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Temperature
Extremes
 
High
temperature for the week:
Sibi, Pakistan
118 degrees Fahrenheit |
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Low
temperature for the week:
Vostok (Russia), Antarctica
-106 degrees Fahrenheit
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(top)
War
Pollution
 Authorities
in Belgrade have banned fishing in the famed Danube River due
to pollution caused by NATO's bombing of nearby chemical plants.
Yugoslav
officials have deemed the situation an "ecological disaster."
The neighboring Tamis River has also been declared off limits to fishermen.
Eating fish caught in both rivers can be extremely dangerous to human
health, according to the country's public health officials. There is
no word on what effect the current military action in Yugoslavia is
having on the region's other wildlife.
Cloning
Proposal
 Scientists
believe they can use cloning to bring back the legendary Tasmanian
tiger, thought extinct for more than 60 years.
Australian
Museum director Michael Archer says a live clone could be created from
DNA taken from a preserved baby tiger found in a basement storage room
in the museum. The 133-year-old specimen was mistakenly preserved in
alcohol, rather than Formalin, which would have destroyed the DNA used
for cloning purposes. The tiger was driven to extinction by hunters
who considered the animal a threat to their livestock.
(top)
Tornado
Season
 At
least six people were injured and another left missing after a series
of tornadoes struck central Texas.
The worst-hit
area was the region near the Mason-Llano county line where several homes
and buildings were damaged. Hail associated with one of the twisters
was reported to be two inches in diameter.
A swarm
of tornadoes that lashed Cuba's Matanzas Province claimed five
lives and destroyed 550 homes, the country's Radio Rebelde reported.
(top)
Hawaii
Landslide
 A
deadly landslide that tore through a lush Hawaii state park killed
seven people and injured at least 50 others.
Dozens
of people were sunning themselves on the Mother's Day holiday near a
90-foot waterfall in Sacred Falls State Park on the northeast coast
of the island of Oahu when boulders, some the size of small cars, came
crashing down.
(top)
Earthquakes
 At
least 27 people were killed and hundreds of others injured after a powerful
earthquake followed by 50 aftershocks rocked southern Iran. Most
of the victims were buried under the rubble of collapsed homes and buildings
in several cities of the southern Fars province.
Earth
movements were also felt in Taiwan, Papua New Guinea and
Japan's Hokkaido Island.
(top)
Mexican
Eruption
 Eight
hundred people were evacuated from four communities near Mexico's
Volcan de Fuego following a volcanic explosion that sent ash and steam
shooting three miles into the sky.
No damage
or injuries were reported, but authorities evacuated local residents
living near the 13,068-foot volcano on the border between Colima and
Jalisco states. Officials said about 15,000 people live in potentially
dangerous areas should there be a violent eruption.
(top)
Flooding
Fears
 Recent
record rains in Switzerland have brought the water level in the
Rhine River to its highest point in nearly a century.
Residents
of the city of Basel, which is divided by the Rhine, fear destructive
flooding with the river predicted to burst its banks at the end of the
week. City officials have rushed to place sandbags along the banks to
fight back the surging river. An extremely wet spring and a heavy melt
have added to an already high water level.
(top)
Bee
Spill
 A
truck carrying millions of bees overturned on a Maine highway,
leaving its cargo buzzing around the wreckage and closing down the roadway
for nearly eight hours.
"There
was one big swarm of bees over the truck, like a big black cloud,"
said Patrolman Edward Roberge of the police department in Falmouth,
Maine, where the accident took place.
Firefighters
sprayed the scattered hives with water to calm the bees as they loaded
the spilled containers onto another truck.
"The
bees think it's raining and they won't leave the hives," Roberge
said.
(top)
Additional
Sources: Japan Meteorological Agency, U.S. Climate Analysis Center,
U.S. Earthquake Information Center and the World Meteorological Organization.
Distributed
by the Los Angeles
Times Syndicate.
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