Kamchatka region department for emergency situations issued warnings to tourist groups and hunters to stay at a distance of 20 kilometers as a minimum away from the volcano.

It indicated that approaching the Bezymyanny closer than that may pose danger.

The Bezymyanny, which is 2,900 meters tall, is part of a group of volcanoes related to the Klyuchevskaya Sopka, the largest active volcano in Eurasia.

Suriname, which declared the flooded areas disaster zones and has appealed for international help, has started a massive distribution of supplies amid criticism that the relief effort was slow to start.

Officials said, however, that they have been hampered by damage to roads, airstrips and other parts of the South American nation's infrastructure.

Authorities expect the flooding to worsen since heavy rains were forecast for the next few days. May is the beginning of the rainy season in Suriname, home to about 440,000 people.

Families from several villages in the town of Sogod, in the central island province of Southern Leyte, were also evacuated to safer ground after heavy rains caused a landslide that cut off a main highway, provincial governor Rosette Lerias told AFP.

At least 11 villages with about 1,000 families in Sogod had been isolated, with one vital bridge also impassable, Lerias said.

Another 40 families in the town of Macrohon were also evacuated after heavy flooding, she said.

"It has been raining really hard, and we had about 130 millimeters (five inches) of rainfall yesterday alone," Lerias said, adding that normal rainfall according to forecasters should be 550 millimeters in a week.

"We are working very closely with the national government in Manila and we have all the supplies we need," she said.

She said parts of Leyte as well as the entire province of Albay in the Bicol region were experiencing black outs.

The storm came almost three months after torrential rains caused the collapse of a mountainside that engulfed the Leyte village of Guinsaugon, leaving more than 1,000 people buried alive under a massive mudslide.

Nerry Amparo, head of operations in Manila's Office of Civil Defense, said field reports coming in indicated zero casualties so far in the latest storm.

Storm warnings were hoisted in some 23 provinces and islands, including the capital Manila, where rain has fallen since Thursday.

The storm however slightly weakened as it made landfall overnight, and its eye as of 11.00 am (0300 GMT) Friday was estimated at 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of Camarines Sur province.

It was packing sustained winds of 95 kilometers (58 miles) per hour near its center and gusts of up to 120 kilometers (74 miles) per hour, the state weather bureau said.

Chanchu was expected to pass over Marinduque island later in the day, before heading northward to the main island of Luzon, before finally moving away on Monday.

Flag carrier Philippine Airlines said it cancelled four domestic flights to the Visayas and Bicol, but the announcement came late and many passengers were stuck in the airport.

"We will request airlines to announce early for the passengers not to come to the terminal if the flights will be cancelled tomorrow," said Octavio Lina, deputy general manager of operations at Manila airport.

Noel Rosal, the mayor of Legaspi city in eastern Albay province, said some 200 families were also evacuated in the area after flash floods and when power went down.

"But we have enough supplies and hopefully the weather will improve soon," Rosal said on local television.

An average of 19 storms and typhoons strike the Philippines every year, killing hundreds of people through floods, landslides, and other hazards induced by strong winds and heavy rain.

Although grenade attacks to settle scores are relatively common in Ethiopia, the unexplained blasts have increased tension in Addis, which has been shaken by two bouts of unrest in the wake of disputed parliamentary elections last year.

The first blast on Friday occurred at 5 a.m. at the Ethiopian Airlines office. The second hit the state electricity company headquarters 200 metres away several hours later. Seven people were injured in that blast, the witnesses said.

Police kept crowds away from the scene, and traffic flowed normally in the Ethiopian capital.

In March a series of five explosions in one day killed one person and injured at least 14 others.

About 56 percent of people ages 21 to 64 who had a disability were employed at some point in the one-year period prior to the interview. People with a severe disability status reported the lowest employment rate (42 percent). This compared with the employment rates of people with a nonsevere disability (82 percent) and those with no reported disability (88 percent).

Similarly, 32 percent of people ages 25 to 64 with a nonsevere disability and 22 percent with a severe disability were college graduates. The corresponding rate for those without a disability was 43 percent.

Among other findings, people with a severe disability had an increased likelihood of having Medicare or Medicaid coverage, living below the poverty level, reporting their health status to be "fair or poor," receiving public assistance and having a household income below $20,000. For instance, the poverty rate for people 25 to 64 with no disability was 8 percent, compared with 11 percent for those with a nonsevere disability and 26 percent for people with a severe disability.

--

EDITOR'S NOTE: The report can be accessed here [PDF].

--

The report defines a person as having a disability if they have difficulty performing a specific activity such as seeing, hearing, bathing or doing light housework, or had a specified condition, such as Alzheimer's disease or autism. (See attachment.) People are considered to have a severe disability if they are completely unable to perform one or more of these tasks or activities, need personal assistance or have one of the severe conditions described in the report.

Other highlights:

Four million children ages 6 to 14, or 11 percent, had a disability. The chances of having a disability rise with age: 72 percent of people age 80 and older had disabilities.

Approximately 11 million people ages 6 and older, or 4 percent, needed personal assistance with an everyday activity.

Among the population age 15 and older, 2.7 million used a wheelchair and 9.1 million an ambulatory aid such as a cane, crutches or a walker.

About 7.9 million people age 15 and older had difficulty seeing the words and letters in ordinary newspaper print, including 1.8 million who were unable to see.

There were 7.8 million people age 15 and older who had difficulty hearing a normal conversation, including 1 million unable to hear.

About 14.3 million people age 15 and older had limitations in cognitive functioning or a mental or emotional illness that interfered with their daily activities, such as Alzheimer's disease, depression or mental retardation.

This group comprised 6 percent of the population.

Among adults ages 16 to 64, 11.8 million or 6 percent reported the presence of a condition that makes it difficult to remain employed or find a job.

Median earnings for people with no disability were $25,000, compared with $22,000 for people with a nonsevere disability and $12,800 for those with a severe disability.

Of those ages 15 to 64, 36 percent with a severe disability used a computer and 29 percent used the Internet at home.

---

These data were collected from June through September 2002 in the Survey of Income and Program Participation. As in all surveys, these data are subject to sampling variability and other sources of error.

"He'd have attacks and fibers would come out of his hands and fingers, white, black and sometimes red. Very, very painful," said Lisa Wilson, whose son Travis had Morgellon's disease.

While all of this is going on, it feels like bugs are crawling under your skin. So far more than 100 cases of Morgellons disease have been reported in South Texas.

"It really has the makings of a horror movie in every way," Savely said.

While Savely sees this as a legitimate disease, there are many doctors who simply refuse to acknowledge it exists, because of the bizarre symptoms patients are diagnosed as delusional.

"Believe me, if I just randomly saw one of these patients in my office, I would think they were crazy too," Savely said. "But after you've heard the story of over 100 (patients) and they're all - down to the most minute detail - saying the exact same thing, that becomes quite impressive."

Travis Wilson developed Morgellons just over a year ago. He called his mother in to see a fiber coming out of a lesion.

"It looked like a piece of spaghetti was sticking out about a quarter to an eighth of an inch long and it was sticking out of his chest," Lisa Wilson said. "I tried to pull it as hard as I could out and I could not pull it out."

The Wilson's spent $14,000 after insurance last year on doctors and medicine.

"Most of them are antibiotics. He was on Tamadone for pain. Viltricide, this was an anti-parasitic. This was to try and protect his skin because of all the lesions and stuff," Lisa said.

However, nothing worked, and 23-year-old Travis could no longer take it.

"I knew he was going to kill himself, and there was nothing I could do to stop him," Lisa Wilson said.

Just two weeks ago, Travis took his life.

Stephanie Bailey developed the lesions four-and-a-half years ago.

"The lesions come up, and then these fuzzy things like spores come out," she said.

She also has the crawling sensation.

"You just want to get it out of you," Bailey said.

She has no idea what caused the disease, and nothing has worked to clear it up.

"They (doctors) told me I was just doing this to myself, that I was nuts. So basically I stopped going to doctors because I was afraid they were going to lock me up," Bailey said.

Harriett Bishop has battled Morgellons for 12 years. After a year on antibiotics, her hands have nearly cleared up. On the day, we visited her she only had one lesion and she extracted this fiber from it.

"You want to get these things out to relieve the pain, and that's why you pull and then you can see the fibers there, and the tentacles are there, and there are millions of them," Bishop said.

So far, pathologists have failed to find any infection in the fibers pulled from lesions.

"Clearly something is physically happening here," said Dr. Randy Wymore, a researcher at the Morgellons Research Foundation at Oklahoma State University's Center for Health Sciences.

Wymore examines the fibers, scabs and other samples from Morgellon's patients to try and find the disease's cause.

"These fibers don't look like common environmental fibers," he said.

The goal at OSU is to scientifically find out what is going on. Until then, patients and doctors struggle with this mysterious and bizarre infection. Thus far, the only treatment that has showed some success is an antibiotic.

"It sounds a little like a parasite, like a fungal infection, like a bacterial infection, but it never quite fits all the criteria of any known pathogen," Savely said.

No one knows how Morgellans is contracted, but it does not appear to be contagious. The states with the highest number of cases are Texas, California and Florida.

The only connection found so far is that more than half of the Morgellons patients are also diagnosed with Lyme disease.

For more information on Morgellons, visit the research foundation's Web site at www.morgellons.org.