Officials blame reduced rainfall, low level of Yangtze and human activities for lake drying out almost two months before low-water period

Parts of China's largest freshwater lake have dried up, with a huge patch of grassland where there once was water after the level fell continuously since September.

The water level of Poyang Lake in eastern Jiangxi province as measured by the Xingzi hydrological station had dropped to 10.6 metres on Thursday. The lake entered its low-water period of less than 12 metres on September 19, 54 days earlier than usual, state news agency Xinhua reported.

The report said tourists could now walk on the former lakebed in Duchang county and view flowering aubergine plants, as if they were wandering through fields.

Pictures show well-known Luoxingdun island in Lushan, a city that neighbours Duchang, high and dry and surrounded by grass. The island that used to be in the middle of the lake is currently regarded as a scale of the water level's ups and downs, rather than a navigation mark and lighthouse as in the past.

ZIMBABWE is currently battling its worst drought in 25 years after consecutive dry spells due to the El Nino weather phenomenon which has affected most parts of the Southern Africa region, government has said.

El Niño is a climate cycle in the Pacific Ocean with a global impact on weather patterns. El Niño-caused drought can be widespread, affecting southern Africa, India, Southeast Asia, Australia, the Pacific Islands and the Canadian prairies

Environment, Water and Climate Minister Oppah Muchinguri said El Nino resulted in below normal rainfall during the 2015/16 farming season.

Addressing journalists in the capital last Friday, Muchinguri said national dam levels are now around 41.9 percent, which is well below the normal average of 62.3 percent for this time of the year.

Dams in Masvingo are the worst affected, with most just 21 percent full.

Muchinguri said her ministry would soon approach President Robert Mugabe with a view to declaring the country a water shortage area.

A tornado has hit the coastal town of Ladispoli, Italy, with local media reporting at least one person dead.

According to reports, a man died in hospital after being struck by falling building fragments. The tornado caused two of the floors in the eight story building to collapse in Via Ancona.

Il Messaggero says the victim was a 36 year old Pakistani man.

Two others have been injured. Shops, cars and trees have also suffered damage.

Locals have begun sharing images and video of the aftermath, with one woman showing a broken window frame inside her home.

Italy has been hit by powerful storms that have left branches strewn across roads and flooding in some areas. A road in Rome was partially closed to traffic due to large branches blocking some of the roadway.

Citizens of Oklahoma and neighboring states felt a strong tremor on Sunday evening as a 5.0-magnitude earthquake struck some 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Oklahoma City. The nearby town of Cushing reportedly experienced structural damage and power cuts.

The quake struck some 2km west of Cushing at a depth of just 5km, US Geological Survey reported, revising the magnitude from 5.3 to 5.0.

Despite being a moderate tremor on the Richter scale, the shallow quake resulted in several buildings partly collapsing, also causing a power outage.

Instances of leopards entering human habitats in the state are witnessing a rise with 57 such cases being reported since January this year.

Wildlife experts have attributed these break-ins behind decline in prey base in the jungles and healthy rise in the number of big cats. Gradual encroachment in forest areas is also another cause behind the rise in numbers of leopard-human conflicts in state, said the experts.

Vipul Maurya, a wildlife scholar who carried out a research on leopard-human conflict alongside Alaknanda river said, "The prey base has declined in forests so the leopards are increasingly venturing near vicinity of villages with agricultural activities. Such areas provide food and water for the animal in sufficient quantities for it to thrive."

In a second attack by an Indian gaur in a week in Tamil Nadu, two children were injured while they were walking on Rifle Range Road in Kodaikanal on Sunday.

S. Divya (11) and T. Sivasankar (14) of Naidupuram in Kodaikanal town were rushed to the Kodaikanal Government Hospital.

Later, Divya was referred to Theni Government Medical College Hospital.

The gaur first attacked the girl. When Sivasankar tried to rescue her, the animal attacked him too, said the police. Local people chased the animal away from the area.

A week ago, a couple from Chennai on a honeymoon were attacked by a gaur in Sims Park in Coonoor in the Nilgiris district. Later, the woman succumbed to her injuries.

In Kodaikanal, attacks on humans by wild animals are becoming common.

At least 20 people of six villages were injured as fishing cats, entering localities in search of food, attacked human beings in the areas under Dinajpur Sadar upazila.

"The people of Sahapara village noticed four fishing cats in the area on Thursday. They sneaked in localities and took away many domestic birds and animals including hens, ducks and sheep," Gulzar Ali, a member of Awliapur union of Dinajpur Sadar.

"As villagers started guarding at night to save their domestic animals, the fishing cats started attacking the villagers in paddy fields in broad daylight," said Sabina Yasmin, another ward member.

Villagers have stopped going to paddy fields and started guarding their areas with sticks, said Gulzar Ali.

The 20 victims, including seriously injured Nur Jahan, Rubina Khatun, Jesmin Akter, Sonia Akter, Sohrab Ali, Hasim Uddin and Md Babu, took treatment at Dinajpur Medical College Hospital and Dinajpur General Hospital.

They are from Karimullahpur, Sahapara, Mashimpur, Tarimpur, Chowliapur and Hariharpur villages.

In another such tragic incident, a man was killed in bear attack in a jungle near Benuadhar village under Thakurmunda block in Mayurbhanj district this morning.

The man was identified as Laxman Purti of Benuadhar village.

According a report, Laxman had to collect leaves for timber purposes to the nearby forest where a bear bit and mauled him severely. Though he was taken to a nearby hospital, he was declared brought dead there.

It may be noted that such a sorrowful incident had occurred in Bargarh district on Friday when a villager of Behera Gaon under Ambabhona block was killed in a bear attack.

The villager had gone into the nearby jungle for search for his cow when a bear attacked him, injuring him severely. Later he died in a hospital.

It may be reminded that a bear had killed three persons in Nabarangpur district in June this year.

The Great Salt Lake is drying up and shrinking. Both nature and man have a hand in the change.

The Great Salt Lake is largest water body in the United States after the Great Lakes. It is a terminal basin, which means the water that pours into the lake from rivers and streams has no outlet other than evaporation. This allows salts and minerals to concentrate in the lake such that it is three to five times saltier than the ocean. And yet this briny lake is a haven for more than 250 species of migratory birds who feast on the brine shrimp and flies that thrive there.

But now the millions of birds and shrimp—and the people who harvest the shrimp and extract salts and recreational fun from the lake—are faced with a problem. For more than 150 years, humans have been taking more water out of the Salt Lake watershed than is flowing into it. They are now diverting about 40 percent of the river water (which would normally fill the lake) and using it for farming, industry, and human consumption. In October 2016, the Great Salt Lake reached its lowest recorded level: 1277.5 meters (4,191.2 feet), averaged between the lake's north and south arms.

Five years of drought in the American West have contributed to the recent drop in the water line, as have higher-than-normal temperatures. But the region has seen dry cycles before, and according to scientists, there has not been a significant long-term change in precipitation in the basin. Nonetheless, the volume of water in Great Salt Lake has shrunk by 48 percent and the lake level has fallen 3.4 meters (11 feet) since 1847.

These two Landsat satellite images show recent changes in the Farmington Bay basin of Great Salt Lake. The Thematic Mapper on Landsat 5 acquired the first image (above) on September 11, 2011; the second image (below) was captured by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 on September 20, 2016. According to scientists' estimates, more than three-quarters of the lake bed is now exposed in Farmington Bay. Salt Lake City (lower right) and its northern suburbs stretch around the east side of the lake.

A young farmer was killed and four others injured by a lightning strike at Hussainpur village in Balaganj upazila under Sylhet on Friday.

The deceased was identified as Amros Ali, 38, a resident of the village.

Police and witnesses said Amros along with some farmers was cultivating his land beside Kapna beel (wetland) in the area when a thunderbolt hit them around 10:00am, leaving Amros dead on the spot and four others injured.

The injured were admitted to Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital, according to a news agency.

Source: ZR