*More and more people are being caught up in a growing number
of natural disasters, a UN agency said on Friday.
 
254 million people were affected by natural hazards last year - nearly three
times as many as in 1990. Events including earthquakes and volcanoes,
floods and droughts, storms, fires and landslides killed about 83,000
people in 2003, up from about 53,000 deaths 13 years earlier. There
were 337 natural disasters reported in 2003, up from 261 in 1990.
 
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:
and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be
famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.  (Mark 13:8)