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World in brief
Tropical Storm Zeta ends its record run into January
By wire services
Published January 7, 2006
MIAMI - Tropical Storm Zeta fell apart Friday in the open Atlantic, finally bringing the record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season to an end.
Zeta, which was never a threat to land, set one last record before strong wind shear and dry air robbed it of its wind speed and other characteristics of a tropical system: No named storm ever endured so long into January.
Zeta was the last and 27th named storm in the season that officially ended Nov. 30.
Its demise was a welcome relief for forecasters who normally don't have to worry about storms in the middle of winter.
"So, until the 2006 season begins, unless Zeta somehow makes an unlikely miracle comeback, this is the National Hurricane Center signing off for 2005," hurricane specialist Stacy Stewart wrote in the last advisory on Zeta. "Finally."
U.N. warns that millions could starve in Africa
ROME - An estimated 11-million people in the Horn of Africa "are on the brink of starvation" because of severe drought and war, with some deaths already being reported in Kenya, the United Nations said Friday.
People in Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia need food aid, water, new livestock and seeds, the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization said in a statement.
"Millions of people are on the brink of starvation in the Horn of Africa due to recent severe droughts coupled with the effects of past and ongoing conflicts," the agency said.
FAO economist Shukri Ahmed said the region's dry season had begun and the rains forecast for March and April are not expected to be significant.
The FAO is calling for domestic food purchases in areas where harvests are expected to be favorable and food aid imports elsewhere, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at U.N. headquarters in New York.
The World Food Program is now feeding 1.2-million drought victims, "but fears this figure could more than double to 2.5-million," Dujarric said.
[Last modified January 7, 2006, 01:25:29]
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