Water Kuwait

Emergency truck convoys are supplying food, water and medicine to this war-weary capital, but relief officials said restoring electricity will take 10 days or more. Retreating Iraqi troops damaged fuel cells at three of four plants that generate electricity and cut long sections from power lines across the country, a senior U.S. Army official told reporters Tuesday. "Transmission of power--that's the showstopper," said the official, who heads a 2,700-member U.S.

It is a busy day in hell. On all sides, oil wells burn like giant blowtorches. Jets of yellow flame send black smoke and intense heat swirling into a murky, midnight gloom. Near some wells, the oil-soaked desert is aflame, blazing and bubbling like a primeval lava field. Other wells are gushers, shooting oil into deadly, still lakes that form black mirrors to the flames. The sound is of jumbo jets revving for takeoff. An acrid stench burns the nose.

Fears of a major oil spill in the Persian Gulf go beyond environmental damage or military obstacles--to the availability of life-sustaining fresh water. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and smaller gulf nations are highly dependent on a handful of immense desalination plants, both for drinking water and agriculture. Most of these plants take seawater directly from the Persian Gulf.

Electricity and water service will likely be delayed for another three weeks to much of Kuwait, government officials said Saturday, raising the tension in an already taut capital on the eve of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan. As the country prepared today for Islam's traditional period of fasting, celebration and renewal, frustrations over the lack of any basic services since the liberation of Kuwait continued to worsen the uncertain political climate.

It is a busy day in hell. On all sides, oil wells burn like giant blowtorches. Jets of yellow flame send black smoke and intense heat swirling into a murky, midnight gloom. Near some wells, the oil-soaked desert is aflame, blazing and bubbling like a primeval lava field. Other wells are gushers, shooting oil into deadly, still lakes that form black mirrors to the flames. The sound is of jumbo jets revving for takeoff. An acrid stench burns the nose.

In a move designed to further demoralize Kuwait and strengthen Iraq's hold on the occupied country, Iraqi authorities in Kuwait on Monday began enforcing a strict new order that outlaws Kuwait's national currency. The order, announced by Iraq's economic commission in Baghdad, says Kuwaiti dinars must be exchanged for Iraqi dinars by Oct. 6, at the exchange rate of 1 to 1. Kuwaiti currency will be worthless. Before Iraq's Aug.

Electricity and water service will likely be delayed for another three weeks to much of Kuwait, government officials said Saturday, raising the tension in an already taut capital on the eve of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan. As the country prepared today for Islam's traditional period of fasting, celebration and renewal, frustrations over the lack of any basic services since the liberation of Kuwait continued to worsen the uncertain political climate.

Well fed and well dressed, Dr. Saber Joda walked out of Basra General Hospital on Wednesday carrying home a large shopping bag filled with humanitarian aid sent from the United Arab Emirates. The aid had been delivered to the hospital in this southern city for the first time since the war, and as Joda and other members of the staff hauled bags and boxes emblazoned with Red Crescent stickers, some were besieged by furious relatives of the sick. Abdur Hamad, 32, was seething.

The human face of war rolled into Jordan's no-man's-land Tuesday in battered buses and broken taxis, with eyes drawn from horror and wet with fury. And with it came the first credible accounts of widespread civilian damage and casualties from allied bombing raids on military targets in Baghdad. Most of the refugees were Egyptians who had lived in Baghdad, where, before the war, they were among the harshest and most vocal critics of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his ruthless regime.

Emergency truck convoys are supplying food, water and medicine to this war-weary capital, but relief officials said restoring electricity will take 10 days or more. Retreating Iraqi troops damaged fuel cells at three of four plants that generate electricity and cut long sections from power lines across the country, a senior U.S. Army official told reporters Tuesday. "Transmission of power--that's the showstopper," said the official, who heads a 2,700-member U.S.

Fears of a major oil spill in the Persian Gulf go beyond environmental damage or military obstacles--to the availability of life-sustaining fresh water. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and smaller gulf nations are highly dependent on a handful of immense desalination plants, both for drinking water and agriculture. Most of these plants take seawater directly from the Persian Gulf.

In a move designed to further demoralize Kuwait and strengthen Iraq's hold on the occupied country, Iraqi authorities in Kuwait on Monday began enforcing a strict new order that outlaws Kuwait's national currency. The order, announced by Iraq's economic commission in Baghdad, says Kuwaiti dinars must be exchanged for Iraqi dinars by Oct. 6, at the exchange rate of 1 to 1. Kuwaiti currency will be worthless. Before Iraq's Aug.