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

[Shammu]

Ecuador Volcano Shows Signs of Activity

Sat May 13, 2:55 AM ET

QUITO, Ecuador - Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano is emitting its loudest and most frequent explosions since it rumbled back to life nearly seven years ago after eight decades of inactivity, scientists said.

The volcano registered 133 explosions of vapor and gas between Wednesday and Friday, Ecuador's Geophysics Institute reported.

But the increased activity was not necessarily a sign of an imminent eruption, said Hugo Yepes, the institute's director.

"It has been rumbling constantly in the last six years, always registering explosions, emitting ash," he told The Associated Press.

"What's happening now is that since May 10, we have had times in which there are 10 explosions per hour, booms so powerful that they broke some windows in sectors like Cusua," a village on the western slopes of the volcano, Yepes added.

Residents say the thunderous explosions have not been so loud since 1999, Yepes said.

In October of that year, the volcano spewed huge columns of ash into the air, forcing the evacuation of 17,000 residents of Banos, a tourist town about 4 miles northeast of the crater. The 16,550-foot volcano is about 80 miles south of Ecuador's capital, Quito.

Ecuador Volcano Shows Signs of Activity

[Shammu]

Thousands Flee Dangerous Indonesia Volcano

By CHRIS BRUMMITT, Associated Press Writer 25 minutes ago

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia - Thousands of people fled the fertile slopes of Indonesia's most dangerous volcano Saturday as glowing lava oozed down the side and ash and rock spewed from the mountaintop, leading authorities to warn that an eruption could come soon.

Indonesia's Merapi volcano releases a huge cloud of hot gas Sunday, May 14, 2006 as seen from Pekam village on the
outskirts of Yogyakarta, the provincial capital of Central Java province, Indonesia. Villages on Mount Merapi were left
virtually empty, although some residents returned to its  slopes Sunday to tend their animals and crops after officials
raised the alert status of the Merapi volcano to the highest level, meaning that an eruption is imminent,
(AP Photo/Ed Wray)

Villages on Mount Merapi were left virtually empty, although some residents returned to its slopes Sunday to tend their animals and crops. More than 4,500 people living in villages closest to the crater, or next to rivers where hot lava is more likely to flow down, had been evacuated.

"My feeling is it will not blow at this time," said Budi, a 30-year-old farmer, who came back to cut grass to give to his cows. Like many other Indonesians, he goes by only one name.

Police manned roadblocks Sunday preventing vehicles from getting within six miles of the volcano's crater, but allowed villagers to return to tend to land and animals, advising them to leave again by nightfall.

Thousands spent Sunday packed into shelters set up at schools, government buildings and mosques in nearby towns in the island of Java.

"If it is safe, then we will go home," said Selamat, a 34-year-old staying in a government office transformed for 500 people. Women prepared breakfast in common kitchen and washed their children's clothes.

Mount Merapi belched out massive clouds of black smoke Sunday and lava flows scorched fresh scars in its slopes. Throughout the day Saturday, volcanic tremors had shaken the ground, some strong enough to send people running in fear. After nightfall, fiery magma from the volcano's cauldron lit up the bottoms of clouds above the nearly 9,700-foot peak, and cascades of bright red stones tumbled down the mountainside.

Many people already had evacuated from homes closest to Merapi's crater after the volcano recently emerged from several years of relative quiet, but authorities said as many as 7,000 living farther down the slopes had refused to go and leave behind precious livestock and crops.

Groups of men who sent their families away were seen chatting around fires to keep warm during the night, guarding their homes against looters.

Edi, a 30-year-old villager, said he would stay unless he received a clear signal from the mountain's spirits that an eruption was at hand.

"People around here believe that if Merapi is going to explode there will be a sign, a magical sign," he said, sitting on a mat sipping coffee. "Either it comes in a dream, or in the form of a hallucination."

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

Merapi, about 250 miles east of Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, is one of at least 129 active volcanoes in the country, which lies along the Pacific "Ring of Fire" — a series of fault lines that feed volcanoes stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and into Southeast Asia.

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

One man who defied the order to evacuate, Baijo, 30, said he was not worried about the risks of staying behind.

"I am not afraid. This is normal. We are looking after the village. If not, thieves will come," he said.

Some farmers said they had not seen any volcanic activity themselves so decided to remain on their land despite being urged to leave by the revered Sultan Sri Hamengkubuwono, who is also the regional governor in Yogyakarta, a city of 1 million people just 11 miles from Merapi.

"We will not leave soon because of our livestock," said one cattle raiser, who declined to give his name.

All roads leading up the mountain were closed as chunks of glowing pumice blew from Merapi's depths into the sky and burning gas fumes wafted through the air.

Authorities put the area on highest alert after observing two days of steady lava flow from the volcano. "Because there have been constant lava flows that cause hot gases, we have raised the status to the highest level," said Bambang Dwiyanto, head of the region's volcanology center.

Experts recorded 27 volcanic tremors and eruptions of at least 14 plumes of hot ash Saturday, said Dr. Ratdomo Purbo, who heads an observation post at Merapi. He said a stream of lava extended nearly a mile down the mountain's side.

Thousands Flee Dangerous Indonesia Volcano

[Soldier4Christ]

Typhoon heads for HK after hammering Philippines



Typhoon Chanchu gained strength Sunday and is forecast to head for Hong Kong after pounding the Philippines where it killed at least 37 people, left thousands homeless and forced the relocation of an annual meeting of Southeast Asian trade ministers.

Most of the dead were aboard a motor ferry that sank near central Masbate island Friday after the skipper ignored a coast guard ban on sea travel. At least 26 people drowned, according to an official of the National Disaster Coordinating Council. Coast guard boats and fishermen rescued 18 other passengers of the Mae Ann and were searching for at least two others. Authorities have not found the ferry's passenger manifest and were unsure if there were other victims, the official said.

Ten others died from drowning or after being struck by trees or concrete walls in three provinces and a Manila suburb which were swamped by floods and battered by strong winds. A fisherman drowned when his boat sank off central Iloilo province, officials said.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo pledged to help victims and appealed to the public to heed storm warnings.

Organizers were forced to shift the venue of an annual retreat of trade ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations from the popular palm-fringed resort island of Boracay, about 300 kilometers southeast of Manila, to Manila.

The storm made landfall on eastern Samar island late Thursday, sliced westward across the center of the archipelago and blew toward the South China Sea on Saturday, leaving rain and bad weather in its wake. Chanchu was roaring over the South China Sea, about 360km southwest of Manila, with gusts of up to 150 kilometers per hour by mid- Sunday, according to Manila's weather agency.

More than 42,000 people were affected by floods, landslides and heavy rains, including nearly 8,000 who had to be moved to government evacuation centers in five central rural regions. Strong winds and rain triggered floods, landslides and toppled trees, destroying 600 houses and damaging 3,500 others.

[Soldier4Christ]

Northeast Floods Force Hundreds to Flee


Torrential rain forced hundreds of people from their homes in parts of New England on Sunday, as water flowed over dams and washed out roads.

The governors of New Hampshire and Massachusetts declared states of emergency, activating the National Guard to help communities respond to the storm. Maine's governor also declared a state of emergency for one county.

 "It's a very serious situation," said New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch, adding that forecasters were predicting 12 to 15 inches of rain by the end of the storm in parts of southern New Hampshire. "It continues to change and the situation continues to worsen."

A dam in Milton, N.H., was in danger of failing, which could send a 10-foot wall of water downstream, the National Weather Service said in a bulletin. People downstream were being evacuated in the town.

The state Office of Emergency Management said at least a dozen dams were being closely watched.

In Massachusetts, cars were pulled from flooded streets in downtown Peabody, about 20 miles north of Boston, and about 300 people were evacuated from an apartment complex for seniors.

About 150 residents in Melrose, Mass., had to leave their homes after sewage lines were overwhelmed, backing up into houses, said Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Some parts of New Hampshire had seen 7 inches of rain by midday Sunday and forecasters said up to 5 more inches might come during the day.

About 100 residents were evacuated from their homes in Wakefield, N.H., because of concerns about two dams in the area.

Officials also reported a railroad culvert and embankment washed out in Milton, with train tracks suspended in midair. And the local emergency management office in Hooksett said the town essentially was closed because so many roads were flooded.

Tom Johnson said water was flowing on Sunday into the basement of his Salem home, where a pump that handles 1,500 gallons of water an hour was not keeping up.

"There are areas in my backyard that are probably 3 feet deep and climbing as we speak," Johnson said.

Flooding in New Hampshire in October killed seven people, carried off homes and washed away miles of roads down to bedrock.

In Maine, flooding was reported on 60 roads in the southern part of the state, said governor's spokeswoman Crystal Canney.

[Soldier4Christ]

SALT LAKE CITY — A campground at Natural Bridges National Monument has been closed because of bubonic plague detected among field mice and chipmunks.

Plague also has been found this spring in rodent populations at Mesa Verde National Park and Colorado National Monument.

National Park Service officials said there never has been a reported human case of bubonic plague originating from the parks or national monuments.

"We come down on the conservative side when it comes to closing campgrounds," said Joe Winkelmaier of the U.S. Public Health Service. "We just like to be sure when it comes to plague."

Several weeks ago, park rangers noticed a large number of dead field mice at Natural Bridges, about 40 miles west of Blanding. Chief Ranger Ralph Jones showed that tests indicated they died from the plague.

Rangers plan to insecticides to kill fleas in the campground area. Humans usually contract bubonic plague after being bitten by fleas that have bitten infected rodents. The campground could be reopened as soon as next week.

Plague occurs throughout the West, but is concentrated in the Four Corners area of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. An average of 18 cases involving humans are reported each year in the United States, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About one in seven victims die.

[Soldier4Christ]

WORST FLOODING SINCE THE 1930S: Rains ease in East, but danger remains

Now residents can only wait, worry

Mass. -- Driving rains that caused the worst flooding in New England since the 1930s finally eased up Tuesday, but washed-out roads and the danger of dam breaks prevented many people from returning home.

More than a foot of rain fell across New Hampshire, Massachusetts and southern Maine between Friday and Tuesday, with up to 17 inches in some places. Police reported one death, a 59-year-old man whose body was found in a submerged car north of Boston.

Dams kept a tenuous hold against cresting rivers, and evacuees left behind water-filled basements. Some were stranded on rooftops.

Gov. Mitt Romney said the damage would reach tens of millions of dollars in Massachusetts alone. And scattered showers are forecast for the weekend.

But the worst appeared to be over. In Maine, roads reopened and the threat against two dams on the Salmon Falls River eased.

In Methuen, Mass., state and federal engineers watched a granite dam in danger of collapsing after it was reinforced with 5,000 sandbags.

Many property owners began cleaning up, although major rivers remained above flood stage.

Jeffrey Saba, 42, used a 20-foot canoe to inspect his swamped home in Lowell, Mass., near the swollen Merrimack River. The water flooded Saba's garage and rose past his deck that is 10 feet off the ground.

"I just canoed over a 6-foot fence," Saba said.

"We are up against a battle now. The next couple of days will be just a waiting game."

Water flooded the first floor of a nursing home in Lawrence, forcing officials to cut power to the place and evacuate 243 residents, many of whom emerged in wheelchairs and on stretchers, wrapped in white blankets and clutching oxygen masks.

In Haverhill, officials worked to repair a burst sewage pipe dumping tens of millions of gallons of waste a day into the Merrimack River. State environmental officials said the sewage posed no immediate health threat and that a temporary fix should be in place by Friday.

In central New Hampshire, 200 to 400 families were evacuated late Tuesday from Bristol because a dam on the Newfound River was clogged with debris and had loose welds on its steel beams.

The heavy rains triggered the worst flooding in some areas since 1936, according to the National Weather Service. The month is only half over, but it already ranks as the wettest May on record in Concord, N.H., and Portland, Maine.

[Soldier4Christ]

Merapi volcano spews clouds of hot gas

The clouds reached a length of about 3km, Mr Subandrio, head of the Merapi section at the Centre for Vulcanological Research and Technology Development, said.

That compared with about 4km on Monday, when Merapi had shown the most activity since a red alert was declared two days earlier, and 6 km in 1994 during the last major eruption.

"The Merapi situation has been going lower since Monday. Of course, it is still puffing out hot smoke," Mr Subandrio said.

Earlier, with lava flows and gas clouds markedly diminished, evacuees returned to their farms and businesses and children went back to their schools.

But at the end of the day many headed for shelters further away to spend the night. Vulcanologists continued to warn them to avoid danger zones on the slopes of Merapi, one of the most menacing volcanoes in the "Pacific Ring of Fire".

 The mountain has been on the verge of a major eruption for weeks, but activity can be erratic and unpredictable ahead of that, scientists say.

"The office still orders people to stop their activities such as farming, walking up the slope and mining of sand in restricted areas," said the Centre of Vulcanological Research and Technology Development in Yogyakarta near Mount Merapi.

[Soldier4Christ]

7.6 earthquake rattles North Island overnight


An earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale was recorded at 10.39pm Tuesday.

The Geological & Nuclear Sciences website said the quake was at a depth of 150km and centred 800km north east of Auckland, near the Kermadec Islands. It was felt widely in the North Island and as far south as Ashburton.

GNS duty seismologist, Ken Gledhill, says the quake would have been felt as a strong rolling motion which lasted for at least half a minute.

A seismologist at Victoria University says the depth of the earthquake mitigated its impact. Professor Ewan Smith told Morning Report that the quake did not cause damage because it was so deep and so far away. He said there was also little chance of a tsunami.
Quake rocks western Indonesia

An undersea earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale rocked Indonesia's remote Nias Island on Tuesday.

The Bureau of Meteorology and Geophysics said the epicentre of the quake lay in the Indian Ocean at a depth of 33km, about 110km southwest of the town of Teluk Dalam town.

Earthquakes are frequent in Indonesia: its 17,000 islands are part of what is called the Pacific Ring of Fire.

The US Geological Survey said the magnitude 6.8 quake struck at 1528 GMT. It said there was no risk of a major tsunami.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the earthquake was not expected to trigger a major tsunami.
Previous quake damage

In March, 2005, a powerful earthquake devastated Nias Island, killing some 1,000 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless.

It was three months after a powerful undersea quake off the northern tip of Sumatra caused a devastating tsunami and wrought widespread destruction on December 26, 2004.

[Shammu]

Tens of thousands evacuated as typhoon targets China
Wed May 17, 2006 8:20am ET168

HONG KONG (Reuters) - China evacuated more than 600,000 people as the strongest typhoon on record to enter the South China Sea in May bore down on the south coast on Wednesday, causing flight and shipping delays around the region.

Typhoon Chanchu, packing winds up to 170 kmh (106 mph), was forecast to make landfall northeast of Hong Kong in Guangdong province later on Wednesday after killing 37 people as it swept across the Philippines last weekend.

Chinese state television news said some 320,000 people were evacuated from their homes along the coast of Guangdong province, while over 300,000 were moved in neighboring Fujian province.

Fujian called back all ships to port, and Guangdong called back in more than 58,000 vessels as schools suspended classes, it said, adding that strong rainfalls brought by Chanchu were posing flood threats.

An ore-carrying Belgian ship with eight crew members aboard was trapped some 200 sea miles offshore on the South China Sea on Wednesday and a Chinese rescue vessel was expected to reach it on Thursday morning, the news broadcast said.

In Taiwan, where most areas were lashed by heavy rains, rescuers winched to safety the crew of an oil tanker that had run aground off the coast of Kaoshiung in the south after being hit by a large wave, television footage showed.

RESCUE SHIPS ON STANDBY

On the southern coast, road workers struggled to keep motorways along the coastline clear of debris including tree branches as large waves crashed over the embankments, television pictures showed.

The government issued warnings to residents in central mountain areas of landslides and flooding caused by the heavy rain, as mountain rivers already had begun to rise, threatening bridges and roads.

Shipping links between Taiwan's outlying islands of Quemoy and Matsu and the Chinese coastline were suspended as the storm approached, media said, with the central weather bureau saying Quemoy and Penghu island's would be directly threatened.

In Hong Kong, winds of up to 65 kmh (40 mph) caused flight delays and some shipping services were suspended, but the former British colony's government weather observatory said the threat was receding as Chanchu churned northwards.

In China, rescue ships, helicopters and thousands of paramilitary troops were standing by, and all sea transport to the Chinese island province of Hainan had been halted, state media reported.

In the Philippines, Chanchu killed at least 37 people and "affected" about 53,300 people in wide areas of Luzon and the Visayas, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said in a report on Monday.

Tens of thousands evacuated as typhoon targets China

[Shammu]

Ecuador Volcano Spews Gas Two Miles High

Wed May 17, 9:05 PM ET

QUITO, Ecuador - An Ecuadoran volcano spewed columns of gas and ash-laden vapor two miles into the sky Wednesday, but authorities said there was no need yet for inhabitants to evacuate.
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"At this time we have determined that the situation does not merit a change in the level of alert," Jose Grijalva, director of Ecuador's Civil Defense, told reporters. He said a decision had been made by government agencies to "mobilize personnel, but not to evacuate."

President Alfredo Palacio late Tuesday declared a state of emergency for several communities on the slopes of the 16,550-foot-high Tungurahua volcano.

The decree followed a week of the loudest and most frequent explosions from Tungurahua since it rumbled back to life nearly seven years ago following eight decades of inactivity.

Tungurahua, located about 85 miles south of the capital, Quito, spewed huge columns of ash into the air in October 1999, forcing an evacuation of 17,000 residents of Banos, a tourist town about 4 miles northeast of the crater.

Ecuador Volcano Spews Gas Two Miles High

[Soldier4Christ]

Border mystery disease: Is huge scare even real?
Symptoms include persistent lesions, fibers popping out of skin, brain fog

A nonprofit foundation is working to drum up awareness of a border-area mystery disease that's been described as something out of a horror film, but which most mainstream doctors refuse to admit exists.

The Morgellons Research Foundation hopes to inform lawmakers and public-health officials of the disease to try to work toward an eventual cure.

As WorldNetDaily reported, Morgellons disease, a mysterious infection seemingly similar to one documented 300 years ago, is spreading throughout South Texas. While the disease has not been known to kill and doesn't appear to be contagious, it's the horrible symptoms that have some working feverishly to find an effective treatment.

The South Texas outbreak's proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border comes at a time when the issues of illegal immigration, border security and possible amnesty for over 12 million illegal aliens are being debated in the U.S.

According to the foundation's website, symptoms include skin lesions that do not heal, a crawling sensation on the surface of the skin, fatigue, cognitive difficulties and, perhaps the most disturbing, fibers popping out of the skin.

States the site: "[The fibers] are generally described by patients as white, but clinicians also report seeing blue, green, red, and black fibers, that fluoresce when viewed under ultraviolet light (Wood's lamp)."

Travis Wilson, a Morgellons sufferer for over a year, once called his mother in to see a fiber coming out of a lesion in his chest.

"It looked like a piece of spaghetti was sticking out about a quarter to an eighth of an inch long and it was sticking out of his chest," Lisa Wilson told the San Antonio Express-News. "I tried to pull it as hard as I could out and I could not pull it out.

"He'd have attacks and fibers would come out of his hands and fingers, white, black and sometimes red. Very, very painful," said Wilson.

A variety of other symptoms range from neurological and gastrointestinal problems to changes in skin pigment. Some people have also reported black, tarry beads of sweat.

While it's impossible to know how many Americans – who appear to be concentrated in California, Texas and Florida – suffer with the disease, the foundation says thousands with one or more symptom have registered with it.

Even so, most of the medical community don't see the disease as real, with some doctors telling patients it's all in their head.

"They (doctors) told me I was just doing this to myself, that I was nuts. So basically I stopped going to doctors because I was afraid they were going to lock me up," said sufferer Stephanie Bailey.

A big question medical professionals are wrestling with is how victims come down with the disease.

"It is difficult to say whether Morgellons is contagious," states the FAQ page on the foundation's site. "Many of our group have family members who exhibit no symptoms whatever. On the other hand, many entire families have reported becoming infected at or near the same time. At this juncture, it remains unclear if these households with multiple infected members reflect contagion, due to human-to-human transmission, or some type of mutual exposure."

The name for the disease comes from a condition involving "black hairs" emerging from the skin of children, which was documented in France in the 1600s. While experts say it is doubtful the modern-day disease is linked to the 17th century occurrences, the name was chosen, says the Morgellons Foundation, to provide "a consistent label when addressing politicians, physicians and health departments."

Mary Leitao is executive director of the Morgellons Foundation. She became involved several years ago when her 2-year-old son began exhibiting symptoms.

"The goal of the foundation is to find a cure for Morgellons disease," Leitao told WND. "The other goal is to determine the cause."

Leitao explained that Randy Wymore, Ph.D., of Oklahoma State University is working on getting research work started at the school.

"His goal is to see patients and to investigate it medically and scientifically," Leitao said.

One obstacle, she explained, is that there is not a diagnostic test for Morgellons disease. Even so, Leitao stressed that the skin lesions with fibers appears to be a symptom that links nearly all victims.

"If a physician is able to view these skin lesions under magnification, they may see these fibers," Leitao said.

Since the disease is hard to pin down, treatments vary widely.

Said Leitao: "Some physicians are treating it with pretty high-dose antibiotics. Others are using other meds, including pain medications. It can be a very uncomfortable disease for people."

Leitao said officials at the Centers for Disease Control are "not sure there's a situation going on here" so are reticent to take action.

"I don't think the CDC has heard from enough physicians, because many physicians don't recognize the illness," she said. "They just think the illness is psychosomatic."

Leitao stressed she is committed to finding a cure because of the devastation she has seen in the lives of victims. Many no longer work because of the brain fog that often accompanies the disorder.

"They can't mentally focus on tasks," she said. "They're extremely fatigued and severely depressed – in addition to the skin symptoms."

Indeed, Travis Wilson committed suicide three weeks ago.

"I knew he was going to kill himself, and there was nothing I could do to stop him," his mother said.

Dr. Adelaide Hebert of the University of Texas Health Science Center Houston is unconvinced Morgellons is an actual medical disorder.

"I think if we look at what is truly evidence-based medicine, what has been proven based on scientific fact we know we don't have a means to substantiate [Morgellons]," Hebert told KVUE-TV.

Hebert believes Morgellons exists only in the patient's mind.

"Many of these patients do have delusion of parasitosis," Hebert is quoted as saying. "It is actually not uncommon to have patients come in and describe the sensation that something is crawling on their skin."

Ginger Savely is a nurse practitioner in Austin, Texas, who has documented over 100 incidents of Morgellons.

"[Sufferers] can't get anybody to help them in the medical profession. It's just a nightmare, a living nightmare. I can't imagine any worse disease," she told the TV station.

Some doctors who do recognize the disorder as a medical disease sit on the Medical Advisory Board of the Morgellons Research Foundation.

Says Gregory V. Smith, M.D., a member of the board: "This disorder is much more common than anyone suspects. … During the course of my practice activity, I have seen numerous children … a minimum of three children daily in my office with suspicious skin lesions."

Adds another board member, William T. Harvey, M.D.: "The Morgellon's phenomenon is real. It is also clearly devastating, life-shortening and infectious. I have observed the herald lesions microscopically with their central fibers in dozens of patients."

Leitao remains hopeful for a cure – not only for her own son but countless others.

"It's a bizarre disease; I will admit to that," Leitao said. "But it's a real disease and the people need real help."

[Soldier4Christ]

Typhoon kills 50 people in China

SHANGHAI: Tropical Storm Chanchu pummeled southern China on Thursday, killing at least 11 people to bring its death toll in Asia to 50 while flooding scores of homes in an area where officials evacuated more than 1 million people.

The official Xinhua News Agency said 11 died after the storm plowed into southern China early Thursday, with four others missing, but gave no details. Earlier reports said eight people were killed near Shantou in the northern tip of China’s Guangdong province where the storm made landfall, including two children whose houses collapsed on top of them.

China said just over 1 million people have been moved to safety.

Twenty-seven Vietnamese fishermen were also believed missing after three boats went down in Chinese waters after being swept up in the storm, officials said Thursday.

Taiwan also reported the deaths of two women from flooding. China’s coastal provinces of Guangdong and Fujian took the full brunt of the storm.

Eight people were killed in Shantou, where Chanchu, the strongest typhoon on record to enter the South China Sea in May, triggered house collapses and landslides, Xinhua said. Two children were among the dead, the agency reported, quoting local government sources.

[Shammu]

Pre-monsoon storms lash India, 20 dead
Sat May 20, 2006 2:17am ET164

KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - Lightning strikes and falling trees have killed 20 people in pre-monsoon storms which lashed two Indian states, officials said on Saturday.

At least 12 people died in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh and eight others were struck dead by lightning in West Bengal on Friday, they said.

In West Bengal, five of the deaths occurred on the banks of Fulahar river, about 380 km (237 miles) north of state capital Kolkata.

The South West monsoon, the lifeline for millions of Indian farmers and the economy, is expected to set in by the end of the month.

Pre-monsoon storms lash India, 20 dead

[Shammu]

Typhoon leaves 28 Vietnamese fishermen dead, hundreds missing

by Tran Thi Minh Ha Sat May 20, 9:24 AM ET

HANOI (AFP) - At least 28 Vietnamese fishermen were dead and nearly 300 reported missing, three days after powerful Typhoon Chanchu sank 11 ships in the South China Sea, officials said.

Anxious relatives in central Vietnam were awaiting the return of several storm-battered vessels in coming days, amid news that scores of sailors had been rescued and fears that more may have perished in the storm.

Chanchu, which is known to have killed at least 92 people across Asia before being downgraded to a tropical storm, hit the Vietnamese ships from early Wednesday as it swept from the Philippines toward China.

Packing winds of up to 240 kilometres per hour (150 mph) and churning up the sea, it cut radio contact to the ships and sank at least 11 of them, officials and state media said Saturday.

"The storm did not hit Vietnam, it was in the open sea but many of our fishermen were out there on long fishing trips," said a National Flood and Storm Control Department official in Hanoi.

By Saturday, storm-battered ships had recovered at least 28 bodies from the sea, said provincial coastal and border guard officials who had re-established radio contact with some of the vessels.

And 298 sailors were reported out of contact and unaccounted for, with 176 missing in Danang, 95 in nearby Quang Nam province and 27 in Quang Ngai province, officials said.

"It's really difficult to contact the survivors because they are far away, near Taiwan," said Nguyen Van Thuong, chairman of Thanh Khe district people's committee in Danang, which lost at least six ships.

In Quang Ngai, border guard official Dang Le said eight more corpses had been found.

A Chinese rescue vessel found 97 stranded Vietnamese fishermen and 18 bodies on the remote Chinese island of Dong Sa early Saturday, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

It was not immediately clear whether the 18 deaths were part of, or additional to, the collated death toll from Vietnamese officials.

The Chinese rescue ship Nanhaijiu 111 gave the Vietnamese survivors water, food, medicines and fuel for their three remaining boats before the four vessels set out together to search for more survivors, Xinhua said.

On the Vietnamese mainland, families gathered in houses with radio contact, desperate to hear news from their loved ones.

"Many people in my district are awaiting news from their men," said Thuong.

Across Asia, Chanchu, which means 'pearl' in Cantonese, left at least 92 people dead -- including 23 in China and 41 last week in the Philippines.

As it tore across the South China Sea, it was briefly upgraded to a "super typhoon" meaning it packed uncommonly strong winds above 240 kmh.

In Danang, border official Nguyen Ba Luong said two vessels carrying at least 17 bodies were due to arrive at the port within several days. Three more bodies were on different boats.

"The sailors say the weather is now foggy," he said. "The boats have been given more fuel and food from a Chinese rescue vessel, but it may take them four days to reach shore because the boats are sailing very slowly."

He added that the bodies on board had started to decompose.

"Danang authorities have asked the government to seek help from Chinese rescue teams," he said. "If the Chinese accept and deliver the bodies here, they may arrive home by Monday."

Typhoon leaves 28 Vietnamese fishermen dead, hundreds missing

[Shammu]

More seek shelter from simmering Indonesian volcano

Sun May 21, 9:27 AM ET

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia (AFP) - More people have fled the slopes of Indonesia's simmering Mount Merapi, unsure whether the volcano is set to erupt because of thick cloud blanketing its peak.

Scientists said that while the lava dome on top of the mountain was growing at a slower rate, the volcano still posed a risk to those living in its shadow.

Heavy rains over the past two days could also flush more lava down the slopes of the mountain, they said.

"The deformation at the peak does not point to a development which could be interpreted as there being no more accummulation of pressure within the peak of the Merapi volcano," a statement issued by the vulcanology office in Yogyakarta, some 30 kilometers (18.5 miles) away said Sunday.

It said the top alert status was maintained "because there is still the potential that heat clouds are produced because of the magmatic activities at the peak."

The volcano saw scores of lava flows and four bursts of heat clouds in the first six hours of Sunday, Tri Yani, an official at the vulcanology office said earlier Sunday.

She said the volcano was also spewing fumes up to 1.2 kilometers high.

The office said that between May 13 and May 20, a total of 289 searing heat cloud torrents were spewed by the volcano.

The heat clouds, which geologists have warned were the primary threat posed by the volcano, travelled as far as 2.5 kilometers down the slopes on Sunday, the official said. The nearest village is at least six kilometers from the peak.

The office said that as a balance had been reached between magma supply and the amountof lava and heatcloud escaping the volcano, there was no substantial change in the volume of the lava dome at the mountain top.

The vulcanology office's chief analyst, Soebandriyo, said Saturday that although the magma supply that forms the dome at the peak appeared to be weakening, the magma structure may collapse and spew out millions of cubic metres (feet) of volcanic rock and lava.

But with thick cloud shrouding the mountain since Friday and preventing any visual warning of descending lava or heat clouds, both of which incinerate everything in their path, more residents have fled their homes near the volcano for the safety of emergency shelters.

A report from disaster coordination centers in the four districts deemed to be at immediate risk showed the number of evacuees at shelters around the mountain had increased by some 2,000 to around 22,000.

"Perhaps it has to do with the rains and because people are now unable to see whether Merapi is sending heat clouds or lava their way as the mountain is shrouded by clouds," said Puryono, an official of the Central Java disaster handling coordination center in Magelang.

Merapi's deadliest eruption occurred in 1930 when more than 1,300 people were killed. Some 66 people were killed when it last erupted in 1994.

More seek shelter from simmering Indonesian volcano