HAVANA (AFP) — Tropical Storm Gustav churned toward Cuba and the United States after lashing Haiti and the Dominican Republic with hurricane force winds and rain that killed 22 people.

The US National Hurricane Center warned that Gustav could regain hurricane force on Thursday as it passes between Jamaica and the southeastern coast of Cuba, pushing oil prices higher on fears that the storm could strike rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.

At 8 pm (0000 GMT Thursday) the center of the storm was situated 100 kilometers (65 miles) south of Guantanamo, Cuba, the NHC said.

Gustav was blowing winds of 75 kilometers (45 miles) per hour, with higher gusts. "Slow strengthening is forecast once Gustav moves farther away from Haiti, and the storm could regain hurricane strength within the next day or two," the report read.

With memories of the 2005 Hurricane Katrina still fresh, Louisiana's governor Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency and announced plans to begin evacuating coastal areas ahead of the storm, forecast to strike the state on Monday afternoon as a Category Three hurricane.

The Cuban Meteorological Institute said Gustav could strengthen to a Category Two or Three hurricane on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale. It made landfall in Haiti Tuesday as a Category One hurricane, the lowest level.

A hurricane alert Wednesday covered Cuba's eastern provinces of Guantanamo, Santiago and Granma, and some 50,000 people were evacuated from zones at risk.

Jamaica had a hurricane watch and expected heavy rains overnight and Thursday, but tourism interests did not expect any fall out.

Josef Forstmayer, an executive of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourism Association, said things should be "pretty much back to normal" after Thursday.

The US Department of Homeland Security meanwhile urged Gulf Coast residents to get ready for the storm, with the city of New Orleans, Louisiana in its possible path.

"Regardless of its predicted path, it is important for citizens in the Gulf Coast region to listen to what their local officials are advising over the course of the next few days and to take these simple steps to prepare," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

Louisiana governor Jindal vowed to lead advance preparation efforts.

"As long as there is a chance that we'll be in this storm, I'll be here in Louisiana," said Jindal, warning he may miss next week's Republican National Convention to nominate John McCain as the party's candidate for the White House.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, who was criticized for his administration's botched response to Katrina, made plans to leave the Democratic National Convention early so he could also help the city prepare for the storm.

In Haiti, at least 14 people died and seven were injured, mainly the southeast, as roofs flew off houses and electricity pylons were ripped away by violent winds, authorities said.

In the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, eight people were killed in a mudslide caused by the storm.

The victims were members of the same family who had just returned home after evacuating two weeks ago, believing it safe after Tropical Storm Fay earlier this month, officials said.

Fay pummeled the Caribbean and left at least 47 people dead or missing, most of them in Haiti. The storm killed 11 more people in Florida.

World oil prices shot up on the New Ybuy wow goldork market Wednesday after energy giant Royal Dutch Shell said it had begun "evacuating personnel not essential to producing and drilling operations in the Gulf."

"Most models now show it is on a collision course for the Gulf of Mexico's productive regions. With memories of (Hurricane) Katrina still fresh in most participants' minds it is understandable that prices have broken sharply higher," said John Kilduff, analyst at MF Global.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delicheap wow goldvery in October, advanced 1.88 dollars to close at 118.15 dollars a barrel.

In London, Brent North Sea crude for October rose 1.59 dollars to settle at 116.22 dollars.

In 2005, hurricanes Katrina and Rita damaged or destroyed about 165 oil platforms of the some 4,000 located in the Gulf.

By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Major U.S. airports were operating normally on Tuesday evening after a glitch in the computer system for filing flight plans delayed hundreds of flights, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The Department of Homeland Security said there was no link to terrorism and the FAA said the computer glitch did not affect its ability to safely track planes in the air.

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said the problem was resolved around 6 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT), about 4 1/2 hours after a communications link failed in the system that processes flight plans at a facility south of Atlanta.

The agency's best guess is that "hundreds" of flights across a wide swath of the United States from Dallas and Chicago to the East Coast had been delayed by the computer breakdown, Brown said, adding that the FAA would not have an exact count until Wednesday.

"There were some airports that were affected more than others," she said. Airports in Boston, Chicago, Baltimore and Atlanta experienced the most delays as a result of the problem, she said.

The cause of the failure was not known but it was not due to a computer hacking attack, said Hank Krakowski, chief operations officer for the FAA's air traffic division.

"It appears to be an internal software processing problem. We're going to have to do some forensics on it," he told reporters in a conference call. 

MIAMI (Reuters) - The Atlantic hurricane season's seventh tropical storm formed in the central Caribbean on Monday and could strengthen into a hurricane before striking vulnerable Haiti, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Tropical Storm Gustav threatened the impoverished Caribbean nation of 9 million with up to 25 inches of rain in some place, which could trigger deadly floods and mudslides. It was expected to hit Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, on Tuesday.

Oil prices rose as Gustav stirred concerns about disruptions to U.S. oil and gas output in the Gulf of Mexico and served as another reminder that this six-month storm season is shaping up to be busier than usual. At least one computer forecasting model showed the storm could enter the Gulf.

Hurricane warnings were issued for the southern coasts of the Dominican Republic and Haiti west of Barahona.

Gustav was about 165 miles south-southeast of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, at 8 p.m. (midnight GMT) on Monday and was moving toward the northwest at 12 mph (19 kph), the Miami-based hurricane center said.

The storm's top sustained winds were near 60 mph (95 kph), and the center's official forecast saw them at around hurricane strength of 74 mph (120 kph) within 48 hours. The storm was expected to be near or over southwest Haiti on Tuesday.

'INTENSE RAINS'

Haiti was still recovering from the passage of Tropical Storm Fay, the remnants of which were causing flooding across the U.S. southeastern states on Monday. Fay may have killed more than 50 people in Haiti last week, including dozens missing after floodwaters swept a bus down a rive

By Olga Dzyubenko

BISHKEK (Reuters) - Sixty-five people, including members of a teenage basketball team, died on Sunday when a Kyrgyz airliner crashed in a ball of flames shortly after take-off from the Central Asian state's main airport.

"There are 25 survivors," Emergencies Minister Kamchibek Tashiyev told Reuters. He said there had been a total of 90 passengers and crew members aboard the Boeing 737-200.

The plane, owned by local private carrier Itek-Air, was chartered by an Iranian company and bound for Tehran.

A spokesman for the Manas airport has earlier said the plane reported a technical problem shortly after it had taken off at 2030 (10:30 a.m. EDT) and tried to return to the airport.

Kyrgyz officials, including Prime Minister Igor Chudinov, rushed to the airport for an emergency meeting.

Chudinov said afterwards that initial reports suggested the plane had suffered a sudden loss of cabin pressure, causing the pilot to request an emergency landing.

A government official told reporters that 17 teenagers, a basketball team from a local sports school, were on board. He said seven of them survived and were in hospital.

Police sealed off the crash site, close to the Manas airport runway. Part of the airport is used by the U.S. military as a base to supply the international force fighting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan

Video taken by the Spanish airport authority AENA does not show any engine explosion while Spanair MD-82 was taking off from Madrid seconds ahead of the crash that killed 153 people, Spanish media reported Friday.

Just 19 people survived Wednesday's crash in Madrid of the Spanair twin-engine plane bound for the Canary Islands. It was Spain's worst air disaster in 25 years.

Contrary to some accounts by witnesses, both the El Pais and ABC newspapers said airport security video showed no engine explosion. ABC reported the plane struggled to gain altitude, never getting higher than 50 yards up before it crashed, skidded, disintegrated and burned.

Spain's civil aviation chief speculated the airplane must have suffered more than one kind of failure, because engine failure alone would not be enough to bring the plane down.

"There has been more than one breakdown," Manuel Batista, the head of Spain's Civil Aviation, was quoted as saying by El Pais. "I am not so sure that the engine failed."

Batista said modern aircraft are designed to fly on just one engine in an emergency and pilots must practice doing just this.

Investigators from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board in the United States and Boeing — which owns airplane maker McDonnell Douglas — and engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney have arrived in Spain to help with the probe.

The plane abandoned one takeoff attempt because of a mechanical problem with what the airline called an air intake gauge near the cockpit. But aviation experts have said this, too, was unlikely to have caused the crash.

The black boxes have been recovered but Spanair says one of them — the one that records technical data on the flight — is damaged.

Three of the survivors remained in critical condition Friday — and El Pais reported that five of the survivors had been sitting toward the front of the plane.

Relatives of those killed in the crash kept up the heart-wrenching ordeal of identifying bodies Friday. Many bodies were burned beyond recognition and forensic teams are taking DNA samples from relatives. Around 50 sets of remains have been identified

An official funeral presided over by Madrid Archbishop Antonio Maria Rouco has been scheduled for Sept. 1.

More stories of heroism and heartbreaking poignancy emerged.

Firefighter Francisco Martinez, part of the first teams to arrive on the fiery crash scene, told Thursday of Amalia Filloy, a mother severely injured in the crash, who insisted that rescuers pull her 11-year-old daughter Maria out first.

The woman died, along with an older daughter, but Maria survived, along with her father.

Martinez said he also rescued one of two little boys who survived the crash.

"He asked if what was happening was for real," Martinez told reporters. "He thought it was a movie, and asked where his father was and when the movie would end."

Pain and frustration started to boil over among relatives of the crash victims. Some stormed out of a tense and crowded meeting with Spanair officials Thursday night.

"We asked questions and they did not answer," said Yurena Hernandez Marquez, a 26-year-old who lost two half-sisters, aged 19 and 14, in the crash.

___

Eds: Associated Press reporters Jorge Sainz and Paul Haven contributed to this report

By Gabriela Baczynska and David Alexander

WARSAW (Reuters) - The United States and Poland signed a deal on Wednesday to station elements of a U.S. missile defense shield on Polish soil, a move certain to aggravate Russia-Western tensions over Moscow's intervention in Georgia.

The agreement was signed by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski at a ceremony also attended by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and President Lech Kaczynski.

The site in Poland hosting 10 interceptor rockets and a giant radar in neighboring Czech Republic will form the European part of a global system Washington says it is assembling to shoot down ballistic missiles it fears could be launched by "rogue" states or militant groups such as al-Qaeda.

"This is an agreement that will establish a missile defense site here in Poland that will help us to deal with the new threats of the 21st century, of long range missiles ... from countries like Iran or North Korea," Rice told reporters.

Russia sees the prospect of placing the shield in parts of central Europe that it used to control as a threat to its security.

It says Washington and Warsaw rushed into finalizing the deal as a response to its military action in Georgia. Warsaw and Washington repeatedly denied this although Tusk at some stage said the events in Georgia showed Poland's concerns over its security need to be taken seriously by its U.S. ally.

APPREHENSION OF RUSSIA

Poland, the biggest ex-Soviet satellite in central Europe, as well as the Baltic nations that were Soviet republics until 1991, have condemned Russia's strike against Tbilisi

KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) — Key West stores were shuttered and crews cleared sidewalks in some areas of newspaper boxes that could become airborne in high winds as Tropical Storm Fay headed for Florida after claiming as many as 35 lives in the Caribbean.

Tourists were urged to evacuate but many bars and restaurants remained open, even if crowds were considerably thinner than typical for this time of year. At the Stuffed Pig restaurant in Marathon, about a dozen locals had breakfast Monday morning, not worried but prepared for the storm.

"We always prepare, we don't take it lightly," owner Michael Cinque said. "We might roll down the shutters. We got built-in generators."

Fay, the sixth named storm of the 2008 Atlantic season, left at least five people dead in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. A Haitian lawmaker said another 30 people may have died in a bus crash blamed on the storm.

Forecasters said Fay is expected to near hurricane strength, which starts at windspeeds of 74 mph, when it reaches the Keys later Monday. Aside from wind damage, most of the islands sit at sea level and could face some limited flooding from Fay's storm surge.

The exact track is not clear but the storm is expected to hit the Keys and then the western coast of Florida, forecasters said.

Anywhere from 4 to 10 inches of rain are possible, so flooding is a threat even far from where the center comes ashore, said Stacy Stewart, a senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center.

"We don't want people to focus on the exact track. This is a broad, really diffuse storm. All the Florida Keys and all the Florida peninsula are going to feel the effects of this storm, no matter where the center makes landfall," he said. "We don't want people to downplay this."

Traffic leaving Key West and the Lower Keys Sunday night and Monday morning remained light but steady.

Authorities said traffic was heavier in the Upper Keys, where the 110-mile, mostly two-lane highway that runs through the island chain meets the mainland. The Florida Highway Patrol sent in extra troopers to help and tolls were suspended on parts of the northbound turnpike.

Key West International Airport planned to suspend operations at 10 a.m. Monday. Greyhound said one bus was set to leave Key West Monday morning with some seats still available.

A hurricane watch was in effect for most of the Keys and along Florida's west coast.

Early Monday, a tropical storm warning was issued for Florida's east coast from Sebastian Inlet southward and along Florida's west coast from Bonita Beach southward, including Lake Okeechobee.

A tropical storm warning also remained in effect for the entire Florida Keys. A watch means those conditions might occur within 36 hours. A warning means those conditions are expected within 24 hours.

Officials in the Keys and elsewhere opened shelters and encouraged or ordered people living in low-lying areas and on boats to evacuate. Schools in the Keys were to be closed Monday and Tuesday.

At 8 a.m. EDT Monday, the storm's center was located over western Cuba and about 100 miles south-southeast of Key West and was moving toward the north-northwest near 12 mph.

Maximum sustained wind speeds were near 60 mph with higher gusts.

Residents on Florida's Gulf coast were told to make preparations as forecasters said Fay could approach that area Tuesday as a Category 1 storm, with winds from 74 to 95 mph.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain canceled a Monday fundraiser in Miami as a precaution, but he was still expected to speak at the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention in Orlando.

His presumptive Democratic opponent Barack Obama canceled events Sunday in Fort Myers, Clearwater and Tampa. He is scheduled to speak at the VFW on Tuesday.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency Saturday as an emergency operations center opened in Tallahassee. He said 9,000 Florida National Guard troops were available, but only 500 were on active duty Sunday.

Key West was last seriously affected by a hurricane in 2005, when Category 3 Wilma sped past. The town escaped widespread wind damage, but a storm surge flooded hundreds of homes and some businesses. The deadliest storm to hit the island was a Category 4 hurricane in 1919 that killed up to 900 people, many of them offshore on ships that sank

(CNN) -- Poland and the United States have signed a preliminary deal to place part of a U.S. ballistic missile defense system in Poland, a plan that has drawn sharp objections from Russia.

U.S. chief negotiator John Rood (left) and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski shake hands.

"We believe that missile defense is a substantial contribution to NATO's collective security," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. "So we are pleased with the development."

The Bush administration has long wanted to put missile interceptors in Poland. The interceptor rockets would be linked to an air-defense radar system in the Czech Republic; officials there agreed in April to take part in the system.

Both countries are former Soviet satellites which now belong to the NATO alliance. The plans to base the anti-missile system in Eastern Europe have raised alarms in Russia, which fears the system would blunt its nuclear deterrent.

The United States has also agreed to help modernize its military, which it requested as a condition of its support for housing the missile defense system.

"Our political and military cooperation moves to a different higher level." Radoslaw Sikorski, the Polish foreign minister, said, after the signing.

Thursday's agreement comes amid heightened tensions between the United States and Russia over Moscow's invasion of Georgia, a U.S. ally.

A highly placed source in the Russian Foreign Ministry told CNN that the agreement between Washington and Poland was clearly aimed at deterring Russia, not preventing rogue missile attacks from Iran. The latter has been cited as a reason for installing the defense system

Like last year, the best showing for isle students came in math, with a 22.3 average score, followed by reading at 21.6, science at 21.2 and English at 20.8.

Results show that about one in four Hawaii test-takers, or 26 percent, met ACT benchmarks in all four subjects, suggesting they are ready for college work. That's down from the 30 percent of state students who achieved across-the-board targets last year.

Students unable to reach the testing goals are more likely to need help to pass college courses, said ACT spokesman Scott Gomer.

"Without (a) remedial class, they might struggle in the first-year courses," he said. "That makes it more difficult for them to stay in college and complete their degrees."

There were 3,182 Hawaii students, or 23 percent of graduates, who took the exam, up from 2,589 last year.

Hawaii Department of Education spokeswoman Sandy Goya reserved comment, saying officials had not yet had a chance to review the results.

Nationally, more than three in four students who took the ACT are expected to require extra support in at least one college subject.

But the ACT's creators said it was good news that average scores held nearly steady even as more students took the exam. That means the total number who've earned benchmark scores showing they're ready for college-level work is rising.

A record 1.42 million -- or 43 percent -- of this year's high school graduates took the ACT, as participation rose by 9 percent.

"In terms of the number of students who are ready this year compared to last, we are talking about genuine progress," said Cyndie Schmeiser, president and chief operating officer of the ACT Education Division. "More students are reaching at least a minimum level of readiness for college-credit courses. We're keeping a lot of kids from having to take remedial level courses. That translates to millions of dollars that are being saved at the state level."

Most colleges accept scores from either the ACT or SAT, though they test different material. The ACT, which costs $31, is more curriculum-based, while the SAT focuses more on basic skills. SAT results for the class of 2008 are due later this month.

The ACT, an Iowa-based nonprofit, says a major part of the shortfall in college readiness is that students are failing to complete a core curriculum of college-prep courses. Students who take a recommended core sequence -- four years of English and three each of math, science and social studies -- are significantly more likely to meet benchmarks.

But ACT also maintains the core courses need more rigor.