It also left thousands of utility customers without power Wednesday, a day after it hit the region.

Migratory bird species, including many waterfowl and shorebirds, that frequently carry low pathogenic avian influenza and migrate between continents may carry Asian strains of the virus along their migratory pathways to North America.

But now look at this! the Mir:ror from Violet offers up something pretty similar in the here and now.

Earlier this year, Cyclone Nargis hit Burma. Unlike almost any other government in response to a natural disaster, the junta in Burma initially refused, and then restricted and diverted international aid efforts. Aid was stolen by the regime (pdf). Burmese people who tried to help deliver aid were arrested. The little aid that was officially distributed was given for propaganda purposes and often taken back when the photocalls were over. At least 140,000 people died and 2.5 million left homeless in the wake of the regime's deliberate neglect.

According to earthquake measurement centre Peshawar the tremors were felt at 7:29 am.

The state Thruway Authority said officials in Pike County in northeastern Pennsylvania closed I-84, and the New York agency said eastbound I-84 was closed for a time near Port Jervis, where the Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey borders meet.

Both Republican candidate John McCain and Democratic candidate Barack Obama back NATO membership for Georgia, as well as for Ukraine - support that strengthened with the Russian invasion of Georgia in August. Georgia's bid to join NATO is expected to be addressed during meetings of NATO foreign and defense ministers later this year.

But South Korea, which last week denied it has taken a hard-line stance toward the North,agreed to a meeting tomorrow inside the demilitarised zone that divides the peninsula.

He accused the Bristol branch of "bigotry" and said he would not have been treated in the same way if he was a Muslim.

Lawmakers have started every day of Parliament with the Christian prayer for more than a century — a tradition inherited from Britain during colonial rule.

In India, anti-Christian riots and rampages by Hindu extremists have claimed at least 38 lives since late August, destroying dozen of churches and leaving as many as 30,000 people homeless.

For decades, Coptic and Ethiopian Christians have been fighting over the Deir el-Sultan monastery, which sits atop a chapel at the ancient Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The monastery is little more than a cluster of dilapidated rooms and a passageway divided into two incense-filled chapels, an architectural afterthought alongside the Holy Sepulcher's better-known features.

During the 20th annual "White Ribbon Against Pornography Week" (WRAP), which runs Oct. 26 to Nov. 2, Americans are being called to speak out on the detrimental effects of pornography and inform others about ways to remove the "garbage" from the lives of families and local communities.

The brochure says Christian Zionism "fosters fear and hatred of Muslims and non-Western Christians" and "can lead to the dehumanization of Israelis and Palestinians." Its distribution reflects the concerns of Christians who are trying to combat what they call the growing influence of Christian Zionism in the U.S.

The Cupertino-based computer and iPod maker said on its website Friday it made a $100,000 pledge to defeat Proposition 8.

"The problem we have is mainly in the backyards of poor families in Indonesia and Egypt," Bernard Vallat, director general of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), told Reuters on Friday.