© Reuters
Deadly: The death toll is currently 32 and is expected to rise as rescuers continue the hunt for survivors
Deadly: The death toll is currently 32 and is expected to rise as rescuers continue the hunt for survivors
Earth Changes
At least 32 dead and 'dozens' more trapped as landslide sweeps away entire village in southern China
A landslide has engulfed a village in southern China killing at least 32 people and leaving 'dozens' more trapped today. Mud and rocks smothered 16 homes in Zhaojiagou village, in county of Zhenxiong this morning. Rescuers have so far recovered 32 bodies and a further 46 have been reported missing according to state media sources.
Two victims have been taken to hospital. Falling earth swept over the village at around 8.20am this morning said the state-controlled channel CCTV. Local reports said a 700-strong emergency team had been dispatched to the disaster zone while Yunnan's provincial governor, Li Jiheng, had also travelled to the region.
While the East Coast basks in relatively warm weather for mid-January, California is being hit with a blistering cold front. The unusually frigid weather has brought snowstorms and temperatures below 30 degrees to the Pacific Coast state, alarming motorists, farmers and zookeepers, among others. The California Highway Patrol on Friday partially reopened a 40-mile stretch of Interstate 5, north of Los Angeles, that was closed by snow as the cold snap sent temperatures plummeting throughout the state.
The CHP began escorting southbound cars through the Grapevine section of the major north-south route after a 16-hour shutdown that prompted hundreds of truckers and other motorists to pull over and spend the night by the side of the road. 'There must have been 1,000 Mack trucks lined up,' one motorist, Heidi Blood, 40, said early Friday. Blood and her three youngsters had been visiting Orange County and set out at 4.30am Friday to head back north to their home in Kentfield, California, when they found the road shut down.
'I usually watch the news but I went to a spin class instead. I learned my lesson,' she said. Blood had to give an insulin shot in the car to her 13-year-old blind, diabetic dog, Barney. To pass the time, the family watched movies and read on their iPads, turning on the car every 30 minutes to use the heater.
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'I usually watch the news but I went to a spin class instead. I learned my lesson,' she said. Blood had to give an insulin shot in the car to her 13-year-old blind, diabetic dog, Barney. To pass the time, the family watched movies and read on their iPads, turning on the car every 30 minutes to use the heater.
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But authorities have yet to determine what is responsible for the loud sounds.
Local residents, mostly on Evansville's East Side and in Warrick County including Boonville, started reporting the mysterious sounds late Monday night. Additional reports of similar noises were also logged Tuesday night.
Caleb Donahoo, 24, said he has heard the booms each night at his home, which is in the Lynch-Green River roads area, with Monday night definitely being the loudest.
"The first night, it was about 11:45-ish. That was the loudest one we've heard so far. I was asleep, and it woke me up. It rattled the windows and the house and everything," Donahoo said Wednesday evening.
The incidents have spawned much speculation on social media, with theories ranging from a blown power transformer to a meth explosion or a sonic boom from some sort of aircraft, but so far nothing has been conclusive about the sounds' origins.
Vectren Corp. has no record of any blown transformers in any of the areas where the sounds were reported either night, according to spokeswoman Chase Kelley, though she said several of the company's own employees had asked a supervisor if a blown transformer was a cause of any of the sounds.
Others speculated it could be a mine blast, but Evansville-based Vigo Coal, which operates in Boonville, said its permit prohibits blasting work from dusk to dawn.
© Image Credit: REUTERS
A car drives through the snow in Aley area, eastern Lebanon January 9, 2013. At least 17 people have also died due to the storm in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Israel and the Palestinian territories.
A car drives through the snow in Aley area, eastern Lebanon January 9, 2013. At least 17 people have also died due to the storm in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Abnormal storms which for four days have blasted the Middle East with rain, snow and hail have left at least 11 people dead and brought misery to Syrian refugees huddled in camps.
Officials reported that two women were found dead in the West Bank on Wednesday after their car was swept away in floods, while a 30-year-old man froze to death in Taalabaya, in Lebanon's Bekaa province, after he fell asleep drunk in his car.
Snow carpeted Syria's war-torn cities but sparked no let-up in the fighting, instead heaping fresh misery on a civilian population already enduring a chronic shortage of heating fuel and daily power cuts.
In Occupuied Jerusalem, schools closed at midday and driving wind, hail and rain battered the city as temperatures hovered just above freezing and the polar air mass moving down from Russia sent temperatures plummeting as far south as Cairo.
Raging winds and flash floods caused widespread damage to infrastructure across the Palestinian territories.
"The Palestinian infrastructure is deeply flawed and unable to handle weather like this," said Ghassan Hamdan, head of medical relief in the northern city of Nablus.
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Meteorologists predict that the second half of January will bring significantly colder patterns.
Meteorologists predict that the second half of January will bring significantly colder patterns.
Much of the nation has been experiencing higher-than-average temperatures and lower heating bills so far during the cold weather season, with the exception of some bouts the past couple of weeks.
However, there are signs of a potential change on the way beginning during the second half of January.
A phenomenon known as sudden stratospheric warming has occurred in the arctic region during the past few days. The stratosphere is located between 6 miles and 30 miles above the ground.
Meteorologists predict that the second half of January will bring significantly colder patterns. Often when this occurs, it forces cold air to build in the lowest layer of the atmosphere then to drive southward.
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© ALAA BADARNEH - EPA
A general view of the snow covered West Bank city of Nablus, taken from a hillside overlooking the city during snowy weather, on 10 January 2013.
A general view of the snow covered West Bank city of Nablus, taken from a hillside overlooking the city during snowy weather, on 10 January 2013.
But as cold air wrapped into low pressure tracking through the region, temperatures plummeted and snow reports spiked. Up to three feet of snow fell on Mount Hermon in northern Israel the Inquisitr reported. Snow was also observed in areas of the West Bank, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Egypt.
The cold, stormy weather in Syria brought further suffering in war-ravaged cities and for refugees. "The United Nations says millions of people inside Syria and 600,000 refugees outside the country need assistance, including food, blankets and warm clothes," Voice of America wrote.
According to AFP, Shah Alam, the deputy head of the weather office, said the lowest temperature was recorded at 3 degrees Celsius in the northern town of Syedpur.
He said the last time the temperature dropped below that level was in February 1968 when Bangladesh was still part of Pakistan.
"The temperature is the lowest in Bangladesh's history," he said.
The Red Crescent said hospitals were packed with patients suffering respiratory illness.
The society's general-secretary Abu Bakar said impoverished rural areas had been worst hit as many people could not afford warm clothing or heating.
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The strange thing about this phenomenon this season has been that it gripped the Pothohar region and the plains of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as well, contrary to the trend of the past few decades when nearly blinding fog mostly affected the plain areas of the Punjab.
This time around, the 50-year cold records in the Punjab plains were broken, while also plunging the wide swathes of Pothohar and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in an unprecedented cold spell, which spread over a fortnight or even three weeks, with weather pundits saying that maximum temperatures fell by as much as 10 degree Celsius.
After shivering even in the daytime during the two days in the 'aftermath' of fog-induced cold, Tuesday night brought with it some cheers for the winter-weary people, as a cloudy sky prevented fog to accumulate, also bringing visibility level back to normal for the traffic and keeping the temperatures from dipping to sub-zero level, as was seen in the previous two weeks.
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The drought has had a negative impact on corn in Le Roy, Illinois. The hottest year on record is expected to drive up food prices by 2013 due to lower crop harvests.
The drought has had a negative impact on corn in Le Roy, Illinois. The hottest year on record is expected to drive up food prices by 2013 due to lower crop harvests.
"As drought persists, USDA will continue to partner with producers to see them through longer-term recovery, while taking the swift actions needed to help farmers and ranchers prepare their land and operations for the upcoming planting season," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement.
The designations make qualified farmers in the areas eligible for low-interest loans, the agency said.
Affected counties have suffered severe drought for eight consecutive weeks, which qualified them for the automatic designation.
Richard Oswald, a 62-year-old farmer in Missouri's Atchison County, said he has been hit hard by the drought but was not sure whether he would take advantage of the drought designation for his county by getting a low-interest loan.
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Several mountainous areas in particular in northern and central provinces, some suburbs of the Greek capital, as well as the southern island of Crete, have been most affected with blocked motorways even for vehicles with snow chains and closure of schools.
As winds of up to 8 on the Beaufort scale sweep the Aegean Sea, a ferry boat crashed into the dock of a port at the eastern island of Lesvos with no injuries or major damage caused, local authorities said.
The Greek National Meteorological Service (EMY) reported the lowest temperature over the past few days, as the thermometer plunged to -11 Celsius in the northern city of Nevrokopi. Experts at EMY forecast that the cold snap will subside on Thursday.
