31 August 2017 (The Siberian Times) – Yakutia is in a white blanket as temperatures dip to minus 6C as winter “comes too soon”.This region is the coldest in the world, yet locals also enjoy warm and even hot summers, but this year the season ended abruptly in several districts.Snowfalls hit the towns of Neryungri […]
31 August 2017 (Associated Press) – A five-story building collapsed in India’s financial capital of Mumbai, killing at least 19 people and injuring 16 others, after torrential rains lashed the country’s west. Another 20 people are feared trapped in the debris. Rescue workers, police and residents helped pull 16 people out of the rubble and […]
By Rajendra Jadhav and Swati Bhat 29 August 2017 MUMBAI (Reuters) – Heavy monsoon rains brought India’s financial capital to a halt on Tuesday, with authorities struggling to evacuate people with the scheduled high tide adding to the chaos. Incessant rain flooded several parts of Mumbai and paralyzed train services used by millions of commuters […]
27 August 2017 (Al Jazeera) – The death toll from monsoon floods in India, Bangladesh, and Nepal has climbed above 1,200, as rescue workers scramble to provide aid to millions of people stranded by the worst such disaster in years. All three countries suffer frequent flooding during the June-September monsoon season, but international aid agencies […]
By Matt McGrath 24 August 2017 (BBC News) – A commercial LNG tanker has sailed across the colder, northern route from Europe to Asia without the protection of an ice-breaker for the first time.The specially-built ship completed the crossing in just six-and-a-half days setting a new record, according to the tanker’s Russian owners.The 300-metre-long Sovcomflot […]
22 June 2017 (UNODC) – Opium production on the increase In 2016, global opium production increased by one third compared with the previous year. Although there was also an increase in the size of the area under opium poppy cultivation, the major increase in opium production was primarily the result of an improvement in opium […]
8 August 2017 (JRC) – Heatwaves amplified by high humidity can reach above 40°C and may occur as often as every two years, leading to serious risks for human health. If global temperatures rise with 4°C, a new super heatwave of 55°C can hit regularly many parts of the world, including Europe.A recently published study […]
4 August 2017 (The Siberian Times) – The gruesome evidence of illegal hunting was found on uninhabited Vilkitsky Island in the Kara Sea. The carcasses and used gun cartridges were found by members of an ecological clean-up team sent to the remote territory. Summer thawing meant the polar bear remains became visible. There are claims […]
18 August 2017 (UN) – Warning about escalating suffering in Yemen’s man-made catastrophe, senior United Nations officials today addressed the Security Council, calling on the international community to push for a political solution to the more than two-year-old conflict. “Death looms for Yemenis by air, land and sea,” Special Envoy of the Secretary-General to Yemen, […]
By Sean Mowbray 17 August 2017 (Mongabay) – Tigers and orangutans are the well-known faces of the palm oil crisis. But the enigmatic clouded leopard is equally threatened and almost unknown in comparison. Conservationists are looking at ways to make palm oil plantations work for it, rather than against it. “We know very little about […]
