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Flood
Evacuations
 Two
million Chinese are being permanently moved from low-lying areas
along the Yangtze River that are in danger of being flooded.
The flood season, which begins this month, is predicted to bring 30
per cent more rain than during normal years. Disaster officials warned
earlier this year that the worst drought in a decade had made the earth
too dry to absorb this summer’s returning rains — a condition that could
make this season’s inundations much more severe. Floods along the Yangtze
River and in northeast China last year killed more than 4,000 people.
(top)
Glacial
Melt
 All
15,000 glaciers in the Himalayas are melting at an alarming rate,
according to environmentalist Syed Iqbal Hasnain of the Jawaharlal Nehru
University in New Delhi.
The melting
glaciers could unleash a series of torrential floods in the mountain
valleys of northern India during the next 40 years. Hasnain predicts
the floods will be followed by water shortages because the rivers will
eventually dry up without the glaciers as a source. Gangotri Glacier,
which is the source of the Ganges, is retreating at a rate of about
100 feet a year.
(top)
Vampire
Bat Attacks
 Fears
of rabies have prompted authorities to issue quarantine alerts in northern
Mexico after a flurry of 15 vampire bat attacks.
Earlier
this year, a six-year-old child died from rabies after being bitten
by one of the blood-sucking mammals. Three small towns in Chihuahua
have been placed under a special watch. Disease prevention officials
have warned inhabitants that it is particularly dangerous to walk at
night near the woods and caves where the bats dwell.
(top)
Eruptions
 Nicaragua’s
Telica Volcano resumed its rumblings with a fresh plume of smoke from
its crater.
Civil defense
officials said that preparations have been made to evacuate more than
9,000 residents if a violent eruption occurs. Telica is located 62 miles
northwest of Managua and has been inactive for five years. Mount Cameroon
Volcano threatened to erupt once again after being dormant for six weeks.
Officials said an increased volume of magma is pouring out of the volcano,
located 215 miles west of the Cameroon capital of Yaounde.
(top)
Tropical
Storm
 Typhoon
Maggie lashed the northern Philippines and southern Taiwan,
swamping some coastal areas and disrupting transportation across the
region. The
storm later lost force as it blew ashore near Hong Kong.
(top)
Earthquakes
 One
person was killed and 15 others injured when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake
wrecked the town of Agaly in western Azerbaijan.
A magnitude
5.1 earthquake rocked the Philippine island of Mindanao, destroying
20 buildings. The tremor was centered near Bayugan, 500 miles southeast
of Manila. Earth movements were also felt in northwest Iran, Cyprus
and from southern Mexico to Nicaragua.
(top)
Yellowstone
Surprise
 A
parking lot in Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park has its own
tourist attraction — a new mud spring.
The spring
developed in the lot, eating up several parking spaces and the adjoining
sidewalk. The new spring surfaced last month when it began sending up
steam through cracks in the pavement. Some of the park’s staff removed
pieces of asphalt and discovered a gaping space that holds a bubbling
pool of steaming mud five feet below the surface.
(top)
Feline
Intrusion
 Surprisingly
high levels of cat dander and dust mites have been found in the Antarctic,
the Wellington Asthma Research Group reported.
The researchers
stated that Antarctica has always been feline free. The mystery of how
such substances made it to the remote region was solved when the scientists
studied clothing and mattresses that belonged to workers at Scott Base
on Ross Island, some of whom had cats at their homes in New Zealand.
It’s believed that the imported mite can proliferate even in the harsh
Antarctic environs.
(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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