With the UN warning that both East and the Horn of Africa have been hit by the worst drought in 60 years, international aid agencies have warned of an alarming gap in the food pipeline to reach those most in need.

More than 10 million people are thought to be affected across the East African region.

The UN says that large swathes of northern Kenya and Somalia are now in the "emergency" category, one phase before what is officially classified as famine.

"Two consecutive poor rainy seasons have resulted in one of the driest years since 1950/51 in many pastoral zones," Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told a media briefing this week.

"There is no likelihood of improvement until 2012." Child malnutrition rates in the worst affected areas are more than double the emergency threshold of 15 per cent and are expected to rise further, Byrs said.

The world's climate is not only continuing to warm, it is also adding heat-trapping greenhouse gases even faster than in the past, researchers said Tuesday.

Indeed, the global temperature has been warmer than the 20th century average every month for more than 25 years, they said at a teleconference.

"The indicators show unequivocally that the world continues to warm," Thomas R. Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center, said in releasing the annual State of the Climate report for 2010.

"There is a clear and unmistakable signal from the top of the atmosphere to the depths of the oceans," added Peter Thorne of the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites, North Carolina State University.

Carbon dioxide increased by 2.60 parts per million in the atmosphere in 2010, which is more than the average annual increase seen from 1980-2010, Karl added. Carbon dioxide is the major greenhouse gas accumulating in the air that atmospheric scientists blame for warming the climate.

The warmer conditions are consistent with events such as heat waves and extreme rainfall, Karl said at a teleconference. However, it is more difficult to make a direct connection with things like tornado outbreaks, he said.

"Any single weather event is driven by a number of factors, from local conditions to global climate patterns and trends. Climate change is one of these," he said. "It is very likely that large-scale changes in climate, such as increased moisture in the atmosphere and warming temperatures, have influenced - and will continue to influence - many different types of extreme events, such as heavy rainfall, flooding, heat waves and droughts.

Cleveland -- It's about 2 inches wide and just as deep, stretching from Ontario to East Sixth Street and running the length of the new Medical Mart construction.

Fear of the unknown may run much deeper.

The point man for Medical Mart construction, Jeff Appelbaum, says he can't say yet what the cause of the crack is or what the contributing factors are.

Appelbaum isn't passing on or shouldering the blame, but the construction team is investigating the cause.

Appelbaum says the excavation is supported by a massive dirt mound and earth anchors on the north side of St. Clair Avenue.

Still, the street split this seam.

Albany - Drought conditions are being blamed for the deaths of hundreds of fish at Radium Springs in south Georgia.

Authorities say the creek that normally connects Radium Springs to the Flint River is dry, and the water level is so low that fish don't have enough oxygen to survive.

WALB-TV reports that the natural spring is usually 24 feet deep. Authorities say levels have dropped at least four feet, and all the fish have been pushed into one small area.

Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Supervisor Rob Weller says hundreds of fish have died, including large mouth bass, blue gill and gar.

Radium Springs is one of 15 major springs around Albany. State officials say that without rain, more of them could see the same problems as Radium Springs.

A magnitude 4.7 quake hit Eastern Honshu region of Japan on Thursday, injuring seven people.

Around 8.21 a.m. local time, the quake hit Nagano, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from Tokyo, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

The quake was just four kilometers (2.5 miles) deep and no tsunami warning were issued after that, the agency said.

Mesa - Thousands of East Valley residents are without power after a transformer exploded at a Salt River Project facility in Mesa.

SRP spokesman Scott Harrelson confirm approximately 35,000 customers in Mesa and Apache Junction are affected by the outage.

Because of the fire and transformer outage the rest of the power grid is stressed, which has caused the loss of power across parts of the East Valley.

It is unclear at this time when power is expected to be restored.

SRP officials are also working to resolve an issue with their phone system, according to a tweet from the company just before 3 p.m.

The fire sent a thick plume of black smoke into the sky Thursday afternoon, and forced employees from the East Mesa Service Center near University Drive and Sossaman Road, according to fire department spokesman Forrest Smith.

Power was shut off to nearby transformers and a truck arrived at the scene and began spraying foam onto the flames just before 1:25 p.m.

• Tide shifted up to 164ft in a matter of minutes
  
• Shift in air pressure created static that left women's hair standing on end

A massive underwater landslide 200 miles off the coast of Cornwall caused a series of mini-tsunami waves and tides on Monday.

Holidaymakers, fishermen and conservationists were stunned when the tide suddenly shifted up to 50 metres in a matter of minutes.

The rapid drop in tide led to a perceivable shift in air pressure which remarkably created so much static in the air that it cause people's hair to stand on end.

The death toll from a flash flood that caught Davao City residents by surprise Tuesday night has now climbed to 27.

Five barangays have also been placed under a state of calamity.

As the local government assesses the damage, the search for the 15 people who are still missing continues.

Weather bureau PAGASA, meanwhile, warns of even more rains in the coming days.

Local officials and residents said the rains began around 10 p.m. Tuesday, with the Balusong river overflowing its banks that led to flashfloods in 4 barangays.

While some residents were able to evacuate in time, many were caught unprepared.

The latest bodies to be found were those of 16-year-old Keizl Tanio, who was seen floating on the bay in front of a resort in Punta Dumalag, and 1-year and 8-month old Rogelio Valderosa from Matina Pangi.

Tropical Storm Arlene, the first named storm of the 2011 hurricane season, has formed in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico.

At 5 a.m. Wednesday, the center of Tropical Storm Arlene was located about 190 miles east of Tampico, Mexico, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Arlene is moving west-northwest at 8 mph. Maximum sustained winds are near 40 mph, with higher gusts. Some strengthening is forecast, the Weather Service predicted.

Tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 115 miles, mainly to the northeast of the center.

A turn toward the west is forecast during the next day or so, and the center of Arlene is expected to reach the Mexican coast by Thursday. The Mexican government has issued a tropical storm warning for the coast of northeastern Mexico from Barra de Nautla north to Bahia Algodones, the Weather Service said.