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SAN ANTONIO (AP) - In the old lobby of San Antonio's Animal Care Services, a cheerful-looking sign written in neon pink, blue and yellow delivers a somber message: In a week's time, the city-run shelter took in 1,004 dogs and cats and adopted out or rescued 76. It killed 925. The shelter wants to turn those numbers around. By 2012, San Antonio plans to become a "no-kill" facility, meaning it wouldn't kill any animal deemed healthy or treatable. By reducing the homeless pet population through spay-neuter programs and working with other shelters to find permanent homes for animals, the San...

WASHINGTON - The nation has three-quarters of a million homeless people, filling emergency shelters through the year and spilling into special seasonal shelters in the coldest months, the government said Wednesday. The Department of Housing and Urban Development estimated there were 754,000 homeless people in 2005, including those living in shelters, transitional housing and on the street. That's about 300,000 more people than available beds in shelters and transitional housing. The report is the government's latest attempt to count people who are notoriously difficult to track. The estimate is similar to one by an advocacy group in January. The 2000...

FULLERTON -- Life in a government-run shelter for illegal immigrant children might not sound very inviting, but for 16-year-old Sandra it's a vast improvement from what she left behind in Guatemala. For starters, she has enough to eat and nobody beats her. She even gets to study, a luxury she hasn't had since leaving school in third grade. She's been on her own since she was 10, when she fled an abusive home in Guatemala. She was picked up by U.S. immigration authorities two months ago while trying to enter the country illegally through the Arizona desert. She's among two...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanon is becoming a shelter for al-Qaida-linked militants fleeing across the Syrian border after a crackdown by authorities there, Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview published Monday. His comments were certain to stoke tensions between the two neighbors. Lebanese opponents of Syria, who dominate the government and parliament in Beirut, have ridiculed such Syrian claims and accuse Damascus of sending militants across the border to destabilize Lebanon. "This has become a reality," Assad said of al-Qaida's presence in Lebanon. In a wide-ranging interview with the Arab newspaper Al-Hayat, Assad said al-Qaida's presence has grown in...

(Rochester, NY - AP) - Winds gusting up to 77 miles per hour knocked out power to more than 200,000 homes and offices today and toppled trees onto a school bus, a car and a truck, killing a suburban Rochester woman and a state worker at a park in Saratoga Springs. A fierce storm swept across the Midwest and into the Northeast before dawn, sending temperatures in some parts of western New York plunging from 60 degrees to below freezing within a few hours. Downed or damaged power lines cut off electricity to at least 215,000 customers. A falling tree...

SAN YSIDRO, Calif. — Puppy smugglers continue flooding the market with animals from Mexico, many of which die or pose health hazards to unsuspecting buyers, according to a recent survey. Animal welfare agency inspectors found 517 puppies, many concealed in vehicles and destined for swap meets across Southern California, during the two-week survey earlier this month at the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa ports of entry. [snip] To get them across the border, smugglers often stuff the dogs in packing crates or hide them in spare-tire wheel wells. The puppies are heard whimpering inside trunks or underneath seats. When bringing...

WATERVILLE, Maine --While state officials worry about the impact of heating oil prices this winter, another problem is developing as the cold weather sets in: a shortage of space in shelters for the homeless. Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter Executive Director Susan Goss said the problem stems in part from a housing market that's extremely short of apartments with three or more bedrooms, which makes it harder for shelters to place people in permanent quarters.

There is a potential problem brewing in the midst of the hurricane's aftermath--- both Louisiana State Police and the Red Cross are trying to get a handle on it, but nobody seems to have the right answer. It involves thousand of New Orleans sex offenders forced out of their city into our shelters and neighborhoods in Baton Rouge. From the beginning we've heard stories of rape, even child rape in the aftermath of the hurricane. By law Louisiana sex offenders are supposed to register where they live. This is meant to keep us all safe, just so we know who...

The federal government will no longer bring evacuees from the Gulf Coast to the St. Louis region despite an areawide effort to provide facilities for thousands. Eleven days ago, the federal government ordered agencies here to make preparations for up to 2,000 people displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Now officials are deciding what to do with a Boeing hangar at Lambert Field that hundreds of volunteers and dozens of agencies worked feverishly to turn into a virtual city. St. Louis County also coordinated an effort to transform the long-abandoned Gumbo Jail in Chesterfield for about 300 Katrina evacuees... That's not to...

Now that thousands of temporarily homeless evacuees from New Orleans and other Gulf Coast areas are finding shelter what does the future hold for them as well as for the communities who are sheltering them?

Shelters •Houston: The Mont Belvieu Senior Center at 11607 Eagle Drive was the first shelter, which is now at capacity with 120 people. •BAYTOWN: The Baytown Community Center at 2407 Market Street was next to open its doors to evacuees. By 6:45 p.m. Tuesday there were 400 people taking shelter there with a maximum capacity of 500. At Capacity •BAYTOWN: Third shelter to open: Memorial Baptist Church - 600 West Sterling, Baytown, Texas 77520 (capacity 250) •HOUSTON: Fourth shelter: St. Peter Claver Catholic Church - 6005 North Wayside Drive, Houston, Texas •GALVESTON: Moody Memorial Methodist Church – 2803 53rd Street,...

SAN ANTONIO -- For the first time since Hurricane Katrina forced them into shelters, 6,000 people at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., ventured outside for a breath of fresh air. That was late in the day on Aug. 30, just after eating their first hot meal since the devastating hurricane nearly blew the base and that section of the Gulf Coast off the map. People stood in line for up to two hours to get their first hot food in days, said Lt. Col. Claudia Foss, the 81st Training Wing spokesperson. “We were able to feed 6,000 people at one...

China activates bomb shelters Intelligence sources suspect reopening to public is part of strategic deception Posted: June 28, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com China's decision to open up massive bomb shelters to the public, ostensibly to provide a respite from summer heat, has U.S. intelligence analysts concerned about a possible strategic deception by Beijing, reports Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. The government made a high-profile public announcement, carried by the official Xinhua news agency, this week that bomb shelters in central Chongqing would be opened to the public to allow residents to cool off during a heat wave in...

BETHEL TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- A school in Pennsylvania's Susquehanna Valley is one of a number of shelters the American Red Cross is setting up in the event of an emergency at Thursday's presidential inauguration. INAUGURATION 2005 Schedule, History and More It's the first time the Red Cross has taken such extensive precautions for an inauguration. "We try to plan for any type of emergency that may occur," said Dawn Vitez, with the American Red Cross. Tuesday was a regular school day at Northern Lebanon High School, but the building is ready to take on an important role should there be...

Editor's note: Readers may also be interested in Iran: The Invisible Revolution. During the U.S. presidential campaign, debate over Iran policy received unprecedented attention. The reasons are multifold. With Iran on the verge of developing both nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile capability, Washington policymakers can no longer ignore the Iranian threat, especially when confidants of Supreme Leader Ali Khomenei lead televised chants of "American will be annihilated," as Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati did last June. American concern over a nuclear Iran is multifold. The danger is not necessarily that Iran would conduct a nuclear first strike, although former president Ali Akbar...

<p>December 10, 2003 -- A pair of teens accused of raping an East Village woman in her apartment building's stairwell were arrested yesterday at a nearby shelter where they were staying, cops said. Christopher Ramos and Joshua Roy-Hill, both 18, were nabbed at the East Village Resident shelter for youths on East 3rd Street.</p>

City officials in Mesa, Arizona, have mistakenly installed two bus shelters where no buses run. The installation cost £19,000 at a time when the city is cutting its public transit budget to save money. The shelters were installed as part of a £4.6m improvement project finished about a year ago. Although there is a bus service on part of the road, the vehicles turn before reaching the shelters. And even though the shelters have signs posted saying no buses pass by, people still wait. "It slipped through all of us and didn't get caught until after the fact," said Jeff...

Build it, and they will come. That adage worked in "Field of Dreams," drawing dead baseball players, and it applies as well to the homeless, who have an amazing network that conveys news of the location of soup kitchens, shelters and ministries that cater to their needs. So it is that downtown Atlanta is practically overrun by vagrants, who come to the city for its services (and, of course, to panhandle office workers). If downtown Atlanta builds any more of those services, it will attract even more of the downtrodden seeking sustenance. Mayor Shirley Franklin is doing the right thing...

(Danbury-AP Dec. 17, 2002 8:00 AM)_ Danbury officials have told several Danbury places of worship they can't help out the homeless. The effort to open places of worship to homeless people turned away from city shelters has hit a snag. City officials told three area churches and one synagogue they can't take in the homeless this winter because their buildings do not meet local zoning regulations and state fire codes. Churches, homeless advocates and city officials have been meeting to come up with a short-term solution to provide the homeless with a warm place to stay this winter. Officials say...

<p>Homelessness is not just a problem in Maine's largest cities, according to directors of shelters that are filling up in smaller communities across the state.</p> <p>Portland and Bangor shelters report no unusual demands for accommodations for this time of the year, but shelters from Oxford to Knox counties say they have been at capacity.</p>