the road to hana

also promotes its national Internet as a cost-saving measure for consumers and as a way to uphold Islamic moral codes. In February, as pro-democracy protests spread rapidly across the Middle East and North Africa, Reza Bagheri Asl, director of the telecommunication ministry's research institute, told an Iranian news agency that soon 60% of the nation's homes and businesses would be on the new, internal network. Within two years it would extend to the entire country, he said. The unusual initiative appears part of a broader effort to confront what the regime now considers a major threat: an online invasion of Western ideas, culture and influence, primarily originating from the U.S. In recent speeches, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top officials have called this emerging conflict the "soft war." On Friday, new reports emerged in the local press that Iran also intends to roll out its own computer operating system in coming months to replace Microsoft Corp.'s Windows. The development, which couldn't be independently confirmed, was attributed to Reza Taghipour, Iran's communication minister. Iran's national Internet will be "a genuinely halal network, aimed atnities in the country. "Italy, like other countries where BNP Paribas already operates, like India, Brazil and Turkey, has great potential growth in several sectors like fashion, mechanics and infrastructure," BNL Chief Executive Fabio Gallia said on the sidelines of a presentation on the Indian market. BNL was acquired by the French banking giant in 2bia center. Ailments lasting longer are rare, he said. The Mississippi flooding began May 2, when officials blew up part of a levee in Missouri to protect a town in Illinois. As high water rolled downriver to the Deep South, they were diverted through floodgates into the Atchafalaya Basin, prompting hundreds to evacuate. On Monday, the river's crest is expected to reach Morgan City, La., where the flood waters empty into the Gulf of Mexico. The extra lead time many victims in that area have had could reduce stress in the end, said Irwin Redlener, director of Columbia University's National Center for Disaster Preparedness. If you can get yourself and your family out safely with important papers and even emotionally important keepsakes, "you can restart your life," he said. And, because injury and bereavement are major causes of psychological distress, warnings "are indirectly probably our greatest mental health intervention" by getting people out of harm's way, said Fran Norris, director and principal investigator of the National Center for Disaster Mental Health Research. Even the warning 24 minutes before the tornado hit in Joplin, Mo., killing 132, was substantial, Abramson said. "In Israel, the warning systems for incoming missile attacks are 15 seconds," he said. The problem, typically, is getting people to pay attention to warnings. "It's kind of the opposite of the popular myth that if you warn people of disaster they'll panic," said Dennis Mileti, professor emeritus at the University of Colorado's Natural Hazards Center in Boulder. "The problem is the opposite — getting them off the couch." Photographs and video of earlier spring floods probably made it easier to convince people farther downriver to protect their property and leave, he said. The psychologically taxing piece as people return from the disaster will be coping with all the questions: Where will we live? Where will the children go to school? Diane Austin, 47, and her parents, aunt and uncle all got safely away from their homes in the Cutoff community, but they haven't been able to go back and survey the damage. "I'm concerned about what I'll find. I'm more concerned about if they'll let us back," Austin said. It may not be until sometime this week, and those who have to rebuild will have to meet new FEMA regulations, said Larry Liddell, spokesman for the Tunica County Emergency Management Agency. And "with all the rules and regulations, you have to be a millionaire to get everything back up to code," Austin said. Over in Tuscaloosa, Ala., F