An artist rendering from Vivos shows the public lounge area in one of the company's proposed underground shelters.

By Keith Matheny, USA TODAY

Jason Hodge, father of four children from Barstow, Calif., says he's "not paranoid" but he is concerned, and that's why he bought space in what might be labeled a doomsday shelter.

Hodge bought into the first of a proposed nationwide group of 20 fortified, underground shelters '” the Vivos shelter network '” that are intended to protect those inside for up to a year from catastrophes such as a nuclear attack, killer asteroids or tsunamis, according to the project's developers.

"It's an investment in life," says Hodge, a Teamsters union representative. "I want to make sure I have a place I can take me and my family if that worst-case scenario were to happen."

There are signs that underground shelters, almost-forgotten relics of the Cold War era, are making a comeback.

The Vivos network, which offers partial ownerships similar to a timeshare in underground shelter communities, is one of several ventures touting escape from a surface-level calamity.

Radius Engineering in Terrell, Texas, has built underground shelters for more than three decades, and business has never been better, says Walton McCarthy, company president.

The company sells fiberglass shelters that can accommodate 10 to 2,000 adults to live underground for one to five years with power, food, water and filtered air, McCarthy says.

The shelters range from $400,000 to a $41 million facility Radius built and installed underground that is suitable for 750 people, McCarthy says. He declined to disclose the client or location of the shelter.

"We've doubled sales every year for five years," he says.Other shelter manufacturers include Hardened Structures of Colorado and Utah Shelter Systems, which also report increased sales.

The shelters have their critics. Ken Rose, a history professor at California State University-Chico and author of One Nation Underground: The Fallout Shelter in American Culture, says underground shelters were a bad idea a half-century ago and they're a bad idea now.

"A terrorist with a nuke in a suitcase pales in comparison to what the Cold War had to offer in the 1950s and '60s, which was the potential annihilation of the human race," he says.

Steve Davis, president of Maryland-based All Hands Global Emergency Management Consulting, also is skeptical.

All Hands has helped more than 100 public and private sector clients with emergency management and homeland security services, according to its website.

The types of cataclysms envisioned by some shelter manufacturers "are highly unlikely compared to what we know is going to happen," Davis says.

"We know there is going to be a major earthquake someday on the West Coast. We know a hurricane is going to hit Florida, the Gulf Coast, the East Coast," he says. "We support reasonable preparedness. We don't think it's necessary to burrow into the desert."

The Vivos network is the idea of Del Mar, Calif., developer Robert Vicino.

Vicino, who launched the Vivos project last December, says he seeks buyers willing to pay $50,000 for adults and $25,000 for children.

The company is starting with a 13,000-square-foot refurbished underground shelter formerly operated by the U.S. government at an undisclosed location near Barstow, Calif., that will have room for 134 people, he says.

Vicino puts the average cost for a shelter at $10 million.

Vivos plans for facilities as large as 100,000 square feet, says real estate broker Dan Hotes of Seattle, who over the past four years has collaborated with Vicino on a project involving partial ownership of high-priced luxury homes and is now involved with Vivos.

Catastrophe shelters today may appeal to those who seek to bring order to a world full of risk and uncertainty, says Alexander Riley, an associate professor of sociology at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa.

"They're saying, 'I can control everything,' " Riley says. " 'With the right amount of rational planning, I can even survive an asteroid hitting the Earth that causes a dust cloud like the kind we believe wiped the dinosaurs out.' "

The Vivos website features a clock counting down to Dec. 21, 2012, the date when the ancient Mayan "Long Count" calendar marks the end of a 5,126-year era, at which time some people expect an unknown apocalypse.

Vicino, whose terravivos.com website lists 11 global catastrophes ranging from nuclear war to solar flares to comets, bristles at the notion he's profiting from people's fears.

"You don't think of the person who sells you a fire extinguisher as taking advantage of your fear," he says. "The fact that you may never use that fire extinguisher doesn't make it a waste or bad.

"We're not creating the fear; the fear is already out there. We're creating a solution."

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By Alan Gomez, USA TODAY
TAMPA '” Bonnie is barely a tropical depression in the Gulf of Mexico and the storm with winds near 30 mph is not expected to strengthen as it heads toward the site of the blown-out oil well.

Forecasters with the U.S. National Hurricane Center said Saturday that Bonnie was hanging on as a depression, but the storm was not expected to change strength before the center reaches the coast.

The center of Bonnie came ashore Friday near Cutler Bay, about 20 miles south of Miami. It moved into the eastern Gulf and was about 165 miles east-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River at 11 a.m. ET Saturday.

Just before the lunch rush hit the Black Point Ocean Grill in southeastern Florida, kitchen manager Jason Rice saw two large waterspouts come in off the Atlantic Ocean and jostle the dozens of boats docked at the marina next door.

"It was definitely dead for lunch," Rice said. That was about the extent of the damage that Tropical Storm Bonnie caused as it sloshed its way across the southern tip of Florida.

With top winds estimated at 40 mph and rainfall estimates of 1 to 3 inches across the peninsula, the fast-moving storm was similar to the thunderstorms that regularly pelt the region. By Saturday afternoon, with the remnants of Bonnie moving further into the Gulf of Mexico, the National Weather Service issued an unrelated hazardous weather warning of thunderstorms with winds up to 30 to 40 mph.

The end result was an opportunity for emergency responders and residents to get their hurricane plans in place, said Palmetto Bay spokesman Bill Kress. "It was a fortuitous little storm," Kress said.

With forecasters predicting a busy hurricane season, Kress said it was good to have a dry run at their plans. The small village south of Miami activated its emergency plan '“ cleaning out storm drains to prevent flooding, getting its emergency personnel ready to respond and testing its communication network.

"It all kicked into high gear and it was really interesting to how everyone coordinated their efforts," Kress said. "Bonnie served a purpose."

Meanwhile, BP's evacuation of the Gulf of Mexico was called off Saturday and ships headed back to resume work on plugging the leaky well as remnants of Bonnie breezed past.

Thad Allen, the retired Coast Guard admiral running the federal government's spill response, called it "very good news." But the setback was still significant. Work came to a standstill Wednesday and will take time to restart.

Forecasters say they have canceled a tropical storm warning from Destin, Florida, to Morgan City, Louisiana.

Bonnie is moving west-northwest near 17 mph.

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By Dan Vergano, USA TODAY
VATICAN CITY '” The Swiss Guards wave you through St. Anne's Gate, the business entrance into the Holy See.

The bustle of tourists fades behind the high wall, replaced by the burbling of a fountain as your guide, dapper Belgian publisher Paul Van den Heuvel, leads you into a hidden courtyard behind the papal residence. On a far wall are metal doors carved with scenes celebrating Egyptian papyrus, medieval manuscripts and monks' scrolls. Through the doors, a plaque on the wall greets visitors to the VATICAVM TABVLARVM, Latin for Vatican records office.

"Welcome to the Vatican Secret Archives," says archivist Enrico Flaiani, head of conservators at the venerable institution. "I will be showing you many things," he adds with a quiet smile.

Founded in the 1600s by Pope Paul V, sacked by Napoleon, returned, moved and open only to scholars since the 1880s, the Vatican Secret Archives, the Archivum Secretum Apostolicum Vaticanum, serve as repository for the diplomatic records of pontiffs. Records stretch back to at least the 800s; the parchment Liber Diurnus, a circa-eighth-century codex containing legal language for consecrating monasteries and addressing dignitaries, is the oldest record in the archive. The most intriguing of its records are the subject of this year's The Vatican Secret Archives, which was published by Van den Huevel's VdH books and is the reason for the tour.

"The book presents some of the most fascinating of the documents in the archives," says Van den Heuvel. The volume holds lavish photos of the halls and artwork of the archives, forbidden to the throngs treading to the Vatican City each year. Only scholars are allowed in, and only to the reading room. The tour has been opened only to small groups of journalists in the past year to promote the book.

Van den Heuvel mischievously notes that even thriller writer Dan Brown, whose Angels & Demons likely has brought the archives the most fame, hasn't been given the tour.

Responding to demands for information

Between Angels & Demons and a long-running dispute over still-sealed World War II-era records, Vatican officials clearly felt some need to provide a glimpse of the archives, which are seen by church officials as a very serious center of historical research, says Matthew Bunson, author of The Encyclopedia of Catholic History.

"What we are seeing is a recognition on the part of the Vatican, or an ongoing discussion at the Vatican, on how to deal with the demands of the modern world for information," Bunson says. "The archives themselves are a fascinating reflection on the durability of the Holy See."

After leaving bags behind, visitors follow Flaiani to the staircased Tower of Winds, its white marble steps surrounding a wire-caged elevator and leading to the Leo XIII Study. There, visiting historians peruse the indices to the archive records in a balconied study lined with computers, which has a modern appearance except for its namesake's portrait, looking down from the back wall.

"Each index is a key to a part of the archives," Flaiani says, pulling down a binder listing 18th-century letters from papal nuncios, or representatives, from all over Europe. Every kingdom, city or state of note hosted these messengers for centuries, scribbling away at letters and communiqués, and receiving them in reply from the popes.

A medieval weather station

"I will show you something worth seeing," Flaiani says, unlocking and opening a wooden door and leading visitors into a room, walls 30 feet high, frescoed on all sides with scenes of St. Paul's shipwreck in Malta. On the ceiling is a star-hubbed pointer about 3 feet long, surrounded by two circles describing the wind's four directions. On the center of the floor is an eight-pointed rosette inscribed in marble, marked at one point by the spot where, on the spring equinox, a ray of sunlight falls at noon from a small hole in one wall of the windowless room.

Built by the "pontifical cosmographer" Ignazio Danti, the Meridian Room was intended to record the sun's position along the line dividing the room and for recording the wind's direction, making the Tower of Winds a sort of medieval weather station. From a balcony offering the second-highest vantage in Vatican City, astronomers made observations of the stars.

Despite the Catholic Church's history of persecuting the astronomical philosopher Giordano Bruno, who was burned at the stake in 1600, and Galileo, who was condemned by the Inquisition in 1633, the tower built from 1578 to 1580 originally served as an astronomical outpost needed for the reform of the Julian calendar in 1582. A summary of the case against Bruno and complete case against Galileo are held underneath the tower. The tower itself was once the seat of the Vatican Observatory, now at Castel Gandolfo outside Rome.

Even on a cloudy day, the view from the tower balcony is spectacular, offering a rarely seen display of Rome's seven hills on the other side of the Tiber river.

"Now, we will see the real archives," Flaiani says, tromping visitors down the tower stairs. The tower holds wooden cabinets once kept at Rome's Castel San Angelo, before Napoleon's removal of records in 1810. They contain volumes, some 11 inches thick, filled with the diplomatic correspondence of the Middle Ages. Each set of records resides in cabinets bearing the seal of their particular pope ("How else?" Flaiani asks).

A staff of 30 archivists under the archive prefect, Sergio Pagani, works to preserve and catalog the documents. Although most of the records represent mundane messages from the diplomats of the day and summaries of legal cases, a few reek of Dan Brown thrillers, including:

'¢Trial of the Knights of the Templars: parchments from 1308 to 1310 documenting a French king's persecution of the religious order.

'¢The "Bull" of 1493: a paper document splitting the New World, reached by Columbus the year before, between Spain and Portugal.

'¢Napoleon's coronation ceremony: a paper document outlining the ceremony to be used in Paris for the 1804 self-crowning of the upstart French emperor.

The bulk of the archives, about 50 miles of shelves, lies beneath more stairs in two basement levels, metal shelf after shelf of documents, thick with the smell of old paper and musty parchment. "The shelves look like any library, but then you see the dates '” the 1500s, the 1600s," Van den Huevel says.

The basement shelves are closed to everyone but archivists, who bring requested records to scholars upstairs. At stops along the shelves, Flaiani displays famed documents '” a papal bull excommunicating Martin Luther in 1521 '” and amusing ones '” the 1770 paper conferring the Order of the Golden Spur upon the 14-year-old musical prodigy Mozart.

Files relevant to World War II debate

The archives are akin to the U.S. National Archives, Flaiani says. They are more secretarial than truly "secret" and do not hold records related to sexual abuse scandals rocking the church.

But they are surrounded with their own controversy over what they might show about the Church's diplomatic conduct in World War II, and whether Pope Pius XII did too little to protest the Holocaust. Debate has been raging since an International Catholic-Jewish Historical Commission suspended its activities in 2000 after requests by panel members for unrestricted access to the archives were turned down.

The restricted records, those from the 1939 accession of Pope Pius XII forward, rest on fenced shelves at the back of one basement level. Flaiani says an index to those records will be completed by 2014, after which the current pope would have to decide to make them available. Popes generally make records available 70 years after the death of a predecessor, according to historian William Patch of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., writing in the current edition of The Journal of Modern History.

The Vatican Secret Archives does display a 1934 letter from Pius XI to Hitler hoping for better relations between church and state. "The controversy over the political role of the Catholic Church in this era will, of course, not be resolved even when the Vatican archives become fully accessible," Patch writes. "Historical scholarship offers no method for resolving the debate between those who believe that Pius XII was cowardly not to have risked more to help the Jews and those who believe that he, as pope, would have been irresponsible to have done so."

Even Flaiani gets lost amid the endless basement shelves, taking his tour on a circular path before finding his way to the exit. He bids visitors farewell from within the metal doors of the archive.

"The archivists take what they do very seriously; they come at their work from a serious academic perspective. They won't be rushed by the outside world's demands for instant information," Bunson says.

"As history, the archives will always be fascinating. Here we have diplomatic records stretching from dealings with everyone from the Mongols to Hitler. It's interesting for what it says about Vatican culture that they have chosen this for display."

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By Alan Fram, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON '” Muslims around the globe remain uneasy about the U.S. and are increasingly disenchanted with President Barack Obama, according to a poll that suggests his drive to improve relations with the Muslim world has had little impact.

Even so, the U.S. image is holding strong in many other countries and continues to be far better than it was during much of George W. Bush's presidency, according to the survey.

There is one glaring exception: Mexico, where 62% expressed favorable views of the U.S. just days before an Arizona law cracking down on illegal immigrants was signed in April, but only 44% did so afterward.

The findings by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, conducted in April and May in the United States and 21 other countries by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, come amid a global economic downturn and U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The poll has been measuring the views of people around the world since 2002.

Among the seven countries surveyed with substantial Muslim populations, the U.S. was seen favorably by just 17% in Egypt, Turkey and Pakistan and 21% in Jordan. The U.S.'s positive rating was 52% in Lebanon, 59% in Indonesia and 81% in Nigeria, where Muslims comprise about half the population.

None of those figures was an improvement from last year. There were slight dips in Jordan and in Indonesia, where Obama spent several years growing up. Egypt saw a 10-point drop, even though Obama gave a widely promoted June 2009 speech in Cairo aimed at reaching out to the Muslim world.

In all seven of those countries, the percentage of Muslims expressing confidence in Obama has also dropped since last year. Only in Nigeria and Indonesia do majorities of Muslims voice confidence in him; in Obama's worst showing, just 8% in Pakistan do.

The survey found that majorities of the public in Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, Indonesia, Lebanon and Pakistan say the U.S. could someday be a military threat to their country.

"You get a sense of Muslim disappointment with Barack Obama," said Andy Kohut, the Pew president, who attributed it to discontent with U.S. policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to expectations raised by Obama's Cairo speech.

The surveys were taken before Israel's deadly May 31 clash with a flotilla of boats trying to break the blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza, which sparked widespread condemnation of Israel.

In the rest of the world, the U.S. and Obama generally fare better.

The 6 in 10 in Germany and Spain who view the U.S. favorably has doubled from the lows reached under Bush. The U.S. image is also significantly better than it was under Bush in Russia, China, France, Argentina, South Korea and Japan. Obama is broadly supported, but the percentages expressing confidence in him have ebbed in 14 countries polled.

In only five countries do majorities think the U.S. considers other nations when setting its foreign policy. Support for U.S. anti-terrorism efforts and Obama's handling of economic problems is generally strong, but there is significant opposition to American involvement in Afghanistan and little faith that a stable government will emerge in Iraq.

The poll also found that:

'¢In the seven Muslim nations polled, the portion of Muslims saying suicide attacks are sometimes justified ranged from 39% in Lebanon to 5% in Turkey. Nowhere did Muslims give majority support to Osama bin Laden or his al-Qaeda terrorist group.

'¢In every nation but Poland, China and Brazil, most are unhappy with how things are going in their country, though dissatisfaction has grown in only three countries in the past year. Attitudes about each country's economic situation are similarly negative, though a bit brighter than a year ago.

'¢Nine in 10 Chinese are happy with their country's economy, by far the highest mark of any nation polled. China is seen more positively than negatively in 15 countries, and in eight countries China is viewed as the world's leading economic power '” up from two who said so last year.

'¢Only in Pakistan does a majority favor Iran having nuclear weapons. In most countries, economic sanctions against Iran's nuclear program get higher support than military action. But significant numbers are prepared for a showdown: In 16 countries, more people who oppose Iran's nuclear program consider stopping Tehran from getting such weapons more important than avoiding a military conflict.

'¢More people in every country except Egypt and Jordan said the environment should be a priority, even at the cost of economic growth and jobs. But only in nine countries are half or more willing to pay higher prices to address global warming.

'¢Three-fourths of Brazilians say their team will win this year's World Cup soccer tournament, easily the most confident showing of the countries polled. Just 13% of Americans picked the U.S.

The Pew Global Attitudes Project was conducted by the Pew Research Center in 22 countries from April 7 through May 8, though the exact dates varied by country. Interviews were mostly conducted face-to-face, though telephone interviews were used in the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Japan.

Sample sizes ranged from 700 people in Japan to 3,262 in China. National samples were used in all countries except China, India and Pakistan, where those interviewed were disproportionately urban. The margin of sampling error ranged from plus or minus 2.5 percentage points in China to 5 points in Germany.

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