Peshawar - Lightning and heavy rain destroyed homes in two remote villages in northwestern Pakistan yesterday, killing at least 50 people, police said.
Seven houses were destroyed and several more damaged in villages in Dirbala district, 250 kilometres north of Peshawar, said local official Nisar Khan Wardak.
Earth Changes
A heat wave sweeping central and southeastern Europe killed at least 13 people this week, with soaring temperatures sparking forest fires, damaging crops and prompting calls to ban horse-drawn tourist carriages.
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| ©Sang Tan/AP |
| Two cars are left stranded after torrential rain caused flash flooding on a road in Wallington, South London, on Friday. |
Central Texas has had 31 consecutive days of below-average temperatures in June and July, not even reaching 100 degrees.
The highest temperature recorded this year was 94 degrees.
Climatologists at the National Weather Service called this pattern "wacky weather."
The highest temperature recorded this year was 94 degrees.
Climatologists at the National Weather Service called this pattern "wacky weather."
Heavy rain and flash flooding have caused havoc across the country as more storms swept through the UK.
An eerie darkness descended during the height of the monsoon-like outburst, with some areas getting as much as four to five inches of rain in one day - twice the average for the whole of July.
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| ©Daily Express |
| A car drives through a flooded street in Newbury, Berkshire. |
An eerie darkness descended during the height of the monsoon-like outburst, with some areas getting as much as four to five inches of rain in one day - twice the average for the whole of July.
Why do queen honeybees mate with dozens of males? Does their extreme promiscuity, perhaps, serve a purpose?
An answer to this age-old mystery is proposed in the July 20 issue of Science magazine by Cornell scientists: Promiscuous queens, they suggest, produce genetically diverse colonies that are far more productive and hardy than genetically uniform colonies produced by monogamous queens.
"An intriguing trait of honeybee species worldwide is that each honeybee queen mates with an extraordinarily high number of males," said Heather R. Mattila, a Cornell postdoctoral fellow in neurobiology and behavior and co-author of the article with Thomas D. Seeley, Cornell professor of neurobiology and behavior.
An answer to this age-old mystery is proposed in the July 20 issue of Science magazine by Cornell scientists: Promiscuous queens, they suggest, produce genetically diverse colonies that are far more productive and hardy than genetically uniform colonies produced by monogamous queens.
"An intriguing trait of honeybee species worldwide is that each honeybee queen mates with an extraordinarily high number of males," said Heather R. Mattila, a Cornell postdoctoral fellow in neurobiology and behavior and co-author of the article with Thomas D. Seeley, Cornell professor of neurobiology and behavior.
The 3,000-kilometer-long Transantarctic Mountains are a dominant feature of the Antarctic continent, yet up to now scientists have been unable to adequately explain how they formed. In a new study, geologists report that the mountains appear to be the remnant edge of a gigantic high plateau that began stretching and thinning some 105 million years ago, leaving the peaks curving along the edge of a great plain.
A heat wave sweeping central and southeastern Europe killed at least 13 people this week, with soaring temperatures sparking forest fires, damaging crops and prompting calls to ban horse-drawn tourist carriages.
In Romania, where temperatures reached 104 degrees Friday, the Health Ministry said at least nine people had died since Monday due to heat.
In Austria, where highs had hovered around 95 degrees for days, the Health Ministry said three deaths Thursday were likely heat-related. Austrian media said at least five people had died from the heat, including an elderly woman who collapsed on a Vienna street Friday.
A 56-year-old woman collapsed and died in Zagreb, Croatia, of what doctors believed was a heat-related heart attack. Temperatures in the Balkan country reached about 104 Friday.
In Romania, where temperatures reached 104 degrees Friday, the Health Ministry said at least nine people had died since Monday due to heat.
In Austria, where highs had hovered around 95 degrees for days, the Health Ministry said three deaths Thursday were likely heat-related. Austrian media said at least five people had died from the heat, including an elderly woman who collapsed on a Vienna street Friday.
A 56-year-old woman collapsed and died in Zagreb, Croatia, of what doctors believed was a heat-related heart attack. Temperatures in the Balkan country reached about 104 Friday.
Following a decision of the Rosprirodnadzor environmental protection watchdog, the unique Geyser Valley on Russia's Kamchatka peninsula has been reopened for tourists after a powerful mudslide on June 3.
Tourist paths, destroyed by the mudslide, have been restored, as well as two helicopter landing sites, the head of the department for foreign economic ties and tourism at the regional administration told Tass on Friday.
According to Tamara Tutushkina, the valley has not lost its attractiveness after a natural calamity. Moreover, a lake that has formed in the lower part of the Geysernaya River, has made its landscape even more picturesque.
Tourist paths, destroyed by the mudslide, have been restored, as well as two helicopter landing sites, the head of the department for foreign economic ties and tourism at the regional administration told Tass on Friday.
According to Tamara Tutushkina, the valley has not lost its attractiveness after a natural calamity. Moreover, a lake that has formed in the lower part of the Geysernaya River, has made its landscape even more picturesque.
La Nina, the cooling of sea surfaces in the Pacific Ocean that can wreak havoc with weather patterns, is likely to develop by the end of the year, the World Meteorological Organization said today.
An earthquake jolted San Francisco Bay area residents awake early Friday, breaking glass and rattling nerves, although there were no immediate reports of injuries.
