Rebel News - Independent News and Analysis

Hurricane Earl continues closing in on the eastern shores of the US as the coast braces for a possible shift in Earl's predicted path.

Governors of North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland have declared states of emergency in preparation for a worse-case scenario, as the USS Cole reportedly rushes to its home port of Norfolk, Virginia ahead of the storm.

After lashing the northeast Caribbean islands, Hurricane Earl is on collision course with East Coast and is expected to become the worst storm to hit the region in 20 years.

Hurricane Earl has strengthened into a powerful Category 4 storm, generating winds of 215 km/h (135 mph).

China and Russia have agreed to establish a cross-border protection zone for Siberian tigers in a bid to save the endangered species, state media have said.

China's northeastern province of Jilin and Russia's Primorsky Krai region formally agreed on the project during the second annual Siberian Tiger Cultural Festival, which opened in Jilin's Hunchun city on Sunday.

Hurricane Earl is gathering strength as it moves towards the eastern US coast after sweeping across the northern Leeward Islands in the Atlantic, heading towards Virgin Islands.

On Monday Earl kept its category two status, but as its winds were getting stronger, the US National Hurricane Center said it could turn into a major storm.

Thousands more Indonesians have been forced to leave their homes after Mount Sinabung in the north of Sumatra erupted for the second time in two days.

"It erupted again at 6:30 am (2330 GMT) and lasted about 15 minutes. The smoke and ash reached at least 2,000 meters (6,600 feet)," government volcanologist Agus Budianto was quoted by AFP as saying on Monday.

A volcano has erupted on Indonesia's island of Sumatra, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes as black smoke and ash shot up 1,500 meters into the air.

Mount Sinabung in the north of Sumatra began erupting around Saturday midnight after rumbling for several days.

An earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale has struck northern Iran but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said that the epicenter of the earthquake, which happened on Friday night at 11:53 p.m. local time, was located in Semnan province about 285 kilometers (175 miles) east of Tehran and 105 kilometers (65 miles) east of the city of Semnan, which is the provincial capital.

In the US, Hurricane Danielle has gather strength to become a category four storm as it sweeps across the North Atlantic Ocean heading towards Bermuda.

The US National Hurricane Center said on Friday that a category-four Danielle could very well bring dangerous rip currents to the country's East Cost.

Landslides have claimed the lives of at least eight people in northern Turkey, with six others were gone missing, according to media reports.

Torrential rain, which triggered the incident, wiped out several homes in the town of Gundogdu late Thursday, Anatolia News Agency reported on Friday.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said taboos about women attending the Cabinet have broken and his government has helped women play active roles in various arenas.

Today, with their active presence in various venues, the faithful, joyful and dynamic Muslim Iranian women have proved this fact, noted the Iranian president in a meeting with the officials and counselors from the Woman and Family Affairs Organization.