Kyron Horman's stepmother said she last saw him walking in the hallway of his elementary school on June 4.

The parents of a missing Oregon boy have urged the public to continue helping authorities find their son.

“Please search your properties, your cars, your outbuildings, your sheds,” the immediate family of Kyron Horman said in a statement Wednesday that was read by Captain Mike Shults of the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office. “Also check with your neighbors and friends who may be on vacation or may need assistance to search their property.

“There are a lot of resources out there to help. Please don’t stop.

“Kyron’s family would like to thank everyone for their support and interest in finding their son,” the statement added. “The outpouring of support and continued effort strengthens their hope.”

The 7-year-old Portland child was reported missing by his stepmother last Friday after he did not return home from school, authorities said.

According to investigators, Kyron’s stepmother said she last saw him Friday morning walking down a hallway towards his second-grade classroom at Skyline Elementary School.

Police have described the incident as an “isolated case” and have no evidence suggesting a crime was committed. “We’re not prepared to call it a criminal investigation at this point,” Captain Jason Gates of the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office told reporters Tuesday, “But we are certainly prepared to call it a missing endangered child investigation.”

Shults, who has been serving as a liaison with Kyron’s parents said the family’s “objective is to keep the focus on Kyron and not about anything else.”

A statement by Kristina Porter, Kyron’s teacher, was read at Wednesday’s briefing by Ben Keefer, the principal of Skyline Elementary School.

“The students in Kyron’s class miss him terribly, and we are all wishing for his safe return,” said Porter. “It has been gratifying to see how caring and supportive the children have been with each other throughout this ordeal.”

At Wednesday’s briefing, Gates said a statewide search and rescue plan has been activated in connection with the case. Several hundred search and rescue members and teams from across the state will help in the efforts to locate the child.

Authorities continue to pursue hundreds of tips, most of them from Oregon and Washington.

“We don’t have enough information to satisfy the criteria to complete an Amber Alert or issue an Amber Alert,” Gates explained. “Amber Alerts are designed to find children very quickly when we have specific information.”

Anyone with information on Kyron Horman’s whereabouts is asked to call the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office at 503-261-2847

For those of you who fall into this category and fear being caught short during a water-cooler moment at the office, CNN has put together a bluffer’s guide to the round-ball game and the World Cup.

Phrases to impress your boss

“The referee’s blind!”
An excellent phrase to insert when those around you lament a goal that “never was,” a clear handball or a murderous foul not spotted by the official.

“There’s a case for video technology”
Following your previous observation about the referee’s eyesight, join the calls for video replays to help him make the right decision.

“He’s got two left feet”
As frustration grows with one hapless player in particular, make sure you aren’t left out.

“He missed a sitter!”
When a player misses an easy chance to score.

“It was a blatant dive!”
When a player tumbles to the ground rolling around in apparent agony even though there was no contact from an opposing player.

“Germany are always so efficient”
No fuss, no frills but a victory nevertheless — only to be used if Germany wins a match.

“Can England repeat 1966?”
Use if your boss is an England fan. It’s the only time England ever won the World Cup and the fans there never let you forget it.

Important rules to know

1. Offside
The rule most likely to infuriate players, managers and fans alike. A player is deemed to be in an offside position when he is in his opponents’ half of the pitch and further forward than the last opposition player at the moment a teammate attempts to play a pass to him. Sounds simple, right? When this happens, the opposition wins possession of the ball. All straightforward until your team is denied what looks to be goal by a poor decision by the assistant referee on the touchline. Stand by for plenty of offside flash points and some colorful language.

2. Free-kicks
When a player is penalized for committing a foul, handball or offside, a “free and unchallenged” kick of the ball is awarded to the opposition. Try not to foul a player near your goal because a sharp-shooter like Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo will send the ball crashing into the top corner of the net with deadly precision.

3. Penalties
Another type of free-kick awarded when a player is fouled inside the 18-yard area around an opponent’s goal. The fouled player, or teammate of that player, is then allowed to take a shot from a white spot 12 yards (around 11 meters) from the goal. Prepare yourself for contrasting views from football fans, often less than complimentary about the referee, when a penalty is awarded. This is also the way to decided drawn matches in the later stages of the tournament when you can also liberally use the phrase “nail biting”.

3. Red and yellow cards
Yellow cards are shown to a player by the referee after a particularly nasty foul or if they question his decision in a less than polite manner. A second offense by that player usually leads to a second yellow card, which automatically becomes red and means an “early bath”. Straight red cards mean a player has been particularly naughty and can expect a day off when the next match comes around.

Football terms to memorize

1. Square ball
Refers not to another controversial ball design, but rather a simple pass of the ball sideways to a teammate.

2. Through-ball
When a player passes the ball forward past two or more defenders to a teammate, usually a striker, who is in position to run through on goal to score.

3. Cross
Nothing religious, it refers to the delivery of the ball, either in the air, or along the ground, from either side of the pitch towards the opponent’s goal for a teammate.

4. Dribble
Funnily enough this is a skilful technique where a player runs past opponents with the ball apparently glued to his feet. Watch Argentina star Lionel Messi for a master class.

5. Header
As you would expect. For the best players, the head is as good as their feet. The hardest part of the skull is the forehead so use that for maximum power.

6. Volley
Kicking the ball when it’s reached you in the air, like in tennis. This is a technique which can lead to spectacular goals or derisive cheers from fans if the ball ends up in “row Z” of the stand.

7. Tackle
Taking the ball off an opponent, robbing him of the ball and often leaving him on his backside.

8. Foul
A tackle where you usually hack away at the opponent’s feet first before running off the with ball. Not allowed.

9. Professional foul
A pre-meditated foul, usually a last-ditch desperate act to stop an almost certain goal. The methods have become sophisticated though so it often takes a sharp-eyed referee to make the right call. A professional foul will often lead to a red card (see above).

10. Man-marking
Nothing like as serious as it sounds. Man-marking is when a player shadows an opponent to crowd him out and give him no space to run with the ball or pass it. Some players will hold or grab any part of their opponent’s anatomy to hinder their progress.

TV commentator’s jargon

1. Group of death
With each of the 32 teams split into eight mini-leagues, the competition to qualify for the knockout stages is fierce. Some groups are so tough that a fancied team is bound to fail. For example, five-time winners Brazil, the elegant Portuguese and a talented Ivory Coast side are all in one group.

2. Brazilian flair
Football may have started in England, but it was made sexy by Brazil. Since the days of the great Pele, Brazil’s yellow-shirted national team has thrilled fans the world over with the swagger and individual brilliance of players that often grew up playing on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro.

3. Total football
A football philosophy developed by the Dutch in the 1970s in which every outfield player is able to play in the position of any of his teammates. According to football aficionados, this makes the team structure completely fluid, adaptable and ultimately difficult to play against. It nearly worked for the Netherlands, but not quite.

4. Route one
The antithesis of Brazilian flair. It usually involves a more “industrial” method of kicking long aerial passes from defense to big, physical players in attack. Not pretty but it can be very effective.

5. Playmaker
The creative player in the team that makes it tick. Italians refer to this key attacking position as “il Fantasista.”

6. Hand of God
England and Diego Armando Maradona may face each other again more than two decades since the Argentine superstar famously scored with his hand against the English at Mexico in 1986. After the game, Maradona said the goal was scored “a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God.”

World Cup moments not to miss

1. Brazil
Obviously! The mighty Brazilians could probably field two teams, such is the depth of talent available to them. Unfortunately the slightly rotund but prodigiously-talented Ronaldinho has been left out of the squad. However, the team still boasts a mouth-watering array of talented players such as attacking midfielder Kaka, striker Robinho, and the super-fit defender Dani Alves of Barcelona.

2. Diego Maradona
The cigar-smoking footballer turned coach is a god in his native Argentina. He lifted the trophy as a player in 1986, was banned from the competition for doping in 1994, and suffered with drug and alcohol problems after he retired. A troubled figure, Maradona is compulsive viewing nonetheless.

As manager of Argentina’s national team he has arguably the strongest squad in the competition, though critics point to a turbulent qualifying campaign as proof that he cannot mould them into a winning team. Expect interesting press conferences.

3. Lionel Messi
Considered the world’s greatest player, the diminutive Argentine is viewed by many as the next Maradona. However he has yet to reproduce his extraordinary club form with Barcelona for his national team. Capable of beating entire teams on his own, he could easily disappoint if the rest of team play as poorly as they did trying to qualify for South Africa.

4. Wayne Rooney
England’s World Cup hopes rest on the stocky Manchester United striker whose temper has been his biggest enemy in the past. Rooney’s last World Cup ended with one of those red cards after his boot made firm contact with the groin of a Portuguese player. Since then he has become a father and family life is said to have mellowed him.

5. South Africa
Though their form has improved dramatically in the last six months, they could face the ignominy of becoming the first host country to fail to qualify from the group stage. The tournament needs “Bafana Bafana” to make progress from a group that includes Mexico, Uruguay and France to keep this football-mad nation at fever pitch.

Google is “almost certain” to face prosecution for collecting data from unsecured wi-fi networks, according to Privacy International (PI).

The search giant has been under scrutiny for collecting wi-fi data as part of its StreetView project.

Google has released an independent audit of the rogue code, which it has claimed was included in the StreetView software by mistake.

But PI is convinced the audit proves “criminal intent”.

“The independent audit of the Google system shows that the system used for the wi-fi collection intentionally separated out unencrypted content (payload data) of communications and systematically wrote this data to hard drives. This is equivalent to placing a hard tap and a digital recorder onto a phone wire without consent or authorisation,” said PI in a statement.

This would put Google at odds with the interception laws of the 30 countries that the system was used in, it added.

Scotland Yard

“The Germans are almost certain to prosecute. Because there was intent, they have no choice but to prosecute,” said Simon Davies, head of PI.

In the UK the ICO has said it is reviewing the audit but that for the time being it had no plans to pursue the matter.

PI however does intend to take the case to the police.

“I don’t see any alternative but for us to go to Scotland Yard,” said Mr Davies.

The revelation that Google had collected such data led the German Information Commissioner to demand it handed over a hard-disk so it could examine exactly what it had collected.

It has not yet received the data and has extended the original deadline for it to be handed over.

The Australian police have also been ordered to investigate Google for possible breach of privacy.

‘Systematic failure’

According to Google, the code which allowed data to be collected was part of an experimental wi-fi project undertaken by an unnamed engineer to improve location-based services and was never intended to be incorporated in the software for StreetView.

“As we have said before, this was a mistake. The report today confirms that Google did indeed collect and store payload data from unencrypted wi-fi networks, but not from networks that were encrypted. We are continuing to work with the relevant authorities to respond to their questions and concerns,” said a Google spokesman.

“This was a failure of communication between and within teams,” he added.

But PI disputes this explanation.

“The idea that this was a work of a lone engineer doesn’t add up. This is complex code and it must have been given a budget and been overseen. Google has asserted that all its projects are rigorously checked,” said Mr Davies.

“It goes to the heart of a systematic failure of management and of duty of care,” he added.

A presidential spokesman said he would express his condolences to relatives.

The meeting comes as BP shares in the UK fell to their lowest level since 1997 amid fears the US will impose huge penalties on the firm.

Mr Obama has come under mounting political pressure over his handling of the crisis.

Oil has been leaking into the Gulf since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on 20 April and sank off the coast of the US state of Louisiana, killing the 11 workers.

‘Anti-British rhetoric’

President Obama will express his “heartfelt condolences” to their families during the private meeting at the White House, his spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

“And I think he’s eager to discuss with them what their family was telling them about safety conditions and what type of changes can and must be made in the regulatory framework to ensure that deepwater drilling that goes forward is done in a way that is safe and not life-threatening,” Mr Gibbs added.

Amid growing public anger in the US, President Barack Obama is keen to show he is on top of the situation and will make his fourth visit to the region on Monday.

His administration has been steadily applying more pressure on BP, and the US justice department is considering legal action to make sure BP has enough funds to cover the damage and compensate those affected by the slick.

BP says a containment cap system placed on the blown-out well last week collected 15,800 barrels of oil on Wednesday – slightly up on the 15,010 barrels collected in the previous 24-hour period.

The company has come under increasingly sharp attack by some US politicians for its handling of the spill, described as the worst environmental disaster the US has faced.

Shares in the British oil giant have nearly halved over the last couple of months.

The UK government on Thursday sought to play down fears expressed by some senior figures of “anti-British rhetoric” in the US.

Prime Minister David Cameron, who will discuss BP with President Obama this week, said he understood the US government’s “frustration”.

However, this is by no means the first such volcanic eruption in Iceland to affect human activities. Long before the advent of air travel, the eruption of Iceland’s Laki volcano in 1783-84 had profound effects on climate, not just in Iceland but around the globe.

Volcanologists Thorvaldur Thordarson and Stephen Self estimated that a comparable event in the modern era would release enough ash and other eruptive materials into the atmosphere that the resulting ash cloud and sulfuric haze would probably disrupt air travel over much of the Northern Hemisphere for about five months. But there were impacts well afield of Iceland and Europe at the time of Laki.

Besides releasing clouds of ash into the atmosphere that can disrupt visibility and damage airplane engines, eruptions can cool the climate with the reflection of incoming solar radiation from the troposphere by volcanic sulfur-rich ash, which can decrease temperatures significantly for months or years in some cases.

Just such an aerosol effect is believed to have disrupted the Earth’s thermal balance during the Laki event, cooling some Northern Hemisphere regions by as much as 1 or more degrees Celsius below the long-term average.

Highly unusual conditions were described in the summer of 1783 after Laki, including poisonous volcanic fumes that killed perhaps 25 percent of the population of Iceland, persistent haze and oppressive heat in Europe, and blood-red sunrises over North America, Europe and other locations. The Laki eruption was believed to have caused thousands of deaths because of unusual conditions in Europe that summer, along with the severe cold of the following winter.

Benjamin Franklin was one of the first to suggest that the extreme cold of 1783-84 over much of the Northern Hemisphere was connected to the Laki event. In North America, Laki has been blamed for the starvation of Inuit populations from severe cold in northwestern Alaska, based on Inuit oral history as well as tree-ring density data investigated by Gordon Jacoby and others, who estimated that conditions were about 4 degrees Celsius colder than the mean.

The density record of temperature-sensitive white spruce for this region showed extremely low values in the summer of 1783, known in Inuit lore as “the summer that did not come”.

This observation was used to infer that this was the coldest summer in at least the past 400 years.

Such tree-ring records, along with other so-called proxy archives, can provide a wealth of information about volcanic events and their varying impacts around the globe because of resulting shifts in atmospheric circulation and other climate changes, dating for centuries prior to the period of instrumental record.

The effects of major volcanic eruptions such as Laki can also be felt elsewhere on the globe, often far from their actual location. For example, significant cooling and strong dynamical effects after the Laki event and other high-latitude eruptions are believed to have caused decreased flow of the Nile River in Egypt and weakened African and Asian monsoons based on climate model simulations, with potentially very significant impacts on food and water supplies.

Tree-ring, coral and ice core records also indicate the effect of major volcanic events in the tropics of monsoon Asia for low-latitude eruptions such as that of Tambora, Indonesia, in 1815 and other such events of the past several centuries, although this climate signal is also complicated by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation.

Although the current eruption of Eyjafjallajoekull in Iceland appears not to be comparable in intensity to those of Laki and Tambora, it will have some effects, such as those on air travel, that were never realized back in those simpler times.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Rosanne D’Arrigo.

By the end of the day on Sunday, a total of 63,000 flights had been canceled in the four days since ash from a volcano under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in Iceland closed the airspace of a large swath of Europe, according to air traffic authority Eurocontrol. The air travel and freight disruptions are costing airlines at least $200 million a day and perhaps billions more to the affected economies, one industry group warned.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso ordered formation of a group to study the impact of the volcanic ash cloud on the European economy. “The volcanic ash cloud has created an unprecedented situation,” Barroso said in a statement Sunday. “I have asked Vice President Kallas to coordinate the Commission’s response and fully assess the impact of the situation created by volcanic ash cloud on the economy, and the air travel industry in particular.”

The Eurozone — the 16 European nations united under the euro currency — is in the midst of a shaky recovery. After shrinking 4 percent last year, the Eurozone is expected to grow only 1 percent this year, according to a forecast by Ernst & Young released last Friday.

“The key is how long this eruption and the disruption last,” said Frederic Neumann, an HSBC economist in Hong Kong. “If it’s just a couple weeks, from a macroeconomic standpoint it’s just a blip on the radar … if it lasts for months and months, then it’s a different story.”

Right now, how long it will last is anyone’s guess.

“Each day we’ve gone to check out Virgin (Atlantic Airlines) and each day they just tell us to keep checking on the Internet,” said Andy Loftus, who is stranded in New York. “But when we check the Internet, the Internet doesn’t tell you anything. So you have to keep going back to the airport.”

The last time the volcano under Eyjafjallajokull glacier blew was 1821 and continued for two years. The amount of ash and its concentration over European flight paths is constantly changing due to geological and meteorological forces.

EU Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas said Sunday if the ash cloud continues “moving as it moves, then tomorrow almost 50 percent of European [Union] space will be risk free.” That would allow more flights to resume, he said. “But we’ll see [Monday] what the picture shows.”

The ash cloud is delaying key talks on the issue most troubling the Eurozone — Greece’s mounting debt woes. The Greek Finance Ministry issued a statement that talks with European officials and the International Monetary Fund over details of a $40 billion bailout for Greece is delayed at least until Wednesday, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

Meanwhile, the air industry in Europe — already battered by the financial crisis and labor disputes such as strikes at Lufthansa and British Airways this year — is putting on pressure to reopen the skies.

“This crisis is costing airlines at least $200 million a day in lost revenues and the European economy is suffering billions of dollars in lost business,” said Giovanni Bisignani, director general and CEO of the International Air Transport Association. He told CNN on Monday that if flight restrictions continue, some small and medium-sized airlines could be put in jeopardy.

IATA criticized European governments “for their lack of leadership in handling airspace restrictions” and “urged a re-think of the decision-making process” for closing European skies.

Even airlines based far from the ash face a financial knock-on effect: Thai Airways, based in Bangkok, estimates the cloud is costing the airline $3 million a day and has stranded 6,000 of its passengers.

The HMS Ark Royal and HMS Ocean were making their way back to British waters, while the Defense Ministry worked to pinpoint locations that most need help.

Transport across Europe has been crippled since the eruption beneath southern Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull glacier worsened last week, prompting local evacuations and shutting European airspace.

With planes languishing at airports, stranded travelers have crammed onto boats and trains and hired cars in a bid to reach their destination.

“I believe this is one of the most serious transport disruptions we have faced,” Brown said. “It’s got financial consequences as well as human consequences and we will do everything in our power to make sure all the arrangements are in place to help people where possible to get back home.”

Brown said that he had spoken to Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero about using airports in Spain — which have been less affected by the air travel chaos — as a hub through which to bring people back to Britain, the agency reported. Further information would be released later today, Brown added.

Brown added that a third Royal Navy vessel, HMS Albion, en route to pick up troops in Spain, may also be able to assist.

UK travel has been badly hit by the ash cloud, with airspace largely shut since last Thursday morning and not expected to open until 0000 GMT Tuesday at the earliest. Heathrow, to the west of London, is one of the world’s major international airports and has seen no activity the past five days.

Some European airports reopened Sunday, including several in France and Germany, and all 16 that had been closed in Spain. But officials in each country emphasized that decisions were being made around the clock and could change at any time.

A few dozen test flights Sunday offered hope that the skies over much of Europe may be safe for air travel, but officials made no promises that the massive disruptions due to volcanic ash are about to go away.

“The results coming from these flights is… there’s no impact in the area,” European Union Secretary of State Diego Lopez Garrido said.

Two key air travel groups issued a joint statement Sunday pushing authorities to ease flying restrictions. Airports Council International (ACI) Europe, which represents airports, and the Association of European Airlines (AEA) said they question “the proportionality of the flight restrictions currently imposed.”

But an expert who has flown into the skies to check conditions said he believes it will be “a few days yet” before it’s safe to fly.

European transport ministers plan to discuss the results of flight tests at a technical meeting Monday.

British Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis said Sunday that officials were working around the clock to establish whether safe flight paths could be identified.

“Urgent discussions are taking place with European and international regulatory agencies. We want to be able to resume flights as soon as possible, but safety remains my paramount concern,” Adonis said.

Olivier Jankovec, director general of ACI Europe, said airports have lost close to €136 million ($184 million) so far. More than 6.8 million passengers have been affected, he said in a statement, adding that the effect is worse than after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

“While safety remains a non-negotiable priority, it is not incompatible with our legitimate request to reconsider the present restrictions,” he said.

“While Europe’s airlines and airports consider safety to be an absolute priority, they are questioning the proportionality of the flight restrictions currently imposed,” ACI Europe and the AEA said in their joint statement. “The eruption of the Icelandic volcano is not an unprecedented event and the procedures applied in other parts of the world for volcanic eruptions do not appear to require the kind of restrictions that are presently being imposed in Europe.”

Airlines have been losing at least $200 million a day, according to the International Air Transport Association, the trade group representing airlines.

But an expert who has flown over Europe to check the air said he saw “dangerous” conditions.

Guy Gratton, head of the Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements at Britain’s Cranfield University, flew into the skies Thursday and saw “a really strange and complex set of layers of ash,” with a layer of perfectly clear air suddenly giving way to a layer of ash, he told CNN. If particles of ash enter a jet engine, when they come out they can solidify on turbine blades, he said.

A group of his colleagues took to the skies Sunday, and in some places saw “quite high concentrations of ash,” he said.

“I suspect it’s going to be a few days yet” before it’s safe to fly, Gratton added.

Some European airports reopened Sunday, including several in France and Germany, and all 16 that had been closed in Spain. But officials in each country emphasized that decisions were being made around the clock and could change at any time.

Another body was found Tuesday evening in hardest-hit Douglas County. Richard Butler, 29, was swept from his car and died, like the other five victims from the county, as a result of flash-flooding, said Wes Tallon, the spokesman for the county’s emergency management agency.

Flooded homes in a neighborhood in Mableton, Ga., on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the waters in the area began to recede.

In the county, about 23 miles west of the city, people were lining up for bottled water while the authorities checked abandoned cars for bodies and swept debris to clear streets.

The county was hit by 21 inches of rain in a 24-hour period from Sunday to Monday, knocking out the drinking water supply to most residents, and forcing others to boil their water. On Wednesday, two churches provided bottles for people. “It’s going as fast as we’re giving it away,” Mr. Tallon said.

The main interstate — I-20 — leading to Atlanta reopened after 11 a.m. on Thursday, while only two bridges spanning the flooded Chattahoochee River remained closed, helping the county slowly return to its operations..

Gov. Sonny Perdue of Georgia declared a state of emergency in 17 counties and pleaded for federal aid, offering his appeal directly to President Obama on Tuesday night. The state insurance commissioner estimated that $250 million worth of damage had been done, mostly to homeowners without insurance.

As much as 15 to 20 inches of rain pounded counties around Atlanta for more than 72 hours, and while the rain subsided on Tuesday morning, the authorities were still dealing with dangerous repercussions.

A sewage treatment plant northwest of Atlanta flooded late Monday and into Tuesday, spewing sewage into the Chattahoochee River, which had already swollen to at least 12 feet over its minimum flood stage level. City officials said the damage to the plant would amount to tens of millions of dollars.

Several of the deaths occurred on roadways that had suddenly become impassable because of rushing waters. On Tuesday morning, the body of 14-year-old Nicholas Osley was recovered from a cornfield flooded by the nearby Chattooga River in Trion, Ga., said a spokeswoman for the Chattooga County Emergency Management Agency. On Monday, the teenager and a friend had rushed to an abandoned car to rescue the occupant, not knowing the occupant had already escaped. Nicholas was swept away by the current, while his friend was rescued, the spokeswoman said. Later on Tuesday afternoon, the body of a woman was found in Douglas County after a flash flood from the Anneewakee Creek (usually two feet deep) overwhelmed the roadway, sweeping the car downstream.

In Carroll County, about 50 miles west of Atlanta, Tim Padgett, the emergency management director, said that a 2-year-old boy died when his family’s mobile home was swept away by the fast-moving Snake Creek — about 18 feet higher than its normal level — and the father could no longer hold on to his son in the rush of the water.

Dená Brummer, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, warned people not to return prematurely into flooded areas, and to avoid driving through any water.

The waters flooded both rural and urban areas, even ravaging Buckhead, a wealthy neighborhood north of downtown Atlanta. When the neighborhood’s normally serene Nancy Creek rose to near-record levels, it burst into the basement and the first floor of the large red-brick white-columned house belonging to Dr. O. Scott Swayze and his family. It reached up to three feet on the first floor.

“The basement was an aquarium,” Dr. Swayze said. “This house was built in ’68, and the previous owners never had anything this high. This is the proverbial 100-year flood.”

The flood turned streets into their own estuaries and gave a new meaning to the name of the popular restaurant Canoe. Residents on Paces Ferry Drive were rowing in and out of their houses, using boats they would normally use for catching bass and trout in the Chattahoochee River.

State emergency officials said about 30,000 homes were without electricity. Trisha Palmer, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service in Peachtree City, Ga., said that the flooding was far worse than the hurricane-level damage from 2005. “In this office, nobody remembers anything like this,” she said. “This is worse and much more widespread.”

Although the storms themselves have not been severe, Ms. Palmer said that the rains had been relentless for the better part of a week, resulting from Gulf and Atlantic moisture moving over the Southeast. She said there was a chance for afternoon showers for the remainder of the week.

The area has a history of sectarian tension. A little-known militant group calling itself Lahskar-e-Jhangvi al Almi says it carried out the attack. They say the attack was in revenge for the death of a prominent religious leader. Maulana M Amin was killed in Hangu in June 2009. Correspondents say the group is likely to be linked to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni extremist group which has links to the Taliban. Astarzai village, where the blast took place, has a substantial Shia population and is close to the Orakzai tribal region, a stronghold of the Taliban’s present chief.

Hakimullah Mehsud took over as chief of the Pakistani Taliban – a Sunni group – after his predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed by a US missile strike.

‘People trapped’

The car bomb was detonated close to a hotel owned by a Shia Muslim businessman.

Police officials said that many people had been injured by the explosion.

Witnesses told the BBC the blast was so powerful it nearly demolished several buildings in the area.

“Dozens of shops were destroyed. Their roofs caved in and many people were trapped under the debris,” a local police official told the AFP news agency.

Television footage from the local hospital showed bloodied and bandaged patients being treated by medical staff.

“I was standing in front of my shop when all of a sudden, a car blew up outside a restaurant,” Sohail Ahmed told AFP from his hospital bed.

At the time of the explosion, the area was reported to be thronged with shoppers buying supplies for the weekend and for iftar, the break of fast during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Astarzai lies 18km (11 miles) west of the town of Kohat, where a bomb was detonated on Thursday wounding at least six people.

The BBC’s M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says that Sunni Taliban militants in the area have carried out frequent attacks on minority Shias.

Sunni Muslims account for around 80% of Pakistan’s population and are the dominant group in the tribal areas, although Orakzai has significant Shia numbers.

Pakistan’s army has been bombing Taliban hideouts in Orakzai for the past month, correspondents say.

There were reports of more aerial bombings in the area on Friday morning, shortly before the bomb attack.

The last month has seen a series of major attacks on targets across the NWFP.

On 30 August a suspected suicide bomb attack in Pakistan’s north-western Swat valley killed at least 14 police recruits and injured others.

And in February, at least 25 people were killed when a bomb exploded at the funeral procession of a prominent Shia Muslim cleric.

Mrs Clinton said the issue “cannot be ignored” and was the key reason why the US agreed to take part in the talks.

Tehran last week offered “comprehensive” talks, but did not mention its nuclear programme.

Iran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes

The West fears that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons – a claim denied by Tehran.

Iran insists its programme is for civilian purposes only.

‘Fulfilment’

“We have made clear to the Iranians that any talks we participate in must address the nuclear issue head on,” Mrs Clinton said in Washington.

“Iran says it has a number of issues it wishes to discuss with us but what we are concerned about is discussing with them the questions surrounding their nuclear programme and ambitions.

“We will wait to see how Iran responds in that face-to-face venue,” America’s top diplomat said.

She added the talks marked a “fulfilment” of US President Barack Obama’s pledge to engage with Iran.

The meeting between Iran and the so-called P5+1 Group – the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the UK, China, France, Russia and the US – plus Germany – are due to start at an as yet undecided venue.

The P5+1 Group has a longstanding offer on the table of diplomatic incentives in return for the suspension of Iran’s uranium enrichment.

Iran has always defended its right to continue its nuclear programme.

Last week, Tehran offered to “embark on comprehensive, all-encompassing and constructive negotiations”, but ignored the nuclear issue.

The number of people arrested for suspected roles in the three-day riots could go up because investigations are still under way, said Kale Kayihura, the nation’s police chief.

Trials for the suspects will start Monday on charges including taking part in violent acts and unlawful assemblies, Kayihura said.

At least 82 were injured, according to the police chief.

Ugandan police ride past a burning barricade in the Natete suburb of Kampala on Friday.

Tensions between President Yoweri Museveni and the Buganda kingdom — headed by King Ronald Mutebi II, the ruler of the Baganda tribe — have intensified in recent years.

The violence flared Thursday when the government said it would not allow the king to travel to an area inhabited by a renegade rival group.

After the travel ban, young Bagandans took to the streets, stealing ammunition from a police station and confronting officers, accusing them of harassment.

“The government is wrong to undermine cultural institutions which are the backbone of Uganda’s heritage,” said Mzamiru Balidha, a resident of Kampala. “Cultural leaders must be left alone since they are not interfering in politics.”

Rioters burned tires and cars, set buildings on fire and looted stores. Streets in the capital were strewn with debris over the weekend, including torched cars and burned tires.

Police and the army patrolled deserted but calm streets Sunday as residents tried to return to normalcy after the protests.

“I’m happy to see that there is peace now,” said Harry Sagara of Kampala. “Now people can return to work.”

Government officials and the Buganda kingdom have been at odds for years, sparring over land, sovereignty and political power.

A government official said Sunday that the two leaders have pledged to meet and address their differences.

“Both the central government and the king are still working out details of the meeting,” said Daudi Migereko, the minister of parliamentary affairs.

Bagandans are the dominant ethnic group and one of four ancient kingdoms in the nation. Kings in the east African nation are limited to a ceremonial role overseeing traditional and cultural affairs.

Osama bin Laden is seen in an image taken from a videotape that aired on Al-Jazeera in September 2003.

The tape emerged on radical Islamist Web sites, just two days after the United States marked the eighth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.

“To the American people, this is my message to you: a reminder of the reasons behind 9/11 and the wars and the repercussions that followed and the way to resolve it,” the message said.

“From the beginning, we have stated many times … that the cause of our disagreement with you is your support of your allies, the Israelis, who are occupying our land in Palestine. Your stance along with some other grievances are what led us to carry out the events of 9/11.”

The video plays the audio over a undated photograph of bin Laden. The video also shows a banner with the American flag as the backdrop and an image of the New York City skyline with the twin towers of the World Trade Center — destroyed in the 9/11 attack — still standing, said terrorism analyst Laura Mansfield.

Obama was “a vulnerable man who will not be able to stop the war, as he promised, but instead he will drag it to the maximum possible extent,” the message said.

Though U.S. troops no longer patrol Iraq’s major cities and a large number have left, tens of thousands remain in the country and are expected to stay for years to come.

The message claims that the Obama administration is under the influence of the Republican White House it replaced, pointing out that the president kept Robert Gates as defense secretary — a holdover from the Bush administration.

“Prolong the wars as much as you like. By God, we will never compromise on it (Palestine), ever,” the message continued.

Mansfield noted that the video brings no new images of the elusive bin Laden, who was last seen in footage two years ago on the sixth anniversary of the terror attacks.

Bin Laden has released audio messages since then, most recently on June 9.

With Force, Mexican Drug Cartels Get Their Way

It was drug traffickers who decided that Chief Roberto Orduña Cruz, a retired army major who had been on the job since May, should go. To make clear their insistence, they vowed to kill a police officer every 48 hours until he resigned.

They first killed Mr. Orduña’s deputy, Operations Director Sacramento Pérez Serrano, together with three of his men. Then another police officer and a prison guard turned up dead. As the body count grew, Mr. Orduña eventually did as the traffickers had demanded, resigning his post on Feb. 20 and fleeing the city.

Replacing Mr. Orduña will also fall outside the mayor’s purview, although this time the criminals will not have a say. With Ciudad Juárez and the surrounding state of Chihuahua under siege by heavily armed drug lords, the federal government last week ordered the deployment of 5,000 soldiers to take over the Juárez Police Department. With the embattled mayor’s full support, the country’s defense secretary will pick the next chief.

Chihuahua, which already has about 2,500 soldiers and federal police on patrol, had almost half the 6,000 drug-related killings in all of Mexico in 2008 and is on pace for an even bloodier 2009. Juárez’s strategic location at the busy El Paso border crossing and its large population of local drug users have prompted a fierce battle among rival cartels for control of the city.

“Day after day, there are so many horrible things taking place there,” said Howard Campbell, an anthropologist at the University of Texas at El Paso who studies Mexico’s drug war. “The cartels are trying to control everything.”

Nothing is surprising in Chihuahua anymore. Gunmen recently shot at one of three cars in Gov. José Reyes Baeza’s motorcade, killing a bodyguard and wounding two agents. The drug cartels routinely collect taxes from business owners, shooting those who refuse to pay up. As for the Juárez mayor, who has made cleaning up the notoriously corrupt police department his focal point, the cartel recently threatened to decapitate him and his family unless he backed off.

The handwritten threat that it issued went further than that. Like many people in Juárez, Mayor Reyes has homes on both sides of the border, splitting his time between El Paso and Juárez. The note threatening him made it clear that the assassins going after him would have no qualms about crossing into the United States to finish off the mayor and his family.

“We took the threat seriously,” said Chris Mears, a spokesman for the El Paso Police Department. “I’m not going to tell you what actions were taken, but we’ve taken actions.”

In an interview in his wood-paneled office overlooking the United States, Mr. Reyes, 46, whose father was mayor in the early 1980s, said he was not going to allow criminals to run the city, despite the inroads they are making. He said he initially opposed his police chief’s decision to resign because he did not want the outlaws to feel empowered. He acceded only as a life-saving gesture, he said.

“I’m not going to give in,” he vowed in an interview, welcoming the arrival of soldiers so that the traffickers will feel the heat even more.

Right now, the Juárez police are no match for the outlaws. Last year, the senior uniformed officer was killed, one of 45 local police officers killed since January 2007, and a former police chief pleaded guilty to charges of smuggling a ton of marijuana from Juárez to El Paso. Mr. Orduña, who lived at the police station to avoid being killed, had replaced another chief who fled to El Paso after receiving threats last year. If the army had not come in, the mayor would no doubt have had a difficult time finding somebody to head the department.

Introducing a nationwide police recruitment campaign, the mayor has raised salaries and benefits enough that he is attracting new recruits to replace the many officers being fired for their links to organized crime.

“I know the dangers and I accept them,” said José Martín Jáuregui López, one of the 289 cadets now being trained at Juárez’s police academy. “There are a lot of people afraid for me: my mom, my relatives. But this is what I want to do.”

As a sign to the traffickers that he was not running from them, Mr. Reyes appeared Friday to be like any other mayor, giving a speech at the opening of a shopping center, signing a memorandum of understanding with a developer, reassuring residents that he would keep loiterers from gathering in front of their homes.

But the bodyguards holding assault rifles who clung close to him made it clear that Juárez remained a city under siege.

“There’s no square inch of the city that has been untouched by the violence,” said Lucinda Vargas, an economist who works by day to remake the city as executive director of Juárez Strategic Plan, but retreats to El Paso at night. “There’s a lot of evidence that Juárez, in a micro sense, is becoming a failed state. But I still think we haven’t failed yet and that we could still rescue ourselves.”

An Iraqi woman voted in provincial elections on Saturday at a Baghdad school. Over all, the day passed peacefully.

The signs of mutual disengagement are everywhere. In the days leading up to the elections, it was possible to drive safely from near the Turkish border in the north to Baghdad and on south to Basra, just a few miles from the Persian Gulf — without seeing an American convoy. In the Green Zone — once host to the American occupation government, and now the seat of the Iraqi government — the primary PX is set to close, and the Americans have retreated to their vast, garrisoned new embassy compound. Iraqi soldiers now handle all Green Zone checkpoints.

American helicopters and drones may be in the sky, but Iraqi boots are on the ground. The Americans are already worried about securing the road to Kuwait because soon they will have to start hauling out much of the infrastructure they have built on bases across Iraq.

The end of an era comes not in a single moment, but looking back it has become evident that the mood has changed, power has shifted, the world is not the same.

In the United States, many Americans view the war as already over, even though more than 140,000 American soldiers remain on Iraqi soil.

President Obama has made it plain that Iraq is not his war; he wants to focus on Afghanistan. In an economic crisis, there is simply not enough money for the country to keep spending hundreds of millions of dollars a day in Iraq.

Any arguments that remain in Washington about the shape and timing of the troop withdrawal this year seem almost moot here, given how much Iraqis want to show they can govern on their own and how much Americans want to hand over responsibility to the Iraqis so they can meet withdrawal deadlines.

This is not to suggest that the war is over. In two provinces, Nineveh and Diyala, counterinsurgency operations are still under way, and the military is tracking signs of activity by Sunni extremist groups in the troubled areas surrounding Baghdad. For now, the rest of the country is mostly calm. The provincial elections will test political stability: whether Iraqis can begin to resolve still festering sectarian and ethnic tensions through the ballot box. The formal process of disengagement started in earnest in November, when the Iraqi Parliament approved a new security agreement with the Americans that sealed the date of departure, by the end of 2011, and almost immediately changed the balance of power.

The outlook of Iraqi citizens has changed as well. They are more confident that their problems are their own, and that the Americans cannot fix them and often have only made matters worse.

“The American military presence brought nothing to our streets but destruction and chaos,” said Omar al-Dulaimi, 57, a government employee who lives near the Um al-Khoura mosque, one of the largest Sunni places of worship in the capital. “We had nothing from them but tension and confusion. It’s much better for us and for them if they stay in their bases now.”

That resentment of the American presence boiled over in 2007 after Blackwater Security guards opened fire on Iraqi civilians in Nisour Square, killing 17 of them and wounding more than 30. That episode, which was widely publicized in Iraq and abroad, crystallized Iraqi loathing and resentment of what they saw as Americans’ casual disregard for Iraqi lives — and their own powerlessness to hold the Americans to account.

Such anger helped embolden Iraqis to drive a tough bargain on the security agreement, which cemented their sense that they were, at last, seizing control of their own destiny. The Iraqi resolve surprised the Americans, who in the end were forced to accept a hard deadline for departure, give up immunity for contractors like Blackwater and give Iraqis explicit authority over all military operations in the country.

Now, for both sides there is the feeling that something has changed and that whatever happens next, Iraq will not return to the way it was.

“We’re going through transition in Iraq at the same time we’re going through transition in our forces here,” said Gen. Ray Odierno, the commanding general for Iraq. “They will elect new provincial governments. I believe 75 percent to 80 percent of the provincial governments will change, and oh, by the way, we’ll begin to reduce our troops’ size.” The shifts are subtle, often unspoken. The American military role now has less to do with protecting Iraqis and more with giving them the psychological reassurance that they can handle what comes their way. The Americans no longer tell the Iraqis what to do, and the Iraqis, especially Iraqi Army officers, no longer look to the Americans for approval. At least that is the case in areas where the fighting has stopped; less so in areas like Mosul where American military might is still required to keep violence at bay.

When General Odierno stopped to inspect a polling center in rural Medaen, south of Baghdad, on Wednesday, his conversation with the Iraqi Army general who oversees the area was respectful, a little formal: two military men exchanging information. It was not exactly a conversation between equals; each knew that the other was from a different world, each knew the Americans have superior arms and training, and each offered the other his observations.

“I see less Sunni-Shia issues than I do a lot of other issues here,” General Odierno said.

Gen. Qassim al-Maliki nodded. “We have a lot of Shia voting this time,” he said. “We didn’t have a lot in the last election,” he said.

As the American military slowly steps back, the diplomats and the civilians are emerging from the wings. Certainly, this is far from a normal diplomatic relationship. Iraqis entering any area close to the Americans are still subject to multiple humiliating searches and interminable waits. American diplomats cannot yet leave the embassy; they live like virtual prisoners, every movement beyond its gates an armed undertaking. But it is possible for Americans and Iraqis to talk about issues other than sheer survival.

Iraqis, too, are beginning to explore a different kind of relationship, one that no longer looks to the Americans only for protection. Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has agreed to finance a substantial scholarship program to send Iraqis to the United States and British Commonwealth countries for study, in an effort to create a better educated professional class. Still, the American era in Iraq is nowhere near a final act. If this were an opera, it would be just past midway in the libretto. While both sides are disconnecting, neither can let go entirely.

The Iraqis need the Americans not just to dampen terrorist activities within the country but to protect them from rapacious neighbors. Syria and Iran have interfered here since the invasion, and while the Iraqis are often uncomfortable with how the Americans have reined in these powers, they are reluctant to stop them because they fear their neighbors more.

When American forces pursued insurgents over the Iraqi border into Syria in late October, it was an international incident. Iraq was embarrassed in front of the Arab world. Such incidents are likely to recur and could become much more fraught.

For the United States, Iraq remains a strategic prize close to the Middle East flash points of Israel, Lebanon and Syria as well as Iran and the oil-rich Persian Gulf countries. It is not by chance that the Central Intelligence Agency has its largest station in the world in Baghdad.

It is inescapable that the United States exerts more influence here than in any other oil-producing country — and will be intent on continuing to do so. Iraq will be eager to demonstrate its independence; the United States will have to rely on levers other than a huge and continuing military presence. This promises considerable tension as each side redefines its relationship.

The elections on Saturday were a step toward a peaceful approach to settling disagreements among factions about the shape of the country. If new governments are seated from north to south and east to west, the United States and Iraq can begin the next act in earnest.

If all goes well, “The United States will not need big troops here,” said Jawad al-Bolani, the interior minister, a secular Shiite. “The Americans need to look at something besides security. Iraq needs America to start a new chapter.”

An Egyptian driver waited on Tuesday at the El Auja crossing on the border with Israel. The trickle of trucks that had been going through there has all but stopped, officials and drivers there said.

This normally quiet commercial crossing between Egypt and Israel has been turned into a parking lot of stalled, humanitarian aid, and in the city of El Arish there are even greater quantities of food, clothing and essential supplies, sitting, waiting and baking in the sun. Some supplies are loaded onto dozens of trucks parked on city streets, but much more is stored in the open areas of a local sports stadium, also waiting, also going nowhere. Only medical supplies seem to be getting through to Gaza.

Since the cease-fire, Israel has allowed some humanitarian supplies into Gaza, but the territory is still desperately short of the necessities. Israel closed all the crossings into Gaza on Tuesday after an Israeli soldier was killed in a bombing on the Israeli side of the border. But that changed nothing at this crossing, where the flow has been stalled for days.

Officials and volunteers in Egypt blame the Israelis, saying that even before the passage stalled Israel had allowed supplies to pass through for only 19 hours each week. Israeli officials said that Egypt had not done enough to coordinate the flood of aid coming to Gaza, and that they hoped a system would soon be in place to remedy the problem.

In the meantime, truckloads of humanitarian aid are sitting in Egypt. That includes 13 generators and Amir Abdullah’s trailer full of food.

“All our lunchmeat, it’s all going to go bad,” said Mr. Abdullah, whose tractor-trailer loaded with food and blankets sat in a line outside the stadium in El Arish for 24 hours without moving.

But he is a newcomer to the great humanitarian wait for Gaza.

“We are getting a lot of assistance, but they let very few trucks through,” said Hany Moustafa, who manages the stadium. “We have trucks we loaded up five days ago still sitting here, waiting.”

There has been an outpouring of support for Gazans, mostly from the Arab world, but also from Europe, Venezuela and nongovernmental organizations, officials here said. Medical supplies go straight into Gaza through Egypt’s crossing at Rafah.

But Egypt will not allow anything else to pass through Rafah, insisting that all other aid travel first into Israel and then into Gaza. That is where the bottleneck has occurred. Two of the main problems have been the short window for supplies to pass and Israel’s decision to let few trucks go through, officials and volunteers here said. But another problem has to do with Egypt’s being unprepared to meet strict Israeli packing requirements, which would allow the goods to be passed through security scanners and onto Israeli trucks for delivery to Gaza.

The Egyptians tried to send through trucks carrying bags of flour and sugar, for example, only to have the Israelis send them back. Much has been repacked and reshipped, but some of the returned items are spilled out over the sandy earth at the crossing.

“The trucks get to Auja and they sit,” said Ahmed Oraby, head of the Red Crescent office in El Arish. “Many trucks that left are now coming back. They don’t take anything.”

At the United Nations, John Holmes, an emergency relief coordinator, said the scale of the destruction meant that far more than the current movement of aid was needed urgently. “Enough will always be allowed in for people to exist, but not enough for the conditions for people to live,” Mr. Holmes told reporters.

In recent days, officials and drivers at the crossing said that the trickle of trucks passing through this month had all but stopped. None went on Thursday. Friday and Saturday are days off, so nothing passed. On Sunday, a few trucks went through, aid workers said. Monday, nothing. Tuesday, nothing.

“I have been sitting here for three days, and before that I was in Arish for four days,” said Sayed Ahmed Sorour, seated in the cab of a truck hauling clothing and blankets. “Nobody is telling us anything. Not Egypt. Not Israel. Nobody explains to us why we are stopping here.”

Mr. Sorour’s truck was about 10th in line in front of the gate to enter the border zone. About 30 trucks in all were parked outside the gate, their drivers tired, dirty and frustrated after days of waiting, sleeping in their cabs and killing time.

Inside the gate, parked in the sand near the border with Israel, there were an additional 30 truckloads of flour and sugar and, from the French, the technical gear and bottles of Evian. An Egyptian state security officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the nature of his work, said there did not seem to be any rational explanation for how the crossing worked. He said he and the other officers simply waited for the Israelis to tell them how many trucks to let in, and they complied.

By 5 p.m., when it was clear that Yasir Hussein was not going to get to deliver his goods, again, he and some other drivers laid down a blanket, warmed some water on a small gas burner and shared small glasses of tea. Mr. Hussein said he was hauling a load of food donated by the Swiss and had been sitting at the gate since Thursday.

“We are not moving, and no one is saying anything,” he said. “We are just trying to help.”