In addition to HURRICANE GUSTAV, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is also dealing with TROPICAL STORM HANNA, more than A DOZEN MAJOR UNCONTROLLED FIRES ACROSS THE COUNTRY, FLOODING IN EASTERN AND NORTHERN FLORIDA and heavy precipitation predicted later this week over the panhandle and southern coast of Alaska.

Chertoff said Monday the same agency that was castigated in 2005 for bungling its response to Hurricane Katrina is, so far, showing it can handle all these simultaneous new challenges.

Anbar province began a transformation in 2006 as former insurgents turned against al-Qaeda and became US allies. More than a quarter of all US soldiers killed in Iraq have died in Anbar, which is Iraq's biggest province. With Anbar's transfer Iraqi forces will control security in 11 of the country's 18 provinces.

The government headquarters in Ramadi was draped with tribal flags for the handover ceremony, which was presided over by US, Iraqi and tribal officials. US President George W Bush hailed it as a major achievement for US and Iraqi troops as well as "the brave tribes and other civilians from Anbar who worked alongside them".

"Today, Anbar is no longer lost to al-Qaeda - it is al-Qaeda that lost Anbar," he said in a statement. "Anbar has been transformed and reclaimed by the Iraqi people."

The then French President Jacques Chirac publicly chided the countries of the former Soviet bloc for being "badly brought up" and "losing an opportunity to shut up" because they supported America's tough line on Iraq. This time, "old Europe" and "new Europe" have overcome their divisions to agree on a tough line on Russia - at least for now.

After a summit lasting just four hours, Nicolas Sarkozy - Mr Chirac's successor and currently in charge of the EU rotating presidency - ANNOUNCED THAT EUROPE WAS UNITED. Over four pages, the summit conclusions strongly condemn Russia's "disproportionate reaction" in Georgia, describe as "unacceptable" its recognition of the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and call on other states "not to recognise this proclaimed independence".

The EU decided to postpone the next negotiations on a new wide-ranging partnership agreement with Russia, scheduled for 16 September, until Russian troops withdraw from Georgia to their pre-conflict line. It is what Poland and other former communist nations, backed by the UK, had been pushing for. The postponement is mainly symbolic, but a strong signal that "business as usual" was no longer possible while Russian soldiers and tanks remained deep inside Georgian territory.

The event is significant as many climatologists now believe solar magnetic activity – which determines the number of sunspots - IS AN INFLUENCING FACTOR FOR CLIMATE ON EARTH. According to data from Mount Wilson Observatory, UCLA, more than an entire month has passed without a spot. The last time such an event occurred was June of 1913. Sunspot data has been collected since 1749. When the sun is active, it's not uncommon to see sunspot numbers of 100 or more in a single month. Every 11 years, activity slows, and numbers briefly drop to near-zero.

Normally sunspots return very quickly, as a new cycle begins. But this year - which corresponds to the start of Solar Cycle 24 - has been extraordinarily long and quiet, with the first seven months averaging a sunspot number of only 3. August followed with none at all. The astonishing rapid drop of the past year has defied predictions, and caught nearly all astronomers by surprise.

IN THE PAST 1000 YEARS, THREE PREVIOUS SUCH EVENTS - THE DALTON, MAUNDER, AND SPÖRER MINIMUMS, HAVE ALL LED TO RAPID COOLING. One was large enough to be called a "mini ice age". For a society dependent on agriculture, cold is more damaging than heat. THE GROWING SEASON SHORTENS, YIELDS DROP, AND THE OCCURRENCE OF CROP-DESTROYING FROSTS INCREASES.

Gloomy housing and manufacturing data and comments from the Chancellor about the UK's economic woes are to blame for the pound's decline, traders said. Sterling hit 81.21 pence against the euro, before trading at 81.14 pence. In later trade sterling slipped below $1.80 - the lowest since April 2006 - as lower oil prices helped the dollar.

By the end of European trade, one pound was worth $1.8011. Sterling has fallen sharply over the past month. In mid-July, one pound bought two dollars. The catalyst for sterling's latest fall was downbeat data from the property and manufacturing sectors.

"The current weakness of sterling accurately reflects the present situation of the British economy," said Lutz Karpowitz, an analyst at Commerzbank. "ALL INDICATORS SEEM TO SUGGEST THAT THE ECONOMY WILL UNAVOIDABLY SLIDE INTO RECESSION."

He will meet with Abbas on Sunday, probably for the last time before Kadima party members go to the polls in less than three weeks to elect his replacement. The international community's role would be that of advisors, but would give it large media exposure in attempts to divide the city and make it a shared capital of both Israel and a new Arab country. Leaders of the European Union (EU) and other Western countries have suggested that Jews not have exclusive sovereignty over its holy sites in the city.

Possible international monitors under consideration are Jordan, THE VATICAN, Egypt and the Quartet, which includes Russia, the United Nations, the United States AND THE EU.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Sunday said he would press fellow European Union leaders to review ties to Russia in retaliation for Moscow's decision to sent troops to Georgia and recognise two Georgian breakaway regions. But underlining the differences in approach inside the 27-member EU, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier took a softer line, saying isolating Russia would harm the interests of the bloc.

"Russia does not want confrontation with any country. Russia does not plan to isolate itself. Russia will develop, as far as possible, its relations with Europe, with the United States of America, and with other countries," Medvedev said in an interview with Russia's three main television stations. But he added: "Everyone should understand that if someone launches an aggressive sortie, he will receive a response." He said Russian law allowed the Kremlin to impose sanctions on other states, though it preferred not to go down that path.

Defying Western condemnation of his decision to recognise Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent, Medvedev said that move was "irrevocable." He also said there were parts of the globe where Russia had "privileged interests" - a clear warning that the Kremlin will not accept NATO expansion into Russia's traditional sphere of influence.

As of midday Saturday, slightly more than THREE-FOURTHS OF THE GULF'S OIL PRODUCTION AND NEARLY 40 PERCENT OF ITS NATURAL GAS OUTPUT HAD BEEN SHUT DOWN, according to the U.S. Minerals Management Service, which oversees offshore activity. Shell said it was on schedule to complete the evacuation of more than 1,300 workers from 20 production platforms and other facilities. The task took four days and involved 17 helicopters.

Both oil giants said production was being completely shut off - a process that can involve closing safety valves in thousands of feet of water to prevent the release of oil or natural gas. Analysts say prolonged supply disruptions could cause a sudden price uptick for gasoline and other petroleum products. Gasoline prices rose this week for the first time in more than a month, and they continued upward Saturday. A gallon of regular gasoline jumped more than a penny overnight to a national average of $3.682, according to auto club AAA.

THE U.S. GULF COAST ACCOUNTS FOR ABOUT 25 PERCENT OF DOMESTIC OIL PRODUCTION AND 15 PERCENT OF NATURAL GAS OUTPUT, according to the MMS. The Gulf Coast also is home to nearly half the nation's refining capacity.

US intelligence fears the Kremlin will supply the sophisticated S-300 system to Tehran if Washington pushes through Nato membership for its pro-Western neighbours Georgia and Ukraine. The proposed deal is causing huge alarm in the US and Israel as the S-300 can track 100 targets at once and fire on planes up to 75 miles away.

That would make it a "game-changer", greatly improving Iranian defences against any air strike on its nuclear sites, according to Pentagon adviser Dan Goure. "This is a system that scares every Western air force," he said. Senior US intelligence operatives believe that Russia is planning to use a stand-off over the S-300 to create a foreign policy showdown that would test the mettle of a new US president.

"The message from Moscow is very clear," said George Friedman, director of Stratfor, a leading US private intelligence agency. "They are saying if you don't stop meddling in our sphere of influence, this is what we are going to do. Back Georgia and Ukraine for Nato membership and you'll see the S-300 go to Iran. It is a very powerful bargaining chip and a major deterrent to US actions in the region. Moscow is playing very strategically on America's obsession with Iran."

Critics of the Large Hadron Collider - a £4.4 billion machine due to be switched on in ten days time - have lodged a lawsuit at the European Court for Human Rights against the 20 countries, including the UK, that fund the project. The device is designed to replicate conditions that existed just a fraction of a second after the Big Bang, and its creators hope it will unlock the secrets of how the universe began.

However, opponents fear the machine, which will smash pieces of atoms together at high speed and generate temperatures of more than a trillion degrees centigrade, MAY CREATE A MINI-BLACK HOLE THAT COULD TEAR THE EARTH APART. Scientists involved in the project have dismissed the fears as "absurd" and insist that extensive safety assessments on the 17 mile long particle accelerator have demonstrated that it is safe.

The legal battle comes as the European Nuclear Research Centre (CERN), in Geneva, prepares to send the first beam of particles around the machine at the official switch on, on September 10, although it will be several weeks before the first particles are collided together.

Professor Otto Rössler, a German chemist at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen who is one of the most vocal opponents of the LHC and was one of the scientists who submitted the complaint to the court, said: "CERN ITSELF HAS ADMITTED THAT MINI BLACK HOLES COULD BE CREATED WHEN THE PARTICLES COLLIDE, BUT THEY DON'T CONSIDER THIS A RISK."

"My own calculations have shown that it is quite plausible that these little black holes survive and will grow exponentially and eat the planet from the inside. I have been calling for CERN to hold a safety conference to prove my conclusions wrong but they have not been willing. We submitted this application to the European Court of Human Rights as WE DO NOT BELIEVE THE SCIENTISTS AT CERN ARE TAKING ALL THE PRECAUTIONS THEY SHOULD BE IN ORDER TO PROTECT HUMAN LIFE."

Demonstrators filled the capital's historic Zocalo Square, holding candles and pictures of kidnap victims and bearing signs that read, "Enough Is Enough". People marched in cities throughout the country, including along the U.S.-Mexico border where increasingly brazen drug gangs are battling each other for control of smuggling routes. MORE THAN 2,300 PEOPLE HAVE BEEN KILLED IN DRUG MURDERS THIS YEAR.

Long used to violent crime, Mexicans were nevertheless outraged by the kidnapping and murder of Fernando Marti, 14, whose body was found in a car trunk in Mexico City on August 1, even though his businessman father had paid a ransom. Mexico is one of the worst countries in the world for abductions, along with conflict zones like Iraq and Colombia.

Protester Manuel Ramirez, 50, who has not seen his daughter Monica since she was kidnapped in 2004, complained that criminals were becoming bolder. "They are more bloodthirsty, they make their victims disappear, they mutilate them, they cut their ears off just as in the case of my daughter. We do not know where she is," Ramirez said.

The epicenter of Saturday's quake, which struck around 4:30 p.m. (3:30 a.m. EDT), was about 20 miles southeast of Panzhihua, near Sichuan's border with Yunnan, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake was about 6 miles deep.

The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude of the quake at 5.7, while China's official Xinhua news agency said it measured 6.1. Xinhua said the quake had injured 192 people, and three more were missing. It added that 656 schools had also been damaged and that heavy rain and difficult terrain were hampering rescue efforts, with mobile telephone communications patchy.

Parts of Sichuan province were devastated by an earthquake that killed about 70,000 people in May. The province, known for its pandas and fiery cuisine, has struggled to rebuild after the disaster, which left 10 million people homeless.

The market was set to reopen Tuesday after the Labor Day holiday, COMMENCING WHAT IS TRADITIONALLY A TREACHEROUS MONTH. "Many investors believe October is the worst month for equity market returns. This can be partly attributable to the fact some large one-day declines have occurred in October," said David Templeton of the financial website Seeking Alpha.

"While economic growth seems to be in the minds of everybody, I still worry about inflation," he said. "The trend is clearly upwards and will continue to remain on that path if the Federal Reserve continues to be as irresponsible as it has been until now." Corporate profits will be squeezed by the combination of soft growth and high inflation, the economist argued.

"How long can a business keep prices constant when facing an almost 10 percent increase in the price of its inputs?" he asked.

Mayor Ray Nagin gave the mandatory order late Saturday, but all day residents took to buses, trains, planes and cars - clogging roadways leading away from New Orleans, still reeling three years after Hurricane Katrina flooded 80 percent of the city and killed about 1,600 across the region. The evacuation of New Orleans becomes mandatory at 8 a.m. Sunday along the vulnerable west bank of the Mississippi River, and at noon on the east bank. Nagin called Gustav the "mother of all storms" and told residents to "get out of town. This is not the one to play with."

Gustav had already killed more than 80 people in the Caribbean, and if current forecasts hold up, it would make landfall Monday afternoon somewhere between East Texas and western Mississippi. Forecasters warned it was too soon to say whether New Orleans would take another direct hit, but residents weren't taking any chances judging by the bumper-to-bumper traffic pouring from the city. Gas stations along interstate highways were running out of fuel, and phone circuits were jammed.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center said they were surprised at how quickly Gustav gained strength as it slammed into Cuba's tobacco-growing western tip. It went from a tropical storm to a Category 4 hurricane in about 24 hours, and was likely to become a Category 5 - with sustained winds of 156 mph or more - by Sunday. "That puts a different light on our evacuations and hopefully that will send a very clear message to the people in the Gulf Coast to really pay attention," said Federal Emergency Management Agency chief David Paulison.

Update:- JR/News - NEW ORLEANS — Police with bullhorns plan to go street to street this weekend with a tough message about getting out ahead of Hurricane Gustav: This time there will be no shelter of last resort. The doors to the Superdome will be locked. Those who stay will be on their own.

The water in the basin, which irrigates Australia's food bowl, has been over-allocated. Farmers all along the Murray-Darling have purchased and were promised water allocations that the river system simply can no longer sustain. A 20% reduction in rainfall leads to a 70% reduction in stream flow.

Since the Murray-Darling runs through four states - New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia - each one has fought hard for its share of the water, often at the expense of the needs of neighbouring states. Naked self-interest has often reigned. It was not until 2007 that the Howard government decided to take national charge of the river system.

"It's been a disaster," according to the global warming activist and best-selling author, Professor Tim Flannery. "We managed to unify the railways shortly after federation but it's taken us a century to do anything about water. And it's still extremely difficult because the water in those river systems is over-allocated, it's a 130% allocation, and that was in a good year. So when we're facing a really serious water deficit, there just isn't any water any more."