Hurricane Matthew is major threat
Compiled from news services
KINGSTON, Jamaica — One of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes in recent history roared over the open Caribbean Sea on Saturday on a course that threatened Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba.
Matthew briefly reached the top hurricane classification, Category 5, and was the strongest Atlantic hurricane since Felix in 2007.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Matthew’s winds had slipped slightly from a peak of 160 mph (260 kph) to a stillpotentially devastating 150 mph (240 kph), a Category 4 storm. It was expected to near eastern Jamaica and southwestern Haiti on Monday.
The latest forecast had Matthew’s path passing closer to Haiti than before and the center issued a hurricane warning for Jamaica and “much of Haiti,” and said life-threatening rainfall was expected in parts of the impoverished Caribbean nation.
The forecast track would also carry Matthew across Cuba and into the Bahamas, with an outside chance of a brush with Florida, though that would be several days away.
The U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is also potentially in the path of the storm. A mandatory evacuation of non-essential personnel, including about 700 family members of military personnel was underway and everyone remaining behind was being told to take shelter, said Julie Ann Ripley, a spokeswoman. There are about 5,500 people living on the base, including 61 men held at the detention center.
Pakistani flag ceremony
WAGHA, Pakistan — A routine daily flag-lowering ceremony at an Indian-Pakistani border crossing became a show of strength and patriotism Saturday on the Pakistani side thanks to simmering tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.
Thousands of Pakistanis thronged the border town of Wagha to watch their soldiers lower the flag. The ceremony takes place daily and features a formal set of handshakes between Indian and Pakistani soldiers. Very few people attended from the Indian side.
Saturday’s ceremony took on extra meaning because of an ongoing dispute between India and Pakistan over the contested territory of Kashmir. Both countries claim the Himalayan territory in its entirety and are separated by the heavily guarded Line of Control.
Since 2003, a cease-fire has largely held despite regular small-scale skirmishes. Each side routinely blames the other for starting any violence and insists they are only retaliating.
India blamed Pakistanisupported Kashmir-based militants for a deadly Sept. 18 assault on a base in Indian-controlled Kashmir that killed 17 Indian soldiers.
$9.5B in ‘black money’
NEW DELHI — Tens of thousands of Indians have declared a total of $9.5 billion in money that was either illegally obtained or not declared for tax purposes as part of a one-time opportunity to come clean under a government scheme, India’s finance minister said Saturday.
The declarations of the “black money” by 64,275 people came in a four-month window that ended Friday, allowing them to pay a tax, surcharge and penalty totaling 45 percent to avoid prosecution, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said at a news conference.
The government has been facing opposition pressure to act since the April release of financial documents naming companies and individuals who may have dodged taxes by setting up shell companies and accounts through brokers based in Panama.