Manila (AFP) Dec 18, 2023 A man went missing and thousands of people in the Philippines were sheltering in evacuation centres Monday as Tropical Storm Jelawat hit the large southern island of Mindanao, causing scattered flooding and power cuts. The storm weakened as it raked across Mindanao after making landfall in the morning, but the state weather service said the threat of floods and landslides … Continue reading Thousands flee, one missing as storm hits Philippines

Cairns, Australia (AFP) Dec 19, 2023 Rescue teams on Tuesday evacuated a flood-ravaged town in northeastern Australia, racing to airlift hundreds of people to safety before they run out of food and water. Surging floodwaters have cut off the town of Wujal Wujal in Queensland state, engulfing houses, washing away roads and forcing some trapped residents to shelter on roofs. The largely Aboriginal settlement, in … Continue reading Rescue teams evacuate flood-ravaged Australian town

Reykjavik (AFP) Dec 19, 2023 A volcano in Iceland was erupting on Tuesday, with geysers of molten lava shooting into the pitch-black night sky after weeks of seismic activity had the region southwest of the capital on high alert. The eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula, just north of the fishing town Grindavik, began Monday at around 10:17 pm (22:17 GMT) after an earthquake swarm, the … Continue reading Volcano erupts in southwest Iceland after weeks of earthquakes

Washington DC (UPI) Dec 18, 2023 Hundreds of trucks filled with humanitarian aid and supplies earmarked for desperate Palestinian civilians have flowed into the Gaza Strip since Sunday after Israeli authorities reopened a pair of crossings. Almost 200 truckloads of aid entered Gaza through the Kerem Shalom and Rafah crossings on Sunday, an Israeli government spokesman said, while the Israeli civilian authority overseeihttp://dlvr.it/T0KNPC Continue reading Hundreds of aid trucks enter Gaza through Rafah, Kerem Shalom crossings

Wad Madani, Sudan (AFP) Dec 18, 2023 Sudanese paramilitaries on Monday pressed deeper into the former safe haven of Wad Madani, the capital of Al-Jazira state where they also seized the town of Rufaa, witnesses said. It came a day after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces set up a base in Wad Madani, where their offensive has sent thousands fleeing Sudan’s second city and former … Continue reading Paramilitaries seize town as fighting rages in Sudan’s second city

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Dec 18, 2023 In a compelling illustration of the escalating impacts of climate change, a recent study has brought into sharp focus the growing threat posed by Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) in the Third Pole region. The Third Pole, an area covering the Tibetan Plateau and adjacent mountain ranges, including the Himalayas, Hindu Kush, and Tianshan Mountains, has become a critical … Continue reading Third Pole’s expanding glacial lakes pose greater flood risks, research reveals

San Francisco CA (SPX) Dec 18, 2023 One of the hottest debates in archeology is how and when humans first arrived in North America. Archaeologists have traditionally argued that people walked through an ice-free corridor that briefly opened between ice sheets an estimated 13,000 years ago. But a growing number of archeological and genetic finds – including human footprints in New Mexico dated to around … Continue reading North America’s first people may have arrived by sea ice highway

Lahore, Pakistan (AFP) Dec 16, 2023 Artificial rain was used for the first time in Pakistan on Saturday in a bid to combat hazardous levels of smog in the megacity of Lahore, the provincial government said. In the first experiment of its kind in the South Asian country, planes equipped with cloud seeding equipment flew over 10 areas of the city, often ranked one of … Continue reading Pakistan uses artificial rain against smog for first time

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 18, 2023 Beef operations that keep cattle on lifelong grass-based diets may have an overall higher carbon footprint than those that switch cattle to grain-based diets partway through their lives. Daniel Blaustein-Rejto of the Breakthrough Institute, USA, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on December 13. Cattle on lifelong grass diets are known as “pasture … Continue reading Beef farming that keeps cattle on lifelong grass diets may have higher carbon footprint

Buenos Aires (AFP) Dec 17, 2023 A powerful storm led to the deaths of at least 13 people Saturday in the Argentina port city of Bahia Blanca when the roof of a sports club collapsed, authorities said. The heavy rains and wind that pummelled Bahia Blanca caused the roof to give way at a facility where a skating competition was taking place, according to sources … Continue reading 13 dead in Argentina as club roof collapses in storm