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Residential area submerged due to Hurricane Earl in USA U.S. residents urged to prepare for possible evacuations as powerful Hurricane Earl howled over open seas running toward the East Coast of the U.S.A. The Category 4 hurricane, with winds of 135 mph (215 kilometers), was expected to remain over the open ocean before turning north and running parallel to the U.S. coast, potentially reaching the North Carolina coastal region by late Thursday or early Friday. It was projected then to curve back out to sea, perhaps swiping New England or far-eastern Canada. "We can't totally rule out a very close approach to either of the Cape Hatteras areas or Cape Cod and southern New England as the storm progresses further," said Bill Read, director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. Earl delivered a glancing blow to several small Caribbean islands Monday, tearing roofs off of homes and cutting electricity to people in Anguilla, Antigua, and St. Maarten. Cruise ships were

More than $5 billion in American taxpayer funds has been wasted which is more than 10 percent of the some $50 billion the U.S. has spent on reconstruction in Iraq, according to audits from a U.S. watchdog agency. As the U.S. draws down in Iraq, it is leaving behind hundreds of abandoned or incomplete projects. A $40 million prison sits in the desert north of Baghdad, empty. A $165 million children's hospital goes unused in the south. A $100 million waste water treatment system in Fallujah has cost three times more than projected, yet sewage still runs through the streets. That amount is likely an underestimate, based on an analysis of more than 300 reports by auditors with the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. And it does not take into account security costs, which have run almost 17 percent for some projects. There are success stories. Hundreds of police stations, border forts and government buildings have been built, Iraqi security forces have improved after year

The US economy grew 1.6% in the second quarter, revised down from a first estimate of 2.4%.The figures were better than most analysts had expected. Recent data on the US economy had raised worries that the US was entering a double-dip recession, dragging the rest of the world with it. The revised figure was mostly due to the largest surge in imports in 26 years, and a slower build-up of stocks by companies. Economists had estimated the revision would be sharper for the April-to-June period, down to about 1.3%. Nevertheless, it still marks a big drop on the growth figure for the previous three months, which stood at 3.7%. The US economy has now grown for four straight quarters, although that annualised growth rate averaged only 2.9%. Experts say that the economy needs to grow at about 3% just to keep the unemployment rate, currently 9.5%, from rising. Business investment in new machinery, computers and software drove much of the growth last quarter, increasing nearly 25%. But much of th

JAKARTA: A volcano on the Indonesian island of Sumatra erupted for the first time in 400 years Sunday, spewing a vast cloud of smoke and ash into the air and sending thousands of people fleeing from their homes. Indonesia issued a red alert after the Sinabung volcano erupted, blanketing the area in thick and acrid black smoke, disaster officials said, although no casualties have yet been reported. "It's clearly dangerous so we've raised the warning to the highest level, or red level," said Surono, head of the nation's volcano disaster alert centre. "From the crater, it shot smoke and volcanic ash 1,500 metres (5,000 feet) into the sky," he told AFP. "Initially we thought the ash and smoke were triggered by rain but now we know the driving pressure was from magma." The 2,460-metre (8,100 feet) Sinabung in northern Sumatra has not erupted for more than 400 years b

KARACHI- Pakistan has ordered the evacuation of a southern town after the swollen Indus river broke its banks, nearly a month after devastating floods first struck, an official said on Friday. Floodwaters are beginning to recede across most of the country as the water flows down the Indus, but because of high tides in the Arabian Sea, they still pose a threat to towns such as Thatta, 70 km (45 miles) east of Karachi, in the river delta. The floods have killed almost 1,600 people, forced about six million from their homes and raised the danger of epidemics with the lack of fresh food and clean water. "There was another breach last night which is very close to Thatta and the evacuation has been ordered for the whole city," Riaz Ahmed Soomro, relief commissioner in the southern province of Sindh, told Reuters. Many people from outlying areas had taken refuge in Thatta, which normally has a population of about 300,000, and now had to move again, he said. There is no threat to the

Peoples in Pakistan under threat of life for natural calamity began in late July ISLAMABAD- Parts of northwest Pakistan inundated by the worst floods in 80 years face life-threatening food shortages, a United Nations aid agency said recently. That scenario would create a new crisis for politically-fragile President Asif Ali Zardari, in a country where civilian governments have a poor history of managing crises, leaving the powerful military to step in. World Food Programme (WFP) spokesman Amjad Jameel said the organisations' workers were urgently trying to reach flood areas in the northwest cut off from food supplies, which a U.N. aid agency said devastated the lives of over 3 million people. Before the floods hit, a million people were already forced from their homes in the Pakistani northwest because of fighting between the army and Taliban militants. If the floods deepen the problem, it could set back government efforts to get the people back home in a bid to help stabilise nucl

Devastating floods hit Pakistan: peoples lost lives & in shortage of foods & safe water Life in Pakistan is under threat now for natural disaster