Bahrainis took to the streets for a third day of pro-democracy rallies as Yemeni demonstrators clashed with police and the Associated Press reported the first- ever protests in Libya against leader Muammar Qaddafi.

Bahrain’s interior minister, Sheikh Rashid bin Abdullah al- Khalifa, apologized for the killing of two protesters in clashes with security forces this week, saying an investigation is under way, the official Bahrain News Agency said. Hundreds gathered today at the funeral of a demonstrator who died yesterday. They demand democracy and the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, a member of the Sunni Muslim royal family who has held the post for four decades.

The dissent in Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, follows the toppling of autocratic rulers by popular movements in Egypt and Tunisia and marks the spread of unrest into the Persian Gulf, where most of the Middle East’s oil is produced. Gulf states including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are key U.S. allies, and Yemen is supported by the Obama administration in a campaign against al-Qaeda

“These movements are emboldening everybody who has grievances, whether they are a minority that wants to have equal rights or a majority that wants a functioning democracy,” Ebrahim Sharif, a Sunni who heads Bahrain’s National Democratic Action Society, said in an interview today. “There is a feeling of people being empowered by these movements, that we are powerful. I think we are affecting even Iran.”

Long-Serving Leaders
In Yemen, hundreds rallied for a sixth day, marching outside Sanaa University to demand the immediate resignation of the president of 32 years, Ali Abdullah Saleh. Government supporters attacked them with electroshock sticks.

In Libya, where Qaddafi has held power since leading a military coup in 1969, protesters gathered in the port city of Benghazi and demanded the overthrow of the government, chanting “No God but Allah, Muammar is the enemy of Allah” and “Down, down to corruption and to the corrupt,” the AP reported. State television said the rally was among “popular demonstrations” in support of the Libyan leader.

Anti-government protests inspired by the Arab revolts were put down on Feb. 14 in Shiite Muslim-led Iran, where many Shiite Bahrainis retain cultural and family ties. Majority-Sunni Saudi Arabia, Iran’s main regional rival, has a Shiite minority in the Eastern Province, where most of its oil is produced.

Stocks Lower
Persian Gulf shares tumbled, with Saudi Arabia’s index sliding the most this month, on concern the unrest may spread farther.

The Saudi Tadawul All Share Index declined 1.9 percent, while the Dubai Financial Market General Index sank 1.3 percent and Qatar’s QE Index retreated 1.8 percent. Bahrain’s BB All Share Index slipped 0.2 percent. The yield on the Bahraini government’s 5.5 percent dollar bond due 2020 increased 1 basis point to 6.43 percent, the highest on record, at 3:16 p.m. in the capital of Manama, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The cost of Bahrain credit-default swaps rose 7 basis points to 269 from the London close, according to CMA data.

The eruption of unrest in Libya helped boost oil prices, with futures rising for the first time in four days. Oil for March delivery rose 62 cents, to $84.94 a barrel, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The North African nation pumped about 1.6 million barrels a day in January.

Libya has the largest proven oil reserves in Africa, with 44.3 billion barrels in 2009, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy.

Food Subsidies
Shiites, who represent as much as 70 percent of the Bahraini population, say they face job and housing discrimination at the hands of the Sunni minority. King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, the premier’s nephew, has ordered an increase in food subsidies and social welfare payments, and a grant of 1,000 dinars ($2,653) to each Bahraini family.

Seven Bahraini opposition groups in Bahrain formed a committee to help support the protests that started on Feb. 14, Sharif said. The demonstration they plan for Feb. 19 is expected to attract 50,000 marchers, making it the biggest ever in the kingdom, he said.

The committee, which includes al-Wefaq, the country’s largest Shiite group, will “provide support to the young people, help them organize and select leaders,” Sharif said.

The committee was formed late yesterday and will hold its first meeting today, he said. It will meet at least once a day to help coordinate the demonstrations and unify protesters’ demands, Sharif said.

Abdulnabi Alekry, chairman of the Bahrain Transparency Society, said the protests in Bahrain have no pro Iran theme and aren’t a demand for Shiite rule in the kingdom, as was the case in the 1979 Iranian Revolution that brought clerics to power.

“This movement is completely different than the Iranian experience,” he said as he took part in today’s funeral procession for the second man killed in the protests. “We want a genuine democracy, not clerical.”
[Bloomberg]

A monster storm was bearing down on the middle of the United States on Tuesday, with freezing rain and sleet pelting several states from Texas through Ohio.

Snow fell from Missouri to Wisconsin and ice downed power lines in Ohio, leaving 14,000 without electricity.

Forecasters predicted a hodge-podge of brutal winter weather over a third of the country – 24 inches of snow in some places, up to an inch of ice plus snow in others. Making matters far worse was the expectation of brutal cold and winds gusting to near 60 mph.

“What really gives us nightmares is the prospect of widespread power outages,” said Jeff Rainford, chief of staff for St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay. “It’s cross-our-fingers time.”

The “Groundhog Day storm” could affect up to 100 million Americans, CBS News correspondent Whit Johnson reports.

Flight-tracking service FlightAware.com said airline cancellations had already topped 7,700 through Wednesday.

Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport closed for a short Tuesday morning due to an ice storm, then reopened when runways were cleared. But American Airlines spokesman Tim Smith said the airline is hardly operating at Dallas because high winds make it unsafe for de-icing employees to work in bucket trucks.

Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines Inc. said it canceled more than 625 flights for Tuesday. Widespread cancelations are expected from other airlines as well.

A United Airlines spokeswoman said about 300 departures would be canceled in Chicago starting in the afternoon, when the snow was expected to pick up.

JetBlue was canceling flights out of New York Tuesday morning and, later in the day, out of Boston.

CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds reports that nationally more than 6,000 flights have been canceled Tuesday and already 3,300 Wednesday, numbers that are sure to go up along with the snow accumulation.

Storm predictions were so dire that public officials, street crews and utility workers have been in place since Monday in anticipation of the worst. The St. Louis-based utility company AmerenUE had nearly 500 of its own linemen ready to go and was bringing in another 800 from as far away as Michigan.

Massive amounts of ice predicted south of St. Louis, followed by strong winds, could cause a repeat of 2006, when the ice knocked out power in parts of Missouri for weeks.

One of the biggest single-day snowstorms ever hit Oklahoma City Tuesday, reports CBS News correspondent Don Teague. More than a foot of snow fell there. Some parts of this state have seen 18 inches of snow from this massive winter storm.

White-outs paralyzed Oklahoma City and the Tulsa area, where snowpack caused the partial collapse of a roof at the Hard Rock Casino. Blowing snow created drifts up to 4 feet high and trucks, city buses, snowplows and at least one ambulance had trouble navigating the treacherous roadways.

Hardware stores were selling out of snow shovels, backup generators and ice-melting salt. Grocery stores doing all they could to keep supplied with the staples.

“Milk, bread, toilet paper, beer,” said Todd Vasel of the St. Louis-based grocery chain Dierbergs, who said pre-storm crowds were more than double the norm. “It’s been the equivalent of Christmas Eve, which is normally one of our biggest days of the year.”

The storm brought the potential for some strange happenings – thundersnow, lightning, even tornadoes.

Forecasters said some regions could get up to 2 inches of snow per hour through parts of Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Blizzard warnings were in effect in much of the Midwest. Kansas City, St. Louis and Milwaukee all seemed in line for 12 inches a foot of snow or more.

Even Chicago, where snow is common, could be in for its third-worst blizzard since record-keeping began, with up to 20 inches forecast.

If the forecasts for Chicago hold true, it would be the city’s third-biggest snowstorm, overshadowed only by the 21.6 inches in 1999 and the mother of all Chicago snowstorms, the 23 inches of snow that fell in 1967.

Farther east, the Iowa Department of Transportation said most roadways in the state were partially or completely covered with a combination of ice and snow. Deadly wrecks were reported in Minnesota and Kansas.

After burying the Midwest, the storm was expected to sweep into the Northeast, parts of which already are on track for record snowfall this winter. A winter storm warning was in effect for New York City, with forecasters predicting a mix of snow, sleet and ice. Federal workers in Washington were given the option of working from home because roads on Tuesday were already slippery.

Governors in Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Illinois declared emergencies, even as the storm was just arriving. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon activated 600 members of the National Guard.
[CBS News]

Thousands of residents fled their homes and crammed into shelters in northeastern Australia as a cyclone described as the most powerful in the country’s history and with a 650 km (400 mile) wide front barreled toward the coastline on Wednesday.

“We are facing a storm of catastrophic proportions,” Queensland state premier Anna Bligh said after Cyclone Yasi was upgraded to a maximum-strength category five storm.

More than 400,000 people live in the cyclone’s expected path, which includes the cities of Cairns, Townsville and Mackay. The entire stretch is popular with tourists and includes Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Satellite images showed Yasi as a massive storm system covering an area bigger than Italy or New Zealand, with the cyclone predicted to be the strongest ever to hit Australia.

It is expected to hit the coast on Wednesday evening, packing winds of nearly 300 km (186 miles) per hour.

“All aspects of this cyclone are going to be terrifying and potentially very very damaging,” Bligh said, adding the greatest threat to life could come from surges of water of up to four meters above normal high tide levels along the coast. The storm is due to hit when the tide is high.

Mines, rail lines and coal ports have all shut down, with officials warning the storm could drive inland for hundreds of kilometers, hitting rural and mining areas still struggling to recover after months of devastating floods.

Outside a shuttered night market in the tourist city of Cairns, nervous backpackers tried to flag down cars and reach temporary evacuation centers at a nearby university.

“We are terrified. We have had almost no information and have never seen storms like this,” said Marlim Flagar, 20, from Sweden.

Various buildings in Cairns, including schools and malls, have been designated as shelters for those fleeing the storm, with some fast filling up and several already full, according to messages sent on Twitter to local media.

At a sprawling shopping center, hundreds of people streamed into a makeshift shelter carrying backpacks, blankets and food.

“We’ve only got a loaf of bread and a few other things, so we hope it doesn’t last too long or we’ll run out,” said local woman Kirsty Munro as she tried to gather her three children aged two, four and eight in the crush of people.

Australia has strict building standards and Queensland suffers regular cyclones, but experts warned that many homes and buildings may not be able to withstand winds of this magnitude.

“The building regulations make things a lot better off at lower wind speeds but once you get to extreme cases you are in uncharted ground,” said Robert Leicester, a researcher at the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, who has studied the impact of previous cyclones.
[Reuters]

The demands of the tens of thousands of protesters who poured into Egyptian streets across the nation Tuesday were clear: freedom, democracy, and an end to the 30-year rule of President Hosni Mubarak.

Protesters also called for the prime minister to quit, and for parliament to be dissolved after elections in November widely regarded as rigged and a new national unity government created.

But while their demands were political, their organization was not. The demonstrations were organized on Facebook by grassroots civil society movements, not political opposition parties. And they mobilized a broad swath of Egyptians from across the demographic spectrum – a feat Egypt’s political opposition has failed to pull off.

IN PICTURES: Egyptian protests

Like the popular uprising this month in Tunisia, the protests were a public outpouring of anger that had no leader and will likely prove difficult for opposition parties to harness.

“I don’t think they can do anything,” said Steven Cook, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who is currently in Egypt, of Egypt’s opposition parties. “The dynamism is in the people who are out in the streets … It’s leaderless as far as I can tell, it’s this amalgamation of groups.”

Activists have called for more protests Wednesday, and whether the calls are met by action will be a crucial test for how much momentum the movement has and how much pressure it will be able to bring to bear on the Egyptian regime. It is apparent that the government is already feeling the pinch: Tuesday it shut down access to the social networking site Twitter, which had been used by protesters to organize the demonstrations. One member of the security forces was reportedly killed during the clashes in Cairo, and two protesters were killed in Suez.

Egypt’s protests follow a wave of unrest that has spread across the region in the wake of the Tunisian revolution. That uprising began with protests over skyrocketing unemployment and government corruption that came to include opposition to harsh government oppression and, eventually, calls for the ouster of former President Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia Jan. 14.

Protests in other nations, including Algeria and Jordan, were spurred by rising prices, unemployment, and other economic woes. Despite government attempts to portray them as related to the economic situation, Egypt’s demonstrations were notable for their focus on the political.

“This was not a demonstration about economic grievances. It was about politics; it was about freedom; it was about opposition to Mubarak,” says Mr. Cook.
[Christian Science Monitor]

TERESOPOLIS, Brazil — Driving rains sent tons of rusty red earth sliding into Brazilian mountain towns, killing at least 287 people and leaving dozens more missing – lives rescuers hoped to save as they resumed searches Thursday.

In the hardest-hit town of Teresopolis, where the local civil defense agency said at least 146 people died, hundreds of family members crowded around the town’s morgue waiting to identify bodies. More corpses were laid out on a street in front to the police station, covered by blankets. Rains hit the town overnight, though no new mudslides were reported.

Rescuers used heavy machinery, shovels and bare hands in attempts to find survivors. How many were saved was not known – at least 50 were still missing and one neighborhood hit by slides in Teresopolis had not been reached yet by authorities. In a neighboring town, firefighters rescued a 25-year-old man who held his 6-month-old son for 15 hours until they were both pulled out alive. The man’s wife and mother-in-law were feared dead.

Heavy rains and mudslides kill hundreds of people across Brazil each year, especially during the South American summer. The worst hit are the poor, whose rickety homes are often built on steep slopes with weak or no foundations.

In Teresopolis, 40 miles (65 kilometers) north of Rio de Janeiro, deluges filled creeks and the overflows swept over already water-logged mountainsides. Brick and wooden shacks built on hillsides stripped of trees washed away in surging earth and water, leaving behind only a long trail of mud.

The mountains saw 10 inches (26 centimeters) of rain fall in less than 24 hours. More rain, possibly heavy at times, is forecast through the weekend.

Floodwaters continued to gush down the mountains for hours after rainstorms ended Wednesday. Survivors waded through waist-high water, carrying what belongings they could, trying to reach higher ground. Many tried desperately to find relatives, though phone service was out in the region and many people were still missing hours after the rain stopped.

“There are so many disappeared – and so many that will probably never be found,” said Angela Marina de Carvalho Silva, a resident of Teresopolis who feared she may have lost 15 relatives, including five nieces and nephews.

“There was nothing we could do. It was hell,” she said in a telephone interview.

Carvalho Silva took refuge in a neighbor’s house on high ground with her husband and daughter, and watched the torrential rain carry away cars, tree branches and animals and rip apart the homes of friends and family.

“It’s over. There’s nothing. The water came down and swept everything away,” said her husband, Sidney Silva.

In the neighboring mountain town of Nova Friburgo, at least 107 people died, according to an e-mailed statement from the Rio state civil defense department. Among the dead were four firefighters who were helping in the rescue effort. Three other firefighters were listed as missing after their fire truck was hit by a mudslide.
[Washington Post]

A massive food convoy is on the way to the Queensland city of Rockhampton to refill empty supermarket shelves as residents prepare for flood conditions to worsen.

Forced evacuations are underway in the city as the flood crisis that’s already affected 200,000 people escalates.

Further west at Emerald, the full scale of the damage remains unclear after about 80 per cent of the town was inundated overnight.

Premier Anna Bligh, who is touring flood hit communities with Prime Minister Julia Gillard, says flooding had affected an area bigger than France and Germany combined.

“This disaster is a long way from over,” the premier told the Nine Network on Friday, saying 22 towns or cities were inundated or isolated.

Residents scramble for food

Rockhampton’s Fitzroy River is expected to reach the nine-metre mark by Sunday, a level that would see 200 homes inundated and 4000 parcels of land affected by flooding.

It’s tipped to rise to 9.4 metres, and possibly beyond, on Tuesday and Rockhampton Mayor Brad Carter says essentials, including bread, milk and fresh meat, have already sold out in many stores in the town.

He told AAP there was a small window of opportunity to get new stock in before the roads closed.

“We’ve had a lot of supermarkets run out of essential groceries, and that’s even included Yeppoon (seaside town to the north),” he said.

Woolworths said it was rushing new stock to Rockhampton and it would act as a distribution point for other communities.

Regional manager Gary Boyer told reporters 43 trucks were hauling supplies into the city, and other areas to the north.

“We’ve got around 700 crates of fresh milk, crates of long life product including long life milk, our bread vendors are working around the clock and will supply around 14,000 loaves into (Rockhampton) today,” Mr Boyer said.

“Around 120 pallets of produce went into Rocky today and another 80 pallets are en route at the moment.

“There are also various grocery products heading in as well as an emergency stock of items like long life milk, flour and sugar.”

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Mr Boyer said Woolworths also hoped to source produce for Rockhampton from Townsville over coming days if the trucks were able to get through.

Residents told to leave

Mr Carter said the sheer volume of water in the catchment meant he could not rule out the prospect of a flood to rival the 10.11 metres seen in 1918.

“Police will order people in affected areas to leave their homes,” Mr Carter told AAP.

” … This will be done with the full support and supervision of police under disaster management declaration provisions.”

He said essential supplies, including bread, milk and fresh meat, had already sold out in many stores in the city, and efforts were underway to ship in more food before roads are cut.

Road and rail links are expected to be severed as early as Saturday, and the airport is also expected to be shut down this weekend.

Mr Carter said one evacuation centre had been set up in Rockhampton and a second could be opened if needed.

“You talk to the western graziers, second and third generation people of the land, and they keep saying it’s the biggest volume of water they’ve ever seen,” he said, adding all that water was headed for Rockhampton.

That included the 16-metre peak seen in the Nogoa River at Emerald overnight, which would take a week to reach Rockhampton, Mr Carter said.

“This is going to take some time to play out,” he said.

At Emerald, food drops are being planned after more than 1200 people were forced from their homes.

Central Highlands Mayor Peter Maguire told AAP water levels had peaked in most parts of the community but were still rising on the north side of town.

He said it would be Saturday before waters started to recede, and the town faced the prospect of food shortages, blackouts, and sewage contaminating flood waters.

The local disaster management group was arranging food supplies for evacuation centres and isolated properties, he said.

The prime minister toured the city of Bundaberg this morning, where water is slowly receding after the worst flooding in decades.

She described as “humbling” the moment when North Bundaberg resident Sandy Kiddle wished her a happy new year after sharing her stories of personal loss.

“It’s amazing that someone who is here in these circumstances would actually be concerned about my welfare,” she told reporters outside an evacuation centre.

“My concern is for the people in these very difficult times.”

Ms Gillard, who is due to tour Rockhampton later today, said communities were pulling together.

“This is the Queensland way, coming together, pulling together in times of difficulty. We are seeing, on display, the best of that community spirit,” she said.

Reinforcements from interstate are set arrive in Queensland disaster zones early next week to help in flood relief efforts.

About 60 SES volunteers – 40 from Victoria and 20 from New South Wales – are expected to arrive early next week to assist locals battling the floods.

A national relief fund set up for flood victims has broken through the $6 million mark.
[Sydney Morning Herald]

A winter storm pummeled the western U.S. on Thursday with fierce wind gusts, heavy rain and more than 2 feet of snow, closing hundreds of miles of roads and dumping a snowy mix of precipitation on the edges of Phoenix.

Officials closed a road into Yosemite National Park in California after a rock the size of a dump truck tumbled onto the road, and strong winds created snow dunes on rooftops, front yards and streets across mountainous areas of Arizona.

Snow and ice forced an hours-long closure of the two major thoroughfares in northern Arizona, stranding motorists south of Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon.

Dorothy Brooks, of Dallas, was creeping along Interstate 40 at 20 mph on her way to Las Vegas, passing vehicles stuck on the side of the road, when she pulled into a Bellemont gas station to wait out the storm.

“It’s devastating,” she said, above the cry of a 9-month-old baby she was pushing through the aisles. “You can’t call Mother Nature anyway. You never know when she’s going to burst out.”

Major highways were also shut down in parts of New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Nevada.

Forecasters said strong winds in California were expected to die down by early today, allowing a cold air mass to create frost and freeze problems in the region. Phoenix braced for freezing overnight temperatures as well, a rarity in that desert city.

Meanwhile, New York was digging out from its Christmas weekend blizzard, but anger wasn’t exactly melting away. Mayor Michael Bloomberg visited some of the neighborhoods hard-hit by the snowstorm and confessed Thursday that the city’s handling of the crisis was “inadequate and unacceptable.”

The mayor had just declared a victory of sorts — three days after the snow stopped falling, every street had been plowed at least once, he announced — when a politician appearing with him stepped up to the microphone to complain.

“Even where I live, there’s still about four inches” of snow in the roadway, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall told the reporters gathered at a recreation center.
[Austin American-Statesman]

Religious organizations in Russia have begun efforts to help the thousands of passengers stranded for days in Moscow airports.

Thousands of passengers remain stranded at the Moscow major airports of Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo following an ice storm that hit the entire territory of Central Russia over the weekend. Hundreds of flights have been canceled and delayed as severe freezing rain caused serious power outages. Some 20,000 passengers have been affected by the weather.

The Jewish Community Federation of Russia on Tuesday sent a truck loaded with 1,500 bottles of water and children’s wafers to Domodedovo International Airport.

Most of the aid sent to the capital’s airports are for families with small children.

“We understand that our help today to those at Domodedovo Airport is a minor contribution to what they need right now, but we nonetheless hope that even this will help the people,” the Jewish Community’s president, Alexander Boroda, said.

When asked if the religious organizations’ activities could be coordinated into one single organization, Andrei Glotser, a member of the Jewish community, said that unfortunately there are no inter-confessional groups to handle crisis situations in Russia as of yet, but the creation of such a group was discussed earlier in December.

“Today, 500 bottles of water, around 200 packs of moist towels, and approximately 1,000 disposable diapers will be delivered to Domodedovo,” the Russian Orthodox Church’s Social Activity and Charity Department’s press secretary, Vasily Rulinsky, said.

The Islamic Russia Muftis Council will on Wednesday hand out traditional pastries to the passengers stranded at Domodedovo, Moscow’s head imam, Ildar Alyautdinov, told RIA Novosti.

“We are happy to take part in the charity work initiated by the Jewish Community Federation of Russia and the Orthodox Church. On Wednesday we will deliver more than 1,000 echmochmak pastries to the airports of the Russian capital, where thousands of passengers are in need of help,” Alyautdinov said.

The charity members of the churches said that the situation is not as acute at the Sheremetyevo or Vnukovo airports, but said they would help if that need arises.

Russia’s head doctor, Gennady Onishchenko, who visited Domodedovo International Airport earlier on Tuesday, said that the airport is extremely overcrowed as it was designed to hold some 3,000 people; however, the number of people has risen to approximately 10,000. “I’m glad the toilets are still working,” he said.
[RIA Novosti]

A powerful storm system that prompted blizzard warnings in New York City and Boston is set to cause major travel headaches at the end of the holiday weekend.

The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for the New York metropolitan area effective 6 a.m. Sunday to 6 p.m. Monday. The area includes Newark, New Jersey; New York; and the Long Island and Connecticut coasts.

Forecasters predict between 11 to 16 inches of snow in much of that region, bringing visibility to near zero at times. Sustained winds as strong as 30 mph could hit Sunday night, with gusts up to 55 mph in parts of central and eastern Long Island.

And starting at noon Sunday and extending through 6 p.m. Monday, another blizzard warning will be in effect for all of Rhode Island and most of eastern Massachusetts. Parts of that region could see as much as 20 inches of snow, with strong winds contributing to “extremely dangerous” travel conditions, the National Weather Service said.

“Widespread power outages are expected during the height of the storm Sunday night from both the strong winds knocking down power lines and the weight of the heavy snow,” the weather agency said. “Shoveling should not be done by anyone with heart conditions.”

The weather service also issued a blizzard watch from Sunday evening through Monday afternoon for coastal New Hampshire and Maine, up to the Canadian border.

All this could put a wrench in thousands of travel plans.

Continental Airlines, which is partnered with United Airlines, has canceled about 250 domestic mainline and regional departures for Sunday, spokesman Andrew J. Ferraro said.

American Airlines spokeswoman Mary Sanderson said that the airline expected minimal delays through Sunday morning, but that it plans to cancel flights in and out of several key East Coast airports starting in the afternoon.

Delta Air Lines had canceled approximately 500 Christmas Day flights — including roughly 300 in and out of Atlanta — in an attempt to get ahead of the storm, Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant said.

The carrier expects to have a better handle of how many cancellations will be needed on Sunday morning, “once we’ve worked through the schedule,” spokesman Kent Landers said.

Delta, Continental, United, American and AirTran Airways are among the carriers waiving penalties for travelers who have to reschedule their trips over the weekend.

While specific information varies by carrier, most are offering penalty waivers for passengers traveling on December 26 and 27 at airports from North Carolina to Boston and beyond. Affected customers are being urged to contact the relevant airline either by phone or online.

Forecasters warned of icy driving conditions across much of the East. Much of the precipitation will fall along the Interstate 95 corridor and near the Atlantic coast.

On Saturday night, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter announced the city was preparing for a significant snow storm with an expected accumulation of eight to 12 inches and winds of 20 to 40 mph, according to a statement from his office.

“We are anticipating the declaration of a snow emergency by early afternoon” Sunday, the statement said. The mayor urged residents to make any necessary travel early in the day.

CNN meteorologist Bonnie Schneider said the system is a Nor’easter, which gets its name from the continuously strong northeasterly winds blowing in from the ocean ahead of the storm and over the coastal areas.
[CNN International]

A massive oil pipeline explosion lay waste to parts of a central Mexican city Sunday, incinerating people, cars, houses and trees as gushing crude turned streets into flaming rivers. At least 28 people were killed, 13 of them children, in a disaster authorities blamed on oil thieves.

The blast in San Martin Texmelucan, initally estimated to have affected 5,000 residents in a three-mile (five-kilometer) radius, scorched homes and cars and left metal and pavement twisted and in some cases burned to ash in the intense heat.

Relatives sobbed as firefighters pulled charred bodies from the incinerated homes, some of the remains barely more than piles of ashes and bones.

Officials identified all but four of the dead by Sunday night. Although they released some names, they didn’t say if they were all residents of the area or possible suspects.

Housewife Zoyla Perez Cortes, 27, said she awoke about 5:30 a.m. to a strange, overpowering smell, like gasoline. Minutes later, her street looked like it was flowing in tar and then erupted in flames. Her husband knocked down a wall allowing them to escape out the back of their two-story, cement-brick home with their three children.

Her brother-in-law is being treated for burns in a hospital, but she didn’t know the fate of his wife and two children.

“It was like we were living in an inferno,” she said, her eyes red from crying. “Everything was covered in smoke.”

Aside from the deaths, at least 52 people were hurt and 84 remained in a shelter late Sunday after fleeing San Martin, which is about 55 miles (90 kilometers) east of Mexico City. More than 115 homes were scorched, 32 of them destroyed.

The explosion was apparently caused by thieves trying to steal crude oil, said Valentin Meneses, interior secretary for the state of Puebla, where San Martin is located. Investigators found a hole in the pipeline and equipment for extracting crude, said Laura Gurza, chief of the federal Civil Protection emergency response agency.

“They lost control because of the high pressure with which the fuel exits the pipeline,” he said.

The oil flowed more than half a mile (one kilometer) down a city street before diverting into a river. At some point a spark of unknown origin caused both to erupt in flames.

Several bodies were found in cars near the location of the leak, but authorities didn’t know if the dead were involved in the theft or just there by coincidence.

Many of the buildings destroyed were humble cement homes. Gurza said people are not permitted to live near oil pipelines, but Jose Luis Chavez, 58, who lives 10 blocks from the explosion, said residents had been there for some time.

Chavez said he heard at least two loud booms and saw flames leap more than 30 feet (10 meters) in the air. It was as if a bomb had exploded underground, he added.

President Felipe Calderon arrived late Sunday afternoon to talk with displaced people in a shelter, visit the injured in a hospital and survey damage on the main street where the fuel exploded. Earlier, he expressed condolences to the families of the dead and his support for those injured and affected. He said the federal government would give its full support in investigating who was responsible and bringing them to justice.

No one had been detained.

Interior Minister Francisco Blake Mora mobilized several federal ministries to help victims with medical care, shelter and recovering their lost homes and property.

The state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, said in a statement that it had shut down the pipeline. Government authorities said the fire was under control by midday. Some areas were without electricity or water.

San Martin Texmelucan is a city of about 130,000 people, according to 2005 government figures, in view of Central Mexico’s spectacular volcanos, Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl. Farming is important to the area’s economy, along with a manufacturing sector that makes chemical and petrochemical products, pharmaceuticals, textiles and metals, the city’s website says.

Pemex has struggled with chronic theft, losing as much as 10 percent of all of its product. Criminals tap remote pipelines, sometimes building pipelines of their own, to siphon off hundreds of millions of dollars worth of oil each year, Pemex has said.

There have been 100 such illegal taps this year all along the pipeline that exploded Sunday. It runs from Veracruz, a heavy oil producing Gulf coast state, to Mexico state outside the capital, said Juan Jose Suarez, Pemex director general.

Suarez also reported 60 illegal taps on the pipeline in the area of Sunday’s disaster, and 580 nationwide this year. He said such illegal taps cause leaks in only 3 to 4 percent of the cases.

In 2009, the U.S. Justice Department said U.S. refineries bought millions of dollars worth of oil stolen from Mexican government pipelines and smuggled across the border in illegal operations led by Mexican drug cartels expanding their reach.

Two Texas oil company officials were sentenced to probation in September for their roles in the sale of petroleum products stolen from Mexico.

Pemex sued five companies in the U.S. in June for allegedly buying stolen Mexican petroleum products.

Also in June, police arrested 13 people who they said excavated a 500-foot (150-meter) tunnel under a busy neighborhood in Mexico City to steal fuel from oil company pipelines.
[Newsday]