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

[Soldier4Christ]

Midwest Mumps Outbreak Continues to Spread


The outbreak of mumps striking the Midwest -- the largest number of cases to hit the United States in two decades -- continues to spread, according to federal officials.

There have been more than 1,000 cases reported so far; the bulk of them, 815, have been in Iowa. The remaining cases have been reported in seven other states -- Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Wisconsin, according to latest information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The disease has been seen largely among people in their late teens and early 20s, officials said at a news conference Wednesday.

"This is the largest outbreak of mumps that we have seen in this country in more than 20 years," said CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding. "There have been more than 1,000 cases reported from more than eight states. There are ongoing investigations in seven more states," she added.

So far, 20 people have been hospitalized with mumps, Gerberding said.

A major outbreak of more than 100,000 cases of mumps in England has led to speculation that the U.S. outbreak had its origins abroad. "It is possible," Gerberding said, "but we don't have any proof of that at this time."

Gerberding noted that, given the nature of mumps and the continued progression of the outbreak, officials expect more cases in more states. There has been a vaccine for mumps since 1967 that has largely eliminated frequent outbreaks of the disease, she said.

"Fortunately, mumps is not usually a serious disease," Gerberding said. "But in some people it can have serious complications." Up to 10 percent of people with mumps develop encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) and others can develop an inflammation of the testes, which can lead to infertility. Mumps has also been associated with spontaneous abortion and deafness, Gerberding said.

An acute viral illness caused by the mumps virus, the disease typically causes fever, headache, muscle aches, tiredness, and loss of appetite, followed by swelling of the salivary glands, according to the CDC.

"The best protection against mumps is the vaccine," Gerberding said. "There is confusion right now if whether or not this outbreak is related to some problem with the vaccine," she said. "I want to emphasize that we have absolutely no information that there is any problem with the vaccine."

Gerberding said that, despite the availability of the vaccine, people in the age group who are getting sick may not have had the recommended two doses of inoculation and are not completely vaccinated, leaving them susceptible to the disease.

"This is a good vaccine, but it's not perfect," Gerberding said. "About 10 percent of people who get both doses of the vaccine still remain susceptible to mumps."

She said the CDC will send another 25,000 doses of measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine from the the agency's stockpile to Iowa, the state hit hardest by the outbreak. Merck & Co., which markets the vaccine, is providing another 25,000 doses to the CDC for distribution to other states, Gerberding said, according to the Associated Press.

She recommended getting vaccinated if you haven't had the two doses. "For individuals who are in the school-aged population or individuals who are post-high school in college, and especially for health-care workers, it is very important that you get your second dose," she said.

One vaccine critic said there may be a problem with the longevity of immunity offered by the current vaccine.

"This isn't the first time there has been a problem with a vaccine not being effective," said Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center. "There was a problem with the mumps, measles, rubella vaccine in the late '80s and early '90s that caused the CDC to say that kids had to have a second dose of it."

"We are now finding that the mumps part of it, even in two doses, is not holding in some children," Fisher said. Old vaccines only provide a temporary immunity, which is inferior to the immunity you get after having had the disease, she said.

[Soldier4Christ]

Shortage of water drains life from biblical river


Israel and Jordan have come together to try to save a waterway now diminished and polluted

WHAT is left of the River Jordan trickles slowly beneath the three bomb-damaged bridges, not even touching one of the five Ottoman arches it used to fill.

From either shore Israeli and Jordanian mayors climbed down overgrown banks to waiting canoes. Soldiers forbade them from crossing so they rowed to midstream for a unique meeting yesterday to discuss the decline of the once-great biblical waterway.

Diminished, green and polluted this is the modern River Jordan, in which Jesus was baptised and whose waters, the Book of Joshua records, “overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest”.

Now the Jordan has lost more than 90 per cent of the 1.3 billion cubic metres (1.7 billion cu yds) that used to flow through it each year from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea, 100km (62 miles) further south.

Worse, environmentalists fear, a newdam being built by Jordan and Syria on its main tributary, the Yarmouk, will cut a further 20 million cubic metres of the Lower Jordan’s fresh water, drying up its flow altogether.

“Sadly the Jordan River is little more than a sewage channel now,” saidGidon Bromberg, Israeli director of Friends of the Earth Middle East, said. who saysHe added that the new dam willwould deprive itthe river of the “critical mass” of fresh water that maintains the current stream.present flow.

“Half the world would love to travel down the banks of the Jordan in the footsteps of Jesus, but they can’t do it because the waters are so polluted it is a health hazard,” he said.

“Not only have governments taken away the waters predominantly for agriculture, they have declared the whole area a closed military zone so the general public is not even aware of the scale of the problem.”

The main problem is water scarcity in a region where all countries are desperate to supply growing populations.
Israel initiated use of the river a huge drainin the late 1950s, when its National Water Carrier began draining off hundreds of millions of cubic metres from the Sea of Galilee.

Neighbouring Jordan and Syria have also built dams and now there is just a tiny stream, boosted by sewage and agricultural waste from Palestinian and Jordanian villages, and Israel’s Jewish settlements.

As the mayors watch, environmentalists take depth soundings in mid-stream. The 1.5 metres recorded is less than half the river’s depth a century ago, when the nearby bridges’foundation stones of the bridges near by were not clearly visible as they are today.

Like the river all three bridges — the original Roman arch, the Ottoman railway bridge of 1905, linking Damascus and Haifa, and the British road bridge of 1925 — are the victims of politics and war, destroyed in fighting between Jewish and Arab forces in 1948.

Sitting beneath them in a canoe, Mahmoud Abu Jaber, the Mayor of Ma’ad, said that rawsewage and agricultural pollutants have damaged the quality offish and crops on his Jordanian side.

“This is a holy river which is most sacred to our Christian brethren,” he said. “We urge everyone, on both sides, to act to purify and clean it. The Jordanian Government is aware of the problems within its limitations and capabilities, but it can’t do the job by itself.”

His Israeli counterpart, Dov Litvinoff, the Mayor of Tamar regional council, which is responsible for the Dead Sea, has little hope that governments will change the policies of decades which have left the Dead Sea 25 metres below its historic level, and shrinking by 1-1.2 metres 1 to 1.2m a year.
“It is very frustrating. Even  if they don’t try to bring back the old level, at least restoring part of it would bring two things back to life, the Jordan River and the Dead Sea,” he says.

Israeli officials, however, maintain that the Lower Jordan is not in danger of halting its flow.

“It is an absurd claim,”said Dr Doron Markel, of the Israeli Water Authority, said. “There is no increase in the diversion of the water. It is a question of priorities and Israel has decided to use the Sea of Galilee as its main source of drinking water.”

[Shammu]

Peru Volcano Eruption Triggers Evacuation

By EDISON LOPEZ, Associated Press Writer Thu Apr 20, 7:43 PM ET

LIMA, Peru - A Peruvian volcano spewed acid-laden ash and vapors Thursday, killing livestock and forcing about 260 people from their homes.

Nearly 80 families in the village of Querapi were ordered to evacuate as the Ubinas volcano's crater grew, a sign that a larger eruption could be on the way.

A thick plume of white smoke billowed from the crater, about 470 miles southeast of the capital, Lima. The volcano erupted last Friday, sending a plume of ash some 2,600 feet into the air.

"There is an imminent danger," said Cristala Constantinides, a regional official. Trucks and four-wheel-drive vehicles were being sent to pick up the villagers, who live a mile from the volcano, and transfer them to outlying communities, she said.

More than 640 families from six villages and hamlets around the volcano have been affected by the ash and vapors, with residents suffering eye and respiratory problems, officials said.

Dozens of animals, including vicuna and llamas, have died near the slopes of the crater, probably from drinking acid-contaminated water or eating ash-coated grass, and many more have become sick.

Peru Volcano Eruption Triggers Evacuation

[Shammu]

Indonesians Evacuate As Volcano Rumbles

By NINIEK KARMINI, Associated Press Writer 38 minutes ago

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia - More than 100 villagers evacuated areas closest to Indonesia's rumbling Mount Merapi on Friday, relenting to days of pressure from officials who warned the volcano could erupt in the next one to two weeks.

Most of those abandoning villages near the 9,700-foot peak — women, children and the elderly — said they were doing so reluctantly. Hundreds more refused, pledging to hold out a little longer.

"I'm worried about what life will be like in a temporary shelter," said 44-year-old Sriyanti, as she headed with her young daughter to the town of Tanjung Muntilan, 12 miles from Merapi on Indonesia's Java island.

Smoke and lava have been spewing from the volcano and sensors within the crater have detected a rise in seismic movement in recent weeks, leading scientists to say a major eruption is imminent.

Merapi last erupted in 1994, sending out a searing cloud of gas that burned 60 people to death. About 1,300 people were killed when it erupted in 1930.

Merapi lies about 18 miles from Yogyakarta, a city of 1 million people, and 250 miles southeast of the capital Jakarta.

Many people living around Merapi and the other 129 active volcanos in Indonesia believe that spirits watch over the peak and will warn them when a major eruption is imminent.

Although most Indonesians are Muslim, many also follow animist beliefs and worship ancient spirits. Often at full moons, people trek to crater rims and throw in rice, jewelry and live animals to appease the volcanoes.

Wihardo, a local official who has spent the last few days urging villagers to evacuate, said he was happy that some were finally listening.

"But others say they want to stay until they're confident it will erupt," said Wihardo, who like many Indonesians uses only one name. "We cannot force them to leave yet."

Indonesia sits astride the "Ring of Fire," a series of volcanoes and fault lines stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia to New Zealand. It has more active volcanoes than any other nation.

Indonesians Evacuate As Volcano Rumbles

[Soldier4Christ]

Mumps Vaccine Clinics To Open In Iowa

Iowa is to open clinics to immunize young people in Iowa. A mumps outbreak has infected 975 people so far in the state. 25,000 vaccine doses will be given to 18-22 year olds, the most vulnerable group.

Most of the current mumps cases have been among young adults, the majority of whom had been vaccinated when they were little. Scientists are investigating whether this virus is exceptionally infectious or less susceptible to the vaccine.

Many (including health care professionals) believe the vaccine may not be as effective as first thought. Others say it is likely that the young people becoming infected did not have the recommended two shots.

The immunization clinics will target university, college and higher education students.

Seven neighbouring states have reported significant increases in mumps cases.

This is the biggest mumps outbreak the USA has seen in 20 years and it shows no signs of slowing. Federal officials warned that the outbreak is likely to continue to spread. A number of people who catch mumps never show any symptoms but can infect others. As college students leave for the summer and go back home there is a good chance the infection will spread more rapidly.

So far, 20 people have been hospitalized. Nobody has become severely ill.

A high number of infections have been reported in Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri and Oklahoma.


Some information about Mumps

HOW LONG DOES MUMPS LASTS

If you catch mumps, you will probably be ill for 7 - 10 days.

THE SYMPTOMS

Mumps will make you feel generally unwell, and 60-70% of those infected will develop symptoms such as:

-- Painful and swollen glands in the cheeks, neck or under the jaw
-- Fever
-- Headache
-- Abdominal pain
-- Loss of appetite

SERIOUS COMPLICATIONS

Although most people will get over mumps without too many problems, a number will go on to develop serious complications.

The numbers in the brackets indicate how common each complication is, based on reports of past cases of the disease:

-- in older males, swollen, painful testicles (1 in 5)
-- central nervous system involvement is common - meningitis/encephalitis (1 in 200-5,000)
-- pancreatitis (1 in 30)
-- deafness - usually with partial or complete recovery (1 in 25)
-- mumps during pregnancy can lead to spontaneous abortion.

[Soldier4Christ]

5.0-magnitude undersea quake hits northern Japan; no tsunami warning

A strong undersea quake registering magnitude 5.0 shook northern Japan on Saturday evening, but there was no danger of a tsunami, the Meteorological Agency said. No damage or injuries were immediately reported.

The quake occurred 70 kilometers below the ocean floor just off the coast of Miyagi at 11:36 p.m. (1436 GMT), the agency said.

Japan, which rests atop several tectonic plates, is among the world's most earthquake-prone countries.

A magnitude 5.0 quake can damage houses and buildings in densely populated areas.

[Soldier4Christ]

Dust Storm to Hit Peninsula on Monday


A dust storm will blanket the country on Monday, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) on Sunday.

The weather agency advised the elderly and children to stay indoors or wear protective masks during outdoor activities.

It predicted the storm, originating from Inner Mongolia and Manchuria, will sweep central and southern parts of the country.

``The dust storm is fast moving toward the peninsula and we plan to issue dust warnings in central and southern regions on Monday,’’ a KMA official said.

However, the storm accompanied by strong gusts is not expected to be as serious as the April 8 storm _ the worst since 2002 _ that blanketed the peninsula.

The KMA said dust density is forecast to exceed 500 micrograms per cubic meter of air.

Recent dust storms have raised environmental and health concerns as the dust, combined with pollutants from industrial cities in eastern China, are responsible for the soaring respiratory and skin ailments along with damage to the farming and industrial sectors.

Originating from Inner Mongolia and the Gobi Desert in central China, dust storms swept the peninsula every spring leaving a thick blanket of dust, the weather agency said.

It calls for mostly clear skies across the country on Monday. However, scattered rain is expected in central and southwestern regions of the peninsula.

Morning lows will be 4 degrees Celsius in Taejon and Kwangju, 6 degrees in Seoul and Pusan, and 9 degrees on Cheju Island.

Daytime highs will stand at 16 degrees Celsius in Seoul and Taejon, 17 degrees in Kwangju, 18 degrees in Chongju, and 20 degrees in Kangnung.

[Soldier4Christ]

Famine woes in Africa require new solutions
Improved roadways crucial for nomads

For four days, the emaciated men, women and children of Abdi Gab sat around an empty 5,000-quart black plastic water tank. Most of their livestock was dead; the surviving animals were too weakened by the drought to lug 20-quart jugs to get water at the nearest water source, the Tana River, 30 miles away.

On the fifth day, a tanker operated by the U.S.-based relief agency CARE International finally arrived at this northern Kenyan village, filling the water tank with murky, tepid water. Two men clambered on top of the water tank, lowered yellow plastic containers down on ropes, and doled out water to the thirsty villagers holding empty plastic jugs and handmade wooden bowls in outstretched hands. Having quenched their thirst, the villagers filed toward a thorny acacia tree nearby, where relief workers were handing out rations of maize, rice and vegetable oil.

Such scenes -- skeletal hands reaching for dusty burlap sacks filled with rice or jugs with murky water -- have become emblematic of the international effort to help drought victims across the desiccated bush of eastern Africa. The worst drought in decades has forced at least 8million people to survive entirely on meager rations water and food that privately run relief agencies distribute.

That aid is running out. On April 7, the United Nations appealed for an additional $426million in drought relief for Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya and Somalia. Earlier this year, Kenya and Ethiopia independently appealed to international donors for $222million and $166million, respectively, in emergency assistance. In equally stricken Somalia, nobody asked for aid because there hasn't been a central government since 1991.

Dozens of international relief agencies provide aid in the drought-stricken region, operating independently or under the United Nations umbrella. In Abdi Gab, as in most of northeastern Kenya, Atlanta-based CARE International distributes food it receives from the U.N. World Food Programme. On April 12, the United States, which has donated more than $130million to fight drought in the region so far this year, pledged to give an additional 33,000 metric tons of food aid, worth $26million, for the estimated 3.5million drought victims in Kenya.

Even if more money is raised, it will bring only short-term relief to the region, which will take 15 years to recover from the drought, according to the British aid agency Oxfam. Aid workers, health officials and experts say the international community should also look for long-term methods to prevent and alleviate starvation and malnutrition caused by recurring droughts.

"You need to convince the international community that there is a looming crisis before there are pictures of starving babies," said Marina Ottaway, an expert on Africa at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "What we're seeing, emergency after emergency, is that the international community does not get mobilized before there is an actual crisis."

In addition to the intermittent attention of aid-donor governments, the chaotic nature of most African countries that suffer frequent natural disasters inhibits sustained attention to the infrastructure changes that could help abate the repeated crises.

Droughts hit Eastern Africa every few years, affecting mostly nomadic herders -- even in good years some of the poorest people on Earth -- in the border areas of southern Ethiopia, northern and northeastern Kenya and southern Somalia. Every drought cycle forces hundreds of thousands of nomadic families out of the bush. Most of them settle in refugee camps or roadside villages like Abdi Gab, where they depend on aid handouts.

Instead of helping drought victims only when they are on the brink of starvation, the international community and local governments should look for ways to make the herders and farmers less dependent on the weather and on humanitarian aid, said James Lorenz, a spokesman in Nairobi for Doctors Without Borders, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning French relief agency that operates hospitals and clinics throughout the region.

"The danger is, you're going to create massive dependence. It saves a lot of lives, but it's a short-term solution," said Lorenz.

Providing the nomads, who live many miles away from roads, easier access to markets is one thing that could help, said Beatrice Karanja, a spokeswoman for Oxfam in Nairobi.

"We have to make sure that the communities are aware of what the meat rates are," she said, referring to market prices nomads can get when they sell their livestock, "so that when the droughts come, they have money in their bank, so that they're not relying on food aid."

Better access to markets requires better roads, which in most of the drought-stricken region are dirt paths barely wide enough for two cars to pass.

In recent days, clouds finally brought sporadic rain to parts of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, turning the parched red clay of the roads into impassable mud. Instead of bringing relief, the rains have brought further hardship -- it is impossible for aid agencies to deliver food to drought victims in some remote villages, Karanja said.

Another step, analysts say, would be to educate farmers and herders to better manage their land and livestock. Unchecked population growth in sub-Saharan Africa, where the number of people has more than doubled over the last 30 years, has forced farmers to overwork their land, sapping it of nutrients.

In the highlands of Ethiopia and Eritrea, some land is now so degraded that there is little prospect that it will ever produce a decent harvest, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute, based in Washington.

Between droughts, nomads' herds of goats, cows and camels overgraze the desiccated bush, causing rapid deforestation, which, in turn, contributes to degradation and dehydration of soil -- although experts say it is too early to call it a climate change.

"A herd of goats is just like a bulldozer," said Christine Genevier, head of the Doctors Without Borders' mission in Kenya.

"Until they get education, proper health care, until someone teaches them how to manage land, it's going to carry on," her colleague Lorenz added.

Simultaneously, local governments should create employment opportunities for former farmers and herders who no longer can eke out an existence in rural areas and who move to cities, where jobs are in short supply, said Ottaway.

"Attention to provide more education in rural areas has led to an exodus of people from rural areas," she said. "Instead of having better educated farmers, who can manage their land better, they move to the cities where they cannot find jobs. It's really a vicious circle. Everything needs to be done at once."

Governments in the Horn of Africa, plagued by corruption and mismanagement, are reluctant to invest in rural areas, which have little political clout. "Poor governance is a major issue in many African countries, and one that has serious repercussions for long-term food security," the International Food Policy Research Institute wrote in a recent statement. "Problems such as corruption, collusion and nepotism can significantly inhibit the capacity of governments to promote development efforts."

The problem is getting money for long-term projects when images of starving babies and emaciated adults have faded from television screens, aid workers agree.

"Our challenge is that we respond to stark events," said Sam Worthington, executive director of Plan USA, a Rhode Island-based relief agency that works to improve living in disaster-prone communities in developing countries.

"Every time there is a humanitarian catastrophe, you hear the same promise: There will be a seamless transition from humanitarian assistance to developmental assistance," Ottaway said. "In the end it never happens, because these agencies have to go on to put out the next fire, and there is simply not enough funding."

[Soldier4Christ]

In Somalia, water worth dying over
Disputes over wells turn fatal as citizens, warlords struggle for control


RABDORE, SOMALIA - Villagers call it the "War of the Well," a battle that erupted between two clans over control of a watering hole in this dusty, drought-stricken trading town.

By the time it ended two years later, 250 men were dead. Now there are well widows, well warlords and well warriors.

"We call them the 'warlords of water,' " Fatuma Ali Mahmood, 35, said of the armed men who control the water sources.

Last year, Mahmood's husband went out in search of water. Two days later, he was found dead. He was shot when an angry crowd began fighting over the well, she said.

During the region's relentless three-year drought, water has become a resource worth fighting and dying over. It has affected about 11 million people across East Africa and has killed large numbers of livestock.

Kenya and Ethiopia have mediated dozens of conflicts in their countries, even sending in police and the army to quell disputes about wells.

The effects are most pronounced in Somalia, which has lacked central planning, including irrigation projects, since the government of Mohamed Siad Barre collapsed in 1991.

If the so-called Gu rains do not arrive in the next few months, thousands of Somalis could die each month without aid, according to U.N. officials.

[Soldier4Christ]

England

Drought goes on despite rainfall

Water users in the South East should not let April showers fool them into thinking the drought is over, Southern Water has warned.

"April rainfall so far has been no more than what we expected," said water planning manager Meyrick Gough.

"Although welcome, it comes on the back of two consecutive dry winters and that is a growing problem."

Reservoirs were now 80% full, but only because the company had been pumping water into them from rivers.

"What you see is not what you get," said Mr Gough.

"Reservoirs account for only 30% of the water we consume.

"The other 70% is provided by water you can't see, pumped from aquifers below the ground - and these, in some cases, are nearing an all-time low level of water."

Reservoirs were at their lowest April level for 10 years and would normally be 100% full at this time of year.

Mr Gough said the "recharge" season was nearly over and the region would have to manage until October with the water it had now.

"With spring approaching vegetation begins to develop and the soil starts to dry out.

"During spring and summer any rainfall we experience has an extremely minimal effect."

A hosepipe ban is in force across large swathes of southern England, including homes served by Southern Water in Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

[Soldier4Christ]

5 acres of forest scorched; 20 percent contained
No evacuation is set for area

Laura Houston
The Arizona Republic


The Sand Fire scorched more than 175 acres in Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests about 30 miles southwest of Winslow on Saturday.

By late afternoon, the wind-swept blaze played hopscotch between two steep canyons five miles northwest of Chevelon Canyon Lake, a popular fly-fishing destination.

Firefighters had tried to contain the brushfire atop a ridge, but winds reaching up to 30 mph pushed the fire across 100 acres and scattered spotfires throughout the canyon, said Apache-Sitgreaves forest spokesman Bob Dyson.

By Saturday evening, crews reached 20 percent containment, Dyson said.

At one point, the fire threatened a major power line between Joseph City and Phoenix, but it has since moved away, he said.

Two large airtankers and two large helotankers were used to drown the fire.

No evacuation is planned because there is little to vacate near the blaze, he said.

"The good news is this thing is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. There are no structures at all being threatened," Dyson said.

About 115 people manned hand crews in the remote area through midnight, and Dyson said he anticipated that number to grow by today while he waited for agencies to show up. Several agencies were on standby, he said.

The winds were expected to let up slightly Saturday night, but return to the same gusts today, said Mark Stubblefield, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Flagstaff.

Rain is expected to wash northern Arizona, but not fall as far south as the forest, Stubblefield said.

[Shammu]

Rain is expected to wash northern Arizona

Ha, nope we are not expecting rain.

[Shammu]

Merapi Volcano (Indonesia)
7.54 S, 110.44 E,, summit elevation, 2911 m, Stratovolcano
Saturday 22nd April 2006
Merapi volcano in Indonesia remains restless, with an eruption expected within two weeks.

Visual observations show white emissions rising 150 m above the summit lava dome. Volcanic earthquakes and landslides are being recorded on seismometers. An evacuation has begun from areas surrounding the volcano, with 700 people departing for safer areas.

 

[Shammu]

Cyclone Monica bears down on remote Australian communities

Sun Apr 23, 5:57 AM ET

SYDNEY (AFP) - Residents of remote communities in northern Australia have taken shelter as a massive cyclone packing destructive winds of up to 320 kilometres (200 miles) an hour bore down on them.

The sparsely-populated islands off northeast Arnhem Land were expected to bear the brunt of Tropical Cyclone Monica but gales, high tides and floods could hit a huge area, including the town of Darwin, the weather bureau warned.

Darwin, capital of the Northern Territory, was devastated in 1974 by Cyclone Tracy, which killed 71 people and left 20,000 homeless.

Monica is ranked as the most powerful of cyclones -- category five, the same as Cyclone Larry, which smashed into the eastern Queensland coast less than a month ago, causing more than one billion dollars in damage.

Hundreds of people gathered in cyclone shelters Sunday or buildings designed to withstand a pounding from extreme weather in towns such as Nhulunbuy in the Gove Peninsula mining area, while evacuations were underway on some islands.

"They've taken people from the lower area overnight in case there was flooding and they have taken them to the school -- there's one of the buildings there built to cyclone codes," a resident of Elcho Island told national radio.

Northern Territories Emergency Services Minister Paul Henderson said people needed to prepare a cyclone kit including medicines, food and water, a torch and a radio.

Nhulunbuy, the most populated area of Arnhem Land with about 4,000 residents, would miss the worst of the storm, said weather bureau spokesman Mike Bergin.

Monica caused widespread flooding as it passed over the far north of eastern Queensland state last week before picking up power as it crossed the Gulf of Carpenteria.

Cyclone Monica bears down on remote Australian communities

[Shammu]

Volcano prompts Peru evacuation
The Ubinas volcano spews smoke in southern Peru alarming a herd of alpacas The authorities in Peru have declared a state of emergency around a volcano that has begun spitting ash and smoke after almost 40 years of inactivity.

The Ubinas volcano in southern Peru started erupting three weeks ago, killing livestock and polluting water.

The army has now been brought in to help evacuate nearby villages, although some residents are reluctant to leave.

Peru's Institute of Geophysics has warned that a dome of incandescent lava seems to be building up in the crater.

The volcano has been spewing out acid-laden ash and smoke over a radius of six kilometres (3.5 miles), causing eye and breathing problems for local people.

A regional official said muffled explosions were coming from the volcano and pieces of red-hot lava were expanding inside the crater.

Teams of geologists and doctors have been sent to the area to monitor the volcano and the health risks.

"It's dangerous...all the signs are that a dome of incandescent lava is building," Leonidas Ocola of Peru's Geophysics Institute told the French news agency AFP.

More than 200 people have already been forced from their homes, and several thousand more are at risk, officials said.

Around 40 families have been told to leave the town of Querapi, which lies just four km (2.5 miles) from the volcano.

The crater of the Ubinas volcano

"Some people do not want to leave because they do not want to abandon their homes, their farms and their animals," the vice-president of the Moquegua region, Alberto Portugal, told AFP.

Some evacuees arrived on Friday and Saturday in Arequipa, the city closest to Querapi, a difficult six-hour bus ride, Reuters reported.

The ministers of health and agriculture were expected to visit Ubinas on Sunday, taking food, tents, masks and veterinary medication for animals that have been harmed from breathing toxic gas.

Volcano prompts Peru evacuation