Climate scientists issue dire warning

BREAKING EARTH NEWS
Ice sheets and glaciers form the largest component of perennial ice on Earth. Over 75% of the world's fresh water is presently locked up in these frozen reservoirs.
A Glacier is any large mass of perennial ice that originates on land by the recrystallization of snow or other forms of solid precipitation and that shows evidence of past or present flow. A glacier occupying an extensive tract of relatively level land and exhibiting flow from the center outward is commonly called an ice sheet. Glaciers form when snow accumulates on a patch of land over tens to hundreds of years. The snow eventually becomes so thick that it collapses under its own weight and forms dense glacial ice. When enough of the ice is compacted together it succumbs to gravity and begins to flow downhill or spread out across flat lands. What makes glaciers unique is their ability to move. Due to sheer mass, glaciers flow like very slow rivers.
More than 90 percent of the 33 million cubic kilometers of glacier ice in the world is locked up in the gigantic Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. Found only in Antarctica and Greenland, ice sheets are enormous masses of glacial ice and snow expanding over 50,000 square kilometers. The ice sheet on Antarctica is over 4200 meters thick in some areas, covering nearly all of the land features except the Transantarctic Mountains, which protrude above the ice.


Tuesday,February 28, 2006
Glaciers & Ice Sheets
The Earth's temperature could rise under the impact of global warming to levels far higher than previously predicted, according to the United Nations' team of climate experts.

A draft of the next influential Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report will tell politicians that scientists are now unable to place a reliable upper limit on how quickly the atmosphere will warm as carbon dioxide levels increase. The report draws together research over the past five years and will be presented to national governments in April and made public next year. It raises the possibility of the Earth's temperature rising well above the ceiling quoted in earlier accounts.

Such an outcome would have severe consequences, such as the collapse of the Greenland ice sheet and disruption of the Gulf Stream ocean current.

RELATED STORY: Water Wars: Climate change may spark conflict

John Reid warns climate change may spark conflict between nations - and says British armed forces must be ready to tackle the violence

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Toll in Iraq's Deadly Surge: 1,300

Morgue Count Eclipses Other Tallies Since Shrine Attack
Photo Left: The bodies of 12 members of an Iraqi family lie on the ground outside a hospital in Baquba, 40 miles northeast of Baghdad, on Feb. 25, after gunmen stormed their house and killed them.

Washington Post Foreign ServiceTuesday, February 28, 2006
BAGHDAD, Feb. 27 -- Grisly attacks and other sectarian violence unleashed by last week's bombing of a Shiite Muslim shrine have killed more than 1,300 Iraqis, making the past few days the deadliest of the war outside of major U.S. offensives, according to Baghdad's main morgue. The toll was more than three times higher than the figure previously reported by the U.S. military and the news media.
Hundreds of unclaimed dead lay at the morgue at midday Monday -- blood-caked men who had been shot, knifed, garroted or apparently suffocated by the plastic bags still over their heads. Many of the bodies were sprawled with their hands still bound -- and many of them had wound up at the morgue after what their families said was their abduction by the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

RELATED EDITORIAL REPORT: Good news, we found the body Rama Schneider
I'm not sure how much evidence it'll take to convince us, the people of the United States, it is up to us to literally force our government to end its (and ours by the way) warlike ways. I'm not sure what it'll take to convince our nation's youth poor job prospects are not a legitimate reason to kill and maim folks who never attacked us. Maybe what people in Baghdad are grateful for nowadays will help ...
There's yet one more telling story discussing Bush's (and ours) viscous, torturous, bloody Iraqi war. "Grisly attacks and other sectarian violence unleashed by last week's bombing of a Shiite Muslim shrine have killed more than 1,300 Iraqis, making the past few days the deadliest of the war outside of major U.S. offensives, according to Baghdad's main morgue.The toll was more than three times higher than the figure previously reported by the U.S. military and the news media." (Toll in Iraq's Deadly Surge: 1,300, Washington Post, 02/28/06).
The article goes on to discuss hundreds of unclaimed bodies that included "blood-caked men who had been shot, knifed, garroted or apparently suffocated by the plastic bags still over their heads." I pointed out in a previous post (We could've just left Saddam in place) none of this should be surprising. The formula is very simple: violence begets more violence, and extremely few in the U.S. government appear to have the courage, intelligence, honesty and moral backbone to realize we need to change our own ways to effect a positive change in the situation in Iraq.
Simply put how much more pain, death and destruction must we help inflict upon other people?The final sentence of the above referenced WP story reads '"Good news, we found the body," another man called out. "We found him."' Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we as a people are in great part responsible for the circumstances in Iraq that led to that sad statement.

Dry winter points way to summer drought for Europe

BREAKING EARTH NEWS
Published: February 27 2006 02:00 Last updated: February 27 2006 02:00
The drought that threatens much of western and southern Europe this summer is already creating problems in France, Spain and the UK, and will grow more serious if meteorologists are right in their predictions
Drought poses a threat to farmers and tourism, but also to electricity generation and industries such as food processing and semiconductors, which require water as an input or for cooling.
Winter rainfall has been disappointing across much of the continent, and with some countries still recovering from the effects of a relatively dry winter last year and the heatwave of 2003, sustained heavy rain over the next two months would be needed to avoid the risk of drought this summer.

Snow cyclone paralyses traffic

BREAKING CLIMATE NEWS
YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, February 28 (Itar-Tass) - A snow cyclone that has moved from the Sakhalin Island on Tuesday has covered with deep snow almost all local roads. Traffic is paralysed on the main 800-kilometre highway connecting the south and north of Sakhalin. There is no way from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to the Nevelsk and Kholmsk cities. At some places the thickness of snow layer above roads is reaching 1.5 metres. Over 130 bulldozers, graders, rotary and other snow-clearing machines have been dispatched to liquidate the aftermath of the snowstorm, the automobile roads department of the Sakhalin region has reported.
The descent of snow avalanches on roads has been registered everywhere. The avalanches are not big, but in many places they come down one on another and form dense snow layers on roads. A snow jam on the Lovetsky pass on which the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk-Nevelsk road runs is three kilometres in size.
According to Sakhalin meteorologists, at present the centre of the cyclone has moved to the Sea of Okhotsk, but snowstorms continue in the north of the island where the wind speed is 22 metres per second.

Secrets Of The Deep May Hold Clue To Ancient Global Warming

Photo Above: Jointly supervised by the University of Leicester Department of Geology and the British Geological Survey (BGS), a postgraduate researcher based at Leicester and the BGS is to investigate exquisitely preserved fossil zooplankton known as graptolites, which may hold some clues to global warming events 420 million years ago. (Image courtesy of University Of Leicester)

Posted Feb 26, 2006

Global warming events 420 million years ago, comparable to those currently beginning to affect our planet, may have caused catastrophic environmental changes in an ancient ocean, threatening the life that existed in it.

Jointly supervised by the University of Leicester Department of Geology and the British Geological Survey (BGS), a postgraduate researcher based at Leicester and the BGS is to investigate exquisitely preserved fossil zooplankton known as graptolites, which may hold some clues to these events.
These mysterious creatures were entombed 420 million years ago in layers of mud at the bottom of this former deep sea, which was subsequently transformed into the mountains of central Wales.
PhD student Andrea Snelling, working with fellow Leicester scientists Jan Zalasiewicz and Alex Page, will use the graptolites as biological tracers to study the behaviour of that ancient ocean, in which life on the sea floor was periodically killed off. Global warming is one of several possible causes that will be examined.
Andrea Snelling commented:
"These oceans, and the animals that lived in them, were very unlike the ones we know today. Yet understanding these ancient phenomena may help us understand the changes that are taking place in our oceans today."
Editor's Note: The original news release can be found here.

Iraq government warns of "endless civil war"

Feb 26, 2007
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's defense minister warned on Saturday of a "civil war" that "will never end" and said he was ready to put tanks on the streets as sectarian violence flared despite a second day of curfew in Baghdad.
Extending a traffic ban in the capital to Monday after battles around Sunni mosques and a car bomb in a holy Shi'ite city, leaders scrambled to break a round of reprisals sparked by a suspected al Qaeda bombing of a Shi'ite shrine on Wednesday.
The gravest crisis since the U.S. invasion in 2003 threatens Washington's hopes of withdrawing its 136,000 troops from Iraq.
"If there is a civil war in this country it will never end," Defense Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi, a minority Sunni Muslim in the Shi'ite-led interim government, told a news conference.
"We are ready to fill the streets with armored vehicles."

New Orleans A Shadow Of Former Self Six Months After Hurricane

SKYWATCH SPECIAL REPORT
New Orleans LO (AFP) Feb 26, 2006
The bright lights of Bourbon Street are back. Beads are being thrown from balconies. Beer and hurricanes are being served to go. But six months after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, the Big Easy remains a shadow of its former self. "It's bad. If it would have been last year you wouldn't be able to walk, there'd be so many people," said Sangite Malla.
Tourists flying in for Mardi Gras see a city pock-marked by blue tarps covering roofs that haven't been repaired.
Those who stray outside the French Quarter and Garden District find neighborhoods abandoned to the mould and rot that followed floodwaters that lingered for weeks.
Deadened traffic lights have been replaced with stop signs. Houses that were knocked off their foundations remain crumbled in the middle of the street.
More than half the city's population is still scattered across the country. Some have vowed never to return. Many are afraid to rebuild their houses until the levees are repaired and reinforced, a process that could take years. Those who came back are exhausted.
Casual conversations quickly degenerate into tales of repair work left to be done, government assistance checks that haven't arrived and the struggles to secure temporary housing amid skyrocketing rents and promised trailers that never materialize.
"It is an unbelievable nightmare. Not only did we see the destruction, but there's this retrauma from all these things that you thought you could count on in a disaster letting you down," said Ann Wilder, a counselor with the New Orleans Mental Health Resilience Team who has seen a dramatic spike in depression and anxiety.
Most people expect it will be years before the city looks normal again. Few think it will ever be the same.

Continue
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Bird flu spreads amid pandemic fears

BREAKING VIRAL NEWS: PANDEMIC ALERT
A GLOBAL CONCERN: VIEW SLIDESHOW

Feb 27, 2006
BIRD flu continues to spread, with 14 European countries as well as Egypt, India, Nigeria and Iraq reporting poultry or wild birds that have been infected by avian influenza.
The confirmation of the H5N1 strain of the virus at a commercial farm in the EU has thrown France's $A10 billion poultry industry into chaos. Daniel Clair was forced to destroy 11,000 turkeys at his farm in the Ain region of south-east France. "I found 400 bodies and the others were already very sick," he told Le Parisien newspaper. "It struck like lightning."
But although China reported two new cases of bird flu in humans yesterday, World Health Organisation specialists stressed there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission.
Dr Michael Perdue of the WHO's Global Influenza Program said he was encouraged by the absence of new cases of human infection this year in Vietnam and Thailand.
Asked about the chances of a human pandemic, Dr Perdue said that on a scale of 1 to 10 "maybe we're midway, around 4 or 5 but the next question is, 'How long does it take to get to the number 6?' These are very difficult questions to answer."

RELATED STORY: Bird flu strikes in France
Feb 27, 2006
The European Union's first outbreak of the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu in commercial poultry was confirmed Saturday in France, the EU's largest poultry producer.
But President Jacques Chirac, trying to keep the lucrative market alive, sought to ease fears by insisting that eating poultry is safe and panic is unjustified.

China On 'High Alert' Over Bird Flu
(CBS/AP) China's agriculture minister is warning of a possible "massive bird flu outbreak" as the country announced two new human cases of the H5N1 flu strain, raising to 14 the number of human infections reports since October. "In view of the current situation, the possibility of a massive bird flu outbreak could not be ruled out," Agriculture Ministry Du Qinglin said Saturday, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. He called for agriculture authorities to be on "high alert" and to step up disease monitoring and vaccination efforts.

Weather burns a hole into India’s bread basket

SKYWATCH EARTH NEWS
Untimely heat causes poor grain quality, lower wheat yields in Punjab

LUDHIANA, FEBRUARY 16: At a time when wheat stocks have hit a new low, there is a serious problem to reckon with. Over the last five years, the per hectare yield of wheat in Punjab has fallen. Experts believe it is due to the temperatures rising steadily in January and February, a time most crucial for the wheat crop.
The average day and night temperatures have been 4-5 degrees Celsius higher than the normal.

Scores evacuated after flash floods hit Malaysia

CLIMATE NEWS
Feb 26, 2006
Scores of Malaysians are evacuated and others are trapped in their homes after heavy overnight rain triggered flash floods, a disaster response official say.
Four hours of continuous rain caused the Damansara river west of the capital Kuala Lumpur to burst its banks and flood hundreds of homes in the suburb of Shah Alam and surrounding areas.
"Up to 400 homes have been flooded and we have so far evacuated 150 people," Borhan Madon, an officer with the fire and rescue department, told AFP.
Borhan said floodwater in Kebun Bunga village was up to two metres (6.6 feet) deep.
"We are still evacuating people in our boats. But many refuse to move out," he said, adding that some 84 personnel are involved in the rescue.

Snow causes chaos on Algerian roads

BREAKING CLIMATE NEWS: North Africa
Photo Left: Satellite Image of Snow Across Morocco and Algeria
CLICK HERE TO ENLARGE PHOTO

Feb 27, 2006
Algeria - Heavy snow has cut off villages and clogged key arteries leading away from the Algerian capital Algiers for several days, national police said on Sunday.Djelfa, which had 70cm, was "totally paralysed", the Algerian Press Agency reported.At least 60cm of snow blanketed villages near Djelfa and Medea, respectively 270km and 80km south of Algiers.An AFP reporter said only donkeys and mules could ply the roads around the villages.Snow is unusual in the north African country, but last winter saw snowfalls of more than two metres in several parts of the north-east.The main roads remained dangerous even after they were cleared, authorities warned.

Strong Quake Strikes Nears Fiji Islands

BREAKING SEISMIC NEWS
February 26, 2006, 4:21 AM EST
HONG KONG -- A strong earthquake struck off Fiji Islands in the South Pacific on Sunday, Hong Kong seismologists said. It was not immediately clear if the tremor caused any casualties or damages.
The magnitude-6.5 quake struck at 11:20 a.m. Sunday, and the epicenter was located about 390 miles southwest of the Fijian capital of Suva, the Hong Kong Observatory said in a brief statement. The U.S. Geological Survey also reported the magnitude at 6.5.

RELATED NEWS: Tremor frees butterflies
Feb 26, 2006
While Friday's quake was relatively minor, the feelings of uneasiness last longer than the shakeup

Residents seek answers to mystery booms and shaking

SKYWATCH SPECIAL REPORT

February 24, 2006
SKOWHEGAN, Maine --People in Somerset County are seeking answers after feeling earthquake-like tremors this week.
The Somerset County Communications Center got calls Thursday morning from at least a dozen residents who reported tremors in a 15-mile radius in Anson, Madison, Skowhegan and Norridgewock.
But state officials said there weren't any earthquakes that were documented by the New England Seismic Network, which tracks earthquake activity.
Somerset County Emergency Management Director Robert Higgins said he wants a second look. People in Solon last week reported hearing an unexplained loud explosion that shook homes, he said.
"I'd like them to re-look at what they may have. This is the second occurrence in less than a week of such magnitude," he said.
Norridgewock Town Manager John Doucette said Thursday's event sounded and felt like a Dumpster had fallen off a truck or a truck had hit the town office building, but that nothing could be found when employees went outside to see what happened.
More than a mile away, Jeffrey McGown said he felt the shaking in his office. But he, too, couldn't find the cause.
"It felt like somebody with a delivery type of vehicle had backed into our building," McGown said.
Six miles away in Anson, the boom and shaking were so strong that an off-duty dispatcher called the county's dispatch center. He thought maybe his chimney collapsed or his furnace exploded, but he couldn't determine the cause either.

Related Story
Reports continued to pour in Friday from residents who said they experienced what appeared to be earthquake tremors at about 10 a.m. Thursday morning. "The number and validity of reports received Thursday and Friday - in addition to similar reports last Friday in Solon - indicate Thursday's event was significant and not just a sonic boom."

Recent Related Report
Booms Are Back
Jan 16, 2006
In early January, a huge boom actually shook houses and rattled windows along the Carolina coast. Local TV channel WECT and sound technician Alex Markowski, who teaches at the University of North Carolina recorded the boom on tape. Markowski picked up the low frequency sounds on his special recording equipment.

Heavy snow continues in Liaoning province

BREAKING CLIMATE NEWS
Photo Left: A thick blanket of snow covered northeast China's Liaoning Province Saturday. Weather report says most parts of the province are still expecting more snowfall.(Photo: Xinhua)

SHENYANG, Feb. 25 (Xinhuanet) -- A thick blanket of snow covered northeast China's Liaoning Province Saturday and a weather report said most parts of the province would still expect heavy snowfall or blizzard.
The central meteorological station in the provincial capital Shenyang sent a red alarm for snow disaster at 5:46 a.m., indicating the snowstorm could seriously affect local traffic and the stock raising industry within two hours.
In China, the alarm of incidents, including disastrous weather,is shown in red, orange, yellow and blue respectively, with an red alarm standing for top urgency.
Due to a chilling front from Baikal, a rare snowstorm started to hit Liaoning Province Friday, the first heavy snowfall since Feb. 4, the day that marks the start of spring in the Chinese lunar calendar.
The snow closed Shenyang's Taoxian International Airport and five of the province's total 10 expressways.
As it takes time to clean off the thick snow blanket on the parking apron and runways, airport authorities said the airport will probably resume operation at 12:00 p.m. Saturday, instead of 8:00 a.m. as was predicted on Friday.
On Saturday morning, the fallen snow in downtown Shenyang measured at least 15 centimeters.

Preparedness is the key to survival in storms

Feb 26, 2006
Article posted in its entirety
It's Severe Weather Awareness Week, and Jim Burns, director of Clark County's Office of Emergency Management, wants to help residents of the county prepare for possible storms.
Preparedness is the key to survival in severe weather, he said. Severe weather is not limited to tornadoes. "Ice storms, strong thunderstorms, flooding, wind storms, these are all severe weather."
He reminds residents to check batteries in NOAA weather radios and flashlights in case of power outages. It's also a good idea to check supplies in storm shelters or safe rooms and make sure there is enough food and water for the family.
Burns said his office has a few NOAA weather radios that can be provided free of charge to daycare and senior citizen centers. For more information on severe weather preparedness, contact him at 246-0013.
In an average year, Arkansas has 21 confirmed tornadoes, according to data from the National Weather Service in Little Rock. Most of those tornadoes occur in March, April and May. However, 2005 was a most unusual year, Burns said.
In 2005, only four tornadoes had been reported in the state through the end of May. But 40 more tornadoes were seen during the rest of the year, including 15 that were spawned in August by Hurricane Rita, according to the National Weather Service. However, the most tornadoes ever verified in one day occurred on Nov. 27, 2005, when 31 tornadoes were spotted in Arkansas. Two of those storms were rated F3, which means they included winds of more than 150 mph. One of the tornadoes hit Conway County near Plumerville, causing one fatality.
Two more tornadoes occurred in December, bringing the total to 52 for the year, according to statistics from the National Weather Service in Little Rock.
Also unusual was the path of the storms, Burns said.
Typically, tornadoes in Arkansas travel along the "I-30/U.S. 67/167 corridor," Burns said. That is, tornadoes travel southwest to northeast, or diagonally, across the state.
The path is supported by geographic data, he said. "Tornadoes take the path of least resistance," he said. By traveling along the foothills of Arkansas' mountain ranges, the tornadoes skip across the state in the lower-lying areas.
Last year, tornadoes struck areas that often don't see such storms, in Yell Conway, Cleburne, Fulton and Sharp counties.
No one knows why that happened. "The National Weather Service has no explanation for it," Burns said. "I wouldn't blame it on anything but the providence of God."

Chertoff Worried Gulf Not Ready for Storms

Feb 24, 2006
Photo Left: Houses are still sit where they floated together in St. Bernard Parish La. Thursday Feb. 23, 2006. The houses are in the same location almost six months after Hurricane Katrina devastated the region. (AP Photo/)

WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Friday he is worried the Gulf Coast may not be ready to withstand another major storm as it struggles to recover from Hurricane Katrina.
Less than 100 days before the start of the next hurricane season on June 1, Chertoff said his department is working now with state and local officials to develop plans for evacuations and other emergency response priorities.
But with so much of Louisiana and Mississippi still under reconstruction with partly rebuilt homes and numerous house trailers, "I personally am very concerned," he said.
"I can't tell you when the next hurricane is going to come, or where it's going to come, but I can envision a scenario in which it will head into a partly reconstructed area that will be vulnerable," Chertoff told reporters.

Drought Intensifying in Cuba

Havana, Feb 22 (AIN)
Article posted in its entirety

A recent study has confirmed that drought is intensifying in Cuba since it rains much less now than 46 years ago. The situation is worst in the eastern provinces of the island, says the study carried out by the Cuban National Institute of Water Resources(INRH)
INRH experts warned that the average annual rainfall has decreased, between 1961 and 2000, from 1,468 millimeters to 1,335, as posted on Granma newspaper online.
In the eastern part of the country the situation is critical since the average rainfall has dropped to 1,279 millimeters. Rainfall in all five eastern provinces have diminished by 260 millimeters, adds the report.
The research confirmed that the peak month for the rainy season falls in May in the eastern provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo, while it is June in Havana, Matanzas, Villa Clara, Cienfuegos, Sancti Spiritus, Ciego de Avila, Camaguey and Las Tunas.
Calculations point to the Cauto river basin as the catchment area most affected over the last few years by drought. Compared to the period between 1931-1960, the rains there have diminished by 33 percent.

RELATED NEWS
Feb 23, 2006
MP highlights drought 'disaster zone'
The Member for Gregory says parts of western Queensland resemble a "disaster zone" because of prolonged drought.
Vaughan Johnson says he has driven the region around Charleville, Quilpie, Retreat and Jundah and it is in the worst condition he has ever seen.

UK suffers worst drought in over 100 years
DRYING UP: Serious water shortages are looming in some parts of the UK, with one town in the southeast receiving less rainfall last year than parts of Namibia and Somalia

Cyprus hit by severe sandstorm

BREAKING NEWS
Feb 25, 2006 — NICOSIA (Reuters) - Cyprus was engulfed in an unusually severe sandstorm on Saturday, sending people to hospital with breathing problems and canceling flights from the Mediterranean holiday island.
A thick blanket of gritty dust settled over the capital Nicosia, blotting out the sun and giving the capital a beige tinge from sand brought in gusts from the African Sahara.

RELATED STORY: People in hospital after sand storm
A sand storm from the Sahara Desert that hit most parts of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus sent at least 15 people to hospital and disrupted flights.

FEMA: New Madrid earthquake preparedness is agency priority

Feb 24, 2006
ST. LOUIS - Preparing for a catastrophic earthquake along the New Madrid fault is a priority, a FEMA official said Friday before a congressional field hearing on government readiness to handle natural disasters.
"New Madrid is at the top of the list," Michel Pawlowski, section chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said. "It's our primary objective."
Pawlowski told a congressional committee that FEMA has "significant concerns" for the potential of a catastrophic earthquake equal in magnitude to those that struck parts of the Mississippi River Valley in 1811-1812, and again in 1895. The estimated magnitude of those earthquakes is 7.5 or 8. The probability of a magnitude 6 or larger earthquake is 25 percent to 50 percent over the next 50 years.
Even a magnitude 7 earthquake would destroy more than 60 percent of buildings in St. Louis and Memphis, Tenn., because most buildings predate building requirements aimed at resisting the shock, officials estimate.
"A catastrophic earthquake in the central United States along the New Madrid Seismic Zone could pose unprecedented problems and challenges," Pawlowski said

RELATED INFO: Earthquakes and the New Madrid Fault Line

56 dead in Moscow roof collapse

Photo Left: The devastation following the roof collapse of a Moscow market Thursday. (AP Photo/)

Last Updated Thu, 23 Feb 2006 17:01:44 EST
CBC News
The snow-covered roof of a Moscow market collapsed on Thursday, killing at least 56 people and trapping others beneath the rubble, said emergency officials
Rescuers are using pickaxes and metal cutters to clear away the wreckage of the Bauman market, which collapsed around 5 a.m. local time.
Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu said people could be heard knocking and crying out beneath the rubble. Another Russian official, Emergency Situations Ministry head Yuri Akimov, said some were using cellphones to tell family and friends they were alive.

Britain may face water rationing

BREAKING EARTH NEWS: DROUGHT IN BRITAIN
FEB 24, 2006
BRITONS must use less water or face rationing as the country suffered its worst drought in a century, the head of the country's Environment Agency said today.In some parts of the southeast, reservoirs are at less than half their capacity at a time when they should be at or near full as the country emerges from the winter.
"We are in a serious situation now, where both the environment and our water supplies are at risk," agency chief Barbara Young said.
"Groundwater levels in some areas are the lowest on record."





RELATED STORY
Photo Left: A Kenyan Maasai herdsman walks with his cattle in search of water in Kajiado District some 110 km (68 miles) from Nairobi. REUTERS
Drought traps African farmers in vicious circle
KATHYAKA, Kenya, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Village elder Thomas Mulinge sees the drought that ruined his people's crops and left them begging for food as a punishment from God for man's sins.
"There is nothing you can do but wait for death," the greying 60-year-old said, seeking shelter from the sweltering midday heat under a dusty tree. "It is God's will."

2 cities, 3 towns get advisory on Mayon Volcano

BREAKING VOLCANIC NEWS
CLICK HERE TO ENLARGE PHOTO
Feb 23, 2006
LEGAZPI CITY — Two cities and three towns were told to be ready to evacuate as Mayon Volcano spewed ash 500 m above its crater and more than 20 tremors jolted the area yesterday.
The provincial disaster coordinating council has issued advisories to the cities of Tabaco and Ligao and the towns of Malilipot, Daraga and Camalig amid increased seismic activity, said action officer Cedric Daep.
Daep added that some 10 villages on the slope of the volcano would have to be moved once the volcano erupts.

RELATED STORY: 9 earthquakes recorded in Philippine volcano
MANILA, Feb. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- Nine volcanic earthquakes were recorded on Thursday in Mayon volcano in Albay, 330 km south east to Manila, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS)

Search For Massive Landslide Survivors Has Ended

BREAKING EARTH NEWS
Photo Left: U.S. Marines from the 31st. Marine Expedition Unit crawl so as not to sink in the mud at the landslide area Friday, Feb. 24, 2006 in Guinsaugon, Leyte, southeast of Manila. The U.S. Marines 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit who were diverted from their joint military exercise in Jolo have joined in the ongoing search and rescue operations of landslide victims. (AP Photo)
Feb 24, 2006
GUINSAUGON, Philippines -- Rescue teams abandoned the search for survivors of a landslide that buried a farming village, and now will focus on helping people left homeless by the disaster, the provincial governor said Friday.
"We have collectively decided to stop the search and rescue phase of the operation," said Gov. Rosette Lerias of Southern Leyte province.
"We have decided to move on to recovery and rehabilitation of survivors because our greater responsibility ... is to rebuild the lives of those who have been devastated by this disaster," she said.

Heavy Rains Prompt Widespread Hawaii Flooding

BREAKING CLIMATE NEWS
Farmers Fear Smaller Harvest
PHOTO: CLICK HERE TO ENLARGE

POSTED: 7:15 am PST February 22, 2006
UPDATED: 7:45 am PST February 22, 2006
HONOLULU -- The National Weather Service placed Kauai, Oahu and Molokai under several weather alerts on Tuesday as heavy rains pounded the area.
Heavy rains flooded homes and farms on Kauai on Monday and shut down the only road into and out of Hanalei.
People who live in Hanalei said it's the worst flooding they've seen there in more than five years. The wettest spot on the island got about 18 inches of rain in a 24-hour period.
Hanalei Valley was covered with floodwaters. There were only a few spots where some of the taro grown there was still visible.
At mid-afternoon on Tuesday, the 24-hour rainfall total for Hanalei River was 8 inches and Mount Waialeale above it, the wettest spot in the world, recorded more than 18 inches of rain in the last day.
Hanalei taro farmers said the floods will stunt their crops, meaning a smaller harvest.

Building structure collapses in Manila

BREAKING EARTH NEWS

Feb 23, 2006
The metal foundations of a building under construction in Manila collapsed following ground movement along Adriatico Street in Manila, ABS-CBN News reported.
The gap created by the shifting of the street virtually swallowed two parked vehicles by the roadside past 4 p.m. No one was hurt as the vehicles were left parked without passengers.
Initial reports from ABS-CBN TV Patrol World said the metal beams supporting the Adriatico Towers near Robinson's Place Manila gave way after a tremor shook the area. The site is being managed by construction company DM Consunji Inc.
The gap created a six-foot road slip that sank the vehicles.
Past 6 p.m., the construction site's tower crane collapsed.
Guimbi Valenzuela, a resident in the area, said the metal beams of the structure gave way after the street collapse.
Police were immediately dispatched to the area to prevent onlookers from straying into the road gap, which has been continued to sink from ground level.

What's stalling local hurricane recovery?

UPDATE: HURRICANE KATRINA RELIEF EFFORTS
BALTIMORE (February 20, 2006) — Lack of state and national collaboration is weakening local hurricane recovery and hampering preparation for next hurricane season, say community leaders
Despite fresh political appointees and new task forces, the nation is still unprepared for another disaster the size of Hurricane Katrina, showed a report released this month.
More than half of states nationwide reported uncertainty about being prepared for a catastrophic disaster.

France reports second case of bird flu, India expands bird cull

BREAKING VIRAL NEWS: FRANCE
Feb 23, 2006
Even as India struggles to contain bird flu, France has reported its second case of the dreaded H5N1 virus in a wild duck. Laboratory reports confirmed the presence of the virus in a duck in the Ain region in eastern France. The first duck that died due to avian flu was found in the same region in a village called Joyeux.According to the French agriculture ministry, the second duck had a strain of H5N1 virus that was “99 per cent homologous with the virus identified in the wild duck in Joyeux on Saturday”. Preventive measures like close monitoring of the area and vaccination of poultry would now be enforced to curb the disease from spreading further, the ministry added.The rapid spread of the disease is worrying medical experts the world over. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), outbreaks of the disease have been noted in poultry farms in Kano, Plateau, Katsina, Bauchi and Abuja regions of Nigeria.

Magnitude 7.5 Earthquake Hits Mozambique

BREAKING SEISMIC NEWS
MAPUTO, Mozambique Feb 22, 2006 (AP)— A powerful earthquake struck Mozambique early Thursday morning, shaking buildings and forcing people from hundreds of miles around to dash into the streets for safety. There were no early reports of injuries.
The magnitude-7.5 quake struck at 12:19 a.m. in southern Mozambique, 140 miles southwest of the coastal city of Beira, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The temblor was felt in the neighboring nations of Zimbabwe and Zambia and as far south as Durban, South Africa, 800 miles away.

SEISMIC UPDATE: Powerful earthquake strikes Southern African east coast; two killed and around 30 hurt

An earthquake struck Mozambique early Thursday morning making people scamper into the streets of its capital Maputo and other major cities of the country. Two people have been confirmed killed and 13 were injured in Espungabero while 30 were reported injured from Maputo. Measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale, its impact was felt most in the port city of Beira, 140 miles northeast of the epicenter

Major earthquakes are UNUSUAL in southern Africa. "It's a significant and unexpected earthquake in this region. We'll expect aftershocks from an earthquake this large." [5.3 and 5.4 this morning] Emergency services in the South African city of Durban, nearly 1,000km from the epicentre, received calls from frightened people in hotels and flats on the beachfront. Tremors were also felt in Johannesburg.