[fire_mat99]

CORONA, Calif. (AP) -- Authorities released a fierce, brown river of water from a Southern California dam and evacuated 2,300 people from its path Friday after a temporary earthen barrier at the site began seeping water.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers unleashed more than 10,000 cubic feet of water per second to relieve pressure on the dam 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

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"That's like a swimming pool every second," Corona Mayor Darrell Talbert said.

The water gushed into the Santa Ana River, whose banks were deep enough to handle the flow without flooding, said Lt. Col. John Guenther, deputy commander of the corps' Los Angeles district.

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch in the area, but that was canceled in the late afternoon because seepage from the dam no longer was increasing. Corona's mandatory evacuation was called off in the late afternoon but police advised residents to stay away until Monday as a precaution.

The dam problems followed a series of storms since last week that turned Southern California into one big flood zone. The torrential rain triggered a mudslide in the tiny town of La Conchita that killed 10 people and damaged several homes. In all, 28 people died in the state from the storms.

Residents of La Conchita were told a mandatory evacuation order would be lifted later in the day Friday, but it would take two to four more weeks for water service to be restored and two to seven days for gas and electricity to be turned back on.

A number of people said it was critical for them to return to their homes _ if only for a short time _ to retrieve medicine, clothing and other personal items.

"I'll risk my life to go in. ... I need to get my things," said Anelle Beebe, a clothing store owner whose home of 24 years was deemed off-limits. Officials said her house was too close to the unstable bluff that sent 400,000 tons of mud cascading onto the town Monday.

In Corona, nearly 1,000 homes in town and about 100 people from a recreational vehicle park in an adjoining area were evacuated, forming a slow caravan of cars that snaked through the neighborhoods.

At an evacuation center in the high school gymnasium, Corona officials defended their decision to evacuate 330 mobile homes and 508 other homes in town.

Corona Police Chief Richard Gonzales said seepage at the base of the dam had increased fivefold after it was detected Thursday evening. The seepage came from a temporary earthen barrier protecting construction crews who are relocating outlet channels and raising the dam's height by 28 feet.

"I'm sorry if we woke you up, I'm sorry if we got you out of your home. ... I wasn't gonna lose any of you, period," he said to a round of applause.

"We're here to tell you the threat was real, the danger was real and we did the right thing," Talbert said.

The mayor said he was told by the Corps of Engineers that a dam break would have wiped out the neighborhoods in 2 1/2 minutes.

"That's not a risk I'm willing to take," he said.

Even after lifting the mandatory evacuation, authorities said people should stay away because possible weekend rain could put more stress on the dam or cause flooding.

At Corona Senior High School, as many as 100 people gathered in the gym. Cheerleaders played games with evacuated children while adults snacked on doughnuts and coffee or slept on cots as they awaited news of their homes.

Barbara Johnsen, 53, said a friend called her at 3 a.m. to say police were evacuating the mobile home park where she has lived for 20 years.

After checking with police to make sure it was true, she gathered up some clothes, photographs, important documents, her cat, Bussie, and her 80-year-old mother, Gurry Johnsen.

"First thing I took was the cat," she said.

They packed into the family motorhome and went to the evacuation center but Johnsen said she wouldn't return until at least Monday and planned to park the vehicle for the weekend.

"When they can say there's absolutely no danger, then I'll go back," she said

[fire_mat99]

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Seepage through a dam had stopped Saturday but most residents of Corona remained out of their homes in a voluntary, precautionary evacuation.

Although a mandatory evacuation was canceled, people were being urged to stay away from homes and a mobile home park until Monday afternoon while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released millions of gallons of water to relieve pressure on the 64-year-old Prado Dam.

Residents of the area 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles appeared to be heeding the warning.

"It seemed like handfuls were coming in and going out but it seemed like the vast majority were staying out," Corona Mayor Darrell Talbert said.

The dam problems followed a series of storms that turned Southern California into one big flood zone. The torrential rain triggered a mudslide in the tiny town of La Conchita that killed 10 people and damaged several homes. In all, 28 deaths around the state were linked to the storms.

Police evacuated about 2,300 people from Corona on Friday morning after a dramatic increase in the amount of water seeping through the face of a temporary earthen dam at a construction site next to the main dam.

At its height, however, the seepage was only 10 to 20 gallons a minute, said Fred Egeler, a corps spokesman.

"There was never a threat to the dam. It was a minor seepage," he said.

And he said it had "virtually stopped" on Saturday. "Our contractor worked all night placing dirt on the downside face of the dam," he said. The dirt was reinforced with a fine mesh material.

The corps was releasing 10,000 cubic feet of water every second into the Santa Ana River, or about the amount that would fill a backyard swimming pool. By Saturday morning, the 1,000-acre reservoir had dropped more than six feet and Egeler said the release would continue into Monday. The reservoir is up to 500 feet deep.

The storms that saturated California also drenched the Midwest, and rivers in parts of Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio were still above flood stage Saturday. The Ohio River had earlier flooded riverbank roads and homes in parts of West Virginia.

Workers in western Kentucky stacked thousands of sandbags Saturday to reinforce a temporary levee protecting the town of Smithland from the Ohio River. The National Weather Service said the river would crest there Tuesday at 8 feet above flood stage, a day earlier and one foot lower than previously expected.

A few miles downstream at Paducah, Ky., 14 of the city's floodgates were closed Friday for the first time since 1997, leaving a few businesses and one house exposed to the river. The Ohio was nearly 8 feet above flood stage Saturday at Paducah and is expected to crest Tuesday at more than 9 feet above.

Even though no more rain is expected for several days, Indiana's Wabash River is expected to hit its highest level since February 1985 this week south of Lafayette, said meteorologist Chad Omitt at the weather service in Indianapolis.

Water swamped roads and threatened some homes in low-lying areas around Lafayette on Friday, but no evacuations had been ordered, said Alden Taylor of the State Emergency Management Agency.

Governors of Ohio and Indiana declared emergencies in flood areas earlier in the week, and on Friday Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels asked President Bush to declare at least 64 counties a major federal disaster area.

In Ohio, residents of three small eastern communities were surrounded by water Saturday although conditions were improving in the rest of the state.

About half of the 6,500 residents of Mineral City, Wilkshire Hills and Zoar in Tuscarawas County opted to stay home rather than evacuate even though the Tuscarawas River blocked roads to the towns, making them accessible only by boat, said Rob Glenn, spokesman for the Ohio Emergency Management Agency.

[LANMaster]

Originally Posted by Fire mat

In Corona, nearly 1,000 homes in town and about 100 people from a recreational vehicle park in an adjoining area were evacuated, forming a slow caravan of cars that snaked through the neighborhoods.

At an evacuation center in the high school gymnasium, Corona officials defended their decision to evacuate 330 mobile homes and 508 other homes in town.

I used to live in the Green River trailer park in Corona which had to be fully evacuated a few weeks ago because they thought Prado Dam night break.
I was married in there.

I also went to school at Corona Sr. HS. (the evac center)

Just kind of weird to hear of the continuing evacuations.

I still have several friends who live there.
"Better safe than soggy". Is what one of them told me a few weeks ago.

[rawmeat]

So fire_matt99, what's your point?

you post some rambling long articles with no comment. When I read articles, I look for consistant logic, even if I disagree with the assumed premise. As long as the logic fits, then I consider it a well argued point. If I come across a leap of logic, then whether I agree with the premiss or not, I stop reading as it will be a waste of time. You should try it, it will save you hours of poorly argued BS.

[fire_mat99]

So fire_matt99, what's your point?

you post some rambling long articles with no comment. When I read articles, I look for consistant logic, even if I disagree with the assumed premise. As long as the logic fits, then I consider it a well argued point. If I come across a leap of logic, then whether I agree with the premiss or not, I stop reading as it will be a waste of time. You should try it, it will save you hours of poorly argued BS.

This thread is the world and US problems so go and post your world and US problems

[fire_mat99]

Valentine's Day blast kill 12

The Philippine National Police (PNP) said the first explosion rocked General Santos City followed by another in Davao City shortly before 7 p.m. Then at 8 p.m., a bus exploded near the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) 2 Ayala Station in Makati City.

Three persons were confirmed dead and 41 were wounded in the Makati City incident, the PNPNational Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Avelino Razon said in radio reports.

The Abu Sayyaf Muslim extremist group immediately claimed responsibility for three bombings and warned there was more to follow.

Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Solaiman told DZBB radio in an interview that the three bombings in Manila’s Makati financial district and the southern cities of Davao City and General Santos were “our Valentine’s gift to her (President Gloria Arroyo).”

The Makati blast set two nearby buses on fire.

Five people were killed when a second blast hit a bus depot in the southern city of Davao at dusk, reports reaching Manila said

Three other people were killed and 33 injured when a bomb struck a shopping mall on the southern city of General Santos at about the same time as the Davao bombing, she said over DZBB radio.

The three bombings were claimed by the Abu Sayyaf, a militant Muslim group operating in the southern Philippines that is listed by the US State Department as a “foreign terrorist organization.”

Police identified one of the three fatalities as Jose Mari Balboa, a resident of Negros Occidental. Police said Balboa’s body was retrieved from one of the front row seats of the bus.

Police identified five of the wounded victims as Alexander Santos, Winnie Navarro, Rollie Soriabi, Jonafe Kanipoy, Marie Joy Rupi, and Jodeal Laureles.

They were among those rushed to the Makati Medical Center after they suffered splinter wounds and severe burns.

At least 10 other wounded victims were taken to the Ospital ng Makati.

3 dead as bomb rips Makati bus

Three persons were killed while at least 40 were seriously injured others when a bomb exploded inside a passenger bus along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue in Makati City yesterday evening.

Director Avelino Razon Jr., Chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), said that the three fatalities died on the spot when a bomb of unknown make exploded inside an RCC passenger bus at the south bound-lane of EDSA, near the corner of Ayala Ave.

Reponding PNP Scene of the Crime Operations (SOCO) team members helped retrieved the victims from inside the bus.

Two other passenger buses were damaged by the strong explosion inthe RCC bus. Passengers of the MRT railway system were also jolted by the powerful explosion although there was no damage reported on the mass transit system.

PNP chief Director General Edgar Aglipay and Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay likewise responded to the scene to oversee the police operations.

According to Razon, at least 40 other wounded victims were rushed to the Makati Medical Center.for treatment of splinter wounds and burns on the body. Their identities have yet to be known by police authorities as of press time.

Firefighters from the Makati City Fire Brigade and other fire volunteer groups responded to the scene to help contain the fire in the RCC bus.

Aglipay immediately ordered the establishment of checkpoints in several chokepoints of Metro Manila to prevent another bombing incident.

Razon placed the entire PNP-NCRPO on alert following the bombing incident.

General Santos blast kills 4 people

GENERAL SANTOS CITY ~ At least four people were killed and 30 others wounded when a bomb exploded outside Gaisano Mall here early evening yesterday, turning Valentine’s Day into a nightmare, police said.

Chief Supt. Antonio Billones, Central Mindanao police chief, said the blast occurred at 7 p.m. on a tricycle that parked in front of Gaisano Mall killing the driver on the spot, while the other fatalities died in different hospitals here.

The bomb was placed by a man who had boarded the and asked the driver Rome Dalus to wait for him at the parking area of Gaisano Mall. When the man left the tricycle, a strong explosion followed.

It was a gory scene leaving Dalus’ mangled body, his tricycle totally wrecked totally, with debris scattered all around. The glass walls of Greenwich and Jollibee stores were shattered.

The other victims were people nearby, including three who later died at the Socsargen Hospital, the St. Elizabeth Hospital, and the Doctors Hospital.

A few minutes later, reports disclosed that a bomb also went off in a bus terminal in Ecoland in Davao City, leaving three people dead and several others wounded.

The explosion here, the second to grip the city, occurred two months after a deadly blast hit a crowded market here last December 12 killing 16 people and injuring 72 others.

City Mayor Pedro Acharon rushed to the blast site with Billones, city police chief Supt. Willie Dangane, Col. Alfredo Cayton, 601st Infantry Brigade, and Col. Medardo Geslani, Gensan Joint Task Force, as police and army troops ringed the city.

Acharon and Billones disclosed that text messages spread in the city prior to the bombing, warning that bombs would explode in Cotabato City, Koronadal City, General Santos City, and Davao City.

“I condemned this terrorist attack that makes a happy Valentine’s Day a nightmare. I am asking the police and the military to hunt down the terrorists who kill innocent civilians,” an angry Acharon.

Billones said a regionwide alert had been in effect even before the December 12 bombing and it was tightened lately after text messages warn of an impending bomb plots by militant groups.

“A determined terrorist cannot just be stopped. Even the United States was spared. But with people’s cooperation to fight against evil and terror, we can do it to arrest the perpetrators and thwart future bomb plots,” Billones said.

Billones, quoting intelligence reports, said that the Pentagon kidnap gang led by Commander Rasul and Uztadz Suwaib had planned to carry out bombings in Mindanao to avenge the deaths of their leader and followers in Palimbang and Liguasan Marsh in Central Mindanao.

The report added that the Pentagon, allied with the extremist faction of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front led by Uztadz Amerul Umbra or Commander Umbra Cato, had tapped the Jemaah Islamiyah militants to make homemade bombs and explode them in key areas in Mindanao.

Also, the al Qaeda terror cell, the Abu Sayyaf Group led by Khadafi Janjalni and his cousin Isnilon Hapilon had linked up with Umbra’s MILF faction and the Pentagon in a bid to establish a terror cell in Mindanao.

But there reports also that the bombing are related to the ongoing military operation in Sulu against the Abu Sayyaf and the breakaway faction of the Moro National Liberation Front led by jailed Nur Misuari. (BR)

Bomb blast at Davao transport terminal

DAVAO CITY (PNA) — A bomb exploded at the gate of the Davao Overland Transport Terminal at 6:30 p.m. tonight. The site of the explosion is right in front of the Hall of Justice building and some 20 meters away from the office of the Philippines News Agency (PNA), Davao Bureau, at Ecoland here.

Witnesses here said people taking dinner at nearby carinderia fell to the ground right after the explosion because of its impact.

It was believed to be a home-made explosive placed inside a small travel bag.

Bomb squads are now clearing the area surrounding the blast site, as troopers of the Davao Task Force secured the bus terminal on suspicion of other possible explosive.

Mayor Rodrigo Duterte rushed to the Ecoland bus terminal to supervise the security operation in the area. (PNA)

Muslim militants suspected in blasts

MANILA (AFP) — Twelve people were killed and at least 53 others were wounded Monday in a series of Valentine’s Day bombings by suspected Muslim militants that hit Manila and two southern Philippine cities, officials said.

Three people were killed on the spot and about 20 others were injured when a powerful bomb ripped through a passenger bus in the Makati financial district of Manila in the early evening, Metropolitan Manila police chief Avelino Razon said.

The blast set two nearby buses on fire.

Five people were killed when a second blast hit a bus depot in the southern city of Davao at dusk, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said.

Three other people were killed and 33 injured when a bomb struck a shopping mall on the southern city of General Santos at about the same time as the Davao bombing, she said over DZBB radio.

The three bombings were claimed by the Abu Sayyaf, a militant Muslim group operating in the southern Philippines that is listed by the US State Department as a “foreign terrorist organization.”

Ninoy Aquino Int’l Airport secured

NINOY AQUINO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT — Heavily armed security personnel were dispatched to strategic locations at the premiere airport following the twin bombings in Davao and Makati last night.

NAIA Assistant General Manager Angel Atutubo immediately dispatched additional security personnel to the entry points of the NAIA Terminal’s 1, 2, and 3, as well as the Manila Domestic Airport as a measure to prevent any terrorist attacks on the vital installations.

Upon learning of the bombings, Atutubo immediately dispatched armed Airport Police to the entry points of all four terminals to assist the airport security personnel in the vehisle security inspections.

Chief Supt. Andres Caro of the PNP Aviation Security Group also dispatched additional heavily armed personnel to vital areas of the airport to compliment the airport security.

According to Caro, they had been on double alert since yesterday morning in anticipation of possible attacks by insurgents from the South as diversionary tactics aimed at confusing government forces.

Atutubo placed airport security forces on double red alert and advised all passengers proceeding to the airport to go to the terminal two hours earlier as tight security screening will be imposed on everyone entering the airport complex.

[fire_mat99]

MONDAY, Feb. 14 (HealthDay News) -- A harmless version of HIV (news - web sites), the virus that causes AIDS (news - web sites), is being used to hunt down malignant melanoma cancer cells in mice, researchers say.



Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles AIDS Institute used a version of HIV lacking key components that cause AIDS. This disabled form of the virus was able to spread through the body and infect cells, but without causing disease, they explained.


Next, the researchers stripped off HIV's viral coat and reprogrammed the virus to recognize and attach to P-glycoproteins, molecules located on the surface of many cancer cells.


"P-glycoproteins cause big problems by making the cell resistant to chemotherapy," institute director Irvin S.Y. Chen said in a prepared statement. "They act like soccer goalies and punt therapeutic drugs out of the cancer cell. This prevents the drug from taking effect and allows the tumor to continue growing unchecked."


The researchers also loaded the altered HIV with a fluorescent protein, the same protein that makes fireflies glow. Using a special optical camera, they used this fluorescence to track the virus' movements after injection into the mice.


"The virus traveled through the animal's bloodstream and homed straight to the cancer cells in the lungs, where the melanoma had migrated," Chen said.


The study appears in the Feb. 13 online edition of the journal Nature Medicine.


"For the past 20 years, gene therapy has been hampered by the lack of a good carrier for therapeutic genes that can travel through the blood and aim itself at a precise location, thereby minimizing harmful side effects," Chen said. "Our approach proves that it is possible to develop an effective carrier and reprogram it to target specific cells in the body."


He cautioned, however, that much more research is required before this approach can be tested as a gene therapy method in humans.


More information


The U.S. National Cancer Institute (news - web sites) has more about gene therapy for cancer.

[fire_mat99]

Madrid's Biggest Fire Destroys Skyscraper

MADRID (Reuters) - A fire described as the worst in Madrid's history ravaged a 32-story skyscraper in the Spanish capital's financial district on Sunday, causing no injuries, but the tower stayed upright despite fears of collapse.


More than 200 firefighters worked all night to quell the spectacular blaze in the Windsor building, the city's eighth largest tower that looms over the northern financial district.


"We have confronted the most extensive fire that this city has ever had," Madrid Mayor Alberto Ruiz Gallardon said.


Seven firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation.


The flames had died down by Sunday afternoon but the fire was not declared under control.


"You can't say there is total certainty that it won't fall down," Javier Sanz, fire chief for the Madrid region, told local television.


At its peak, the fire lit up the Madrid sky like a huge torch as temperatures inside reached 1,000 degrees centigrade.


Bright orange flames devoured the 106-meter-high building from the top down, stripping away its metal shell in twisted pieces to expose a smoldering concrete skeleton.


Giant balls of flame billowed up into the night as parts of its sides collapsed, raining fire on to the street below. Surrounding buildings were evacuated and roads blocked.


Officials said an electrical short circuit was the probable cause of the blaze which began on the 21st floor.


The building, which houses the offices of U.S. accounting firm Deloitte & Touche, was completed in 1979.


It lies next to a huge department store and just a short distance from the Santiago Bernabeu stadium, home to Real Madrid football club.


Streets, shops and offices in the area and some sections of the Metro network will remain closed until officials are sure the building is safe, Ruiz Gallardon said.


Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was due to visit the scene on Sunday afternoon.


The blazing tower evoked memories for many Spaniards of the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York.

[fire_mat99]

Miami Cubans regroup; protest planned Tuesday
Demonstration organizers ask supporters to stay home from work, paralyze the city

Miami Cubans regroup; protest planned Tuesday
Demonstration organizers ask supporters to stay home from work, paralyze the city



More info
http://www.detnews.com/2000/nation/0.../a05-42430.htm

[fire_mat99]

Frictions between Japan and China surge

TOKYO - Hardly a month goes by without new irritants in relations between Japan and China. Recent grievances range from a soccer riot and submarine intrusion to dominion over a lighthouse and the granting of a visa to an octogenarian


The public mood in each country is souring toward the other, prompting some experts to wonder whether leaders will keep a lid on nationalistic tensions. Both countries are important to stability in Asia and the U.S. economy: Japan is the world's second-largest economy, and China is a new power after two decades of fast growth.


It might seem that the two countries have little to complain about. Trade ties grow more robust each year. Last year, China (including Hong Kong) surpassed the United States as Japan's top trading partner. Japan can credit its fragile economic recovery to surging growth in China.


But the two nations compete for regional influence and reliable energy supplies. Political relations may be at their lowest point in decades as Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's government becomes more assertive toward China, ending a policy of seeking to avoid confrontation.


Japan and China haven't held regular summit meetings since Koizumi came to office in 2001. Both sides keep putting off meetings, citing grievances.


"People on both sides see the other as potential adversaries," said Takashi Inoguchi, a political scientist at the University of Tokyo.


The latest conflict centers on five uninhabited isles, known by the Japanese as the Senkaku Islands and by the Chinese as the Diaoyu. The islands are in the East China Sea, 125 miles northeast of Taiwan, near a continental shelf containing pockets of natural gas.


Last week, Tokyo announced that the Japanese Coast Guard had assumed the maintenance of a private lighthouse on one of the islands, set up by a right-wing group in 1986 as a symbol of Japanese sovereignty.


China, which challenges Japan's claim to the islands, accused Japan of a "severe provocation" and said the move was "illegal and invalid" and "absolutely unacceptable."


Flare-ups over the islands have occurred in the past, but the stakes are rising. The islands, also claimed by Taiwan, include 11,700 square miles of surrounding maritime territory, rich in fishing resources, natural gas reserves and sea lanes critical in the event of war.


Japan and China already were jockeying over an undersea natural gas field in an area of the East China Sea where both nations claim exclusive economic control.


In mid-2004, China built offshore drilling platforms in waters that both countries agree are under China's control but within several miles of waters claimed by Japan.


Worried that Chinese drilling might suck up natural gas belonging to Japan, Tokyo's trade ministry last month gave a preliminary green light to two Japanese companies to drill in the area as well.


A painful history underlies current problems between Japan and China. Japan occupied much of China in the 1930s and `40s, until the end of World War II, and Japanese soldiers committed atrocities and killed hundreds of thousands of civilians.


Newspapers regularly complain about Japan's failure to clean up some 700,000 chemical weapon canisters left behind by its army in northeast China.


Chinese voice deep consternation over Koizumi's annual visits to the Yasukuni shrine, which honors Japanese war dead, including war criminals. Beijing says it's watching closely to see if he insists on going this year, the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.


Relations have gone downhill following an ugly incident in Beijing last August. When a Chinese team lost an Asia Cup soccer match to a visiting Japanese team, police squads stood by as rampaging fans burned Japanese flags, taunted Japanese players and smashed a window of the Japanese ambassador's car. The rioting trapped some 2,000 Japanese fans in the stadium.


Many Japanese feel that China's leaders tolerate, or even foment, anti-Japanese sentiment as an outlet for frustrations as they crush political dissent.

On Nov. 10, Japan detected a Chinese submarine in its territorial waters and chased it away, drawing a belated and mild apology from Beijing. The intrusion was seen as a sign that China is projecting naval power deep into the Pacific Ocean at Japan's expense.

"China's military strategy has become even more assertive in the oceans," said Ikuo Kayahara, a former lieutenant general in Japan's Self-Defense Forces, noting that he believes China wants control of waters as far as the mid-Pacific Ocean.

For its part, China reacted angrily in December when Tokyo granted a visa to an 82-year-old former president of Taiwan, Lee Teng-hui, to spend his year-end holidays in Japan. Chinese authorities view Lee, who was educated in Japan and has long ties to the nation, as an architect of Taiwan's push for independence.

Last month, for the first time ever, the Japanese government named China as a security concern, along with North Korea (news - web sites).

Japan is discussing slashing its development aid to China, which has only recently dipped below $1 billion a year. Many Chinese view the aid as disguised wartime reparations for Japan's occupation of China and see no reason for it to end.

For their part, some Japanese voice frustration that they should aid a rival country that put a man in space in 2003 and will host the Olympic Games (news - web sites) in 2008.

"China can stand on its own two feet. They are not so weak that they need help from other countries," said Fumio Kyuma, a former national defense chief and current legislator from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Some Japanese laud Koizumi's more confrontational stance toward China as a sign of backbone. Others, especially in the business community, see it as lacking in long-term strategy and skill in dealing with China's expansion.

"The idea of an Asian rival is so novel that Japan simply doesn't know how to respond," said Kurt W. Radtke, an Asia-Pacific specialist at Waseda University in Tokyo. "There's a sort of uncontrollable apprehension about a rising China."

---

[ChrisJones]

Originally Posted by fire_mat99

Miami Cubans regroup; protest planned Tuesday
Demonstration organizers ask supporters to stay home from work, paralyze the city

Miami Cubans regroup; protest planned Tuesday
Demonstration organizers ask supporters to stay home from work, paralyze the city



More info
http://www.detnews.com/2000/nation/0.../a05-42430.htm

Some nice stories your're coming up with, keep'em coming... Although this one is a little old!

[fire_mat99]

Magnitude-6.4 Earthquake Kills 370 in Iran

SARBAGH, Iran - A powerful earthquake flattened villages and collapsed mud-brick homes in central Iran on Tuesday, killing at least 370 people and injuring hundreds

In a cold rain, survivors dug frantically through slabs of concrete and piles of dirt, searching for loved ones buried under the rubble of destroyed homes. Footage on Iranian television showed survivors slapping their faces in grief as they sat beside dead relatives wrapped in blankets.


"Where have you gone? I had a lot of plans for you," Hossein Golestani sang softly to his lifeless 7-year-old daughter, held in his arms. His 8-year-old daughter lay dead beside him.


State-run Iranian television cited medical forensic officials in the province saying the death toll "has surpassed 370."


The magnitude-6.4 quake was centered on the outskirts of Zarand, a town of about 15,000 people in Kerman province 600 miles southeast of Tehran, according to the seismological unit of Tehran University's Geophysics Institute.


It struck the mountainous region at 5:55 a.m., damaging at least 40 villages with a total population of about 30,000 people, officials said.


Heavy rain hampered rescue efforts, and temperatures were expected to turn bitterly cold after nightfall, compounding the misery. Emergency officials tried to evacuate survivors to nearby towns and cities.


Officials said Tuesday's quake was not a replay of the devastating Bam earthquake in 2003 because the epicenter was near lightly populated, remote villages. Tuesday's quake was also much deeper — 25 miles underground. The 6.6-magnitude quake that flattened Bam and killed 26,000 people was six miles underground.


While homes made of mud collapsed, cement buildings did not appear heavily damaged.


Still, the tiny villages that dot the mountain ranges were hit hard. In the village of Sarbagh, near Zarand, nearly 80 percent of the buildings were destroyed.


Kerman's governor, Mohammad Ali Karimi, told state-run television that several villages had been destroyed and hundreds of people were injured.


Iranian television reported all hospitals in Zarand were filled to capacity with the injured, showing elderly women and men lying on beds and victims wrapped in bloody bandages or with broken bones.


The governor of Zarand told state-run television that power in the region has been disrupted, and supplies — especially medicine, syringes and tents — were needed.


The Iranian Red Crescent told international relief officials it did not need outside aid, said Roy Probert, a spokesman for the Geneva-based International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Some 1,500 workers from the Iranian agency, along with search dogs and mountain rescue teams, reached all the affected villages and were rushing in tents and tarps, Probert said.


"They seem to have the situation well in hand," Probert told The Associated Press.


Relief officials said they learned many lessons from the Bam quake.


"The earthquake in 2003 gave us a very good experience of how to deal with such a natural disaster. Despite the rain, relief operations are going smoothly. Relief teams have reached the villages and are helping the survivors," Soltani said.


Iran is located on seismic fault lines and is prone to earthquakes. It experiences at least one slight earthquake every day on average.

[fire_mat99]

Calif. Storms Spur Tornadoes; Six Dead

Feb. 22, 2005 - A deadly series of storms across California spawned everything from tornadoes to avalanches, flooding freeways with steady rain and sending rivers of mud crashing through homes.

At least six deaths have been blamed on the storm, including a woman buried by an avalanche north of Lake Tahoe and others who were victims of landslides, traffic accidents, falling trees and flooding.

Mudslides forced Amtrak officials to suspend service from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara at least through Tuesday. Service between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo wasn't expected to resume until next Monday. During the weekend, Metrolink also had canceled rail service for parts of the area because of flooding.

Forecasters said Tuesday that the long-lived storm system would bring at least another inch of rain to Southern California but was losing strength and could move out of the region by Wednesday afternoon. A flash flood watch remained in effect Tuesday for much of Southern California.

"I think we've probably seen the worst of the storm," said Ted MacKenchnie, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

Dozens of homes were evacuated or red-tagged marked as uninhabitable because they were threatened by sliding hillsides, authorities said.

Northern California also was hit by severe thunderstorms, hail and at least two afternoon tornadoes in the Sacramento area that uprooted trees and damaged roofs and fences.

The California Highway Patrol reported more than 300 crashes in a 14-hour period in Southern California, compared with 50 to 75 accidents on a normal, dry day.

A section of the Hollywood Freeway in Los Angeles was shut down for several hours late Monday because it was flooded by as much as 5 feet of water.

The wild weather came from a series of storms that began battering the state on Thursday, dumping 6.5 inches of rain in downtown Los Angeles.

A total of 31.40 inches of rain has fallen since July 1, the start of the region's annual "water year" measuring period, the fifth wettest on record. The record is 38.18 inches, set in 1883-84.

The consecutive days of rain has proven too much for saturated hillsides in Southern California.

A mudslide ripped into the bedroom of a home in the San Fernando Valley, killing a man by burying him under four feet of mud.

And in Orange County's rural Silverado Canyon area east of Irvine, boulders crashed into an apartment and crushed a 16-year-old girl, Caitlin Oto.

"If you saw the damage up there, it almost looks like the houses exploded, the way it went completely through the homes," said Capt. Stephen Miller of the Orange County Fire Authority.

In Northern California, 45-year-old Gerilyn Marie Ewing, of Reno, Nev., was killed by an avalanche Sunday while skiing between the Sugar Bowl and Squaw Valley ski resorts north of Lake Tahoe. Up to 20 inches of snow had fallen in the area since Thursday.

Harbor Patrol officers had to battle high waves and wind early Monday off the coast of Santa Barbara to rescue a man whose sailboat was adrift with no mast and no engine power. They couldn't get close enough to pull him from the vessel, so they had him jump overboard and then dove in after him.

"You couldn't see what was coming. We were holding on for dear life," said Officer Jan Martinez. "The waves were coming at such close intervals we'd push up through one, then come down just as another one was breaking on us."

In Glendale, a foothill community north of Los Angeles, about 30 people in 11 homes were evacuated early Monday because of mudslides and flooding.

And in the coastal community of La Conchita, where a landslide killed 10 people last month, six of the 39 people still living in the town elected to leave because of the heavy rain and a steady flow of mud on the bluffs behind the town, said Capt. Bill Flannigan of the Ventura County Sheriff's Department. However, no major new slides were reported in the county.

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Bush Ready to Study EU Plan to Lift China Arms Ban

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - President Bush said Tuesday he might consider a compromise on European plans to lift a 15-year-old arms embargo against China provided it addressed U.S. concerns about security on the Taiwan Strait.

"There is deep concern in our country that the transfer of weapons would be a transfer of technology to China, which would change the balance of relations between China and Taiwan," Bush told a news conference after a 26-nation NATO summit.

The U.S. Congress, fearing a lifting of the ban could alter the balance of power between China and Taiwan and put U.S. forces in Asia at risk, has threatened unspecified restrictions on defense cooperation with Europe should it lift the embargo.

The Europeans were trying to develop a plan to address U.S. concerns, Bush said on the second day of his conciliatory mission in Europe following two years of bickering over Iraq.

"I'm looking forward to seeing it," he said he told the Europeans in reference to their plan. "Now, whether they can (ease U.S. concerns) or not, we'll see," he added.

Europeans imposed the embargo over China's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

The 25-nation European Union has sought to soothe U.S. concerns about lifting the embargo by stressing that a voluntary code of conduct on EU arms exports is being updated.

"I am told that they've heard the concerns of the United States, they're listening to the concerns of the administration," Bush said.

CHIRAC PRESSES AHEAD

French President Jacques Chirac responded by saying that the EU intended to push forward plans to end the ban.

He told a separate news conference the embargo was no longer justified and noted that U.S. allies Canada and Australia did not have such restrictions on arms sales to Beijing

He promised the European Union would ensure the ban's abolition did not change the strategic balance in Asia.
Bush said the Europeans would have to make their case to the U.S. Congress, where lawmakers are strong supporters of Taiwan. "The Congress will be making the decisions," Bush said.

The possible route toward a compromise emerged during a discussion of the arms embargo over dinner Monday between Bush and Chirac, officials said.

Bush said he discussed the issue also with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and planned to raise the issue later on Tuesday at a European Union meeting.

"You might call this a listening tour," Bush said of his five-day visit to Europe.

"People have got things on their mind and they want me to hear it, and part of what they've got on their mind is the dialogue that's taken place with China and the European Union."

The EU pledged at a summit with China in December to work toward lifting its embargo. Chirac has been the most determined EU leader to push for scrapping the embargo, but even Britain, Washington's closest EU ally, has backed ending the ban.

The U.S. House of Representatives recently urged Bush in a non-binding resolution to press EU leaders to reconsider.

The motion, passed by a vote of 411-3, deplored a recent increase in arms sales by EU states to China and said lifting the embargo would "place European security policy in direct conflict with United States security interests."

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said last month he expected the ban to be lifted by the middle of this year.

Chinese leaders say they want the ban lifted because they view it as an unfair obstacle in relations, not because they want to go on an arms buying spree.

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German Protesters Call Bush 'No. 1 Terrorist'

MAINZ, Germany (Reuters) - About 12,000 protesters, many carrying banners reading "Bush go home," "No. 1 Terrorist" and "Warmonger," marched through the German city of Mainz on Wednesday, but were mostly kept away from the visiting U.S. president.

The official rally, which was twice as big as expected, never got within earshot of President Bush, but a small group of protestors rushed toward his car as he left to visit a U.S. base in nearby Wiesbaden. Police wrestled several demonstrators to the ground and led them away in handcuffs, a Reuters witness said.

Bush was visiting Germany for the first time since the 2003 Iraq war, which Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and most Germans opposed.

"I'm disgusted by the war in Iraq Bush started that has cost thousands of civilian lives," said Thomas Odenweller, 49, a computer technician. "Now he's trying to normalize relations with Europe. It must be stopped."

Ignoring snow and freezing temperatures, the demonstrators held banners chastising Bush in English with slogans such as: "You can bomb the world to pieces but not into peace." Many had pre-printed posters reading: "Bush, No. 1 Terrorist."

Before the march, which Mainz police said was one of the largest ever in the city of about 300,000, one speaker told the crowd: "Mr. Bush, please leave our country. You started an illegal war against Iraq."

German police confiscated one poster that read: "We had our Hitler, now you have yours."

Some protesters praised Schroeder for his anti-war stance.

"Schroeder's opposition to the Iraq war made me so proud to be German," said Helmut Bach, 50, a pilot who marched with his 20-year-old daughter. "That's why I voted for him."

Several protesters wearing fake U.S. army uniforms pulled a trailer with dummies of blood-covered Iraq prisoners impaled on iron bars under a banner: "We don't want your type of freedom."

A force of 10,000 police officers staged one of the biggest postwar security operations. Frogmen searched the Rhine for explosives, 1,300 manhole covers were welded shut and thousands of residents were displaced

For Bush's eight-hour stay there was also a strict ban on air traffic within a 60-km (40-mile) radius of Mainz, barges on the river were halted and motorways in the region closed. Factories, businesses and schools were shut.
Alex Berg, 31, a dancer, and her friends were dressed as cows and carried a poster reading: "We don't need no cowboys."

Bush's visit contrasted with that of his father to Mainz in 1989 when large crowds cheered Bush senior for his calls for the Berlin Wall to be torn down.

Other U.S. presidents have also been given a hero's welcome in Germany, although the younger Bush has never been popular. When he visited Berlin in May 2002, some 20,000 demonstrators took to the streets.

"When John F. Kennedy came to Germany he drove through cheering crowds," said Mark Reichelt, 20, a student. "Now Bush is here and will drive through empty streets."