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OSLO (Reuters) - This year is on track to be the second warmest since records began in the 1860s and floods in Pakistan or a heatwave in Greece may herald worse disruptions in store from global warming, experts said on Friday.

"2007 is looking as though it will be the second warmest behind 1998," said Phil Jones, head of the Climatic Research Unit at Britain's University of East Anglia, which provides data to the U.N.'s International Meteorological Organization.

"It isn't far behind ... it could change, but at the moment this looks unlikely," he told Reuters, based on temperature records up to the end of April.

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NASA on Thursday moved up the next scheduled space shuttle mission by two days, to Aug. 7, to give Endeavour more chances to lift off during what looks to be a busy month.

Mission managers wanted to make sure the shuttle's launch did not conflict with the launches of a robotic geologist to Mars and a military communications satellite, both also planned for August.

Endeavour will deliver another truss segment to the International Space Station. The seven-member crew includes Barbara Morgan, who was selected with Christa McAuliffe more than two decades ago for NASA's Teacher in Space project.

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Mr. Richard E. Jr., 64, of Richmond, husband of Nancy W. Beede.

Boughton, Mrs. Eleanore Marie, 66, of Midlothian, a retiree of NASA's Lewis Research Center, wife of Howard Boughton.

Bryce, Dr. William Fielding V, 63, of Richmond, a physician, husband of Virginia G. Bryce.

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The driest two-year period in San Diego in more than a century has created a volatile fire situation in the county's mountains and foothills. And no relief is in sight.

?All that dryness translates into dry fuel,? said Bill Metcalf, fire chief for the North County Fire Protection District. ?Right now, we've got the worst possible, the worst imaginable fuel conditions. It's as dry as it usually is at the height of the season (early fall), and it will only get worse.?

Firefighters say it's not a matter of if, but when, blazes will hit.

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - NASA today moved up the next scheduled space shuttle mission by two days to give Endeavour more chances to lift off during what looks to be a busy month.

Mission managers wanted to make sure the shuttle's August Seventh launch does not conflict with the launches of a robotic geologist to Mars and a military communications satellite. Both of those launches are also planned for August.

Technicians at the Kennedy Space Center also have gotten Endeavour ready ahead of schedule for its first flight since late 2002. The shuttle underwent an intensive maintenance overhaul.

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