Vyas, the state's divisional commissioner.

Telephone lines were down. Some bridges developed cracks, but traffic was reported to be passing over them.

A senior Pakistani army officer said 200 soldiers were killed by debris and landslides in Pakistan's portion of Kashmir. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists.

About 1,000 civilians died in that region, said Sardar Mohammed Anwar, the top government official in the area.

"This is my conservative guess, and the death toll could be much higher," Anwar told Pakistan's Aaj television station, adding that most homes in Muzaffarabad, the area's capital, were damaged, and schools and hospitals collapsed.

The death toll was at least 1,600 in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, said Akram Durani, the province's top elected official.

Ataullah Khan Wazir, police chief in the northwestern district of Mansehra, said authorities there pulled the bodies of 250 students from the wreckage of one girls' school in the village of Ghari Habibibullah. About 500 students were injured, he said.

Dozens of children were feared killed in other schools.

Mansehra, about 90 miles northwest of the capital, was believed to be a hotbed of Islamic militant activity during the time the Taliban religious militia ruled neighboring Afghanistan. Al-Qaida operatives trained suicide squads at a camp there, Afghan and Pakistani sources told The Associated Press in 2002.

Afghanistan appeared to suffer the least damage. In its east, an 11-year-old girl was crushed to death when a wall in her home collapsed, police official Gafar Khan said.

A U.S. military spokesman, Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara, said the quake was felt at Bagram, the main American base in Afghanistan, but he had no reports of damage at bases around the country.

The United Nations said it was working with Pakistan, Afghanistan and India on an emergency response to the quake.

President Bush offered condolences, and Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice said the United States was ready to help.

"At this difficult time, the United States stands with its friends in Pakistan and India, just as they stood with us and offered assistance after Hurricane Katrina," Rice said in a statement.

In Pakistan, Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz ordered the military to extend "all-out help" to quake-hit areas and appealed to the nation to stay calm.

Helicopters and C-130 transport planes took troops and supplies to damaged areas, but landslides and rain hindered rescue efforts.

The only serious damage reported in Pakistan's capital was the collapse of a 10-story apartment building, where at least 10 people were killed and 126 were injured. Hospital doctors said the dead included an Egyptian diplomat, and the Japanese Foreign Ministry in Tokyo said two Japanese were killed.

A man named Rehmatullah who lived near the apartment building said dust enveloped the wreckage.

"I rushed down, and for some time you could not see anything because of the dust. Then we began to look for people in the rubble," he said. "We pulled out one man by cutting off his legs."

"It was like hell," added Nauman Ali, who lives in a nearby building. "I was tossed up in my bed and the ceiling fan struck against the roof."

Aided by two large cranes, hundreds of police and soldiers helped remove chunks of concrete, one of which was splattered with blood. One rescue worker said he heard faint cries from people trapped in the rubble.

In Abbotabad, north of Islamabad, dozens of injured quake victims and other patients lay on the lawn of the city hospital as staff with loudspeakers appealed to the public for food and other relief supplies.

One of the injured was an 8-year-old boy, Qadeer, whose father, a farmer named Jehangir, said the only buildings left standing in their village were a mosque and a school. Qadeer lay unconscious, his right leg heavily bandaged.

Authorities laid out dozens of bodies under sheets in a damaged sports stadium in Muzaffarabad.

Quake Kills More Than 3,000 in South Asia

This is an update on Pastor Roger's post.

[Soldier4Christ]

Hurricane Vince forms near Madeira Islands
10 October 2005

MIAMI: The 20th tropical storm of an uncommonly active Atlantic hurricane season strengthened quickly into a hurricane on Monday after forming in an unusual location, near Portugal's Madeira islands.

Hurricane Vince was about 200km northwest of the Madeira islands at 1000 NZT with winds of 120kmh, and was moving toward the northeast at 9kmh, the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami said.

Its forecast track would take the storm toward Portugal but Vince was expected to gradually weaken on Tuesday as it moved over cooler waters. The hurricane was mainly a hazard to shipping, the hurricane centre said.

The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season has been one of the costliest and deadliest for the United States, and Vince's formation made 2005 the second-busiest season since records began 150 years ago.

There were 21 named storms in 1933 and 19 in 1995. An average season spawns around 10 tropical storms, of which six become hurricanes. Tropical storms become hurricanes when their maximum sustained winds reach 119kmh.

US hurricane researchers say the Atlantic has swung back into a period of increased storm activity that could last another 20 years. Some climatologists also believe global warming may be increasing the average strength of tropical cyclones.

[Shammu]

JNW HEADLINE NEWS
Analysis: Eyes to the north

By Ryan Jones
October 9th, 2005

Lebanese security officials have told Geostrategy-Direct that hundreds of “Palestinian” terrorists have crossed into Lebanon over the past two weeks with Syrian assistance.

Damascus' ostensible aim is to strengthen what hold it still has over Lebanon through its terrorist allies, and to bolster forces massed in Israel's northern neighbor for future aggression against the Jewish state.

Over the past three years, attacks originating in Lebanon or carried out inside Israel proper by Syrian-supported groups have elicited Israeli air strikes on Syrian targets both in Lebanon and Syria itself.

And so Syria last week also concluded the procurement of advanced Russian-made S-18 anti-aircraft missiles, just in case Israel tries to retaliate again. Moscow also agreed to offer advanced military training to more than double the Syrian officers it now instructs in the ways of war.

The strengthening of Syrian and terrorist forces north of Israel corresponds to increased cooperation between “Palestinian” terror groups in the PA-controlled territories and those based in Syria and Lebanon, most notably Hizballah.

In early 2004, IDF intelligence officials estimated some 80 percent of “Palestinian” terror cells were financed and controlled, either directly or indirectly, by Hizballah.

With all the terrorists on the same page, their numbers bolstered, and morale skyrocketing in the wake of Israel's retreat from Gaza, the likelihood of a coordinated rocket assault on both northern and southern Israel at the same time has greatly increased.

Both Hizballah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza certainly have the armaments, the will and the audacity to carry out such an assault.

If they do, Israeli will presumably launch a harsh response, including token strikes meant to display it's military superiority, such as bombing runs on terrorist bases in Syria.

But this time Syria would be in a far better position to down an Israeli aircraft or two, leading to the situation quickly spiraling out of control, with Israel needing to respond even more harshly and the terrorists greatly emboldened in their offensive.

While all of this may seem like wild speculation amid relative calm in Israel and Western assertions of renewed momentum towards peace, another source indicates it is at just such a time that all hell will break loose.

The enemy to the north will say, “I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates.” (Ezekiel 38:11)

Thus says the Lord God: “On that day when My people Israel dwell safely... Then you will come from your place out of the far north, you and many peoples with you...a great company and a mighty army.” (Ezekiel 38:14-15)

Interestingly, IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz last week told The Jerusalem Post that on the eve of the Jewish New Year, Israel has never dwelt more safely in its land than it does now.

Analysis: Eyes to the north

Note;{/b] Wait till you read the next post! Everyone had better start LOOKING UP!