An earthquake measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale rocked the lower Save Valley in Mozambique and was felt in eastern Zimbabwe.

According to the United States Geological Survey, the earthquake struck at 12.37PM on Wednesday in an area that has seen more than a dozen quakes in the last 20 years, including two very large ones in 2006 that were felt as far as Harare.

The earthquake was severe in Chipinge where panic-stricken residents scurried for cover.

No deaths or injuries were recorded, Zimbabwe's Herald Online reported on Thursday.

Zimbabwe's Goetz Observatory in Bulawayo said it was still busy putting together all readings.

Thursday morning's submarine earthquake near the Kermadec trench sent most of its energy east and west, rather than south towards New Zealand say GNS scientists.

The earthquake was magnitude 7.6 and occurred in the Pacific tectonic plate close to the Kermadecs. The epicentre was 160km from Raoul Island and 920km from Tonga.

The orientation of the earthquake's fault rupture was north-south and most of the tsunami energy radiated perpendicular to the fault plane.

The largest observed peak-to-trough wave-height caused by this was 1.9 metres at the two tsunami gauges at Raoul Island, operated by GeoNet. This puts the top of the wave at about one metre above the normal tide level.

GNS Science tsunami scientist Dr William Power says small tsunami arrivals, not much larger than normal 'sea noise', were subsequently observed on tsunami gauges at Great Barrier Island and East Cape.

"The mechanism of the rupture was that of a normal fault, rather than a subduction thrust event, but both can produce a large vertical movement of the seafloor."

Economists ride into sulphurous cloud of aerosols

The refusal of the global temperatures to rise as predicted has caused much angst among academics. "The fact is that we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can't," wrote one in 2009. Either the instruments were wrong, or the heat energy had gone missing somewhere.

Now a team of academics, after tweaking a statistical model to include sulphur emissions, suggest that coal power stations may be to blame for a lack of global warming since 1998. The IPCC's 2007 assessment acknowledged the negative radiative forcing (aka, cooling effect) of both natural aerosols from volcanoes and manmade aerosols, but admitted the level of scientific understanding was low.

Agent Orange is one of the most devastating weapons of modern warfare, a chemical which killed or injured an estimated 400,000 people during the Vietnam War -- and now it's being used against the Amazon rainforest. According to officials, ranchers in Brazil have begun spraying the highly toxic herbicide over patches of forest as a covert method to illegally clear foliage, more difficult to detect that chainsaws and tractors. In recent weeks, an aerial survey detected some 440 acres of rainforest that had been sprayed with the compound -- poisoning thousands of trees and an untold number of animals, potentially for generations.

Officials from Brazil's environmental agency IBAMA were first tipped to the illegal clearing by satellite images of the forest in Amazonia; a helicopter flyover in the region later revealed thousands of trees left ash-colored and defoliated by toxic chemicals. IBAMA says that Agent Orange was likely dispersed by aircraft by a yet unidentified rancher to clear the land for pasture because it is more difficult to detect than traditional operations that require chainsaws and tractors.

Last week, in another part of the Amazon, an investigation conducted by the agency uncovered approximately four tons of the highly toxic herbal pesticides hidden in the forest awaiting dispension. If released, the chemicals could have potentially decimated some 7,500 acres of rainforest, killing all the wildlife that resides there and contaminating groundwater. In this case, the individual responsible was identified and now faces fines nearing $1.3 million.

A fairly strong earthquake with a magnitude of 5.5 shook northern Wakayama Prefecture on Tuesday evening, the Meteorological Agency said, but caused little damage, no reported injuries, and no tsunami warning was issued.

There were no immediate reports of damage, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a news conference after the 7:18 p.m. quake, which measured upper 5 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 and was followed by several aftershocks including one with a magnitude of 4.4 that occurred 16 minutes later.

All local train services operated by West Japan Railway Co. in the western prefecture south of Osaka were briefly suspended, but the quake did not affect expressways, bullet train services, or nuclear power plants, according to local officials.

The disaster prevention office of the Wakayama prefectural government said a boulder fell from a hillside in Hidakagawa, and broken windows were discovered in Hirogawa, but added no injuries or substantial damage to property was reported. The temblor registered upper 5 in both towns.

Heavy rains lashed the city following which water-logging was reported in some of the low-lying areas.

The Raja Bhoj Airport here recorded a rainfall of two cms in around three hours last evening.

Before the showers started, cloud cover had reduced the visibility.

Power supply was also disrupted in some areas due to high speed winds and rains.

MeT officials said that more rainfall is expected in the days ahead.

Scattered thunderstorms continue in the Pee Dee Tuesday evening. Very heavy downpours and frequent cloud-to-ground lightning are occurring with the storms. Some areas are seeing three inches or more of rain which is causing flooding.

A Flood WARNING is in effect for central Florence and Marion counties until midnight tonight. Flooding is occurring in these areas, especially along and south of Highway 76.

As of 10:00 PM, Progress energy reports 750 customers without power in Marion County and around 560 in Florence County.

The majority of us will remain warm and muggy overnight with a chance for thunderstorms. Temperatures tomorrow will climb to near 90 along the coast with low 90s inland. There is once again a chance of storms tomorrow afternoon. Not everyone will see rain but those who do will likely experience very heavy downpours and frequent lightning.

A large area of high pressure parked in the Atlantic will continue to pump heat and humidity into the region right on through the weekend. The increased humidity also means increased rain chances as we head later into the week.

Arizonans are calling it the mother of all dust storms.

The mile-high wall of ominous, billowing dust that appeared to swallow Phoenix and its suburbs is all that locals can talk about.

It moved through the state around sundown Tuesday, halting airline flights, knocking out power to nearly 10,000 people, turning swimming pools into mud pits and caking cars with dirt.

The sky was still filled with a hazy shade of brown Wednesday as residents washed their cars and swept sidewalks.

Because dust storms, also known by the Arabic term haboobs, are so hard to predict, Tuesday's took everyone by surprise.

Seemingly out of nowhere, the 100-mile-wide storm moved like a giant wave, the dust roiling as it approached at up to 60 mph. Once it hit, visibility dropped to zero in some areas, the sky turned nearly black, trees blew sideways, and even downtown Phoenix skyscrapers became invisible.

"Just the height of it looked like a special-effect scene from a movie, like a dust storm out in Africa," said Charlotte Dewey, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Phoenix. "It looked so huge, looking at the city down below, it was just specks of light and miniature buildings.

Chinese state media say heavy rains across the country have killed at least 25 people in less than a week.

The deaths add to more than 260 people who were killed or left missing last month from seasonal floods in eastern and southern China.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday that seven people have died in Sichuan province since new downpours started last Thursday. They included a villager who was killed Tuesday when a wall collapsed while he was removing water from his yard.

It cited rescuers in northwest Shaanxi province as saying a rain-triggered landslide there killed 18 people on Tuesday.

New Zealand civil defence authorities cancelled a tsunami warning on Thursday but warned of possible stronger than normal ocean currents around the east coast of the country after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck in the Pacific Ocean north east of the country.

It said a tsunami was generated by the earthquake around the Kermadec Islands, around 1180 kilometres (737 miles) north east of New Zealand, but scientists has advised it was of no threat to New Zealand.