Earth Changes
Residents took to buses, trains, planes and cars - clogging roadways leading away from New Orleans, still reeling three years after Hurricane Katrina flooded 80 percent of the city and killed about 1,600 across the region.
Gustav had already killed more than 80 people in the Caribbean, and if current forecasts hold up, it would make landfall Monday afternoon somewhere between the northeast corner of Texas and western Mississippi.
Forecasters warned it was still too soon to say whether New Orleans would take another direct hit, but residents weren't taking any chances judging by the bumper-to-bumper traffic pouring from the city. Gas stations along interstate highways were running out of fuel, and phone circuits were jammed.
The insight may lead to better warnings of similar eruptions in the future, researchers say.
The epicentre of the quake, which struck around 4:30 p.m. (0730 GMT), was about 20 miles (30 km) southeast of Panzhihua, near the border with Yunnan province, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake was about 6 miles (10 km) deep.
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©Unknown |
A camel spider attacking a scorpion in the desert |
A soldier's family have been frightened out of their home by a spider thought to have been brought to Essex from Afghanistan in a kitbag.
Lorraine Griffiths and her three children have moved out of their house in Colchester, the RSPCA said.
They are refusing to return until the large sandy-coloured creature, thought to be a camel spider, is captured.
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©Matt Hunt |
Yellow-cheeked crested gibbon. |
The report counted 42,000 black-shanked douc langurs along with 2,500 yellow-cheeked crested gibbons in Cambodia's Seima Biodiversity Conservation Area, an estimate that represents the largest known populations for both species in the world.
WCS scientists conducted the surveys with the Royal Government of Cambodia's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries across an area of 300 square miles (789 square kilometers) within a wider landscape of 1,150 square miles (3,000 square kilometers), which is about the size of Yosemite National Park. The scientists believe total populations within the wider landscape may be considerably greater.
Officials say that 400 firefighters, 36 fire engines and nine water-carrying airplanes are trying to put out the flames which spread across an uninhabited and uncultivated area in mountains 15 kilometres from the southern city of Narbonne.
There are no reports of casualties so far.
The Voice of Iraq news agency said it measured about 5.1, but the U.S. Geological Survey put it at 5.7, not huge but big enough to frighten people unaccustomed to such things.
The hurricane, accompanied by severe rains, has already swept through Haiti and the neighboring Dominican Republic, killing at least 60 and causing major destruction to infrastructure.