August 31, 2005

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[edit] 31 August 2005 (Wednesday)

• Update on Hurricane Katrina:
  • The Federal government declares a public health emergency for the Gulf Coast of the United States and launches one of the largest search and rescue missions in history. (CBS Video) (AP via MyWay)
  • New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin states that "hundreds...most likely, thousands" may be dead in his city. The death toll in Biloxi stands at 110. (AP via MyWay)
  • At least 25,000 evacuees, particularly those currently in shelters in Greater New Orleans including the Louisiana Superdome, will be moved to the Reliant Astrodome in Houston, Texas. (Yahoo! News)
  • The United States will release oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help refineries whose oil supplies have been badly hit by Hurricane Katrina. (Yahoo! News) Some refineries along the gulf coast are offline and so fuel production is likely to be limited nonetheless
• Baghdad bridge stampede:
  • Close to 1,200 people were crushed to death or died in a stampede on the Al-Aaimmah bridge over the river Tigris in Baghdad on Wednesday when thousands of Shia Muslims began marching to a shrine to the Imam Musa al-Kazim. The stampede appears to have been caused by rumours of a series of suicide attack.
  • Earlier seven people in attendance died when insurgents fired mortars into the crowd. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (Wikinews)
• The relatives of the four Israeli Arabs killed on a bus in Galilee have been denied the usual terrorism compensation payments because their killer was a Jew, and thus not an "enemy of Israel" as defined by Israeli law. (BBC)
• All Palestinian Authority assets held in the United States have been frozen. (BBC)
• Philippine electoral crisis: A Philippine congressional committee has stopped all impeachment efforts against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Today