By the CNN Wire Staff

(CNN) — Sarah Shourd, one of three American hikers held in Iran for more than a year, will be released Saturday, Iranian officials said Thursday.

An official at Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance said earlier Thursday that one of the three would be freed this weekend, after the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, without specifying which one. But Bak Sahraei, a representative for the Iranian mission to the United Nations, told CNN that Shourd was designated for release “very soon.”

The Culture Ministry official said one of Iran’s vice presidents will be present when the hiker is released at 9 a.m. Saturday.

Shourd, along with Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, were detained July 31, 2009, after they allegedly strayed across an unmarked border into Iran while hiking in Iraq’s Kurdistan region. Tehran has said the three hikers were spies, and Iran’s intelligence minister has hinted the country may consider releasing them in exchange for the release of Iranian prisoners, according to state news outlets.

Masoud Shafii, the Iranian lawyer who represents the hikers, said he has put in a formal request for the trio’s release within the past two weeks. Shafii said he told prosecutors that a year had passed since their arrests and the government had not shown any just cause for their imprisonment, and that Shourd has a medical condition that requires proper care.

After the news first broke Thursday, the mothers of all three said they had seen the reports and were “urgently seeking further information.”

“We hope and pray that the reports are true and that this signals the end of all three of our children’s long and difficult detention,” Cindy Hickey, Nora Shourd and Laura Fattal said in a joint statement. “Shane, Sarah and Josh are all innocent and we continue to call for their immediate release, so that they can return home together and be reunited with our families.”

In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters, “We don’t know, frankly, what Iran is contemplating at this point.” He said the United States was making inquiries through the Swiss government, which represents U.S. interests in Tehran.

“Obviously, if this turns out to be true, this is terrific news,” Toner said. “The hikers’ release is long overdue, and I would just stress that we hope that it’s all three hikers.”

VOAPNN

کلينتون: ايران به يک ديکتاتوری نظامی تبديل می شود

هيلاری کلينتون، وزير امور خارجه آمريکا، می گويد جمهوری اسلامی ايران در حال تبديل به يک ديکتاتوری نظامی است.

خانم کلينتون که روز چهارشنبه در شورای روابط خارجی، يک موسسه روابط خارجی در واشنگتن، سخن می گفت اعلام کرد فکر نمی کند جای هيچ شک و شبهه ای وجود داشته باشد که ايران به يک ديکتاتوری نظامی با نوعی رنگ و لعابِ ايدئولوژيکِ دينی، تبديل می شود.

وزير امورخارجه آمريکا اضافه کرد قرار نبود که بهيچوجه انقلاب ايران به چنين وضعيتی دچار شود.

خانم کلينتون همچنين در پاسخ به پرسشی گفت سياست آمريکا حمايت از آزادی ها و حقوق بشر در ايران است.

وزير امورخارجه آمريکا افزود در حال افزايش فشار های بين المللی بر ايران هستيم تا اين کشور وادار به انجام گفتگوهای جدی در مورد برنامه اتمی خود شود.

وزير امورخارجه آمريکا تأکيد کرد که ايالات متحده می تواند و بايد ديگر کشورها را در قرن بيست و يکم، رهبری کند.

By Michelle Nichols

(Reuters) – Families of September 11 victims are arguing whether to call a truce on the anniversary of the 2001 attacks on the United States as debate rages over plans for a Muslim center near the World Trade Center site.

The Muslim cleric leading the project reasserted on Tuesday that organizers would proceed with the Cordoba House center.

“More important, we are doing so with the support of the downtown community, government at all levels and leaders from across the religious spectrum, who will be our partners,” Feisal Abdul Rauf, a Sufi Muslim imam, wrote in The New York Times.

Critics say the planned location two blocks from Ground Zero in downtown Manhattan is insensitive, while supporters say politicians have wrongly commandeered the emotionally charged debate before U.S. congressional elections on November 2.

Rallies for and against the cultural center and mosque are set for Saturday in New York after a memorial ceremony at the site known as Ground Zero for the 2,752 people killed when al Qaeda Islamist militants flew hijacked planes into the twin towers nine years ago.

Some September 11 families and advocacy groups have said it is “inappropriate and disrespectful” for rallies over the Islamic center to be held on the anniversary of the attacks.

“Our desire … is simply to preserve 9/11 for appropriate remembrance and reflection,” some September 11 community leaders said in a letter to rally organizers. “We do not believe that protest rallies of this nature should take place on such a sacred day and in such close proximity to Ground Zero.”

After the official memorial ceremony on Saturday morning, opponents of the Muslim center, led by the Stop Islamization of America group, plan to gather near the planned center’s site.

“Many 9/11 families do not agree with attempting to stop this demonstration — and the majority of our group supports the purpose and principles of this rally,” said the 9/11 Parents and Families of Firefighters and WTC Victims group.

“For many family members, the looming, unresolved mosque controversy has made the upcoming September 11th Anniversary even more upsetting and troubling,” they said. “On 9/11, as the world is focusing on Ground Zero, families want to be able to raise their voices and say to the world that this is wrong.”

Speakers at the protest against the center are due to include former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton and lawmaker Geert Wilders, who heads the right-leaning and anti-immigration Freedom Party in the Netherlands.

U.S. President Barack Obama and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg say they support the right of Muslims to build the center.

But as Republicans seek to wrest control of Congress from Democrats in November, some politicians from both sides oppose the project — a sentiment shared by at least 60 percent of Americans, according to opinion polls.

Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark’s International Action Center plans a rival march on Saturday “against anti-Islamic bigotry and racism.”

“People of courage, compassion and peace will want an Islamic Community Center in the vicinity of the World Trade Center site. Together we can overcome violence and hatred if we reach out to each other and unite,” Clark said.

The leaders of more than 55 mosques and Islamic organizations in New York said they supported the request by some September 11 groups not to hold rallies on Saturday and would focus instead on personal or communal prayer and reflection.

The debate over the Muslim center has spurred wider discussion about Islam and the United States.

By the CNN Wire Staff

][

(CNN) -- The religious leader behind plans to erect an Islamic center and mosque a few blocks from New York's ground zero said Wednesday night that America's national security depends on how it handles the controversy.

"If we move from that location, the story will be the radicals have taken over the discourse," Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf told CNN's Soledad O'Brien on "Larry King Live."

"The headlines in the Muslim world will be that Islam is under attack."

The imam, who repeatedly said his mission was to promote peace and build a bridge among faiths, said he was also speaking about "radicals" on both sides of the debate on the Islamic center. "Our national security now hinges on how we negotiate this, how we speak about it."

"The battlefront is between moderates of all sides... and the radicals on all sides," he said.

Moving the project to another location would strengthen Islamist radicals' ability to recruit followers and will likely increase violence against Americans, the imam said.

Rauf said that "nothing is off the table" when asked whether he would consider moving the site.

"We are consulting, talking to various people about how to do this so that we negotiate the best and safest option."

The imam told O'Brien "had I known [the controversy] would happen we certainly would never have done this.” Asked if he meant he would not have picked the location, Rauf said, “we would not have done something that would create more divisiveness.”

Worry over what some observers have termed “Islamophobia” has been heightened by a Gainesville, Florida, church’s plan to burn copies of the Quran on Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

Rauf said he hopes the church reconsiders. “It is something that is not the right thing to do.”

“With freedom comes responsibility,” he said. “This is dangerous to our national security and is also the un-Christian thing to do. … Jesus said to love your enemy. We are not your enemy.”

Responding to a poll showing 71 percent of New Yorkers oppose the center’s location, Rauf he was going on television to explain his background and vision. “I want to show them my face. Show them my track record.”

The imam spoke of “a vision I’ve had for almost 15 years … to establish a space that embodies the fundamental

beliefs that we have as Jews, Christians and Muslims, which is to love our God and to love our neighbor — to build a space where we have a culture of worship.”

Rauf said he would continue speaking with families of those killed in the September 11, 2001, attacks. “You cannot heal a trauma by walking away from it,” he said.

Opposition goes against “the fundamental American principle of separation of church and state,” said Rauf, adding he has been surprised by the controversy.

The project, known as Park51, is slated to include a variety of facilities, including a prayer room, a performing arts center, gym, swimming pool and other public spaces. It is planned for a site two blocks from the World Trade Center.

A source familiar with Park51 told CNN’s Allan Chernoff last week that the structure is being planned as an 11-story building. It will cover 120,000 square feet — 10,000 feet of which would be designated for the Muslim prayer space. The developer is considering the possibility of an interfaith education/meditation/prayer space as well, the source said.

Opponents of the plan to build the center say it is too close to the site of the terror attacks and is an affront to the memory of those who died in the al Qaeda strike. Backers cite, among other things, First Amendment rights and the need to express religious tolerance.

Those who know Rauf describe him as a thoughtful man, a bridge builder who seeks to unite all faiths but who won’t parse words when he sees religion used for nefarious ends.

But he has landed in controversy before.

He has chided the U.S. for killing civilians in Baghdad. He said in 2005 that the U.S. had more Muslim blood on its hands than “al Qaeda has on its hands of innocent non-Muslims.” He has refused to accept Western governments’ designation of Hamas as a terrorist group. Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, he told CBS’ “60 Minutes” that “United States policies were an accessory to the crime.”

Earlier this week, Rauf wrote a commentary published online by the New York Times.

“I have been struck by how the controversy has riveted the attention of Americans, as well as nearly everyone I met in my travels,” Rauf wrote.

“We have all been awed by how inflamed and emotional the issue of the proposed community center has become,” wrote Rauf, who had just returned from a State Department-sponsored Middle East trip to promote U.S.-Muslim relations.

“The level of attention reflects the degree to which people care about the very American values under debate: recognition of the rights of others, tolerance and freedom of worship.”

Companies could save $200 billion by writing off capital investment. The president also announces a $50-billion spending plan for roads, runways and railroads.

] 

It is unclear whether Congress will have the appetite for another major spending bill. Congressional Democrats have spent much of this campaign season defending themselves against Republican charges of wasteful and unnecessary spending that ballooned the deficit and delivered few results.

Polls have shown that the stimulus spending package passed last year has not been popular, particularly with independent and fiscally conservative voters.

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) applauded Obama’s infrastructure proposal, as well as a plan to extend research and development tax credits, but was circumspect in assessing the initiatives’ chances of being approved by Congress.

“In both instances, we’re going to see how they’re paid for and plugged into the economic mix,” Smith said. He also said it was unrealistic to expect either initiative to have a significant short-term effect on the economy or job market.

The $50-billion plan amounts to slightly more than what was allocated to highway, rail and other transportation projects in last year’s $814-billion stimulus package. Critics derided some of those projects as wasteful, and others, including many in the construction industry, complained about delays at the state level in getting projects approved and launched.

Even so, private economists have estimated that the recovery act overall boosted employment by more than 3 million jobs. And analysts say there’s little question that government spending on infrastructure can give a shot in the arm to the economy, generating a hefty amount of jobs for an industry that desperately needs them.

Construction employment is down nearly 2 million from late 2007, accounting for about a quarter of the nation’s job losses over the recession.

Ken Simonson, chief economist at Associated General Contractors, a trade group, said Monday that $50 billion in government transportation spending could yield 1 million jobs or more — half in construction and related manufacturing and services, such as architectural and engineering, and the other half in supporting businesses.

“Investment in infrastructure has been a very effective form of stimulus,” he said of last year’s recovery act. “It’s kept a lot more construction workers on the job than had it not passed.”

Few experts are hopeful about the administration’s chances of making a significant improvement in the short term.

“There’s nothing that can be done to make a material difference before the elections in November,” said Jim Kessler, vice president for policy at Third Way, a moderate Democratic think tank in Washington.

Still, Kessler viewed Obama’s new measures as an important political move. “He has to show he’s focused like a laser beam on the economy and that he has a plan for getting the country moving toward economic growth.”

kathleen.hennessey@latimes.com

don.lee@latimes.com

Peter Nicholas of the Tribune Washington Bureau contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times

Published September 05, 2010 | Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican raised the possibility Sunday of using behind-the-scenes diplomacy to try to save the life of an Iranian widow sentenced to be stoned for adultery.

In its first public statement on the case, which has attracted worldwide attention, the Vatican decried stoning as a particularly brutal form of capital punishment.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said the Catholic church opposes the death penalty in general.

It is unclear what chances any Vatican bid would have to persuade the Muslim nation to spare the woman’s life. Brazil, which has friendly relations with Iran, was rebuffed when it offered her asylum.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was convicted in 2006 of adultery. In July, Iranian authorities said they would not carry out the stoning sentence for the time being, but the mother of two could still face execution by hanging for adultery and other offenses.

Her son, Sajad, told the Italian news agency Adnkronos that he was appealing to Pope Benedict XVI and to Italy to work to stop the execution.

Lombardi told The Associated Press that no formal appeal had reached the Vatican. But he hinted that Vatican diplomacy might be employed to try to save Ashtiani.

Lombardi said in a statement that the Holy See “is following the case with attention and interest.”

“When the Holy See is asked, in an appropriate way, to intervene in humanitarian issues with the authorities of other countries, as it has happened many times in the past, it does so not in a public way, but through its own diplomatic channels,” Lombardi said in the statement.

In one of the late Pope John Paul II’s encyclicals in 1995, the pontiff laid out the Catholic Church’s stance against capital punishment.

John Paul went to bat in several high-profile cases of death-row inmates in the United States. One of the first was the case of Paula Cooper, who was convicted of murdering her elderly Bible teacher when she was 15 but spared the electric chair by Indiana in 1989. Other appeals for clemency have been made by the Vatican, including one for a group of Cuban officers convicted of drug trafficking.

Meanwhile, Italy’s foreign minister, Franco Frattini, told the ANSA news agency that while Italy respects Iranian sovereignty and isn’t in any way interfering, “a gesture of clemency from Iran is the only thing that can save her.”

Italy has strong economic ties, primarily energy interests, in Iran.

]]> http://www.javedantv.com/2010/09/05/vatican-decries-stoning-as-brutal-punishment-hints-at-help-in-adultery-case-of-iranian-woman/feed/ 0 http://www.javedantv.com/2010/09/05/iran-orders-99-lashes-for-woman-facing-execution-rights-group-says/ http://www.javedantv.com/2010/09/05/iran-orders-99-lashes-for-woman-facing-execution-rights-group-says/#comments Sun, 05 Sep 2010 16:17:44 +0000 admin http://www.javedantv.com/?p=5083 Iran orders 99 lashes for woman facing execution, rights group says

By the CNN Wire Staff

(CNN) — An Iranian woman who’d already been condemned to death faces another sentence of 99 lashes because of a case of mistaken identity in a photograph, according to foes of the execution.

Iranian authorities imposed the sentence after they saw the photo of a woman without a head scarf in a newspaper, the International Committee Against Stoning, a human rights group, said Friday.

In an apology, The Times of London, which ran the photo on its front page on August 28, said the woman was wrongly identified as Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who had previously been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.

The Times said the photo actually is of Susan Hejrat, a political activist living in Sweden.

Iranian law requies all women, regardless of their faith, to wear garments that cover their hair and bodies.

According to the Times, one of Ashtiani’s former lawyers, Mohammed Mostafaei, gave the paper the photo.

Mostafaei told CNN Saturday that he still thinks the photo may be of his former client.

The Times said Mostafei told it that Ashtiani’s son, Sajjad, 22, had e-mailed him two photographs three months ago and told him both were of his mother.

“One was the widely used picture of Ms. Ashtiani with her face obscured by a chador [cloak], and the other was the one used by The Times … That showed the full face of a woman,” The Times said in a statement Friday.

Sajjad Ghaderzadeh wrote in an open letter that another lawyer sent the paper an authentic photo of his mother, but that it did not appear in the Times article. The letter was circulated by the International Committee Against Stoning on Friday.

“We do not know how that picture was originally obtained, nor to whom the picture belongs,” Ghaderzadeh said in the letter.

“My mother has been called in to see the judge in charge of prison misdemeanors and he has sentenced our helpless mother to 99 lashes on false charges of spreading corruption and indecency by disseminating this picture of a woman presumed to be her [Sakineh] without hijab,” he wrote.

A phone call to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran early Sunday morning was not answered.

The Committee Against Stoning said Friday that “it is Mr. Mostafaei’s responsibility to provide an explanation as to why he has disseminated [a] counterfeit photo and information regarding Sakineh’s case; his action has only led to increased pressure on Sakineh and her family.”

“We strongly condemn this barbaric new sentence of 99 lashes imposed by the Islamic Republic against Sakineh and we demand that this sentence be abandoned immediately,” said the committee.

Mostafei told CNN that Ghaderzadeh three months ago gave him two photos — one of Ashtiani wearing a hijab (covering) and one without it, Mostafei said.

The lawyer said he immediately released the photo of Ashtiani wearing the chador and sent the Times the photo of her without the hijab more recently.

Asked about whether the photo printed by the Times is of Ashtiani, Mostafei said, “In my opinion it is Ms. Ashtiani. It was given to me by her own son. If it is not indeed her, it looked just like her. She was wearing religious clothes in the photo, she had the same face, same everything.”

Ashtiani was sentenced to death by stoning after she was convicted of adultery. Iranian judicial authorities say a final verdict in her case has not yet been made, ISNA news agency reported recently. In July, Iran’s judiciary said the case was under review.

Ashtiani, who is being held in Tabriz, Iran, no longer has visitation rights, the family told CNN.

The Committee Against Stoning has said that Iran announced she will not be executed during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends around September 9. Iran’s judiciary could reinstate her sentence of death by stoning, execute her by other means, or possibly grant her a reprieve, according to human rights groups.

Iran’s Judiciary High Council of Human Rights indicated that evidence shows the allegations against Ashtiani “have been proved right” and that Iran’s judiciary operates independently as other justice systems do, the semi-official Iranian Student’s News Agency reported.

CNN’s Mitra Mobasherat contributed to this report

By Michael Holden

(Reuters) – God did not create the universe and the “Big Bang” was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics, the eminent British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking argues in a new book.

In “The Grand Design,” co-authored with U.S. physicist Leonard Mlodinow, Hawking says a new series of theories made a creator of the universe redundant, according to the Times newspaper which published extracts Thursday.

“Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist,” Hawking writes.

“It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.”

Hawking, 68, who won global recognition with his 1988 book “A Brief History of Time,” an account of the origins of the universe, is renowned for his work on black holes, cosmology and quantum gravity.

Since 1974, the scientist has worked on marrying the two cornerstones of modern physics — Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, which concerns gravity and large-scale phenomena, and quantum theory, which covers subatomic particles.

His latest comments suggest he has broken away from previous views he has expressed on religion. Previously, he wrote that the laws of physics meant it was simply not necessary to believe that God had intervened in the Big Bang.

He wrote in A Brief History … “If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason — for then we should know the mind of God.”

In his latest book, he said the 1992 discovery of a planet orbiting another star other than the Sun helped deconstruct the view of the father of physics Isaac Newton that the universe could not have arisen out of chaos but was created by God.

“That makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions — the single Sun, the lucky combination of Earth-Sun distance and solar mass, far less remarkable, and far less compelling evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings,” he writes.

Hawking, who is only able to speak through a computer-generated voice synthesizer, has a neuro muscular dystrophy that has progressed over the years and left him almost completely paralyzed.

He began suffering the disease in his early 20s but went on to establish himself as one of the world’s leading scientific authorities, and has also made guest appearances in “Star Trek” and the cartoons “Futurama” and “The Simpsons.”

Last year he announced he was stepping down as Cambridge University’s Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, a position once held by Newton and one he had held since 1979.

“The Grand Design” is due to go on sale next week.

(Editing by Steve Addison)

VOAPNN;

بنا به گفته استفان هاکینگ، فیزیکدان و نظریه پرداز سرشناس بریتانیایی، برای آفرینش هستی به خداوند نیازی نبوده و پدیده مهبانگ (بیگ بنگ) نتیجه اجتناب ناپذیر قوانین فیزیک بوده است.

استفان هاکینگ، نابغه فیزیک و محقق سرشناس بریتانیایی در کتاب جدید خود به نام «طرح بزرگ» می نویسد حل تعدادی از معماهای پیچیده جدید، از راز جهان پرده برخواهد داشت و ضرورت وجود آفریننده کائنات را به یک امر غیرضروری بدل می کند.

در گزیده ای از کتاب استفان هاکینگ که در شماره روز پنج شنبه (۲ سپتامبر) نشریه تایمز منتشر شده است، آقای هاکینگ می نویسد: «به این دلیل که قانونی همچون قانون جاذبه وجود دارد، کائنات می تواند از هیچ پدید آید و آفرینش خود به خودی، دلیلی بر وجود (هستی) در برابر هیچ است و دلیل وجود هستی و موجودیت ما نیز به همین اصل بستگی دارد».

آقای هاکینگ می گوید برای ادامه بقای هستی و روشن شدن آسمان آبی، دعا به بارگاه خداوند ضرورتی ندارد.

به نظر می رسد این فیزیکدان برجسته در کتاب « تاریخچه زمان » از دیدگاه های مذهبی گذشته خود که ایده احتمال وجود یک آفریننده را پذیرفته بود، فاصله گرفته است. وی در این کتاب نوشته بود: «توانایی ما در کشف تئوری کامل (آفرینش)، پیروزی مطلق و نهایی بشر خواهد بود و آنگاه می توانیم به کنه ذهن آفریننده راه یابیم».

این نظریه پرداز بریتانیایی از سال ۱۹۷۴ تاکنون روی دو تئوری کلیدی فیزیک مدرن تحقیق کرده است؛ تئوری نسبیت آلبرت اینشتین در مورد قانون جاذبه و نیز پدیده عظیم و نظریه کوانتوم ذرات ریزاتمی.

استفان هاکینگ که از اوان جوانی به یک بیماری نادر اختلال اعصاب ماهیچه ای مبتلاست که تقریباً بیشتر بخش های بدن او را به حالت فلج کامل درآورده است، یکی از برجسته ترین دانشمندان نظریه پرداز جهان محسوب می شود.

آقای هاکینگ از سال ۱۹۷۹ سمت استادی ریاضیات دانشگاه کمبریج، کرسی که روزگاری اسحاق نیوتن بر آن تکیه زده بود را بر عهده گرفت. وی سال گذشته از این مقام کناره گیری کرد.

آقای هاکینگ کتاب جدید خود را با همکاری لئونارد ملودینو، فیزیکدان آمریکایی تالیف کرده است. کتاب «طرح بزرگ» روز ۹ سپتامبر منتشر خواهد شد.

Earl’s Gusts, Rains Lash Outer Banks, Reach VA

fter battering North Carolina’s Outer Banks overnight, Hurricane Earl reached Virginia early Friday morning, bringing heavy rain and wind gusts of nearly 70 mph.

National Weather Service meteorologist Jeremy Schulz said early Friday morning that rain bands stretched about 140 miles inland in North Carolina and up to the southern tip of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia.

Experts reported that the storm had produced little storm surge and only minor flooding in some of North Carolina’s coastal counties, but authorities were waiting for daybreak to begin patrolling the coast to check for damage.

The Coast Guard planned an airplane flyover of the Outer Banks and were prepared for search-and-rescue helicopter flights.

Earl had weakened to a Category 2 storm with winds topping at 105 mph as the first bands of rain began to hit the Outer Banks on Thursday and a new tropical storm warning was issued for New England coastlines.

The downpours began in several bursts as the storm’s so-called rain shield whirled into the southernmost tip of the barrier islands with 40 mph winds that made signs shake and heavy rain fall sideways.

Waves were expected to reach as high as 18 feet.

A hurricane warning was expanded Thursday night to include part coastlines from Massachusetts to Maine as Hurricane Earl barreled toward the Eastern Seaboard. Earlier the National Hurricane Center in Miami had issued a tropical storm warning along the Connecticut and Rhode Island coasts into Massachusetts.

“Hurricane and tropical storm conditions will be expected in these areas over the next 48 hours,” said Bill Read, director of the National Hurricane Center.

A slow winding down was expected to continue as the storm moved into cooler waters, but forecasters warned the size of the storm’s wind field was increasing, similar to what happened when Hurricane Katrina approached the Gulf Coast five years ago.

Read said Thursday that Earl is undergoing a change and its powerful winds are going to extend farther out from the eyewall. He said forecasters expect the eyewall to change but said they are not able to say how far inland the winds will reach, adding that strong winds could topple trees and knock out power to thousands of people.

North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue on Thursday warned residents to take Earl “very seriously,” and said state emergency officials are “as prepared as we can be.”

Forecasters were trying to pinpoint exactly how close the strongest winds and heaviest surge would get to North Carolina’s fragile chain of barrier islands, some of which were evacuated on Wednesday.

“Right now it’s still predicted to brush the coast at the Outer Banks, but nobody knows,” Perdue said during a press conference. “People should take this very seriously.”

Tourists were largely gone from North Carolina’s Outer Banks, but those resolute residents who stayed behind said they were prepared to face down the powerful hurricane.

“The one thing about North Carolina is that we can’t require adults to do what we tell them to do,” said Perdue, who spoke one day after President Obama declared an emergency in the state and ordered federal agencies to assist in any emergency.

Perdue also wanted that once the storm hit, it would be unlikely that police, firefighters and paramedics would be able to assist anyone who had stayed behind.

“Once this storm comes in and becomes serious, once it’s at its worst point, we are not going to put any emergency worker in harm’s way,” North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue said.

Officials in North Carolina expanded mandatory evacuation orders early Thursday to include tourists in Dare County. About 49 counties in the state are currently under hurricane warnings or watches, and residents were advised to evacuate parts of the state’s Outer Banks on Wednesday.

National Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen said Thursday that there is still concern that the “core of the storm” could shift farther west and have a “very significant impact on the immediate coastline.”

Forecasters also were trying to figure out whether the storm would stay off the Northeast coast or bring hurricane-force winds to Long Island, the Boston metropolitan area and Cape Cod.

“I would not downplay the potential threat to New England,” Read told Fox News.

Evacuations continued early Thursday on the North Carolina coast, with residents and visitors leaving a barrier island in Carteret County. Emergency Services Director Jo Ann Smith said she wasn’t sure how many people were affected by the order to leave the Bogue Banks areas. Unlike some of the barrier islands on the Outer Banks who had to take a ferry, Smith said people could simply leave in their cars.

While thousands of tourists heeded calls to evacuate Hatteras Island, locals familiar with hurricanes vowed to ride out Earl, preparing to spend days stranded from the mainland. Dare County officials said those who do not leave should be ready to fend for themselves for up to three days.

Residents like Nancy Scarborough, who manages the Hatteras Cabanas, said Outer Banks residents have a tight-knit community that takes care of its own.

“I worry about not being able to get back here,” she said. “I’d rather be stuck on this side than that side.”

Along with the 30,000 residents and visitors asked to leave Hatteras Island, 5,000 more tourists were ordered to leave Ocracoke Island, which is only accessible by ferry and airplane.

Many people — boaters, beachgoers and residents alike — were adopting a wait-and-see approach, making simple preparations like stocking up on food or attaching hurricane shutters to their houses. But with the likelihood that the storm’s ultimate path will become clear on Thursday, officials expect planning to shift into high gear.

“Post-Katrina, people are really sensitive to storm preparedness,” said Atlantic Beach, N.C., Mayor Trace Cooper. “I don’t think we’re going to see too many people sticking around and saying they’re going to have hurricane parties. You see enough pictures of people waiting on their roofs to be rescued and you decide to take precautions.”

The North Carolina National Guard is deploying 80 troops to help the state. Obama’s declaration of emergency in the state authorizes the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate all disaster relief efforts.

While Earl was at its peak as a Category 4 Wednesday, the governors of North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland declared states of emergency, the USS Cole hustled to return to its port in Virginia and volunteers carried sea turtle nests to safety.

Farther up the East Coast, emergency officials urged people to have disaster plans and supplies ready and weighed whether to order evacuations as they watched the latest maps from the hurricane center — namely, the “cone of uncertainty” showing the broad path the storm could take.

If Earl moves farther east, Friday might just be modestly wet and blustery for millions in the Northeast. If the storm runs along the western edge of the forecast, dangerous storm surge, heavy rain and hurricane-force winds could slam the populous region.

In Massachusetts, some boaters had already pulled their crafts from the water in anticipation of rough seas, said Harwich Assistant Harbor Master Heinz Proft. The Labor Day weekend is about the time of year when people start pulling their boats anyway, so some are just accelerating the process.

“It’s been a small percentage so far, but we are encouraging people to be proactive,” he said.

In Virginia, Gov. Bob McDonnell activated the National Guard and sent 200 troops to the Hampton Roads area on Chesapeake Bay. The area was not expected to get the brunt of Earl, but many remember the surprise fury of Isabel, which killed 33 people and caused $1.6 billion in damage in September 2003.

Red Cross officials in New York prepared to open as many as 50 shelters on Long Island that could house up to 60,000 people in an emergency.

Emergency officials on Cape Cod braced for their first major storm since Hurricane Bob brought winds of up to 100 mph to coastal New England in August 1991.

Click here for maps, charts and more at MyFOXHurricane.com

The Associated Press contributed to this report