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Hurricane Rita forces new evacuations on US










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HOUSTON, United States (AFP) - Hurricane Rita became a top level category five storm packing winds of about 265 kilometres (165 miles) an hour, the US National Hurricane Centre said as tens of thousands of people were told to flee the coast of Texas.

"Data from reconnaissance aircraft indicate that Rita has reached category five intensity with estimated maximum sustained surface winds of 165 mph," said the hurricane centre in a statement.

Monitors use the Saffir-Simpson storm strength scale which runs up to five.

Still under fire over its response to Hurricane Katrina, US authorities took no chances, ordering the city of Galveston and parts of Houston to be emptied while people in New Orleans were urged to leave for the second time in less than four weeks.

After brushing the Florida Keys islands on Tuesday, Rita headed across the Gulf of Mexico.

Hurricane Katrina ranked as category four when it slammed ashore near New Orleans, Louisiana, on August 29, leaving more than 1,000 people confirmed dead and many more missing.

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Among those told to evacuate on land were thousands who had fled from Katrina.

Officials ordered the evacuation of Galveston, a barrier island town of 57,000 where the deadliest US hurricane on record killed between 8,000 and 12,000 people in 1900.

Katrina forced Alicia Baxter and her family into the Superdome stadium in New Orleans, then the Astrodome in Houston, and they had arrived in Galveston last week. "I'm about to go kill myself," she said as relatives packed up behind her. "This is unbelievable."

There was bumper-to-bumper traffic on the road from Galveston to Houston, 60 kilometres (40 miles) away.

Ambulances, sirens blaring, rushed out hospital patients, families packed their belongings in their cars and dozens of school buses ferried those who do not have their own transport.

Several thousand people in emergency shelters in Houston were also told to leave again.

"Hurricane Rita on its present course poses a risk to Houston and the whole Houston region," the Texas city's mayor, Bill White, said as he told residents to flee flood-prone areas of the city of two million.

Houston's port and NASA's Johnson Space Centre closed down due to the threat from Rita. NASA handed control of the International Space Station to counterparts in Russia.

Rita's projected route indicates it would slam ashore 120 kilometres (80 miles) southwest of Houston, which would expose the city to the so-called dirty side of the storm, where the eyewall packs the most power.

But forecasts show that a large swath of the Gulf coast, reaching from the northeastern tip of Mexico to southwestern Louisiana, including New Orleans, are at risk.

The storm also threatened oil installations in the Gulf of Mexico where about one-quarter of US oil operations are based.

Oil companies evacuated offshore facilities as the storm's progress kept global markets on tenterhooks.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November rose 60 cents to close at 66.80 dollars per barrel. In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for November delivery advanced 53 cents to 64.73 dollars.

US authorities are taking no chances this time after the withering criticism over their flawed response to Katrina.

"Mandatory evacuations have been ordered for New Orleans and Galveston. I urge the citizens to listen carefully to the instructions provided by state and local authorities. And follow them," President George W. Bush said.

"We hope and pray that Hurricane Rita will not be a devastating storm. But we got to be ready for the worst."

Texas Governor Rick Perry also urged coastal residents to head to safer ground.

But Houston's mayor warned there were not enough government vehicles to evacuate everybody from vulnerable areas.

The storm entered the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday after brushing past Cuba and the Florida Keys, drenching Havana and cutting power to more than 24,000 south Florida homes, but leaving no reported casualties.


US tells China to use power responsibly



NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick told China on Wednesday it should take concrete steps to assure the world it will use its power responsibly and said Beijing's approach to Iran would prove its seriousness on combating nuclear proliferation.

The "essential question" for the United States and the world was "how will China use its influence" because the answer would have a profound effect on international development for years to come, he said.

In a speech for delivery to the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, which promotes ties between the two countries, Zoellick acknowledged that "many Americans worry that the Chinese dragon will be a firebreather. There is a cauldron of anxiety about China."
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China must become a "responsible stakeholder" in the international system that has enabled its success because "uncertainties about how China will use its power will lead the United States, and others as well, to hedge relations with China," he said.

Noting rising protectionist pressures in America fueled by a huge trade deficit with China, Zoellick said Beijing "cannot take access to the U.S. market for granted."

"The United States will not be able to sustain an open international economic system --or domestic U.S. support for such a system -- without greater cooperation from China," the former U.S. trade representative said.

He also urged China to open its political system, saying those who believe they can secure the Communist Party's power monopoly through economic growth and heightened nationalism were following a "risky and mistaken" course.

Zoellick, in charge of what Washington calls a new U.S. strategic dialogue with Beijing, discussed key issues facing the two powers a week after President George W. Bush met Chinese President Hu Jintao during the U.N. General Assembly.

Amid rising U.S. concern over China's growing military, economic and political clout, Zoellick made a strong argument for fostering greater cooperation.

"You hear the voices that perceive China solely through the lens of fear. But America succeeds when we look to the future as an opportunity, not when we fear what the future might bring," he said.

In an apparent reference to suggestions that the United States seeks closer ties with India as a counterweight to China, Zoellick said: "We are too interconnected to try to hold China at arm's length, hoping to promote other powers in Asia at its expense."

"Nor would the other powers hold China at bay," he added.

Zoelick said China has a strong interest in working with Washington on halting the spread of weapons of mass destruction and its "actions on Iran's nuclear program will reveal the seriousness of China's commitment to non-proliferation."

China has received high marks for hosting six-country negotiations which this week produced an initial accord on North Korea's nuclear programs.

But it has joined Russia in helping to block the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency from referring concerns about Iran's nuclear activities to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.

Zoellick said China needs to realize how its actions are perceived. "China's involvement with troublesome states indicates at best a blindness to consequences and at worst something more ominous, he said.

In addition to Iran, the United States is anxious about China's ties, mostly spurred by energy needs, with Sudan, Venezuela, Myanmar and Zimbabwe.


Thursday September 22, 12:41 PM Reuters

Ten under bird flu watch in Indonesia hospital



JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian doctors are observing 10 patients with bird flu-like symptoms, a senior health official said on Thursday, amid fears a deadly avian influenza outbreak is spreading.

Four Indonesians are already confirmed to have died since July from the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu, which has killed 64 people in four Asian countries since late 2003 and has been found in birds in Russia and Europe.

"We are observing 11 cases, including the one that died yesterday," said I Nyoman Kandun, the head of disease control at Indonesia's health ministry, referring to a girl who died on Wednesday at Jakarta's infectious diseases hospital.
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Initial testing showed the girl did not die of bird flu, but further blood samples have been sent to a Hong Kong laboratory.

Kandun told Reuters that tests so far showed there was only one patient out of those being observed who was positive for the H5N1 virus. That patient is related to a Jakarta woman who died of bird flu almost two weeks ago.

The U.N. World Health Organization last week warned bird flu was moving toward a form that could be passed between humans and the world had no time to waste to prevent a pandemic.

Georg Petersen, the WHO representative in Jakarta, said on Wednesday many foreign experts were helping Indonesia, including a high-level delegation from the United States.

The WHO was also working with the government to source new stocks of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu to bolster local stocks.

Tamiflu is an anti-viral tablet that can help against infection. Several companies are working on a vaccine, but tests are not expected to begin until later this year.

The government has appealed for public calm over the virus, which has dominated local media reports in recent days.

On Monday, the government imposed a state of high alert, which gives authorities the power to order people showing symptoms of the virus to be hospitalized.

Besides Indonesia, bird flu has killed 44 people in Vietnam, 12 people in Thailand and four in Cambodia.