One person died and 11 were missing after flash floods hit near Lake Toba in Indonesia's North Sumatra province, the country's disasters agency BNPB said, with scores of people evacuated and rescue efforts underway.
Heavy rain followed by flash floods on Friday evening hit the region located on the shores of the lake, damaging dozens of houses, a church, a school and a hotel, BNPB said in a statement on late Saturday.
Lake Toba, the world's biggest volcanic lake, is a popular tourist destination for Indonesians and international visitors.
In the early hours of December 3, 2023, the tranquil life in Katesh and Gendabi areas within Hanang District, Manyara Region, Tanzania, was interrupted by severe flooding. The overnight rains triggered mudslides and instigated the partial collapse of Mount Hanang. The aftermath - a shocking tally of at least 20 fatalities and 70 injuries, with homes, shops, business areas, and the main bus station in Katesh lying in ruins.
A 13-year-old boy was mauled to death by a leopard at a sugarcane field on Thursday.
The attack occurred around 1.30pm at Sabdalpur Rehra village in Bijnor district. Notably, this is the 18th human kill in a leopard attack in nine months in Bijnor. The last incident was on November 3, when a big cat killed another boy.
The forest department claimed that more than 40 leopards have been trapped and relocated since the attacks began in February.
On Thursday, Alfez along with friends went to a sugarcane field, 500m away from the village. Once they reached, a leopard suddenly appeared and dragged him away. Alfez's friends then screamed for help. Farmers working nearby started looking for the boy.
Residents of villages in Sundargarh district are living in fear as elephants, in search of food, have reportedly claimed three lives in the past four days, bringing the total number of human deaths to 18 in the past 11 months. The ongoing paddy harvesting season has escalated the human-elephant conflict, with incidents reported across various forest divisions.
On November 29, Hiralal Behera (25) was killed by a wild elephant while attempting to protect his standing crops near Gargarbahal village in Bargaon range. The following evening, Mangri Munda (58) lost her life when a wild elephant attacked her house at Bhaluadihi in Patmunda under the Koida range. Additionally, the death of a woman in a suspected elephant attack inside the Satabhaya forest of Birmitrapur range on November 29 is pending confirmation with the autopsy report.
Sibu Kumar Tripathi India Today Sat, 02 Dec 2023 21:39 UTC
The eerie red skies seen in Mongolia.
In an extraordinary celestial display, the skies over Mongolia turned deep, blood-red as the country experienced one of the rarest auroral events on Friday and early Saturday.
The intense colouration is attributed to the initial impact of a significant solar storm that collided with Earth, creating a spectacle that left onlookers in awe.
The phenomenon, known as an aurora, typically occurs closer to the poles and is often green in colour. However, the auroras seen in Mongolia were of a striking crimson hue, a rarity caused by the interaction of solar particles with oxygen at high altitudes — over 241 kilometres above the Earth's surface, where the atmosphere is much thinner.
William B. Davis, Madison Dong, John Keefe, Judson Jones and Bea Malsky New York Times Sat, 02 Dec 2023 20:53 UTC
A major, 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck in the Philippine Sea on Saturday, according to the United States Geological Survey.
The temblor happened at 10:37 p.m. Philippine time, data from the agency shows.
As seismologists review available data, they may revise the earthquake's reported magnitude. Additional information collected about the earthquake may also prompt U.S.G.S. scientists to update the shake-severity map.
The ozone hole over Antarctica keeps intriguing by its unusual pattern this 2023 season. The Southern Hemisphere ozone hole size had a series of rebounds in late November, as shown by the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) data, at a period when it usually declines until its closure. This behaviour raises questions about what's behind yet another peculiar ozone hole season.
The Southern Hemisphere ozone hole is unusually large, at a time when it normally reduces until its total closure, generally in December. Instead, since the end of October the ozone hole area has virtually remained unchanged, with a series of rebounds, remaining at a size of some 15 km2, to become the third largest after 30 November.
Comment: Despite decades of propaganda scaring people into believing that everything from hairspray to old fridges were destroying the ozone layer, it has become fairly clear that, despite claims to the contrary, the mechanisms driving the formation of the ozone layer are very poorly understood by mainstream science: Magnetic storms can destroy up to a quarter of the Earth's ozone layer, new study reveals
Heavy snowfall overnight has paralysed air and rail connections in the southern German state of Bavaria, leaving thousands of travellers stranded.
All flights were grounded at Munich Airport, a key regional and international hub, until 6am (05:00) GMT on Sunday, the airport said. Air traffic had initially been suspended until noon (11:00 GMT) on Saturday.
"Passengers are strongly advised not to travel to the airport today [Saturday] and to check the status of their flight with their airline before travelling to the airport tomorrow," airport authorities said.
German airline Lufthansa noted the knock-on effect of the closure of Munich airport, saying that many other airports in Germany, including the one in Frankfurt "are affected with limited flight operations".
The severe weather, which is expected to continue, also disrupted rail services in Bavaria, with the main railway station in the capital, Munich, brought to a virtual standstill.
It takes two to start a political process, like in the tango. But the guys on the other side are not dancing tango, they are breakdancing. There, you all have to go solo.
- Sergey Lavrov
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Comment: Earthquake Track noted 5 aftershocks of mag.6 or greater, for details see here, here, here, here and here.