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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - Saddled with economic problems and its own damage from Hurricane Irma, Puerto Rico is taking thousands of refugees from the U.S. Virgin Islands whose homes were destroyed by the storm, with a cruise ship carrying up to 2,000 more due to set sail for the U.S. territory on Wednesday. Visibly shaken residents from St. Martin and the Virgin Islands arrived on Tuesday on U.S. military aircraft, bringing tales of terrifying winds and a breakdown of law and order. "The people of Puerto Rico - what big hearts you guys got because our (local) government...

About 100 "very serious" prisoners have escaped from a jail on the British Virgin Islands in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. The convicts pose a "serious threat of the complete breakdown of law and order" on the islands, according to foreign minister Sir Alan Duncan. Speaking to MPs in the Commons, Sir Alan said marines from RFA Mounts Bay were used to "protect the Governor and everything else about law and order" after the storm hit on Friday. He also revealed that more than 500,000 British nationals have been in the path of the hurricane, and 997 British military personnel...

Hurricane Irma churned across the Atlantic Ocean in September 2017, battering several Caribbean islands before moving on to the Florida Keys and the U.S. mainland. As the clouds cleared over places like the Virgin Islands, the destruction became obvious even from space. These natural-color images, captured by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite, show some of Irma’s effect on the British and U.S. Virgin Islands. The views were acquired on August 25 and September 10, 2017, before and after the storm passed. They are among the few relatively cloud-free satellite images of the area so far....

FAJARDO, P.R. — Puerto Rico, dealt only a glancing blow by Hurricane Irma, has become an impromptu emergency hub for its Caribbean neighbors that were left devastated by the storm’s wrath. Puerto Ricans relieved at being spared the worst destruction donated water, clothing, first aid and other supplies, and dozens of recreational boaters sailed to nearby islands to deliver the assistance and evacuate now-homeless islanders on the return trip. A 54-foot dive boat named the Tobias cast off on Sunday morning from the marina here, the largest in the Caribbean, and made its way eastward under a searing sun to...

Should we care? lol

Richard Branson's Necker Island home has been completely destroyed by Hurricane Irma - but the Virgin tycoon survived the deadly storm. The British billionaire retreated to his concrete bunker as the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic hit his Caribbean complex on Wednesday. His son Sam Branson took to Instagram to tell his followers that his father and his staff were 'OK' - but stressed there had been 'lots of damage' to Necker and said one person was dead on the island of Tortola.

Virgin Airlines owner tweeted ahead of the storm that he would be hunkering down with guests in a concrete wine cellar The luxury home of billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson in the British Virgin Islands was destroyed by Hurricane Irma, according to a post from his son Sam on Instagram. Branson, owner of Virgin Airlines and Virgin Media, among other interests, had tweeted ahead of the storm that he would be hunkering down with guests in a concrete wine cellar underneath his house on Necker Island to ride out the storm, which is now confirmed to be the most powerful hurricane...

China's player looks to the big game Entertainment chief's raid could make him leading online contender China's second-richest man, Chen Tianquiao, looks poised to become the country's leading new media player after staging the sector's first aggressive raid on a rival's shares. In a stealthy swoop over the spring festival holiday, Mr Chen's online game company Shanda Interactive Entertainment bought a 19.5% stake in Sina Corp, China's leading internet news portal, for $196m (£102m). The move finally turned the tables on Sina, which had tried to buy Shanda in 2003. The possibility of a takeover that would create China's...