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

[Soldier4Christ]

Iran town hit by earthquake 

Tehran  A town in Isfahan governorate in Iran was hit today with an earthquake measuring 4.4 on the Richter scale.
Iranian earthquake monitoring centre indicated that the quake hit the town which is 90 kilometers north of Isfahan. Meanwhile, no immediate report on the destruction nor the injuries caused by the earthquake was yet known.

[Soldier4Christ]

Residents of 5 towns near volcano warned



LEGAZPI CITY—Mt. Mayon continued to eject lava yesterday, prompting scientists to advise residents of five towns in the volcano’s southeast sector to be watchful.

They warned residents of Mabinit, Bonga, Matanag and Buyuan and Miisi in Daraga to guard against cascading molten rocks and lava, adding the volcano had already ejected 10 million cu m of volcanic materials down the Bonga gully.

That compared with the 50 million cu m of molten rocks and lava that the volcano ejected in its eruptions in 1993, 2000 and 2001.

As molten rocks continued to tumble down, disaster officials in Sto. Domingo said 2,335 more people sought refuge in the designated evacuation centers.

In Manila, Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. ordered the agency’s office here to prepare for an eruption.

“Be ready for any eventuality, deploy all available equipment, and work closely with the Regional Disaster Coordinating Council,” Ebdane told field officials.

The Department of Tourism has made a list of safe viewing areas for local and foreign visitors, but the United Kingdom advised its subjects to stay away from the volcano.

“There has been an increase in volcanic activity at the Mt. Mayon volcano in Albay Province [in] Southeast Luzon,” the UK’ Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London said in its advisory.

“A permanent-danger zone of 6 km has been established around the summit of the volcano,” it said.

The volcanology institute said the bulk of the lava and molten rocks that tumbled down through the Bonga gully in the southeast had reached 3.6 aerial km or 600 m up from the crater.

Yesterday’s lava flow was relatively quiet and nonexplosive, but the sulfur dioxide being emitted by the volcano was relatively high at 3,514 tons a day, indicating a high level of seismic unrest, volcanologist Ed Laguerta said.

Alert Level 3 remained up, meaning residents must stay away from the 6-km permanent-danger zone and the 7-km extended permanent-danger zone in the southeast flank facing the Bonga gully.

[Soldier4Christ]

Heat Wave, Drought Hit U.S. Farmers Hard

As America wilted from triple-digit temperatures this past week, farmers and ranchers in the Midwest and West were hit especially hard. They're watching the combination of heat and, in many places, drought, wither plants, stress livestock, and leave grazing land barren.

"The corn crop is burning up — it's just dying," says Harvey Heier, a corn and wheat farmer in Grainfield, Kan. "It's pollinating time and tasseling time, and in many cases there's not enough moisture in the stalk to produce a kernel."

The wheat is suffering even more: He estimates he'll get about 20 percent of what he might produce in a normal year.

So far, the heat has had far more impact on local producers than on national grain or livestock prices. And relief is in sight for much of the country, at least from the heat.

Rain is another story.

Part of the challenge for farmers is that the abnormal weather started long before the recent heat wave. The first half of 2006 was America's warmest since records started being kept in 1895. And much of the Plains and West has been dry far longer than the last six months.

"The dryness across the Plains and western Midwest has been an issue for months now — it's not as if they just got dry lately," says Jon Davis, chief meteorologist with Chesapeake Weather Services in Chicago, which provides climate data to agribusiness.

Plains States Hardest Hit

The biggest impact has been across the Plains, Davis says, particularly on the spring wheat crop. And the drought is unusual for the wide swath that it's cut.

As a result, wheat prices are up substantially from levels this past winter. Corn prices are up, too, although less dramatically.

For Heier, like many farmers, the effects of the current heat wave are exaggerated because they come on top of a dry winter and dry summer the year before.

"There's no moisture in the soil at all," he says. Instead of the typical 15 inches of rain in his area of northwest Kansas, he's gotten six inches so far this year.

"The real critical issue is how long we wait for the next rain," says Jere White, executive director of the Kansas Corn Growers Association. "It's safe to say that after a week like this … there's probably no safe area that isn't irrigated."

Livestock producers are feeling the effects, too.

"They're starting to have to feed their cattle on pasture," says John Nelson, county director of the federal Farm Service Agency in Pennington County, Minn. "And a lot of the water holes are starting to dry up. One guy went down 20 feet in his hole before he hit water."

Nelson's county, in the northwest corner of the state, has received 0.2 inches of rain in July and just 0.75 inches in June. He has requested federal emergency aid and permission to use Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) land for haying and grazing.

Disaster Aid for Some Counties

While Nelson's request is still pending, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has already announced measures to help other parts of the country. It's given natural disaster designation to dozens of counties in Colorado and Nebraska, as well as a few in neighboring states. The designation makes farmers in those areas eligible for low-interest emergency loans. And the USDA has expanded the areas eligible for emergency CRP grazing and haying to include most of the plains.

"The CRP land has been out of production so long that the forage is taller than other areas," says Rick Lopez, the Farm Service Agency's state director for New Mexico. "So [ranchers] don't have to sell their cows or livestock or give supplemental feed. And it reduces the forage if it's too tall, so fires don't start."

States like New Mexico and Oklahoma are also using the agency's Emergency Conservation Program to help drought-stricken ranchers.

The program provides loans to help repair fences and structures damaged by fires, and helps cattlemen get water to their livestock by helping to drill wells, lay pipelines, or clear silt from ponds.

[Soldier4Christ]

Floods claim more victims in Japan



THREE more people have been found dead in southwestern Japan following floods and mudslides triggered by torrential rain, raising the death toll to at least 22, police said today.
In Kagoshima prefecture on Kyushu island, two men aged 45 and 57, along with a 65-year-old woman, were killed by mudslides, a local police officer said, adding that another person was still listed as missing.

"The rain is not as heavy as before for now, but police and rescuers are ready should more mudslides occur," he said, noting the national weather agency was forecasting more rainfall overnight and into tomorrow.

The heavy rain, caused by a seasonal front, has washed out the country's southwest, with Kagoshima and Miyazaki prefectures recording 1.2 metres of rain since the storms began last week, the agency said.

[Soldier4Christ]

Pyongyang admits hundreds dead or missing in floods

North Korea admitted on Friday that hundreds of people were dead or missing after torrential rains swept the country, but international aid agencies say they were struggling to gauge the level of fatalities.

The official Korean Central News Agency reported that floods had also destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of buildings. It said the rains had left "hundreds of people dead or missing in many parts of the country." It was the secretive regime's first public acknowledgement that people had died.

Heavy rains have caused widespread damage across the region. In China 482 people have died in floods caused by rains following Typhoon Bilis, the Xinhua news agency said. The storm has displaced almost 3 million people and destroyed more than 210,000 homes, the agency added.

Torrential rain has killed at least 29 people in South Korea, and in Japan at least 15 people have died in floods and landslides triggered by the downpours.

The UN World Food Program (WFP) said it was willing to provide emergency food rations to North Korea as damage to crops meant it could suffer a repeat of the 1990s famines in which up to 2.5 million died.

The WFP was active inside North Korea for eight years until last year, when the regime forced it to suspend aid aimed at feeding 6.5 million people.

The agency has recently been given permission to resume activities on a smaller scale, but says local red tape is hampering accurate damage assessment. The WFP said it would not release food unless it was allowed to make its own assessments and then monitor the aid once it reaches the affected areas.

[Shammu]

Mudslide kills 12 people in Pakistani Kashmir
24 Jul 2006 05:25:27 GMT
Source: Reuters

MUZZAFARABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - A mudslide caused by torrential rain killed at least 12 people, including eight children, living in tents in the earthquake devastated capital of Pakistani Kashmir, an official said Monday.

Tens of thousands of people are still living in tents in Muzaffarabad after the October 8 quake that killed more than 75,000 people and made more than 3 million homeless, and the mountain slopes in the region remain susceptible to landslides.

"The mudslide hit and damaged at least seven tents and a few concrete buildings," Raja Abbas, additional commissioner of Muzzafarabad said.

Mudslide kills 12 people in Pakistani Kashmir

[Shammu]

China braces for millions more landless farmers
24 Jul 2006 03:54:44 GMT
Source: Reuters

BEIJING, July 24 (Reuters) - About 15 million farmers in China are expected to lose their land in the next five years due to increased urbanisation, state media reported on Monday as the government announced new land inspection measures.

An official from the Ministry of Labour and Social Security said that in the past decade about 40 million farmers lost their land due to rapid urbanisation, Xinhua news agency reported.

And even with official efforts to rein in commercial development of farmland, the official said 3 million more farmers are likely to lose their land each year over the next five years.

"To resolve the current living problems and the long-term livelihood of farmers whose land is acquired, we need to properly carry out employment training and social security," the official said.

In recent months, China's central government has sought to contain real estate investment as part of efforts to cool economic growth.

Protests centred on land have racked rural China, and local officials have often been accused of illegally confiscating farmland in return for payments and bribes.

In one of the bloodiest recent cases, Chinese police shot dead at least three protesters in Shanwei in southern Guangdong province in December following a dispute over compensation for land taken for a power plant.

On Monday, the State Council, China's cabinet, announced a new hierarchy of inspectors to enforce the country's often flouted land regulations. The inspectors will range across provinces, seeking to enforce ceilings on farmland loss, the government Web site said.

China braces for millions more landless farmers

[Shammu]

Officials in Queens urging disaster designation over blackout
Monday, July 24, 2006
BY KAREN MATTHEWS
Associated Press

NEW YORK -- A group of Queens political leaders urged Gov. George Pataki yesterday to designate a section of the borough suffering from a massive power outage a disaster area, making it eligible for federal aid.

"Anywhere else it would be," Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) said at a news conference in Sunnyside. "If this were an area of 100,000 people in upstate New York, the governor would have declared it a disaster area."

A spokeswoman for Pataki, Joanna Rose, said the governor has spoken with Mayor Michael Bloomberg and has offered any assistance necessary. "We believe that it is (utility Consolidated Edison) that should make restitution to those who have suffered," she said.

By yesterday evening, electricity had been restored to 19,000 of an estimated 25,000 Consolidated Edison customers who lost power during last week's heat wave, a company spokesman said.

Bloomberg said that Con Ed workers were laboring to restore power to the rest.

"Are we satisfied with the progress?" he said. "It is what it is."

Con Ed's CEO, Kevin Burke, said there was no way to estimate how long those still affected would be without power.

Speaking to reporters at an Office of Emergency Management staging site in Astoria, Bloomberg urged local residents to put aside their frustrations over the weeklong power failure and thank the workers trying to correct it.

"The Con Ed workers are working an enormous number of hours. I don't think anyone should be satisfied, but the city's response has been as good as it could be," he said.

But City Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Queens) said Burke should resign over his handling of the blackout.

"When the lights went out, that was just the tip of the iceberg," he told the Associated Press before a news conference in Woodside. "Since then, Con Ed has misled the public about the severity of the situation, failed to grasp that we are in a crisis and shown no plan to put the power back on and ensure the health and safety of people in Queens."

And state Assemblyman Michael Gianaris, another Queens Democrat, said Con Ed officials should be held criminally responsible because their early underestimates of the number of people affected by the blackout may have slowed the city's response.

"How can anyone believe anything Con Ed says?" he demanded. "I think what they did was criminal, and I hope to see some people who work at Con Ed in handcuffs before this is over."

Asked to respond to the criticism later yesterday, Burke said, "I am now focused exclusively on restoration."

He said the causes of the blackout would be investigated later.

Along Queens Boulevard in Sunnyside, some businesses had lights while others didn't.

There was no electricity at Queens Mini Market, where employee Vijoy Pal estimated losses so far at $5,000. "We are losing, losing," he said.

Bliss Nail Salon had lights but was stuffy with no air conditioning. "I don't know why," said manager Amy Chung. "It's one week already. We lose a lot of customers."

Bloomberg said there was still no indication when all power would be re-established, or why the Queens area suffered the massive blackout while the rest of the city did not.

Con Ed earlier described the situation as unprecedented, with 10 of 22 main power feeders breaking down at the same time, at the height of the heat wave. The problem worsened when lower-voltage cables were apparently damaged by carrying excess voltage as Con Ed tried to keep the system up and running without the main feeders.

Bloomberg said the focus for now should be on getting the power back rather than Con Ed diverting resources to figure out what happened. Once everybody is back there will be time to go back and analyze, he said, adding, "Whether it was something that could have been prevented, I have no idea."

He said Con Ed promised a report within two weeks.

Officials in Queens urging disaster designation over blackout

[Soldier4Christ]

Chinese Toll in Tropical Storm Hits 612
Death Toll in Tropical Storm Bilis Rises to 612 As China Braces for Typhoon Kaemi

BEIJING - China's death toll from tropical storm Bilis rose to 612 on Monday, the official Xinhua News Agency said, as the country braced for the arrival of Typhoon Kaemi.

Bilis initially hit the mainland as a typhoon on July 14, triggering flooding and mudslides in the southeastern coastal provinces of Fujian, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Guangxi and the inland provinces of Jiangxi and Hunan, Xinhua said.

The new figure was up from a weekend toll of 530, but the Xinhua report did not give any details on where the deaths occurred. It also said 208 people were missing.

Hunan, the hardest-hit area, initially said 92 were killed, but gave a higher toll after state television discovered and reported that 197 people had died in one city. Local officials frequently tried to cover up man-made and natural disasters, fearing both Beijing's and the public's disapproval.

Some 3 million people in the region have also been forced to flee their homes.

Meanwhile, Fujian began preparations for the arrival of Typhoon Kaemi, which was expected to hit between Tuesday and Wednesday, bringing strong wind and rainstorms, Xinhua said. Bilis had killed 43 people in Fujian.

Some 7,000 people in fishing boats were ordered back to shore on Monday, while another 30,000 will be ordered back in the next day, it said.

Thousands of armed police with vans and speedboats were also poised to launch rescue and relief operations, it said.

The Fujian government has set aside 12,000 tents, 50,000 quilts, 80,000 items of clothing, and a five-day food supply for 300,000 people in preparation for Kaemi, it said.

In neighboring Zhejiang province, heavy rains and winds were also forecast for the cities of Wenzhou, Taizhou and Ningbo, Xinhua said.

Also Monday, Xinhua said heavy rains and hail sweeping through the eastern Chinese province of Anhui in the past three days have triggered flooding that has caused $11.6 million in damage.

Two people were killed by lightning when storms hit Chaohu, a city in Anhui, while a third person was fatally struck in Lu'an, another city, Xinhua said.

It did not say what the victims were doing or when they died.

[Soldier4Christ]

Heat Blamed in 3 Northern Calif. Deaths

  Sweltering heat was blamed Sunday for at least three deaths in Northern California, including a resident at a nursing home who died after the facility's air conditioning system failed.

Triple-digit temperatures covered much of the Southwest. In California, the power grid manager warned the state might declare an emergency for the second-straight day due to soaring electricity use.

 Excessive heat warnings were in effect through parts of Southern California, where temperatures were expected to reach 99 degrees in downtown Los Angeles and 115 degrees in nearby Woodland Hills, where the mercury hit a record-setting 119 degrees Saturday.

No relief is expected until at least midweek, as weather conditions conspired to bake California's normally cool coast for a third day and bring Midwest-style humidity into the usually arid Central Valley.

In Stockton, more than 100 patients were evacuated early Sunday from the Beverly Healthcare Center after the nursing home's air conditioning gave out. One patient died, and another was hospitalized in critical condition.

Investigators were looking into possible criminal charges, although it was too early to tell whether the facility operators were negligent, police spokesman Pete Smith said.

"It was very hot inside the facility, and you have to remember we're talking about elderly and infirm people who can't withstand the heat like a younger person would," he said.

The nursing home's phone was busy and a call to Beverly Healthcare's corporate headquarters in Fort Smith, Ark., was not returned.

In Modesto, a patient at Doctors Medical Center died Saturday of heart failure apparently caused by the heat after being admitted with a 106- degree temperature, hospital officials said.

Two others were hospitalized with 108-degree temperatures, including one who remained in critical condition Sunday. Hospital officials declined to release additional details.

Investigators believe Bakersfield gardener Joaquin Ramirez, 38, may have died of heat stroke after collapsing on the job late Wednesday, said division spokesman Dean Fryer.

The Kern County Coroner's office was investigating whether scorching temperatures were responsible for four deaths over the past two weeks.

Nine out of 11 San Francisco Bay Area cities tracked by the National Weather Service broke heat records Saturday. On Sunday, forecasters issued a heat advisory for the southern and eastern regions of the Bay Area.

State electricity officials warned of possible power emergencies if demand remained high and a power plant that went off-line Saturday isn't fixed.

"Today's going to be close," said Gregg Fishman, spokesman for the California Independent System Operator.

Scorching temperatures were the result of a high-pressure system mixed with humidity from subtropical moisture streaming in from the Gulf of Mexico, according to Jamie Meyer, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

The high pressure will drop off somewhat in the coming days as will the humidity, causing temperatures to fall a few degrees each day until midweek, she said.

Heat waves left much of the country sweltering last week, with temperatures soaring into the upper 90s and higher from coast to coast and heat related deaths reported in Oklahoma, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Indiana, South Dakota and Tennessee.

[Soldier4Christ]

Lubbock, Texas, plans to pray for rain

Public officials in Lubbock, Texas, are organizing a day to pray for rain.

"Nobody is going to tell God what to do and what not to do, but we are in a serious drought in West Texas and since he is the man who controls the rain clouds, we're asking him for his mercy and his help," Mayor David Miller told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.

The City Council and the Lubbock County commissioners are expected to adopt resolutions this week asking local residents to both pray and fast for rain this Sunday.

So far this year, Lubbock has received about half of its normal 10 inches. In the weeks since June 1, the growing season for cotton, rainfall has been a scant .75 inches, far less than the normal 4.43 inches.

Officials have tried prayers before and say they were answered. In January 2004, after a year of drought, the city and county set aside a Sunday to pray for rain and got the second-wettest year since records have been kept.

[Soldier4Christ]

California Warns of Rolling Blackouts


Unrelenting tropical heat and humidity has driven demand for electricity to record highs in California and other states. If people could not take the weather anymore, neither could transformers and other equipment, which sputtered and shorted out and left tens of thousands of people without power today.

Authorities in California warned that the high demand could lead later this afternoon to an emergency order for rolling blackouts, a dreaded term here that brings reminders of widespread blackouts in 2003 during an energy supply crisis.

Officials declared a power emergency earlier this afternoon, cutting electricity to some businesses that had voluntarily agreed to reduce power use in exchange for lower rates. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered state agencies to reduce electricity consumption by 25 percent, acting on a prediction from the state’s power grid managers that demand would peak at 52,000 megawatts, a mark they had not expected to reach until 2011.

Unlike a few years ago, the culprit this summer is aging equipment unaccustomed to running high over such a long stretch, nearly two weeks in some places, of hot and humid days.

Meanwhile, lighting from thunderstorms have compounded problems in other parts of the country, leaving more than 200,000 people in the St. Louis area without electricity since Wednesday. Utility officials in Missouri said they expected to restore power to most customers by the middle of the week.

The power failures have hit Southern California’s valley areas, normally the hottest spots around, particularly hard. More than 40,000 people remained without power since Saturday. The blackouts occurred in Los Angeles as well, and in some cases had the skipping effect of tornado: in some cases only a few houses on a street went dark or even just parts of houses — while others continued to blast air conditioners.

Relief appeared on the way here, with temperatures expected to fall back to the normal 70’s and 80’s for the rest of the week.

Still, the National Weather Service said an excessive heat warning would be in effect through 7 p.m. Pacific time in several areas of Southern California and high temperatures with high humidity would continue to oppress the entire region.

The Associated Press said today that at least eight deaths in California over the weekend might have resulted from the heat wave.

The popular MySpace social-networking Web site went off line over the weekend because of power problems at a key data center in Los Angeles, the company said. MySpace, which is the second busiest Web site in the United States behind Yahoo, lost power for six hours on Saturday and about 12 hours Sunday night and into this morning.

[Soldier4Christ]

Typhoon slams into China after sweeping Taiwan

Typhoon Kaemi slammed into China on Tuesday, leading to the evacuation of hundreds of thousands, after triggering floods and cutting off power in parts of Taiwan.

Kaemi made landfall at 0750 GMT near Jinjiang city in the southeastern province of Fujian, bringing strong winds and rain in its wake, the official Xinhua news agency said.

About 435,000 people were evacuated along Fujian's coast facing Taiwan and 3,000 armed police were standing by, Xinhua said, adding that 23 flights had been cancelled in provincial capital Fuzhou.

Some 80,000 people were also evacuated in neighouring Zhejiang province.

The storm had sustained winds of up to 108 kph (68 mph) and maximum gusts of 137 kph, Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau said.

Officials fear Kaemi could cause more problems in China's southern provinces where floods and other disasters brought by Tropical Storm Bilis claimed at least 612 lives and left over 200 missing since it struck the country on July 14.

Authorities in Fujian and Guangdong provinces ordered ships to return to port and warned local officials to monitor major rivers, reservoirs and dams already swollen from heavy rains in the wake of Bilis.

In Taiwan, where Kaemi landed on Monday night, six people, including a seven-year-old girl, were injured, mostly on roads in the eastern part of the island, while about 475 people had been evacuated, government officials said.

The typhoon closed schools and offices in five cities and counties in southeastern Taiwan and the outlying island of Penghu. Some schools were also closed in central Taiwan.

More than 40 domestic flights were cancelled in southeastern Taiwan. In southern Kaohsiung, some international flights were suspended, airport officials said.

Transport officials said Kaohsiung harbour, Taiwan's largest, was closed, although the Keelung port in the north remained open.

Kaemi also knocked out power to about 30,000 people, mostly in Hualien in the east coast, said Taiwan Power Co. spokesman Clint Chou.

"The winds were quite strong," Chou said. "Because of the broken poles, we perhaps need some time to restore power."

Tropical storms and typhoons frequently hit Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong and southern China during a season that lasts from early summer to late autumn.

[Soldier4Christ]

Calif. Deaths Rise After Another Scorcher

  Gripped by a 10th straight day of 100-degree heat, the number of suspected heat-related deaths climbed to at least 53 Tuesday and the rotting carcasses of thousands of dairy cows and other livestock baked in the sun.

Some communities faced their third day without electricity as the record-breaking temperatures strained transmission equipment.

 "We're asking people for one more day of conservation," said Gregg Fishman, the California Independent System Operator, which manages the state's power grid. "We're not out of the woods yet."

The stretch of 100-plus degree scorchers that descended on the state last week marks the first time in 57 years that both Northern and Southern California have experienced extended heat waves simultaneously, California Undersecretary for Energy Affairs Joe Desmond said.

In the Central Valley, where most of the deaths have occurred, temperatures were expected to reach 100 to 105 degrees on Tuesday, down from 110 to 115 in previous days. Truly cooler weather was not expected until Wednesday, when the system was forecast to move east into Nevada and Utah.

Coroners in 13 counties were investigating deaths that appeared heat- related. Most of the victims were elderly. Among the dead was a nursing home patient in Stockton who died after the air conditioning gave out in 115-degree weather. A gardener collapsed on the job and died. A woman was found dead along a bike path.

On Tuesday, three elderly residents of single-room occupancy hotels within four blocks of the state Capitol were found dead. The rooms had no air conditioning.

The triple-digit heat has been hard on livestock as well, causing thousands of deaths and a dip in milk production in the No. 1 dairy state, according to agriculture officials.

In the San Joaquin Valley, a combination of the searing heat, bigger dairies and fewer plants to properly dispose of dead animals created a backlog of rotting carcasses.

"They're just sitting out there in the sun, drawing flies," said Fresno County dairy farmer Brian Pacheco.

Tens of thousands of customers in Northern and Southern California had no electricity. About 1,700 San Jose customers faced their third day without power, and some residents slept in backyards and hotel rooms to escape the stifling heat.

Pacific Gas & Electric spokesman Brian Swanson said most outages were caused by equipment failures and not a shortage of electricity.

In St. Louis, about 145,000 homes and businesses still without power after two storms last week knocked out electricity to nearly 600,000 customers. A utility worker was electrocuted Tuesday and another was injured while trying to restore power.

Many grew frustrated with Ameren Corp.'s handling of the crisis. The Rev. Al Sharpton led a protest Tuesday in front of Ameren headquarters, saying the company was not doing enough to help poor and working-class people. The civil rights activist also called for a 10 percent rate cut to help the community recover.

Ameren officials have said the company responded within 15 minutes after the storm hit.

In New York City, where a power outage that left thousands of homes and businesses without air conditioning in Queens entered its ninth day Tuesday, utility officials said they still could not say when service would be restored to everyone.

[Soldier4Christ]

French heatwave kills 40

Around 40 people in France, mostly elderly, have died in a heatwave over the past week and the Netherlands is poised to record its hottest July since records began.

Meteo France, the national weather agency, has put its heatwave alert at orange, the second highest level, in 53 of the 96 metropolitan departments, or administrative districts.

A top French health advisory body (INVS) said it would publish on Thursday a detailed toll from the heatwave which has so far proved less deadly than the 2003 hot spell which killed some 15,000 people.

Labor Minister Gerard Larcher met construction industry representatives on Tuesday to discuss safety issues linked to the prolonged spell of high temperatures, notably adapting working hours to avoid the worst heat of the day.

Further north, the Dutch meteorological institute KNMI said July was on track to be the hottest month in the Netherlands since temperatures were first measured in 1706.

Average daily temperatures in the first 24 days of the month were 22.3 degrees Celsius (72.1 Fahrenheit) compared with the previous record of 21.4 degrees in July 1994 and normal average temperatures of 17.4, the KNMI said.

Dutch temperature records, launched at the beginning of the 18th century, are among the oldest in the world. Methodical thermometer-based records began on a more global basis around 1850.

Dutch meteorologists say they cannot make a direct link between global warming and the heatwave in Europe although the KNMI has forecast a clear warming trend over the next 50 years and increasingly frequent heatwaves.

Temperatures in the Netherlands rose as high as 36 to 37 degrees last week, when two people died during a walking event.