Earth ChangesS


Attention

Myanmar believes cyclone killed at least 10,000: diplomat

Myanmar's military government has a provisional death toll of 10,000 from this weekend's devastating cyclone, with another 3,000 missing, a diplomat said on Monday after a briefing from Foreign Minister Nyan Win.

Better Earth

Quake pattern watched closely: How Reno temblors will affect faults at Lake Tahoe unclear

As earthquakes continue to shake Reno, two reports released this month give new insight into the likely characteristics of a temblor at Lake Tahoe.

A 4.2-magnitude quake shook western Reno at 4:33 a.m. Monday, the latest in a series of quakes that has rocked the Mogul area since February.

Monday's quake is considered an aftershock of a 4.7-magnitude quake that hit the area Friday, after which seismologists warned there was a slightly higher probability of a larger quake.

X

Cyclone kills nearly 4,000 in Myanmar

A devastating cyclone killed nearly 4,000 people and left thousands more missing in army-ruled Myanmar, state media said on Monday, a dramatic increase in the toll from Saturday's storm.

The death toll only covered two of the five disaster zones where U.N. officials said hundreds of thousands of people were without shelter and drinking water in the impoverished Southeast Asian country.

"The confirmed number is 3,934 dead, 41 injured and 2,879 missing within the Yangon and Irrawaddy divisions," Myanmar TV reported three days after Cyclone Nargis, a storm with winds of 190 kph (120 mph), hit the Irrawaddy delta.

Image
©REUTERS/Xinhua/Zhang Yunfei
People walk past fallen trees on a street in Myanmar's biggest city Yangon on May 3, 2008 in this picture distributed by China's official Xinhua News Agency.

Extinguisher

Cyprus has hottest April ever

Cyprus sweated through its warmest April since records began, according to a weather service announcement.

Attention

UK: Flocks of ravens in killing spree

Like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, large groups of ravens are flocking together to attack defenceless victims and eat them alive.

Throughout the country, farmers have reported a rise in the number of calves, lambs, and sheep pecked to death. Animals not killed have been left in agony as the birds eat their eyes, tongues and the soft flesh of their underbelly.

Umbrella

Hundreds killed by Burma cyclone

A tropical cyclone has killed at least 351 people in Burma and damaged thousands of buildings, according to state television.

Parts of the Irrawaddy region were hit particularly badly, with three out of four buildings reportedly blown down in one district.

Burma map
©Unknown

Bug

Beetle-ravaged forests prompt campground closures in Rockies

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Vacationers will have fewer places to pitch their tents this summer in Colorado and Wyoming, and they can place the blame on bugs.

The U.S. Forest Service has closed some popular campgrounds in the two states because of concern that trees killed by the bark beetles that are ravaging forests across the West could topple onto unsuspecting visitors.

Dead bark beetles
©AP Photo/Troy Maben,File
Dead bark beetles are displayed next to a penny in the Wyatt Williams's lab at Boise State University in Boise, Idaho, in this Aug. 24,2006, file photo. As bark beetles ravage millions of trees across the West, U.S. Forest Service officials in Colorado and Wyoming have closed some popular campgrounds out of concern the infested trees will come crashing down on visitors.

Bark beetles have always been a part of forests in the West, but warming temperatures and an abundance of aging lodgepole pines that haven't been thinned by fires have allowed populations of the hungry insects to explode. They now infest nearly 3,600 square miles of forest in the two states.

Info

Sea lions shot dead on Columbia River as salmon battle rages

PORTLAND, Ore. - Six federally protected sea lions were apparently shot to death on the Columbia River as they lay in open traps put out to ensnare the animals, which eat endangered salmon. State and federal authorities are investigating.

The discovery came one day after three elephant seals were found shot to death at a breeding ground in central California.

sea lion
©AP Photo/Greg Wahl-Stephens
A sea lion swims along the Columbia River, past Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife investigators on Sunday, May 4, 2008 at Bonneville Dam, just east of Portland, Ore. The deaths of six sea lions are under investigation after the bodies of the federally protected animals were found in open traps on the Columbia River and appeared to have been shot.

Trapping will be suspended during the investigation, said Rick Hargrave, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife who was at the scene Sunday.

The carcasses of the four California sea lions and two Steller sea lions were found Sunday around noon below the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River on the border of Oregon and Washington.

Cloud Lightning

At least 8 killed, 50 hurt by storm in Bangladesh

Dhaka - At least eight people have been killed and over 50 injured as a strong storm swept over Bangladesh's northwestern Natore, Sirajganj, Jessore, Rajbari and southwestern Bagerhat districts on weekend, leading English newspaper The DailyStar reported on Sunday.

Bizarro Earth

South Korea: 9 killed by sudden large wave

At least nine people were killed and 14 others injured Sunday after being swept away by a sudden large wave that crashed over a breakwater on South Korea's west coast, the Coast Guard said.

The wave - believed to have been as high as 16 feet - slammed over the breakwater near a beach southwest of Seoul where dozens of people had been fishing and sightseeing, said Lee Won-il, a local Korea Coast Guard officer.

wave south korea
©Associated Press
South Korean police officers search for missing persons near Daecheon Beach in Boryeong, South Korea. At least nine people were killed and 14 others injured Sunday after being swept away by a sudden large wave that crashed over a breakwater, South Korea's Coast Guard said.

Comment: Regular tidal movements and a cloudy and drizzly weather don't seem to be enough explanation for a freak wave that killed up to 15 people.