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Updated: 12:26pm The National Weather Service says the tornado that hit Greensburg was an EF-5 on the Enhanced Fujita scale. A spokesman for the NWS office out of Dodge City estimates winds were near 205 miles-per-hour. The tornado was about a mile and a half wide. This is the first EF-5 and the first F-5 under the previous scale since the tornado that hit Moore, OK in 1999. That storm system spawned the Haysville Tornado.

Under Dems, old boss would be new boss on key panelVeteran lawmaker Dingell poised to resume helm of Energy and Commerce Committee By William L. Watts, MarketWatch Last Update: 3:22 PM ET Oct 18, 2006 WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- If Democrats take control of the House in the Nov. 7 midterm elections, the man who would hold the gavel of one of its most powerful committees won't have to worry too much about the learning curve. Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, the longest-serving current member of the House, would be picking up where he left off in 1994 when Republicans ended...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Endangered turtles die shortly after hatching from their eggs. Fish float dead off the coast. Flaming oil sends waves of black smoke toward the city. In this country of Mediterranean beaches and snowcapped mountains, Israeli bombing that caused an oil spill has created an environmental disaster. And cleanup cannot start until the fighting stops, the U.N. says. World attention has focused on the hundreds of people who have died in the 3-week-old conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. The environmental damage has attracted little attention but experts warn the long-term effects could be devastating. Some 110,000 barrels of...

This a video I did a while back.

Quake Prompts Questions on Bin Laden By KATHERINE SHRADER, Associated Press Writer Tue Oct 11, 4:04 PM ET Did Osama bin Laden's secret lair crumble in the earthquake that devastated northwest Pakistan? So far, U.S. government officials and terrorism experts caution against too much speculation about whether the al-Qaida chief may have been killed, injured or forced from hiding. "There's a lot of people who know that that's an obvious question" was the most Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita would say Tuesday about U.S. thinking on bin Laden's fate. Federal officials who track terrorism for a living said there's no...

I don't think I have to point out to anyone just how horrendous the situation down in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama is today. Hurricane Katrina has proved to be the worst natural disaster to strike the United States since the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, and the effects of this unprecedented catastrophe will surely be felt in this country for many months, and perhaps years to come.

The attached is a video from WWL TV in New Orleans. The mayor of New Orleans gives a very detailed report of the condition of the city. As bad as the national news is painting the picture, it falls short of the devastation that has occurred. There are 8 refineries located in the New Orleans to Mobile areas. Nearly 1/2 of all the gasoline in the country is refined here. These are all shut down, and they don't know for how long. Even if they were capable of running the refineries, there will be a huge shortage of workers as...

The 13th Anniversary of Andrew, the Cat. 5 Hurricane that Brought Devastation to South Florida and The Most Costly Natural Disaster to Hit the US Excerpt: Hurricane History-NOAA:Hurricane Andrew 1992 The most destructive United States hurricane of record started modestly as a tropical wave that emerged from the west coast of Africa on August 14. The wave spawned a tropical depression on August 16, which became Tropical Storm Andrew the next day. Further development was slow, as the west-northwestward moving Andrew encountered an unfavorable upper-level trough. Indeed, the storm almost dissipated on August 20 due to vertical wind shear. By...

Mohammed organized a people made bitter by the environment; by institutionalizing this bitterness into the theology of Islam. He encouraged people to worship him, his hair (Hazratbal mosque at Kashmir in India, his spitum, the water gargled by him, his urine, ad nausem) Thus Islam was his own personality cult, and his was a murderous personality. Warriors with a desire to win pleasure on earth if they live and in heaven if they die, made them paranoid warriors, disregarded danger and were numb to pain and this brought victory, no alcohol also helped immensely to get a tactical advantage like...

A verdict has been reached in Michael Jackson's (search) child molestation trial. Sheriff's deputies and court officials said the verdicts were to be read after attorneys and Jackson reached the courthouse. The singer was told earlier that he would have about an hour to arrive from his Neverland ranch estate. The verdict is expected to be read at 4:30 p.m. EDT. The jury, which listened to 14 weeks of testimony and arguments, deliberated over seven days before sending word of a verdict on the 10-count indictment about 12:30 p.m.

Viking ship cracking upEperts are worried about one of Norway's national treasures. Archaeologists have discovered cracks in the hull of he famed Oseberg Viking ship, which may halt plans to move the vessel to a new museum.The archaeologists have been carefully going over the nearly 1,200-year-old ship, and are concerned about what they see, reports newspaper Aftenposten.Removal of the vessel's top deck has revealed some exciting new details, like graffiti from the Viking age and details of the ship's rigging. But it's also exposed cracks that make archaeologists worry the ship won't tolerate any move to new quarters.There have been...

A Glimpse Ahead Timothy Snodgrass The Impossible Will Come Alive In 2005 01/28/05 In January of 2004, as we began to intercede for the New Year the Holy Spirit gave us the prophetic slogan, "The Seas will Roar in 2004". This year we were given a new slogan, "The Impossible will come Alive in 2005". As the veil of darkness begins to come down over nations and regions, along with great shakings will come great breakthroughs; signs, wonders, healings and a spectacular release of miracles in impossible circumstances. This year, although we are ultimately poised to gain much ground, there...

PUNTA GORDA, Fla. - When Cindy Vallier returned home Saturday after Hurricane Charley, the bodies of the old couple across the road were lying in her front yard, covered in blankets. Staring at the old man's black wheelchair and twisted walker wedged under her husband's upturned truck, Vallier wonders how she can bear to move back to Crystal Lake mobile home park. "Every time I walk down here, there's two dead people in my driveway," she said, envisioning the memory that will haunt her. She surveyed the twisted wreckage engulfing her home. It's what is left of her dead neighbors'...

'Nothing but devastation and debris' as earthquake strikes Iran By Angus McDowall in Kerman and Anne Penketh 27 December 2003 Reza Jordani was in shock as he sat at the bedside of his 10-year-old son who was badly injured in the earthquake that devastated the historic Iranian city of Bam. The quake struck at dawn yesterday, killing thousands as they slept in their mud-brick houses. As dawn broke, Iranian television showed aerial footage of a sea of rubble where the city had stood. "I don't know what has happened to the rest of my family," said Mr Jordani, a middle-aged...

T. S. Eliot had it backward. Forget the whimper, the world will end with a bang, and possibly soon. This kind of apocalyptic foreboding underlies "Avoiding Armageddon," a disturbing four-part, eight-hour documentary series running tonight through Thursday on PBS. These programs are far richer in Armageddon than in avoiding, raising the specters of disease and destruction spread through the world by troubling terrorists. The segments are rich, too, in alarming (even agonizing) alliteration, with episode titles that include phrases like "Poisons and Plagues," "Nuclear Nightmares" and "Turning the Tide." The concept of Armageddon comes from Revelation, and this revelation is...

This is a transcript of AM broadcast at 0800 AEST on local radio. Jenin massacre uncovering AM - Friday, April 19, 2002 8:08 LINDA MOTTRAM: To the Middle East and as more information comes out of the cities of Jenin and Nablus on the West Bank, it's becoming clear that Israel will have to answer allegations that it's committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during its occupation of the West Bank. One British forensic expert says the evidence points to a massacre by Israeli forces. That expert is Professor Derrick Pounder from Amnesty International who's inspected the devastation and...