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Temperature
Extremes
  High
temperature extreme:
Jaisalmar, India 122 degrees.
Low temperature extreme:
Vostok (Russia), Antarctica -105 degrees.
(top)
Asian
Inundations
 A
week-long deluge unleashed widespread flooding across central and
southern China that has killed at least two people and marooned
100,000 others.
Officials
said that the flooding has destroyed more than 1,800 homes in the city
of Xianning and trapped many of its residents. Twenty-nine people were
killed and 16 others were missing in the wake of flash flooding and
landslides that lashed southwestern Japan. Disaster officials said there
were 854 reports of landslides and almost 8,000 reports of flooded homes
around Hiroshima.
(top)
El
Niño’s Legacy
 The
torrential rains of last year’s El Niño storms in Southern California
have caused a population explosion of rodents in metropolitan Los
Angeles.
The wet
weather fostered a fresh blanket of lush vegetation, which has provided
food and additional breeding grounds for masses of ravenous rats and
mice. The rats seem to have an affinity for the 90210 zip code in Beverly
Hills. Thickly planted gardens in the famed community are proving to
be an irresistible lure for the pests. A spokesman for the National
Pest Control Association said that many exterminators claim their business
has increased by 400 percent during the past year.
(top)
Earthquakes
A
magnitude 4.7 earthquake struck the Pacific coast of Guatemala,
causing light poles to fall in Guatemala City, 100 miles to the southeast.
Earth movements
were also felt in western Greece, northwest Turkey, eastern Romania,
northwest Sumatra, the Los Angeles Basin and the deserts of Southern
California.
(top)
Russian
Blazes
A
lingering heat wave that has plagued parts of Russia for weeks
is being blamed for forest fires that are burning throughout the countryside
on the outskirts of Moscow.
Firefighting
officials reported that more than 300 separate blazes burning the Russian
woodlands have destroyed an estimated 3,000 acres of timber.
(top)
Hunting
Ban Lifted
Mozambique’s
government has lifted a ban on hunting elephants in contradiction to
its previous commitments to international agreements aimed at saving
endangered species.
Carlos
Agostinho do Rosario, the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, said
that Mozambique will allow the hunting of elephants as a sport due to
the growing number of the animals. The decree stated that any elephants
killed are to be turned into decorations and not traded for “illegal
purposes.”
(top)
The
Ocean’s Roar
 An
increasing volume of underwater noise is threatening the ability of
many sea creatures to find mates, seek food, protect their young and
escape their predators, according to a study by California researchers.
The Natural
Resources Defense Council released a report describing the effects of
the underwater noise as like being “in the middle of an acoustics traffic
jam.” In deep water, where the sea animals rely on their sense of hearing,
the noise is especially harmful. Noise from supertankers and military
sonar equipment can scramble the communication signals used by dolphins
and whales and cause them to abandon traditional breeding grounds and
change direction during migration. The researchers said that international
shipping produces the most underwater noise pollution, but there are
few regulations in place to control it.
(top)
Arctic
Feast
 Fifty
Beluga whales, trapped by shifting ice in the Canadian Arctic,
have become easy prey for hordes of ravenous polar bears lurking around
the only breathing hole available for the marine mammals.
Large numbers
of polar bears lie in wait for the sea mammals to surface and then attack,
sometimes dragging the whales onto the ice. Observers in the area near
Ellesmere Island said they have not seen this many whales trapped by
ice since the 1960s. Local Inuit Eskimos have punched five new breathing
holes in the ice in an effort to prevent further attacks by the bears,
but the greatest hope is that the seasonal melt will create an escape
channel for the marine mammals.
(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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