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Monday, August 27, 2012 12:05 AM PDT

Today's Reuters News Headlines - Yahoo! News: Storm Isaac heads for U.S. Gulf Coast, hurricane warning issued Afghans say top Haqqani leader was killed in U.S. drone strike Analysis: How Apple overwhelmed Samsung's patent case tactics Exclusive: Blackstone grooms six executives for Schwarzman's job Quake of 7.4 magnitude hits off El Salvador coast: USGS Venezuela struggles with refinery blaze after deadly blast Analysis: Politics the priority for China as economy slows Assad's forces accused of massacre near Syrian capital Britain wants to restart Assange talks with Ecuador Empire State gunman planned to not return home: NY police Merkel tries to calm storms over Greece, ECB policy Moderate 5.3 magnitude earthquake in Southern California: USGS With Samsung win on Galaxy Tab, judge may reconsider U.S. ban Venezuela struggles with refinery blaze after deadly blast First man on moon Neil Armstrong dead at 82 Isaac heads for U.S. Gulf Coast after drenching south Florida Two members of punk rock band flee Russia Merkel's party keeps lead, coalition ally down: poll After mourning, Lonmin in race to restart mining Analysis: Europe far right shuns Breivik's acts, flirts with ideas Analysis: Sweeping Apple win, but Samsung set for bounce-back Ecuador says Britain withdraws threat to raid embassy in Assange standoff Republicans shuffle speech lineup to give Ann Romney prime TV slot Jury didn't want to let Samsung off easy in Apple trial: foreman A year on, Northeast towns struggle after Hurricane Irene Obama aims to shift campaign focus back to Medicare US Anti-Doping Agency strips Armstrong of titles for cheating Tropical Storm Isaac drenches Haiti, swipes Cuba Two dead, 9 wounded in gunfire near NY's Empire State Building Bernanke says Fed has scope to provide more stimulus Facebook envisions swanky new digs as shares sink Accused Colorado gunman told classmate he wanted to kill people Apple triumphs over Samsung in landmark patent case Exclusive: RBS closing in on rate-rigging settlement - sources Norway jails "sane" Breivik for maximum 21 years Business spending plans hint at factory weakness Assad's forces accused of massacre near Syrian capital Fierce fighting in Syria swells refugee exodus Apple triumphs over Samsung, awarded over $1 billion damages Isaac bears down on Haiti, south Florida under storm watch Storm Isaac heads for U.S. Gulf Coast, hurricane warning issued Sun,26 Aug 2012 11:21 PM PDT Reuters - MIAMI (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Isaac swirled into the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, threatening to disrupt U.S. offshore oil and gas supplies and strengthen into a powerful hurricane that could make landfall near Louisiana almost seven years to the day after Katrina struck. The storm swiped south Florida on Sunday before moving into the warm Gulf waters, where it is expected to strengthen to a Category 2 hurricane and hit the Gulf Coast somewhere between Florida and Louisiana by midweek, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. ... Full Story Top Afghans say top Haqqani leader was killed in U.S. drone strike Sun,26 Aug 2012 12:30 PM PDT Reuters - KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan said on Sunday it believed that a top commander of the militant Haqqani insurgent network had been killed in a U.S. drone strike, citing intelligence reports that it said countered Afghan Taliban claims that Badruddin Haqqani was still alive. Haqqani, who was head of operations and ran the network's vital business interests, was thought to have been killed during the strike this week in Pakistan's tribal North Waziristan, both Afghanistan's Interior Ministry and national spy agency said. ... Full Story Top Analysis: How Apple overwhelmed Samsung's patent case tactics Sun,26 Aug 2012 09:45 PM PDT Reuters - SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - In August 2010, just a few months after Samsung Electronics launched its Galaxy smartphone, a team of Apple Inc lawyers flew to South Korea. Apple's late co-founder, Steve Jobs, had already told Samsung executives at a meeting earlier that summer that he considered the Galaxy S, based on Google's Android operating system, an illegal copy of the iPhone. But given the extensive business ties between the two companies - Samsung is one of Apple's key component suppliers - a negotiated solution seemed most likely. ... Full Story Top Exclusive: Blackstone grooms six executives for Schwarzman's job Sun,26 Aug 2012 10:05 PM PDT Reuters - NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - When Blackstone Group LP named a new global head of private equity last month, Chief Executive Stephen Schwarzman was looking for more than just a business unit chief. Even though the buyout king has no plans to retire, the appointment of Joe Baratta, a 41-year-old dealmaker credited with building up the firm's European buyouts practice, was the latest step in a wider succession plan, Blackstone insiders said. Baratta joins five other senior Blackstone executives from whose ranks the successor to Schwarzman, 65, will eventually emerge, the sources said. ... Full Story Top Quake of 7.4 magnitude hits off El Salvador coast: USGS Sun,26 Aug 2012 10:23 PM PDT Reuters - (Reuters) - A major earthquake of 7.4 magnitude hit in the Pacific Ocean about 78 miles off the coast of El Salvador late Sunday night, the U.S. Geological Survey said. No destructive Pacific-wide tsunami is expected, and there is no tsunami threat to Hawaii, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said. The center said, however, that although it did not know if a tsunami had been generated, a warning was in effect for Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama and Mexico. ... Full Story Top Venezuela struggles with refinery blaze after deadly blast Sun,26 Aug 2012 07:49 PM PDT Reuters - PARAGUANA, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan firefighters struggled on Sunday to put out a blaze at the country's biggest refinery sparked by an explosion that killed 41 people in one of the global oil industry's deadliest accidents. Officials at the 645,000 barrel-per-day Amuay refinery are trying to stop the fire still raging at two storage tanks from spreading to other nearby fuel storage facilities. That would delay Amuay's restart beyond the current estimate of two days. ... Full Story Top Analysis: Politics the priority for China as economy slows Sun,26 Aug 2012 02:20 PM PDT Reuters - BEIJING (Reuters) - China's policy chiefs have about two weeks left to decide about giving the economy a proper stimulative prod, or risk parading a new Communist Party leadership to the world just as growth falls below target for the first time in nearly four years. Factory activity is already at a nine-month low, according to the latest manufacturing sector survey from HSBC, signaling that the official August numbers for industrial production and trade published in a fortnight will foreshadow third quarter economic growth falling below the government's 7.5 percent goal. ... Full Story Top Assad's forces accused of massacre near Syrian capital Sun,26 Aug 2012 03:14 PM PDT Reuters - ALEPPO, Syria (Reuters) - Syrian opposition activists accused President Bashar al-Assad's army of massacring hundreds of people in a town close to the capital that government forces recaptured from rebels. About 320 bodies, including women and children, were found in houses and basements in the town of Daraya, southwest of Damascus, according to activists who said on Sunday most had been killed "execution-style" by troops. Activists uploaded several videos to the Internet showing rows of bloodied bodies wrapped in sheets. ... Full Story Top Britain wants to restart Assange talks with Ecuador Sun,26 Aug 2012 01:32 PM PDT Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said on Sunday it remained committed to reaching a diplomatic solution to the presence of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in Ecuador's London embassy, after both countries took steps to defuse a row over his action in taking refuge there. Assange has been living in the embassy's cramped quarters for more than two months since fleeing there to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over rape and sexual assault allegations. ... Full Story Top Empire State gunman planned to not return home: NY police Sun,26 Aug 2012 11:34 AM PDT Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) - The man who shot and killed a former co-worker and was himself killed by police near New York City's Empire State Building left his keys with his landlord on Friday to allow renovation of his apartment and apparently intended to never return, a police source said on Sunday. Jeffrey Johnson, 58, an out-of-work accessories designer, killed Steve Ercolino, with whom he had been feuding, on Friday in midtown Manhattan. Nine bystanders were wounded as the result of police gunfire, three hit by bullets and six injured by ricocheted fragments. ... Full Story Top Merkel tries to calm storms over Greece, ECB policy Sun,26 Aug 2012 11:27 AM PDT Reuters - BERLIN/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Angela Merkel tried to calm a growing storm over euro zone crisis strategy on Sunday after the Bundesbank likened ECB bond-buying plans to a dangerous drug and a conservative ally of the German leader said Greece should leave the currency bloc by next year. The comments, from central bank chief Jens Weidmann and a senior figure in the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), Alexander Dobrindt, point to mounting unease in Germany with the policies being used to combat the three-year old debt crisis. ... Full Story Top Moderate 5.3 magnitude earthquake in Southern California: USGS Sun,26 Aug 2012 12:52 PM PDT Reuters - (Reuters) - A moderate earthquake of 5.3 magnitude struck near the California-Mexico border 15 miles north northeast of Brawley, California, at a depth of 2.9 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey said on Sunday. The quake hit at 12:32 p.m. local time (1932 GMT) and was one of a series in the desert region on Sunday above magnitude 4.0, USGS said. There were no immediate reports of any damage, the San Diego County sheriff's office said. (Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Jackie Frank) Full Story Top With Samsung win on Galaxy Tab, judge may reconsider U.S. ban Sun,26 Aug 2012 10:03 PM PDT Reuters - (Reuters) - Apple Inc's legal victory on Friday over Korean rival Samsung Electronics Co Ltd was crushing but for one key front in its global smartphone and tablet patent war: Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1. The jury in the San Jose, California, federal court awarded the iPhone and iPad maker $1.05 billion in damages and said Samsung had copied critical features in the U.S. company's products. However, it declined to side with Apple on one patent, covering design elements on the iPad. ... Full Story Top Venezuela struggles with refinery blaze after deadly blast Sun,26 Aug 2012 03:10 PM PDT Reuters - PARAGUANA, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan firefighters struggled on Sunday to put out a blaze at the country's biggest refinery sparked by an explosion that killed 41 people in one of the global oil industry's deadliest accidents. Officials at the 645,000 barrel-per-day Amuay refinery are trying to stop the fire still raging at two storage tanks from spreading to other nearby fuel storage facilities. That would delay Amuay's restart beyond the current estimate of two days. ... Full Story Top First man on moon Neil Armstrong dead at 82 Sat,25 Aug 2012 03:36 PM PDT Reuters - (Reuters) - U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong, who took a giant leap for mankind when he became the first person to walk on the moon, has died at the age of 82, his family said on Saturday. Armstrong died following complications from heart-bypass surgery he underwent earlier this month, the family said in a statement, just two days after his birthday on August 5. As commander of the Apollo 11 mission, Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969. As he stepped on the dusty surface, Armstrong said: ""That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind. ... Full Story Top Isaac heads for U.S. Gulf Coast after drenching south Florida Sun,26 Aug 2012 04:50 PM PDT Reuters - KEY WEST, Florida (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Isaac lashed south Florida with winds and heavy rain on Sunday after battering the Caribbean, threatening to interrupt most U.S. offshore oil production in the Gulf of Mexico and disrupting plans for the Republican National Convention in Tampa. Isaac is expected to strengthen to a Category 2 hurricane and hit the Gulf Coast somewhere between Florida and Louisiana at midweek - on or near the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina - the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in an advisory. ... Full Story Top Two members of punk rock band flee Russia Sun,26 Aug 2012 06:19 AM PDT Reuters - MOSCOW (Reuters) - Two members of Russia's anti-Kremlin punk band Pussy Riot have fled the country to avoid prosecution for staging a protest against President Vladimir Putin at a church altar, the band said on Sunday. A Moscow court sentenced three members of the all-female opposition band to two years in prison on August 17 for staging a "punk prayer" at the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in February and calling on the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin. ... Full Story Top Merkel's party keeps lead, coalition ally down: poll Sun,26 Aug 2012 10:28 AM PDT Reuters - BERLIN (Reuters) - Support for Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives has nudged higher, an opinion poll showed on Sunday, but the weakness of two smaller parties highlights the trouble she may face building another center-right coalition after Germany's 2013 election. The Emnid poll conducted for the Bild on Sunday newspaper showed the conservatives up one percentage point at 36 percent but their junior coalition partner, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), down one point at 4 percent, below the 5 percent threshold for entering parliament. ... Full Story Top After mourning, Lonmin in race to restart mining Sun,26 Aug 2012 06:14 AM PDT Reuters - JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - World no. 3 platinum producer Lonmin is racing to resume ore extraction at its Marikana site, with no guarantee striking workers will return this week after a mourning period for comrades killed in a wave of labour unrest. Lonmin's South African operations have been paralysed since an illegal strike involving 3,000 rock driller operators started two weeks ago and exploded into violent clashes that killed 44 people, including 34 striking workers gunned down by police. ... Full Story Top Analysis: Europe far right shuns Breivik's acts, flirts with ideas Sun,26 Aug 2012 01:06 AM PDT Reuters - LONDON/ROME (Reuters) - Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik may have failed to ignite a race war with Muslims, but he succeeded in stoking anxieties about the stability of Europe's increasingly diverse societies. Though his talk of an international underground of killers - latter-day Crusaders he called the Knights Templar - seemed to be mere fantasy, and while his methods place him far beyond the pale of mainstream politics, many of his beliefs are to be found within the fold of anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant populists. ... Full Story Top Analysis: Sweeping Apple win, but Samsung set for bounce-back Fri,24 Aug 2012 10:33 PM PDT Reuters - SEOUL (Reuters) - Defeat in a bitter patent wrangle with Apple Inc, its smartphone rival and biggest customer, will dent Samsung Electronics Co's $21 billion cash-pile, but could actually help cement its leadership in the global smartphone market. A U.S. court has ordered Samsung - which sold around 50 million phones in April-June, almost twice the number of iPhones - to pay $1.05 billion damages, after ruling that the South Korean firm infringed on some Apple patents. While the verdict was a big win for Apple, the damages are less than half the $2. ... Full Story Top Ecuador says Britain withdraws threat to raid embassy in Assange standoff Sat,25 Aug 2012 04:49 PM PDT Reuters - QUITO (Reuters) - Britain has withdrawn a threat to enter Ecuador's embassy in London to arrest WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange who has taken refuge there, President Rafael Correa said on Saturday, taking the heat out of the diplomatic standoff. "We consider this unfortunate incident over, after a grave diplomatic error by the British in which they said they would enter our embassy," Correa said in a weekly media address. In a statement, Ecuador's government said it had received "a communication from the British Foreign Office which said that there was no threat to enter the embassy. ... Full Story Top Republicans shuffle speech lineup to give Ann Romney prime TV slot Sat,25 Aug 2012 08:47 AM PDT Reuters - POWELL, Ohio (Reuters) - Republican officials shuffled the speaking lineup at their convention in Tampa next week to ensure that presidential candidate Mitt Romney's wife Ann will reach a prime-time television audience when she speaks to the gathering. Ann Romney will now speak on Tuesday night after it became clear that television networks were not planning to show her Monday-night address before a prime-time audience. ... Full Story Top Jury didn't want to let Samsung off easy in Apple trial: foreman Sat,25 Aug 2012 12:51 PM PDT Reuters - SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Jurors felt Samsung Electronics Co Ltd should pay significant damages in the landmark patent trial against Apple Inc, even though they viewed Apple's demands as too high, according to the foreman. Apple won a sweeping victory against Samsung on Friday in a federal courtroom in San Jose, California. A nine-member jury found the Korean company had infringed on several Apple features and design patents and awarded the iPhone maker $1.05 billion in damages, which could be tripled because the jury also decided the Korean firm had acted willfully. ... Full Story Top A year on, Northeast towns struggle after Hurricane Irene Sat,25 Aug 2012 01:11 PM PDT Reuters - QUECHEE, Vermont (Reuters) - When Hurricane Irene's torrential rains transformed the sleepy Ottauquechee River into a roaring wall of gray-green water a year ago, the Simon Pearce glass and pottery gallery's future was in doubt. Located in a renovated woolen mill on a narrow gap by the river, flood waters surged 25 feet above normal, filling the bottom two floors of one of Vermont's most popular tourist attractions. It destroyed more than $200,000 in blown glass vases and tableware and wiped out a 3,000-bottle wine cellar for the gallery's restaurant. ... Full Story Top Obama aims to shift campaign focus back to Medicare Sat,25 Aug 2012 03:00 AM PDT Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama used his regular weekly radio address Saturday to continue pounding away at Republican plans to overhaul Medicare, the U.S. healthcare program for the elderly. The address underscored the new prominence Medicare has assumed as a campaign issue in the past two weeks, since the Republican Party's presumptive presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, picked Paul Ryan as his running mate. Ryan, a Wisconsin congressman and chairman of the U.S. ... Full Story Top US Anti-Doping Agency strips Armstrong of titles for cheating Sat,25 Aug 2012 06:33 AM PDT Reuters - (Reuters) - Lance Armstrong was stripped of his record seven Tour de France wins and handed a lifetime ban by the United States Anti-Doping Agency on Friday, but he remained defiant as supporters rallied around the American cyclist. Saying that "enough is enough," Armstrong issued a statement late on Thursday indicating that would not challenge USADA charges he had doped throughout his career, although he continued to deny he had ever used performance-enhancing drugs. ... Full Story Top Tropical Storm Isaac drenches Haiti, swipes Cuba Sat,25 Aug 2012 04:06 PM PDT Reuters - PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Isaac dumped torrential rains on Haiti and flattened tent camps housing survivors of a devastating earthquake, then began an assault on eastern Cuba on Saturday. Isaac killed at least four people in Haiti and was expected to strengthen into a hurricane before hitting the Florida Keys on Sunday and crossing into the Gulf of Mexico. Fueled by warm Gulf waters, it was forecast to strengthen into a Category 2 hurricane with 100-mph (160-kph) winds and hit the U.S. coast somewhere between the Florida Panhandle and New Orleans at midweek. ... Full Story Top Two dead, 9 wounded in gunfire near NY's Empire State Building Sat,25 Aug 2012 09:36 AM PDT Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) - An out-of-work fashion designer fatally shot a former co-worker near the Empire State Building on Friday and was then killed in a blaze of gunshots by police, stunning tourists and commuters outside of one of New York's most popular landmarks. Nine bystanders were wounded, possibly all of them by police bullets, though none of their injuries were life-threatening, police said. Much of the day, police listed the casualty total at 10 people but late Friday changed the number to 11. ... Full Story Top Bernanke says Fed has scope to provide more stimulus Fri,24 Aug 2012 11:07 AM PDT Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve has room to deliver additional monetary stimulus to boost the U.S. economy, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told a Congressional oversight panel in a letter. "There is scope for further action by the Federal Reserve to ease financial conditions and strengthen the recovery," Bernanke wrote to the committee's chairman, Representative Darrell Issa, in a letter obtained by Reuters on Friday. ... Full Story Top Facebook envisions swanky new digs as shares sink Fri,24 Aug 2012 08:14 PM PDT Reuters - SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc on Friday unveiled plans for a massive new campus annex in Menlo Park to be designed by Frank Gehry, the renowned architect who has won plaudits for metal-sheathed works like the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Plans for the site, which Facebook will submit to local city officials for approval on Monday, depict Gehry's vision of a single-story, hangar-like building covering 420,000 square feet, or roughly the area of eight football fields combined under one roof. ... Full Story Top Accused Colorado gunman told classmate he wanted to kill people Fri,24 Aug 2012 03:45 PM PDT Reuters - (Reuters) - Accused Colorado gunman James Holmes had conversations with a classmate in March about wanting to kill people, four months before the suburban Denver rampage in which he is accused of shooting dead 12 moviegoers, a court document showed on Friday. "Evidence gathered so far indicates ... the defendant had conversations with a classmate about wanting to kill people in March 2012, and that he would do so when his life was over," prosecutors wrote in the filing. ... Full Story Top Apple triumphs over Samsung in landmark patent case Fri,24 Aug 2012 07:01 PM PDT Reuters - SAN JOSE, California (Reuters) - Apple Inc scored a sweeping legal victory over Samsung on Friday as a U.S. jury found the Korean company had copied critical features of the hugely popular iPhone and iPad and awarded the U.S. company $1.05 billion in damages. The verdict -- which came after less than three days of jury deliberations -- could lead to an outright ban on sales of key Samsung products and will likely solidify Apple's dominance of the exploding mobile computing market. ... Full Story Top Exclusive: RBS closing in on rate-rigging settlement - sources Fri,24 Aug 2012 08:33 AM PDT Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland is expected to agree a settlement in the next two months with U.S. and UK authorities investigating its role in an interest-rate rigging scandal, according to industry sources, regulatory officials and lawyers familiar with the case. The part-nationalized bank, which is 82 percent-owned by the government, is working towards a settlement early in the fourth quarter, two of the sources said. ... Full Story Top Norway jails "sane" Breivik for maximum 21 years Fri,24 Aug 2012 06:24 AM PDT Reuters - OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik was jailed for a maximum term on Friday when judges declared him sane enough to answer for the murder of 77 people last year, drawing a smirk of triumph from the self-styled warrior against Islam. An unrepentant Breivik, 33, gave the Oslo court a stiff-armed, clench-fisted salute before being handed the steepest possible penalty, 21 years. His release, however, can be put off indefinitely should he still pose a threat to a liberal society left traumatized by his bomb and shooting rampage last July. ... Full Story Top Business spending plans hint at factory weakness Fri,24 Aug 2012 01:38 PM PDT Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. businesses cut back on their spending plans for a second straight month in July, suggesting slower growth ahead for the factory sector. The data from the Commerce Department on Friday underscored the toll on the U.S. economy from the uncertainty spawned by the possibility of tighter fiscal policy next year and the debt crisis in Europe. It led some economists to consider ratcheting back forecasts for economic growth and spurred traders to ramp up bets on further monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve. ... Full Story Top Assad's forces accused of massacre near Syrian capital Sat,25 Aug 2012 04:39 PM PDT Reuters - AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian opposition activists accused President Bashar al-Assad's forces on Sunday of committing a massacre of scores of people in a town close to the capital that the army had just retaken from rebels. More than 200 bodies were found in houses and basements around Daraya, a working-class Sunni Muslim town to the southwest of Damascus, according to activists who said most had been killed "execution-style" by troops on house-to-house raids. Due to restrictions on non-state media in Syria, it was impossible to independently verify the accounts. ... Full Story Top Fierce fighting in Syria swells refugee exodus Fri,24 Aug 2012 08:15 AM PDT Reuters - AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian troops forced rebels to abandon a battered Damascus suburb on Friday in the latest battle of an intensifying civil war that the U.N. refugee agency said had prompted more than 200,000 people to flee the country. Hundreds of soldiers and dozens of tanks and armored vehicles pushed into the centre of Daraya after a small group of defenders withdrew, opposition activists said. ... Full Story Top Apple triumphs over Samsung, awarded over $1 billion damages Fri,24 Aug 2012 04:37 PM PDT Reuters - Apple Inc. scored a sweeping legal victory over Samsung on Friday as a U.S. jury found the Korean company had copied critical features of the hugely popular iPhone and iPad and awarded the U.S. company $1.051 billion in damages. Full Story Top Isaac bears down on Haiti, south Florida under storm watch Fri,24 Aug 2012 04:11 PM PDT Reuters - PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Isaac strengthened on Friday as its lashing rains took aim at flood-prone Haiti, but it was not expected to become a hurricane until it barreled into the Gulf of Mexico early next week. On its current path, forecasters said Isaac would hit Cuba and the southern tip of Florida before making landfall anywhere from the Florida Panhandle in the northwestern part of the state to Alabama and as far west as New Orleans. Forecasters put the entire coast of south Florida under tropical storm watch as of 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) on Friday. ... Full Story Top

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