Mount Lokon volcano in North Sulawesi erupted on Wednesday, spewing ash up to 3.5 kilometers to the sky, without report of fatality and evacuation, officials said.

Head of National Volcanology Surono said that the eruption took place at 10:05 local time (0205 GMT).

He said that the agency had asked people living near the crater to be alert.

"We issued warning to the people living 2.5 kilometers from the crater," Surono told Xinhua by phone.

Spokesman of National Disaster Management and Mitigation Agency (BNPB) Sutopo Purwo Nugroho confirmed that there was no evacuation after the eruption.

"There is still no need for evacuation," he told Xinhua by phone.

Indonesia, an archipelago country, is home to 129 active volcanoes.

A strong earthquake struck the eastern part of Indonesia on Wednesday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. There were no immediate reports of damage.

The magnitude-5.5 quake was centered 56 kilometers (35 miles) under the sea, the U.S. agency reported.

Indonesian seismologist Fauzi, who uses one name, said there was no risk of a tsunami.

Amelia Tagor, a resident of Tual, the town closest to the epicenter, said a brief tremor was felt, but no one panicked.

"We felt it for a few seconds ... but it did not disturb our activities," she said.

Source: The Associated Press

Tourists heading for world-famous Bondi Beach were left high and dry today after a rare natural phenomenon turned the water blood red.

Bondi was among several popular beaches in and around Sydney, Australia, which had to be closed after a huge algae bloom transformed the sea into something resembling a scene from a Jaws movie.

But despite the warnings a number of intrepid beachgoers were seen venturing into the water and swimming through the red surface, Ten News Sydney reported.

The natural phenomenon is caused when algae, a plant-like organism flourishes and large groups of the miniscule plants, which can appear in various colours, gather together often with spectacular results.

© ReutersA collapsed road due to a landslide on the outskirts of Colon City, Panama on November 26.

Severe storms have caused widespread flooding in Panama resulting in major devastation to the west of the capital.

Parts of Panama have been declared disaster areas after days of torrential rain left many regions under water. Landslides have occurred in many places and at least three people are known to have died.

Around 1,000 homes have been flooded across the country after severe storms struck just to the west of the capital, Panama City. The Panamanian government has declared a state of emergency in the districts of Colon, La Chorrera and Capira.

Murky floodwaters surged through streets, submerging homes and vehicles. Over 2,700 people have been displaced.

Many of the homes have floodwaters up to their roofs, and landslides have blocked a number of roads. This includes the main highway that connects the two main cities of Colon and Panama City which collapsed cutting Colon off from the rest of the country.

Thundery showers do remain in the forecast, but the worst does appear to be over now. The weather system that caused the flooding is now easing and moving away to the south. President Ricardo Martinelli has toured the flooded areas and promises to help those affected.

© REUTERS
Ambulance workers load a stretcher into an ambulance as lifeboat crews look on in a flooded street in St Asaph.

Hundreds of flood warnings remained in place across England and Wales this morning as flood-ravaged towns woke up to another day of devastation.

Although the weather has improved for much of the UK overnight, the Environment Agency last night said there was still a possibility of more flooding and disruption for the next 48 hours.

In north Wales hundreds of people spent the night away from their homes after parts of the River Elwy yesterday burst in banks and flooded properties.

The body of an elderly woman was discovered yesterday in her flooded bungalow home in St Asaph, where she had lived for four decades.

Margaret Hughes was found by police and fire rescue officers as they searched houses flooded with deep water in the area, where more than 500 people were evacuated.

Approx. 3:30am (0330 CST) Lubbock, Texas. This is the second time in as many days that I have been awoken by this sound. I only had my camera to record this sound, so the quality probably sucks. I live in the Texas High Plains. I have lived here all my life, and I do not think this is a cotton gin considering I live in the middle of the city. I will be posting this to other sites as well. Thank you.

Humans must immediately implement a series of radical measures to halt carbon emissions or prepare for the collapse of entire ecosystems and the displacement, suffering and death of hundreds of millions of the globe's inhabitants, according to a report commissioned by the World Bank. The continued failure to respond aggressively to climate change, the report warns, will mean that the planet will inevitably warm by at least 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century, ushering in an apocalypse.

The 84-page document,"Turn Down the Heat: Why a 4°C Warmer World Must Be Avoided," was written for the World Bank by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Climate Analytics and published last week. The picture it paints of a world convulsed by rising temperatures is a mixture of mass chaos, systems collapse and medical suffering like that of the worst of the Black Plague, which in the 14th century killed 30 to 60 percent of Europe's population. The report comes as the annual United Nations Conference on Climate Change begins this Monday [Nov. 26] in Doha, Qatar.

A planetwide temperature rise of 4 degrees C - and the report notes that the tepidness of the emission pledges and commitments of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will make such an increase almost inevitable - will cause a precipitous drop in crop yields, along with the loss of many fish species, resulting in widespread hunger and starvation. Hundreds of millions of people will be forced to abandon their homes in coastal areas and on islands that will be submerged as the sea rises. There will be an explosion in diseases such as malaria, cholera and dengue fever. Devastating heat waves and droughts, as well as floods, especially in the tropics, will render parts of the Earth uninhabitable. The rain forest covering the Amazon basin will disappear. Coral reefs will vanish. Numerous animal and plant species, many of which are vital to sustaining human populations, will become extinct. Monstrous storms will eradicate biodiversity, along with whole cities and communities. And as these extreme events begin to occur simultaneously in different regions of the world, the report finds, there will be "unprecedented stresses on human systems." Global agricultural production will eventually not be able to compensate. Health and emergency systems, as well as institutions designed to maintain social cohesion and law and order, will crumble. The world's poor, at first, will suffer the most. But we all will succumb in the end to the folly and hubris of the Industrial Age. And yet, we do nothing.

Four of the world's great rivers, including the Murray Darling, are all suffering from drastically reduced flows as a direct result of water extraction, according to new ANU research.

The multi-author study - led by ANU researchers Professor Quentin Grafton, Dr Jamie Pittock, Professor Tom Kompas and Dr Daniel Connell of the Crawford School of Public Policy at The Australian National University - examined the threats from water extractions and climate change on four of the world's iconic river systems; the US Colorado River, the South African Orange River, the Chinese Yellow River and the Murray.

The researchers found that in all four basins, over a long period of time, outflows have greatly reduced as a direct result of increased water extractions, and that urgent changes in governance of water are needed to ensure the systems remain healthy and viable.

Toronto - The Weather Network's top forecaster is advising Canadians to keep their winter mitts close and snow shovels even closer as he expects much of the country is in for a harsher blast of winter than it was dealt last year.

"We'll get more winter this year than we did last year," said director of meteorology Chris Scott.

And that means a return to more "typical" historic conditions of cold and snow gripping much of the country, he said.

"If you think back on Christmas Day (2011) there were many major cities in the country that didn't have a lot of snow on the ground - and that was the theme for the winter."

"The way things are shaping up right now we think there'll be more cold air to work with and as a result we think that some of these storm systems that track through will dump a bit more snow than they did last year," Scott said.

At first glance these beautiful images from the Antarctic appear to show 50-ft tall waves that have been instantly frozen as they break. Some people have posted the pictures online, taken by scientist Tony Travouillon at Dumont D'Urville, with a description claiming they are a tsunami wave which was frozen. But although email chains and internet forums back this claim up, what is really pictured is the natural phenomenon of blue ice.
These freezing blue towers were created when ice was compressed and the trapped air bubbles were squeezed out. During the summer the surface ice melts and new ice layers compress on top. The ice appears blue because when when light passes through thick ice, blue light is transmitted back out but red light is absorbed.

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