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

[Soldier4Christ]

October 19, 2005
New Storm Measures as Most Intense Ever for Atlantic Basin
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS

Hurricane Wilma, which appeared headed toward Cancun, Mexico, and possibly the Gulf Coast of Florida by this weekend, intensified into the most powerful storm ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean basin early this morning, with winds of 175 miles per hour.

The hurricane is "potentially catastrophic," the National Hurricane Center said in its most recent advisory this morning.

"All interests in the Florida Keys and the Florida peninsula should closely monitor the progress of extremely dangerous Hurricane Wilma," the hurricane center said.

The hurricane center, based in Miami, added however, that if Wilma traveled across the gulf and made landfall in southwest Florida, it would likely be a substantially weakened storm. This morning, officials in the Florida Keys asked tourists to leave the area - which is usually a precursor for a larger evacuation order.

Forecasts project Wilma to move through the Yucatan Channel, the body of water between Cuba and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula before it reaches the Gulf of Mexico. It is not expected to affect the region from Texas to Mississippi struck by hurricanes Katrina and Rita the past two months; those storms killed more than 1,200 people and caused billions of dollars in damage.

"We are not concerned about the Gulf Coast and we expect little if any impact on the oil industry," said Stacy Stewart, a hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center. "This is mostly going to be a Florida peninsula storm."

Since August of last year, seven hurricanes have passed over Florida.

Hurricane Wilma's winds extend 15 miles out, and tropical storm force winds extend to 160 miles, according to the hurricane center.

The storm's central pressure of 26.06 inches, or 882 millibars, is the lowest recorded of a storm in the Atlantic Ocean basin, which includes the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. Lower pressure translates into higher wind speeds.

The previous record holder was Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, which had a pressure of 888 millibars. Hurricane Rita, which slammed into the Gulf Coast last month, had a pressure of 897 millibars.

A hurricane watch is now in effect for the eastern coast of the Yucatan peninsula and parts of Cuba and the Cayman Islands. A tropical storm warning has been called for regions of Honduras, which has closed two seaports in preparation for Wilma. Mexico, Cuba, Nicaragua and the Cayman Islands have issued their own hurricane warnings. Mexico's hurricane warning includes the tourist area of Cancun. The MTV Latin America Video Music Awards ceremony, originally scheduled to be held Thursday at a park near Cancun, was rescheduled for today to avoid Wilma.

Honduras and neighboring Guatemala are still recovering from Hurricane Stan, whose rains caused flooding and mudslides that killed at least 800 people.

The hurricane is expected to dump 10 to 15 inches of rain on the Cayman Islands and Jamaica, and as much as 25 inches in mountainous regions of Cuba, according to the hurricane center.

At 8 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, the center of Wilma was located about 340 miles southeast of Cozumel, Mexico, moving in a northwest direction at about eight miles an hour.

The storm is 12th hurricane of the season, which ties a record set in 1969. That figure is the most for a single season since record-keeping began in 1851. On Monday, the storm became the 21st named storm in the Atlantic hurricane season, tying a record set in 1933, and exhausting the list of names for this year. Any new storms in the six month hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30, would be named with letters from the Greek alphabet, starting with Alpha.

[Soldier4Christ]

Strong quake rocks eastern Japan
Tokyo, Japan   
19 October 2005 02:21

An earthquake of preliminary magnitude 6,2 rocked eastern Japan late on Wednesday, the meteorological agency said. The temblor shook buildings in Tokyo and nearby areas, including Ibaraki, Chiba and Fukushima prefectures, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

There was no danger of a tsunami from the quake, centred 40km below the sea off the coast of Ibaraki prefecture, the agency said.

Runways at Tokyo's Narita airport were temporarily closed but have now reopened, Kyodo News agency said. High-speed train services north of Tokyo were also temporarily suspended but quickly resumed.

A nuclear power plant in Tokaimura near the quake zone had shut down automatically, according to national broadcaster NHK.

Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries because it sits atop four tectonic plates. Since the late 1970s, the government has taken measures to strengthen its monitoring of seismic activity, and to coordinate steps with local governments on how to cope with earthquakes.

Last October, a 6,8-magnitude earthquake hit northern Japan, killing 40 people and damaging more than 6 000 homes. It was the deadliest to hit Japan since 1995, when a magnitude-7,2 quake killed 6 433 people in the western city of Kobe. -- Sapa-AP

[Soldier4Christ]

Geologists say 'bulge' may turn into volcano
100 square miles of Oregon terrain rising 1.4 inches each year

LOS ANGELES TIMES

BEND, Ore.

Half an hour west of this mountain town in central Oregon, in an area covered by forest, is a growing bulge in the terrain that scientists say could be the beginnings of a volcano.

The bulge covers 100 square miles and is rising at a rate of 1.4 inches a year. The shape resembles a dome, with the highest point about three miles west of the South Sister volcano in the Cascades.

Geologists say that the bulge represents a rare opportunity to study what could be a volcanic formation in its earliest stages, but officials in Bend, a town of 65,000, worry more about the potential hazards, such as lava and ash or flying rocks.

"Is it going to blow up and bury Bend?" City Manager Harold "Andy" Anderson asked. "In the wake of (Hurricane) Katrina, we're trying to assess our biggest natural threats, and the bulge came up in meetings as a possibility."

Scientists have held community forums trying to assuage concerns and educate the public about why the phenomenon should inspire fascination rather than fear. They say that nothing is comparable in the Cascades or possibly in all of North America, but the technology that detected the bulge is relatively new.

The bulge, in the Three Sisters Wilderness Area - named after three volcanic peaks - was detected in March 2001 by a geologist using a new imaging technology called radar interferometry, which uses satellites to measure changes in Earth's surface.

Since the discovery, scientists have "wired" the bulge with additional measuring equipment. Geologists from the U.S. Geological Survey have also visited the site and a report on their latest findings is expected this month.

[Shammu]

Rice Won't Rule Out Force on Syria, Iran

By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 11 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday refused to rule out U.S. troops still serving in Iraq in 10 years or the possibility that the United States could use military force against neighboring Syria and Iran.

Rice deferred to the decisions of President Bush and military commanders as Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee pressed her for more specifics on the U.S. strategy in Iraq.

Asked specifically whether the United States would have troops in Iraq in five or 10 years, Rice said: "I think that even to try and speculate on how many years from now there will be a certain number of American forces is not appropriate."

At the White House, spokesman Scott McClellan also would not rule out the possibility of a U.S. troop presence that far in the future.

"In terms of decisions about troop levels, we've always said that we will look to our commanders on the ground and they will be the ones who will make decisions based on circumstances on the ground," McClellan said.

Lawmakers also pressed Rice on strategy for dealing with Iran and Syria. U.S. officials have accused Syria of allowing foreign fighters to flow across its borders into Iraq and Iran of supporting the insurgency.

Rice said the United States was using diplomatic means to urge a change in the behavior of both countries — but she stopped short of ruling out military force. "I'm not going to get into what the president's options might be," Rice said. "I don't think the president ever takes any of his options off the table concerning anything to do with military force."

Testifying before the committee for the first time since February, Rice sought to reassure jittery lawmakers — who are hearing from their war-weary constituents — that the Bush administration had a plan for success: helping Iraqis clear out insurgents and build durable, national institutions.

She said the United States will follow a model that was successful in
Afghanistan. Starting next month, she said, joint diplomatic-military groups — Provincial Reconstruction Teams — will work alongside Iraqis as they train police, set up courts, and help local governments establish essential services.

But even as Rice tried to crystalize the plan, Republicans and Democrats asked her pointed questions they say Americans need to know.

"I'm not looking for a date to get out of Iraq," Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record) of Delaware, the top Democrat on the panel, said. "But at what point, assuming the strategy works, do you think we'll be able to see some sign of bringing some American forces home?"

Rice declined to answer directly, choosing to leave an estimate to military commanders. "I don't want to hazard what I think would be a guess, even if it were an assessment, of when that might be possible," Rice said.

Later, Sen. Paul Sarbanes (news, bio, voting record), D-Md., told Rice that her response to questions about U.S. troop withdrawal "leads me to draw the conclusion that you're leaving open the possibility that 10 years from now we will still have military forces in Iraq."

"Senator, I don't know how to speculate about what will happen 10 years from now, but I do believe that we are moving on a course on which Iraqi security forces are rather rapidly able to take care of their own security concerns," Rice responded.

Republican Sens. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island were among several lawmakers who asked Rice whether the Bush administration was considering military action against Iran and Syria, and asked whether the president would circumvent congressional authorization if the White House chose that option.

"I will not say anything that constrains his authority as commander in chief," Rice said.

The lawmakers' queries followed Rice's earlier remark that: "Syria and, indeed, Iran must decide whether they wish to side with the cause of war or with the cause of peace."

As Rice spoke, a woman in the second row of spectators shouted "Stop the killing in Iraq." A police officer motioned her out of the room.

By State Department design, Rice testified before the committee just days after Iraq apparently approved its first constitution since a U.S.-led coalition ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003. Her appearance also coincided with the start of Saddam's trial in Baghdad for a massacre of 150 of his fellow Iraqis.

McClellan praised Saddam's trial as "a symbol that the rule of law is returning to Iraq."

Rice heralded the referendum on the charter as "a landmark" and said the US. strategy was moving from a stage of transition to a stage of preparing a permanent Iraqi government.

She described the administration's plan as "clear areas from insurgent control, to hold them securely, and to build durable, national Iraqi institutions."

"Our strategy is to clear, hold, and build," she said. "The enemy's strategy is to infect, terrorize, and pull down."

Alongside Iraqi allies, she said, the United States is working to dismantle the insurgent network and disrupt foreign support for them, maintain security in areas insurgents no longer hold, and build national institutions to "sustain security forces, bring rule of law, visibly deliver essential services, and offer the Iraqi people hope for a better economic future."

Rice Won't Rule Out Force on Syria, Iran

[Shammu]

Wilma Heads for Central America; 12 Dead

By FREDDY CUEVAS, Associated Press Writer 14 minutes ago

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras - Hurricane Wilma swirled into the most intense Atlantic storm ever recorded Wednesday, a Category 5 monster whose 175 mph winds and heavy rains already have been blamed for killing at least 12 people in the Caribbean as it bore down on Central America.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami forecast that Wilma could make landfall in southwestern Florida on Saturday and bring devastating winds to the east coast. Officials ordered visitors out of the Florida Keys.

Jamaica, Cuba, Nicaragua and Honduras were getting heavy rain from the storm, though it was not likely to make landfall in any of those countries. Many residents prepared for the worst only weeks after rains left more than 1,500 people dead or missing in Central America and Mexico.

With rough seas already pounding coastal areas, flood-prone Honduras warned that Wilma posed "an imminent threat to life and property" and closed two seaports on its Caribbean coast. Neighboring Nicaragua and the Cayman Islands also were on alert.

Computer models showed Wilma possibly making a sharp turn as it hits upper-level winds blowing east, moving through the narrow channel between Cuba and Mexico, where it threatened Cancun, before heading toward Florida.

Forecasters urged the Florida Keys and the peninsula to closely monitor the storm's progress.

"It does look like it poses a significant threat to Florida by the weekend. Of course, these are four- and five-day forecasts, so things can change," meteorologist Dan Brown said.

At 11 a.m. EDT, the hurricane was centered about 325 miles southeast of Cozumel, Mexico, with maximum sustained winds of 175 mph, making it a Category 5 storm, according to the Hurricane Center. It was moving west-northwest at near 7 mph.

It was expected to dump up to 25 inches of rain in mountainous areas of Cuba and up to 15 inches in the Caymans and Jamaica over the next two days. A foot of rain was possible from Honduras through the Yucatan peninsula, the weather service said.

In Mexico, the MTV Latin America Video Music Awards ceremony, originally scheduled for Thursday at a seaside park south of Cancun, was postponed until an undetermined date.

A hurricane watch was in effect for the east coast of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, parts of Cuba and the Cayman Islands.

Wilma's confirmed pressure readings Wednesday morning dropped to 882 millibars — the lowest minimum pressure ever measured in a hurricane in the Atlantic basin, according to the hurricane center. Lower pressure translates into higher wind speed.

Forecasters said Wilma was stronger than the devastating Labor Day hurricane that hit the Florida Keys in 1935, the strongest Atlantic hurricane to make landfall on record.

But Wilma was not expected to keep its record strength for long, as disruptive atmospheric winds in the Gulf of Mexico should weaken it before landfall, Hurricane Center meteorologist Hugh Cobb said. Gulf water is about 1 to 2 degrees cooler than that in the Caribbean, which should inhibit its strength more, he added.

The strongest storm on record, based on the lowest pressure reading, had been Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, which registered an 888 millibar reading.

The head of Haiti's civil protection agency, said Maria Alta Jean-Baptiste said the storm's outer bands caused flooding and landslides that killed at least 11 people since Monday and forced at least 2,000 families from their homes.

"The situation is not catastrophic, but if the rains pick up, it could become very difficult for some people," Jean-Baptiste said.

Heavy rains were swelling rivers along Honduras' eastern Atlantic coast Wednesday, but emergency officials had not yet ordered evacuations.

Honduras and its neighbors already are recovering from flooding and mudslides earlier this month in the aftermath of Hurricane Stan.

Cuban authorities suspended classes in the threatened western province of Pinar del Rio and prepared to evacuate tourists from campgrounds and low-lying areas, according the Communist Party newspaper. Heavy rains in the island's eastern province of Granma forced the evacuations of more than 1,000 people, though some 5,500 residents of Guantanamo, further east, were allowed to return to their homes.

Jamaica, where heavy rains have fallen since Sunday, closed almost all schools and 380 people remained in shelters. But businesses remained open and people went to work and shopped as usual. One man died Sunday in a rain-swollen river.

Wilma already had been blamed for one death in Jamaica as a tropical depression Sunday.

Some Florida residents began buying water, canned food and other emergency supplies. The state has seen seven hurricanes hit or pass close by since August 2004, causing more than $20 billion in estimated damage and killing nearly 150 people.

"People have learned their lesson and know better how to prepare. We're not waiting until the last minute anymore," said Andrea Yerger, 48, of Port Charlotte, Fla.

Her house had to be gutted after being damaged by Hurricane Charley last year.

In the Cayman Islands, authorities urged businesses to close early Tuesday to give employees time to prepare for the storm. Schools were ordered to close on Wednesday.

Forecasters said Wilma should avoid the central U.S. Gulf coast devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita earlier this year which killed more than 1,200 people and caused billions of dollars in damage.

Wilma is the record-tying 12th hurricane of the season, the same number reached in 1969. That is the most for one season since record-keeping began in 1851.

Wilma Heads for Central America; 12 Dead

[Soldier4Christ]

Minor earthquake hits San Francisco region

Associated Press

The Geysers (US), October 19, 2005

A small earthquake has struck The Geysers, about 130 kilometres north of San Francisco.

The 4.0-magnitude quake was recorded at 5:05 pm local time about 8 km northwest of The Geysers in northern Sonoma County last evening, according to preliminary reports from the US Geological Survey.

There were no reports of injuries or damage, a sheriff's department staffer said.

The Geysers is located near a volcanic field where subterranean steam builds up and helps make the area seismically active, according to the USGS.

[Shammu]

1 in 4 Iraq vets ailing on return

By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY Wed Oct 19, 7:25 AM ET

More than one in four U.S. troops have come home from the
Iraq war with health problems that require medical or mental health treatment, according to the Pentagon's first detailed screening of servicemembers leaving a war zone.

Almost 1,700 servicemembers returning from the war this year said they harbored thoughts of hurting themselves or that they would be better off dead. More than 250 said they had such thoughts "a lot." Nearly 20,000 reported nightmares or unwanted war recollections; more than 3,700 said they had concerns that they might "hurt or lose control" with someone else.

These survey results, which have not been publicly released, were provided to USA TODAY by the Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine. They offer a window on the war and how the ongoing insurgency has added to the strain on troops.

Overall, since the war began, about 28% of Iraq veterans - about 50,000 servicemembers this year alone - returned with problems ranging from lingering battle wounds to toothaches, from suicidal thoughts to strained marriages. The figure dwarfs the Pentagon's official Iraq casualty count: 1,971 U.S. troops dead and 15,220 wounded as of Tuesday.

A greater percentage of soldiers and Marines surveyed in 2004-05 said they felt in "great danger" of being killed than said so in 2003, after a more conventional phase of fighting. Twice as many surveyed in 2004-05 had fired a weapon in combat.

"The (wartime) deployments do take a toll," says Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman. "We send them to austere locations, places that are extremely hot, extremely cold, very wet, very dry ... where they may also encounter an armed enemy."

The Pentagon's goal is to identify all troops in need of care in part by screening every servicemember on a wide range of issues before and after overseas duty.

Begun in 1997 and expanded in 2003, it is the most detailed health assessment of deployed troops ever. It came in response to ailments that surfaced after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Jim Benson, a spokesman at the Department of Veterans Affairs, says comparable data from previous wars don't exist.

In October 2004, a federal panel of medical experts that studied illnesses of Gulf War veterans estimated that one in seven suffer war-related health problems.

Benson said the percentage of troops back from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with health issues is close to the portion of former servicemembers coming to the VA for mental health or medical care. He says 101,000 of the 431,000 war vets who have separated from the military, or about 23%, have sought help.

1 in 4 Iraq vets ailing on return

[Soldier4Christ]

1 in 4 Iraq vets ailing on return

This percentage rises to 2 in 4 within 5 years and almost to 3 in 4 within 10 years. Many that have health problems from the Gulf area do not show up right away.

[Shammu]

1 in 4 Iraq vets ailing on return

This percentage rises to 2 in 4 within 5 years and almost to 3 in 4 within 10 years. Many that have health problems from the Gulf area do not show up right away.

Thats not good Pastor Roger. I will pray more, for the vets, all over the world today.

When I made this thread, I should have called it. "Matthew 24, Birthing Pains." Cause these are signs, of Jesus's return.

Resting in the hands, of the Lord.
Bob

Matthew 24:50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,

[Shammu]

Hurricane Wilma strongest hurricane on record
Wed Oct 19, 2005 8:39 AM ET173

 By Michael Christie

MIAMI (Reuters) - Hurricane Wilma became the most powerful Atlantic hurricane on record on Wednesday as it churned toward western Cuba and Mexico's Yucatan peninsula on a track toward Florida, having already killed 10 people in Haiti.

The season's record-tying 21st storm, fueled by the warm waters of the northwest Caribbean Sea, strengthened alarmingly into a Category 5 hurricane, the top rank on the five-step scale of hurricane intensity.

A U.S. Air Force reconnaissance plane measured maximum sustained winds of 175 mph, with higher gusts, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The plane also recorded a minimum pressure of 882 millibars, the lowest value ever observed in the Atlantic basin. That meant Wilma was stronger than any storm on record, including Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in late August, and Rita, which hit the Texas-Louisiana coast in September.

Storm warnings were in force for Honduras in Central America, where more than 1,000 people died this month after Hurricane Stan triggered mudslides that buried entire villages. Warnings were also issued for the Yucatan, Cuba and the Cayman Islands.

Wilma has killed up to 10 people who died in mudslides in deforested and impoverished Haiti after several days of heavy rain, civil protection officials said.

Wilma was expected to bring rainfall of up to 25 inches to mountainous parts of Cuba, and up to 15 inches to Jamaica and to the Cayman Islands, a wealthy British colony south of Cuba. Honduras and Mexico could expect up to 12 inches

of rain, the hurricane center said.

By 8 a.m. EDT, the hurricane was about 340 miles

southeast of Cozumel, Mexico.

Wilma was the 21st storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, tying the record set in 1933. It was also the 12th hurricane and tied the record for most hurricanes in a season set in 1969.

The season still has six weeks left to run. Hurricane experts say the Atlantic has swung back into a period of heightened storm activity that could last another 20 years. Climatologists also fear global warming could be making the storms more intense.

FLORIDA IN WILMA'S SIGHTS

The storm was moving west-northwest at 8 mph (13 km/h). A turn toward the northwest was expected in the next 24 hours. Once in the southeastern Gulf of Mexico, Wilma was expected to make a sharp turn to the northeast, toward Florida.

Wilma was not expected to threaten New Orleans or Mississippi, where Hurricane Katrina killed more than 1,200 people and caused more than $30 billion in insured damage.

It was also expected to miss the oil and gas facilities in the Gulf of Mexico still reeling from Katrina and Rita.

But frozen orange juice futures closed at a six-year high on Tuesday amid fears Wilma could ravage Florida groves that had just begun to recover from the hurricanes that destroyed 40 percent of last year's crop.

Florida was hit by four hurricanes last year and has been struck by hurricanes Dennis, Katrina and Rita this year.

Cuba's western tobacco-growing province of Pinar del Rio braced for heavy rain. More than 5,000 people were evacuated from eastern Cuba, where two days of rain caused floods and mudslides in the provinces of Guantanamo, Santiago and Granma.

Wilma was expected to weaken before reaching Florida.

Nevertheless, officials in the Florida Keys, a vulnerable chain of low-lying islands connected to mainland Florida by a single road, warned residents and tourists to take the storm seriously.

Tourists would be ordered to evacuate on Thursday and residents would be told to flee the coming storm on Friday.

"This is our fourth storm but this one is really aggressive," Irene Toner, director of emergency management for the county that encompasses the islands, told local radio. "This one we are taking seriously. The damage is going to be substantial."

Hurricane Wilma strongest hurricane on record

[Shammu]

Death Toll in Asian Quake Soars to 79,000

By MATTHEW PENNINGTON, Associated Press Writer Wed Oct 19, 4:32 PM ET

BALAKOT, Pakistan - The death toll soared to 79,000 Wednesday from South Asia's mammoth earthquake, following a survey of one of the two hardest-hit Pakistani regions — making it one of the deadliest quakes in modern times.

More aftershocks rattled the region, sending up huge clouds of dust from steep-sided mountain valleys where villages lie in pieces. During a helicopter tour of the ruins, the president promised new, quake-ready houses for the homeless.

In remote mountains, a steady flow of injured villagers continued to seek medical attention. Many had infected wounds, untreated since the Oct. 8 temblor, and had to rely on relatives to carry them for hours on foot to makeshift clinics.

More than 60 helicopters were dropping relief supplies, and mule trains were pushing into areas where no helicopters can land.

"Many people out there, we are not going to get to in time," said Rob Holden, the U.N. disaster coordinator in Pakistan's part of
Kashmir. "Some people who have injuries don't have a chance of survival."

Eleven days after the 7.6-magnitude quake, the full scale of the disaster is becoming apparent. A helicopter trip through the badly hit Neelum and Kaghan Valleys showed flattened homes on mountainsides and roads blocked by boulders, trees and earth. Moving only on foot, people were fashioning new pathways over landslides.

The central government updated its death toll to 47,700, but regional authorities gave much higher figures, based on information trickling in from outlying areas and as more bodies were pulled from the rubble of collapsed buildings.

Since the early days of the disaster, the central government death tally has lagged behind that of local authorities, although federal officials have said privately they expect the toll to rise dramatically.

Citing reports from local authorities and hospital officials, the government of North West Frontier Province said 37,958 people had died there and the toll was likely to rise. The prime minister in Pakistani-held Kashmir said at least 40,000 people died in that neighboring region. India has reported 1,360 deaths in the part of Kashmir that it controls.

Those tallies would push the death toll to 79,318 from the quake.

That figure was in line with an estimate Wednesday from a senior army official that 75,000 to 80,000 people had died across Pakistan. The official did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to comment on the death toll.

Aid workers fear casualties could rise even further as communities without adequate food, shelter or health care will soon face the harsh Himalayan winter. Snow has already begun to fall in high mountains, and some villages face subfreezing temperatures at night.

However, the death toll in Pakistan is unlikely to come close to December's magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami that killed more than 176,000 people — most of them in Indonesia — or a magnitude 8.2 temblor that killed at least 240,000 in Tangshan, China, in 1976.

Hundreds of aftershocks are still rattling the South Asian quake zone, frightening the many homeless who are camping by ruined homes. A 5.8-magnitude tremor struck on Wednesday morning, near the epicenter of the main quake. Less than an hour later, a second was felt that registered 5.6.

There were no reports of injury, but the aftershocks caused new landslides that briefly blocked at least one road and sent rubble coursing down eroded mountainsides.

On a tour near the quake-hit town of Balakot, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf promised to build quake-proof homes for the homeless — drawing applause from about 200 villagers at a tented settlement.

Carrying a swagger stick and wearing a baseball cap, Musharraf also said he would be willing to let Kashmiri civilians drive across the militarized border from India to help their brethren on the Pakistan side rebuild.

"If they want to assist in the reconstruction effort and in (distributing) relief goods, yes, I will allow it. ... We would like to encourage it," he said.

There's been no formal Indian response to the offer. It appears at least in part a diplomatic parry to India's previous offer of military helicopters for relief efforts. The nations have fought two wars over Kashmir, and Pakistan refuses to let Indian military personnel onto its side of the disputed frontier.

At Nanseri, a village four miles from the Line of Control in Kashmir, injured people were still emerging from their communities — making arduous journeys across towering mountains, with relatives carrying their loved ones on their backs or in wooden-and-twine beds.

Dr. Amjad Sarij Memon said his eight-man team of volunteer doctors from the southern city of Karachi had performed more than 500 operations in the past six days in tents in the village. He said they have had to carry out "numerous amputations" because of infected wounds.

Despite the growing influx of aid, the U.N. World Food Program has estimated a half-million survivors have yet to receive any. Pakistan's military, however, says all but about 5 percent of communities have been reached — although it does appear that many villages have received little aid.

In Beijing, top U.N. relief coordinator Jan Egeland urged China, which borders Pakistan, to contribute winterized tents. Pakistan says it urgently needs 150,000-200,000 tents. It now has about 30,000.

Death Toll in Asian Quake Soars to 79,000

[Shammu]

Strong aftershocks rock quake-shattered Pakistan
Wed Oct 19, 2005 8:32 AM ET168

 By Faisal Aziz

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - Aftershocks rocked earthquake-wrecked northern Pakistan on Wednesday, but survivors at least had one reason for hope as Islamabad and New Delhi agreed the border dividing Kashmir should be opened to help them.

Pakistan's relief commissioner said the official number of dead due to the October 8 earthquake rose by around 6,000 to 47,723.

There were no reports of deaths in what were the strongest of dozens of aftershocks since the quake devastated Pakistani Kashmir and adjoining North West Frontier Province.

But there were landslides in both areas, making life even harder for soldiers trying to rebuild crumpled roads into the high hills, where countless thousands of survivors still wait for help.

At one of their toughest jobs, in Kashmir's Neelum valley, the tremors sent scree rattling down the hills onto the short stretch of the 160-km (100-mile) road they had managed to clear.

Even without more landslides, officers in charge of the work said it would take weeks to drive on the road up the valley. That means large quantities of aid, beyond the capabilities of a growing helicopter fleet, will not be delivered.

With the harsh Himalayan winter looming and the heavy tents needed to house hundreds of thousands of homeless people in short supply, the tremors added to the misery.

But people in Muzaffarabad, the ruined capital of Pakistani Kashmir, were cheered by Pakistani's President Pervez Musharraf's dramatic call on India to open the heavily militarized border which separates the bitterly divided region.

India's prompt agreement gave hope the Line of Control (LOC), a ceasefire line which divides Kashmir and families, would be opened, help would pour across and many relatives would be able to meet each other for the first time in decades.

"It would be a fantastic thing," income tax official Azhar Mehmood said in a typical comment. "If you are here when they actually allow Kashmiris to cross the LOC, you'll see for yourself how important this decision is for the Kashmiri people."

However, there was no word on when the two nuclear-armed countries, which have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, would sit down and talk about how to do it.

DIFFICULT CROSSING

India also suffered in the quake, with at least 1,300 confirmed dead in its part of Kashmir.

But roads are badly damaged and so is a bridge at the solitary border crossing, so it was not immediately clear how long it would take to set up any movement across the frontier.

India and Pakistan embarked on a peace process to resolve all issues at the start of 2004, including their core dispute over Kashmir, which both claim.

Progress has been slow.

Since the earthquake, both governments have been criticized for letting ingrained distrust get in the way of opening up new routes to get relief supplies to beleaguered communities cut off in the Neelum and Jhelum valleys near the Line of Control.

Pakistan is accepting aid from India, but refuses to let Indian troops join the rescue work on Pakistani soil, despite the struggle to clear the way into valleys and areas too narrow for helicopters to fly into safely.

Pakistan still needs more helicopters to drop supplies and bring out casualties, but New Delhi turned down its request for helicopters without crews.

"We have accepted all assistance except military men coming across and one should not grudge that," Musharraf said on Tuesday night as he called for the de facto frontier in Kashmir to be opened.

Despite a steady stream of aid from abroad, Pakistan is still short of tents and blankets, fearing for the lives of tens of thousands of people stranded in the uplands without adequate food and shelter and snow already falling on mountaintops. Injured people are dying for lack of medical care, doctors say.

Major-General Farooq Ahmed Khan, federal relief commissioner and Musharraf's point man in the crisis, said Pakistan also desperately needed at least 100,000 anti-tetanus shots.

Thousands of survivors were still living in the open in cold night temperatures, "some with open or gangrenous injuries and with little access to clean water", the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said.

Strong aftershocks rock quake-shattered Pakistan

[Soldier4Christ]

When I made this thread, I should have called it. "Matthew 24, Birthing Pains." Cause these are signs, of Jesus's return.

Amen brother, that is exactly what it is,

[Shammu]

PA has no intent to disarm terror groups
Khaled Abu Toameh, THE JERUSALEM POST    Oct. 18, 2005

On the eve of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's visit to Washington, the PA announced that it has no intention of disarming Hamas or other armed groups.

Abbas is scheduled to arrive in Washington on Thursday for talks with US President George W. Bush on the latest developments in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the Israeli disengagement. Sources close to Abbas said earlier this week that he would brief Bush on the PA's plan to confiscate "illegal" weapons that are in the hands of various factions and militias, including Hamas.

However, Abbas's national security advisor, Jibril Rajoub, denied on Tuesday that the PA was planning to disarm Hamas or any other armed group. "We haven't called for disarming anyone," Rajoub said. "There is no decision to collect [illegal] weapons and we haven't taken any steps in this direction."

The weapons of the "resistance" groups, Rajoub added, should remain intact and should not be used on the streets or to terrorize the PA and civilians. He admitted that the PA and its security forces had failed to deal with the state of anarchy that has swept the Gaza Strip after the Israeli withdrawal.

Rajoub's remarks came as 12 Palestinian factions signed a "code of honor" in which they vowed to respect the results of next January's parliamentary elections and refrain from using weapons during the election campaign.

Hamas was the only group that refused to sign onto the understandings because they included a demand to refrain from using mosques as a platform for the election campaign.

The leaders of factions stressed the importance of holding the legislative elections on time and pledged to honor the results and to cooperate with the PA's Central Election Committee. In addition, they said that no weapons would be displayed or used during the pre-election campaign.

In a separate development, the Palestinian Legislative Council agreed on Tuesday to delay a vote of no-confidence in the cabinet of Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei until Abbas returns from the US.

The decision to postpone the vote came at the request of Abbas, who asked in a letter to the legislators that he be given the opportunity to address the council next week.

"The issue of the government is of such importance that it requires a meeting between me and members of the parliament immediately after my return from aboard," Abbas wrote.

Earlier this month the council voted in favor of a calling on Abbas to appoint within two weeks a new cabinet because of its failure to put an end to lawlessness and chaos in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The council also urged Abbas to form a transitional cabinet that would govern until the parliamentary elections.

The call, according to sources in Ramallah, has sparked off a sharp dispute between Abbas and Qurei, who has made it clear that he has no intention of stepping down. In an attempt to appease Qurei, Abbas announced this week that he won't have enough time to form a new cabinet before registration for the parliamentary elections starts in late November.

Tuesday's session was briefly delayed after hundreds of unemployed workers occupied the council chamber in Gaza City to demand jobs and money. The protesters accused the PA leadership of failing to address the plight of unemployed workers and demanded financial assistance to pay their electricity and water bills.

In Khan Yunis, Fatah gunmen kidnapped two Palestinians suspected of "collaboration" with Israel. The kidnappers announced that they belong to a Fatah-affiliated group calling itself Knights of the Storm. They claimed that the two, whose identities were not revealed, were suspected of assisting Israel in tracking down and killing wanted gunmen in the Gaza Strip.

PA has no intent to disarm terror groups

[Shammu]

Wilma Downgrades to Category 4

Thursday, October 20, 2005

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras — Hurricane Wilma rapidly strengthened into one of the Americas' most intense storms ever and lashed Caribbean coastlines Wednesday, forcing tourists to flee as it threatened to slam into Cancun and southern Florida.

Wilma briefly grew into a monstrous Category 5 storm before weakening to a Category 4 Wednesday night. The storm forced thousands of people to evacuate low-lying areas in a 600-mile swath covering Cuba, Belize, Honduras, Jamaica, Haiti and the Cayman Islands, officials said.

At least 13 deaths have been blamed on Wilma this week, including a man who drowned Wednesday while trying to cross a river that overflowed its banks in southern Haiti.

Forecasters said Wilma has the potential to make an extremely damaging impact in a season that has already seen devastation from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. With its center still over open water, the storm's sustained winds were near 155 mph Wednesday night, down from 175 mph earlier in the day.

The National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield (search) said Wilma could reach the Florida Keys Saturday, possibly toward the evening. Visitors were ordered out of the Florida Keys even as schools closed.

The White House, stung by criticism that it had not responded quickly enough to Katrina, promised to stay on top of the situation. "We are closely monitoring what is an extremely dangerous storm," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. "People should take this hurricane very seriously."

Tourists packed Cancun's airport even though skies were still partly sunny, looking for flights home or to other resorts. MTV (search) postponed its Video Music Awards Latin America ceremony, originally scheduled for Thursday at a seaside park south of the resort town.

Mark Carara cut his family's vacation short by two days and tried to get on a standby flight home to Colorado Springs, Colo. "You hear it was the biggest storm on record, and yeah, that was the clincher right there," he said. "It was time for us to go."

John Hyndman, a 59-year-old electrician from Ottawa said his hotel had asked guests to leave. "I think people are more panicked just about what a hurricane can do," he said. "It can be very scary."

Quintana Roo state, where Cancun is located, announced that hundreds of schools would be closed Thursday and Friday, and many will be prepared to serve as shelters for expected evacuations.

Floridians braced for the storm by boarding up windows and stocking up on supplies, although forecasters at the hurricane center said the forward motion of the storm appeared to be slowing, which could cause it to eventually weaken.

Predictions differed on the hurricane's path and how strong it would be when it reaches U.S. shores. Though some weakening was expected by Thursday, the "potential for large loss of life is with us," said Max Mayfield, director of the U.S. hurricane center.

"This is one of those cases where we have a tremendous amount of uncertainty," said Mayfield. Referring to Wilma's explosive two-day growth from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane, Mayfield said "this is one of the most perplexing storms we have had to deal with" this year.

At 11 p.m. EDT, Wilma was centered about 235 miles southeast of Cozumel (search), Mexico. It was moving west-northwest near 8 mph, with some wobbles, forecasters said. Forecasters warned it could re-intensify Thursday as it turns to the northwest.

Wilma's record-level intensity was measured in its pressure. Confirmed pressure readings early Wednesday dropped to 882 millibars, the lowest minimum pressure ever measured in a hurricane in the Americas, but it later lost power and rose to 892 millibars, according to the hurricane center. Lower pressure translates into higher wind speed.

The strongest Atlantic storm on record, based on pressure readings, had been Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, which registered 888 millibars.

Wilma was on a curving course that would carry it through the narrow channel between Cuba and Mexico on Friday, possibly within a few miles of Cancun and Cozumel. Forecasters warned it could smash into southwestern Florida on Saturday with towering waves, then work its way up the East Coast with devastating effect.

Heavy rain, high winds and rough seas pounded coastal areas of Honduras, knocking out power to some towns, forcing the evacuation of coastal villages and closure of two Caribbean (search) ports.

Four fishermen were reported missing at sea and about 500 U.S. and European tourists were moved to safe locations at hotels on the Bay Islands.

The head of Haiti's civil protection agency, Maria Alta Jean-Baptiste, said a man drowned Wednesday while trying to cross a river that overflowed its banks in the southern town of Les Anglais. She said another man was swept away by the fast-moving current but survived.

The death raised to 12 the number of people killed in rain and landslides since Monday in the island nation. One man also died Sunday in a rain-swollen river.

Cuban authorities suspended classes in the threatened western province of Pinar del Rio and prepared to evacuate tourists from campgrounds and low-lying areas, according to Granma, the Communist Party daily. Heavy rains in the island's eastern province of Granma forced the evacuations of more than 1,000 people.

Forecasters said Wilma was stronger than the Labor Day hurricane that hit the Florida Keys in 1935, the most powerful Atlantic hurricane to make landfall on record.

But disruptive high-altitude winds in the Gulf of Mexico (search) should weaken Wilma before landfall, said Hugh Cobb, a meteorologist at the hurricane center.

Wilma's track could take it near Punta Gorda on Florida's southwestern Gulf Coast and other areas hit by Hurricane Charley, a Category 4 storm, in August 2004. The state has seen seven hurricanes hit or pass close by since then, causing more than $20 billion in damage and killing nearly 150 people.

Forecasters said Wilma should avoid the central Gulf coast ravaged by Katrina and Rita, which killed more than 1,200 people.

Wilma is the record-tying 12th hurricane of the Atlantic season, the same number reached in 1969. Records have been kept since 1851. On Monday, Wilma became the Atlantic hurricane season's 21st named storm, tying the record set in 1933 and exhausting the list of names for this year.

The six-month hurricane season ends Nov. 30. Any new storms would be named with letters from the Greek alphabet, starting with Alpha.
Wilma Downgrades to Category 4