around_the_world_today_June

                         AROUND THE WORLD: JUNE 1st - 15th, 2008

AROUND THE WORLD - MARCH 2008

AROUND THE WORLD - APRIL 2008

AROUND THE WORLD - MAY 1st - 20th, 2008

AROUND THE WORLD - MAY 21st - 31st, 2008

Subject: Around the World Today - Sunday 15th June

USA: Iowa - Cedar Rapids floods continue to impact across a vast area. More rain was headed to flood-ravaged Iowa today where tens of thousands of residents had been forced to flee their homes as officials struggled to reinforce breached levies and stem the rushing waters.

MEXICO: Tropical storm affects more than 211,000 people in Mexico
At least 211,358 inhabitants in 44 municipalities of the Mexican state of Veracruz were affected by tropical storm "Arthur", Veracruz Civil Protection Ministry said Friday. Rains will continue on Saturday and Sunday and more people are predicted to be left homeless, the Hydrometeorology Bureau of the Water National Commission said. The Civil Protection Ministry suggested Friday the Mexican government declare a state of emergency in the 44 municipalities.

JAPAN: Death toll in recent earthquake rises to 9 as bodies are uncovered at site of collapsed hotel. At least 16 others still remain missing.

MALTA: Three workers were injured in an explosion at Starpharma factory in Hal Far, the police said. The incident happened at around 1100CET. The police said that the explosion took place in a machine which mixes chemicals. Members of the Civil Protection department controlled the fire. The Hazmat vehicle for the transportation of hazardous materials off site was also on site. Some people on site raised their concern that this factory was next to a children's park.

INDIA: Rescue workers recovered 14 bodies Saturday after two days of heavy rains lashed areas around Itanagar, the capital of Arunachal Pradesh state, government official Bidol Tayeng said. The landslides cut off the area from the rest of the state, Tayeng said, adding that electricity and water supplies were also cut. "The situation is grim, but the rains have stopped and our rescue work is in full swing," Tayeng said. Tayeng said the death toll is likely to rise as rescue efforts continue. Monsoon is earliest to arrive in season for 108 years.

INDIA: In Assam state, the heavy rains flooded 120 villages and displaced more than 40,000 villagers from their homes, a senior local police official said Saturday. The government is trying to rescue villagers in the flooded-out Lakhimpur district and move them to higher ground, Superintendent of Police Ataul Karim said. No deaths have been reported in Assam so far, he added. Assam is prone to flooding. Last year, millions of people were forced to temporarily abandon their homes after floods. Monsoon rains usually hit India from June to September.

CANADA: About 3,000 people have been left homeless by a fast-spreading forest fire in an area east of Halifax, a major city of Canada's eastern province of Nova Scotia. Two water bombers and three helicopters, hampered by heavy smoke and winds, resumed their attacks on the fire burning south of Porters Lake Saturday morning. The fire began Friday afternoon and has scorched an area measuring eight kilometers long and two kilometers wide. The smoke could been seen by residents of Halifax, which is about 20 kilometers away. The extent of damage to homes and cottages in the area could not be determined at this moment.

USA / CANADA: Organizers of the largest and most complicated Homeland Security exercise ever conducted declared it a success yesterday as they wrapped up five days of hunting fake mines and fighting simulated terror attacks. FULL STORY: http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=U.S.,%20Canada%20ace%20massive%20Homeland%20Security%20drill&articleId=08c73ff7-1a9d-4968-b53b-5e2357177441

CHINA: Local authorities said 154 houses were burned down and 390 people affected by a fire that broke out Friday in a state-level protected forest in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. No casualties were reported. The fire began at about 11:20 a.m. in a residential zone in Genhe City in the northern Greater Hinggan Mountains, igniting lumber owned by a forestry company. It spread to a forest nearby, Genhe firefighters said.

CHINA: In Guangxi province, more than 50,000 residents were displaced after rainstorms pummeled Liuzhou city starting Thursday. Nearly 800,000 people in the city were affected by floods and about 100 elementary and middle schools had to suspend classes.

JAPAN: Water from a dam in quake-hit northern Japan has started to leak, forcing rescue workers to abandon efforts to pull out a man trapped in a landslide, a military official said on Sunday. The official said there were about 30 homes near the dam. Local authorities, though, had yet to urge people in nearby Kurihara city to evacuate.

NEW ZEALAND: Vulcanologists are continuing to keep a close eye on White Island in the Bay of Plenty. Hundreds of aftershocks continue to rattle it after a 5.4 magnitude earthquake centred just 10 kilometres off the volcano on Friday. GNS Science is warning people to stay off the island for another day or so.

ZAMBIA: (I don't normally do vehicle accidents but this is a good reminder of standard of EM / Safety in other parts of the world) Twenty-seven people have died and 55 others were seriously injured in Zambia when an overloaded bus plunged into a ditch after a tyre burst, a police spokesman said. The 60-seat bus overturned in Luangwa, a small town about 200 kilometres north of the capital Lusaka, said Bonny Kapeso. "We have 27 deaths recorded from the accident. Fifty-five others were admitted in hospital," Kapeso said.

Subject: Around the World Today - Saturday 14th June

JAPAN: A strong earthquake that rocked northern Japan on Saturday has killed two people, the government's top spokesman said. One of those killed was caught in a landslide, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told reporters, adding that the government had set up an emergency response centre. The shallow quake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.0 jolted a largely rural Iwate region 300 km (190 miles) north of Tokyo at 8:43 a.m. (2343 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

JAPAN: Water containing a small amount of radiation leaked within a Tokyo Electric Power Co nuclear power facility located in northern Japan, where a strong earthquake hit on Saturday, company officials said. The water leaked out from the pool in the warehouse that kept of radioactive waste at TEPCO's Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant, an official at Fukushima Daini said. "No water has leaked outside of the warehouse," the official said, adding TEPCO has confirmed that there was no impact on the environment. TEPCO's two nuclear plants in Fukushima, including Fukushima Daini, were operating normally, Asia's top power company said. The two plants have a combined power capacity of 9,096 megawatts.

USA: Pennsylvania & New York - An additional nine people were determined Thursday to have died from the recent heat wave, bringing the total in the city to 17, according to the Philadelphia medical examiner. New York ME attributes 7 deaths to heat wave.

CHINA: A landslide in northern China buried a brick factory, killing 19 workers, local officials said Saturday. Rescuers found the workers' bodies at the site of a landslide that hit Friday morning near Luliang town. The landslide occurred on a mountain in Shang'an village, engulfing the nearby factory. One worker was rescued Friday but the search effort was suspended overnight because of fears of a second landslide in the area. More than 300 people and 20 earth-moving machines were used in the rescue effort at the factory.

MYNAMAR: A total of 11 people were killed in a landslide in Myanmar's northern part of Mogok. The landslide caused by midnight torrential rain on Wednesday-Thursday, leaving seven men and four women dead in Mogok.

AUSTRALIA: Flights in and out of Brisbane are still delayed because of heavy fog. Buildings in Brisbane's CBD struggled to poke through the cloud. Visability was reduced to about 200 metres slowing peak hour traffic and public transport. It is the third day in a row that south-east Queenslanders have woken up under an extra blanket, but the weather bureau says this morning's fog will be the last for a while.

SPAIN: New Civil Protection headquarters unveiled
THE new headquarters for Alhaurin el Grande Civil Protection have been inaugurated by the local mayor, Juan Martin Seron and the coordinator for the local Civil Protection Group, Salvador Cardenas. The 300m2 building is located beneath the municipal nursery and includes parking facilities for special vehicles.

USA: California - Firefighters on Thursday battled a series of fast-growing wildfires burning across Northern California, including a wind-whipped blaze that destroyed at least 10 homes and forced thousands of residents to evacuate. Authorities closed all roads to Paradise, a town of about 30,000 residents about 90 miles north of Sacramento, and ordered several thousand Butte County residents to leave their homes. An evacuation shelter was set up in nearby Chico. The blaze, which started Wednesday, had grown to nearly 30 square miles and threatened more than 5,000 structures, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. More than 1,300 firefighters were trying to contain the blaze, which was only 10 percent contained Thursday evening.

MEXICO: Heavy rain caused widespread flooding Wednesday across southern and central areas of Mexico. The Oaxaca Civil Protection agency said on Wednesday that two people have died as a result of the flooding, including a child. The heavy rainfall began affecting the southern and central Mexico last Wednesday

USA: Florida - At least a dozen sea lion bodies have been found along the city's shoreline this week, and another four were washed ashore in Seal Beach, lifeguard officials said Thursday. The deaths are being attributed to toxic algae poisoning that most likely occurred off the coast of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

DR CONGO: Three people in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Equateur Province have died from what is suspected to be haemorrhagic fever, according to medical sources.

USA: Washington DC - A power outage Friday caused a blackout in parts of downtown Washington, including the White House, leaving thousands without electricity and causing major subway delays, the utility company said. The blackout area includes the White House. "We are running on generator power," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said. The Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where the vice-president's office is based, has also been affected. COG

USA: Iowa - A total of 100 blocks of downtown Cedar Rapids were under water that was nearing the tops of stop signs. Cars were submerged and about 3,900 homes had been evacuated. Rescuers had to get some people out by boat. Rising water from the Cedar River forced the evacuation of a downtown hospital yesterday. The hospital's 176 patients, including about 30 patients in a nursing home facility at the hospital, were being evacuated to other hospitals in the region. A railroad bridge collapsed.

Subject: Around the World Today - Friday 13th June

CHINA: The collapse of a reservoir dam at Yueyang County of central China's Hunan Province killed six and left one missing on Thursday, according to a county government source.

CHINA: Rainstorms that have been affecting millions of people this week in southern China continued to hit Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Thursday and are expected to intensify in Hunan Province. In Guangxi, precipitation exceeded 250 mm in three counties and 100 mm in another 39 between 8 p.m. on Wednesday and 2 p.m. on Thursday, and the rain will continue to hit the eastern and southern regions on Friday, said Gao Anning, chief engineer of the regional meteorological station. The National Meteorological Center is forecasting that the rain will sweep across several provinces and municipalities, including Jiangsu, the quake-hit Sichuan, Hunan, Anhui, Zhejiang and Shanghai in the next few days.

SWITZERLAND: A boating accident during a Swiss military exercise Thursday killed at least three soldiers and left two others missing, the army said. Five soldiers were injured, two of them seriously, in the accident on the Kander River, army spokesman Felix Endrich said at a news conference. Two inflatable vessels were involved in the accident, which occurred near Wimmis, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of the capital, Bern. Rescuers are scouring the river with helicopters and dogs for the missing soldiers, but air force chief Walter Knutti told Swiss television SF that the chances of finding them alive are slim.

USA: More than 100 homes in Columbus are damaged and the city essentially was split in two Sunday as a result of heavy rains that moved through the area over the weekend. Columbia County Emergency Management officials called flooding there "severe." Power and natural gas were shut off to affected residents Saturday, and a shelter was set up at Columbus United Methodist Church. An emergency message sent to the community on the city's local access station Sunday stated Columbus had been declared a disaster area due to flooding.

GREECE, CRETE: A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.5 has struck the southern Greek island of Crete. The quake's epicentre was located 385km southeast of Athens, in the Zakrou area of eastern Crete.

NORWAY: Forest is still burning in Froland municipality, situated some 15 km northwest of the city of Arendal. It started on Monday and has gradually increased in intensity and size. 1000 hectares forest terrain have burned. No serious causalities have been reported. About 67 people have been evacuated.

HUNGARY: Severe thunderstorms accompanied by very high wind with gusts above 90 km/h are predicted in eastern Hungry. Intensive precipitation with high amount of rain, above 50 mm in 1-3 hours, may occur.

RUSSIA: Sixty people were injured, six of them critically, when a train derailed near Russia's border with China, in the Amur region. The cause of the derailment was unknown.

CHINA: The death toll of China's May 12 earthquake has increased to 69,159 as of Thursday noon. A total of 374,141 people were injured and 17,469 others were still missing after the 8.0-magnitude quake devastated southwestern Sichuan Province and neighbouring regions a month ago.

Subject: Around the World Today - Thursday 12th June

CHINA: Hong Kong - the heaviest storms on record in Hong Kong blocked the airport for the first time in its 11-year-history and left several people dead across southern China. Streets in central Hong Kong were flooded to waist height at the weekend after 400mm (15.7in) of rain drenched part of the territory over 12 hours and the observatory raised its black rainstorm warning. The rainfall per hour was the heaviest in 124 years.

CHINA: Hong Kong ordered a mass cull of all poultry on Wednesday in a bid to stop the spread of the H5N1 virus between birds in hundreds of markets scattered across the territory. Officials last week found the bird flu virus at a poultry stall in one of the city's many so-called wet markets and ordered the culling of 2,700 birds over the week.

INDONESIA: Bird flu (Avian Influenza) killed tens of chickens in Sarolangun District, Jambi Province, recently, according to a local official. An investigation conducted by a local animal health team had shown the chickens had died of AI. Sarolangun District is a region through which the trans-Sumatra highway passes and shares borders with South and West Sumatra provinces where the deadly disease is rampant. The local authorities has intensified efforts to curb the communicable disease by supervising trading of poultry, conducting disinfectant spraying, and animal vaccination.

FRANCE: Lighting struck six children in southern France as violent storms triggered mudslides and floods that damaged hundreds of homes, officials said today. The children, aged 11 and 12, were playing football in a stadium near the southeastern city of Avignon when the storm broke last night. The lighting struck as they ran for the changing rooms, police said. One of the six was hit directly by the bolt, suffering cardiac arrest. He was rushed to an intensive care unit in Marseille where he remained in critical condition today, doctors said. The other children, two of whom were knocked unconscious, were hospitalised with light injuries. In the southwestern town of Roquefort, around 100 homes were flooded, with similar damage in half a dozen towns along the bank of the Agenais river. In the eastern Dijon region, firefighters were called out more than 350 times as the downpour flooded homes and shops. Fifteen people were evacuated from a building in the Dijon suburbs that caught fire after being struck by lightning. Mudslides also hit two villages in the nearby Toulouse region, Houga and Lombez.

USA: A third Indiana resident was confirmed dead in an historic flood that engulfed parts of central and southern Indiana. Southeastern Minnesota was also hit hard.

USA: Six people were being treated at hospitals after an early morning explosion and ammonia leak Wednesday at the Goodyear Houston plant. Authorities say at least 100 people at the plant were evacuated. A Houston fire department official says one person has life-threatening injuries and some people were treated at the plant. The explosion caused a small fire. A tornado struck a western Iowa Boy Scout camp Wednesday, killing at least four people and injuring 40, an Iowa Homeland Security spokeswoman said. A search and rescue team has been deployed to the camp near Little Sioux, Homeland Security spokeswoman Julie Tack said. She said the camp was covered with debris and downed trees after the tornado hit about 7 p.m. Some victims might be trapped under debris, Tack said. Heavy rains and hail hit Omaha Wednesday night, causing flooding throughout the area. Water as high as 3 feet swamped cars.

INDONESIA: Indonesia launched two tsunami alert buoys with US help Wednesday to boost an early warning system for the country worst hit by the 2004 killer wave, the US embassy said. The devices are part of a 22-buoy system planned for the Indian Ocean, an embassy statement said.

CHINA: A key oil pipeline in China's quake-hit southwest resumed operations on Wednesday, a day after they were suspended by PetroChina as authorities drained a dangerous quake lake. Water levels in an unstable lake formed by last month's earthquake in Sichuan province have been reduced. Soldiers used explosives to divert water from Lake Tangjiashan into the quake-damaged town of Beichuan. Residents had already been evacuated to higher ground. Experts had feared the lake could have suddenly burst its dam, threatening about 1.3m people living downstream. More than 250,000 residents were evacuated from downstream areas as pressure built and the lake became increasingly unstable.

ITALY: The bodies of six Italian workers, believed to have died after inhaling toxic fumes, were found Wednesday at a purifying plant in Sicily. Fire-fighters retrieved the bodies from a tank, which was apparently being cleaned by the workers at the plant located in Mineo, near the eastern Sicilian city of Catania. Italy has recently experienced a series of high profile, work-place related accidents and deaths, including five workers killed in March by sulphuric acid while they were cleaning a cistern in the southern town of Molfetta.

UKRAINE / BULGARIA: Black Sea became viscous in Sevastopol and Balaklava city area with the water containing an enormous mass f Ear jellyfish (Aurelia Aurita). The huge swarms of the animals with a transparent body gave rise to a fear in the tourists holidaying on the seacoast and the local residents equally. They do not remember in the neighbourhood a similar jellyfish invasion. The strong sea current may have swept the jelly-fish floating in the water towards the coast, and the animals Szevesztopol and Balaklava city got stuck simply melting in the bays.

Subject: Around the World Today - Wednesday 11th June

CHINA: Quake lake pours through devastated Chinese town
Flood water flow along Jian Jiang River, after a controlled drainage operation on the Tangjiashan quake lake, in the worst earthquake-hit area of Beichuan county, in China's southwestern province of Sichuan on June 10, 2008. Muddy, brown water from a quake lake in southwest China was pouring into the flattened town of Beichuan June 10, piling new woes on its tormented population.
A torrent of muddy, brown water from a breached quake lake poured through the deserted Chinese town of Beichuan on Tuesday, sealing the fate of the already doomed community's destruction. Surging rapids from Tangjiashan lake gushed into the centre of Beichuan and spilled down side streets as previously evacuated locals watched from ridges surrounding the town. MORE AT: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Quake_lake_pours_through_devastated_Chinese_town_999.html

THAILAND: At least 58 people were hospitalised in Thailand on Tuesday after a gas leak during construction of a new chemical plant, health officials said. A spokesman for plant owner PTT Phenol Co Ltd (PPCL) said the leak was detected early Tuesday morning and quickly repaired. "We're still on schedule to open this year," the spokesman said by telephone from the phenol plant in the eastern province of Rayong. Phenol is a raw material in plastic polycarbonate which is used for making automobile parts and computers. A Health Ministry official said most of the 58 patients were construction workers. Many of them were treated for nausea

CANADA: A town in western Canada's Saskatchewan province was evacuated to keep away from a raging forest fire nearby, government officials said Monday. All 74 residents in Uranium City in the northern end of the province, as well as drillers and miners working in the area, were evacuated on the order of provincial government, a spokeswoman for the province's emergency social services said. The fire, which covers as large as 5,000 hectares, is only one of 252 forest fires reported to be burning in Saskatchewan as of Friday morning. That is compared with 147 that were burning at the same time a year ago, said Scott Wasylenchuk, a wildfire preparedness co- ordinator for the province. The average at this time of year is 209. But conditions in the forests are particularly dry this spring, increasing the risk of fires.

NORWAY: Fire fighters and volunteers are fighting to gain control over a forest fire in Raade, in the county of Oestfold. Twenty persons have been evacuated so far. The fire fighting crews have been able to contain the fire within a 1.5 km2 area. There is also a forest fire raging in Froland in the county of Aust-Agder. No rain is expected in South Eastern Norway. A major industrial fire in Bergen Harbour Monday evening completely destroyed the headquarters of a diving firm. No one was injured in the raging fire which set off several explosions, before it was put out late in the evening.

VANATU: A 5.8-magnitude earthquake has rattled southern Vanuatu in the South Pacific. There are no reports of injuries or damage. The temblor was centered 45km southwest of the capital, Port Vila, and 10km beneath the sea. No tsunami warning has been issued.

INDONESIA: A moderate earthquake with magnitude of 5.5 struck eastern parts of Indonesia. There are no initial reports of casualty or damage. The quake's epicenter was located at 400 km northeast Bitung town of north Sulawesi province and at 20 km in depth.

CANADA: A violent thunderstorm reaped havoc in eastern Canada's Montreal city Tuesday, causing power cut for thousands of residents and overturns of trucks. Seven trucks were overturned by high winds on a bridge at the southern end of the city, forcing police to close the busy span.

INDONESIA: Indonesia has raised the alert level for a volcano on Sulawesi island to the highest after it began spewing hot lava and clouds of smoke, a vulcanology official said on Saturday. Lava from Mount Soputan has been gliding down its slopes about 1.5 km (0.9 miles) from the crater since Friday but has not reached the foot of the mountain, said Saut Simatupang, head of Indonesia's Vulcanology Survey. "We have urged people to avoid areas near the volcano, especially camping areas in the eastern part of the mountain," he said, adding that residential areas near the volcano were not in any danger. Indonesia has the highest number of active volcanoes in any country, sitting on a belt of intense volcanic and seismic activity known as the "Pacific Ring of Fire." People often live and farm on the slopes of volcanoes because of the rich volcanic soil. In the past two years, at least three major volcanoes, including Anak Krakatau, have showed signs of increased activity, but there has been no serious eruption.

AUSTRALIA: The world's largest cattle ranch has been forced to sell off its livestock and mothball operations because of the severe drought gripping much of Australia. Anna Creek station, which is bigger than Israel, encompasses 9,267 square miles of scrub, sand dunes and savannah in the Outback of South Australia. It is normally capable of supporting 16,000 cattle but the "Big Dry"; the worst drought in a century; has exhausted the land, forcing the herd to be whittled down to less than 2,000.

UKRAINE: Event happened in 06.05.2008: There was a leakage of liquid from a cooling system at a Ukrainian nuclear power plant recently. Enerhoatom [state nuclear power company] today confirmed that the second power-generating unit of the Rivne nuclear power plant was switched off for repairs on 29 May. The security system indicated that a pipe supplying water to the reactor had burst. But the accident took place at the second circuit, which does not come into contact with radioactive materials, specialists say. The damaged pipe has been replaced and the reactor is once again operational. Atomic scientists say that the leakage was minor, nothing in comparison with what happened in Slovenia [brief shutdown of the Krsko plant following a water leak]. No radioactive surges at the Rivne plant were detected.

FINALLY WHAT DO THE DOLPHINS KNOW:
ENGLAND: At least 21 dolphins have died after becoming stranded in a river in Cornwall. A rescue operation was launched after a pod of around 15 striped dolphins swam up the Percuil River near Falmouth, Cornwall, before they were beached in Porth Creek. More dolphins - alerted by their distress calls - then followed and also became stuck. Rescuers led by British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) saved seven of the stranded animals and the last two were taken out to deep water in stretchers attached to boats. The coastguard said by the time the boats left a pod of up to 60 dolphins were following them. It is understood all the dolphins have been moved from Porth Creek to safety. But volunteers have received reports of further dolphin strandings at three other locations in Cornwall. Teams are being sent to the sites at Flushing, near Gillan in the Helford River, King Harry Ferry, Truro and Customs House Quay, Falmouth. The first lifeboat crew to arrive at Porth Creek described the scene as "carnage". "It's a horrible scene of carnage with bodies everywhere," said helmsman Dave Nicoll.

MADAGASCAR: Fifty-five dolphins reportedly died off the coastal port town of Antsohihy, some 600 kilometers west of the capital of Madagascar. Hundreds of dolphins showed unusual behavior and tried to get closer to the coast to take refuge off Antsohihy since the beginning of June. Faced with such unexpected situation, officials in the area, with the help of local people, tried their best to rescue another 40 survivors off the coast. According to the Center for Surveillance of Fisheries and Marine Brigade in the area, the number could reach 200 because another hundred moved closer to the coast. An ad hoc committee from the Ministry of Energy and Mines, Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests and Tourism, international organizations like the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and WCS, the National Office for the Environment in Madagascar (ONE), the National Association for the Management of Protected Areas (ANGAP), and others had been set up in the area for emergency measures. For the moment, the strange behavior of dolphins remains a mystery and the results of biopsies and autopsies didn't give convincible reason for their behavior.

Subject: Around the World Today - Tuesday 10th June

INDONESIA: Drilling to blame for Indonesia's mud volcano: new study
Scientists on Monday delivered a rebuttal to claims that an earthquake, and not drilling for gas, unleashed a "mud volcano" that has been spewing sludge in Indonesia for the past two years. "We are more certain than ever that the Lusi mud volcano is an unnatural disaster and was triggered by drilling the Banjar-Panji-1 well," said British professor Richard Davies. The volcano in Sidoarjo district of East Java has been spewing the equivalent volume of scores of Olympic-sized swimming pools of mud a day since erupting to life on May 29, 2006. MORE AT: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Drilling_to_blame_for_Indonesias_mud_volcano_new_study_999.html

CHINA: A poisonous chemical spill was Monday threatening drinking water supplies for more than 200,000 people in a city in southwest China, state media reported. A truck carrying 33.6 tonnes of crude phenol overturned on Saturday and spilled the caustic chemical into the Zhesang river, which feeds a dam serving Baise city in Guangxi province. MORE AT: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Chemical_spill_threatens_drinking_water_for_Chinese_city_report_999.html

USA: More heavy storms were headed to the flood-ravaged US midwest Monday as the east coast wilted in a sweltering heat wave, the National Weather Service warned.

AUSTRALIA: The weather bureau in Western Australia says a tornado which swept through the southern Perth suburb of Rockingham this morning may have reached wind speeds of more than 150 kilometres an hour. The State Emergency Service has responded to more than 200 calls for help and is working to repair damage to roofs and buildings and clear fallen trees from roads. It also damaged 240 homes and left 16,000 houses without power in Perth.

URUGUAY: The dead bodies of some 100 oil-stained penguins washed up on Uruguay's southern coast, and the South American country's naval authorities were investigating their deaths Monday. The animals are Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus Magellanicus), some 70 centimetres tall and weighing about 5 kilogrammes, the authorities said. In the South American winter, these animals, which cannot fly, swim north to southern Brazil from the Patagonian coast. It seemed likely that the animals got caught in an oil spill that was the result of a crash last week, some 20 kilometres off Montevideo's coast. Some 14,000 litres of fuel oil leaked into the ocean as a result of a collision between a Greek-flagged ship and a Maltese vessel.

CHINA: The heaviest rainstorms in 50 years drenched parts of Guangdong province over the past two days, killing at least 1 student and causing widespread flooding, local media reported on Sunday. The Guangzhou Daily newspaper reported that one primary school student died after being swept away by a flood on Saturday in Maoming in the west of Guangdong province. It said another primary school student and a high school student were missing. The newspaper said more than 6,500 people had to be evacuated from their homes. Torrential rains have affected the province over the past two weeks, with rainfall in some areas measuring more than 400 millimeters (15.7 inches) in just the past two days, the paper reported.

Subject: Around the World Today - Monday 9th June

HUNGARY: Heavy rain in Central Hungary on Saturday night and Sunday early morning flooded cellars and streets, causing considerable damage, reported the National Disaster Management Authority. Firemen received over 250,000 calls overnight. The town of Kecskemet was especially hard hit.

NORWAY: A forest fire which was threatening homes on the outskirts of Drammen was finally brought under control late Sunday night, and so were several minor fires in other areas. Fire fighters in Oppland and Hedmark counties succeeded in putting out a dozen minor forest fires this weekend, most of them started by lightning.

CHINA: A strong aftershock in south-west China has rocked a lake formed by a recent earthquake that has been threatening to burst its banks. The 20-second, magnitude 5.0 aftershock caused landslides on mountains near the Tangjiashan lake. Soldiers have dug a diversion channel to help drain the lake and 250,000 people have been evacuated from the area since the 12 May earthquake. Waters continued to rise Sunday despite intensive efforts to drain it, triggering official warnings that the situation remained dangerous. Soldiers had already dug one channel to drain water from Tangjiashan lake, and were working Sunday to clear a second one in hopes of reducing the risk that it might burst its banks. Chinas longest oil pipeline is at risk. The Lanzhou-Chengdu-Chongqing pipeline is 60 kilometres (37.5 miles) downstream from the landslide-created Tangjiashan lake in Sichuan province.

CHINA: Heavy rains are forecast in many parts of south China over the next nine days, and torrential rain, strong gales and thunderstorms are expected to strike some regions, the National Meteorological Center warned.

CHINA: Rainstorms which brought the heaviest downpour since records began have swamped Hong Kong, causing landslides which claimed two lives. Hong Kong's observatory recorded 145.5mm of rain in one hour on Saturday morning. Low pressure which caused the storms was forecast to weaken gradually.

USA: One worker has died and two others are hospitalized after they were overcome by an ammonia-like vapor at Chicago's Blommer Chocolate factory.Chicago Fire Department spokesman Richard Rosado says firefighters were called to the factory just west of the city's downtown at about 11 a.m. Sunday.He said the employees were overcome as they worked with a powder used to make chocolate that gave off a strong vapor.

INDONESIA: A volcano erupted on Indonesia's Sulawesi island Friday, spewing smoke and sending heat clouds of debris down its slopes, a volcanologist said. Mount Soputan in North Sulawesi started to erupt Friday at around 9:59 am (0159 GMT), sending heat clouds as far as four kilometres (2.5 miles) and throwing ash two kilometres into the air.

KYRGYZSTAN: An anthrax outbreak has hit south Kyrgyzstan, where two people are reported to have died of the disease and six others hospitalized with similar symptoms, health officials in the Central Asian state said on Monday.Anthrax has been confirmed in the two dead who were from the village of Beshinchi. Further tests are being carried out on the six people, who are currently being treated in isolation wards, officials said.Health officials said the victims may have contracted the disease when they slaughtered a horse for its meat in late May.Anthrax most commonly infects wild mammals and domestic cattle and sheep, which ingest or inhale the spores while grazing. Humans can be affected when exposed to blood and other tissues from infected animals.Anthrax can be highly lethal, but in some forms it responds well to antibiotic treatment. There are effective vaccines against the disease.Authorities have temporarily shut the local livestock market.

ENGLAND: Dolphins die after mass stranding
Up to 20 common dolphins have died after becoming stranded in a river creek on the Cornish coast. An RNLI lifeboat crew at the scene at Porth Creek near Portscatho said they had managed to release a further five back to their pod in deeper water. Three more dolphins remain stranded and are said to be very ill. The British Divers Marine Life Rescue charity has sent a team to help the dolphins. It is thought the stranding could be related to a low tide. The coxswain of the Falmouth lifeboat described the scene as "horrific". MORE AT: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/7443626.stm

Subject: Around the World Today - Sunday 8th June

GREECE: At least one person has reportedly been killed as an earthquake rocked southern Greece, collapsing buildings and causing panic.Several injuries were reported from falling roofs as the tremor - which had an epicentre 200 kilometres (124 miles) west of Athens - struck near Patras.The quake had a magnitude of 6.5, the Athens Geodynamic Institute said, and could be felt in the capital.Greece is one of Europe's most earthquake-prone countries. MORE AT: www.iaem-europa.eu

CHINA: Hong Kong health workers slaughtered 2,700 poultry in a market Saturday after chickens were found to be carrying the dangerous H5N1 bird flu virus, officials said.The slaughter may be extended to all live poultry in the territory if the virus is detected in any other locations, Secretary for Food and Health York Chow said.

UKRAINE: Thirty-seven miners were missing after a gas explosion tore through a pit in Ukraine's Donbass coalfield on Sunday, destroying the main shaft and complicating rescue attempts.Officials said the blast hit the Karl Marx colliery near Donetsk in the heart of the coalfield at 5 a.m. (0200 GMT) about 1 km (3,300 feet) underground. MORE AT: www.iaem-europa.eu

USA: Two people are dead and one is reported missing after torrential downpour caused major flooding in parts of Indiana.Some areas saw 11 inches of rain Saturday; others reported eight to 10 inches. Flood water caused multiple road closings, evacuations, and The Indi channel said that part of Interstate 70 collapsed.

CHINA: More than 40 workers were poisoned in a hydrochloric acid leak in a south China factory, local authorities said on Sunday.The accident occurred at 9 a.m. on Saturday at Quannao electrical appliance factory in Bao'an District, of Shenzhen city, where a 3,000-litre hydrochloric acid tank exploded as workers were filling it. Thousands of workers in nearby factories were evacuated.More than 40 workers were poisoned by the chlorine and suffered pain in the abdomen and throat, and were sent to hospital.One person was in critical condition while the others were stable, officials said.The company needed hydrochloric acid to clear circuit boards, officials said.Cause of the blast is being investigated.

RUSSIA: An emergency was declared in the Sovetsko-Gavansky district of the Khabarovsk territory.The fire is spreading in the forestry three kilometers away from Gatka. The fire is creeping to a military unit, on the premises of which ammunition is stored, a source in the territorial Emergencies Ministry told Itar-Tass on Saturday. The fire area has already reached 1,100 hectares. MORE AT: www.iaem-europa.eu

CHINA: People walk in a flooded street after torrential rain in Hong Kong, south China, on June 7, 2008. Rare torrential rains blackened the sky and lashed Hong Kong Saturday morning, forcing the closure of schools and hospitals, submerging vehicles and widely disrupting traffic in the city. The Hong Kong Observatory issued the highest black rainstorm warning signal on Saturday.

Subject: Around the World Today - Saturday 7th June

ALGERIA: An earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale hit the region of Oran 430 kilometres west of Algiers late Friday, injuring 11 people, public radio reported.

INDONESIA: An earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale hit the Banda Sea at 1349 GMT Friday, according to a bulletin released by the Hong Kong Observatory. The epicenter was initially determined to be 7.4 degrees south latitude and 127.9 degrees east longitude, about 410 km south of Ambon, Indonesia.USA: A deadly fish virus has been detected among thousands of dead round gobies that washed up on a Milwaukee beach last month.State wildlife officials say tests on three of four dead round gobies turned up VHS. The rest of the fish were too decomposed to test.Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Bureau Director Mike Staggs says the findings aren't a surprise. VHS already has been detected in Lake Michigan and round gobies are among the most susceptible species.DNR biologists found the virus in the Lake Winnebago system last year. Tests so far this year, however, haven't detected it in any inland waters.

PHILLIPINES: One person drowned while 169 families were evacuated after a river overflowed in Bansalan town, Davao del Sur province, causing flash floods on Thursday evening, the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) said.Heavy rains caused the Miral river to overflow and flood sitio (sub-village) Bugac and Poblacion 2 village, the NDCC said in a report on FridayThe evacuees were brought to the municipal gymnasium of Bansalan, the report said.The identity of the fatality was not immediately available.

INDIA: At least one worker was killed and 35 others injured in an explosion triggered by a fire inside the Reliance Industries-owned IPCL plant at Raigad district's Nagothane town Friday morning.The fire broke out around 1100 hrs and soon triggered an explosion, police sources said.Forty people, a majority of them employed by contractors, were working in the 'Train Second' unit at the LLDPE plant when the incident happened, they said.The plant, situated 40 km from here, was shutdown for maintenance work.While 25 of the injured have been rushed to the Harkisondas Hospital in central Mumbai for treatment, the others are being treated in local hospitals, they said.

CHINA: A state news agency says a chemical leak in northeast China has killed at least three people.Few details were available about the leak Thursday in Qiqihaer city of Heilongjiang province. Xinhua News Agency said Friday that an investigation was under way.Qiqiaer is located only 250 miles (400 kilometers) from the Russian border. The city lies along the Nin River, a major tributary of the Songhua River, which flows into Russia.A 2005 chemical spill in the Songhua strained China-Russia relations after poisoned waters flowed across the border. The spill included potentially cancer-causing chemicals and forced the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin to sever water supplies to 3.8 million people for five days.

RUSSIA: Rescue workers found seven bodies on Friday in the smouldering rubble of a civilian cargo ship in Russia's Kaliningrad region, a navy spokesman said.Ten workers had been missing following an explosion and fire on the ship, the Yenisei, in dry dock at a naval ship repair factory in Kaliningrad, a tiny enclave bordering Lithuania, Poland and the Baltic Sea."Ten were missing, seven found. The excavation is still ongoing and we expect to find the rest shortly," Captain Igor Dygalo said by telephone.The ship is civilian-owned but the navy has sent its commanding admiral to head an investigation into the incident as the factory is owned by the Russian military.Dygalo said it was too early to determine the cause of the accident. Local media suggest it was an explosion in a fuel tank caused by welding equipment.

ITALY / MEDITERANEAN: Italian rescuers on Friday recovered the bodies of 12 would-be immigrants who drowned after the dingy that was carrying them to Europe capsized in waters between Italy and Libya, officials said.The shipwreck occurred late Thursday south of Lampedusa, a tiny Italian island that is closer to North Africa than mainland Europe, and some 50 miles (80 kilometers) off the Libyan coast, said Michele D'Andrea, an official with the port authority in the Sicilian capital of Palermo. He said an Italian fishing boat pulled 27 survivors, including seven women, from the sea while an Italian navy ship recovered the dead, who were all male. The survivors were reported in good condition. Though their nationality was not known, they appeared to be from countries in the Horn of Africa, D'Andrea said. The immigrants were then transferred to the navy ship, which was on course to Sicily.Thousands of illegal immigrants try to reach Italy each year by crossing over from North Africa in rickety boats. Deadly incidents are frequent. If the immigrants do not have proof of a job awaiting them in Italy, they are ordered expelled, although many never leave, authorities say.

GERMANY: A German nuclear power station has been taken offline because of an internal leak, government safety officials in south-western Baden-Wuerttemberg state said Friday, June 6.The problem at the Philippsburg plant near the city of Karlsruhe was rated at the second-lowest level, 1 for an "anomaly," on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES).The state environmental affairs ministry said falling pressure had been noticed Thursday night in the outer vessel of reactor 1 at the site while the reactor was being powered up and the cause was being sought.There was no evidence of any release of radioactivity into the vicinity.The vessel, which encloses all the main parts of the reactor, is supposed to maintain 20 millibars more pressure than the air outside, but had been losing 1 millibar per hour, presumably because of a leak.

SCOTLAND / UK: Exercise Unicorn, a major maritime exercise to be conducted by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) with BP PLC is scheduled to take place in Aberdeen on Tuesday 10th June 2008. Exercise Unicorn will test the interaction between the MCA, BERR and the BP oil company and other organisations that provide emergency services around Scotland and in the North Sea. It will test national emergency services preparedness and response measures for a major maritime incident and oil spill in the area, although the `incident' will be simulated over 125 miles out to sea. MORE AT: http://www.bymnews.com/news/newsDetails.php?id=27638

SOUTH KOREA: A minor leak in a water valve has forced a temporary halt of power generation at a nuclear reactor in northern Busan, but there are no problems with the reactor or safety concerns, operators of the facility said Saturday. Operators of the Gori Nuclear Power Plant in the southeastern port city said they had to shut down the number 3 reactor because of small problems in the water valve that was leaking steam.It said the flow of power to the 950 Megawatt electric (MWe) unit was stopped on Friday after the problem was detected and that there was no radioactive leak."There is nothing wrong with the reactor and no safety concerns," a spokesman for the plant said. He said repairs should take about 10 hours, but because there is a need to check all related systems, the Gori 3 is expected to go back online on Tuesday. The expert added that this type of incident is classified as a very minor problem by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The reactors that first began commercial operations in September 1985 went offline for 33 days from April 28 as part of a routine maintenance check. It started generating power again on May 31.

Subject: Around the World Today - Friday 6th June

KENYA: More than 150 houses were destroyed by a landslide at Timboiywo village in Kabarnet Division, Baringo Central constituency. The Monday morning landslide caused a huge crack; almost three-and-a-half-kilometres; across the village and also destroyed part of Timboiywo trading centre. More than 750 households in Ngetmoi Location have moved out of the area. They want the Government to give them alternative places to settle. The landslide also destroyed a section of Kabarnet-Tenges road. Baringo district mines and geological officer, John Kipseba attributed the situation to faulting in the Great Rift Valley. Mr Kipseba warned those using the Kabarnet-Tenges road to be careful as rocks and boulders were rolling downhill. He said the situation would get worse if the rains continue pounding the area. According to residents, the problem occurred first in 1987 and in 1997 again after the El Nino rains.

POLAND: Four miners have been killed and 19 others injured in a methane explosion in southern Poland, officials said on Thursday.The explosion took place late on Wednesday at the Borynia mine in Jastrzebie Zdroj near the Czech border."Some of the wounded are in a serious condition," said Katarzyna Jablonska-Bajer, a spokeswoman for the company that runs the mine. "This was a methane explosion. Unfortunately we do not know what caused the accident as all the sensors were destroyed."She said there had been no sign of increased methane concentration prior to the blast."This is a tragedy for all of us. I worked on the same shift (as those who were killed). I am very sad," miner Tomasz Lisiak told Reuters.Accidents in Polish coal mines are not uncommon. Two years ago, more than 20 men died when a methane explosion ripped through their mine in Poland's southern coalbelt region in the worst such accident since 1979.

SLOVENIA: The Slovenian nuclear authority on Thursday said it had overreacted by issuing an European Union-wide alarm after a routine incident at the Krsko nuclear power plant. Krsko had shut down its 696-megawatt reactor two hours after it developed a primary coolant leak. When the plant issued the alert, it was passed on to all 27 European Union member states. No discharge of radioactive matter to the environment occurred.

SWEDEN: Fierce forest fires which have raged in northern Sweden for nearly a week should soon be extinguished, a local fire and rescue service official said on Wednesday. A total of 100 firemen backed by seven helicopters were still battling the larger of two blazes, covering an area of about 1,000 hectares some 350 kilometres north of Stockholm. The second blaze, covering an area of about 100 hectares, was completely under control. The whole area was very dry and the risk of more fires remains acute.

USA: Three tanker trucks burned at a chemical plant in Fairfield, California. Authorities are asked nearby residents to stay indoors.Police say all businesses within a quarter-mile were evacuated. The plant is coded for toxic chemicals according to the Environmental Protection Agency, but authorities are not yet sure whether the chemicals in the tankers posed a health threat. No injuries have been reported.The cause of the blaze is not yet known.

USA: A huge fire raged through a two-story commercial structure in the garment district of downtown Los Angeles this morning.The fire broke out just before 5 a.m. today at a building near the corner of South Los Angeles and 11th Streets, barely a half-mile east of Staples Center.When crews arrived, smoke could be seen coming from the rear of the building, which was said to house several retail businesses.Firefighters were pouring water onto the blaze from above as flames and black smoke shot into the sky.

CHINA: China quake lake now 'critical'
A massive emergency effort has swung into action to ease the quake lake. Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said efforts to ease a swollen quake lake had reached a "critical moment", as he flew to oversee the relief work. He boarded a helicopter to see the lake at Tangjiashan after going to Sichuan province, Xinhua state media said. The authorities have warned that the lake, formed by a landslide after the 12 May quake, has become more unstable. A magnitude 5.3 aftershock hit Sichuan as workers prepared to drain the lake through a long specially-dug channel.

ARGENTINA: Oil spill threatens Buenos Aires
Workers are battling to dissolve an oil spill heading towards the coast of Argentina after two ships collided off the coast of neighbouring Uruguay. The spill, reported to be 20km (12 miles) long, is being blown towards the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7437110.stm

Subject: Around the World Today - Thursday 5th June

EU: The European Commission, Directorate-General for Environment, Civil Protection Unit, is launching a Call for Proposals with the aim of identifying projects on an EU civil protection rapid response capability which might be eligible for financial support. This financial support will take the form of grants.
The fields concerned, the nature and content of the actions and the financing conditions are set out in the relevant Grant Application Guide, which also contains detailed instructions on where and when to submit a proposal.The guide, as well as the relevant grant application forms can be downloaded from the Europa website http://ec.europa.eu/environment/funding/intro_en.htm.
Source:http://euroalert.net/en/news.aspx?idn=7273

DUBAI: The Dubai Civil Defence is to launch its largest ever inspection campaign in the wake of rising major fire incidents in the emirate. There has been a spate of massive fire accidents in Dubai in the past few months, largely attributed to a failure in abiding by preventive and safety standards in warehouses, factories and labour accommodations. Source: http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/General/10218176.html

COLUMBIA: At least 26 people have died in a mudslide that buried some 20 homes in a poor district of the city of Medellin, Colombian authorities have said. More than 100 people continued the search for survivors on Monday. Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7432909.stm

Subject: Around the World Today - Wednesday 4th June

Heavy rainfall causes deaths and floods throughout Europe -

NETHERLANDS: Heavy rains accompanied by thunder and lightning caused moderate damage in the Netherlands overnight, particularly in the southern provinces of Limburg and Zeeland, officials said Tuesday. The fire brigade said it received tens of calls requesting assistance in cases of flooding and lightning strikes on homes and churches. Lightning also set trees afire, while strong winds caused other trees to fall, damaging cars and homes. In the southern village of Limbricht and the immediate surroundings, lightning caused a power cut, leaving 700 homes without electricity. Excessive rains caused problems on several highways. On the A79 highway near Bunde, a driver sustained serious injuries after his car overturned. On the A58 highway, the tunnel at Kruiningen was flooded.

GERMANY: Three people drowned in heavy floods following thunderstorms in southwestern Germany overnight, police said on Tuesday. One woman died when she was surprised by the rising waters in her cellar, a spokesman said, adding two other people were killed when their car was swept away by the floods. Water levels were several meters high overnight in the Killertal valley in southern Germany, where inhabitants had fled to the upper floors of their homes, police said. The floods had swept cars away and damaged several buildings.

SPAIN: Officials say torrential rain has caused flooding in several towns in Spain's northern Basque region that is trapping some people in their homes and cars. A regional government spokeswoman says police have deployed divers to help rescue people in the coastal town of Getxo. Maria de Yermo Urquijo says water levels have reached the tops of cars and residents are using small boats to get around. The areas of Getxo, Algorta, Erandio and Gobela - all suburbs of the port city of Bilbao - are on alert, with forecasts predicting heavy rain until nightfall.

And further afield weather hits hard -

SRI LANKA: At least 18 people have been killed while four people have gone missing since some parts of Sri Lanka were hit by heavy rains last Friday, relief officials said Tuesday. Eight districts have been hit by floods and landslides caused by the heavy rains since Friday with some 292,000 people being displaced, officials from the Disaster Management Center said.

USA: Kansas - The storms began about 10 a.m. on Monday near Manhattan, one of the hardest hit areas where hail the size of softballs was reported. Car windshields were reported shattered and broken out by the large hail stones. Emergency sirens were sounded in Manhattan to warn residents of the unusually large hail stones that were falling.

INDIA: At least 13 persons were killed, including two children and three women, when they were struck by lightning during pre-monsoon thundershowers in three districts of West Bengal on Monday.
COLUMBIS: Update - According to the Disaster Management Centre, the death toll due to the extensive flooding has reached 18. Over 100,000 people are reported to have been displaced in Kalutara District alone.

Energy Sector -

CZECH REPUBLIC: Staff at Czech nuclear power station Dukovany had to shut down one of the plant's four blocks owing to human error today, spokesman Petr Spilka has said. An employee working in the unit number two by mistake closed one of the six circuits with cooling water in the unit's nuclear zone. Automatic protection systems then disconnected two turbines from the power grid and reduced the output of the block fast. The incident had no impact on nuclear safety of the plant, Spilka said.

Disaster Management -

ETHIOPIA: Around 4.5 million Ethiopians need emergency food aid — 1 million more than a previous estimate, a government official said .

And other news -

EU: BRUSSELS, Belgium: An EU official says all but one of the bloc's 27 nations have set up the 112 emergency phone number — but few people know it exists. EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding says only Bulgaria has failed to launch the hot line — the equivalent of the 911 number in the U.S. But Redding said Tuesday a poll has shown only 22 percent of EU citizens know that they can use the number in an emergency outside of their home country. She said governments must do a better job promoting the number. The 112 number complements national emergency hot lines, different in each EU country

JAPAN: Japanese police evacuated 34 people from an apartment building Wednesday after a man apparently killed himself by mixing chemicals and inhaling the deadly fumes, the latest in a string of similar suicides nationwide.

Subject: Around the World Today - Tuesday 3rd June

SPAIN: Weather conditions calmed down Monday in northern Spain after heavy rains sparked flooding, but the river Ebro still threatened to overflow its banks in several places, local officials said. About 200 homes remained without electricity in the Basque town of Getxo, where schools remained closed because of mud. Rains had cut traffic links and left thousands of people without electricity over the week-end. Several dozen people were evacuated from their homes in the Cantabria region, but returned home on Monday.

FRANCE: Police in eastern France say at least five people were killed when a train crashed into a bus carrying schoolchildren. Police in the Haute-Savoie region on the Swiss border says at least 12 people were injured in the crash near the town of Allinges. No further details about the cause of the crash Monday were immediately available. It is not clear whether children were among the victims. French President Nicolas Sarkozy paid tribute to the victims during a speech on education in the presidential palace.

SWEDEN: Two large forest fires continue to rage in central Sweden, a local fire and rescue service official said on Monday afternoon, adding that the largest blaze was completely out of control. Around 160 fire fighters were trying to fight one fire, covering an area of about 1,000 hectares located some 350 kilometres north of Stockholm.

MEXICO: Arthur, the first tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, weakened to a tropical depression today and was forecast to dissipate over Mexico. The storm was centered over land 175 kilometers (109 miles) south of Campeche, Mexico, with winds of 55 kilometers (35 miles) an hour, that country's National Civil Protection System said in a statement at 10:30 a.m. local time. The center was moving west- southwest at 13 kilometers an hour.

UGANDA: Over 600 families in Kitimbwa and Busaana sub-counties in Kayunga district are facing a food shortage following a hailstorm last Thursday that destroyed their crops. The storm, which lasted four hours, destroyed banana, maize, cassava, vanilla and rice gardens. Strong winds damaged houses, but no deaths were reported.

Subject: Around the World Today - Monday 2nd June

GLOBAL: South Korea called Saturday for the creation of a global crisis management system to cope with increasingly destructive natural disasters. "As we have seen with the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia, the recent cyclone in Myanmar and the more recent earthquakes in China, natural disasters are hard to predict, and their damage can be even more extensive in the future," Defence Minister Lee Sang-Hee said. Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue international conference on Asian security, Lee said it was difficult for individual nations to "cope with the havoc wreaked by nature" on their own. "Therefore, a crisis management system of global reach is urgently required to effectively manage the vestiges of natural disasters," the South Korean minister said.

GALAPAGOS ISLANDS: A volcano on the largest of the Galapagos Islands has begun erupting and authorities are evaluating possible dangers to the island's famed plant and animal life, officials said Friday. Rangers and tour guides spotted lava flowing down the northeastern flank of the Cerro Azul volcano on the seahorse-shaped island of Isabela late Thursday, the Galapagos National Park said in a statement.

YUCASTAN PENINSULA: Tropical Storm Arthur weakened to a tropical depression Sunday after soaking the Yucatan Peninsula, but still threatened to cause dangerous flooding and mudslides in Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. The National Hurricane Center in Miami warned that remnants of the first named storm of the 2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season could still cause potential life-threatening floods and mudslides. Rains could total of 120 to 250 millimetres across portions of Belize, Guatemala and southeastern Mexico, with isolated rainfall up to 380 millimetres possible. At 6 p.m. ET, the centre of the depression was located near the border of Guatemala and Mexico, about 130 kilometres southeast of Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico. It was moving west-southwest at about 10 km/h. Maximum sustained winds were near 55 km/h. Forecasters predicted it would remain inland over Mexico and stay well away from the U.S. Gulf Coast. Tropical Storm Arthur formed Saturday afternoon - one day before the official start of the season June 1 - and quickly made landfall at the Belize-Mexico border before heading west.

CHINA: That mobile cranes and special trucks with sealed containers had prepared on Friday to move 99 radioactive sources from areas below the lake near Mianyang. Workers planned to complete the move of the unspecified radioactive sources to a designated storage area some 300 kilometres away by Friday evening, said an environmental official Ma Ning. Ma said moving the radioactive sources was an "urgent priority" but it was not clear if the operation had been completed by Saturday. Environmental officials were also working to move some 5,000 tons of potentially hazardous in the same valley. Several top-secret military facilities related to nuclear research, plutonium production and warhead production are believed to be close to Mianyang city, which was one of the worst-hit areas in the earthquake. Ma Jian, deputy director of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) combat department, told reporters on May 18 that all local nuclear facilities were "safe and secure". Ma said the nuclear facilities were "put under strict protection by forces of the armed police and PLA" immediately after the earthquake. There are no nuclear power plants in Sichuan.

AUSTRALIA: A FLOOD alert has been issued for the Sunshine Coast and hinterland as heavy rain intensifies in southeast Queensland. The Bureau of Meteorology warned that overnight rainfalls of more than 100mm were likely to cause flash flooding and raise stream levels.

LIBERIA: Liberia deaths overshadow World Cup qualifingThe death of at least eight football fans in Monrovia at Liberia's game with the Gambia has overshadowed the start of Group 6 qualifying for the 2010 World Cup. A doctor says the fans died of suffocation during the game at a stadium in Liberia's capital.

USA: Firefighters have contained a large fire which ravaged a theme park at the world-famous Universal Studios in Los Angeles, California. At least 300 firefighters fought the blaze, which injured three people, after it began before dawn on a sound stage featuring New York facades. The fire destroyed a King Kong exhibit and a set from Back to the Future. It also damaged a video library but the studios said they had duplicates of everything lost.

Subject: Around the World Today - Sunday 1st June

EGYPT: Seven Egyptian workers suffered serious burns on Saturday in an explosion at a warehouse for gas canisters in the Egyptian temple city of Luxor, police said. A spark ignited the gas as workers were refilling the canisters for hot air balloons, triggering the explosion that forced police to evacuate the locals in the neighborhood. The blast caused nearly 1 million U.S. dollars in damage to the hot air ballooning equipment that belongs to a local company offering balloon trips over Luxor's monuments, police said.

INDONESIA: One person has been killed and tens of others have been hospitalized after floods swept through the capital of Kotabaru district in Indonesia's South Kalimantan province. Thousands of houses in the city were flooded following three hours of heavy rains on Saturday, Antara news agency on Sunday quoted Dwi Nurhayati, officer of a hospital's intensive care unit as saying. The rains also caused damage to a number of fences and public utilities, said the report. The water level rose up to one meter in worst-hit areas. "We have sent all available means to remove the rubbish consisting of tree trunks and twigs brought along by the flood water," said Head of the Kotabaru Morphology Office Suhairi.

BELIZE: Tropical Storm Arthur, the first of the year in the Atlantic and the second in the Americas, formed rapidly off Belize and Mexico on Saturday and was already moving onshore, the National Hurricane Center said. Packing sustained winds of near 40 mph, Arthur is expected to drench Belize and Mexico's Yucatan peninsula with up to 10 inches of rain and higher isolated amounts, the Miami-based hurricane center said. Arthur, which formed a day ahead of the official June 1 start of the Atlantic hurricane season, was centered 45 miles north-northwest of Belize City. It was moving westerly at 8 mph and already moving inland over the low-lying Yucatan and expected to weaken. "Arthur is expected to weaken today as it moves farther inland over Yucatan," the center said. The center did not say whether it expected Arthur to pass over the peninsula and emerge intact in the Gulf of Mexico where there are oil platforms.

IRELAND: A major bog and forest fire has been raging for the past four days in northwest Co Mayo. Hundreds of acres of forest have already been destroyed and over €1m worth of damage caused.

RUSSIA: The third wave since early April of woodland fires has hit Russia's Siberian Irkutsk region, sources from the regional department of the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations reported on Friday. A total of 52 fires, covering 550 hectares, are registered in the region.

GREECE/BELARUS: The Belarusian Emergencies Ministry will dispatch a Mi-26 helicopter to Greece to aid the country in fighting fires on June 2, Belarusian Emergencies Minister Enver Bariev told media. The crew will perform missions similar to those in 2007 and will stay in Greece till September.

AROUND THE WORLD TODAY