Flood-hit areas of central and southern China are bracing for more heavy rains with several major rivers already swollen after downpours that have affected millions and left scores dead or missing.

Water Resources Minister Chen Lei warned that at least 10 major rivers in the affected areas were threatening to burst their banks.

"Severe floods triggered by heavy rains will continue to threaten parts of southern China," he said yesterday in remarks posted on his ministry's website.

"There is an increasing possibility that downpours, with enhanced frequency and intensity, will continue to lash regions in the south."

Persistent rains since early June have swamped many areas across a wide swath of China and the state weather bureau today forecast continued downpours during the next three days, with the summer typhoon season approaching.

Authorities have evacuated 292,000 people from along the Qiantang river in Zhejiang province on the east coast after heavy rains caused the river to swell dangerously, official Xinhua news agency said.

The driver of a garbage truck found a 6-foot Burmese python on its roof after he emptied a trash bin into the truck at a Cincinnati fast-food restaurant.

Hamilton County sheriff's spokesman Steve Barnett says deputies who were summoned around 11 a.m. Thursday arrived to find the snake on the ground with its tail wrapped around a broom belonging to the driver. A deputy lifted the snake into a cardboard box using the broom.

Barnett says in a statement that the python appeared sluggish at first but revived once inside the box.

Animal welfare workers took away the snake.

The sheriff's office says it doesn't know how the python got to the trash bin area.

Greg Pederson sees the recent publication of his research on snowpack declines in the West as a prime opportunity to reiterate the difference between climate and weather in this record-setting wet spring.

Pederson, an ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Bozeman, was the lead author of a paper published last week in Science magazine detailing the decline in snowpack observed by examining tree rings from the watersheds of the Columbia, Missouri and Colorado river basins dating back more than 800 years.

His findings: Not only has snowpack declined compared to past climate fluctuations, but there's also been a "decoupling" of precipitation in the Colorado River basin and that of the Northern Rockies.

What this means is the tendency for the north to have high snowpacks when the south is experiencing meager ones, and vice versa, has shifted to declining snowpack across the West. The long-term implications of reduced snowpack in the West, which provides water to an estimated 70 million people in just the three drainages Pederson studied, portends huge challenges for water managers in the future, he said.

Because the paper's publication has come during an unusually wet spring in many areas of the United States, Pederson has garnered a lot of interest from the media, including National Public Radio and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

"It's actually rather fortunate timing if you have an intention or desire to re-emphasize what weather and climate is," Pederson said. "I saw it as an opportunity to teach people."

Every evening, my father climbs the levee along the Missouri River in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and peers down into the black water that swallows the road. The water is rising, and the Army Corps of Engineers says the levee has never faced such a test. Dad, a retired professor, is packing his books and papers. If the levee doesn't hold, his one-story house could be underwater for months.

A little farther up the Missouri, at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Station near Blair, Nebraska, the river is already lapping at the Aqua Dams -- giant plastic tubes filled with water -- that form a stockade around the plant's buildings. The plant has become an island.

In Blair, in Council Bluffs, and in my hometown of Omaha -- which are all less than 20 miles from the Fort Calhoun Station -- some people haven't forgotten that flooding is what caused the power loss at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and the disastrous partial meltdowns that followed. They're wondering what the floodwaters might do if they were to reach Fort Calhoun's electrical systems.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued a "yellow finding" (indicating a safety significance somewhere between moderate and high) for the plant last October, after determining that the Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) "did not adequately prescribe steps to mitigate external flood conditions in the auxiliary building and intake structure" in the event of a worst-case Missouri River flood. The auxiliary building -- which surrounds the reactor building like a horseshoe flung around a stake -- is where the plant's spent-fuel pool and emergency generators are located.

Johannesburg - South Africa's president has been grounded by an ash cloud from a Chilean volcano that has been erupting for two weeks.

The governing African National Congress said President Jacob Zuma canceled a visit to western South Africa Sunday because the cloud has grounded domestic flights in South Africa. Several commercial flights also were canceled Saturday and Sunday.

The ANC says Zuma had been scheduled to thank campaign workers in a town where the party did well in recent local elections.

The fast-traveling ash cloud has disrupted flights around the southern hemisphere since the Cordon Caulle volcano began erupting June 4. The volcano is more than 5,500 miles (more than 8,800 kilometers) from Johannesburg.

Kolkata: Seven people have died in 24 hours in rain-related incidents as West Bengal continued to be in the grip of monsoon's fury. Train services in Asansol have been disrupted following a landslide near Kala Pahadi.

Meanwhile, the coast guards have been searching for three trawlers and 45 fishermen who went missing in the Bay of Bengal on Friday.

Officials suspect they may have strayed into Bangladeshi waters. Indian authorities asked the Bangladesh government to give them shelter.

Meanwhile, heavy rain wreaked havoc in Orissa as well as two people were swept away in the overflowing Baitarani river. Earlier in the week, two others had died when a wall collapsed after heavy rainfall.

Hangzhouh, June 19 -- Heavy rains and ensuing floods continue to plague southern parts of China, affecting millions of people and hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland.

Latest data from the flood control headquarters of east Zhejiang Province showed that by 7:00 a.m. Sunday, 2.66 million people had been affected by continuous rainstorms in 545 townships of 50 counties under nine cities in Zhejiang. A total of 171,000 hectares of crops were destroyed and 989 enterprises were shut down, incurring 4.96 billion yuan (751.5 million U.S. dollars) in direct economic losses.

Persistent downpours caused a mudslide in Changshan County on Sunday at noon, which flushed several local homes at Longtan Village of Tianma Town, killing two and leaving one missing.

Most of Central Florida was under severe weather alerts, Saturday night.

The National Weather Service in Melbourne issued a series of severe-thunderstorms and tornado warnings covering much of Central Florida.

Firefighters in Volusia County welcomed the rains but were less happy to see the heavy lighting that came with the rain.

According to fire officials about 25 fires started, Saturday, but were quickly contained.

At Orlando International Airport, departing and arriving fights were experiencing delays of 15 minutes or less, according to an airport spokeswoman.

Beijing - More than 5 million people have been displaced or otherwise affected by flooding in eastern China that is also pushing up food prices, state media reported Sunday


Torrential rains have left huge areas of Hubei and Zhejiang provinces under water, with more than 1 million acres of farmland inundated, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Almost 1,000 businesses have been forced to suspend operations and 5.7 million people have had their lives disrupted, Xinhua said in a brief report. More than 7,000 homes collapsed or were otherwise damaged and direct financial damage was estimated at almost 6 billion yuan.

The National Weather Service has issued a tornado warning for parts of Florida's Orange County, including Orlando.
From the National Weather Service: ...A TORNADO WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 800 PM EDT FOR CENTRAL ORANGE COUNTY...

AT 730 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE METEOROLOGISTS CONTINUED TO DETECT A TORNADO. THIS TORNADO WAS LOCATED NEAR WEDGEFIELD...OR 7 MILES SOUTH OF BITHLO...MOVING SOUTHEAST AT 15 MPH.