Tropical Storms Hit Central U.S., 10 Killed

Managua Tropical Storm Alex, the season’s first hurricane in the Atlantic, killing at least 10 people in Central America, local media reported on Monday. Hundreds of people were evacuated from lowland areas in El Salvador, when Alex storms into the Gulf of Mexico. Six people were killed and their bodies were found drifting in the River San Lucas, said an official with Nicaragua. In the western part of Guatemala, a landslide buried two farmers as they worked on a road improvement project, the Office of Emergency Response, Conred, reported.

U.S. National Disaster Management Center, Alex is still going strong storms on Tuesday local time Wednesday Hurricane season this year came not as usual. Pacific typhoon, Agatha, who appeared before the June 1 killing 156 people in Guatemala.Tropical storm Alex was somewhat weakened after the rain down in Belize, but continue to create gusts of wind and heavy rains, said the United States National Hurricane Center .

Nevertheless, the storm did not immediately threaten the activities of oil drilling in wells Macondo of BP Plc (British Petroleum), U.S. Coast Guard said. Alex, the first hurricane of the Atlantic hurricane season in 2010, has a wind speed of nearly 65 km per hour and was at about 90 km west of Chetumal, Mexico.

The storm was expected to subside when entering Belize and the Yucatan Peninsula, said Miami-based hurricane center. Atlantic cyclone began to move on June 1 to 30 November and meteorological experts predict this year will be the most prone to hurricanes. (Xinhua-Oana)

Tropical storm Darby strengthened off Mexico's Pacific coast on Thursday

Tropical storm Darby strengthened off Mexico’s Pacific coast on Thursday and could become a hurricane but is not expected to threaten land before next week, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.Darby, the fourth named storm of the eastern Pacific season, had maximum sustained winds of 70 mph and was 230 miles south of the Mexican beach town of Puerto Escondido. The strengthening storm was moving west at 12 mph.

Darby could become a hurricane later on Thursday and might turn north and head toward land early next week, the Miami-based hurricane center said.Pacific hurricanes can cause damage to tourist resorts in Mexico but pose no threat to the country’s oil industry, which is primarily located in the Gulf of Mexico.

Farther out in the Pacific, Celia remained a strong Category 2 hurricane but posed no threat to land.The first hurricane of the Pacific season, Celia was 735 miles south of Baja California and had maximum sustained winds of 110 mph. Celia was forecast to continue moving west away from land.(Reuters)

immigration to be one factor that is very complicated problem for McCain in election

Reporting from Mesa, Arizona .As a candidate for president, Republican John McCain lamented his party’s tough talk on illegal immigration. “In the long term, if you alienate the Hispanics, you’ll pay a heavy price,” he told a group of Milwaukee businessmen in October 2006.Back then, some strongly favored walling off the U.S. Mexico border to address the problem, but not McCain. “I think the fence is least effective,” the Arizona senator said.

Lately, however, McCain has transformed himself from a champion of broadbased reform — who spoke of illegal immigrants as “God’s children,” deserving of love and compassion — into a fierce advocate for the kind of crackdown he once scorned.In a recent TV ad, McCain blamed illegal immigrants for all manner of problems facing his state: “smuggling, home invasions, murder.” It is time, he said, for Washington to “complete the danged fence.”Facing his toughest reelection fight in years, McCain’s future may hinge on whether voters see him as honest or opportunistic.

Old allies are dismayed. “Someone who was a visionary … has gone from being very large to very, very small,” said Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (DIll.), who worked with McCain and the late Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy on a bipartisan immigration overhaul bill.Old foes are dismissive. Among them is former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, McCain’s main rival in the August primary and a longtime adversary. “An electionyear conversion,” Hayworth said.

The more important verdict, however, rests with voters like Linda StapleyWilliams, 60, a retired high school teacher and GOP activist in Mesa. She wonders: “Did he change his position as he was exposed to new information? Because that can be an admirable thing. Or did he change his opinion because the outcry was so overwhelming and there was no way he was going to get reelected if he didn’t?”

McCain — who holds a comfortable, if not overwhelming, lead in polls — declined to be interviewed. Last month he told the Arizona Republic it was “a political ploy” to say he changed his immigration stance.For years, McCain criticized Washington for failing to control the border, pushed for stiffer law enforcement and worked to pry federal dollars loose to help Arizona pay the costs of illegal immigration. But that was only part of the solution, he said many times.

“Congress cannot take a piecemeal approach to a national security crisis,” McCain said in a Senate floor speech in September 2006. “I believe the only way to truly secure our border and protect our nation is through the enactment of comprehensive immigration reform.”Working with Democrats, McCain introduced an enforcement bill in 2005 that included a guestworker program and a provision allowing citizenship for illegal immigrants who learned English, paid a fine, underwent background checks and waited several years before seeking permanent residence.

The legislation was strongly backed by President George W. Bush and passed the Senate with bipartisan support. But the measure drew fierce criticism from grassroots Republicans angry at what they considered amnesty. The bill was killed in the House.Even so, McCain’s coauthorship continues to antagonize many back home.

On a recent hot afternoon, a group of seven GOP women gathered in Mesa over cold drinks to talk about McCain. All were pleased with his harder line, including support for Arizona’s stringent new law against illegal immigration — though some found him more believable than others. None would consider voting for McCain had he not repudiated the 2005 immigration bill.”That’s a dealbreaker,” said Sharon Giese, 63, one of two Arizona representatives on the Republican National Committee. Others nodded.

Mesa typifies the changes in Arizona over the last decade or so, with its explosive growth and influx of Latinos. Once a faroff satellite of Phoenix, Mesa has become the state’s thirdmost populous city, with about 460,000 residents. (That’s more than Cleveland or Miami.)Much of the community has the feel of an upscale oasis. Broad streets, laid out in the grid pattern favored by Mesa’s Mormon founders, are lined with tidy subdivisions and earthtoned shopping centers, a cool mist drifting from the redtile rooftops.

But the heavily Latino neighborhoods near downtown show all the signs of incipient urban decay: empty homes, slashes of graffiti, bars on windows, weeds poking through cracked sidewalks.Since taking a harder line on illegal immigration, the Arizona senator’s future may hinge on whether voters see him as honest or opportunistic.Mesa’s Latino population soared over the last decade, three times faster than the total population, to more than 115,000 residents. Today, 1 in 4 people living in Mesa is Latino, up from 1 in 5 in 2000, according to Tony Sissons, a Phoenix demographics expert.But the Republican women were adamant their support for tough border enforcement has nothing to do with race. Rather, they said, it has everything to do with following the law.

“I feel for the people in Mexico because I know they want the best for the families,” said Heather Sandstrom, 52, a retired TV newscaster. “I think it’s great if they want to immigrate here…. We’d love to have you. But do it legally.”McCain used to say the same thing. In recent months, however, he has made the kind of provocative statements he once condemned. Instead of lamenting the “human tragedy” of illegal bordercrossers dying in the desert, as he did in 2008, he accuses undocumented foreigners of deliberately crashing into other cars — apparently so they can flee when pursuing officers stop to tend accident victims.

“Arizona is under siege in many respects,” McCain said in a recent Fox News appearance. “We have broken borders. We have people flooding across. We have drug cartels inflicting incredible damage.”In fact, statistics suggest that Arizona is safer than it was in the 1990s, when the tide of illegal immigration began to surge. New FBI figures rate Phoenix as one of the four safest big cities in America. From 2008 to 2009, data show, violent and property crimes fell nearly 9% in Mesa and surrounding suburbs.

For many, however, the numbers don’t compute; the news is filled with crime stories linked to suspected illegal immigration or drug trafficking: the killing of a cattle rancher near the Mexico border, the shooting of a sheriff’s deputy in Pinal County.

The Republican women lamented the changes they have seen over the last few years: more day laborers hustling on more street corners, schools increasingly burdened by children who can’t speak English, hospitals filled with illegal immigrants receiving free medical care.”It’s just not fair,” said retiree Carol Jacobsen, 71, who moved to Arizona from the Midwest in 2001. “They’re getting a free ride.”

In 2007, McCain and Kennedy tried to reach agreement on a new immigration bill. By then, McCain was seeking the GOP presidential nomination and being pummeled for his immigration stance; his campaign nearly collapsed that summer, about the same time overhaul efforts died on Capitol Hill.Although McCain rallied to win the nomination, the outcry convinced him that border security had to be addressed before other steps could be considered.

Some who worked with McCain on comprehensive legislation hope he will resume talks once the election is past. (Assuming he wins.) “I don’t think this has staying power with him, mentally or in his heart,” Gutierrez said of McCain’s current position.

That’s what worries Son Hee Williamson, who emigrated legally, she stresses from South Korea nearly 40 years ago. She likes the senator’s tougher approach to illegal immigration. “But I don’t know if he’s going to keep that promise” if reelected, the GOP activist said.She is still deciding who to support in August.

The Pentagon says it's had no reports that the big earthquake in Chile has affected the U.S. military in the region – on land or at sea

WASHINGTON  The Pentagon says it’s had no reports that the big earthquake in Chile has affected the U.S. military in the region – on land or at sea.The Defense Department also says it hasn’t received requests yet to help with any relief effort.In cases of natural disasters, the affected country usually accepts an offer of help made by the State Department.The State Department can request that Defense Department personnel help carry out that mission.U.S. Southern Command, based in Miami, oversees the U.S. military presence in South American. Sgt. Santita Mitchell of the command’s public affairs office says the command is monitoring the situation.(AP)

Scanners force trade-off between privacy, security

the security gate at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO  As Ronak Ray hunted for his flight gate, he prepared for the prospect of a security guard peering through his clothes with a full body scanner. But Ray doesn’t mind: what he gives up in privacy he gets back in security.”I think it’s necessary,” said Ray, a 23-year-old graduate student who was at San Francisco International Airport to fly to India. “Our lives are far more important than how we’re being searched.”Despite controversy surrounding the scans, Ray’s position was typical of several travelers interviewed at various airports Wednesday by The Associated Press.Airports in five other U.S. cities are also using full body scanners at specific checkpoints instead of metal detectors. In addition, the scanners are used at 13 other airports for random checks and so-called secondary screenings of passengers who set off detectors.

But many more air travelers may have to get used to the idea soon. The Transportation Security Administration has ordered 150 more full body scanners to be installed in airports throughout the country in early 2010, agency spokeswoman Suzanne Trevino said.Dutch security officials have said they believe such scanners could have detected the explosive materials Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab of Nigeria is accused of trying to ignite aboard a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight Christmas Day.Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport has 15 full body scanners, but none were used to scan Abdulmutallab when he boarded. In Europe and the U.S., privacy concerns over the scanners’ ability to see through clothing have kept them from widespread use.

The technology was first used about two years ago to make it easier for airport security to do body searches without making physical contact with passengers.The idea of an electronic strip search did not bother Judy Yeager, 62, of Sarasota, Fla., as she prepared to depart Las Vegas. She stood in the full-body scanner Wednesday afternoon and held her arms up as a security official guided her through the gray closet-sized booth.”If it’s going to protect a whole airplane of people, who gives a flying you-know-what if they see my boob whatever,” Yeager said. “That’s the way I feel, honest to God.”George Hyde, of Birmingham, Ala., who was flying out of Salt Lake City with his wife, Patsy, on Wednesday after visiting their children and grandchildren in Park City, Utah.”I’d rather be safe than be embarrassed,” Hyde said. Neither he nor his wife had been through a body scanner before.”We’re very modest people but we’d be willing to go through that for security.”

Trevino said the TSA has worked with privacy advocates and the scanners’ manufacturers to develop software that blurs the faces and genital areas of passengers being scanned. In all cases, passengers are not required to be scanned by the machine but can opt for a full body pat-down instead.At Salt Lake City International Airport, fewer than 1 percent of passengers subjected to the scanner chose the pat-down since the machine was installed in March, said Dwane Baird, a TSA spokesman in Salt Lake City.On Tuesday, some 1,900 people went through the scanner and just three chose not to, he said.Critics of the scanners said the option to opt out was not enough.”The question is should they be used indiscriminately on little children and grandmothers,” said Republican U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock of California. McClintock co-sponsored a bill approved by the House 310-118 in June prohibiting the use of full body scanners for primary screenings. The bill is pending in the Senate.

He said the devices raised serious concerns regarding constitutional protections against unreasonable searches.”There’s no practical distinction between a full body scan and being pulled into a side room and being ordered to strip your clothing.”To further protect passenger privacy, security officers looking at the images are in a different part of the airport and are not allowed to take any recording devices into the room with them, Trevino said. The images captured by the scanners cannot be stored, transmitted or printed in any way.But the TSA still has some public relations work ahead of it, judging by the reactions of passengers in Albuquerque, N.M., who were worried about what would happen to their images once they were scanned.”Are they going to be recorded or do they just scan them and that’s the end of them? How are these TSA people going to be using them? That’s a real concern for me,” said Courtney Best-Trujillo of Santa Fe, N.M., who was flying to Los Angeles on Wednesday.

The six airports where full body scanners are being used for what TSA calls “primary screenings” are: Albuquerque, N.M.; Las Vegas, Nev.; Miami, Fla.; San Francisco; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Tulsa, Okla.The remainder of the machines are being used for secondary screenings in Atlanta, Ga.; Baltimore/Washington; Denver, Colo.; Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas; Indianapolis, Ind.; Jacksonville and Tampa, Fla.; Los Angeles; Phoenix, Ariz.; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Richmond, Va.; Ronald Reagan Washington National; and Detroit, Mich.

Though most passengers interviewed by The Associated Press felt security trumped other concerns, Bruna Martina, 48, a physician from the coast of Venezuela, said the scanners still made her feel uncomfortable.”I think there has to be another way to control people, or to scan them, but not like this,” she said as she headed back home after a vacation in Miami with her husband and two sons. She also does not think the scanners will thwart another attack.”They’ll find another way,” Martina said. “There is always somebody cleverer than the rest.”(Ap)

An American Airlines flight from Miami Tuesday night overshot a runway during a heavy rainstorm in Kingston,

American Airlines

KINGSTON, Jamaica An American Airlines flight from Miami Tuesday night overshot a runway during a heavy rainstorm in Kingston, injuring dozens of people, officials said. There were no reports of fatalities.Flight 331 took off from Miami International Airport at 8:52 p.m. and arrived at Norman Manley International Airport at 10:22 p.m. It originated at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.CJamaican Information Minister Daryl Vaz said “the airplane is broken in two” and that 29 people were taken to Kingston Public Hospital. He said some others were taken elsewhere and treated at the airport. All passengers were off the plane that normally carries 140 people plus the crew, said American Airlines spokesman Charley Wilson.

Those getting off the plane were bleeding, mostly from the upper parts of their bodies. Officials did not know the extent of the injuries,Passenger Pilar Abaurrea described a chaotic scene as the plane skidded along the runway in heavy rain.

“All of a sudden, when it hit the ground, the plane was kind of bouncing, someone said the plane was skidding and there was panic,” Abaurrea of Keene, N.H. said in a telephone interview.

Kingston Policeman Oneil Hinds at police headquarters said officers at the scene reported the plane ran off the end of the runway.As the crew opened the emergency exits and people scrambled to get off, 62-year-old Abaurrea and her husband, Gary Wehrwein, noticed a number of people with injuries, including one person who had a cut on his head from falling baggage.

Abaurrea said she had pain in her neck and back from the impact and her husband had pain in a shoulder from falling luggage, but were otherwise unhurt. “I’m a little bit shook up but OK,” she said.

Abaurrea said the entire flight was very turbulent, with the crew being forced to halt the beverage service three times before finally giving it up. Just before landing the pilot warned of more turbulence but said it likely wouldn’t be much worse than what they had experienced so far, she said.

The Cavaliers beat the Pistons 98-88

Cavaliers 98, Pistons 88

In Auburn Hills, Mich., LeBron James scored 12 of his 34 points in the first quarter to help Cleveland build a cushion it used to cruise to a win over Detroit.

Nuggets 124, T-Wolves 111

In Minneapolis, Carmelo Anthony scored 22 points and Nene had 17 points, eight rebounds and six assists as Denver Nuggets handed Minnesota its 14th straight loss.

Pacers 86, Clippers 73

In Indianapolis, Troy Murphy had 18 points and 11 rebounds as Indiana beat Los Angeles to snap a four-game losing streak.

Celtics 113, 76ers 110

In Boston, Rajon Rondo scored six points during a key run early in the fourth quarter and made a shot clock-beating jump shot on the baseline in the closing seconds as the Celtics overcame poor 3-point shooting to beat Philadelphia.

Bobcats 116, Raptors 81

In Charlotte, Gerald Wallace broke out of his shooting slump with 31 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to help the Bobcats to the most lopsided victory in team history, over Toronto.

Heat 99, Magic 98

In Orlando, Michael Beasley dunked a missed shot by Dwyane Wade with 1.6 seconds remaining to lift Miami to a victory over the Magic.

Spurs 118, Warriors 104

In San Antonio, Tony Parker scored 32 points as the Spurs overcame another iron man performance by Monta Ellis in a victory over Golden State.

Ellis tied his career high with 42 points for the Warriors.

Mavericks 130, Rockets 99

In Houston, Jason Kidd moved into second place on the NBA’s career assists list and Jason Terry scored 27 points as Dallas shot 65.5 percent in a victory over the Rockets.

Hornets 102, Bucks 99

In New Orleans, David West had 27 points and 10 rebounds as the Hornets defeated Milwaukee.

Luke Ridnour scored a season-high 23 points for the Bucks.

Suns 126, Grizzlies 111

In Phoenix, Amare Stoudemire scored 18 of his 28 points during a torrid third quarter as the Suns beat Memphis for their 15th consecutive home victory.

Kings 111, Knicks 97

In Sacramento, Donte Greene made six 3-pointers and tied a career high with 24 points, and the Kings never trailed in a victory over New York.