With nine major refineries closed and many oil rigs or platforms reported missing in the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of Hurrice Katrina, the US government has decided to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserves to help offset production cuts. Oil prices fell back following the White House's announcement, to $68.94 from a high of $70.85 a barrel.

US Energy Department Secretary Samuel Bodman said the decision to open up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve was made last night. "In a word, it is going to be done," he said. "We will be tapping the supply." The Strategic Reserves total almost 700 million barrels of crude oil, stored in five underground salt caverns in Texas and Louisiana.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin says Hurricane Katrina probably killed hundreds and "most likely, thousands" of residents. "We know there is a significant number of dead bodies in the water," and others dead on roofs and in attics, Nagin told the AP. Over 20,000 refugees, mostly in the Superdome sports stadium, are to be taken by 500 buses to the Astrodome in Houston 328 miles away, officials now say. It may be weeks before people are allowed to return, they said.

Warmer sea-surface temperatures caused by climate change could boost the frequency and potency of hurricanes, and that may be what we are now witnessing following the wave of ferocious Atlantic storms in recent years. A paper published last month in the journal Nature by meteorologist Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology concluded that the destructive power of hurricanes increased 50% over the last half century, and that a rise in surface temperatures linked to global warming was at least partly responsible.

"People are beginning to seriously wonder whether there is a [global warming] signal there," said Emanuel. "I think you are going to see a lot more of a focus on this in coming years."

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is devastated. Eighty percent of the city is submerged and the water is expected to keep rising for days due to levee breaks. The death toll of 60 could be just the beginning. Thousands are stranded in hospitals, prisons, nursing homes and the storm-damaged Superdome, where four deaths are already reported (two displaced hospital patients and one accident). The power is out throughout the metropolitan area, and the tap water is fouled, threatening a public health crisis. Rescuers in boats and helicopters are scrambling to pluck hundreds of survivors from trees and rooftops. Ruptured gas lines are burning in some areas, and buildings in others. Interstate 10 is destroyed, and only one road provides access to the city. (Newsday, LAT, AP, Aug. 31)

Note how this Aug. 30 Associated Press report implicitly accepts Sharon's language that "the main settlement blocs will remain under Israeli sovereignty." Of course none of the settlement blocs are under Israeli sovereignty, according to international law.

Sharon: Not all settlements will remain

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Not all Israeli settlements in the West Bank will remain in place in a final peace accord with the Palestinians, but there will be no pullbacks comparable to this month's evacuations, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Monday.

Reporters Without Borders is calling for the immediate release of Nosir Zakirov, a correspondent for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Uzbekistan's eastern province of Namangan, who was convicted of "insulting a government official" and sentenced to six months on prison on Aug. 26.

"We are outraged by the severity of this sentence, which is out of all proportion to the alleged offence and shows the extent of the threat to free expression in Uzbekistan, where criticism is not tolerated anywhere," the group said in a statement.

Reporters Without Borders said it had registered three other cases of harassment of Radio Free Europe correspondents since June, adding that "harassment of an independent radio station is unacceptable."

From Halliburton Watch:

Army demotes senior official who exposed Halliburton cronyism
29 August 2005

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 (HalliburtonWatch.org) -- The top civilian contracting official at the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) was demoted after exposing cronyism between Halliburton and the Army, the New York Times reported today.

Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, a civil servant with 20 years of contracting experience, had complained to Army officials on numerous occasions that Halliburton's KBR subsidiary had been unlawfully receiving special treatment for work in Iraq, Kuwait and the Balkans. The seriousness of her allegations prompted the U.S. Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Pentagon's inspector general to open criminal investigations that continue today.

Raymond Bonner reports for the New York Times Aug. 28 that a new grass-roots political movement here has gathered more than 7,000 names of supporters on its web site in a campaign to free David Hicks, an Australian citizen being held at Guantánamo Bay.

The organization, GetUp!, was founded this month by two young Australians. They collected the names for a letter to the Australian foreign minister, Alexander Downer, demanding that he take action to have Hicks, 30, brought back to Australia to stand trial.

Hicks was taken prisoner in Afghanistan in December 2001. In June 2004, US prosecutors charged him with conspiracy to commit war crimes, attempted murder and aiding the enemy. He is to be tried in a secret military tribunal rather than in open court. Australian officials have said that Hicks has not violated any Australian laws, so bringing him back would likely be tantamount to giving him his freedom.