MILLIONS of small fire-blackened stones in Ireland and Scotland are giving support to the theory that northern parts of the British Isles were depopulated by a nuclear winter-style disaster almost 3,200 years ago.

A GIANT meteor or comet fragment - the size of some of those which last week collided with Jupiter - may have played a key role in determining human history, according to new evidence.

Scientific investigations suggest that a collision between Earth and a celestial body may have been partially responsible for the final demise of classical civilisation and the onset of the Dark Ages.

The rains that triggered widespread flooding in southeastern Minnesota last weekend smashed a state rainfall record for a 24-hour period, according to the National Weather Service. It broke the old record by more than 4 inches.

A Naitonal Weather Service gauge near the town of Hokah in Houston County had 15.1 inches of rainwater in it when measured at 8 a.m. Sunday morning. The previous record -- set in July 1972 at Fort Ripley, Minn., in the central part of the state -- was 10.84 inches.

A moderate earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.4 jolted northern Japan Sunday afternoon, the U.S. Geological Survey said. No tsunami warning was issued.

The quake was centered 145 miles northeast off the coast of Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island, according to the USGS. It struck 37 miles under the ocean floor.

A mandatory evacuation was ordered Saturday for residents of more than 1,000 homes south of Ketchum, where a massive wildfire raged and high winds grounded firefighting air tankers.

After three days of relative calm, the 39-square-mile fire was 38 percent contained, but embers blew ahead of the blaze and increased the threat of spot fires, fire spokesman Bob Beanblossom said.

©AP/NASA

This image provided by NASA Thursday Aug. 16, 2007 was taken by one of the crew aboard the International Space Station of wide-spread forest fires in the Payette National Forest, Central Idaho within the Salmon River Mountains Monday.

The weather bureau says the current low pressure system over south-east Queensland is "a freak event" that has not been seen in Australia since the 1800s.

The system has left backpackers and Indonesian sailors stranded on the coast and substantial rainfall in the Condamine River catchment in inland southern Queensland.

©ABC News

Indonesian sailors ran aground on Rainbow Beach yesterday.

A series of storms that has pummeled the Upper Midwest is part of a very unusual weather pattern.

Jonathan Martin is chairman of the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He says it only comes around once every 100 or 200 years.

Fifty people are dead as a result of violent weather that has raged across Yemen since early this month, KUNA reported Saturday.

The Yemeni Interior Ministry said seven died and scores were injured when heavy rain and floods drenched western Yemen Saturday.

Lightning also killed nine people from the same family in Rimma.

Forest fires raged unabated today on the Peloponnese peninsula of southern Greece, killing at least 51 people as flames threatened historic sites including Ancient Olympia.

"We are dealing with a national catastrophe, without precedent," said Niakalaos Diamantis, a fire service spokesman.

The Greek Health Ministry announced this morning that the death toll had climbed past 50, putting it among the world's deadliest forest fires of modern times.

©AP

Fires in Greece as captured by NASA satelite

A male and female found dead in their car surrounded by the wildfire in the Alupka forest district are believed to the first victims of the fire that began on August 24.

Moreover, two officers of the Ukrainian Emergency Situations Ministry combating the wildfire were injured, the press service of the Crimean Council of Ministers said on Sunday.

The fire is raging on the territory of 50 hectares.

Ukrainian Emergency Situations Minister Nestor Shufrych urgently arrived to Crimea from the Kherson region in order tostudy the situation and to organize fire-combating activities.

"The Alpine landscape makes it difficult to combat the fire, and we
are preparing additional forces to help Crimean residents," the press
service said.