Disasters

"As the last bit of life drained from his frail body, Ahmed Nur was still tethered to an intravenous tube. His father brushed his fingers over the boy’s eyes to close the motionless eyelids. He gently pulled a sheet over his son’s face and removed the tube from his thin arm."

"Firefighters battled raging wildfires across Central Texas for a second day Monday as wind-driven flames continued their relentless march through hundreds of homes and across thousands of acres."

"The cost of America's quiet billion dollar disaster in the Upper Midwest keeps rising as floodwaters decline."

"Protesters hope to persuade President Obama not to approve the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline that would run from Canada to Texas. But the State Department already says its safe, and supporters point to thousands of new jobs."

"Lee has been downgraded to a tropical depression. All coastal tropical storm warnings have been discontinued. At 10 p.m., the center of tropical depression Lee was located near latitude 31.0 north, longitude 91.4 west, about 55 miles west-southwest of McComb, Miss."

Follow Tropical Depression Lee on the New Orleans Times-Picayune Hurricance Page.

"BRATTLEBORO, Vt. -- A week after Tropical Storm Irene washed out scores of roads across southern and central Vermont, state officials on Saturday worked to restore more routes and worried about forecasts for more heavy rain."

"Tropical Storm Katia, which lost its Category 1 hurricane charateristics Thursday evening, is not expected to strengthen much on Friday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in its latest report. "

"Record-breaking triple-digit temperatures were prolonging a devastating drought that has been baking the South and the dry spell could extend into next year and beyond, climate experts said on Thursday."

"A new study says firefighters who toiled in the wreckage of the World Trade Center in 2001 were 19 percent more likely to develop cancer than those who were not there, the strongest evidence to date of a possible link between work at ground zero and cancer."

"The earthquake that shook the East Coast last week rattled casks holding radioactive nuclear waste at a Virginia plant, moving them as much as 4.5 inches from their original position, the plant's operator said.

The 5.8-magnitude quake shifted 25 casks, each 16 feet tall and weighing 115 tons, on a concrete pad at Dominion Resources Inc's North Anna nuclear plant."

Roberta Rampton reports for Reuters September 1, 2011.