5.4-magnitude quake hits offshore Chile

An earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale jolted offshore Valparaiso, Chile, at 07:10 GMT on Sunday,

Mount Merapi spews pyroclastic smoke as seen from Balerante village in Klaten, near the ancient city of Yogyakarta, Oct 29, 2010. [Photo/Agencies]

More than 160 flights cancelled as Typhoon Chaba heads for Okinawa

TOKYO - Japan's weather bureau issued warnings for gales and high waves in the south of the country as Typhoon Chaba approached the island of Okinawa, forcing more than 160 flight cancellations and disrupting refinery shipments.

Winds, rain ... even snow in huge US storm

CHICAGO - A massive storm making its way through a big chunk of the United States brought a bit of everything: Strong winds, rain, tornadoes and even some snow.

Deadly Eruption

Vietnam Flood

Typhoon Megi hits Phillipines

Indonesia Flash Flooding

Massive storm system marches eastward

Two strong quakes jolt off Alaska's Andreanof Islands

Two earthquakes measuring 6.4 and 6.1 on the Richter scale jolted off Alaska's Andreanof Islands Thursday evening

2 weeks of flooding in Thailand kill 57 people

BANGKOK -- Heavy downpours that caused rivers to burst around Thailand have killed 57 people in nearly two weeks of flooding that officials are calling the worst in several decades, authorities said Wednesday.

A man holds his dog while walking through flood waters at the Buddha Antique Market in Bangkok October 27, 2010. [Photo/Agencies]

The fatalities have occurred in central, eastern and northeastern provinces and have affected more than 3 million people in 36 of Thailand's 76 provinces, government medical and disaster agencies said. The floods have eased in a third of those provinces.

Brazilians cross the muddy bottom of the Rio Negro, a major tributary to the Amazon river, in the city of Manaus, Oct 26, 2010. A severe drought has pushed river levels in Brazil's Amazon region to record lows, leaving isolated communities dependent on emergency aid and thousands of boats stranded on parched riverbeds. [Photo/Agencies]

Biggest Storm in 70 Years Blasts Chicago

Strong wind and torrential rain buffeted the Midwest Tuesday as forecasters predicted the giant storm could be the most powerful to hit Illinois in over seven decades.

The storm — quickly nicknamed a "chiclone" and "windpocalypse" — swept an area that stretched from the Dakotas to the eastern Great Lakes

Floods hit Jakarta

Office workers wade through a flooded street in the main business district of Jakarta on Monday. About an hour of torrential rain triggered knee-high floods on the main streets of the capital and caused heavy traffic jams.

A 7.1-magnitude quake off the north coast of Papua in June killed 17 people and left thousands homeless.

The 2004 Asian tsunami - triggered by a 9.3-magnitude quake off Sumatra - killed at least 168,000 people in Indonesia alone.

A 7.6-magnitude quake killed about 1,000 people in the port of Padang on September 30 last year.

Indonesian tsunami kills 40, hundreds missing

JAKARTA - A tsunami that pounded remote islands in western Indonesia following an earthquake off the coast of Sumatra killed at least 40 people, officials said on Tuesday, with at least 380 still missing.

Indonesia volcano

Indonesia warned yesterday that its most volatile volcano could erupt at any time and started evacuating some of the thousands of villagers living on the mountain's slope.

Mount Merapi has seen increased volcanic activity over the past week and officials have raised the alert level for the 2,968-meter-high mountain to the most urgent level,

Indonesian quake

JAKARTA - A strong earthquake hit late yesterday off the western coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island but no damage or casualties were reported.

Tremor hits SW China's Sichuan Province

CHENGDU - A 4.0-magnitude earthquake hit southwest China's Sichuan Province Monday morning and the tremor was felt in the provincial capital Chengdu

Moderate quake rocks eastern Indonesia

JAKARTA, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- A shallow moderate quake with magnitude of 5.1 struck off Maluku province in eastern parts of Indonesia on Monday, the meteorology and Geophysics Agency said here.

Tropical storm Richard heads for Honduras

(CNN) -- Tropical Storm Richard is moving steadily toward the Bay Islands of Honduras, bringing strong winds and heavy rains to the popular tourism destination, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said early Sunday.

Myanmar state media mum on Cyclone Giri destruction

Yangon - Myanmar's state-run media was mum Sunday on the destruction wrought by Cyclone Giri on the western Rakhine State.

Cyclone Giri, packing 160 km/h winds, reportedly caused tidal waves of seven to eight metres above the normal water level, impacting islands and Kyaukpyu, a city of 185,000 on the Rakhine coastline, where 75 per cent of houses have been partly damaged.

Residents roused from sleep as magnitude-5.1 quake hits Philippines

A magnitude 5.1 quake hit anew parts of southern Philippines early on Sunday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Significant aftershock rattles New Zealand's Christchurch

WELLINGTON, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- A 4.8-magnitude aftershock shook New Zealand South Island's largest city of Christchurch on Sunday afternoon.

M4.7 quake jolts central China

ZHENGZHOU - A magnitude-4.7 quake hit central China's Henan Province Sunday afternoon, seismological authorities said.

Tremor can be felt across eastern Henan, including provincial capital Zhengzhou City. Casualties were not immediately known.

Strong cyclone rumbles into Myanmar

(CNN) -- An overpowering tropical cyclone that intensified rapidly has made landfall in western Myanmar, CNN meteorologists said Friday.

270,000 evacuated as Typhoon Megi makes landfall

FUZHOU - Tens of thousands of residents have been evacuated as Megi, the 13th typhoon to hit China this year, made landfall in Zhangzhou city in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian at 12:55 pm Saturday

5.7-magnitude earthquake hits central Chile

SANTIAGO - An earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale hit the Bio Bio region in central Chile early Saturday, without causing casualties or damage.

Tornado kills 6, injures 116 in Argentina

At least six people died and 116 more injured in Formosa province, north of Argentina due to a tornado, authorities said on Friday.

Megi strands hundreds tourists in Taiwan

Cars were submerged in streets of Ilan County, Taiwan, Oct 21, 2010 as super Typhoon Megi arrived. More than 500 mainland tourists have been stranded in Taiwan by heavy rains brought by typhoon Megi since Thursday, with at least 19 of them out of contact.

Strong quake shakes Chile

SANTIAGO - A 5.8-magnitude quake shook central Chile late on Wednesday, swaying buildings in the capital Santiago, but causing no damage,

Floods kill dozens in Thailand and Cambodia

AYUTTHAYA - The worst floods in decades in Thailand and severe flooding in neighbouring Cambodia have killed 20 people, the authorities said yesterday, as rescue workers braced for more rain and possible flooding in Bangkok.

Rescue teams evacuated stranded villagers by boat in some Thai provinces, including the old capital Ayutthaya, where flood waters swelled to about 1.5m in some districts, cutting off roads and inundating homes, shops and farmlands.

Flooding has hit a total of 17 provinces in Thailand. The country's Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said 12 people had been killed since Oct 10.

The authorities said the swelling Chao Phraya river, which winds through Bangkok and nearby provinces, could overflow its banks in the coming week, causing flooding in the city of about 15 million people. Bangkok sits only 2m above sea level.

In neighbouring Cambodia, the floods have killed eight people and caused an estimated US$70 million ($92 million) in damage. Reuters

Philippine death toll from typhoon Megi rises to 10

A general view shows houses submerged by flooding due to heavy rains brought by Typhoon Megi in Baguio City, Benguet province, north of Manila on October 19, 2010. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

Snowstorm paralyses transport in N China city

HOHHOT - An overnight snowstorm has paralysed transportation systems in Chifeng city, Inner Mongolia, forcing highways and an airport to close,

Christchurch rocked by another quake

AUCKLAND - The New Zealand city of Christchurch and surrounding districts were rocked by a magnitude-5 earthquake, with strong shaking felt throughout the area.

Christchurch is recovering from a magnitude-7 earthquake that struck on Sept 4, severely damaging houses, buildings and roads.

Super typhoon lashes Philippines, kills at least 3

A resident prepares to cut fallen trees blocking the highway at the onslaught of typhoon Megi Monday Oct 18, 2010 at Cauayan, Isabela province in Philippines. [Photo/Agencies]

Super Typhoon Megi, blowing across the northern Philippines, was forecast next to head toward China and Vietnam, where recent floods unrelated the storm have caused 30 deaths.

On Monday, strong currents on Vietnam's flooded main highway swept away a bus and 20 of its passengers, including a boy pulled from his mother's grasp. In China, authorities evacuated 140,000 people from a coastal province ahead of the typhoon.

A pertoleum station stands amid the wade in central Vietnam as heavy rains continue pouring which has killed 21, devastating over 150,000 housese and buildings. [Photo/Xinhua]

HANOI, Vietnam -- The death toll from heavy rains in central Vietnam has risen to 21, with eight people missing.

Floods earlier this month killed 66 people and left 17 missing in Vietnam's central region. Typhoon Megi could add to the misery, with more rains forecast for the region in the coming days.

Philippines braces for Megi

MANILA - AN APPROACHING typhoon triggered warnings in 19 northern Philippines provinces with forecasters expecting it to intensify to a super typhoon with winds in excess of 250 kmh as it makes landfall on Monday.

Death toll of south Russia flood rises to 11

MOSCOW, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- The death toll of the floods in southern Russia's Krasnodar region has risen to 11, local authorities said Saturday.


Torrential rains in mountainous areas caused rivers to overflow, flooding 21 villages. About 300 people were evacuated and a state of emergency was imposed in the area earlier.

China braces for strongest typhoon this year: forecast

BEIJING, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- China is expected to battle the strongest typhoon this year as Typhoon Megi intensified into a super typhoon Sunday, China's National Meteorological Center (NMC) said in a statement.

6.1-magnitude quake hits Kepulauan Barat Daya, Indonesia

An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale jolted Kepulauan Barat Daya, Indonesia at 2010-10-16 15:44:32 GMT on Saturday.

Two earthquakes hit off coast of Tonga

Two moderate earthquakes occurred off the coast of the Pacific island kingdom of Tonga on Sunday morning. There are no immediate reports of damage.

Powerful earthquake hits Timor Leste

An undersea earthquake with 6.1 on the Richter scale struck off Timor Leste on Saturday, there was no report of damage or casualty.

New storms hit Hainan, 500 dams threatened

A new round of storms has been pounding south China's island province of Hainan since Thursday, raising water levels in the province's 500 reservoirs and major rivers to dangerous points, local officials said Saturday.

Hainan was ravaged by heavy rains early this month, forcing more than 440,000 residents to be evacuated.

Tropical storm Paula affects western Cuba

HAVANA, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- The rains of tropical storm Paula began affecting Cuba since early Thursday morning, mainly in Pinar del Rio province in the west of the island state.

1.5 million people hit by floods in Africa

Nearly 1.5 million people have been affected by floods and 377 killed in Western and Central Africa, with Chad, Northern Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria facing a serious cholera epidemic, United Nations relief officials reported today

Large areas of Earth drying up: study

Mainly due to climate change, large swaths of Earth have been drying up, posing a threat to the ecosystem, a new study available Los Angeles on Tuesday finds.

The drying areas are mainly in the Southern Hemisphere, including large parts of Australia, Africa and South America, according to the study conducted by researchers at Oregon State University.

In large portions of the world, soils are now becoming drier than they used to be, releasing less water and offsetting some moisture increases elsewhere, said the study published in the Oct. issue of the journal Nature.

The study is the first major one of its kind to look at the movement of water from the land to the atmosphere, called " evapotranspiration," on a global scale.

Most climate models have suggested that evapotranspiration would increase with global warming, because of increased evaporation of water from the ocean and more precipitation overall (water that can evaporate).

Because the data only goes back for a few decades, the researchers say they can't be certain whether the change is part of the natural variability of climate or part of a longer-lasting global change.

One possibility, though, is that on a global level, a limit to the acceleration of the hydrological cycle (the transfer of water between land, air and sea) on land has already been reached.

If that's the case, the consequences could be serious. They could include reduced terrestrial vegetation growth, less carbon absorption, a loss of the natural cooling mechanism provided by evapotranspiration, more heating of the land surface, more intense heat waves and a "feedback loop" that could intensify global warming, the study said.

"We didn't expect to see this shift in evapotranspiration over such a large area of the Southern Hemisphere," said study co- author Beverly Law, a professor of global change forest science.

"It is critical to continue such long-term observations, because until we monitor this for a longer period of time, we can' t be sure why this is occurring."

Xinhua, October 13, 2010

6.3 magnitude quake rocks Papua, Indonesia

An shallow undersea quake of 6.3 magnitude struck off West Papua in eastern parts Indonesia on early Tuesday evening, but there were no reports of damage or casualty and was not potential for tsunami.

Report warns of drastic glacier shrinkage in China

The average area of glaciers in western China might shrink by about 30 percent by 2050 because of global warming, damaging crop production and worsening droughts.

Ocean glaciers, affected by wet airflow from the oceans, would shrink by 52.5 percent, and Asian continental glaciers, formed in the continental climate would shrink by 24.4 percent.

Drivers rescued as heavy rains continue to lash eastern Australia

Torrential downpours dumped up to 28cm of rain on parts of eastern Australia yesterday, resulting in flash floods, stranded cars and knocked out power to thousands, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

Heavy rain has been falling across coastal areas of south-eastern Queensland state since Sunday, with wind gusts of up to 100kmh ripping branches from trees and downing power lines. No injuries or deaths were reported.

Massive quake likely to strike Southern California: study

A major quake, known as the " Big One," could strike parts of Southern California at anytime, U. S. researchers announced on Sunday.

5.3-magnitude earthquake jolts Pakistan capital Islamabad

ISLAMABAD, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Panicked people rushed out of their homes as an earthquake jolted Pakistan's capital city Islamabad early Monday morning.

The tremor was also felt in most parts of northwest Pakistan including Peshawar, Muzaffarabad and Mansehra.

No casualties and damage have been reported in the earthquake, said Director General of Met Office during an interview with a local TV station.

Floods kill 1,400 in Pakistan

Continuing floods and monsoon rains have reportedly killed more than 1,400 people and marooned another 30,000 in three of the five provinces in Pakistan as of Sunday.

All Pakistani rivers are in high-level floods which would continue to pass through various areas of the country during the week spreading misery, deaths and breaking out epidemics. Sindh chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah said that the forthcoming rain and floods would affect some 400,000 people in the southern province.

2 strong quakes jolt off Alaska's Andreanof Islands

Two earthquakes measuring 6.4 and 6.1 on the Richter scale jolted off Alaska's Andreanof Islands Thursday evening, tsunamis are not expected after the two quake.

Storm surge floods coastal areas in Bangladesh, thousands flee homes

A wall of water whipped up by strong winds over the Bay of Bengal has flooded coastal areas in Bangladesh, forcing about 150,000 people to flee their homes.


A storm surge over the past two days has sent waves 1.5m-high crashing into several towns and villages along the coast of the low-lying nation, but so far, there have been no reports of casualties.

Magnitude 4.5 earthquake jolts Tibet

A magnitude 4.5 earthquake hit Ali Prefecture in the western part of Tibet Autonomous Region in southwest China on Wednesday.

Floods leave 2 missing, 33,000 evacuated in Hainan

HAIKOU, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- At least two people were missing and nearly 33,000 evacuated as floods wreaked havoc in China's southernmost island province of Hainan, local authorities said Tuesday.

Floods inundated more than 100 villages in Qionghai, Lingshui and Wanning, forcing the evacuation of 32,713 residents, the provincial flood control and drought relief office said in a statement.

Death toll rises to 3 in Hungary sludge flood

DEVECSER, Hungary – A third person has died in flooding caused by the rupture of a red sludge reservoir at an alumina plant in western Hungary, rescue services said Tuesday. Six people were missing and 120 injured in what officials said was an ecological disaster

6.3-magnitude quake hits off Japan

TOKYO - An earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale on Monday rocked the southwest island of Japan's Okinawa Prefecture,a tsunami alert was issued shortly after the quake.

Death toll from Vietnam floods rises to 49

HANOI: The death toll from floods that devastated central Vietnam in recent days has jumped to 49, disaster officials said on Wednesday.

Hardest-hit Quang Binh province recorded 33 fatalities, with 14 people still missing, after additional information reached provincial officials.

86 killed, dozens missing in Indonesian floods

JAKARTA, October 6 (Xinhua) -- Flash floods in West Papua of Indonesia have killed at least 86 people, seriously wounded 91 others and left 40 people missing.

"Eighty percent of the infrastructure have been damaged, including bridge, buildings and houses," he said.

Tropical Storm Nicole

Remnants of Tropical Storm Nicole slammed the New York region with rain and high wind Friday, delaying flights, flooding roads and causing thousands of households to lose power.

5 dead as drenching rains take aim at New England

NEW YORK — Torrential downpours from a faded tropical storm marched into the Northeast on Friday, a day after claiming five lives in North Carolina, knocking out power and dousing some East Coast cities with more rain in hours than they normally get in months.

Flash floods displace 1,500 families in S. Philippines

At least 1,500 families were displaced by flash floods brought about by heavy rains in the southern Philippines on Thursday, officials said Friday.

"Some areas are waist-deep underwater. There was no report of casualties," Guerrero said.