Petroleum (L. petroleum, from Greek πετρέλαιον, lit. "rock oil", first used in the treatise De re metallica published in 1556 by the German mineralogist Georg Bauer, known as Georgius Agricola) or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid found in rock formations in the Earth consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, plus other organic compounds.

Oil News : Oil falls in Asia as bailout talks falter!!

SINGAPORE -Oil prices fell below $107 a barrel in Asia Friday on investor concern that faltering negotiations in Washington may sabotage a bailout plan to stabilize the U.S. financial system, which could drag on global growth and undermine crude demand.
Light, sweet crude for November delivery was down $1.32 to $106.70 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange midday in Singapore. The contract rose overnight $2.29 to settle at $108.02.
"The bailout is a real focus of the market because it's seen as being quite important to the direction of the economy," said David Moore, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney.
"To the extent that the latest news suggests it's not going to be passed as quickly as markets had thought, that would have an impact on the oil price," he said.
Negotiations among congressional leaders broke down late Thursday. Democrats blamed the House Republicans for the apparent stalemate. Those conservatives have complained that the $700 billion plan would be too costly for taxpayers and would be an unacceptable federal intrusion into private business.
One group of House Republican lawmakers circulated an alternative that would put much less focus on a government takeover of failing institutions' sour assets.
Talks were to resume Friday on the effort to bail out failing financial institutions and restart the flow of credit that has begun to starve the national economy.
Earlier Thursday, U.S. President George W. Bush hosted presidential rivals John McCain and Barack Obama and top congressional leaders at the White House in a bid to show unity in resolving a national financial crisis, but it broke up with conflicts in plain view.
"The stronger the commitment to the relief program, the more positive that would be seen toward stabilizing the U.S. financials," Moore said. "As these negotiations wax and wean, it's affecting a whole range of markets."
Prices were supported by tight global supply, especially in the U.S., where the impact of Hurricane Ike and Gustav is still being felt on Gulf of Mexico oil operations.
Oil companies are restaffing Gulf platforms and rigs after the storms plowed through the region, but most production remains offline. Nearly 63 percent of crude output and 57 percent of natural gas production was still shut-in as of Wednesday, the U.S. Minerals Management Service said.
Damage to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries prompted Mexican state oil company Pemex to reduce its daily output by 250,000 barrels a day. The company said it expects production to be back to normal by the end of the week.
"The hurricanes and their aftermath have disrupted production," Moore said. "It's run down stocks in the U.S. and tightened market conditions."
In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures fell 2.58 cents to $3.00 a gallon, while gasoline prices dropped 3.13 cents to $2.666 a gallon. Natural gas for October delivery fell 0.2 cents to $7.722 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, November Brent crude fell $1.17 to $103.43 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Consumption rates
There are two main ways to measure the oil consumption rates of countries: by population or by gross domestic product (GDP). This metric is important in the global debate over oil consumption/energy consumption/climate change because it takes social and economic considerations into account when scoring countries on their oil consumption/energy consumption/climate change goals. Nations such as China and India with large populations tend to promote the use of population based metrics, while nations with large economies such as the United States would tend to promote the GDP based metric

Oil News : Oil falls in Asia as bailout talks falter!!

World News : Ike lashes Texas coast, Houston??
HOUSTON, Sept 13: Hurricane Ike barreled into the densely populated Texas coast near Houston early on Saturday, bringing with it a wall of water, ferocious winds and rain that flooded large areas along the Gulf of Mexico and paralysed the fourth-largest US city.

Ike, a massive hurricane that has idled more than a fifth of US oil production, came ashore at the barrier island city of Galveston as a strong Category 2 storm at 2:10am CDT with sustained 110mph winds, the National Hurricane Centre said.

The raging storm flooded Galveston and submerged a 17-foot wall built to protect the city after a 1900 hurricane killed at least 8,000 people. More than half its 60,000 residents had fled.

Grandmother Sherry Gill spent the night in League City, roughly halfway between Galveston and Houston, despite an evacuation order, huddling with her family and listening to the wind howling over her shuttered home.

“It was a night of sheer terror. I thought the roof was going to lift off,” Gill said.

Alicia Cahill, a spokeswoman for the city of Galveston, said there had been no confirmed reports or casualties.

About 50 miles inland, Ike lashed downtown Houston’s skyscrapers, blowing out windows and sending debris flying through water-logged streets.

Roofs were ripped off houses, and rising waters, downed trees and fallen power lines left many streets impassable. There were “many, many” windows broken in the 75-storey Chase Tower, the tallest building in Houston.

Ike was the biggest storm to hit a US city since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005.

“This is a huge storm that is causing a lot of damage, not only in Texas, but also in parts of Louisiana,” President George W. Bush said at the White House.

“The storm has yet to pass and I know there are people concerned about their lives. Some people didn’t evacuate when asked,” said Bush, a former governor of Texas.

He said the government would monitor gas prices to prevent extraordinary price increases because of Ike.

Ike was downgraded to a Category 1 on the hurricane intensity scale at 8am, carrying top sustained winds near 90mph and moving north, but officials said it was too soon to assess the extent of the damage.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett told reporters the winds had not been “extraordinarily high, certainly for a hurricane”. The main concerns were the storm surge zone, the area affected by the wall of water pushed inland, and the fate of coastal residents.

Hurricane force winds were expected to rip through Houston until around mid-day and tropical storm strength winds to continue for hours after that. Houston is home to 2.2 million people, and its metropolitan area has about 5.6 million.—Reuters

World News : Ike lashes Texas coast, Houston??

World News : Airplane crash in Russia 83 passengers & 5 Crew Died!!

MOSCOW - A plane carrying 88 people has crashed in central Russia, killing all on board, an emergency official said Sunday.

The Boeing-737 traveling from Moscow to Perm went down around 3:40 a.m. Sunday, Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Irina Andrianova said.

The plane, operated by a division of Aeroflot, was on its approach to land in Perm when it crashed into an unpopulated area of the city, she said. A total of 82 passengers, including seven children, and six crew were on board, she said.

She said there was no damage or deaths on the ground and investigators were working to determine what caused the incident.

There was no indication of a terrorist attack, she said.

Perm is about 750 miles east of Moscow.

Perm emergency official Valery Tibunov said in televsied comments that the plane fell onto train tracks just a few dozen meters (yards) from an apartment building.

Russia and the other former Soviet republics have some the world's worst air traffic safety records, according to the International Air Transport Association.

Experts have blamed weak government controls, poor pilot training and a cost-cutting mentality among many carriers that affects safety.

Sunday's crash was the second involving a Boeing 737 in the former Soviet Union in the past month. A Boeing flying from the Central Asian nation of Kyrgystan to Iran crashed shortly after takeoff on Aug. 24, killing 56 people.

Hurricane Ike is the ninth named storm, fifth hurricane and third major hurricane and the second category 4 of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season.A Cape Verde-type hurricane, it started as a tropical disturbance off the coast of Africa near the end of August, then tracked south of Cape Verde and slowly developed. On September 1, it became a tropical storm west of the Cape Verde islands.^[2][3] By the early morning hours of September 4, Ike was a category 4 hurricane, hitting its peak of 145 mph (230 km/h) and a pressure of 935 mbar (27.61 inHg). That made it the most intense storm so far in the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season.

As of Tuesday morning, September 9, Ike was expected to cross Cuba into the Gulf of Mexico. It was predicted to make landfall in southern Texas or northern Mexico early on the morning of Saturday, September 13.

World News : Energy Firms Prepare for Ike!!

With Hurricane Ike on the horizon, energy companies in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico are bringing employees onshore again and preparing to halt production just days after they began restaffing following Hurricane Gustav.

Crude-oil and natural-gas producers were in the middle of restoring operations after Gustav, which forced the shut-in of virtually all output before the hurricane made landfall Sept. 1 just southwest of New Orleans.

Oil-output volumes stayed flat on Monday compared with the previous day, with about 20% of U.S. Gulf output restored, according to the U.S. Minerals Management Service. Gas output continued growing, though, with 36% of capacity back on line.

Hurricane Ike is on a projected path to strike the southern Texas coastline not far from Corpus Christi and its cluster of oil refineries Saturday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

It is too early to say where exactly Ike will make landfall, and the five-day forecast track shows that it could strike anywhere from northern Mexico to Mississippi. Forecasters said that Ike -- a Category 1 storm over Cuba on Monday -- could regain strength after it enters the warm waters of the Gulf on Tuesday night.

At this point, any of the 717 manned platforms in the Gulf of Mexico could be vulnerable to the fury of Ike. However, Independence Hub -- a key natural-gas production platform that has yet to restart after Gustav -- as well as other platforms with significant production volumes in the eastern and central Gulf could be less likely to get a direct hit this time.

Production shutdowns will further stress the U.S. oil supply chain, which continues to strain in the wake of Gustav, and could pressure prices higher. The U.S. Department of Energy said Monday it granted a loan of 250,000 barrels of crude to Marathon Oil Corp. for Midwest refineries that had to cut rates due to pipeline disruptions.

Light, sweet crude oil for October delivery settled 11 cents, or 0.1%, higher at $106.34 a barrel on Monday. A stronger dollar weighed on oil futures, which earlier in the day traded as high as $109.89 on Ike concerns.

Mandatory evacuations and widespread power outages hobbled refineries in Louisiana but left the processing hubs in Texas unscathed.

Now, those refineries near Houston, which include Exxon Mobil Corp.'s Baytown plant -- the largest refinery in the U.S. -- are up to bat. ExxonMobil said Baytown and its Beaumont, Texas, refinery are taking preliminary precautions ahead of Ike.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC, operator of the largest oil platform in the Gulf in terms of production, evacuated 150 employees Sunday and plans to remove the remaining 500 by Wednesday, when it will also completely shut output. Other players in the area, such as BP PLC, Anadarko Corp. and ConocoPhillips, began evacuating nonessential workers.

Exxon Mobil said the restoration of its operations in the Gulf will wind down as Hurricane Ike approaches. The oil giant was in the process of restarting production and assessing damage to its platforms after Hurricane Gustav.

Apache Corp., another large Gulf producer, began evacuating personnel from its operations in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, which are currently shut in, and won't resume production before Ike moves through the area, the company said.

In other commodity markets on Monday:

RICE: Futures rose to their daily exchange-imposed limit on fears of more storm damage from Hurricane Ike. The U.S. crop already faces a delayed harvest because of Hurricane Gustav, and now Ike is expected to hit the U.S. Gulf Coast. Chicago Board of Trade September rice, which is trading without limits because it is in delivery, gained 55 cents to $19.45 per hundredweight; most active November rice rose the daily limit of 50 cents to settle at $19.60.

ORANGE JUICE: Prices fell their daily exchange-imposed limit of 10 cents a pound, as Hurricane Ike is forecast to pass south of citrus regions of Florida. ICE Futures' September contract for U.S. frozen concentrated orange juice settled 10 cents lower at 98.50 cents a pound. Most active November FCOJ also settled down 10 cents to $1.0255.

World News : Energy Firms Prepare for Ike!!

World News : Tropical Storm Hanna was expected to move across the Bahamas??

Tropical Storm Hanna was a moderately strong tropical storm during the 2002 Atlantic hurricane season. The eighth storm of the 2002 season, Hanna was one of six tropical cyclones to make landfall in the United States during the 2002 season. Hanna formed in the Gulf of Mexico and moved northward, where it first made landfall in eastern Louisiana and then along the Mississippi/Alabama border.

Hanna caused minor damage as a tropical cyclone. In Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia, heavy rainfall from the storm caused moderate flooding. Total damage from the storm amounted to $20.3 million dollars (2002 USD, $22.3 million 2006 USD) and there were three drowning fatalities in Florida.

Tropical Storm Hanna was expected to move across the Bahamas on Wednesday and Thursday and to hit the U.S. on Friday, somewhere between South Florida and the Carolinas, forecasters said.

Hanna's winds were at 60 mph, but it was expected to strengthen and could regain hurricane status by Thursday, the National Hurricane Center said.

At 8 a.m. ET Wednesday, Hanna was about 105 miles southeast of Great Inagua Island in the Bahamas, the hurricane center said.

It was moving eastward at about 5 mph and was expected to speed up and make a turn to the northwest later Wednesday, the center said. It described Hanna's path as "erratic."

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency Tuesday to get ready for Hanna, The Associated Press reported. Florida could get flash floods and wind gusts of up to 111 mph, he told the AP.
Following Hanna is Tropical Storm Ike, which formed Monday, and is forecast to cross into the Caribbean as a hurricane on Saturday or Sunday. Ike is heading toward the Caribbean at 18 mph with top wind speeds of 65 mph, the hurricane center said at 5 a.m. ET.

It could strike the Turks and Caicos Islands just south of the Bahamas by Sunday. iReport.com: Watch Hanna lash the Turks and Caicos Islands

Behind Ike is Tropical Storm Josephine, with top winds near 60 mph, the hurricane center said at 5 a.m. ET. Josephine is about 220 miles west-southwest of the southernmost Cape Verde Islands off western Africa.

Hanna caused severe flooding in Haiti's port city of Gonaives, and rescue efforts have been hampered because of flooded bridges and roads, some of which Hurricane Gustav washed out last week, a local official said.

Authorities said the storm killed 23 people in Haiti, the AP reported.

Two university students were swept away by flowing water in Puerto Rico, and at least one of them was killed, according to the AP

World News : Tropical Storm Hanna was expected to move across the Bahamas??

World News: Hurricane Gustav hit Cuba like a nuclear bomb!!

Gustav slammed into western Cuba with winds of 150mph, damaging or destroying 100,000 homes and leaving the authorities struggling to feed its people.

While much of the world's attention has been focused on residents fleeing America's Gulf Coast, the ailing 82-year-old has said that Cuba now faces "a battle to feed" its hurricane victims on the Isle of Youth, 40 miles off Cuba's southwestern coast.

Castro, writing in his regular internet column, said that agriculture had been badly affected and that television shots from the Isle of Youth reminded him of the Japanese city destroyed by a US nuclear bomb in 1945 at the end of World War Two.

Meanwhile, the mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, has given residents the go-ahead to return to the city at midnight on Wednesday night but warned that many homes would be without electricity or working toilets and that a dusk-to-dawn curfew would still be in place.

"It's my humble opinion that the city is still in a very, very vulnerable state," Mr Nagin said.

Hundreds of thousands of people are eager to return home after spending several days in hot, overcrowded shelters but it is thought that nearly 800,000 homes in Louisiana are without power, including about 77,000 in New Orleans.

Elsewhere, President Bush is keeping a hands-on profile in the aftermath of the hurricane, in contrast to his administration's response to Hurricane Katrina three years ago.

Mr Bush is due to fly to the Gulf Coast to survey the storm damage on Wednesday.

Prior to his departure Mr Bush said: "We are thankful that the damage in New Orleans and across the Gulf Coast was less than many had feared.

"I commend the governors of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas for their sure-handed response and seamless coordination with the federal government.

"I thank all of the wonderful volunteers who stepped forward to help their brothers and sisters in need," he told the Republican National Convention via satellite.

The President urged Gulf Coast residents to wait for local officials to give them the green light before returning home.

However, any return could be premature as another three storms are on the way.

Ray Nagin declared Gustav to be the "mother of all storms" and many people may decide to ignore calls to flee after Gustav did not cause the carnage it was expected to amid claims the authorities overreacted in demanding people leave their homes.

Catherine Jones, 53, of Silsbee, Texas, said: "Next time, it's going to be bad because people who evacuated likes us aren't going to evacuate. They jumped the gun," she added.

Officials defended the decision saying it was "better to be safe than sorry" after Katrina killed 1,600 people in 2005. Gustav has claimed nine lives in the US so far and there are still three months left in the Atlantic hurricane season. Three storms are currently lined up in the Atlantic.

Tropical Storm Hanna could strengthen into a hurricane and hit Florida and Georgia later in the week.

Hanna has already claimed 21 lives in Haiti and it is being closely followed by Tropical Storms Ike and Josephine.

World News: Hurricane Gustav hit Cuba like a nuclear bomb!!

Hurricane Gustav is the seventh tropical cyclone, third hurricane and second major hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season. It formed on the morning of August 25, 2008 about 260 miles (420 km) southeast of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and rapidly strengthened into a tropical storm that afternoon and into a hurricane early on August 26. Later that day it made landfall near the Haitian town of Jacmel. As of August 31, 88 deaths have been attributed to Gustav in the Caribbean.

On September 1 at 9:30 a.m CDT (1430 UTC) the center of Gustav made landfall in the United States along the Louisiana coast near Cocodrie as a category 2 hurricane.

World News : Hurricane Gustav could stall over Louisiana and northeast Texas for several days??

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- As Hurricane Gustav neared Louisiana's coast Monday morning, forecasters warned the storm could stall over Louisiana and northeast Texas for several days, which would "exacerbate the threat of heavy rains and inland flooding."

Southern Louisiana's barrier islands and coast reported hurricane force winds and heavy rains from Gustav, which was centered about 80 miles south of New Orleans and about 20 miles south-southeast of Port Fourchon, Louisiana, at 8 a.m. (9 a.m. ET).

Power went out around 6 a.m. in the western part of downtown New Orleans and in the French Quarter 10 minutes later, CNN correspondents Chris Lawrence and Anderson Cooper reported.

The eye of Hurricane Gustav made landfall near Cocodrie, Louisiana, about 9:30 a.m. (10:30 a.m. ET), the National Hurricane Center said.

Gustav's top winds weakened to 110 mph (177 kph), downgrading it to a Category 2 storm, the NHC said.

Earlier predictions of a Category 4 storm, which would mean winds of at least 131 mph, and fresh memories of Katrina, which came ashore in 2005 with 127 mph winds, fueled the evacuation of 2 million residents from New Orleans and other parishes.

But Gustav never regained the strength lost over Cuba and by Monday morning NHC forecasters said its cloud pattern looked "a bit more ragged."

The latest discussion published by NHC forecasters said computer models show "Gustav or its remnants slowing to a crawl" over northeast Texas over the next three to five days.

"Such slow motion would exacerbate the threat of heavy rains and inland flooding," the forecasters said.

With hurricane force winds extending 70 miles from the center, the islands and shoreline are already in reach of Gustav's fury.

Sustained winds of 91 mph (147 kph) and gusts of 117 mph (189 kph) were measured in Southwest Pass, Louisiana during the 4 a.m. hour, the NHC said.

CNN's Ali Velshi was hunkered down in a house on Grand Isle, Louisiana, where only a handful of people remained.

When high winds first kicked up about 3:15 a.m. (4:15 a.m. ET) Monday the barrier island's electric power went out, Velshi said.

A storm surge of at least 14 feet is expected there, he said


World News : Hurricane Gustav could stall over Louisiana and northeast Texas for several days??

Hurricane Gustav Impact at Cuba

On Saturday August 30, 2008, Gustav made landfall on mainland Cuba near the community of Los Palacios in Pinar del Río—a region that produces much of the tobacco used to make the nation's famed cigars. In Los Palacios some 7,000 homes were roofless and many with their walls collapsed. The rice and banana farms sustained much damage.

At least 300,000 people were evacuated from Gustav's path as 140 mph (220 km/h) winds toppled telephone poles and fruit trees, shattered windows and tore off the tin roofs of homes.

Cuban authorities declared that Gustav is the worst hurricane to hit the country in 50 years. Authorities called the storm damage the worst since 1956. The 212 mph (341 km/h) wind gusts registered in the city of Paso Real de San Diego were the highest in Cuba's history, according to the provincial newspaper, the Guerrillero. Winds were so strong that the weather station instruments broke. Electricity was cut to a large part of the region as well.

Cuban Civil defense authorities declared there were "many people injured" on Isla de la Juventud, an island of 87,000 people south of the mainland. Nearly all the island's roads were washed out and some regions were heavily flooded. No fatalities have been reported in Cuba, despite the extreme damage.

World News :Katrina's Lessons Shape Reaction To Gustav??

Authorities in the Gulf Coast region report that mandatory evacuations ordered as Hurricane Gustav advances have been successful. By all accounts, the preparations for Gustav are a stark improvement over the chaos before and after Katrina.

In fact, if hurricanes can teach a lesson, Katrina provided a master class of how not to handle a storm, and Gustav offers a glimpse of the right way to prepare for a big one.

Rule number one: Leave!

Peggy Barcelona and her family were caging their menagerie Sunday as they prepared to flee their century-old house in St. Bernard Parish and drive to Mississippi, out of harm's way.

"We have four dachshunds, a shepherd, a lab, three cats, a ferret, a bird. And we have two horses we sent on already," she said.

The low-lying areas in Gustav's path were virtually deserted. The exodus went relatively smoothly.

But the sickening deja vu of waking up to another mass evacuation — and TV ads for companies that dry out waterlogged carpets — was just too much for some people.

"When I woke up this morning, I was completely immobilized with anxiety. I mean, I was like laying there thinking like, 'Oh my God, I'm not going to even get out of bed,'" said Ken Foster, a 43-year-old writer who lives in the Lower Ninth Ward with his three dogs, Zephyr, Sula and Brando.

He was one of the last ones to leave the Lower Ninth on Sunday, whipsawing between optimism and despair.

"I think a lot of people are feeling the same way. … Half your head is thinking we've gone through this before. We know better what to do, how to prepare. And the other half is thinking about how bad it can really be, and how there's little to prepare for when you're dealing with that much unknown," he said.

Foster's next-door neighbor is a contractor named Derwin Hill. At the same time Foster was putting his dogs in his car, Hill was about to lock up his newly renovated Ninth Ward home. He was taking all the family pictures and his wife's jewelry with him, and he planned to stow his belongings in the house higher in case the water started to rise again.

"This time we put all the clothes in the attic, we took all the pots out and set them on the counter. We did all the preparations inside the home, as well as outside the home. Because we know if we get any water this time, hopefully it'll just be rainwater, street flooding," he said.

Hill said this time he's confident the new levees on the Industrial Canal protecting the Ninth Ward will hold and, more importantly, there are no barges on the water to break free and slam into the dike, as happened before.

In another departure from pre-Katrina activity, Humvees full of National Guardsmen lumbered through the silent streets on Sunday.

Marty Rollins was installing a storm door in the Phoenix Tavern on Elysian Fields Avenue, where he tends bar.

"They're handling it much better," he said. "They seem like they learned a lot from the first one."

People have had particular praise for their new take-charge governor, Bobby Jindal. In comparison to the image of a rattled, indecisive Gov. Kathleen Blanco after Katrina, Jindal has been all over television relishing his new role as commander-in-chief of Louisiana's National Guard.

Despite public officials pleading for residents to leave, some people just didn't want to miss a good show.

"This will be my first real hurricane to go through," said New Jersey native Chris Maverick. "My family all wants me to leave. My friends are home and they're all like, 'Dude, you're crazy.' And I was like, this is a life experience I have to go through."

He sat on a front stoop in the Marigny neighborhood drinking a Pabst Blue Ribbon and smoking a Winston. The 26-year-old with bright red, dyed hair said he's a bartender on Bourbon Street. He and five friends were riding out Gustav here, planning to pass the time playing chess and card games and drinking beer.

"I didn't come here a year ago to move away every time everything gets a little blustery," he said. "Too many people in this world run from everything. It's like the American solution, let's just run away when there's a problem. I'm ready to confront."

In now-empty post-Katrina New Orleans, there are apparently very few who share his bravado.

World News :Katrina's Lessons Shape Reaction To Gustav??

World News : Now, Gustav moves through Caymans ??

GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands - Gustav became a hurricane again on Friday and moved through the Cayman Islands, the start of a buildup that could take it to the U.S. Gulf Coast as a fearsome Category-3 storm three years after Hurricane Katrina.

Gustav, which killed 71 people in the Caribbean, on Friday evening reached the Cayman Islands, a tiny offshore tax haven studded with resorts and cruise-ship souvenir shops, on track to next hit Cuba's cigar country and heading into the Gulf of Mexico by Sunday.
Well-heeled tourists fled Cayman hotels by air, while Katrina victims in Mississippi still living in emergency cottages and trailers were told to evacuate beginning this weekend.
Hotels on the Cayman Islands asked guests to leave, then after the airport closed prepared to shelter those who remained. Chris Smith, of Frederick, Maryland, said his hotel handed out wrist bands marked with guests' names and room numbers so that "if something happens they can quickly identify us."
"That was a little bit sobering," he said, standing outside the hotel with his luggage.
About 20 islanders waited for the storm in a high school gym.
"If people give you a shelter, you should take it," said Pamela Hall, 52.
The storm killed four people in a day-long march across the length of Jamaica, where it ripped off roofs and downed power lines. About 4,000 people were displaced from their homes, with about half relocated to shelters.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding said the government sent army helicopters Friday to rescue 31 people trapped by floods. At least 59 people died in Haiti and eight in the Dominican Republic.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Gustav could grow to a Category 3 storm, with winds above 111 mph (180 kph), by the time it hits the U.S. Gulf coast next week. Gustav could strike anywhere from the Florida Panhandle to Texas, but forecasters said there is a better-than-even chance that New Orleans will get slammed by at least tropical-storm-force winds.
As much as 80 percent of the Gulf of Mexico's oil and gas production could be shut down as a precaution if Gustav enters as a major storm, weather research firm Planalytics predicted. Oil companies have already evacuated hundreds of workers from offshore platforms.
Retail gas prices rose Friday for the first time in 43 days as analysts warned that a direct hit on Gulf energy infrastructure could send pump prices hurtling toward $5 a gallon. Crude oil prices ended slightly lower in a volatile session as some traders feared supply disruptions and others bet the government will release supplies from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Late Friday night, Gustav was centered 25 miles (40 kms) west-southwest of Little Cayman Island, moving northwest near 10 mph (17 kph). The hurricane center said top winds were to near 80 mph (130 kph).
"Gustav could become a major hurricane near the time it crosses western Cuba," the hurricane center said.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Hanna was projected to curl westward into the Bahamas by early next week. It had sustained winds near 50 mph (85 kph).
Along the U.S. Gulf Coast, most commemorations of the Katrina anniversary were canceled because of Gustav, but in New Orleans a horse-drawn carriage took the bodies of Katrina's last seven unclaimed victims to burial.
President Bush declared an emergency in Louisiana, a move that allows the federal government to coordinate disaster relief and provide assistance in storm-affected areas.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said an evacuation order was likely, though not before Saturday, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it expects a "huge number" of Gulf Coast residents will be told to leave the region this weekend.
Closer to the storm, workers at the Westin Causarina Hotel on Grand Cayman island shored up ground-floor rooms with sandbags.
"We've taken in all the balcony furniture, all the pool furniture, the marquees, tied up what needs to be tied up, cut down any coconuts," said hotel manager Dan Szydlowski.
Thunderstorms associated with Gustav already were bringing heavy downpours Friday to parts of central Cuba and evacuations were ordered in flood-prone areas.
Authorities in the tobacco-rich western Cuba, where Gustav is expected to cross the island, hauled 465,000 sacks of tobacco to higher ground for safekeeping and began distributing extra rations of milk and bread.

World News : Now, Gustav moves through Caymans ??

Although the storm was still in its formative stages on August 26,fears that Hurricane Gustav might eventually disrupt oil production in the Gulf of Mexico caused oil prices to rise.On August 27, U.S. oil and natural-gas companies began evacuating personnel from their oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico amid continued forecasts that Gustav would strengthen and move into the gulf.

Operationally, Gustav went from a tropical depression to a hurricane in 14 hours, tying Hurricane Humberto's record of 14 hours, although this may be challenged in post-season analysis.

Gustav made landfall in Haiti at approximately 1 p.m. EDT, about 10 miles (16 km) west of the city of Jacmel.While inland, Gustav's rains triggered a landslide in the community of Benet which killed one person.Two more were killed in southwestern Haiti when their house collapsed. Another two deaths were blamed on an explosion inside a house, thought to be related to Hurricane Gustav.The southern town of Jacmel, where the hurricane made landfall, was bisected by floodwaters.In total, fourteen deaths have been blamed on the storm in Haiti.In the Dominican Republic, a landslide in a rural area killed eight people.

World news : Tropical Storm Gustav Bring oil price hike??
The brief respite for consumers at the gasoline pump may come to an abrupt end if Tropical Storm Gustav slams into the petroleum-rich Gulf Coast and its numerous refineries, just as Americans begin packing up cars for the Labor Day weekend.

Gustav was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm Wednesday after moving over Haiti, but forecasters expect it to regain strength and move into the Gulf of Mexico in a few days.

Oil companies with operations in the Gulf began removing nonessential workers from rigs, platforms and other facilities Wednesday morning, and refiners were preparing too.

There have been some minor production cuts, but so far, output has largely been unaffected.

Still, oil prices spiked more than $2 to above $118 a barrel, rising for a third day as Gustav spun toward the Gulf. Its approach is just days before the three-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which along with Hurricane Rita devastated the region's energy infrastructure.

The U.S. Gulf Coast is home to nearly half the nation's refining capacity, while offshore the Gulf accounts for about 25 percent of domestic oil production and 15 percent of natural gas output.

Even a perceived threat to that infrastructure roils the energy markets.

Kenneth Medlock, an energy expert and adjunct economics professor at Rice University, said a run-up in gasoline prices as a storm approaches is not uncommon, prompted in part by fears of potential supply shortages in the storm's wake.

"Station owners have to value what's in their tanks based on what the replacement costs are -- what's it going to cost them to buy off the rack, basically," Medlock said. "So when that price goes up, they're going to start raising the price at the pump, although it's usually a short-term thing."

Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates, said any refinery shutdowns would likely lead to a spike in retail gas prices.

Those prices have dropped for seven straight weeks and, at a national average of $3.686 per gallon, gasoline hasn't been this cheap in four months.

Even before a potential strike, Gustav may give Americans a jolt as they get ready for Labor Day weekend.

"There's a strong chance that by Friday we could see some fairly significant pump price increases," Ritterbusch said. "Crude can be replaced and brought in via tanker, but bringing a damaged refinery back up again can take a long time, as we saw with Katrina and Rita."

Business weather research firm Planalytics said Wednesday up to 80 percent of the Gulf's oil and gas production could be shutdown as a precaution if Gustav enters the region as a major storm.

Ben Brockwell, director of data, pricing and information services for the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J., said a jump in prices is not unexpected as Gustav approaches, but he doesn't foresee a long-term spike unless the storm causes major damage.

Brockwell said the oil industry learned valuable lessons from Katrina and Rita and has made changes that should expedite its recovery after the next big blow.

Companies have spent hundreds of million dollars in the past few years to improve their operations. Platform moorings are stronger, pipelines are deeper, backup power is in greater supply.

For refiners, the two biggest challenges after Katrina and Rita passed were power disruptions and flooding. As such, some refiners have raised critical equipment above flood levels and enhanced plans to get backup power as quickly as possible.

"Katrina was an event that changed how the oil market reacts and responds to hurricane threats," Brockwell said.

Oil companies have strict protocols for removing workers from the Gulf, and they'd kicked those plans into high gear Wednesday.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC said it expected to evacuate 300 nonessential personnel Wednesday, and other producers, like BP PLC, were doing the same.

Transocean Inc., the world's largest offshore drilling contractor, said all 11 of its offshore drilling rigs in the Gulf were pulling up and securing drill pipe and other subsea equipment as a precaution. The company had evacuated 30 of its 1,550 workers in the Gulf as of Wednesday morning, with more expected to leave in the next few days.

Bill Day, spokesman for Valero Energy Corp., North America's largest refiner, said decisions on production would be made when more was known about the storm's severity and direction.

"With Gustav, we're watching day by day, hour by hour even," Day said.

World news : Tropical Storm Gustav Bring oil price hike??

Hurricane Gustav is the seventh tropical cyclone and third hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season. It formed on the morning of August 25, about 260 miles (415 km) southeast of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and rapidly strengthened into a tropical storm that afternoon and into a hurricane early on August 26. Later that day it made landfall near the Haitian town of Jacmel. Twenty-two deaths have been blamed on Gustav.

Hurricane Gustav re-gained a pronounced eye as it made landfall on Haiti, near the town of Jacmel. As the hurricane moved over Haiti's mountainous terrain its circulation was disrupted and it lost a little strength.Although downgraded to a tropical storm, the system still had a pronounced eye in its mid- and upper-level structures. Its outflow improved throughout the night of August 26 and the system was not very disrupted when it moved back over water into the Gulf of Gonâve.However, the storm's movement slowed, and continued interraction with nearby Haiti, combined with the incursion of mid-level dry air from the northeast, resulted in further weakening during the day on August 27.The storm began a west-southwesterly movement that brought it closer to Jamaica. The morning of August 28, it was found that Gustav had either reformed further to the south or had moved further towards the south overnight than previously thought. The storm was also found to have restrengthened to nearly hurricane strength.

World news : Tropical Storm Gustav took in a new track???

MIAMI (AFP) - Tropical Storm Gustav took a turn on Thursday, moving south as it crept toward Jamaica in a new track that could spare the hurricane-scarred US city of New Orleans.

Gustav reformed to the south early Thursday and became "a little stronger," blowing winds of 85 kilometers per hour (50 miles), the US National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory.

The eye of the storm, which already left 22 people dead in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, was expected to pass "very close" to Jamaica later Thursday, the US National Hurricane Center said.

Gustav, which struck Haiti as a Category One hurricane on Tuesday, could regain hurricane strength by Friday, the center warned.

Its new position has it passing south of Jamaica as a tropical storm and reaching Grand Cayman Island as a hurricane later in the week before passing between Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and Cuba's western tip, the center said.

The revised forecast also predicts that Gustav could reach Louisiana on Tuesday instead of Monday, making landfall in the central coast rather than the east, where the New Orleans lies.

The tropical storm pushed oil prices higher Wednesday on fears that the storm could strike rigs when it moves to the Gulf of Mexico.

At 0900 GMT, the storm was about 130 kilometers (80 miles) east of Kingston and 270 kilometers (170 miles) south of Guantanamo, Cuba, the center said.

With memories of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 still fresh, US federal and Louisiana state authorities prepared for the worst to avoid repeating the slow disaster response of three years ago.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency Wednesday and announced plans to begin evacuating coastal areas ahead of the storm.

"As long as there is a chance that we'll be in this storm, I'll be here in Louisiana," said Jindal, warning he may miss next week's Republican National Convention to name John McCain the party's presidential nominee.

The US Department of Homeland Security urged Gulf Coast residents to get ready for the storm.

"Regardless of its predicted path, it is important for citizens in the Gulf Coast region to listen to what their local officials are advising over the course of the next few days and to take these simple steps to prepare," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, who was criticized for his administration's botched response to Katrina, made plans to leave the Democratic National Convention early so he could also help the city prepare for the storm.

Jamaica and the tiny Cayman Islands, a British overseas territory, were under a hurricane watch.

But Jamaican tourism interests did not expect any fall out.

Josef Forstmayer, an executive of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourism Association, said things should be "pretty much back to normal" after Thursday.

A new tropical depression, meanwhile, formed in the Atlantic and has the potential to become the eighth tropical storm of the hurricane season on Thursday or Friday, the center said.

World news : Tropical Storm Gustav took in a new track???

NEW YORK - Oil prices spiked to a new record above $147 a barrel Friday, as rising hostilities between the West and Iran and the potential for attacks on Nigerian oil facilities gave investors reason to rush back into the energy markets.

Another drop in the U.S. dollar also lured buyers.

The resurgence in crude prices not only raises the concern that $4-a-gallon gasoline is here to stay for U.S. drivers — it also means that heating homes could get significantly more expensive this winter. Heating oil futures surged on the New York Mercantile Exchange to a record of more than $4.15 a gallon, and natural gas also rose.

"If you think your gasoline bills are expensive now, wait till you get your home heating bill this winter," said Stephen Schork, an analyst and trader in Villanova, Pa.

The problem is that while U.S. consumer demand is waning as people try to save money, other factors are keeping energy costs high. Those factors include the weak dollar, refineries cutting back on production and relatively resilient demand for diesel fuel. Diesel is a distillate fuel that is produced and distributed similarly to heating oil, so diesel demand often affects the price of heating oil.

The other big reason gasoline and heating bills are likely to stay high: unrest in the Middle East and Africa.

"The bulls are still able to spin a bullish case on this — not based so much on the fundamentals, but on a lot of 'What if?' scenarios," Schork said.

Iran, which has long been under U.N. scrutiny for its uranium enrichment program, has been testing missiles this week, including a new missile capable of reaching Israel. On Thursday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned the oil-producing nation that the United States will defend its allies, and Iran responded with another missile launch. Neither the United States nor Israel has ruled out a military strike on Iran.

Traders fear the oil producing nation could block the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 40 percent of the world's tanker traffic passes.

"There's always a fear premium in pricing. The tensions in Iran and the threat of supply disruption will help support oil prices," said Jeff Brown, managing director of FACTS Global Energy in Singapore.

On Friday, light, sweet crude for August delivery soared to an all-time high of $147.27 a barrel, before pulling back slightly to trade at $146.60, up $4.94.

Crude had fallen by nearly $10 a barrel over two days at the start of the week, but rebounded by more than $5 a barrel Thursday as anxiety heightened about Middle East and Nigerian supplies being disrupted.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries warned Thursday it cannot replace the shortfall if Iran is attacked and takes its crude supplies off the market.

Also Thursday, Nigeria's main militant group said it would resume attacks in the oil-rich region because of Britain's recent vow to back the government in the conflict there. Over the past two years, attacks have lowered the nation's typical daily oil output by a quarter.

JBC Energy in Vienna, Austria, said the news about Iran and Nigeria — as well as a reported threat of a strike by oil workers in Brazil — were "enough to wake the market from its two-day slumber."

Meanwhile, the dollar weakened against other major currencies Friday. The falling dollar has been a major factor behind the surge in crude oil, which is denominated in dollars; oil's rise has not been as severe for countries with stronger currencies, and meanwhile, traders have been using commodities as a hedge against the tumbling U.S. currency.

August Brent crude rose to a new trading record of $147.50 before pulling back to trade $4.82 higher at $146.85 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures rose to a trading record of $4.1586 before retreating to $4.1457 a gallon, up 10.83 cents.

Gasoline futures also rose to a new trading record of $3.631 a gallon before easing back to $3.6140, up 10.31 cents.

The average U.S. retail price for gasoline was at $4.096 a gallon, down slightly from the record $4.108 a gallon reached on Monday, according to auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express.

Natural gas futures rose 2.7 cents to $12.329 per 1,000 cubic feet, after rising as high as $13.694.

Natural gas, because it is not a crude oil product, is inexpensive compared to heating oil. But as the winter approaches, the fuel has the potential to shoot higher as energy traders look for cheaper places to put their money, Schork said.

Heating oil is used mostly in the Northeast United States; homes in most other regions of the country use natural gas.

It's possible for people to save some money on heating, but it's not easy to slash the bill significantly.

"We've been building these ridiculous McMansions over the past few years. It's harder to trade in a McMansion than it is an SUV," Schork said. "But you can turn your thermostat down and throw on a sweater."

Disaster News :Tropical Storm Bertha

MIAMI -Tropical Storm Bertha, moving briskly across open ocean waters, may strengthen into the first hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic storm season sometime during the next 48 hours, U.S. weather forecasters said on Sunday.
ertha, which formed on Thursday near the Cape Verde islands off Africa, had maximum sustained winds approaching 50 miles per hour (85 km per hour) at 11 a.m. EDT and was heading west at 21 mph (33 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

"Gradual strengthening is expected during the next 48 hours, and Bertha could become a hurricane during that time," the forecasters said in an advisory.

Storms are judged to be hurricanes when their wind speed reaches at least 74 mph (119 kph).

Bertha is nowhere near land, and the hurricane center's tracking forecasts have the storm staying at sea and taking a general west-northwest route over the next five days. The storm's speed was expected to ease during the next two days.

"It is much too early to determine if Bertha will eventually affect any land areas," the forecasters said.

The storm's center was near latitude 17.4 north and longitude 45.1 west, or about 1,185 miles east of the northern Leeward Islands.

Bertha is the second tropical storm of what has been predicted to be an above-average storm season in the Atlantic and Caribbean.

Energy markets closely monitor tropical storms in the Atlantic because of the potential for them to threaten oil installations in the Gulf of Mexico. The 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, which included Katrina, the hurricane that swamped New Orleans, left dozens of oil rigs toppled or damaged and sent crude prices to what were then record highs.

The Atlantic-Caribbean hurricane season runs from June 1 to the end of November, with August and September usually the busiest months.

China grappled with backed-up rivers and reservoirs in danger of collapse, along with looming storms that threatened Monday to compound damage from the country's worst earthquake in three decades.Two weeks after the magnitude 7.9 earthquake centered in Sichuan province, the confirmed death toll rose to 65,080 with 23,150 people still missing, the Cabinet said. The government has said the final number of dead is expected to exceed 80,000.

Many of the disaster victims were children, prompting officials to clarify the country's strict one-child policy guidelines.The Chengdu Population and Family Planning Committee in the capital of Sichuan province said Monday that families whose children was killed, severely injured or disabled in the quake can get a certificate to have another child.Chen Xueyun's 8-year-old son, Weixi, was killed when the family's apartment in Qingchuan collapsed. Chen said he searched three days before finding the boy's body. He wears his son's blue plastic watch as a reminder.Monday's announcement could offer some parents some hope, Chen said, after their grief subsides."If they are still sad and depressed, it's impossible to talk about another baby," he said. "But in the future, it could be quite helpful for them."On Monday, 1,800 soldiers arrived on foot at the new Tangjiashan lake in Beichuan county to fight the flood risk, each carrying 22 pounds of explosives to blast through the debris, the official Xinhua News Agency said.The lake is 2 miles upstream from the center of Beichuan county. Thousands of people who remained there after the initial earthquake have been evacuated in recent days as a precaution.With weather clearing that had prevented helicopter flights, heavy equipment was also lifted in the area to help remove debris, state media reported.But thunderstorms were forecast for parts of Sichuan later Monday and Tuesday, the China Meteorological Administration said, adding they "could increase the risks posed by river blockages in some quake-hit areas."

The rains were likely to put more pressure on dams and reservoirs weakened by the quake. The storms herald the start of the summer rainy season that accounts for more than 70 percent of the 2 feet of rain that falls on the area each year.The backed-up lake is one of several dozen in Sichuan.In An country, about 30 miles to the south of Beichuan, a landslide blocked the Chaping river, submerging Shuangdian village.Residents say the lake has been rising by about 7½ feet a day."The water was covering the road, and two days later I could not see the roof of my house anymore," said Liu Zhongfu, 31, a truck driver who built his two-story wooden house himself, standing on a mountain overlooking the new lake. A sofa and bits of wood that were once part of houses could be seen floating among the debris in the milky green water.Liu was working away from home when the earthquake hit. His wife, 3-month-old daughter and 60-year-old mother all were unhurt."I thought I could go back but I have nothing now.

My village, it's all become a sea," he said.Water there was backed up 2 miles along the river, said Wang Li, county Communist Party secretary."We need to take care of this soon, this is a serious situation," he said.Elsewhere, 600 people were voluntarily evacuated from Guanzhuang in Qingchuan county because of landslide worries."There's no danger for this exact moment from flooding but we are very worried because the whole mountain is loose," said Ma Jian, a local official.Problems with dams and reservoirs from the earthquake and its aftershocks also have been reported in other provinces.The Water Resources Ministry said Monday that three small reservoirs in Shaanxi province, just north of Sichuan, were in danger of collapse after the strong aftershock Sunday. A total 2,383 reservoirs were in danger across the country, the ministry said.China's top Communist Party leaders said relief efforts should now focus more on resettlement and post-quake reconstruction, but that work to find survivors should not stop.The shift was announced at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China's Central Committee presided over by President Hu Jintao, Xinhua reported.

Meanwhile, the Education Ministry said it would investigate whether flawed school construction contributed to collapses."We will punish those who cut corners during school building construction and will have zero tolerance for corruption and shoddy school projects," spokesman Wang Xuming said in Beijing.In Mianzhu city, the Communist Party secretary pleaded with protesting parents — whose children were killed in a school collapse — not to complain to higher authorities, the Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper reported Monday.Despite Jiang Guohua's pleas, the parents of the 127 children who died kept marching Sunday and eventually met with higher officials, who told them the government would investigate.The march was the latest example of growing anger among Chinese about the quake, especially the fact that nearly 7,000 schoolrooms were destroyed while school was in session. Parents at several schools have held protests, defying the government's general disapproval of such demonstrations.A photograph on the newspaper's Web site shows Jiang on his knees, his arms outstretched in vain."Please trust that the Mianzhu party committee can solve this problem," he begged the parents. "Don't go!"But the parents marched on, carrying photos of their children."We have no more tears," one mother told the newspaper.Also Monday, Xinhua reported that one of the two pandas still missing after the earthquake had been found.The panda was recovered earlier in the day, but there were no immediate details given on its condition.The pandas had been missing from the famed Wolong panda reserve, located near the epicenter in central Sichuan province. The center suffered heavy damage from the quake and five staff members were killed.

AN XIAN, China (May 20) - China is grappling with the next massive task in the aftermath of its earthquake — how to shelter the 5 million people left homeless. Many were living Tuesday in tent cities like one at the base of Qianfo mountain in the disaster zone, offering some stability — along with food and medical care — to those whose lives were upended."After the quake, we couldn't sleep for five days. We were really, really afraid," said Chen Shigui, a weathered 55-year-old farmer who climbed for two days with his wife and injured father to reach the camp from their mountain village. "I felt relieved when we got here. It's much safer compared to my home."

But there's not enough room to go around.The government issued an urgent appeal Tuesday for tents and brought in the first foreign teams of doctors and field hospitals, some of whom were swapping out with overseas search and rescue specialists.The switch underscored a shift in the response to China's worst disaster in three decades from an emergency stage to one of recovery — and for many, enduring hardship.On the second of a three-day national mourning period, the authoritarian government appeared to be moving to rein in the unusually free reporting it allowed in the disaster's first week.

Most major newspapers carried near-identical photographs on their front pages of President Hu Jintao and other senior leaders with their heads bowed — a uniformity that is typical when state media censors direct coverage.The May 12 earthquake's confirmed death toll rose to more than 40,000, with at least 10,000 more deaths expected, and officials said more than 32,000 people were missing. The State Council, China's Cabinet, said 80 percent of the bodies found in Sichuan province had been either cremated or buried.Authorities rushed to dispose of corpses, burning them or laying them side by side in pits. Vice Minister for Civil Affairs Jiang Li said officials had begun collecting DNA samples from bodies so their identities could be confirmed later.Rescues — becoming more remarkable by the hour — continued on the eighth day since the quake, but the trickle of earlier days had slowed to a drip.

YANGON - Torrential tropical downpours lashed Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta on Friday, deepening the misery of an estimated 2.5 million destitute survivors of Cyclone Nargis and further hampering the military government's aid efforts.

In the storm-struck town of Kunyangon, around 100 km (60 miles) southwest of Yangon, thousands of men, women and children stood in mud and rain, their hands clasped together in supplication at the occasional passing aid vehicle.

Children mobbed any car that stopped, grimy hands reaching through a window in search of bits of bread or a t-shirt.

Despite such scenes and the latest storm, likely to turn already damaged roads to mud, the former Burma's ruling generals insist their relief operations are running smoothly.

However, they issued an edict in state-run newspapers on Friday saying legal action would be taken against anybody found hoarding or selling relief supplies, amid rumors of local military units expropriating trucks of food, blankets and water.

If emergency supplies do not get through in much greater quantities, foreign governments and aid groups say starvation and disease are very real threats.

Some cholera has been confirmed among survivors, but the number was in line with case levels in previous years, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

"We don't have an explosion of cholera," Maureen Birmingham, acting WHO representative in Thailand, told reporters in Bangkok.

Diarrhea, dysentery and skin infections have afflicted some cyclone refugees crammed into monasteries, schools and other temporary shelters after the devastating May 2 storm.

The WHO, which has sent health kits, bleach and chlorine tablets to treat dirty water, said the peak threat from disease was 10 days to one month after a natural disaster.

EU URGES OPENING UP TO AID

The European Union's top aid official, Louis Michel, met ministers in Yangon on Thursday and urged them to admit foreign aid workers and essential equipment to keep the death toll, which the Red Cross says could be as high as 128,000, from rising.

Myanmar state television raised its official death toll on Thursday to 43,328. Independent experts say the figures are probably far higher, with British officials saying the number of dead and missing may be 200,000.

Michel, like so many other envoys before, had made little headway so far.

"Relations between Myanmar and the international community are difficult," he told Reuters. "But that is not my problem. The time is not for political discussion. It's time to deliver aid to save lives."

Earlier, the reclusive generals, the latest face of 46 years of unbroken military rule, signaled they would not budge on their position of limiting foreign access to the delta, fearful to do so might loosen their vice-like grip on power.

"We have already finished our first phase of emergency relief. We are going onto the second phase, the rebuilding stage," state television quoted Prime Minister Thein Sein as telling his Thai counterpart this week.

Underlining where its main attentions lie, the junta announced an overwhelming vote in favor of an army-backed constitution in a referendum held on May 10 despite calls for a delay in the light of the disaster.

DRIBS AND DRABS

Two weeks after the storm tore through the heavily populated Irrawaddy delta rice bowl, food, medicine and temporary shelter have been sent in dribs and drabs to devastated communities.

In Kunyangon, the junta has started distributing small amounts of emergency food.

But around the town, the countryside remains a mess of half-submerged trees, snapped electricity pylons or bamboo poles -- the skeletal remains of a house -- leaning at crazy angles.

Villagers say they are slowly burying the bloated corpses of friends and relatives that have littered the rice fields for the last two weeks. But the stench of death remains.

The United Nations says more than half a million people may now be in temporary settlements.

Frustrated by the speed of the official response, ordinary people were taking matters into their own hands, sending trucks and vans into the delta with clothes, biscuits, dried noodles, and rice provided by private companies and individuals.

"There are too many people. We just cannot give enough. How can the government act as if nothing happened?" said one volunteer, who declined to be named for fear of reprisals.

With almost total distrust of the government, private aid is being left in the care of Buddhist monasteries, to be distributed by the monkhood, who have immense moral authority.

Going through the roll-call of the needy is a grim task.

"We need to give aid to this family," said one monk pointing to a list in a temple in one village.

"No," another monk interjected. "They're all dead."

DUJIANGYAN, China - Tang Xiaomin had just left her fourth-floor apartment to buy groceries when the building started to crumble around her.
An upstairs neighbor was thrown against the kitchen table. She grabbed her purse and rushed out. Another resident, pregnant and resting, didn't have time. She became trapped.
The three occupants of the six-story apartment building at 315 Happiness Road were just some of the residents who managed to survive Monday's massive earthquake, although many of their neighbors did not. They endured moments of terror, shock, relief and now worry as they try to rebuild their lives.

"It's hard to take because we never, ever experienced anything like this before," said the short, slender Tang, wearing jeans and a sweatshirt and standing in front of a shelter of plastic sheets, umbrellas and bamboo poles she now calls home.
'Property loss is just huge'Tang, 40 and unemployed, had moved into the newly built apartment 10 years ago, using compensation awarded when the government demolished her former home as part of China's urban renewal boom. The apartment was home to her and her husband, a construction worker, their 16-year-old son, who was at school when the quake struck, and Tang's 61-year-old mother.
The mother was alone in the apartment when the temblor hit. Hours later, rescuers eased her through a gap in the apartment's facade and down to the street below.
The family of four spent Monday night camped under an umbrella in a chilly drizzle, numb from both the cold and their ordeal — but relieved to be alive and together.
"The property loss is just huge, but the people are safe and that's all that matters," Tang said in her sing-songy Sichuan accent.
Covered in dustNeighbor Luo Ying was one flight upstairs from Tang, in a fifth-floor apartment, when the building began shaking at 2:27 p.m.

The department store clerk remembers chunks of tile and cement crashing all around her as she scrambled down five flights of stairs with her neighbors.
"I was covered in dust when I got to the bottom. I didn't dare believe it," she said.
Seeking shelter from the rain, Luo and her neighbors scavenged a canopy from an electronics store promotional event and piled old signboards high with salvaged blankets.
By dusk, about five hours after the quake, police and military units arrived, bringing relief, Luo said, "We knew we weren't alone and that someone would help."
Her husband has taken her daughter to the provincial capital of Chengdu while she remains near the apartment building, watching the rescue teams that clear away rubble and look for bodies with backhoes, cranes and hand tools.

YANGON, Myanmar - Another powerful storm is headed toward Myanmar's cyclone-devastated delta and the U.N. is warning of a second wave of deaths.

Thailand's prime minister says, however, that Myanmar officials told him they are in control of the cyclone relief operations and doesn't need foreign experts.

Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej says the Myanmar junta guaranteed that there are no disease outbreaks and no starvation among the estimated 2 million survivors.

Samak says Myanmar does not want any foreign aid workers because they "have their own team to cope with the situation."

Samak was talking to reporters Wednesday after returning from Myanmar's main city of Yangon, where he met with his counterpart, Prime Minister Lt. Gen. Thein Sein.

DUJIANGYAN, China - The toll of the dead and missing soared as rescue workers dug through flattened schools and homes on Tuesday in a desperate attempt to find survivors of China's worst earthquake in three decades.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the death toll exceeded 12,000 in Sichuan province alone, and 18,645 were still buried in debris in the city of Mianyang, near the epicenter of Monday's massive, 7.9-magnitude quake.

The Sichuan Daily newspaper reported on its Web site that more than 26,000 people were injured in Mianyang.

The numbers of casualties was expected to rise due to the remoteness of the areas affected by the quake and difficulty in finding buried victims.

There was little prospect that many survivors would be found under the rubble. Only 58 people were extricated from demolished buildings across the quake area so far, China Seismological Bureau spokesman Zhang Hongwei told Xinhua. In one county, 80 percent of the buildings were destroyed.

Rain was impeding efforts and a group of paratroopers called off a rescue mission to the epicenter due to heavy storms, Xinhua reported.

More than two dozen British and American tourists who were thought to be panda-watching in the area also remained missing.

Officials urged the public not to abandon hope.

"Survivors can hold on for some time. Now it's not time to give up," Wang Zhenyao, disaster relief division director at the Ministry of Civil Affairs, told reporters in Beijing.

Premier Wen Jiabao, who rushed to the area to oversee rescue efforts, said a push was on to clear roads and restore electricity as soon as possible. His visit to the disaster scene was prominently featured on state TV, a gesture meant to reassure people that the ruling party was doing all it could.

"We will save the people," Wen said through a bullhorn to survivors as he toured the disaster scene, in footage shown on CCTV. "As long as the people are there, factories can be built into even better ones, and so can the towns and counties."

State media said rescue workers had reached the epicenter in Wenchuan county — where the number of casualties was still unknown. The quake was centered just north of the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu in central China, tearing into urban areas and mountain villages.

Earthquake rescue experts in orange jumpsuits extricated bloody survivors on stretchers from demolished buildings.

Some 20,000 soldiers and police arrived in the disaster area with 30,000 more on the way by plane, train, trucks and even on foot, the Defense Ministry told Xinhua.

Aftershocks rattled the region for a second day, sending people running into the streets in Chengdu. The U.S. Geological Survey measured the shocks between magnitude 4 and 6, some of the strongest since Monday's quake.

Zhou Chun, a 70-year-old retired mechanic, was leaving Dujiangyan with a soiled light blue blanket draped over his shoulders.

"My wife died in the quake. My house was destroyed," he said. "I am going to Chengdu, but I don't know where I'll live."

Zhou and other survivors were pulling luggage and clutching plastic bags of food amid a steady drizzle and the constant wall of ambulances.

Just east of the epicenter, 1,000 students and teachers were killed or missing at a collapsed high school in Beichuan county — a six-story building reduced to a pile of rubble about two yards high, according to Xinhua. Xinhua said 80 percent of the buildings had collapsed in Beichuan alone.

At another leveled school in Dujiangyan, 900 students were feared dead. As bodies of teenagers were carried out on doors used as makeshift stretchers, relatives lit incense and candles and also set off fireworks to ward away evil spirits.

Elsewhere in Gansu province, a 40-car freight train derailed in the quake that included 13 gasoline tankers was still burning Tuesday, Xinhua said.

Gasoline lines grew in Chengdu and grocery stores shelves were almost empty. The Ministry of Health issued an appeal for blood donations to help the quake victims.

Fifteen missing British tourists were believed to have been in the area at the time of the quake and were "out of reach," Xinhua reported.

They were likely visiting the Wolong Nature Reserve, home to more than 100 giant pandas, whose fate also was not known, Xinhua said, adding that 60 pandas at another breeding center in Chengdu were safe.

Another group of 12 Americans also on panda-watching tour sponsored by the U.S. office of the World Wildlife Fund remained out of contact Tuesday, said Tan Rui, WWF communications officer in China.

Two Chinese-Americans and a Thai tourist also were missing in Sichuan province, the agency said, citing tourism officials.

Expressions of sympathy and offers of help poured in from the United States, Japan and the European Union, among others.

The Dalai Lama, who has been vilified by Chinese authorities who blame him for recent unrest in Tibet, offered prayers for the victims. The epicenter is just south of some Tibetan mountain areas that saw anti-government protests earlier this year.

Beijing Games organizers said the Olympic torch relay will continue as planned through the quake-affected area next month.

The Chinese government said it would welcome outside aid, and Russia was sending a plane with rescuers and supplies, the country's Interfax news agency reported.

But Wang, the disaster relief official, said international aid workers would not be allowed to travel to the affected area.

"We welcome funds and supplies; we can't accommodate personnel at this point," he said.

China's Ministry of Finance said it had allocated $123 million in aid for quake-hit areas.

The quake was China's deadliest since 1976, when 240,000 people were killed in the city of Tangshan, near Beijing in 1976. Financial analysts said the quake would have only a limited impact on the country's booming economy.