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Get ready to bundle up? Peter Geiger, editor at the Farmers’ Almanac, holds up a poster that shows the company’s prediction for wintry weather in 2010 at his office in Lewiston, Maine. The Almanac predicts this winter will be colder than usual across three-fourths of the nation. But the National Weather Service is calling for a warmer-than-normal winter across much of the country because of El Nino conditions.
AP PHOTO
LOS CABOS, Mexico
Hurricane gains strength
Extremely dangerous and strengthening Hurricane Jimena roared toward Mexico’s resort-studded Baja California Peninsula on Monday, prompting emergency workers to set up makeshift shelters and chasing away an international finance conference.
Jimena, just short of Category 5 status — the top danger rating for a hurricane — could rake the harsh desert region fringed with picturesque beaches and fishing villages as a major storm by Tuesday evening, forecasters said.
On Monday afternoon, workers at the Cabo San Lucas marina nailed sheets of plywood on storefront windows while fishermen secured their boats. Hotels and restaurants gathered up umbrellas, tables, chairs, and anything else that might be blown away.
GDANSK, Poland
WWII start marked
European and American officials plan to mark today’s 70th anniversary of World War II with a ceremony bringing former friends and foes together on the Baltic peninsula where the conflict began.
Polish President Lech Kaczynski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk — along with around 20 foreign dignitaries, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and U.S. National Security Adviser James Jones — will attend the ceremony paying tribute to the tens of millions who lost their lives in the war.
ATLANTA
Racial change possible
The city that became a post-civil rights movement emblem of the political power held by African-Americans could have a white mayor for the first time in a generation — a possibility that has some in the black community scrambling to hold on to City Hall.
Atlanta Councilwoman Mary Norwood, who is white, is one of the front-runners for the Nov. 3 election, along with City Council President Lisa Borders and state Sen. Kasim Reed, both of whom are black.
All three have bristled at a racially charged e-mail circulated by a black leadership group calling for Norwood’s defeat before a possible runoff.
SHIAO LIN, Taiwan
Dalai Lama seeks help
The Dalai Lama exhorted Taiwan on Monday to safeguard its democracy, interspersing prayers for the victims of Typhoon Morakot with a challenge to Communist China.
The call from the Tibetan spiritual leader appeared to contradict assurances that his five-day visit to comfort the victims of the worst storm to hit the island in 50 years would steer clear of the political — a concern for President Ma Ying-jeou’s administration, which is seeking closer ties with the mainland.
Kneeling on the ground to pray for the hundreds killed in this remote mountain village when torrential rains triggered two catastrophic mudslides earlier this month, the Dalai Lama acknowledged that Taiwan and China should maintain “their very close and unique links.”