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Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Terror alert impact travel in France

Escalating strikes by government workers, coupled with a warning Sunday from the French interior minister about new Saudi intelligence on a posssibly imminent al-Qaeda attack, are impacting travelers throughout France. French oil industry workers, protesting a government austerity plan to raise retirement ages, have blocked access to refineries. As a result, a major flight disruption appears likely Tuesday, with French aviation authorities asking airlines to cut their schedules up to 50 percent. CNN reports that 1,000 gas stations have run out of fuel across the country, and French truckers staged several overnight protests, including a go-slow on motorways near Lille, Paris and Lyon. A 24-hour rail strike in Belgium, meanwhile, has closed train stations in that country and disprupted service across France, Netherlands and Germany; the AP reports that the strike also cut Eurostar service between London and Brussels. France's latest terror threat came when European officials were informed that "al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was doubtless active or envisioned being active" on the "European continent, notably France," the interior minister said Sunday. The U.S. State Department continues its continent-wide alert, issued on Oct. 3. France has already boosted security at busy tourist sites like Notre Dame Cathedral and the Eiffel Tower. French authorities recorded nine bomb alerts in the capital in September, including two at the Eiffel Tower — a threefold increase from a year earlier. No explosives were found.

Typhoon Megi 'biggest in 20 years'

The Philippines has declared a state of calamity in a northern province after super typhoon Megi made landfall, killing at least one man, cutting off power and communications, evacuating thousands and forcing flight cancellations. Megi, the 10th and strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year, reached Isabela province on Monday morning (local time) and by early evening was heading west-south-west across the north of the main island of Luzon with winds of 180 kilometres per hour (kph) near the centre, forecasters said. The Red Cross says Megi is the biggest typhoon to hit the Phillippines in decades, and that its impact could be devastating. "It's a very, very big typhoon that's hitting our country, biggest in the last 20 years," Philippine National Red Cross chairman Senator Richard Gordon said. "It could inundate coastal areas, river banks and it might cause landslides. "Right now everybody is hunkered down, so communication is kind of difficult at the moment. We're getting all our volunteers to text us or call us in case the situation turns sour." Tropical Storm Risk said Megi, known locally as Juan, was a category 5 super typhoon, the highest rating, with winds of more than 250 kph when it hit mountains in north-east Luzon.