Tokyo - Heavy snow and blizzards hit many parts of the Sea of Japan coast and Hokkaido on Saturday.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said a low pressure system had brought a cold air mass over northern Japan, bringing 22 cms of snow in Yamagata, Niigata, Akita and Toyama prefectures, and up to 50 cms in mountainous regions.
Hokkaido received heavy snowfall and blizzards as well, TBS reported. Shin-Chitose airport in Sapporo reported the cancellation of 23 flights, while JR Hakodate canceled 60 train services between Sapporo and Hakodate.
The meteorological agency forecast the blizzard-like conditions to continue until Monday and cautioned that transportation could be further disrupted.
Earth Changes
© United Kingdom Infrared Telescope, taken at 8:32 a.m. HST
Snowfall on Mauna Kea is seen on this webcam image
Snowfall on Mauna Kea is seen on this webcam image
The National Weather Service says a slow-moving trough east of the Big Island will produce widespread rain and isolated snow showers at the highest elevations today. At least an inch of snow is expected to accumulate. By 8:30 a.m. Saturday snow was already visible on the Mauna Kea observatory webcams.
© UH Hilo Web Cam
Snow image captured by UH Hilo Web Cam : Physics and Astronomy.
Snow image captured by UH Hilo Web Cam : Physics and Astronomy.
Meanwhile, down below, East Hawaii is getting soaked. The National Weather Service says rain will persist over windward Maui and Hawaii County through the weekend as winds ease. There was a high surf advisory posted for north facing shores on Friday night, as well.
© Unknown
After the announcement, one of the largest temblors ever recorded at the volcanic island, a magnitude-5.1 earthquake, struck offshore of El Hierro at 12:46 p.m. ET (5:46 p.m. local time) today, the National Geographic Institute reported. Residents on the island reported strong shaking, and the quake was felt throughout the Canary Islands, according to news reports. The earthquake's epicenter was 9 miles (15 kilometers) deep.
Before the earthquake struck early this afternoon, the island's volcano monitoring agency, Pelvolca, had raised the volcanic eruption risk for El Hierro to "yellow." This warning means that activity is increasing at the volcano, but no eruption is imminent. A similar burst of activity prompted a yellow warning in June 2012, but the volcano soon quieted down.
City: '1st time' for 'such large numbers' of birds
Bird-dropping deluge hits downtown park
Benches and walkways are covered in bird droppings in Chapman Square. It's just one of many areas in Portland's downtown hit hard by roving bands of crows. KOIN's Joel Iwanaga reporting.
Benches and walkways are covered in bird droppings in downtown's Chapman Square. It's just one of many areas in Portland's downtown hit hard by roving bands of crows.
Portland leaders said they were caught by surprise by the city's influx of crows. And with the influx came droppings -- lots of them.
"It's as bad as I've ever seen," said tourist Joe Goodman on Thursday.
Those looking for a place to sit in downtown's Chapman Square were about out of luck Thursday afternoon.
"This is too bad," said Betsy Nesbit.
Nesbit moved to Portland 20 years ago for its beauty and cleanliness. Sure, nature is part of the allure -- but what these crows are leaving behind these days has much of downtown Portland looking "uncared for, just uncared for," she said.
Bird droppings were everywhere, covering the sidewalk and the park benches. It's what holiday tourists such as Joe Goodman, from Philadelphia, found as they were checking into downtown hotels, shopping and walking through the downtown parks.
Bird-dropping deluge hits downtown park
Benches and walkways are covered in bird droppings in Chapman Square. It's just one of many areas in Portland's downtown hit hard by roving bands of crows. KOIN's Joel Iwanaga reporting.
Benches and walkways are covered in bird droppings in downtown's Chapman Square. It's just one of many areas in Portland's downtown hit hard by roving bands of crows.
Portland leaders said they were caught by surprise by the city's influx of crows. And with the influx came droppings -- lots of them.
"It's as bad as I've ever seen," said tourist Joe Goodman on Thursday.
Those looking for a place to sit in downtown's Chapman Square were about out of luck Thursday afternoon.
"This is too bad," said Betsy Nesbit.
Nesbit moved to Portland 20 years ago for its beauty and cleanliness. Sure, nature is part of the allure -- but what these crows are leaving behind these days has much of downtown Portland looking "uncared for, just uncared for," she said.
Bird droppings were everywhere, covering the sidewalk and the park benches. It's what holiday tourists such as Joe Goodman, from Philadelphia, found as they were checking into downtown hotels, shopping and walking through the downtown parks.
© Cherri Megasko
A young Maasai boy stands beside his dead calf.
A young Maasai boy stands beside his dead calf.
On a recent visit to the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya, East Africa, wildlife abounded. But for every giraffe, elephant and zebra I saw I also saw a dead Maasai cow. Dozens of dying, dead and decaying Maasai cattle littered the landscape, not only of the Maasai villages and surrounding lands, but inside the boundaries of the Reserve as well.
When the rains failed to come in late October, herds of cattle that were already on the brink of starvation from the dry season became even weaker and began to die. The Maasai, whose entire culture is centered around their cows, began sneaking their herds onto the protected lands of the Park under the cover of darkness. "Wilson," the son of a Maasai chief in a village adjacent to the Reserve, explained to me that there the cattle can graze freely - although illegally - until just before sunrise, when they sneak them back out of the Reserve before they are discovered by Park rangers. Unfortunately, the Maasai do not always return with the same number of cows they entered with.
© USGS
A lightning bolt struck a church in Malawi, killing eight worshippers and injuring several others, local media reported.
Several members of the Seventh Day Adventist church in the capital Lilongwe were admitted to hospital after Saturday's strike, the Nyasa Times said, citing witnesses, police and health officials.
It was not immediately clear whether they were injured by the lightning or in the panic to escape.
Several members of the Seventh Day Adventist church in the capital Lilongwe were admitted to hospital after Saturday's strike, the Nyasa Times said, citing witnesses, police and health officials.
It was not immediately clear whether they were injured by the lightning or in the panic to escape.
© EnglishRussia.com
A giant hole appeared right in the middle of Russian town Berezniki and has been growing ever since.
A giant hole appeared right in the middle of Russian town Berezniki and has been growing ever since.
Dmitry Rybolovlev, the Russian fertilizer tycoon who in February bought the most expensive apartment ever sold in New York City - the $88 million penthouse at 15 Central Park West - may have done a lot for real estate values there. But here in this old mining city in the Ural Mountains, where he made his fortune, not just property values, but properties too, have been plunging.
Sinkholes are common hazards in mining regions, plaguing areas where miners have burrowed into layers of soluble minerals and accidental floods have followed. But in Berezniki, as often happens in Russia, the problem has been magnified by past practices in which safety was not always the foremost concern.
In the West, mines are usually located far from populous areas, to reduce the risks of sinkholes to homes and other buildings. But Berezniki, a city of 154,000 that began as a labor camp, was built directly over the mine - a legacy of the Soviet policy of placing camps within marching distance of work areas.
And so Berezniki is afflicted by sinkholes, yawning chasms hundreds of feet deep that can open at a moment's notice. So grave is the danger that the entire city is under 24-hour video surveillance. On a screen in the command center late last year, one such hole appeared as a small dark spot in a snowy field in the predawn hours, immediately threatening to suck in a building, a road and a gas station.
"I looked and said, 'Wow, a hole is forming,' " recalled Olga V. Chekhova, an emergency services worker who monitors the video. This was a small one by the standards of Berezniki, which has had three in the past four years. In fact, it has since been called "The Tiny One."
© Facebook
Noah Barthe, 5, left, and Connor Barthe, 7, right, with their mother, Mandy Trecartin. Noah and Connor were killed by an African rock python.
Noah Barthe, 5, left, and Connor Barthe, 7, right, with their mother, Mandy Trecartin. Noah and Connor were killed by an African rock python.
Bry Loyst, curator of the Indian River Reptile Zoo near Peterborough, Ont., said at the time the snake must have been confused when it encountered four-year-old Noah Barthe and his brother Connor, 6. The two boys had been at a petting zoo earlier in the day, and may have still smelled like the animals, which is likely why the snake decided to constrict the two boys while they slept.
"Potentially dangerous animals of any kind - whether it be tigers, lions, bears, cobras, rattlesnakes, large pythons - shouldn't be kept in a private residence," Loyst said.
"This was an accident waiting to happen."
Since then, authorities have been removing illegal or mistreated snakes, alligators and other exotic animals from homes across the country, and the federal government, provincial leaders and municipalities are all looking at new regulations to protect animals and keep residents safe.
Ontario has asked for at least 36 separate studies looking into the issue, while in December, the New Brunswick government passed a motion by the Opposition Liberals calling for a complete review of the province's Fish and Wildlife Act, which oversees exotic animals.
The center of the earthquake appears to be just off the coastline of Turkey, South to SSW from Antalya. The quake was felt as far away as Egypt where the tremors also reached 5.8 on the Richter Scale. Cyprus, which is 195 miles away from the quake's center also reported 5.8 scale tremors.
Egypt, which is 695 miles away, reported the same Richter Scale measurement at the same time that the report was received from Turkey. At this point no damage reports from any of the countries have been made public.
Comment: Video of the 2011 underwater volcanic eruption courtesy of ITN: