Brooklyn - The Red Admiral Butterfly, known as the "Butterfly of Doom," was especially abundant the year the Russian Tsar Alexander II was assassinated. Lepidopterist Kurt Johnson reports an unusually large number of the species are descending upon Brooklyn, NY According to Dr. Kurt Johnson, a retired lepidopterist from the American Museum of Natural History, in the last two days there has been

an outbreak of Red Admirals (Vanessa atalanta) in Brooklyn the likes of which I have never seen (not even close), and I've been here 45 years. ... [T]here were at least a half dozen Red Admirals for every 10 paces one walked.... [At] the Botanical Garden, Red Admirals were also flying all over the place, chasing each other etc.

Butterfly population explosions are not particularly common, says Dr. Johnson. In 1881, the Red Admiral, also known as the Red Admirable, was found in great abundance in Russia. According to Russian lore, the undersides of the wings bore markings that resembled the numbers "1881." Russians came to call the insect the "Butterfly of Doom," and some believe its great numbers "signaled" the beginning of the revolution and the death of the Tsar.

Government issues health alert after more than 1,400 birds are washed up along with 800 dolphins, with the cause unknown

Peru's government has declared a health alert along its northern coastline and urged residents and tourists to stay away from long stretches of beach as it investigates the unexplained deaths of hundreds of dolphins and pelicans.

At least 1,200 birds, mostly pelicans, have washed up dead along a stretch of Peru's northern Pacific coastline in recent weeks, according to health officials, and an estimated 800 dolphins have died in the same area in recent months.

The health ministry recommended staying away from beaches, although it stopped short of a ban, and called on health officials to use gloves, masks and other protective gear when collecting dead birds.

Parts of Britain will be colder than the Arctic this weekend as rain and even snow threaten to put a freeze on millions of families' May Bank Holiday plans.

Beach trips and barbecues are likely to be off the agenda as forecasters predicted the mercury could plunge as low as 26F (-3C) in places on Saturday.

Holidaymakers were advised to go skiing rather than sunbathing and seaside resorts warned of multi-million pound losses and deserted beaches.

Farmers and gardeners, battered by drought and floods, have also been warned that crops and plants could be killed by widespread frosts.

Flooding continued today as the Met Office said rain hit many parts and the Environment Agency issued 19 flood warnings and 61 alerts. East Anglia, the Midlands and the South were worst hit.

Showers will hit the south coast on Saturday, a wider area of the south on Sunday, and most areas on a washout Bank Holiday Monday, with further widespread rain next week.

A tornado ripped through eastern Japan, killing one person and injuring at least 20 people, destroying houses and cutting power to around 20,000 households.

The tornado tore through several towns north-east of Tokyo, with television footage from the city of Tsukuba showing houses torn apart, overturned cars and toppled power poles.

Aerial images showed possibly hundreds of houses and apartments with shattered glass windows, many of them with their roofs blown away.

"You could see the roaring column of wind rushing with sparks from live power lines inside it," a local man told national broadcaster NHK.

"Winds blew into my house. It took only a moment," a woman told NHK while cleaning up her home.

Officials say a 14-year-old boy was killed while up to 50 homes were destroyed. Local media reported at least 30 injuries.

© Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images
An activist from the environment action group Greenpeace holds black and white balloons with the slogn, ''Be Next: Clean your cloud,'' during a protest in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on the sidelines of a '' Microsoft '' exhibition on April 22, 2012 . Greenpeace activists urged Microsoft to use clean energy to power datacenters running services based in the Internet 'cloud.'

Israel's Environmental Protection Ministry isn't sure what the smell is, but still insists that it poses no danger.

A mysterious, strong chemical odor has been detected in Tel Aviv today. Authorities aren't yet sure what is causing the smell, but insist that there is nothing to worry about. However, Israel has launched a criminal investigation in relation to the odor, the Times of Israel reported.

Residents haven't been given any orders other than not to panic. People who attempted to call the Tel Aviv Municipality received an automated message saying that officials were investigating the "unknown smell," and that there is "no need to report it, as media outlets will update throughout the day," according to Haaretz.

"There's no point in spreading hysteria," Minister Gilad Erdan told Israel Radio today, according to the Times of Israel. "There's no danger."

People in Tel Aviv first noticed the foul smell this morning, Ynet reported. The IDF received an outpouring of complaints, and originally traced the odor back to a gas drilling site near Nitzanim.

A catastrophic freeze has wiped out about 80 per cent of Ontario's apple crop and has the province's fruit industry looking at losses already estimated at more than $100 million.

"This is the worst disaster fruit growers have ever, ever experienced," Harrow-area orchard owner Keith Wright said Friday.

"We've been here for generations and I've never heard of this happening before across the province. This is unheard of where all fruit growing areas in basically the Great Lakes area, in Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York State, Ontario, are all basically wiped out. It's unheard of."

Wright lost hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of apples and peaches Sunday morning when freezing temperatures killed the blossoms.

Yes, one! There's only one thing about which they think in a same way - a concern about possible eruption of Mt. Baekdu. The two Koreas remain at odds in everything. But they are one in voicing how to counter the possible volcanic explosion of the highest mountain in the Korean Peninsula

Inter-Korean anxiety is mounting, with growing apocalyptic predictions on the dormant volcano. A South Korean geological expert has warned that the volcano could erupt sometime around 2014 and 2015.

Former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il reportedly said people in some regions of Yanggang and North Hamgyeong Provinces were feeling anxiety over a volcanic eruption of Mt. Baekdu. Kim called for quick countermeasures by the North Korean authorities.

If a volcano, located on the border between North Korea and China erupts, damage could be 10 to 100 times greater than that caused by the April 2010 eruptions in Iceland. Experts predict that the ashes would not only hit the neighboring area but damage agriculture and cause serious disruptions in industrial activities and air flights. The Korean Peninsula, China, Japan and Russia would be severely damaged.

A volcanic eruption begins when pressure on a magma chamber forces magma up through the conduit and out the volcano's vents. When the magma chamber is completely filled, the type of eruption partly depends on the amount of gas and silica in the magma. The amount of silica determines how sticky (level of viscosity) the magma is and water provides the explosive potential of steam.

The 2010 Iceland eruption caused enormous disruption to air travel across Western and Northern Europe, although relatively small in size for volcanic eruptions. About 20 countries closed their airspace and it affected hundreds of thousands of travelers. A very high proportion of flights within, to, and from Europe were cancelled, creating the highest level of air travel disruption since the World War II.

Over 50 thousand fish in a pond near an industrial area in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen died overnight on Monday, CRI Online reports.

The dead fish are mostly concentrated in the northern corner of the pond, and half of the body of water is now covered with rotting fish.

Located in the Qiangxiaxin Village at the junction of the Guangming New District and Dongguan in Shenzhen, the fish pond is larger than two basketball courts in area.

"We have invested a total of 350 thousand yuan (about 56 thousand USD) in the form of 60 thousand fish; now it's all over," said Ms. Liu, the fish pond owner. "These fish have been raised for one year, and could have been sold at market three months later."

Liu said she will not sell the dead fish at market despite suffering great financial losses as a result. She also suspects that heavy rain may have led to the pond being contaminated by toxic and harmful substances from a nearby building site in the Maike industrial area.

A manager surnamed Wen at the building site said that he is willing to cover any losses but stated that he is unaware of the presence of toxic materials at the site.

The Guangming New District environmental protection office has already begun investigating the case.

The attack only lasted 53 seconds as the deep-sea creature dragged the bird under near the Ogden Point breakwater in Victoria



Canada, British Columbia - Ginger Morneau was just taking a stroll along the water in Victoria when she saw a Giant Pacific octopus devour a seagull.

Morneau, her husband and her brother all watched as the octopus violently hugged the bird and pulled it under the water next to the Ogden Point breakwater in March.

She couldn't believe what she was seeing so she grabbed her camera and got some shots. The story and photos were first published by the BirdFellow Journal and are now going viral.

"From start to finish, from first photo to the last, there were 53 seconds that elapsed," said Morneau to The Canadian Press. "The struggle itself was really surreal in that it was quiet. You heard the sound of the water and nothing else."

Mexico City just 40 miles away from volcano throwing poison gases a mile up into the air over Puebla state

Mexico remains on high alert as the Popocatepetl volcano continuous to spew gas and volcanic ash into the air.

Mexico's National Centre for Disaster Prevention raised the threat level in April to its third highest warning in a seven-step scale. This indicates the possibility of magma expulsion and eruptions of increasing intensity.