2007 is set to be the warmest year in one and a half centuries for Russia, the head of the Hydrometeorological Centre of Russia said on Thursday.
"We are 99% sure that this will be the warmest year in the 150-year period in which accurate weather records have been kept," Roman Vilfand told a press-conference.
Vilfand said that on a wider scale, the year was set to become one of the top five warmest years our planet has seen since global temperatures have been recorded. He said it meant "that a warming of the climate is undoubtedly going on."
Indonesian rescuers hunted Thursday for victims of landslides and floods on Java island that have left more than 130 people feared dead and tens of thousands displaced, officials said.
Landslides hit two districts in Central Java in the early hours of Wednesday morning, engulfing entire homes and blocking roads, while floods in East Java swept away a bridge, leaving an estimated 50 missing.
wwfThu, 27 Dec 2007 06:37 UTC
Poor or non-existent collection controls are threatening the survival of many of the plant species used in traditional and modern medicines. Some estimates indicate that 15,000 of the 50,000 - 70,000 plant species used for medicinal purposes and mostly collected from the wild may be threatened, many as a direct result of unsustainable collection practices.
Three years of collaboration in which WWF has played a key role have now produced the first set of principles and criteria for the sustainable wild collection of plants.
ANKARA, Turkey - An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.5 shook the Turkish capital early Thursday, rattling furniture and rousing residents from their sleep, authorities said. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
A powerful magnitude 6.5 quake hit off Alaska's Aleutian Islands on Wednesday, the US Geological Survey said, but it did not immediately trigger a tsunami warning.
Jakarta - Landslides and floods caused by torrential rains have left up to 81 people dead or missing in Indonesia's Central Java province, police and rescue officials said on Wednesday.
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| ©REUTERS/Andry Prasetyo
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| Indonesian soldiers and villagers dig into mud to search for landslide victims in Karang Anyar district near Solo, Indonesia's Central Java province
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Matthew Walter and Steven Bodzin
BloombergWed, 26 Dec 2007 11:24 UTC
Venezuela was shaken by a magnitude 5.0 earthquake today. There were no reports of damage to oil installations, the state energy company said.
Mario Osava
IPSWed, 26 Dec 2007 10:27 UTC
RIO DE JANEIRO - Once again, humanity is facing the risk of catastrophe. The terror of destruction by nuclear missiles ready to be launched at the touch of a button has given way to the disturbing possibility of global warming going past the point of no return, and this is turning traditional international coalitions and geopolitical concepts upside down.
The ancient Iranian city of Bam was hit by a mild earthquake almost four years to the day after a catastrophic quake there killed tens of thousands of people, state media reported on Wednesday.
JAKARTA, Indonesia - Hours of heavy rain triggered landslides Wednesday that killed at least 59 people in western Indonesia, media reports said.
