Volcano in Chile shows signs of eruption

Eruptions of smoke and ash from Chile's Chaiten renew fears among population. Chile's Chaiten volcano spews smoke and ash, renewing fears of residents and authorities who witnessed massive eruptions from the volcano in May.

After several weeks of relative calm, Chile's Chaiten volcano, groaned and rumbled on Thursday (July 31), shooting out ash and causing renewed fears among residents and authorities. Regional director of the National Geological and Mine Service, Jorge Munoz, said that the volcano had registered 105 tremors, many with relatively strong intensity coming in at roughly 4.0 on the Richter scale. "Well, there are two scenarios," said Munoz after surveying Chaiten from the air. "One scenario is very concrete - it is that the eruption is ending, the first cycle of the eruption is ending and we can in relation with the high seismic activity that we currently have, have the probability in a hypothesis that a second cycle could begin."

Dark clouds again blankets Mt Anak Krakatau

Serang, Banten, (ANTARA News) - Dark clouds again blanketed Mount Anak Krakatau on Sunday, making vulconological officers unable to visually monitor its activities."Since the past three months, the volcano`s activities have not been clearly visible as dark clouds are blanketing it," Andi, an officer in charge of monitoring the volcano`s activities, said on Sunday.

Magnitude 5.0 - FLORES REGION, INDONESIA
2008 August 04 03:26:50 UTC
Magnitude 5.0 struck off Flores, Indonesia

Magnitude 5.8 - KURIL ISLANDS
2008 August 04 04:42:14 UTC

Magnitude 5.1 - NORTHWEST OF THE RYUKYU ISLANDS
2008 August 04 10:25:59 UTC


Magnitude 5.5 - NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
2008 August 04 15:16:53 UTC


Magnitude 5.2 - CRETE, GREECE
2008 August 04 19:38:26 UTC


Magnitude 3.7 - CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
2008 August 04 20:03:24 UTC
Small quake strikes on the eastern side of Sierra


Magnitude 6.3 - BANDA SEA
2008 August 04 20:45:13 UTC
Magnitude 6.3 Quake Hits Indonesia's Banda Sea Area, USGS Says


***

Magnitude 5.0 - NORTHWEST OF THE RYUKYU ISLANDS
2008 August 05 01:00:51 UTC

Magnitude 4.3 - GULF OF CALIFORNIA
2008 August 05 07:19:01 UTC

Magnitude 6.0 - SICHUAN-GANSU BORDER REGION, CHINA
2008 August 05 09:49:17 UTC

Three killed in China aftershock

Three people were killed and thousands of houses destroyed by a powerful aftershock in China's Sichuan province.

Magnitude 5.3 - ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
2008 August 05 10:08:12 UTC

UPDATE 1-5.5 magnitude earthquake hits Indian Ocean

Magnitude 4.3 - NORTHERN XINJIANG, CHINA
2008 August 05 17:06:51 UTC


Magnitude 5.0 - SOUTHERN QINGHAI, CHINA
2008 August 05 21:59:45 UTC

Magnitude 2.6 - TENNESSEE
2008 August 05 22:04:33 UTC

Magnitude 5.2 - KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION
2008 August 05 23:05:27 UTC


***

Magnitude 4.6 - HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN
2008 August 06 08:26:52 UTC


Magnitude 5.1 - SOLOMON ISLANDS
2008 August 06 08:38:33 UTC

Magnitude 4.6 - OFFSHORE EL SALVADOR
2008 August 06 08:51:26 UTC

Magnitude 2.1 - ARKANSAS

2008 August 06 18:31:16 UTC

Magnitude 3.8 - DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
2008 August 06 18:30:21 UTC

Magnitude 5.9 - SUMBAWA REGION, INDONESIA
2008 August 06 22:41:01 UTC

Strong Indonesian quake causes damage, injuries

JAKARTA - A STRONG earthquake rattled Indonesia's eastern Sumbawa island early on Thursday, damaging around 1,200 buildings and injuring at least five people, officials said.

3.4 in Spain

***


Federal workers ask to leave volcanic island

ADAK -- Two U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees requested to be evacuated from Kasatochi Island in the Aleutians after seismic activity in the area, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

The island, about 50 miles east of Adak, was reportedly experiencing tremors and volcanic uncertainty, which prompted the Alaska Volcano Observatory to issue an advisory in the area.

See link further down for the eruption.


Magnitude 5.3 - SOLOMON ISLANDS
2008 August 07 00:05:57 UTC


Magnitude 5.4 - GULF OF CALIFORNIA
2008 August 07 02:18:13 UTC
Terremoto Golfo California


Magnitude 5.1 - LUZON, PHILIPPINES
2008 August 07 06:03:27 UTC
Quake 5.1 Richter shank Luzon, Philippines


Magnitude 5.2 - FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
2008 August 07 07:27:45 UTC


Magnitude 5.1 - SICHUAN-GANSU BORDER REGION, CHINA
2008 August 07 08:15:35 UTC
Earthquake hits China's Sichuan province


Magnitude 3.5 - NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
2008 August 07 18:11:38 UTC


Magnitude 5.8 - ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
2008 August 07 18:30:02 UTC


Magnitude 5.1 - CENTRAL EAST PACIFIC RISE
2008 August 07 22:58:33 UTC


***


Kasatochi volcano erupts in Aleutians

The Alaska Volcano Observatory has issued a red alert for planes flying near the Kasatochi volcano in the Aleutian islands after a major eruption Thursday sent ash plume 45,000 feet into the air.

The 2-square-mile Kasatochi island about 50 miles west of Adak is uninhabited.

Kasatochi is one of three Aleutian volcanos currently erupting. Okmok began erupting July 12. Mount Cleveland erupted July 21.

Magnitude 4.4 - EASTERN HONSHU, JAPAN
2008 August 08 03:57:17 UTC
Tokyo hit by mild quake, 2 injured


Magnitude 5.3 - KEPULAUAN MENTAWAI REGION, INDONESIA
2008 August 08 07:32:53 UTC


Magnitude 4.0 - OFF THE COAST OF OREGON
2008 August 08 10:07:59 UTC


Magnitude 3.2 - CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
2008 August 08 13:13:46 UTC


Magnitude 4.9 - HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN
2008 August 08 13:59:03 UTC


Magnitude 4.1 - QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS REGION
2008 August 08 15:41:38 UTC


Magnitude 4.6 - WESTERN XIZANG
2008 August 08 21:48:57 UTC


Magnitude 5.0 - TAIWAN REGION
2008 August 08 22:05:15 UTC


***

***

Newly Named Peralta Hills Fault Blamed for Tuesday’s Quake

CHINO HILLS -- Scientists analyzing reams of data generated by last week's 5.4 magnitude earthquake have pinpointed the epicenter and given Californians a new fault to worry about, it was reported today.

The Peralta Hills Fault is believed to be the stress point that gave way at 11:42 a.m. Tuesday, rattling silverware from Las Vegas to Tijuana, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported.
...
The Peralta Hills Fault is capable of a a 6.5 magnitude quake, but the Whittier and Chino faults could generate a 7.5 quake, Fife said. Because the magnitude scale is a logarithmic measurement, that 7.5 potential quake would be about 1,448 times more powerful than Tuesday's little shaker.

Deadly San Andreas Fault Longer Than Thought

Tuesday's magnitude 5.4 quake in greater Los Angeles occurred along one of many lesser known fault lines that fan out from the San Andreas like glass fractures.

The new finding, meanwhile, adds 18 miles (30 kilometers) of earthquake potential to the deadly major fault that devastated San Francisco and Loma Prieta in 1906 and 1989, respectively.

A scientist discovered the San Andreas Fault was longer while he was studying boiling pools of mud called mud pots and small, erupting mud volcanoes near the Salton Sea (learn more), a saltwater lake about 165 miles (265 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles.

California not ready for the ‘Big One’
The coastal state, which scientists say experiences a major temblor every 150 years, is ‘10 months pregnant’ for a high-magnitude quake

Jones is the prime mover behind November’s Great Southern California ShakeOut, described as the nation’s biggest ever earthquake drill. If all goes to plan, millions of southern Californians will declaim the mantra of “Drop, cover and hold on” as they simulate their response to a 7.8-magnitude earthquake on the San Andreas fault, southeast of Los Angeles.

The earthquake model devised for the ShakeOut is, to put it mildly, alarming. Every 150 years, the southern San Andreas fault experiences an earthquake of the magnitude envisaged by the study. The last one was 151 years ago. As one seismologist noted last year, the fault “is 10 months
pregnant.”

“It’s absolutely inevitable,” Jones said. “The only question is whether it is in our lifetime.”

One recent study by the US Geological Survey put the likelihood of such an event happening in the next 30 years at 46 percent. The probability of a 6.7 magnitude quake was estimated at 99 percent.

According to Jones, the Big One in her model will cause 1,800 deaths and US$213 billion in economic losses. That’s the good news. The bad news is far more scary. The initial tremor will cause buildings to collapse, freeways to buckle, pipes to burst, craters to open in the ground, and fires to start.

Tokyo quake 'to leave 530,000 homeless'

Up to 220,000 households, or 530,000 people, would remain homeless for about six months if a major earthquake with an epicenter located beneath the Tokyo metropolitan area hit Tokyo and its vicinity, according to a report by a team of academics.

The team, comprising researchers of Tokyo University and Tokyo Institute of Technology, warns in a report that temporary and rental housing available after a massive quake would not be sufficient to accommodate those who have lost their homes.

Therefore, it is important to make homes more earthquake-resistant ahead of a major disaster, it said.

Yellowstone supervolcano is only lukewarm

How hot is the Yellowstone hotspot? At 80 kilometres beneath the Earth's surface it's about 1450 °C, say researchers – which, for a supervolcano, is only lukewarm.

That doesn't mean we won't get another eruption. The last explosion, some 642,000 years ago, created the Yellowstone caldera and blanketed half of the present day US in ash.

But Derek Schutt of Colorado State University believes the relatively tepid temperature means the supervolcano could be on its last legs.

Yellowstone National Park in the US is one of a few dozen volcanic hotspots around the world, along with the likes of Hawaii and Iceland.

6+ quakes in China and Indonesia this week... but there is likely to be worse.

Paper, rapped for outing Obama note, claims campaign pre-approved leak

What initially seemed to be a journalistic scoop of dubious moral propriety now seems to be a case of an Israeli paper being played by the Barack Obama campaign. Maariv, the second most popular newspaper in Israel, was roundly criticized for publishing the note Obama left in the Kotel. But now a Maariv spokesperson says that publication of the note was pre-approved for international publication by the Obama campaign, leading to the conclusion that the "private" prayer was intentionally leaked for public consumption.

This absolutely turns my stomach.



Obama's Symbolic Importance

In his closed door meeting with House Democrats Tuesday night, presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama delivered a real zinger, according to a witness, suggesting that he was beginning to believe his own hype.

Obama was waxing lyrical about last week's trip to Europe, when he concluded, according to the meeting attendee, "this is the moment, as Nancy [Pelosi] noted, that the world is waiting for."

The 200,000 souls who thronged to his speech in Berlin came not just for him, he told the enthralled audience of congressional representatives. "I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions," he said, according to the source.

Hopium helps you forget several unpleasant facts


...
"

I never thought it could happen to me," says a shaggy blond-haired surfer dude in the ad, a guy who should have carried a bong."I've been living with it for a while now," says a young woman, talking as if she'd contracted a sexually transmitted disease.

That's how they discuss hopium. Like a disease. But they have nothing to be guilty about. It's not some disease that cranky old Republicans can't get because they stopped having sex.

It's hopium.

Once you see it, you won't be the only one addicted to hope. You'll all become addicted—you, your family and friends, even your pets, except for various crustaceans in your aquarium, which are immune. But you and yours are not immune. You'll all become hope-heads, together.

It's America's most powerful drug. Once on hopium, you won't care if Iran has nukes or if taxes are raised during a recession or whether Obama keeps flipping and flopping on everything from foreign wiretaps to withdrawing troops from Iraq.

Who cares? Relax. Hopium is your friend.

Obama backs away from McCain's debate challenge

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic candidate Barack Obama on Saturday backed away from rival John McCain's challenge for a series of joint appearances, agreeing
only to the standard three debates in the fall.

In May, when a McCain adviser proposed a series of pre-convention appearances at town hall meetings, Obama said, "I think that's a great idea." In summer stumping on the campaign trail, McCain has often noted that Obama had not followed through and joined him in any events.

Obama really doesn’t like a debate

Barack Obama got stung by a challenge from a Las Vegas reporter on his energy policy, and specifically on his efforts to paint John McCain as a lackey of Dick Cheney. Jon Ralston asked Obama about the contradiction inherent in this strategy — the fact that Obama voted for Cheney’s energy bill in 2005 while McCain voted against it. Obama stammered out an accusation that Ralston was a proxy for McCain:

Be sure you watch the video.



Could Obama still lose the nomination?

Will Hillary outsmart Obama and take the nomination at the last minute?

Many of us familiar with Hillary Clinton's approach to achieving her goals refused to believe that she ever gave up all hope of winning the nomination and the presidency. Her words and actions on the subject of the convention itself always left the door open for a return, should Obama falter or suffer some calamity.

Her artful evasions were enough to lull journalists and (more importantly) Obama and his supporters into the presumption of inevitability. No further rumblings of a mass protest in Denver should the first black candidate be denied his rightful due were heard. After all, he received enough publicly expressed support from super delegates to put him over the top. And he won the popular vote in the primaries, we were assured, lending legitimacy to the super delegates who voiced their support.

Everyone presumed the presumptive nominee was a lock.

Now there are a few signs that Hillary may be making her move.

China welcomes IOC as attack kills 16

BEIJING - With only four days to the opening of the 2008 Summer Games and Beijing wrapped in a heavy cocoon of security, Chinese President Hu Jintao gave no hint of concern that a deadly terrorist attack in the restive Xianjiang province would affect the Olympics.

Instead, as officers in the remote city of Kashgar continued to probe a grenade attack that killed 16 police officers, Hu welcomed International Olympic Committee members to the opening of the annual IOC session with a lavish ceremony at the National Centre for the Performing Arts.

Chinese separatists blamed for police grenade massacre

The two men who killed 16 policemen in the Kashgar massacre were today identified as members of an ethic group engaged in a shadowy insurgency in China’s north-western Xinjiang region.

The attackers, aged 28 and 33, were overcome and arrested at the scene and have been confirmed as Uighurs, a predominantly Muslim Turkic people, who make up the majority of Xinjiang’s 20 million population.

Although the official media did not spell it out there appears to be little doubt that they were members of the insurgency seeking to break Xinjiang away from China and establish an independent Islamic state of “East Turkistan”.

The Road to Beijing, Part I
By Jay Nordlinger
The Road to Beijing, Part II
The Road to Beijing, Part III
The Road to Beijing, Part IV
Part five tomorrow.


Olympic Athletes: Faith More Important than Gold Medals

It takes years of sweat, pain and determination to qualify for the Olympics, but some of the world’s top athletes heading to Beijing want the world to know there is something more important than winning gold medals – a relationship with God.

Three American Christians Released from Custody After Arrests in Beijing

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 /Christian Newswire/ -- Three Christian activists were arrested in Tiananmen Square and forcibly taken into custody after displaying a banner that read "Jesus Christ Is King" in both English and Chinese. They were later released.

Rev. Pat Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition in Washington DC, Brandi Swindell of Generation Life in Boise, Idaho, and Michael McMonagle, National Director of Generation Life were standing in solidarity with the victims of human rights abuses, including forced abortion, religious persecution of Christians, and other denials of fundamental civil liberties.

World leaders gather for Olympics

Leaders and dignitaries from around the world are gathering in Beijing for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

Some 11,000 athletes from 205 countries will compete in more than 300 events over the next two-and-a-half weeks.

But the lead-up to the Games has been overshadowed by issues such as China's human rights record, internet access, and air pollution in Beijing.

***

Please, please pray for the persecuted church in China. Pray for the believers who will be there for the games, both as athletes and as workers and tourists. Pray that God will glorify His Name mightily in this time, and that He would draw more people to Him.

Pakistani scientist alive, in custody

WASHINGTON - Five years after her disappearance, an MIT-trained Pakistani neuroscientist accused of belonging to an Al Qaeda cell based in Boston, is alive and in custody in Afghanistan, her family's attorney said yesterday.

"It has been confirmed by the FBI that Aafia Siddiqui is alive," said Elaine Whitfield Sharp, a lawyer for Siddiqui's family, who said she spoke to an FBI official on Thursday. "She is injured but alive, and she is in Afghanistan."

Accused spy targeted because he's Jewish, report says

A Detroit-area military engineer accused in 1997 of passing secrets to the Israelis was targeted because of his Orthodox Jewish faith, the Defense Department's Office of Inspector General said in a report.

The report said David Tenenbaum, 50, of Southfield, who was suspected but never formally charged with espionage involving his job at the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) in Warren, was singled out because he is an observant Jew.

Tenenbaum's lawyer, Mayer Morganroth of Southfield, said the bogus investigation prompted the Army to scrap Tenenbaum's 1995 project to improve the armor on Humvees, a decision that proved fatal to American troops who were sent to Iraq and Afghanistan in woefully inadequate fighting vehicles.

"The discrimination in this case ended up costing American soldiers their lives," Morganroth said.

Morganroth's associate, Daniel Harold, said Tenenbaum's persecutors "have blood on their hands."

Tenenbaum and his lawyers said the report proves that he was innocent and the victim of anti-Semitism.

Hamas' Christian convert: I've left a society that sanctifies terror

A moment before beginning his supper, Masab, son of West Bank Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef, glances at the friend who has accompanied him to the restaurant where we met. They whisper a few words and then say grace, thanking God and Jesus for putting food on their plates.

It takes a few seconds to digest this sight: The son of a Hamas MP who is also the most popular figure in that extremist Islamic organization, a young man who assisted his father for years in his political activities, has become a rank-and-file Christian. "I'm now called Joseph," he says at the outset.

Masab knows that he has little hope of returning to visit the Holy Land in this lifetime.

"I know that I'm endangering my life and am even liable to lose my father, but I hope that he'll understand this and that God will give him and my family patience and willingness to open their eyes to Jesus and to Christianity. Maybe one day I'll be able to return to Palestine and to Ramallah with Jesus, in the Kingdom of God."

Saudis to Christians: Get out!
Those accused of worshipping in homes ordered deported

More than a dozen Christians in Saudi Arabia who were accused by government officials of worshipping in their homes have been ordered deported.

According to a report from International Christian Concern, the Christians will be expelled tomorrow for their part in a home worship service in Taif in April.

The deportation conflicts with the message stated just weeks earlier by Saudi King Abdullah, who called for interfaith dialogue and held a summit in Spain with a representatives from several major religions.

"Deporting Christians for worshipping in their private homes shows that King Abdullah's speech is mere rhetoric and his country is deceiving the international community about their desire for change and reconciliation," said Jeff King, the president of ICC.

Coup demonstrations in Mauritania

Demonstrations have been taking place in Mauritania both for and against the coup that overthrew the country's first democratically elected president.

Police in the capital, Nouakchott, broke up a protest by hundreds of people against the coup leader, General Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz.

Earlier, about 1,000 people had marched through the capital chanting the general's name. The African Union has demanded the president's release.

President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi was detained by renegade soldiers on Wednesday after he tried to dismiss four senior army officers - including Mr Abdelaziz, the head of the presidential guard.

Pakistan Government Seeks to Oust President Musharraf

Aug. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan's coalition government said it will impeach President Pervez Musharraf, nine years after the former army chief seized power in a bloodless coup.

The nation's two largest parties ended five months of infighting and said they are united and have enough votes to oust Musharraf. An impeachment, unprecedented in Pakistan's 61- year history, would remove a central figure in President George W. Bush's "global war on terror.''

"God willing, we will have the numbers,'' said Asif Ali Zardari, head of the Pakistan Peoples Party, the coalition's leader, in remarks to reporters. He added that the coalition parties "have the courage and we have the political will.''

Judge Orders Detroit Mayor Jailed

DETROIT — Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick was sent to the county jail on Thursday and will spend at least one night there as punishment for violating his bond.

Mr. Kilpatrick is fighting perjury and other felony charges, but has refused calls to resign. Judge Ronald Giles of the 36th District Court in Detroit ordered that the mayor be jailed because of a visit he made on July 23 to Windsor, Ontario, on the opposite shore of the Detroit River, for what he said was city business.

The mayor’s lawyers sought an immediate appeal, but the Circuit Court judge who will take up the matter put off a hearing until Friday morning.

*****

*****

Are you prepared for an emergency?

Do you have a family emergency plan, meeting place? Do you have a three-day supply of food and water? Do you have an evacuation kit ready to go?

According to emergency preparedness officials, these are just a few of the things every household should have at the ready in the case of an emergency. Unfortunately, many Americans are not prepared for the unexpected, whether it is a chemical spill down the street, a house fire, a pandemic or a hurricane.

Mexico City poor plant vegetables to lower food costs

MEXICO CITY: Under the rule of the ancient Aztecs, Mexico City was a maze of canals and floating gardens that grew corn and beans to feed the masses.

Hundreds of years later, the government of this concrete metropolis of 20 million people is promoting urban vegetable gardens as a way to ease the burden of soaring food prices faced by poor families.

Leftist Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, who is behind a string of crowd-pleasers like cycle lanes, artificial beaches and an outdoor ice rink, has sent groups of gardening experts out to build community gardens.

Over 20 urban vegetable patches have been planted since last year, some in areas formerly used to dump trash, and the city government wants to build at least 20 more.

"We see this as a pilot project that could explode across the city," said program director Pedro Ponce, an agronomist.

OPEC plans no output increase for winter

President of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Chakib Khelil, has ruled out the possibility of a rise in crude output.

In a recent speech, Khelil said OPEC will not consider increasing oil production during the winter unless it sees a significant rise in demand.

Manager of Webb's Roanoke office found dead

ROANOKE -- An aide to U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., was found shot dead beside a Botetourt County road yesterday morning. A gun was found beneath his body.

Botetourt investigators are not calling Frederick Wayne Hutchins Jr.'s death either a suicide or a murder, saying they are awaiting autopsy results from the state medical examiner's office in Roanoke.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn dies at 89

Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who exposed Stalin's prison system in his novels and spent 20 years in exile, has died near Moscow at the age of 89.

The author of The Gulag Archipelago and One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich, who returned to Russia in 1994, died of either a stroke or heart failure.




Alexander Solzhenitsyn
at Harvard Class Day Afternoon Exercises,
Thursday, June 8, 1978

...
A Decline in Courage [. . .]
may be the most striking feature which an outside observer notices in the West in our days. The Western world has lost its civil courage, both as a whole and separately, in each country, each government, each political party and of course in the United Nations. Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling groups and the intellectual elite, causing an impression of loss of courage by the entire society. Of course there are many courageous individuals but they have no determining influence on public life. Political and intellectual bureaucrats show depression, passivity and perplexity in their actions and in their statements and even more so in theoretical reflections to explain how realistic, reasonable as well as intellectually and even morally warranted it is to base state policies on weakness and cowardice. And decline in courage is ironically emphasized by occasional explosions of anger and inflexibility on the part of the same bureaucrats when dealing with weak governments and weak countries, not supported by anyone, or with currents which cannot offer any resistance. But they get tongue-tied and paralyzed when they deal with powerful governments and threatening forces, with aggressors and international terrorists.

Should one point out that from ancient times decline in courage has been considered the beginning of the end?



SPIEGEL INTERVIEW WITH ALEXANDER SOLZHENITSYN
'I Am Not Afraid of Death'

...
SPIEGEL: All your life you have called on the authorities to repent for the millions of victims of the gulag and communist terror. Was this call really heard?
Solzhenitsyn: I have grown used to the fact that, throughout the world, public repentance is the most unacceptable option for the modern politician.




Warning to the West (Words of Warning to the Western World)

...
One cannot think only in the low level of political calculations. It's necessary to think also of what is noble, and what is honorable - not only what is profitable. Resourceful western legal scholars have now introduced the term "legal realism." By legal realism, they want to push aside any moral evaluation of affairs. They say, "Recognize realities; if such and such laws have been established in such and such countries by violence, these laws still must be recognized and respected."

At the present time it is widely accepted among lawyers that law is higher than morality - law is something which is worked out and developed, whereas morality is something inchoate and amorphous. That isn't the case. The opposite is rather true! Morality is higher than law! While law is our human attempt to embody in rules a part of that moral sphere which is above us. We try to understand this morality, bring it down to earth and present it in a form of laws. Sometimes we are more successful, sometimes less. Sometimes you actually have a caricature of morality, but morality is always higher than law. This view must never be abandoned. We must accept it with heart and soul.

It is almost a joke now in the western world, in the 20th century, to use words like "good" and "evil." They have become almost old-fashioned concepts, but they are very real and genuine concepts. These are concepts from a sphere which is higher than us. And instead of getting involved in base, petty, shortsighted political calculations and games we have to recognize that the concentration of World Evil and the tremendous force of hatred is there and it's flowing from there throughout the world. And we have to stand up against it and not hasten to give to it, give to it, give to it, everything that it wants to swallow.

Mystery Fatal Hemorrhagic Disease in Shandong China
Recombinomics Commentary 03:05July 28, 2008

"China reported that approximately 20 days ago, a man suddenly died from an unidentified disease in Wanjiakou Village, Xiaoguan Town, Wendeng City, Shandong
Province. His entire body turned dark purple, and he bled from his mouth, nostrils, ears, and eyes just as he died. Shortly after the man died, 2 other men who been in contact with him, died showing the same symptoms. Villagers who had left the village to work said "3 people died 10 days ago. 6 or 7 more are being treated in the Wendeng Central Hospital. People have been to the area to investigate, but they are unable to classify the disease."

CDC: More Americans HIV-positive than previously believed

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- There are more new cases of Americans infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, than previously believed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Saturday.

About 56,000 people became infected with HIV in the past year, which translates to about 40 percent more cases than officials had estimated, said Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of the CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention.

Previous CDC estimates suggested about 40,000 new people were infected each year. But those estimates used "limited data and less precise methods," said the center, which is now using technology capable of determining when someone was infected.

The new method can indicate whether someone has been infected with HIV during the previous five months, rather than relying on statistical models. Diagnosis of HIV can occur years after infection, he said.

"The fact that 56,000 Americans each year are contracting HIV for the first time is a wake-up call for all of us in the U.S.," Fenton said.

*****

Storm downs trees, shatters windows

A series of storms packing 75 mph winds and tennis-ball -sized hail shattered windows, damaged houses and snapped trees like toothpicks across North Dakota Wednesday night and into early Thursday morning.

A cold front moving east across the western part of the state collided with a warm front moving north from South Dakota, and the collision spawned the series of storms that battered the state, said National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Abeling.

Chaos: Storm wreaks havoc on East Texas

A storm that rolled through East Texas Sunday afternoon brought along chaos in addition to heavy rain, thunder and lightning, sending area police and fire departments scrambling to provide assistance.

Firefighters from several local departments responded Sunday afternoon to a report of an oil well explosion in the Moffett community. A Hazmat team had also been dispatched to the scene.

Firefighters battle an oil well explosion in Moffett on Sunday afternoon. Several area fire departments responded to the fire that was sparked by lightning from Sunday?s
thunderstorm. Firefighters said they think the fire started when lightning struck the wells, sparking what Steve Lumbley, Moffett fire chief, called a "very dangerous situation."

The two roughly 5,000-gallon tanks boasted towering flames that sent a dark smoke cloud drifting high over the area.

"If one of these wells splits a seam, we'll have burning oil cover the area like a volcano," Lumbley said.

Ill wind: Freak tornado kills three in French town

The bodies of a man and a woman were pulled from the wreckage of their home yesterday, after a tornado tore through northern France, ripping off roofs, overturning cars and destroying dozens of houses.

The couple were believed to be the deputy mayor of Hautmont, which was at the epicentre of the tornado near the Belgian border, and his wife.

Earlier the body of an elderly woman was also discovered. She was thought to have died when her home collapsed on top of her. Thirteen other people were injured.

Violent storms spawn tornadoes in Chicago area

CHICAGO (AP) — Crews began cleaning up downed trees and restoring power across northern Illinois on Tuesday after a line of powerful storms ripped through the area, spawning at least two tornadoes.

The National Weather Service confirmed that tornadoes touched down in the Chicago suburbs of Bloomingdale and Bolingbrook late Monday. A third tornado touched down in Griffith, Ind.

A tornado and other high winds damaged 25 homes, including two left uninhabitable when winds ripped off parts of roofs, said Bolingbrook Assistant Fire Chief Robert Mierop. No one was injured.

Strong winds also damaged buildings and flooded streets across the northern part of the state late Monday, and lightning is being blamed for several fires.

Another line of thunderstorms left tens of thousands without power early Tuesday in north-central Illinois.

*****

Southern California Hot Spot Hits 812 Degrees, Baffles Experts


Scientists puzzle over source of county hot spots


Ventura County hot spot puzzles experts

A patch of land in Ventura County's section of Los Padres National Forest where the ground recently heated up to 812 degrees continues to puzzle firefighters and geologists after weeks of monitoring."It's a thermal anomaly," said Ron Oatman, spokesman for the Ventura County Fire Department.

Firefighters responded to reports of a blaze there a month and a half ago, when observers noticed smoke rising from the parched scrub. But when they arrived, they found no flames.

Firefighters and geologists who have surveyed the area in the Sespe Oil Field are uncertain what's causing the heat, but they do have a theory.

Allen King, a retired geologist with the U.S. Forest Service who went to the site Friday, said the smoking ground is "a normal occurrence" that does not appear to be the result of human activity.

Biometric database to be formed in Israel
Government approves bill calling for creation of database of all Israeli citizens. Data to include fingerprints, computerized facial features embedded on IDs, passports



Coming soon to the rest of the West!






Shin Bet Head: Israel Abandoning Jerusalem Neighborhoods

(IsraelNN.com) Israel has abandoned several eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods within the separation barrier, leaving them without army or police patrols, according to Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) chief Yuval Diskin.Neighborhoods are being abandoned…and it leaves a vacuum where Hamas operates.

"Neighborhoods are being abandoned…and it leaves a vacuum where Hamas operates," he added. Smuggling of weapons has increased, and police find it more difficult to deploy forces in neighborhoods where the terrorist infrastructure has strengthened.

Public Security Minister Avi Dichter (Kadima) pointed out that 20 percent of terrorist attacks in the past five years involved Arab residents of eastern Jerusalem. He explained that a dramatic change has occurred this year, raising a red flag through the direct involvement in terrorist attacks by Arabs who live within the separation barrier.

Three attacks this year that resulted in the deaths of 11 Jews were carried out by eastern Jerusalem Arabs who acted on their own, without any apparent ties to an organized terrorist movement. "It is extremely difficult to foresee and to prevent these types of attacks," Dichter noted.

Olmert's Last Trick

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's announcement that he intends to resign following his party's mid-September primaries to select a new leader was greeted graciously across the Israeli political spectrum. Even political rivals commended Mr. Olmert for displaying courage and dignity in acknowledging his inability to continue leading the country under a pall of police investigations into his alleged corruption. In fact, though, Mr. Olmert may be about to embark on one of the most politically corrupt maneuvers in Israel's history.

According to aides, Mr. Olmert intends in the coming weeks to intensify negotiations with both Syrian and Palestinian leaders. He knows, of course, that what remains of his term is hardly enough time to reach an agreement on either track. Instead, he seeks to create the foundation for a future agreement -- hoping, aides say, to ensure that he isn't remembered only as the prime minister removed from office by scandal.

But there could be a more nefarious motive at work: that Mr. Olmert will use peace negotiations to prolong his stay in office. According to this scenario, neither of Mr. Olmert's likely successors, Foreign Minister Tzippi Livni or Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, is likely to create a stable coalition. The collapse of the government would then be followed by elections, which, polls say, would result in a victory for Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr. Olmert may believe that progress toward a peace agreement with either the Palestinians or the Syrians will convince the all-powerful Israeli media -- overwhelmingly left-wing and deeply antagonistic to Mr. Netanyahu -- to support his continuation in office.

Syria closes in on peace deal with Israel

The Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert is racing to conclude a peace deal with Syria before he steps down from office in a few months.

Syria is close to agreeing to “normal relations” in the words of its president, Bashar al-Assad, and to disengage from Iran in return for an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Golan Heights. The outline of a deal was reached in talks brokered by the Turks, according to reports in Israel.

“We [Syria and Israel] desire to recognise each other and end the state of war. Let us make peace . . . let us end, once and for all, the state of war,” Imad Mustafa, Syria’s ambassador to the United States, told a Washington audience last week.

Assad, who is due to visit Tehran this weekend, is expected to inform his Iranian partners that Damascus has opted to loosen its links with them and move closer to Israel. The meeting is likely to be a difficult one since Iran has been financing the rebuilding of Syria’s armed forces and a mutual defence pact has only recently been ratified.

Israel warns Russia: We'll neutralize S-300 if sold to Iran

If Russia goes through with the sale of its most advanced anti-aircraft missile system to Iran, Israel will use an electronic warfare device now under development to neutralize it and as a result present Russia as vulnerable to air infiltrations, a top defense official has told The Jerusalem Post.

The Russian system, called the S-300, is one of the most advanced multi-target anti-aircraft-missile systems in the world today and has a reported ability to track up to 100 targets simultaneously while engaging up to 12 at the same time. It has a range of about 200 kilometers and can hit targets at altitudes of 27,000 meters.

While Russia has denied that it sold the system to Iran, Teheran claimed last year that Moscow was preparing to equip the Islamic Republic with S-300 systems. Iran already has TOR-M1 surface-to-air missiles from Russia.

Iran Threatens Strait of Hormuz
Key Oil Shipping Passage Could Be Blocked for a Month

WASHINGTON — Two days after a diplomatic deadline passed for Iran to end the reprocessing and enrichment of uranium, the chief of the country's Revolutionary Guard force is threatening to close down one of the world's most critical oil shipping passageways, the Strait of Hormuz.

A picture released by Irna news agency shows military ships and helicopters of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards during maneuvers in April 2006 off Larak Island in the Gulf Sea.

The Revolutionary Guard commander, Mohammad Ali Jafari, spoke to Iranian reporters after testing a new antiship missile that he said could sink "enemy ships" at a range of more than 200 miles. He said shutting down the Strait of Hormuz would be easy.

"Enemies know that we are easily able to block the Strait of Hormuz for an unlimited period," Iran's official news service, the Islamic Republic News Agency, quoted Major General Jafari as saying.

'2 US aircraft carriers headed for Gulf'

Two additional United States naval aircraft carriers are heading to the Gulf and the Red Sea, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper Kuwait Times.

Kuwait began finalizing its "emergency war plan" on being told the vessels were bound for the region.

The US Navy would neither confirm nor deny that carriers were en route. US Fifth Fleet Combined Maritime Command located in Bahrain said it could not comment due to what a spokesman termed "force-protection policy."

While the Kuwaiti daily did not name the ships it believed were heading for the Middle East, The Media Line's defense analyst said they could be the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the USS Ronald Reagan.

Gog and Magog.

Typhoons forecast during games

Up to three typhoons may strike during the Olympic Games competition in the Chinese coastal city of Qingdao, if Beijing weather experts are right.

The Beijing Meteorological Bureau today said five or six typhoons were forecast to form off the east coast of China during August, with two to three expected to make landfall.

"According to our forecasts, in August we may have two to three typhoons landing on our coastal areas and that might affect Shanghai, Qingdao and Hong Kong," said the deputy chief engineer of Beijing Meteorological Bureau, Wang Yubin.


***

I expect plenty more disasters in China as the games get closer.

Also, the earthquake map has been too quiet lately. I linked a lot of quakes earlier, but most of them were simply unusual for the area they were in, or a bit stronger than you might expect. I expect another 6+ in a populated area fairly soon.

Oh, man. Not a good week.


From Brazil:

Killer left victim's body in bathroom, showered, then went out to party


From Canada:

Man stabbed and decapitated on Canadian Greyhound bus


From Greece:

Gruesome crime shocks Greek isle


And from the UK: Justice for a similar crime last year:

Woman jailed for beheading rival


***

India temple stampede 'kills 140'

A rain shelter on the mountain path to the temple collapsed, triggering rumours of a landslide.

Many of the victims were children, trampled to death during the panic. Fifty more people were hurt and are being treated in hospital.

Somali Christian martyred

A Somali Christian has paid the ultimate price for his faith.

Hussein, the 28-year-old victim, had converted from the Muslim faith to Christianity. Jonathan Racho of International Christian Concern says he was confronted by Islamic extremists who demanded to know if he faces Mecca when he prays, which is required of Muslims.

"Hussein says he doesn't face Mecca when he prays because his God is omnipresent and he can face anywhere to pray," Racho recounts the incident. "[T]he extremists were very much enraged by his comments, and they killed him."

Upon learning that her husband had been shot to death, Hussein's wife went into premature labor and delivered a stillborn baby.

Hussein had been working as a teacher and was described as extremely successful in evangelizing the community.

Oregon Tells Patients State Will Pay for Assisted Suicide, Not Health Care

Salem, OR (LifeNews.com) -- It's happened again -- another Oregon resident has heard form state officials that it will happily pay for an assisted suicide but will not pay for the medical treatment he needs. For the second time in just over the last month, a patient has said the state health insurance plan has promoted death over medical care.

Randy Stroup is a 53-year-old Dexter, Oregon resident who faces a troubling bout of prostate cancer.

As an uninsured resident with a need for expensive chemotherapy he applied to the Oregon health insurance plan for help.

Lane Individual Practice Association administers the Oregon Health Plan in Stroup's county and they responded to his request with a letter saying the state would not cover the treatment but would pay for an assisted suicide."It dropped my chin to the floor," Stroup told FOX News.

"[How could they] not pay for medication that would help my life, and yet offer to pay to end my life?"

I've been busy and out of town, so I have much to catch up on, going back to Wednesday.


Residents evacuated as volcano belches ash and rocks
Wednesday July 30 2008

BRADES, Montserrat, (CMC) – Residents were evacuated from the southernmost part of the occupied safe zone of this British Overseas Territory after the lava dome of the Soufriere Hills volcano collapsed shortly before midnight Monday, sending ash more than 40,000 feet above sea level.

A brief statement issued by the Montserrat Volcano Observatory (MVO) said there had been “a partial dome collapse on the west side of the Soufriere Hills Volcano” shortly before 11:27 p.m. local time on Monday without any precursory activity.

Ecuador volcano update
Wednesday, 30 Jul 2008

Ecuador's Reventador volcano saw increased activity on Monday (July 28th 2008) with explosions, ash flow and burning lava in the crater area, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) reports. The volcano, in the Napo province of Ecuador, has been relatively quiet since last July. Now ash is reported as flowing towards the north-west and west.

Indonesia's Ground Zero expanding
A giant stinking lake of volcanic mud has made 50,000 people homeless and swallowed up villages and factories, writes David McNeill and Andre Vltchek

INDONESIANS CALL it Pompeii, or their own Ground Zero, a giant stinking lake of volcanic mud that has made 50,000 people homeless and relentlessly swallowed up villages, factories, schools, mosques and major transport arteries since it began bubbling out of the earth two years ago.

The planet's largest mud volcano spews 125,000 cubic metres of methane-rich sludge a day, enough to fill 50 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Today, the mud covers nearly 1,600 acres: about the size of Dublin's Phoenix Park, and shows no sign of slowing, despite being dammed by hastily erected 6m (20ft) walls.

Every week, hundreds of refugees from the Sidoarjo district of Java, about 18 miles from Indonesia's second-largest city of Surabaya, gather to pray for deliverance from what seems an almost biblical disaster.

Magnitude 3.0 - BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
2008 July 30 01:55:46 UTC

Magnitude 4.7 - GREECE
2008 July 30 05:02:59 UTC
Earthquake hits western Greece

Magnitude 5.3 - OAXACA, MEXICO
2008 July 30 10:23:35 UTC
5.1-magnitude earthquake jolts southern Mexico

Magnitude 4.2 - OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
2008 July 30 13:39:33 UTC

Magnitude 5.6 - SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION
2008 July 30 20:15:18 UTC

Magnitude 3.8 - NEVADA
2008 July 30 21:32:09 UTC


***


Magnitude 3.6 - PUGET SOUND REGION, WASHINGTON
2008 July 31 05:02:43 UTC
3.6 Quake Recorded Near Port Townsend Wednesday Night

Magnitude 5.1 - OFFSHORE EL SALVADOR
2008 July 31 06:31:50 UTC

Magnitude 2.5 - YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, WYOMING
2008 July 31 13:22:13 UTC

Quake swarm in park produces 2.5 temblor

***


Magnitude 4.8 - KYRGYZSTAN
2008 August 01 01:29:30 UTC

Magnitude 5.0 - PHILIPPINE ISLANDS REGION
2008 August 01 02:21:41 UTC

Magnitude 4.6 - POTOSI, BOLIVIA
2008 August 01 02:56:41 UTC

Magnitude 3.5 - OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
2008 August 01 02:30:08 UTC

Magnitude 4.9 - JUJUY, ARGENTINA
2008 August 01 06:18:39 UTC

Magnitude 5.7 - SICHUAN-GANSU BORDER REGION, CHINA
2008 August 01 08:32:43 UTC
China quake area hit by two strong aftershocks

Magnitude 5.5 - MINDORO, PHILIPPINES
2008 August 01 10:35:25 UTC
5.5 magnitude quake hits Calapan City

Magnitude 5.0 - TAIWAN
2008 August 01 18:55:47 UTC
Moderate earthquake strikes Taiwan

Magnitude 4.4 - HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN
2008 August 01 19:06:46 UTC

Earthquake jolts the northwest

***

Magnitude 2.3 - ALABAMA
2008 August 02 01:41:19 UTC

Magnitude 5.1 - RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN
2008 August 02 04:03:27 UTC

Magnitude 5.0 - FIJI
2008 August 02 15:34:26 UTC
Earthquake hits North

Magnitude 3.9 - OFF THE COAST OF OREGON
2008 August 02 20:13:06 UTC

3.0 Earthquake Hits Near Moreno Valley


***


Magnitude 5.2 - AEGEAN SEA
2008 August 03 00:39:17 UTC
Magnitude 4.1 - AEGEAN SEA
2008 August 03 00:52:55 UTC
Greece rattled by strong earthquake in Aegean

Magnitude 5.1 - RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN
2008 August 03 18:07:10 UTC

Magnitude 3.0 - NEVADA
2008 August 03 18:20:35 UTC

Assam flood situation grim

GUWAHATI: The flood situation in Assam continued to remain grim on Tuesday with the Brahmaputra and its tributaries flowing above the danger mark at several places. Officials here said the situation in worst-affected Lakhimpur district was still grim as a breached embankment had created havoc affecting over two lakh people.

The district authorities have rushed relief to the affected people and medical mobile vans were being sent to the affected areas.

Death Toll Reaches 22 In Ukrainian Rain, Flooding

Kiev, Ukraine (AHN) - Authorities said Monday more than 20 people died in the southwestern Ukraine due to non-stop rain and flooding.

An Emergency Situation spokesperson said 15 people died in southwestern Ukraine, seven died in the Chernivtsy region, including six children.

According to government spokesman Ihor Krol, there were at least five days of nonstop heavy rains, which caused the rivers to flood, more than 40,000 homes to flood and at least 30,000 people were relocated to higher ground.

About 900 bridges were destroyed due to flooding.

Flooding pressure on Thames Hospital

Thames Hospital is under pressure with many staff unable to get to work this morning due to the flooding, while others with family and property to attend to might have to leave early to avoid becoming stranded.

Area Manager Jacquie Mitchell said outpatient clinics were running as usual, however, some patients had been able to get to the hospital.

Women who were due to deliver babies were advised to keep in contact with their midwives, she said.

Heavy rains in Interior Alaska damage roads, spur flood warnings

FAIRBANKS -- Monday’s heavy rainfall in Interior Alaska left its mark on the Richardson Highway near 299 Mile -- about four miles south of Banner Creek -- and at the Bear Creek Bridge at 233 Mile.

The rains have also prompted flood warnings for the Salcha River in the middle and upper Tanana Valley and Fortymile Country that are in effect until 3 a.m. Wednesday.

Storm brings flash floods to Hattiesburg

Emergency crews are responding to flooding in several parts of Hattiesburg, including on U.S. 49 near the USM bridge where officials say the water is an estimated three feet deep.

Cars were floating under the bridge and traffic in both the north and south bound lanes were completely shut down at the bridge.

Weather better but 75 await rescue from N.M. flood

RUIDOSO, N.M. (AP) — More than 75 people stranded by massive flooding in and around this mountain resort town still awaited rescue Tuesday, but spirits rose as missing people were accounted for and the region made it through a day without rain, authorities said.

Police resolved up to five reports of missing people authorities had received Sunday as families reconnected after the chaos subsided, Ruidoso spokeswoman Darlene Hart said Tuesday. The weekend flooding, caused by the remnants of Hurricane Dolly, claimed the life of one man, a 20-year-old whose body was found Monday.

Local authorities and the National Guard have brought more than 580 people to safety since early Sunday, said Sherry Kamali, a spokeswoman with the state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. That figure does not include people who left their homes, cabins or campsites on their own.

Stress, insomnia seen in flood victims
[ya think?--Amanda]

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - Mental health professionals in flood-damaged areas are beginning to see the psychological toll last month's disaster is having on residents. They're seeing more cases of stress and insomnia, but warn that more mental health problems may not surface for many more months.

***


Drought putting farmers' livelihoods on the line

For the farmers and ranchers who make a living off of Colorado's arid topography, there's more at stake this drought year than browning lawns or serial sunburns.

It's their livelihood, and some are teetering on the brink.

Gov. Bill Ritter has asked the federal government for disaster assistance to help Colorado's farmers and ranchers in 22 counties who suffered through late-spring freezes and now are seeing their pastures and crops wither in the face of drought.

The designation would make farmers and ranchers eligible for low-interest loans to recover from their losses.

"This is the driest we've ever been up here," Chad Hart, Farm Services Agency executive director for Prowers and Bent County in southeastern Colorado, said today.

"Our drought monitors say we are at severe or exceptional drought, just about the worst you can get," Hart added. "We just aren't getting any rain. It's spreading like a virus."

Turning a buck on the big dry

As Australia's biggest river system dries up and sections of the country wonders where the next drop of water will come from, the drought is providing a lucrative boost for enterprising Australians.

Water tank makers and installers have been run off their feet, landscape gardeners have never had it so good and car wash entrepreneurs are raking it in.

And in many cases they are receiving government help.

Most states offer rebates of between $150 and $1,000 for water tanks and up to $500 towards grey water systems.

Mitch O'Sullivan, co-founder of Waterwall residential rainwater tanks, said the prominence given to the drought has directly correlated to business growth.

Cow power could generate electricity for millions, US study shows

Scientists have calculated for the first time how much of a country's electricity needs could be provided from the manure of cattle and other livestock.

They estimate that 3 per cent of America's total electricity demand could be created from animal waste, enough to power millions of homes and businesses.
...
Broken down and then burnt, the scientists estimate that the manure from hundreds of millions of livestock in America could produce approximately 100 billion kilowatt hours of electricity a year.

Bengal farmers in potato protest

Angry farmers in the Indian state of West Bengal have been dumping their potato crop on roads in protest against poor prices.

Farmers say they are selling at a loss because a bumper crop and lack of storage facilities has led to a dramatic fall in prices.

The West Bengal government is asking neighbouring Indian states to purchase potatoes from them.

The move comes as prices for other foods in Asia have soared.

Locusts in Zimbabwe

THE Department of Agricultural Technical Extension Services (Agritex) has urged farmers to guard against red locusts following an outbreak in some parts of the country.

In an interview with Sunday Business last Wednesday, Matabeleland North province Agritex officer, Mr Adolf Dube, said all the department provincial offices received correspondence instructing them to be on guard against red locust following reports of an outbreak in Mudzi and some parts of Mashonaland West.

Locusts Threaten to Inflict More Misery on Australian Farmers

Locusts are threatening to inflict more pain on some of the most drought-ravaged parts of eastern Australia. Hundreds of farmers have found beds of locust eggs and officials fear that many more have not been reported. Officials have said that recent wet weather has increased the risk of devastating locust activity. From Sydney, Phil Mercer reports.

Australia's last major locust outbreak occurred in 2004, when billions of these voracious creatures were hatched. They formed a 1,000-kilometer front that devastated huge areas of farmland, mainly in central parts of New South Wales.

There are fears that the start of this year's locust season in late September could bring more grief to farmers, who have endured a long-standing drought.The insects can inflict widespread and severe damage to pastures and cereal crops.

Al-Qaeda Terrorist Accuses Saudi King of Trying to 'Spawn a New Religion'

One of al-Qaeda’s more prominent members took a shot at Saudi Arabia’s king Monday, accusing him of wanting to “spawn a new religion” and issuing a call to kill him for having betrayed Islam.

In a video message posted on several Islamic websites, Afghanistan terrorist Abu Yahya al-Libi strongly criticized the recently-held inter-faith meeting that drew Islamic, Jewish, and Christian leaders to the city of Madrid.

"The Prophet (Muhammad) ordered us to drive unbelievers from the Arabian Peninsula,” he said, according to Italy-based Adnkronos International. “Today, the Saudi royal family is destroying our Islamic tenets by showing Muslims it is possible to spread Christian principles.

"By sitting side by side in public, they are taking part in the Crusader campaign,” Libi added.

Suspected Abu Sayyaf bandits kidnap 3 in Basilan
07/20/2008 07:00 PM

3 kidnap victims freed in Zamboanga
First Posted 00:03:00 07/29/2008

ZAMBOANGA CITY – After more than a week in captivity, three kidnap victims were freed in Albarkah town on Sunday night after payment of a “board and lodging fee.”

Basilan police chief Senior Supt. Salik Macapantar said Ronillo Ando, 41, a passenger jeepney driver; Wilma Sumergido, 50, an employee of the Tumahubong Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Development Inc.; and her son, Michael, 15, were freed Sunday night to negotiator Atsby Alki, a village official of Bulating in Lamitan City.

Macapantar said the three captives were handed over to the negotiator in Barangay Magkawa in Albarkah town at around 11 p.m.

Bombs defused in Indian city

Police in India say they have defused at least 14 small bombs in the city of Surat in the western state of Gujarat.

The bombs, none of which had timers attached, were found in various locations around Surat, the hub of India's textile and diamond trade.

Cities across India have been on high alert since a series of bombings in the southern city of Bangalore on Friday and Ahmedabad in Gujarat a day later.

At least 50 people were killed and more than 100 injured in the blasts.

PAKISTAN: Schoolgirls Lured To Suicide Bombing

PESHAWAR, Jul 18 (IPS) - "I was able to save my daughter from becoming a suicide bomber. She had been lured by her teacher at the religious school," said Jamilur Rehman, a Pakistani schoolteacher, whose 13-year-old daughter was taken away by a Taliban group to be trained as a suicide bomber in North Waziristan, a lawless border area.

Rehman said that his daughter Sameena took religious lessons in a seminary in Tank district of the North Western Frontier Province (NWFP), where she was shown videos of the suicide bombing. "She was motivated to the extent that she became ready to be trained as a suicide bomber and destroy the enemies of Islam," he told IPS in a phone interview.

According to Sameena, she and another student, Mushtari Begum, 15, were handed over by her teacher to two men, but they were seized by political authorities in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan, part of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) who handed them over to the Tank police.

"The situation is extremely bad. We have saved the two girls from becoming suicide bombers, but indications are that the trend of women training as suicide bombers has gained currency," said police officer Ahmad Jamal, in Tank district, which adjoins North Waziristan.

Iraq's growing female bomber fear

Monday's triple suicide attack against Shia pilgrims in Baghdad highlighted what seems to a growing phenomenon - the use by Sunni-based radical Islamist insurgents of women to carry out suicide attacks.

Police said all three of the attackers in the bombings, which claimed the lives of about 25 pilgrims, were women.

Eyewitnesses in the city of Kirkuk - where at least 22 people were reported to have been killed by a suicide bomb attack on a crowd of protesting Kurds - said the attacker there was also a woman.

American military figures indicate that there have been at least 27 suicide bombings carried out by women in Iraq this year, a sharp jump from only eight in 2007.

Buddhist Monks Destroy Church in Sri Lanka, Attack Pastor

A group of Buddhist monks and a mob of locals destroyed a church in Sri Lanka and attacked the pastor earlier this month, adding to the already escalating anti-Christian violence in the south Asia country.

Calvary Church in Thalahena, Malabe, northeast of the capital Colombo, was destroyed after a rumor spread that Christians had attacked a local Buddhist temple. A mob of some 500 villagers had descended on Calvary church and surrounded it as Sunday service was about to take place on July 6, persecution watchdog group Release International recently reported.

The 100 church members in attendance were told to leave by the pastor and police, who were called in earlier by the pastor when he noticed that the church’s cross was damaged.

"Fearing violence, the pastor and the police sent away the congregation. Soon after the mob – including the monks – entered the church and completely destroyed everything within, leaving only the walls standing,” said the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL), a partner of Release International.

"The mob then turned on the pastor and five workers, beating them with clubs and rods. A police officer who attempted to shield the pastor also received blows."

According to the NCEASL, the pastor and his father were both injured and were taken to the hospital.

Thousands of Korean Missionaries Lauded at Major Conference

WHEATON, Ill. – Thousands of missionaries from the second largest missionary-sending country packed Edman Memorial Chapel at Wheaton College on Monday for the 6th Korean World Mission Council for Christ conference.

Korean missionaries who have been serving in countries around the globe were welcomed with a standing ovation Monday night as the five-day conference, themed “The World is Calling Korean Churches to be the Last Runners to Finish Unfinished Tasks,” opened. They convened to discuss mission strategies, especially for the 21st century, and to strengthen one another for world missions.

“God is working in this very conference to call the people, the Koreans of America, to go to the ends of the Earth,” said Dr. Avery Willis, a former missionary of Southern Baptist Convention, in his congratulatory remarks. “We waited 2,000 years and 2,100 years to see the Great Commission fulfilled and God wants to know ‘Will you fulfill it in your generation?’ I can imagine the last unreached people group that never heard the Gospel and looks up and sees missionaries coming and it’s a Korean missionary.”

Zimbabwe to remove 'zeros' from currency

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe's bank chief plans new currency reforms -- removing "more zeros" from the plummeting Zimbabwe dollar and raising the limit on cash withdrawals -- to tackle the country's runaway inflation and cash shortages, state media reported Sunday.

Previous currency reforms have failed to tame Zimbabwe's inflation --officially pegged at 2.2 million percent a year but estimated by independent analysts to be closer to 12.5 million percent. It also has become virtually impossible to get access to cash as the country's economic collapse worsens.

Authorities last week released a new 100 billion dollar bank note. By Sunday it was not enough even to buy a scarce loaf of bread in what has become one of the world's most expensive -- and impoverished -- countries.

Magnitude 5.4 - GREATER LOS ANGELES AREA, CALIFORNIA
2008 July 29 18:42:15 UTC

Strong quake shakes Southern California
The temblor measured 5.4 and was felt from Los Angeles to San Diego

'Major Seismic Activity': 5.4 Magnitude Quake Jolts Southern Calif.
Jolt Was Felt from L.A. to San Diego, and Slightly in Las Vegas

Earthquake Rattles Southern California


***

Series of Earthquakes Rattle North Iceland

Magnitude 5.9 - CENTRAL MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
2008 July 27 21:15:41 UTC

Magnitude 5.5 - MYANMAR
2008 July 27 22:42:07 UTC

Magnitude 3.1 - NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
2008 July 28 05:33:29 UTC

Magnitude 3.0 - OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
2008 July 28 11:53:55 UTC

Magnitude 4.2 - OFF THE COAST OF OREGON
2008 July 28 12:32:29 UTC

Magnitude 5.0 - ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
2008 July 28 13:06:43 UTC

Magnitude 2.1 - NEW JERSEY
2008 July 28 15:20:09 UTC
Minor Quake Shakes N.J. Town

Magnitude 4.7 - CENTRAL PERU
2008 July 28 18:18:44 UTC

Magnitude 3.2 - CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
2008 July 28 18:33:22 UTC

Magnitude 2.1 - EASTERN TENNESSEE
2008 July 28 20:03:41 UTC

Magnitude 6.0 - SOLOMON ISLANDS
2008 July 28 21:40:48 UTC
Strong quake hits Solomons

3.0 quake reported near U.S-Mexico border

Magnitude 3.3 - NEVADA
2008 July 29 10:34:41 UTC

Magnitude 3.1 - SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
2008 July 29 12:04:32 UTC

Magnitude 5.8 - SOUTHERN EAST PACIFIC RISE
2008 July 29 20:56:23 UTC

I've got stacks of stuff left from the weekend I didn't get around to posting, so now it is time to play catchup.


The Unclear Origins of Oil


Electronic Noses May Avert Next Global Pandemic


Salmonella outbreak timeline: April 10 to July 23


FDA: Avoid Jalapenos From Mexico, Not US


Q fever outbreak ‘unique’


Tests confirm parasite in Burger's Lake water samples


Water a concern for residents as health officials test for radioactive materials


Balancing Growth and Environment


Schools Battle Rising Gas and Food Prices
In the fall, students might face higher lunch prices and four-day school weeks


Are feds stockpiling survival food?
'These circumstances certainly raise red flags'


Coastal towns prep for disaster by stocking hidden caches


Shooting Ourselves in the Food


Energy is becoming a hot commodity
Rising fuel costs, utility rates are driving consumers to look for alternatives


Groups Advocate 'Right to Dry' Laundry
Clotheslines Are the Latest Green Initiative to Save Energy


NAB will shock Wall Street
The National Australia Bank's decision to write off 90 per cent of its US conduit loans will have dramatic repercussions around the world.


Feds Seize Two More Banks
Mutual of Omaha takes over accounts of failed banks


Cardinal Ivan Dias: Anglican Church suffering spiritual Alzheimer's


Homosexual bishops face Anglican Church ban
Homosexual clergy will be barred from becoming bishops in the Anglican communion under controversial new plans backed by the Archbishop of Canterbury.


Habakkuk in Zimbabwe
We're hungry, angry, and depending on a sovereign God.


Petri, Baby
Are we really okay with our Brave New IVF world?


2,000 homes threatened by 'erratic' wildfire near Yosemite
Fire near Yosemite park destroys 12 homes


Floods force hundreds from N.M. homes


Four dead as floods hit Romania


California Bars Restaurant Use of Trans Fats


At least 4 dead in Lebanon clashes


A Turkish theater for World War III


At Least 45 Killed in Explosions in India


Bombs strike Istanbul neighborhood, killing 15


2 killed in Tennessee church shooting; suspect charged

Police: Man shot churchgoers over liberal views

Suspect 'was a very nice guy'
Neighbor: He 'had his own sense of belief about religion'


'Second Holocaust,' Roth's Invention, Isn't Novelistic
The Second Holocaust. It's a phrase we may have to begin thinking about. A possibility we may have to contemplate. A reality we may have to witness.


The world was shocked by Italian sunbathers ignoring dead gipsy girls...
But now Italy is showing a chilling interest in Roma children


Report: Torture Widespread in Palestinian Jails
2 human rights groups report widespread torture in Palestinian lockups


Iraq's Christians form new militias to combat Islamic extremists


4 female bombers strike in Iraq, killing 57


Muslims storm Protestant school in Jakarta, injuring 265 students


The Real World: Sand is Running Out of Israel-Iran Clock

Magnitude 4.9 - ANTOFAGASTA, CHILE
2008 July 25 07:48:10 UTC
Magnitude 4.8 - ANTOFAGASTA, CHILE
2008 July 26 17:39:25 UTC
Earthquake strength of 4.9 Richter shakes Antofagasta, Chile
Two earthquakes reported this morning in the III Region


Magnitude 5.1 - ATACAMA, CHILE
2008 July 25 12:13:07 UTC


ONEMI: CHILE’S CHAITEN VOLCANO COULD “EXPLODE”




Magnitude 4.6 - MAURITANIA
2008 July 25 23:53:11 UTC


Magnitude 2.6 - COLORADO
2008 July 26 05:37:15 UTC


Magnitude 4.3 - CRETE, GREECE
2008 July 26 03:21:14 UTC



Magnitude 4.9 - BANGLADESH
2008 July 26 18:51:49 UTC
Earthquake jolts northeast India, B'desh
Tremor rocks Bangladesh



Magnitude 4.5 - EASTERN TURKEY
2008 July 26 22:16:55 UTC


Magnitude 4.7 - SOUTHERN EAST PACIFIC RISE
2008 July 27 01:18:01 UTC


Magnitude 4.6 - EASTER ISLAND REGION
2008 July 27 01:52:29 UTC


Magnitude 5.3 - PHILIPPINE ISLANDS REGION
2008 July 27 00:02:51 UTC


Magnitude 4.0 - SOUTHERN QINGHAI, CHINA
2008 July 27 11:18:18 UTC


Magnitude 4.5 - HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN
2008 July 27 14:41:48 UTC


Magnitude 4.7 - NEAR THE COAST OF NICARAGUA
2008 July 27 05:42:30 UTC



Magnitude 5.4 - ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
2008 July 26 05:35:36 UTC
Magnitude 5.1 - ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
2008 July 26 16:49:53 UTC
Earthquake hits India's Andaman sea

Around the nation: Wildfire evacuation for 300 is canceled

WASHINGTON
Wildfire evacuation for 300 is canceled

QUINCY — An evacuation order for up to 300 people was lifted Wednesday as more firefighters were put to work on a wind-driven wildfire fueled by sagebrush in central Washington, officials said.

A survey Wednesday morning showed the blaze had covered more than 2.7 square miles — not the nearly eight miles officials had feared on Tuesday — and was about 20 percent contained, said Lt. Bob Schwiesow of Douglas County Fire District 2.

Crews keeping blazes in check

Fire crews in the Tri-Cities have been busy -- and lucky. They've been able to quickly control wildfires in the region.

Tuesday was no different for Benton County crews who battled small fires along Johns Road in north Richland, Canal Drive in Kennewick and a blaze that burned several hundred acres near Coffin Road, south of Kennewick.

With strong winds in the area throughout the night, "it had all the potential" to turn into a big fire, said Richland Fire Chief Grant Baynes.

"We were really lucky, most of them were kind of contained quickly," he said. "It was just one of those day, but we hit it hard and got free of it."

Wildfire fire near Parachute is fully percent contained

PARACHUTE, Colo. (AP) - A 150-acre wildfire burning five miles southwest of Parachute in western Colorado has been fully contained. It was sparked by lightning Monday evening.

Bureau of Land Management spokesman David Boyd says more than 100 firefighters battle the blaze. A couple engines and crew from Mesa County will stay at the scene to mop up.

Fire in Rhodes: Hotels in the south were evacuated.

Despite the firefighers and inhabitants'Α efforts, the wildfire continues raging for the fourth consecutive day in Rhodes forests. Despite the ongoing efforts to contain the fire, hotels in Kiotaria, southern Rhodes have been evacuated for precautionary reasons. Although the area is not threatened by the blaze, the thick smoke prevailing there had caused the tourists'Α concern. Meanwhile, the blaze surrounded Laerma village today.

British tourists evacuated as forest fire sweeps across Greek island of Rhodes

France, Italy and Cyprus are sending firefighting aircraft to help tackle the fire, which has burned thousands of acres of forest in the popular destination.

A Thomas Cook spokesman said two of its customers had been moved from an apartment in the Kiotari area.

The firm said in a statement "The safety of our holidaymakers is of the utmost importance and we continue to monitor the forest fires in Rhodes.

"As a precautionary measure, a small number of Thomas Cook guests have been moved to alternative accommodation."

California wildfires now 98% contained

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California fire officials say the thousands of blazes sparked by a massive lightning storm are 98% contained after burning for more than a month.

Of the more than 2,000 fires ignited during the June 21 storm, only 27 were actively burning Friday.

Dismal Swamp fire is far from out

The wildfire in the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in Suffolk has absorbed nearly 8 inches of rain over the past month, which has kept it at bay and reduced its smoke, firefighters said.

But the 4,660-acre fire is far from out, and it could surge back out of the deep peat of the swamp floor if the weather turns dry for a week or so -- an entirely possible scenario with much of the summer still ahead.

"People in and around the refuge are looking down the barrel of a long, long summer," John Calabrese, a spokesman for the refuge, said. "It's going to take a tropical storm or depression with 6 to 8 inches of rain in a short time to put this fire out."

Cactus Fire fully contained

Fire officials report that a wildfire burning near Whitehall has been fully contained.

Authorities have determined that lightning caused the 518 acre Cactus Fire which was reported on July 19th.

Fire crews, assisted by a helicopter continued to work on Wednesday to shore up the containment lines.

Wildfire torches 89 acres near Moab, no injuries or damage

A wildfire burned for an entire day, blackening 89 acres along the north edge of Moab before it was fully contained Wednesday. Lightning ignited the fire at about 3 p.m. Tuesday between town and the Colorado River, said Vaughn Gruber of the Moab Interagency Fire Center.

The Slough Fire, named for a nearby ditch, spread into Moab city limits, but no structures were damaged.

Northern Wildfire Smoke May Cast Shadow On Arctic Warming

ScienceDaily (July 26, 2008) — The Arctic may get some temporary relief from global warming if the annual North American wildfire season intensifies, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Colorado and NOAA.

Smoke transported to the Arctic from northern forest fires may cool the surface for several weeks to months at a time, according to the most detailed analysis yet of how smoke influences the Arctic climate relative to the amount of snow and ice cover.

***

Calif. woman mauled by bear recovers after surgery

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman mauled by a bear in a rural area of Southern California was recovering Wednesday as game wardens sought to trap and kill the animal.

Allena Hansen, 56, was resting comfortably after undergoing extensive surgery to repair injuries suffered in Tuesday's attack, said Roxanne Moster, a spokeswoman for the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.

Despite suffering severe lacerations to her face and head, the woman managed not only to escape but to drive herself to a nearby fire station, Kern County fire spokesman Sean Collins said.

"For her to be attacked in that manner and drive to a fire station, she must have been running on pure adrenaline," Collins said.

Florida Woman Attacked by Fox, Then Shot By Husband

MORRISTON, Fla. — Authorities say a Levy County, Fla., man accidentally shot his wife while trying to hit a fox that attacked her.

The couple told deputies they spotted an animal in their yard Friday morning and went outside to see what it was.

The fox bit the woman on the left leg and wouldn't let go, so she told her husband to get a gun.

The man fired a .22-caliber rifle seven times, killing the animal but also hitting his wife in the lower right leg.