The sinkhole controversy at the Sultan Azlan Shah Airport has mired into a blame game between the airport management and the state Minerals and Geoscience Department.

The Malay Mail had reported on Friday there were sinkholes at the side of the runway and this was one of the reasons why the country's newest airline, Flying Fox Airways, was not allowed to land its Boeing aircraft there.

Airport manager Puteh Ramli reserved comment on the fiasco surrounding the recently upgraded airport.

"These are geoscience matters so it's best to refer to the Perak Minerals and Geoscience Department," he said.

However, the department's principal geophysicist, Azhari Ahmad, said the airport engaged private consultants to survey the sinkholes.

"We had a discussion with the airport management some time ago but were informed they had engaged consultants to look into the matter. It is unfair to now refer the matter to us," he said.

THE heaviest snowfall in decades has blocked roads across Israel and the West Bank, while torrential rains have flooded areas of the Gaza Strip.

The heavy snow, which stopped falling on Saturday afternoon, prompted Israeli authorities to interrupt the Jewish Sabbath to lay on relief trains.

Nationwide, some 30,000 households were without electricity, nearly 9,000 of them in Jerusalem, the Israel Electric Corp said.

Jerusalem city workers managed to clear most roads of drifting snow but appealed to residents to stay at home as fallen trees posed a persistent traffic hazard.

Few had ventured out, apart from observant Jews walking to synagogues.

It's official: East Antarctica is pushing West Antarctica around. Now that West Antarctica is losing weight--that is, billions of tons of ice per year--its softer mantle rock is being nudged westward by the harder mantle beneath East Antarctica.

The discovery comes from researchers led by The Ohio State University, who have recorded GPS measurements that show West Antarctic bedrock is being pushed sideways at rates up to about twelve millimeters--about half an inch--per year. This movement is important for understanding current ice loss on the continent, and predicting future ice loss.

They reported the results on Thursday, Dec. 12 at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.

Half an inch doesn't sound like a lot, but it's actually quite dramatic compared to other areas of the planet, explained Terry Wilson, professor of earth sciences at Ohio State. Wilson leads POLENET, an international collaboration that has planted GPS and seismic sensors all over the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

She and her team weren't surprised to detect the horizontal motion. After all, they've been using GPS to observe vertical motion on the continent since the 1990's.

They were surprised, she said, to find the bedrock moving towards regions of greatest ice loss.

"From computer models, we knew that the bedrock should rebound as the weight of ice on top of it goes away," Wilson said. "But the rock should spread out from the site where the ice used to be. Instead, we see movement toward places where there was the most ice loss."

The seismic sensors explained why. By timing how fast seismic waves pass through the earth under Antarctica, the researchers were able to determine that the mantle regions beneath east and west are very different. West Antarctica contains warmer, softer rock, and East Antarctica has colder, harder rock.

Paging Dr. David Viner, white courtesy phone please

Here is the map from NOAA's National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center showing the snow coverage at 53%, the most in 11 years for this date.
Area Covered By Snow: 53.0%

Area Covered Last Month: 5.8%

Flights were grounded at airports across the Maritimes on Sunday as a powerful winter storm blew through the region, knocking out power and causing dangerous driving conditions.

Winter storm warnings blanketed Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and most of New Brunswick as the intense storm blasted the provinces with heavy snow and high winds.

"It's a large storm that's affecting probably 80 or 90 per cent of the Maritime provinces," Environment Canada meteorologist Jean-Marc Couturier said in an interview on Sunday. "It's a large storm with a lot of punch, a lot of vigour."

Couturier said up to 30 centimetres of snow was expected for parts of Nova Scotia, with the snow changing to a mixture of ice pellets and freezing rain Sunday afternoon.

Southern New Brunswick was expected to get up to 40 centimetres of snow, while northern parts of the province would see up to 20 centimetres.

Up to 35 centimetres of snow was forecast for P.E.I. before the storm passed through Nova Scotia and tracked towards Newfoundland overnight Sunday.

The ACT Emergency Services Agency (ESA) responded to at least 42 calls on Sunday evening, after a huge storm hit south Canberra.

Theodore and Conder were lashed by extreme weather from about 7pm, including high winds, rain and large hail.

The ESA responded to a number of calls for help, mostly for leaking roofs and fallen trees on roads.

Severe weather, including a possible tornado, caused "major damage" to several homes and brought down power lines in Palm Coast, Florida, late Saturday, officials said.

One resident reportedly witnessed the roof being ripped from his home, according to Cindy Lane, spokeswoman for the City of Palm Coast.

A tornado warning was issued, but there were no reports of injuries.

More than two thousand homes were still without power as of 11pET.

The National Weather Service has informed the town that they are sending two meteorologists to the scene Sunday to confirm the touchdown of a tornado.

Scotland is braced for more severe weather today with warnings of gale-force winds and flooding in the north and west.

Gusts could reach more than 80mph in some exposed areas as a storm sweeps past the country, the Met Office said. Yellow "be aware" warnings of high winds are in place for the Highlands, Western Isles, Orkney, Shetland and Argyll and Bute. Gales and large waves could result in flooding at high tide along the west coast, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) said.

It has put flood alerts - warning of the possibility of flooding - in place for coastal areas in the north and west. Several flood warnings - indicating that flooding is expected - are also in force for parts of Tayside along the rivers Earn and Lyon. Heavy rain was expected to continue to fall until early this morning in the area and low-lying land could be at risk, Sepa said.

An earthquake struck today in Tennessee near Wildwood Lake and Cleveland.

The 3.1 magnitude quake hit near the border with Alabama in the Eastern Tennessee Seismic Zone, the U.S. Geological Service said.

Besides being seven miles south-southeast of Wildwood Lake, it was 12 miles south-southeast of Cleveland, and 17 miles north-northeast of Dalton in Georgia.

No school Sunday in capital, Safed, Golan Heights; 20,000 households without power: some major roads still blocked; freezing night and icy roads loom

Israel faced another freezing night Saturday, with fears of icy roads nationwide, but the worst storm in decades was winding down. Late Saturday night, much of Jerusalem and northern Israel were still deep in snow, the authorities were working to open roads in and out of the capital, and much of the rest of the country was still grappling with stormy conditions. Four Israelis were known to have died since the storms began Wednesday night.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said Saturday that his municipality was still working "in a state of emergency," grappling with a "storm of extraordinary proportions." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a "once-in-a-century" storm, and said efficient coordination had averted the kind of loss of life that other countries had suffered in similar circumstances.

"Our first goal is to help [the] thousands [of people] who are still without power. Until the power comes back, there is a big effort by volunteers, activists and even the IDF to help those affected," Barkat said. The mayor added that municipality officials were working with the Israel National Corporation to clear roads affected by fallen trees and power lines.