Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano has spewed ash over several towns in the central state of Puebla, just 55 kilometers (35 miles) southeast of Mexico City, but the country's capital was spared.
The volcano blew a huge stack of smoke that went 3,200 meters (10,500 feet) skyward late Tuesday, but surrounding residents were not in danger, said Jesus Morales, Puebla's civil protection director.

A three-centimeter (one-inch) thick carpet of ash covered nearby towns, forcing people to wear masks. The National Disaster Prevention Center said Wednesday that ash also fell in the state capital of Puebla.

The 5,452-meter (17,900-foot) high Popocatepetl is Mexico's second highest peak after the Citlaltepetl volcano.

A Tucson climber was found dead, hanging from a southern Arizona cliff in his hanging gear and covered with bee stings.

The Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office says 55-year-old Steven Johnson was found in the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson late Monday.

Residents of a Houston neighborhood are being warned to stay away from giant African land snails after a woman found one in her garden and snapped a photo of it.

The snails, researchers warn, are potentially dangerous to touch, in part because they can carry meningitis. Scientists have warned anyone who comes in contact with them to wash their hands thoroughly.

"They also carry a parasitic disease that can cause a lot of harm to humans and sometimes even death," Autumn Smith-Herron, director of the Institute for the Study of Invasive Species at Sam Houston State University, told NBC Houston affiliate KPRC.

A woman gardening in the Briar Forest neighborhood of Houston found the snail and notified workers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center who deal with invasive plants. It is the first reported sighting of the mollusk in Texas, and no one seems to know how it got there.

The giant snails can lay 100 eggs per month, and though only one has been found, it is believed more are in the area.

Distressing scenes as a mother fought to stop her dead calf from sinking into HK's polluted waters have highlighted plight of iconic pink dolphins


An hour into their journey from Tung Chung pier, the 20 members of the boat party finally got what they had been waiting for - a close encounter with the remaining pink dolphins who still make their home in Hong Kong waters.

But as the boat edged closer to the dolphins in the Lung Kwu Chau Marine Park and the eager tourists reached for their cameras, their excitement quickly turned to shock and distress.

"There were about four or five dolphins in the water and it seemed at first as if they were trying to get hold of something and support it," said Ho Tak-ching, 34, a guide with Hong Kong Dolphinwatch. "It really wasn't normal behaviour."

The dolphins were trying to help a mother support the body of her dead calf and stop it slipping below the water's surface.

"I started to film and it was then that I noticed the dead baby calf. From its size and colour, I guessed it was a newborn. It was so depressing and so very sad. While I was taking the video I couldn't stop myself crying.

"There was a group of four or five dolphins taking turns with the mother to try to keep the baby on the surface of the water. We watched it for about 30 minutes.

"At first, I didn't want to mention it to the passengers. But then some of them noticed the dead baby. They asked me, 'How has this happened?' They seemed very upset. They asked if there was something we could do to help, but I said there was nothing we could do."

Grieving and unable to accept their calves' deaths, the mother dolphins will spend up to two weeks trying to keep them on the surface of the water, exhausting themselves and going without food as other dolphins rally to help them.

These displays of epimeletic, or care-giving, behaviour demonstrate the intelligence and compassion of dolphins.

Volunteers have pulled 25 tonnes of dead carp out of a lake in eastern Germany - there are so many, locals are running out of boats. Regional officials have admitted they are baffled - only carp seem to be dying in the lake.

Dead silver carp started being found floating belly up on the surface of the Heyda lake, Thuringia, in mid-April. Since then, volunteers have scooped 25 tonnes of cadavers from the water, which is near the town of Ilmenau south of Erfurt.

On Saturday alone volunteers largely from the local angling club filled an 18,000-litre container more than half way, Der Spiegel magazine said. Helpers told the magazine that they expected the amount to double.

Tests performed on the fish showed no sign of bacteria or infection and no other fish have been found - just relatively mature silver carp, many of which had already started rotting.

This has left both town residents and experts baffled. A spokesman for the Ilm area administration, Eckhard Bauerschmidt, told The Local the council had been flooded with calls asking about the mass deaths, but they were still in the dark as to the cause.

A common killer of fish is poisonous algae, and although there are no obvious signs of deadly plant life, the head of the district authority has ordered that the water be tested every day to monitor any changes.

The country endures the extremes of weather from record breaking snowfall to raging wildfires.

The start of May has been a strange one for the USA. It seems that nature can't decide if it's winter or summer.

Heavy rain has flooded parts of Key West in southern Florida. Two days of torrential downpours have led to flooding and in the last 24 hours, 109mm more rain fell across the island.

The rain has flooded homes and businesses and forced the closure of a number of roads.

Whilst rain is the problem in Florida, elsewhere winter is still winning. Heavy snow has smothered parts of the Plains and the Midwest.

Some of the worst weather was in the state of Minnesota, where the snow set new records.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said that Rajasthan has been the hottest this season, with Churu recording a maximum of 45 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, Delhi also hit 44 degrees on May 5.

It is not going to get much cooler either, the Met department said that this is normal for summer with temperatures in Delhi to hover between 41 and 42 degrees Celsius. Uttar Pradesh is also facing the heat with the likelihood of a heat wave in the coming five to six days. Allahabad recorded temperatures of 44 degrees Celsius which is the maximum. The Met department said that this is slightly above normal but not yet a heat wave.

Bottlenose body count since Jan. 1 hits 30 Monday

Biologists removed three more dead bottlenose dolphins in the Indian River Lagoon Monday, bringing this year's total lagoon bottlenose body count to at least 30.

Staff from Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute performed onsite examinations of the three dolphins: two of them in Merritt Island and one in Rockledge.

At least 30 dolphins have died in the lagoon since Jan. 1, all but a few in Brevard, most near Merritt Island. That's more than twice what would be expected, based on the death rate during the past decade.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration already has declared the 100 or so manatee deaths in the lagoon since mid-2012 an Marine Mammal Unusual Mortality Event. The declaration triggers NOAA's own formal investigation. The federal agency is examining whether the dolphin and manatee deaths might be connected.

While the manatees die quickly, the dolphins show signs of a drawn-out syndrome. Most are found very thin, with enlarged spleens.

As many as 300 brown pelicans also have died in the lagoon region since February, maybe more. Those tested were negative for botulism and other common causes of bird death. They come in with heavy parasite counts.

About half the dolphins studied in the lagoon in the past decade suffer from some form of chronic infectious disease, suggesting compromised immune systems.

Researchers find levels of mercury - a potent neurotoxin - in the skin and blood of lagoon dolphins that are higher than in any other dolphins that have been studied. They also find high incidence of tumors, heart problems, cancer, stomach ulcers, skin lesions, genital herpes and other emerging ailments previously thought rare in dolphins.

Dolphins captured near Merritt Island, especially, test in poor health.

Researchers have pointed to water tainted by treated sewage and runoff as the possible cause.

Britain's coast was shrouded in mist for the Bank Holiday weekend due to warm air clashing with an unusually cool sea because of the cold spring.
Temperatures up to 22C meant thousands flocked to beaches around the South and South West Coasts.

But they were greeted with a strange sea mist.

The "haar" or "sea fret", as it is known, is caused by warm air condensing over the cold sea and creating a fog. It is typical for this time of year but more pronounced than usual as the air is so warm and the sea is so cold following the coolest April for 24 years and the coldest March for 100 years.

The sea fog was worse over the south coast and south west as the wind was blowing the fog onto land. Today (Tues) the hear is more likely to settle over the north and east, where it is more common, as the wind changes direction.

Calum Maccoll, forecaster at the Met Office, said the sea was unusually cold.

"The sea temperature is 9C, it should be in the double figures but the cold March has brought it right down.

"As it takes a long time to warm up it is colder than it normally would be at this time of year, and as mild air is passing over the surface, mist is being created."

St. Paul, Minn. (WCCO) - The spring weather brought with it something pretty unsightly near St. Paul. Hundreds of fish recently died in Beaver Lake, and many of them ended up all along the shoreline.

Fish kills are not unusual this time of year, but this one has Ramsey County officials worried. The fish died even though there is an aeration system in Beaver Lake.

Ruth Klabunde walks her dogs around the lake about three times a week. The first thing she noticed was the smell.

"This is a really fun little lake to walk around," Klabunde said. "And the stench was kind of bad."

And then Klabunde says she saw the source.

"This whole little bay area here was thick with dead fish," she said.

When the ice finally went out on Beaver Lake a week and a half ago, it left behind schools upon schools of dead fish.

It's estimated that more than 7,000 pounds of dead fish - mostly catfish, sunfish and bass - have been taken out of Beaver Lake. But what caused this unusually large fish kill is still a mystery.

Beaver Lake has an aeration pump that can be turned on when oxygen levels get low. Ramsey County turned the pump on in February, but it only reaches a small part of the lake.