XinhuaThu, 22 May 2008 10:45 UTC
The death toll from tropical storm "Halong" reached 44 in the Philippines till Thursday morning as it has left the archipelago, the country's national disaster relief agency said.
The damage to property has risen to more than 3.743 billion pesos (87 million U.S. dollars), mostly in infrastructure and agricultural crops, the Philippine National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) said in a report posted on its website.
At least 205,165 families or 1,107,875 persons were affected in1,176 villages in 61 towns and seven cities in five provinces in the north part of the archipelagos.
The coast of British Columbia has long been considered as a high risk zone for earthquakes and underwater landslides that often cause tsunamis. Scientists now say Quebec and the East Coast should also brace for such hazard.
David Mosher, a marine geohazard expert at Natural Resources Canada, has studied Canada's deadliest tsunami that devastated fishing communities in southern Newfoundland in 1929.
The Grand Banks disaster triggered giant sea waves that killed 27 people and swept houses and fishing boats out to sea.
PARIS - A forthcoming study has added to worries that the Alpine ski industry will be badly affected by global warming, the British weekly New Scientist reports on Wednesday.
A "dramatic step-like drop" in the amount of snow falling in the western European mountain chain occurred in the late 1980s and since then snowfall has never recovered, it says.
The evidence has been compiled by researcher Christoph Marty at the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research.
BEIJING - Huge supplies of bamboo and other favourites have arrived at China's top panda breeding centre after the deadly quake in the nation's southwest left the reserve without food, state press said Wednesday.
Tons of bamboo, apples, soybeans, eggs, milk powder and other foods have been shipped to the China Giant Panda Protection Research Centre, Xinhua news agency said. Large quantities of medicine were also included in the shipments, it said.
The Prince of Wales has warned that the world faces a series of natural disasters within 18 months unless urgent action is taken to save the rainforests.
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| A chameleon in a Madagascar rainforest. Prince Charles has warned of 'disaster' if urgent steps are not taken to protect the forests
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Leland Baxter-Neal
Tico TimesWed, 21 May 2008 08:46 UTC
At least 257 cows have been confirmed dead as a months-old drought tightens its grip on Costa Rica's barren Northern Zone.
The Philippine disaster agency says the death toll from a tropical storm that battered the northern Philippines over the weekend has risen from 12 to 37.
Bernie Krause listens to nature for a living. The 69-year-old is a field recording scientist: He heads into the wilderness to document the noises made by native fauna - crickets chirping in the Amazon rain forest, frogs croaking in the Australian outback.
BONN - Countries thinking of joining the rush for biofuels run the risk of planting invasive plant species that could wreak environmental and economic havoc, biologists warned on Tuesday.
In a report issued on the sidelines of a major UN conference on biodiversity, an alliance of four expert groups urged governments to select low-risk species of crops for biofuels and impose new controls to manage invasive plants.
"The dangers that invasive species pose to the world couldn't be more serious," said Sarah Simons, executive director of the Global Invasive Species Programme (GISP).
"They are one of the top causes of global species loss, they can threaten livelihoods and human health and they cost us billions in control and mitigation efforts. We simply cannot afford to stand by and do nothing."
MANILA - Tropical storm Halong has blown out of the Philippines leaving 13 dead and thousands without power or vital communication lines, the civil defence office said Tuesday.
As of early Tuesday, the storm was barrelling towards Okinawa, Japan with sustained winds of 95 kilometres (58.9 miles) an hour near the centre and gusts of up to 120 kilometres (74 miles) an hour.
Thirteen people were reported killed, according to the latest toll, while two others were missing after the storm brought heavy rains, flooding and landslides as it cut across northern Luzon island at the weekend.
Nearly half a million people were affected by the storm, which blew off tin roofs, toppled power and telecommunication lines, the civil defence office said.
