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

[Soldier4Christ]

Moderate quake shakes western Turkey, 15 hurt
20 Oct 2005 23:57:07 GMT
Source: Reuters

ISTANBUL, Oct 21 (Reuters) - A moderate earthquake shook western Turkey early on Friday, causing slight damage to several buildings and resulting in 15 casualties from the ensuing panic, the local governor said.

The Kandilli earthquake observation centre said the tremor, at 0:40 a.m. (2140 GMT), measured 5.9 on the Richter scale and its epicentre was in the Aegean Sea off the coast of Seferihisar in Izmir province.

Izmir Governor Oguz Kagan Goksal told the CNN Turk television channel 15 people had been taken to hospital as a result of heart attacks or jumping from buildings during the quake.

The roofs of five buildings, three of them empty, had been damaged in the tremor, he said.

Residents gathered in parks and open areas after the quake, and the local council made public announcements telling them not to go back into their houses, CNN Turk said.

Turkey is criss-crossed by seismic faultlines and experiences frequent tremors. Some 18,000 people were killed in a powerful earthquake which shook northwest Turkey in 1999.

Authorities decided to close schools in the Izmir region on Friday as a result of the quake, the channel said.

[Shammu]

   Hurricane postpones another homosexual party
Theme for Florida Keys Fantasy Fest: 'Freaks, Geeks, and Goddesses'
Posted: October 21, 2005
1:13 a.m. Eastern

By Joe Kovacs
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

For the second time this year, an Atlantic hurricane is forcing the postponement of a popular homosexual event filled with "unthinkable debauchery."

The annual Fantasy Fest in Key West, Fla., had been slated to kick off today, but the threat of Hurricane Wilma is putting a damper on the festivities, delaying events until after the storm passes.

"We've never had a hurricane interfere with Fantasy Fest, at least as long as I've been here," Harold Wheeler, director of the Monroe County Tourist Development Council for the past 10 years told the Key West Citizen. "In fact, it's just the opposite – Fantasy Fest has always been there to open up our season."


Participant at 2000 Fantasy Fest in Key West, Fla.

According to its official website, "The 27th Fantasy Fest 'Freaks, Geeks & Goddesses' offers another nutcake romp through the realms of the ridiculous and will not back down in the face of a hurricane. ... Well, maybe we'll have to push it back a few days, but fear not! Fantasy Fest events will still rock the island, just packed into six days instead of 10."

For those not familiar with the perennial party in the week leading up to Halloween, the Associated Press describes it this way:

    Fantasy Fest, which began in 1979 as a small food fair and parade, is a huge event in the nation's gay community (not that there aren't plenty of straights who also come for the debauchery). There are AIDS fundraisers, drag queen beauty contests, costume parties, lots of drinking and women wearing nothing but paint from the waist up.

The Miami New Times calls it a "time for parades, beads, wild costumes, and unthinkable debauchery ... packed with plenty of scary, silly, and downright naughty parties."

As WorldNetDaily previously reported, another homosexual festival, Southern Decadence, was postponed in August as Hurricane Katrina approached New Orleans.  

But the catastrophic damage left by Katrina did not stop homosexuals from partying, as less than a week after the disaster, while thousands of citizens were suffering from homelessness, hunger and looting in their flooded city, a group of "gays" marched down Bourbon Street in the Big Easy. A few days later, other homosexuals gathered in Lafayette, La., to hold what they called the Southern Decadence Parade in Exile.

   WND THE MEANEST SEASON
Hurricane postpones another homosexual party
Theme for Florida Keys Fantasy Fest: 'Freaks, Geeks, and Goddesses'
Posted: October 21, 2005
1:13 a.m. Eastern

By Joe Kovacs
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com


Wild costumes and plenty of exposed skin are common at the annual Fantasy Fest in Key West, Fla.

For the second time this year, an Atlantic hurricane is forcing the postponement of a popular homosexual event filled with "unthinkable debauchery."

The annual Fantasy Fest in Key West, Fla., had been slated to kick off today, but the threat of Hurricane Wilma is putting a damper on the festivities, delaying events until after the storm passes.

"We've never had a hurricane interfere with Fantasy Fest, at least as long as I've been here," Harold Wheeler, director of the Monroe County Tourist Development Council for the past 10 years told the Key West Citizen. "In fact, it's just the opposite – Fantasy Fest has always been there to open up our season."


Participant at 2000 Fantasy Fest in Key West, Fla.

According to its official website, "The 27th Fantasy Fest 'Freaks, Geeks & Goddesses' offers another nutcake romp through the realms of the ridiculous and will not back down in the face of a hurricane. ... Well, maybe we'll have to push it back a few days, but fear not! Fantasy Fest events will still rock the island, just packed into six days instead of 10."

For those not familiar with the perennial party in the week leading up to Halloween, the Associated Press describes it this way:

Fantasy Fest, which began in 1979 as a small food fair and parade, is a huge event in the nation's gay community (not that there aren't plenty of straights who also come for the debauchery). There are AIDS fundraisers, drag queen beauty contests, costume parties, lots of drinking and women wearing nothing but paint from the waist up.

The Miami New Times calls it a "time for parades, beads, wild costumes, and unthinkable debauchery ... packed with plenty of scary, silly, and downright naughty parties."

As WorldNetDaily previously reported, another homosexual festival, Southern Decadence, was postponed in August as Hurricane Katrina approached New Orleans.


Robert Baxter pushes Grand Marshal Robert Doucet Sept. 7 during the Southern Decadence Parade in Exile in Lafayette, La. (courtesy: The Daily Advertiser)

But the catastrophic damage left by Katrina did not stop homosexuals from partying, as less than a week after the disaster, while thousands of citizens were suffering from homelessness, hunger and looting in their flooded city, a group of "gays" marched down Bourbon Street in the Big Easy. A few days later, other homosexuals gathered in Lafayette, La., to hold what they called the Southern Decadence Parade in Exile.

At least one state senator has attributed this year's hurricane devastation to the hand of God punishing the U.S. for its national breaking of biblical laws.

"America has been moving away from God," said Alabama Sen. Hank Erwin, R-Montevallo. "The Lord is sending appeals to us. As harsh as it may sound, those hurricanes do say that God is real, and we have to realize sin has consequences."

Fantasy Fest is the biggest money maker for the Florida Keys, drawing up to 60,000 people who spend millions of dollars.

"People who have been poor for months wait for this week," Barbara Anderson, a local real-estate broker told AP.

Hurricane postpones another homosexual party

Note; The poor babies, they need to start praying for their salvation. The Lord is coming soon, and will find them wanting....

[Shammu]

Hurricane Wilma Slams Into Mexico

By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 23 minutes ago

CANCUN, Mexico - The fearsome core of Hurricane Wilma slammed into the island of Cozumel on Friday, starting a long, grinding march across Mexico's resort-studded coastline, where thousands of stranded tourists hunkered down in shelters and hotel ballrooms.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami said the hurricane's eyewall — part of the fastest-moving section surrounding the eye — had hit Cozumel, a popular stop for divers and cruise ships.

Hundreds of residents and nearly 1,000 tourists were riding out the hurricane in shelters in Cozumel.

The storm, packing sustained winds at nearly 145 mph, was expected to make an agonizingly slow journey to the tip of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and sideswipe Cuba — 130 miles east of Cancun — then swing east toward hurricane-weary Florida.

Cuba evacuated nearly 370,000 people in the face of the storm, which has already killed at least 13 people in Haiti and Jamaica.

"The most important thing now ... is to protect lives," President
Vicente Fox said in a broadcast address to the nation Thursday night.

Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami said the storm "has the potential to do catastrophic damage."

Mexico's civil defense chief, Carmen Segura, said Friday that almost 52,000 people had been evacuated in the Yucatan Peninsula, although most were staying with relatives or friends.

She said relatives of tourists should be calm. "We say to them that their families are protected as they should be."

Power was cut early Friday to most parts of Cancun — a standard safety precaution — and winds blasted waves across streets flooded 3 feet deep at some places in the city, about 35 miles north of Cozumel.

"God protect us!" ran the headline Friday in a local newspaper, Quequi.

About 1,500 people were crowded into a dark, sweltering municipal gymnasium downtown. Many took shelter under plastic tarps because of a leaking ceiling.

"After one more day of this, I believe people will start getting cranky. Things could get messy," said Scott Stout, 26, of Willisville, Ill., who was on a honeymoon with his wife, Jamie.

At 11 a.m. EDT, the maximum sustained wind diminished slightly to nearly 145 mph, with higher gusts. Wilma's slow-moving, wobbly center was 35 miles southeast of Cozumel. The hurricane   was moving toward the northwest at 5 mph, which was expected to bring the eye to shore by Friday afternoon in Cozumel and Friday night on the peninsula.

Forecasters said the Category 4 storm could dump as much as 40 inches of rain over isolated, mountainous parts of western Cuba and about half that in some other parts of Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula.

It could strengthen to a Category 5 hurricane before hitting land, forecasters said. Its slow progress delayed its expected arrival in Florida until Monday, but fueled fears that it would have more time to dump rain and pummel the low-lying Mayan Riviera, possibly causing major damage. The hurricane was expected to churn over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula for most of the weekend.

Wilma's eye was so large it might take hours to pass over land, leading to fears that confused residents might leave shelters in the calm of the middle of the storm.

At the beachside Playa Azul hotel on Cozumel's north end, manager Martha Nieto said "the waves are getting very high."

"We wish it was over. The waiting drives you to desperation," Nieto said by telephone.

After airports closed late Thursday, desperate tourists who had lined up for hours in a failed bid to get on the last planes out were instead shuttled to sweaty emergency shelters.

Devon Anderson, 21, of Sacramento, Calif., was packed into a school with other Americans. He said the army never arrived to board up the windows.

"There's no food, no water," he said. "We've pretty much just been deserted."

About 20,000 tourists remained at shelters and hotels on the mainland south of Cancun, and an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 in the city itself.

Some, like 30-year-old Carlos Porta of Barcelona, Spain, were handed plastic bags with a pillow and blanket.

"From a luxury hotel to a shelter. It makes you angry. But what can you do?" he said. "It's just bad luck."

In Cancun, high winds bent palm trees and waves gobbled the city's white-sand beaches. Nearly 50 hotels were evacuated, leaving the normally busy tourist zone deserted.

Early Wednesday, Wilma became the most intense hurricane recorded in the Atlantic. The storm's 882 millibars of pressure broke the record low of 888 set by Hurricane Gilbert in 1988. Lower pressure brings faster winds.

The storm should eventually make a sharp right turn toward Florida because it will get caught in the westerlies, the strong wind current that generally blows toward the east, forecasters said.

With Florida the next target, Gov.
Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency, and officials cleared tourists out of the exposed Florida Keys. Across Florida's southwest coast, people put up shutters, bought canned goods and bottled water and waited in ever-growing lines at gas stations.

In Belize, a nation south of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, officials canceled cruise ship visits and tourists were evacuated from islands offshore. But the tiny country weathered the storm with few reports of damage.

Hurricane Wilma Slams Into Mexico

[Soldier4Christ]

Hurricane postpones another homosexual party

Note; The poor babies, they need to start praying for their salvation. The Lord is coming soon, and will find them wanting....

AMEN!


(They're not getting the message though.)

[Shammu]

Apocalypse, now?
Katrina, other disasters fuel doomsday predictions

A page from the Web site ProphecyUpdate.com, which interprets current events through a biblical lens.

By Kari Huus
Reporter MSNBC
Updated: 9:02 p.m. ET Oct. 19, 2005

It’s been 10 months of epic disaster. First there was the tsunami that killed some 250,000 people in Southeast Asia. Then came Hurricane Katrina with its devastating toll on the Gulf Coast, followed by an earthquake that took tens of thousands of lives in South Asia. Now, Hurricane Wilma, one of the most powerful storms ever measured in the Atlantic Basin, is stalking the Florida coast, and experts are warning of a deadly avian flu pandemic.

It’s enough to make just about anyone pause to look for meaning in the madness.

For many who await Judgment Day, the writing is on the wall.

So close is the correlation between recent events and the biblical prophecy of the Second Coming, by the reckoning of RaptureReady.com, its "Rapture Index" has been hovering around 160 — the highest levels since just after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. According to the Web site, "the higher the number, the faster we're moving towards the ... rapture." When the number is above 145, it advises: "Fasten your seatbelts!"

"There is a resurgence of End Times thinking," says Stephen O'Leary, an expert on apocalyptic thinking and an associate professor at the University of Southern California. Anxiety about doomsday always lurks under the surface and resurfaces periodically, he says. "It's a very traditional way of coming to terms with disaster. In one sense it’s as old as the hills ... but there is a recent uptick of this kind of thinking."

Current events have provided rich fodder for religious groups devoted to watching for the End Times, when the faithful believe that they and nonbelievers will ultimately be judged. Nowhere is this more evident today than on the Internet, where scores of Web sites analyze the news through a biblical lens. While predictions of an apocalypse are part of many religions, including a version in Islam that is very similar to the Christian one, it is evangelical Christians who are sounding alarms in U.S. churches and online.

Among the most commonly cited biblical passages describing the beginning of the end are in Matthew, where Jesus warns that "nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes," and this passage in Luke: "And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring."

The race to interpret the news
Many evangelical Christians believe these events signal the End Times, as spelled out in the Book of Revelation, which go something like this: First there is the Rapture, in which God's loyal followers suddenly disappear from Earth and enter his kingdom. Then comes the Tribulation, a seven-year period of rule by the Antichrist and severe hardship on Earth. During this time, nonbelievers who remain on Earth will have a chance to convert to Christianity but will be hounded by the Antichrist and his minions. Then comes Armageddon, when God comes back to defeat Satan in a devastating battle. Ultimately, there is Judgment Day, when those who are with God live on in Paradise, and others are eternally condemned to Hell.

There are scores of Web sites that interpret current events through the prism of biblical passages, seeing divine signs not only in the weather, but in the war in Iraq and events at the United Nations.

Abbaswatchman.com "explains how virtually everything we are seeing, from hurricanes and tsunamis to tensions with Damascus are fulfilling prophesies." The blog ApocalypseSoon.org strives "to document the final moments of human history as it unfolds and to announce the return of Jesus Christ on earth." The list goes on.

New Orleans warning
Some Web sites serve as a pulpit for those who believe that God sent Katrina to smite New Orleans for its sinning ways and to send a warning to the rest of the nation.

"Although the loss of lives is deeply saddening, this act of God destroyed a wicked city," says conservative anti-gay activist Michael Marcavage on the site RepentAmerica.com. He says New Orleans was punished for a "public celebration" of homosexuality, wanton drunkenness and show of flesh.

Alabama state Sen. Henry E. "Hank" Erwin Jr., a Republican, expressed a similar view in a weekly column he writes for news outlets. "New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast have always been known for gambling, sin and wickedness," he wrote. "It is the kind of behavior that ultimately brings the judgment of God."

Irwin Baxter, founder of End Times Ministries, is among those more focused on how Katrina and the other disasters, combined with key political indicators — including the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip — point to an imminent apocalypse. "With all these converging at the same time, it looks to me we are very close to or just entered the (End Times)," says Baxter.

“People are really apprehensive right now,” he says. But the upside, from his point of view, is that the disasters could help make believers out of doubters. “If we continue seeing event after event of this magnitude ... I think it could really galvanize a lot of people.”

He's given up his regular job as pastor at a Pentecostal church in Richmond, Ind., to devote all his time and energy to End Times Ministries, which includes a magazine that has 30,000 subscribers, a Web site and a radio program broadcast on 30 stations and over the Internet.

To be sure, not all conservative Christians think it's wise to make predictions. "There have been storms throughout  history," says Mark Bailey, president of the Dallas Theological Seminary, a conservative evangelical institution. "To say about any of these that 'this is it' is dangerous speculation."

He is also troubled by the view that storms are used to punish a certain group of people. However, he adds, "It's a great time to ask, 'If this was it, would I be ready?'"

Apocalypse on the big screen
The soul-searching, and the speculation in Christian circles is driven in part by a highly successful series of films based on the best-selling book series "Left Behind." The story, a melodrama with a backdrop of End Times prophecy events, focuses on characters who remain on Earth after the believers are swept to heaven in the Rapture. The films, starring former television actor Kirk Cameron, launched on DVD in 2000 and have prompted a wave of other books, movies and spin-offs in the apocalypse genre. The third "Left Behind" movie is set to premiere at churches across the country on Friday.

USC's O'Leary suggests that media coverage of real disasters from Sri Lanka to New Orleans may also be intensifying the belief in impending peril, because the events are delivered instantaneously to American living rooms. "There is a sense of escalation that makes us feel that it's happening more rapidly," says O'Leary.

Religious groups don't have a monopoly on apocalyptic thinking. O'Leary says that even in secular circles, people also embrace apocalyptic thinking when it converges with worrisome scientific or technological developments.

"The prime case was the Y2K scare," he says, referring to fears of a disaster on the eve of the new century. "For awhile it seemed to have a rational technical basis, which seemed to go overboard," creating fears that lingered until the clock struck 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2000, "long after computer programmers said it was going to be OK," he says.

Evidence of global warming fuels fears of impending disaster among those who don't necessarily believe in divine intervention, O'Leary points out. And the emergence of nuclear weapons technology after World War II lent plausibility to belief in a secular version of Armageddon.

"You don’t have to be a religious believer to think that we’re headed for disaster," O'Leary says.
Apocalypse, now?

[Shammu]

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Disasters feed fears of apocalypse

Recent famines, flood and earthquakes make believers, nonbelievers wonder if the end is near.
By Carol Eisenberg / Newsday

Every morning, the Rev. Micheal Mitchell prays that if today is the beginning of the end of the world as we know it, he will be ready.

"Ever since the terrorist attacks four years ago, I try to live every day as if it will be the last day," said Mitchell, 46, senior pastor of New Life Tabernacle United Pentecostal Church in New York.

Mitchell's belief that he is watching biblical prophecy unfold in the form of modern-day famines, floods and earthquakes has grown increasingly urgent. What with a cataclysmic earthquake swallowing whole villages in South Asia, coming on the heels of a killer tsunami and hurricanes that flooded the Gulf Coast and brought lethal mud slides to Guatemala, apocalyptic anxiety is running extraordinarily high -- among believers and nonbelievers alike.

Set against a backdrop of terror threats and worries that avian flu may morph into a pandemic, it's no wonder that talk of a biblical-scale reckoning is cropping up in all sorts of conversations.

"A lot of people are watching the Rapture Index very carefully right now," said Stephen O'Leary, an expert on apocalypticism at the University of Southern California, referring to a Web site that purports to offer a statistical gauge of the approach of the moment that Christians believe Jesus will remove the faithful from Earth.

The Web site, www.raptureready.com/rap2.html, registers 159. Anything higher than 145 means "fasten your seat belts," according to the legend. (My note; I think most of us know this website.)

Apocalyptic beliefs have long been an American staple. A June 2001 survey by the Barna Research Group, for instance, found that 40 percent of adults in the United States believe the physical world will end as a result of supernatural intervention. Fifty percent disagreed, and 10 percent didn't know.

Mitchell, like many Pentecostals and charismatics, believes the seven years of calamities leading to Armageddon -- the battle in which Jesus will defeat the Anti-Christ -- may already have begun. Now, he said, he gets almost daily questions from congregants about how current events may reflect those prophecies.

Social scientists say that such preoccupations reflect an increasingly apocalyptic mood in America, expressed not just in Christian fundamentalism, but also in secular doom-and-gloom scenarios.

Nonbelievers tend to express their anxieties in terms of man-made ecological disasters or, more simply, an indifferent and hostile nature. If the recent storms and quakes portend anything, it's climactic change, not biblical reckoning, said Oliver Haker, 28, a New York lawyer.

Others search for a deeper, redemptive meaning behind so much suffering and despair.

"When I heard about the quake in Pakistan, I thought, 'Wow, this could be it -- we could be entering the final seven years,' " said Irwin Baxter, founder of Endtime Ministries in Richmond, Ind., who does a biblical prophecy radio show.

Naysayers note that such predictions are a constant in human history -- and have always been proven wrong.

"We have an acute need to find an explanation for suffering, pain and death," O'Leary said.

Certainly, it is a sign of the times that booksellers report an uptick in sales for books not just about biblical prophecy, but also that explain disasters in scientific terms.

Besides the steady popularity of apocalyptic titles, like the bestselling Left Behind series, "what we have seen recently is marked interest in books that help readers understand the issues of the day," said Bill Tipper, bestsellers editor for Barnes&Noble.com.

Newsday Staff Writer Robert Kahn contributed to this story.

Disasters feed fears of apocalypse

[Shammu]

Al Aqsa leader: Jews have no right to Mount
In WND interview claims mosque 'was built by the angels'
Posted: October 22, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern

Following is a WorldNetDaily exclusive interview with Sheik Kamal Hatib, vice-chairman of the Islamic Movement, the Muslim group in Israel most identified with Temple Mount militancy. The Movement, which Israel says is associated with Hamas, campaigns for Islamic control of Israeli holy sites, and has been calling the past few weeks for Muslims to ascend the Mount en mass to protect it from "Jewish attacks."

By Aaron Klein
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

WND: Who should have sovereignty over the Temple Mount – Jews, Christians, or Muslims. Or should it be shared?

HATIB: We absolutely believe that Al Aqsa, all its different parts, all its walls, all its courts, and everything down the mosque or up it, all these fully belong to the Muslims. Only to them. No one other than the Muslims has any right over Al Aqsa, or even over any grain of its sand. We, the Muslims, insist and emphasize that the only sovereignty over Al Aqsa must be for the Muslims. We will not accept or recognize any other sovereignty, including shared control.

WND: But what about the previous Jewish Temples? Do you believe they existed? Do Jews have any historic claims to the Temple Mount whatsoever?

HATIB: We the Muslims believe that Al Aqsa was built since the time of Adam – God bless him. It was built 40 years after the construction of the Al Haram Mosque in Mecca which was built thousands of years ago. Al Aqsa was built by the angels as it is mentioned in a verse of the Quran. The mosque is mentioned in the Quran, which speaks about the raising of the prophet.

We believe that the Jewish Temples existed, but we deny they were built near Al Aqsa. When the First Temple was built by Solomon – God bless him – Al Aqsa was already built. We don't believe that a prophet like Solomon would have built the Temple at a place where a mosque existed.

WND: What you are saying contradicts reality. There is no serious scholar or archeologist in the world who argues Al Aqsa was built before the Jewish Temples. And if the Temples didn't exist on the Mount, what then do you say is the Western Wall? What do you make of all the archeological findings?

HATIB: About the Kotel (the Western Wall), we deny any relation between the Temple and the Al Aqsa Mosque. We believe that the Western Wall is part of the mosque and not the Wall of Lamentation, as the Jews say. ... The Western wall is an inseparable part of the mosque.

And all the historical and archeological facts deny any relation between the Temples and the location of Al Aqsa. We must know that Jerusalem was occupied and that people left many things, coins and other things everywhere. This does not mean in any way that there is a link between the people who left these things and the place where these things were left.

WND: You have been calling repeatedly for Muslims to protect Al Aqsa from Jewish attack. Which Jews exactly are trying to attack Al Aqsa?

HATIB: We believe the danger over Al Aqsa existed and continues. As long as Jewish groups have ambitions to reconstruct their Temple at the same place of Al Aqsa, the danger of an attack will still exist. Some of these Jewish extremist groups even believe the years between 2005-2007 is the period in which the Temple must be built, and not building it by then means the Lord's anger will be directed towards them, as they argue. Therefore, this is a very sensitive period and we call in a very loud voice to all who are concerned that the mosque is a redline for us, and any harm caused to it will bring a great catastrophe and a great disaster. The Israelis and the Jewish people will have to face one and a half billion Muslims from all over the world.

WND: It seems you and the Islamic Movement are using Al Aqsa as a political tool to incite Muslims against Israel.

HATIB: Our relation with Al Aqsa is not a political question. Far from that, it is a question of religion and faith. We have the honor to fill this role in favor of Al Aqsa. If the Israelis thought that the Arabs in Israel would not have strong relations and feelings towards Al Aqsa, then they were mistaken. This mosque will always be part of our faith. Our demand from the Israelis and the world is not to desecrate it.

WND: What if a Jew did attack the mosque?

HATIB: We suggest to the Jews and Israelis not to be dazzled from the weakness of our nation at this period. [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon's provocative visit five years ago caused an intifada for the last five years and caused the killing of more than 4,000 Palestinians and more than 1,300 Israelis. Therefore we say that any attack against Al Aqsa means the deluge.
(My note; Actual deaths were 13 Israelis, and 52 Palestinians. This is another case of the media's distortion of facts. Among those are, New York Times, the Washington Post, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN. This narrow focus on the words and images purveyed by these sources allows for an analysis that is specific and precise and thus devastating in its documentation of how many certainly not all, journalists distorted the facts of the uprising.)

WND: You were talking about Al Aqsa being mentioned in the Quran. But I understand it is never directly mentioned. And the city of Jerusalem is not mentioned once. Commentators later concluded a verse about Muhammad descending to the furthest mosque referred to Al Aqsa. Meanwhile, Jerusalem is mentioned thousands of times throughout the Torah. Half the Torah is about Temple worship. Explain why you feel the Mount is not holy to Jews?

HATIB: The fact that Jerusalem is mentioned in the Torah does not in any way mean that the city was populated or built by the Jews. Everyone knows that when the prophet Abraham came from Arik in 1850 before Christ he was given by the Arab King Melchizedek the land where he and his wife lived in Hebron, and it was 600 years before Moses' message, which also proves that Abraham was not a Jew.

And your saying that our faith is based on this interpretation of the verse [about Al Aqsa] is a totally wrong analysis. The Al Aqsa of the Quran is the same Al Aqsa of our days, not any other mosque. That is what our Sharia says. As for what you say that Jerusalem is mentioned thousands of times in the Torah; it is not a matter of numbers and quantity. There is a very clear historical event mentioned in the Quran concerning the mosque that was built by Adam and where all our prophets prayed.

WND: Speaking of praying, currently, Jews and Christians can only ascend the Mount at certain hours on certain days, and only with approval from the Wafq (the Mount's Muslim custodians). If they go up, it is to tour. Non-Muslims are not allowed to pray on the Mount. Why is it so offensive to you if Jews or Christians pray on the Temple Mount?

HATIB: We don't want even these scheduled visits, which are allowed to take place only because of the Israeli occupation. The visits are not the result of a free choice of the Muslims and the Wafq. If it was not for Israel, these visits could not take place at all.

As a principle, we are not against the possibility that Jews and Christians enter our mosques, but in present there is a campaign against Al Aqsa and the Jewish occupation still has dangerous ambitions towards the mosque and every entry will be done to demonstrate a religious presence. Therefore, if they would enter freely into the mosque, there will be political consequences and interpretations that we cannot accept.

Speaking about the Christians, I say that every person who believes in God must act for peace and for love among human beings and not to help in creating hate and war. Unfortunately, the evangelical Christians believe in the necessity of a war of civilizations. Because of this belief, President Bush, supported by these groups, is leading this war against the Muslim world.

The crazy support of these Christian groups for Israel is based on their faith that the return of the Messiah – God bless him – would be in Israel. Therefore they support Israel, because they believe that the continuation of Israel to exist hastens the arrival of the Messiah. God forbid! The Messiah can never be the reason for war.

Al Aqsa leader: Jews have no right to Mount

[Shammu]

Wilma 'clobbering' Mexico's Yucatan
Sat Oct 22, 2005 10:18 AM ET11

By Greg Brosnan

PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico (Reuters) - Massive Hurricane Wilma clobbered Mexico's Caribbean beach resorts on Saturday, threatening heavy damage and loss of life as it meandered slowly into the Yucatan peninsula.

Winds of 125 miles an hour (220 kph) howled in off the sea, knocking over houses, upturning trees and trapping thousands of tourists in cramped shelters. The storm was downgraded to a Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, from a Category 4 on Friday and a record-breaking Category 5 earlier this week.

The calm of the storm's eye settled over Playa del Carmen early in the day but the storm's north eye wall was "really clobbering northeastern Yucatan," the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in a 5 a.m. EDT report on its web site at www.nhc.noaa.gov.

Metal sheets flew off the roofs of homes in Playa del Carmen and spun dangerously through the streets like Frisbees.

The stalled storm battered the coastline for more than 24 hours and was due to hang over the area until at least Saturday night, raising the risk of disaster.

Authorities said there were no reports of deaths so far.

"It's a monster. It is roaring all the time," said Guadalupe Torroella in the low-lying resort of Cancun, where the sea rushed onto the land and flooded international hotels.

Wilma dumped 23 inches (590 mm) of rain on Friday on Isla Mujeres island, an unprecedented downpour for Mexico.

"We are talking about a record hurricane as far as rain is concerned," said meteorologist Alberto Hernandez Unzon. He said Wilma had an unusually wide diameter of 500 miles.

Mudslides caused by rains from Wilma killed 10 people in Haiti earlier this week and Cuba was reeling as the storm drenched the west of the island and unleashed tornadoes.

Wilma was expected to begin hitting heavily populated southern Florida as early as Sunday. While forecasters expect it to weaken by that time, authorities in the Florida Keys ordered tourists out and were considering evacuating the islands' 80,000 residents.

Five flimsy homes had collapsed in Mexico's Playa del Carmen but their residents were among the tens of thousands who had already fled to damp shelters.

YUCATAN GETTING NAILED

The town hall lay broken with windows blown out and furniture tossed onto office floors. Five prisoners escaped from a nearby jail into the jungle after a fence blew down.

The storm was expected to dump 10 to 20 inches (25 to 50 cm) of rain across the Yucatan and western Cuba. Some areas could get up to 40 inches, U.S. forecasters said.

"The Yucatan is really getting nailed on this," said Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center. "It will continue to pound that region for at least 24 hours."

Wilma briefly reached record strength out at sea earlier this week.

All along Mexico's "Maya Riviera," thousands of stranded tourists huddled nervously in dank, sweaty gymnasiums and schools as the flimsy wooden beach cabins where many had been staying took a battering.

"When the boards blew off our window we decided to look outside and -- oh my God," said Gloria Winkles, a tourist from Texas sheltering in a small hotel in from the coast and looking out at raging waters in which a blue jeep lay half submerged.

Sullen visitors grabbed sleep in damp shelters and played cards by candlelight

"The trouble is, you don't know how long it is going to go on for. You don't know anything," said Swiss vacationer Christen Jasmin, 19, sitting in the half light in the dining room of a hotel in Playa del Carmen.

Cuba evacuated 368,000 people from low-lying areas as it braced for coastal storm surges and floods.

Wilma became the strongest Atlantic storm on record in terms of barometric pressure on Wednesday.

At 5 p.m. EDT on Friday its center was 25 miles

south of Cancun and roughly stationary, the hurricane center reported. A gradual northward drift should begin later in the day, it said.

Wilma was expected to miss Gulf of Mexico oil and gas facilities but Florida's orange groves were at risk.

This hurricane season has spawned three of the most intense storms on record. Experts say the Atlantic has entered a period of heightened storm activity that could last 20 more years.

(Additional reporting by Noel Randewich in Cancun, Anthony Boadle in Cuba, and Jane Sutton in Miami)

Wilma 'clobbering' Mexico's Yucatan

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Tropical Storm Alpha Sets Mark for Storms

By RON WORD, Associated Press Writer 18 minutes ago

MIAMI - Tropical Storm Alpha formed Saturday in the Caribbean, setting the record for the most named storms in an Atlantic hurricane season and marking the first time forecasters had to turn to the Greek alphabet for names.

The previous record of 21 named storms had stood since 1933. Alpha was the 22nd to reach tropical storm strength this year, and the season doesn't end until Nov. 30.

At 8 p.m. EDT, Alpha had sustained winds of about 40 mph — 1 mph over the threshold for a tropical storm.

It was centered about 70 miles south of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, and moving northwest at about 15 mph, the
National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

A tropical storm warning was in place for Haiti and parts of the Dominican Republic, and a tropical storm watch was in effect for the Turks and Caicos islands and the southeastern Bahamas.

Since 1995, the Atlantic has been in a period of higher hurricane activity, a cycle expected to last at least another 10 years.

Scientists say the cause of the increase is a rise in ocean temperatures and a decrease in the amount of disruptive vertical wind shear that rips hurricanes apart.

The busy seasons are part of a natural cycle that can last for at least 20 years, and sometimes 40 to 50, forecasters at the hurricane center say. The current conditions, they say, are similar to those in the 1950s and 60s.

The U.S. Gulf Coast has been battered this year by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Dennis — and Wilma will be next. It had sustained winds of about 100 mph as it moved over the Yucatan Peninsula on Saturday and was expected to turn northeast, pushed by a strong wind current, and approach southern Florida on Monday. A hurricane watch was in effect for the state's entire southern peninsula.

Wilma was the last on the list of 21 storm names for 2005; the letters q, u, x, y and z are skipped. The Greek alphabet provides a continuation of that list but had never been used in six decades of regularly naming Atlantic storms.

At 8 p.m. EDT, Wilma was moving north near 3 mph with maximum sustained winds near 100 mph. It was located about 30 miles north-northwest of Cancun, Mexico, or about 390 miles west-southwest of Key West, Fla.

Tropical Storm Alpha Sets Mark for Storms

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Alpha Drenches Dominican Republic, Haiti

By JOSE P. MONEGRO, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 51 minutes ago

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - Authorities ordered about 30,000 people evacuated from their homes Sunday as rains spawned by Tropical Storm Alpha threatened to flood low-lying areas, even as the storm weakened to a depression.

Forecasters warned that deadly flash floods and mudslides were possible as rivers already were swollen and soil saturated after days of rain in the Dominican Republic and neighboring Haiti, partly due to Hurricane Wilma.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Alpha could bring an additional 4 to 8 inches to the island nations — and as much as 15 inches in some places.

Alpha made landfall early Sunday as a tropical storm with sustained winds of 50 mph. The storm later weakened over land into a tropical depression.

At 11 a.m. EDT, Alpha's rough center was 175 miles west-northwest of Santo Domingo and moving toward the northwest at nearly 15 mph, according to the hurricane center. Maximum sustained winds were nearly 35 mph.

Forecasters said it could dissipate Sunday in the mountains of the Dominican Republic, or regain strength as it moves over water again.

Heavy rains were reported throughout the Dominican Republic, and authorities with megaphones walked through low-lying neighborhoods of San Juan de Maguana — which was badly damaged by Hurricane George in 1998 — to urge people to leave. Moderate flooding was reported in several low-lying communities in the south.

No deaths or injuries were immediately reported, but the country was in a high state of alert, said Jose Luis German, spokesman for the country's Emergency Operations Committee. About 1,000 people were in shelters.

In Haiti, authorities closed the airport because of heavy rains, said Abel Nazaire of the nation's Risk and Disaster Management agency. A rain-swollen river overflowed its banks in the southern town of Jacmel, flooding some areas and forcing an unknown number of residents into shelters, said civil protection director Maria Alta Jean-Baptiste.

Meteorologist Ignacio Feliz of the Dominican weather service said authorities were especially concerned about Alpha since heavy rains — in part due to Hurricane Wilma — already had drenched the island in recent days.

Both nations were vulnerable, but the danger was particularly high in Haiti because of extensive deforestation and the millions of people who live in flimsy homes on river banks and mountain sides. The storm brought rain to the city of Gonaives, where 1,900 people were killed and 900 went missing after Tropical Storm Jeanne hit last year.

A tropical storm warning was posted for the southeast Bahamian islands and for the Turks and Caicos.

Alpha formed as a tropical storm Saturday in the Caribbean and marked the first time forecasters had to turn to the Greek alphabet for names. The previous record of 21 tropical storms and hurricanes had stood since 1933. The hurricane season doesn't end until Nov. 30.
Alpha Drenches Dominican Republic, Haiti

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Wilma Heads for Fla. As Category 2 Storm

By DAVID ROYSE, Associated Press Writer 47 minutes ago

KEY WEST, Fla. - Hurricane Wilma churned toward Florida on Sunday, picking up speed "like a rocket" as tens of thousands of residents were ordered to flee from vulnerable islands and coastal areas.

The southern half of Florida's peninsula was under a hurricane warning Sunday in anticipation of Wilma, a Category 2 storm with 100 mph sustained wind. Landfall was expected around dawn Monday.

Tornados were possible over parts of the state through Monday and powerful storm-surge flooding was expected on the southwest coast.

About 160,000 people in the state were under mandatory evacuation orders, including the entire population of the Florida Keys island chain. There was no way of knowing exactly how many actually left, but it appeared only about 20 percent of the 78,000 Keys residents fled, said Billy Wagner, senior Monroe County emergency management director.

"If they don't get out of there, they're going to be in deep trouble," Wagner said.

Evacuation orders also covered barrier islands and coastal areas in Collier and Lee counties, such as Fort Myers Beach, Marco Island, Sanibel and parts of Naples.

"The time of preparing is rapidly moving into time of action," Florida Emergency Management Director Craig Fugate said.

Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, predicted Wilma would dramatically pick up speed later Sunday, and its top wind speed would increase.

"It's really going to take off like a rocket," he said. "It's going to start moving like 20 mph."

In Tallahassee, Gov. Jeb Bush urged residents in evacuation zones to leave and warned others that "now's your last chance to stock up on supplies." He said authorities expected widespread power outages and flooding and urged residents to stockpile enough food, water and medication for three days.

About 3,500 people were in shelters across the state, including roughly 850 people who registered Sunday at a Red Cross shelter in Germain Arena in Fort Myers, with some pitching tents and setting out mats on melting ice where the Florida Everblades minor league hockey team plays.

"I'm just doing a lot of praying that things will work out," said David Bright, 48. "I'm born and raised right here in Fort Myers, Fla., and just know you don't play with (hurricanes)."

Elsewhere, a Key West nursing home began loading residents into ambulances Sunday to evacuate to facilities in West Palm Beach or Fort Pierce. A hospital in the island city was evacuated Saturday.

Wilma had been joined by Tropical Storm Alpha, which formed Saturday off the Dominican Republic as the record 22nd named storm for the Atlantic season, before weakening to a tropical depression.

It was the first time forecasters exhausted the regular list of names and had to turn to the Greek alphabet for labels in almost 60 years of naming storms. The previous record of 21 tropical storms and hurricanes had stood since 1933.

Alpha "is not going to be a threat to the United States," Mayfield said. "I want to make that very clear."

By 2 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Wilma had maximum sustained wind near 100 mph. It was centered about 240 miles west-southwest of Key West and was moving toward the northeast at about 12 mph. Hurricane-force wind of at least 74 mph extended up to 70 miles out from the center, and wind blowing at tropical storm-force reached outward up to 200 miles, the hurricane center said.

Before moving back out to sea, Wilma pummeled Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula for two days with screaming winds and torrential rains that flooded the nation's resort coastline. Authorities said at least three people died in Mexico during the storm, which earlier killed 13 people in Jamaica and Haiti.

In Florida, tropical storm-force winds of at least 39 mph were expected in the Keys and the southwestern part of the state by Sunday evening, and in Miami and other Atlantic coast cities around midnight. The center of Wilma should make landfall on Florida's southwest coast as a Category 1 or 2 hurricane around sunrise Monday, forecasters said.

However, a storm's strength can be unpredictable. "Because of that, we're asking everyone to prepare for a Category 3, one category stronger, just in case," hurricane center Deputy Director Ed Rappaport said Sunday.

Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman Butch Kinerney said resources ranging from dozens of military helicopters to 13.2 million ready-to-eat meals were standing by.

"We're ready for Wilma and, whatever the storm brings, we're set to go," Kinerney said.

Wilma's outer rain bands caused hip-deep street flooding Saturday in some neighborhoods in the Fort Lauderdale area, forcing people out of at least 50 apartments and houses. More than 5 inches of rain fell in that area, Broward County and
National Weather Service officials said.

Gladys Sparrow, a 44-year-old home health care worker, said water rose to a foot inside her home, destroying clothes and furniture and bringing in bugs and trash.

"It's dirty, wet, muggy, everything," Sparrow said.

Four to 8 inches of rain was expected in southern Florida through Tuesday, with up to a foot in some areas. Category 2 hurricanes can be accompanied by storm surge flooding of 8 to 13 feet. Battering waves could be on top of that.

At a shelter set up in Florida International University in west Miami-Dade, Robert Line, 48, of Key West, waited for the storm with his wife after evacuating the island city some 135 miles south of Miami.

"We're treating it like a vacation," Robert Line said before admitting that tensions were running high at the shelter. "Everybody's stressed out. Everybody's walking on eggshells."
Wilma Heads for Fla. As Category 2 Storm

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Gulf Coast Suffers Record Hurricane Season

By DEBORAH HASTINGS
The Associated Press
Saturday, October 22, 2005; 3:27 PM

-- Not in the last century, since it was decided that the dead and detritus of every hurricane should be recorded, has there been such a disastrous barrage of wind and rain and saltwater on the Gulf Coast.

Twenty-one tropical storms and hurricanes in the past five months, tying the most ever in a single season. The last letter left in the tempest alphabet was "W" and that has gone to Hurricane Wilma.

The World Meteorological Organization, a United Nations agency responsible for christening these uncontrollable offspring of nature, has never before run out of names. (There is no X, Y or Z, no U or Q _ not enough proper nouns begin with those letters, the agency says.) If there are more before the season ends on Nov. 30, and a potential storm was brewing this weekend south of Puerto Rico, noms de storms revert to the Greek alphabet, beginning with Alpha.

By July, one month into the season, there were already seven named storms _ tropical storms Arlene, Brett and Cindy, hurricanes Dennis and Emily, and tropical storms Franklin and Gert.

The worst of that bunch was Dennis, which from Independence Day to July 12 battered coastal Alabama, the Florida Panhandle and many spots in the Caribbean with 150 mph wind. At least 32 people died. In Tallahassee, Fla., more than seven inches of rain poured down in four days, more than a normal summer month's worth.

After that beginning, the season got worse. Much worse.

The end of August brought Hurricane Katrina, whose damage statistics are still being tallied. The National Hurricane Center says Katrina may be the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States. It will take a very long time to decide that.

Because of huge backlogs of autopsies at Federal Emergency Management Agency morgues, it has been impossible to sort the dead from the missing (among them the lost souls whose bodies were sucked into the gulf and not returned). As of this past week, the death tally stands at more than 1,280 across five states.

It started small _ a tropical depression southeast of the Bahamas. Veering left and picking up speed, it made landfall as a Category 1, the weakest of all hurricane classifications, on the evening of Aug. 25, atop the Miami-Dade-Broward county line.

It dumped more than a foot of rain across Florida, knocking down trees and snapping power lines until it hit the gulf. And there it sat, feeding on the warm water, growing fatter and more powerful until it ballooned into an awesome and terrifying Category 5 headed for New Orleans.

At 6:10 a.m., four days after arriving in southern Florida, Katrina made landfall in Plaquemines Parish, La., just south of the City of New Orleans, as a Category 4 storm with 140-mph wind. Four hours later, it made a second landfall near the Mississippi line, dropping to a Category 3 with 125-mph wind. At its widest, the storm's swath stretched from west of Lafayette, La., to Pensacola, Fla. Storm surges of up to 29 feet drowned southern Mississippi, washing away a major portion of the interstate and an unknown number of people.

Up to 17 inches of rain fell in the hardest-hit areas of Louisiana. And what nature didn't flood in downtown New Orleans, a broken levee did in the impoverished 9th Ward. Thousands evacuated; many aren't expected to return. The state's economy was knocked to its knees _ nearly a quarter of a million unemployment claims have been processed since Aug. 29, more than all of 2004. Louisiana budget officials have predicted government layoffs and cuts to health services and education because of taxes and revenues lost to Katrina.

The estimated insurance pay-outs don't help the economic portrait either _ with the latest estimate around $34 billion.

After Katrina, it was hoped that was the end of death and destruction and rain and wind _ for this season, least. But nature abhors a vacuum and doesn't possess a conscience.

There was more. Five more. September brought hurricanes Maria, Nate, Ophelia, Philippe and Rita.

It was Rita that, for one breathtaking day threatened to wipe out Katrina's record of destruction and the country's fourth-largest city _ Houston.

On Sept. 20, it swept through Florida Straits, reaching Category 2 intensity as the eye passed south of Key West. Then Rita, too, blew into the gulf. At an astounding rate, it mushroomed from a Category 2 to a Category 5 in about 24 hours, and it seemed to be heading straight toward Galveston, Texas, a place that had lost some 8,000 people to a hurricane in 1900, before storms were given names.

About 40 miles north of Galveston lies Houston. On Sept. 24, at 2:30 a.m., a slightly subdued Rita hit just shy of the Texas-Louisiana border, as Category 3 storm with 120-mph wind. Lake Charles, La., was flooded. Parts of New Orleans were again flooded. The Texas oil towns of Beaumont and Port Arthur were flooded. More than 100 deaths have been attributed to Rita, nearly one-fourth occurring the day before the storm hit when a bus full of elderly evacuees exploded outside Dallas.

In hindsight, and compared to Katrina, Rita delivered only a glancing blow. Insured losses are estimated at up to $6 billion. Rainfall around New Orleans ranged from 4 to 6 inches, instead of four times that much.

After it was decided, about a century ago, to officially document the death and destruction wrought by hurricanes, record-keepers came up with many kinds of ways to do so. There is a list of the 10 costliest hurricanes (ranked by damage figures). There is a list of the 10 deadliest hurricanes (ranked by lives lost).

On the former, Hurricane Andrew of 1992 occupies the No. 1 spot, with $26.5 billion in monetary losses. On the latter list, Galveston's 1900 storm is at the top.

Last year's quartet of hurricanes that terrorized Florida _ Charley, Ivan, Frances and Jeanne _ rank second, third, fourth and sixth, respectively, with damages ranging from $15 billion to $6.9 billion

Gulf Coast Suffers Record Hurricane Season

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Wilma Threatens Fla. With 110-Mph Winds

By DAVID ROYSE, Associated Press Writer 25 minutes ago

KEY WEST, Fla. - Hurricane Wilma accelerated toward storm-weary Florida on Sunday and grew stronger, threatening residents with 110-mph winds, tornadoes and a surge of seawater that could flood the Keys and the state's southwest coast.

After crawling slowly through the Caribbean for several days, Wilma pulled away from Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula as a Category 2 storm and, forecasters said, began picking up speed "like a rocket" as it headed toward the U.S. mainland. The storm was expected to make landfall around dawn Monday.

The southern half of the state was under a hurricane warning, and an estimated 160,000 residents were told to evacuate, although many in the low-lying Keys island chain decided to stay.

"I cannot emphasize enough to the folks that live in the Florida Keys: A hurricane is coming," Gov. Jeb Bush said. "Perhaps people are saying, 'I'm going to hunker down.' They shouldn't do that. They should evacuate, and there's very little time left to do so."

At 8 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Wilma's 110 mph winds were just 1 mph shy of Category 3 status. As the storm crossed the Gulf of Mexico, forecasters said they saw no evidence of wind shear that they hoped would reduce the hurricane's intensity before it makes landfall in southwest Florida.

Wilma had battered the Mexican coastline with howling winds and torrential rains before moving back out to sea. At least three people were killed in Mexico, following the deaths of 13 in Jamaica and Haiti.

Forecasters expected flooding from a storm surge of up to 17 feet on Florida's southwest coast and 8 feet in the Keys. Tornadoes were possible in some areas through Monday.

Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, predicted Wilma would dramatically pick up speed as it approached Florida.

"It's really going to take off like a rocket," he said. "It's going to start moving like 20 mph."

Because the storm was expected to move so swiftly across Florida, residents of Atlantic coast cities such as Miami and Fort Lauderdale were likely to face hurricane-force winds nearly as strong as those on the Gulf Coast, forecasters said.

Wilma would mark Florida's eighth hurricane since August 2004 and the fourth evacuation of the Keys this year.

Fewer than 10 percent of the Keys' 78,000 residents evacuated, Monroe County Sheriff Richard Roth said.

"I'm disappointed, but I understand it," Roth said. "They're tired of leaving because of the limited damage they sustained during the last three hurricanes."

By Sunday evening, tornado warnings were already posted for parts of southwest Florida, and the hurricane's outer bands began lashing coastal areas in Wilma's path. A waterspout was spotted off Key West.

It was markedly different than conditions Sunday morning in the Keys, when sunshine beckoned boaters onto the water and many residents went about their normal routines.

"We were born and raised with storms, so we never leave," Ann Ferguson said from her front porch in Key West. "What happens, happens. If you believe in the Lord, you don't have no fear."

Some 100 Key West parishioners attended Mass at a Catholic church where a grotto built in the 1920s is said to provide protection from dangerous storms. Ray Price took his usual stroll down Duval Street to check out the ocean.

"Another day in paradise," Price said.

Some people shared that attitude on the mainland. At a park for recreational vehicles in Fort Myers Beach, Leonard Hasbrouck stood bare-chested as a fire truck rolled by blaring a warning.

"Mandatory evacuation," a firefighter shouted into a loudspeaker. "You are hereby ordered to leave your residence by the board of county commissioners of Lee County, Fla."

"They came by yesterday," Hasbrouck said. "I told them, 'I'm not going to ask you to rescue me.'"

Tropical storm-force winds of at least 39 mph were expected to begin late Sunday, and the core of the hurricane was forecast to slice across the peninsula Monday, speeding northeast at up to 25 mph.

Gov. Bush wrote his brother, President Bush, asking that the state be granted a major disaster declaration for 14 counties ahead of the storm. Many of the areas bracing for Wilma were hit by some of the state's previous hurricanes.

The governor said state officials expected heavy rain and widespread power outages. The National Guard was on alert, and state and federal officials had trucks of ice and food ready to deploy.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency was poised to send in dozens of military helicopters and 13.2 million ready-to-eat meals if needed, spokesman Butch Kinerney said.

"We're ready for Wilma and, whatever the storm brings, we're set to go," Kinerney said.

George Delgado of Miami was still covering the windows of his house with plywood Sunday. He said he waited until the last minute to make sure the hours of work were necessary.

"I was hoping it would turn some other way," Delgado said.

At 8 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Wilma was centered about 170 miles west-southwest of Key West and moving northeast at about 15 mph. Hurricane-force wind of at least 74 mph extended up to 85 miles from the center and wind blowing at tropical storm-force reached outward up to 230 miles, the hurricane center said.

Weary forecasters also monitored Tropical Depression Alpha, which formed Saturday off the Dominican Republic and was briefly a tropical storm, the record 22nd named storm for the Atlantic season. It was the first time the hurricane center exhausted the regular list of names and had to turn to the Greek alphabet.

Alpha was not considered a threat to the United States.

On Florida's Gulf Coast, evacuation orders covered barrier islands and coastal areas in Collier and Lee counties, such as Fort Myers Beach, Marco Island, Sanibel and parts of Naples.

Visitors crossing the bridge into Marco Island Sunday were greeted by an electric sign that flashed, "EVACUATE, EVACUATE."

About 3,500 people were in shelters across the state, including roughly 850 people at the Germain Arena near Fort Myers, where evacuees pitched tents and placed mats on the ice rink where a minor-league hockey team plays. Cots and sleeping bags lined hallways outside the rink.

David Bright sat nearby on a chair, a Bible beside him. He's old enough to remember plenty of other hurricanes, including destructive Donna in 1960.

"I'm just doing a lot of praying that things will work out," he said. "I'm born and raised right here in Fort Myers, Fla., and just know you don't play with them."

Wilma Threatens Fla. With 110-Mph Winds

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EU considers wild bird import ban as parrot tests positive for H5N1

Sun Oct 23, 4:14 PM ET

BRUSSELS (AFP) - The
European Union's executive faced increasing pressure to ban all wild bird imports after a parrot that died while in British quarantine was confirmed to have infected with the deadly Asian strain of bird flu.

The first confirmed case of H5N1 in the European Union, the parrot demonstrated that in addition to migratory birds the global trade in exotic birds risks spreading the virus that has killed more than 60 people in Southeast Asia over the past three years.

Britain, which reported Friday the parrot imported from South America had been infected with bird flu, announced Sunday that tests had shown it was the deadly H5N1 strain.

Even before the tests were in the British government had appealed for the EU to put in place a blanket ban on the import of exotic birds, which the bloc's executive Commission said it would urgently consider.

"The commission is currently considering the issue, it will decide by Tuesday," said spokesman Stefaan de Rynck.

The European Union already has various bird import bans in place for Romania, Russia, Thailand and Turkey, countries which have had confirmed cases of the lethal H5N1 bird flu strain.

It is also preparing a similar ban for Croatia, where a new bird flu outbreak was announced on Friday with test results awaited for the H5N1 strain.

Russia, which has had several outbreaks of H5N1, reported at the weekend bird flu of an as yet undetermined type in a second area west of the Urals mountains.

Sweden said a case of bird flu among ducks was not the deadly strain.

British veterinary authorities said that as the parrot had been in quarantine since it arrived from Surinam it did not affect the country's status as free of bird flu.

The virus was closer to strains in Asia than those believed brought by migratory birds to Romania and Turkey.

"The closest match is a strain identified in ducks in China earlier this year. It is not so similar to the strains from Romania and Turkey. It is not a strain that the Veterinary Laboratory Agency has seen before," said Debby Reynolds, chief veterinary officer of Britain's department of environment, food and rural affairs (DEFRA).

Britain's proposal for the EU ban on live wild bird imports was to be raised at an EU agricultural ministers' meeting in Luxembourg on Monday and Tuesday.

The possible ban, which would not affect domesticated birds, will also be discussed by experts at a meeting of the EU food security committee on Tuesday in Brussels before a final decision is taken by the commission.

Health experts from more than 50 countries were set to gather in Copenhagen on Monday to assess the response to avian flu, amid concerns H5N1 could mutate into a form easily transmitted between humans, causing a global pandemic.

Also Monday, in Ottawa, health ministers and experts from 30 countries were scheduled to meet to forge a coordinated international front against bird flu and to advance global preparations for a possible flu pandemic.

Ministers from China, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa and the United States are expected as are representatives from the World Health Organization, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the World Organization for Animal Health.

Croatian authorities continued Sunday to kill thousands of domestic birds in in a three-kilometre (two-mile) radius around a lake near the eastern village of Zdenci where earlier six dead swans were found to have been infected by the virus.

Another five swans were found dead at a pond, also in eastern Croatia, and were sent to Zagreb for analysis. The result of the tests will be known on Monday or Tuesday.

Germany has begun enforcing a temporary ban on outdoor poultry rearing, confining fowl to sheds with spot checks on farms and fines of up to the equivalent of 30,000 dollars (25,000 euros) for violations.

The neighbouring governments of Austria, the principality of Liechtenstein and Switzerland have banned rearing free range poultry for the next few months.

Slovakia on Sunday issued a ban on live poultry and birds at markets and expositions.

The French agency for food safety recommended increased scrutiny of wildlife, but stopped short of proposing poultry be confined.

In the Middle East, Israel and its Arab neighbour Jordan stepped up efforts to coordinate their response on Sunday with a meeting of health officials, an Israeli embassy spokesman said.

Veterinary officers from the two countries met on Thursday and agreed to open a 24-hour hotline to exchange information on the advance of the disease.

In China, there was another outbreak of the virus on a farm in its northern Inner Mongolia region, where 2,600 birds died, with 91,000 others culled.

Officials in Beijing on Saturday began checking chickens, ducks, geese and even carrier pigeons being raised as pets in the city to make sure they were properly vaccinated or isolated, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.

President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao issued a directive for an all-out effort to prevent the spread of the virus.

Experts from Britain's Medical Research Council were Sunday set to leave on a 10-day trip to China, Vietnam and Hong Kong to look at the way the disease was being monitored there and how to improve cooperation.

The FAO has warned that migratory birds believed to be carriers may next take the virus to Africa, saying that the continent would be an "ideal breeding ground" because of close contact between people and animals.

Scientists fear Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are particularly threatened as they host millions of migratory fowl flying to warmer climes during the European winter.

EU considers wild bird import ban as parrot tests positive for H5N1

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Britain: Bird Flu Is Deadly H5N1 Strain

By MICHAEL McDONOUGH, Associated Press Writer 39 minutes ago

LONDON - The British government said Sunday that a strain of bird flu that killed a parrot in quarantine is the deadly H5N1 strain that has plagued Asia and recently spread to Europe.

Scientists determined that the parrot, imported from South America, died of the strain of avian flu that has devastated poultry stocks and killed 61 people in Asia the past two years, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

The virus is spread by migrating wild birds and has recently been found in birds in Russia, Turkey and Romania, spurring efforts around the globe to contain its spread.

While H5N1 is easily transmitted between birds, it is hard for humans to contract. But experts fear it could mutate into a form of flu that is easily transmitted between humans and cause a pandemic that could kill millions.

Debby Reynolds, DEFRA's chief veterinarian, said the parrot was likely infected with the virus while it was housed in the country's quarantine system with birds from Taiwan. Tests conducted on the Taiwanese birds that had died were inconclusive, according to the department.

DEFRA said the virus was most closely matched to a strain found in ducks in China earlier this year but was not very similar to strains discovered in Romania and Turkey. The genetic makeup of the virus changes slightly as it spreads, and scientists use such tests to track its migration across the world.

It was Britain's first confirmed case of bird flu since 1992.

Elsewhere, the Croatian government on Sunday promised to compensate villagers and farmers whose birds were slaughtered to prevent the spread of bird flu. About 10,000 domestic birds have been killed in an area near a national park where six swans were found to have been infected with the virus.

Damage from the culling was estimated at about $160,000. However, international bans on Croatian poultry exports could hurt farmers more. The European Commission on Friday said it was preparing a ban on all poultry imports from the country, while some individual European nations have already done so.

Medical experts detected the H5 virus in the swans Friday. Samples from the contaminated birds were then sent to a laboratory in Britain to establish whether they had the deadly H5N1 strain. Tests were also being done on samples from five other swans found dead Saturday morning near the park.

In related developments Sunday:

_Sweden said four ducks found dead in an area west of Stockholm Friday were infected with bird flu, but not the deadly H5N1 strain.

_Montenegro began testing its poultry for bird flu as a precaution after the disease was confirmed in neighboring Croatia. Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina also ordered cars to be disinfected at the Croatian border, and banned poultry imports from the country.

_The European Union said its bird flu experts will discuss a possible ban on imports of wild birds into the 25-nation bloc on Tuesday. The EU has so far resisted calls to ban all pet bird imports, fearing it could create a black market that could increase the threat of infected birds being smuggled in.

_Jordan and Israel agreed to limited cooperation to combat the possible spread of bird flu by monitoring people traveling across their shared border, the official Petra news agency reported. Neither country has had any cases of the virus.

_North Korea has launched a nationwide campaign to prevent a fresh outbreak of bird flu, strengthening quarantine and reporting systems and enhancing education of poultry farmers, a media report said. Earlier this year, North Korea culled about 210,000 chickens and other poultry after acknowledging its first bird flu outbreak in March. No new cases have since been reported.

Britain: Bird Flu Is Deadly H5N1 Strain