Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies

Record storm strengthens, but no threat to U.S.

MIAMI - Tropical Storm Delta neared hurricane strength Thursday in the central Atlantic, continuing a record-breaking hurricane season.

The 25th named storm of the season formed Wednesday and poses a threat only to shipping, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. It was not headed for the United States.

"It's way out there in the middle of nowhere," hurricane specialist Stacy Stewart said.

The 25 named tropical storms and hurricanes this year broke the record for the busiest hurricane season. The previous record was 21 storms, set in 1933. The 13 hurricanes so far this year also broke the record of 12 set in 1969.

The six-month Atlantic hurricane season officially ends Wednesday, but forecasters warn that tropical storms and hurricanes can develop in December.

According to the National Hurricane Center, the latest hurricane to strike the United States was on Nov. 30, 1925, near Tampa.

JERUSALEM - Ariel Sharon's fledgling political party officially registered itself under the name "Forward" on Thursday, ending three days of indecision since the prime minister quit his hard-line Likud Party to set up a new centrist group.

Sharon and his supporters had also been weighing "National Responsibility" and "Hope" as possible names, but apparently decided that "Forward" better lent itself to election sloganeering. "It's forward with credible leadership, forward with a clear direction," said lawmaker Abraham Hirschon, a founding member of the new party and like Sharon, a Likud defector.

LONDON - The first day of relaxed drinking laws in England and Wales began quietly Thursday, following a din of fearful headlines and criticism from opposition parties.

Police forces around the country reported no untoward incidents as some establishments took advantage of a law that permits them to apply for opening hours of their choice - up to 24 hours a day.

The government hopes the change in laws introduced during World War I will stop the flood of drunks onto city streets just after the traditional 11 p.m. closing time.

Opponents say British consumption of alcohol - among the most notorious, although hardly the heaviest, in Europe - should not be encouraged.

BEIJING - China on Thursday announced the spread of bird flu to a far western region, while Indonesia reported its first outbreak of the virus in the tsunami-ravaged Aceh province.

The Nov. 17 outbreak in Turpan, a city in China's Xinjiang region, killed 11 birds and prompted the destruction of 5,180 more, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing the Agriculture Ministry. News of China's 21st outbreak in recent weeks came a day after it confirmed its second human death from bird flu.

Indonesia's Agriculture Ministry said bird flu has now been found in 23 of Indonesia's 30 provinces. The virus has killed seven people in Indonesia.

SANTIAGO, Chile - Former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet was indicted on human rights charges Thursday and placed under house arrest, hours after he made bail on corruption charges filed only a day earlier.

In a widely expected decision, Judge Victor Montiglio charged Pinochet in connection with the kidnapping and disappearance of six dissidents in the early years of his 1973-90 dictatorship, his office said.