Environment

BANGKOK, May 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Environmentalists have criticised Laos for pressing ahead with plans for another dam on the Mekong River, a waterway already strangled by hydropower schemes.

The flow of the Mekong, Southeast Asia’s longest river, is interrupted by a cascade of dams in China — where it is called the Lancang.

Two downstream dams — the Xayaburi and Don Sahong — have been built in Laos, which wants to construct seven more as it strives to live up to its billing as the “Battery of Asia”.

ROME, May 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A mild earthquake shook Rome early Monday but there were no immediate reports of damage, emergency services said.

Firefighters said they had received numerous inquiries from people after the tremor struck shortly after 5 am, estimated at 3.3 magnitude by the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology.

Rome is not directly situated in a zone of strong seismic activity, but stronger earthquakes in the neighbouring Abruzzi region have often been felt in the Italian capital.

TOKYO, May 11 (NNN-NHK) – An earthquake, with a magnitude of 5.5, on Monday (today), struck off Japan’s Ibaraki Prefecture, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).

The temblor occurred at 8:58 a.m. local time, with its epicentre at a latitude of 36.4 degrees north, and a longitude of 141.1 degrees east, and at a depth of 50 km.

The quake logged 3 in some parts of Ibaraki Prefecture, on the Japanese seismic intensity scale, which peaks at 7.

So far no tsunami warning has been issued.

KANPUR: A heavy storm suddenly encircled the larger area with sand in the city's suburban Jajmau in the evening today. The speed of the storm was immense. The darkness filled all over the place. It was later followed by showers. However, the residents coped with the stormy situation. 

The clouds stretched over the sky. The air turned out to be comforting. The humid weather persisted until the afternoon was transformed into pleasant weather. The clouds were continued to thunder. Even there was lightning too.

New Delhi, May 10 (PTI) A medium-intensity earthquake of magnitude 3.4 hit Delhi on Sunday, a third in less than a month, the National Centre for Seismology (NCS) said.

The epicentre of the quake was near Wazirpur in northeast Delhi, J L Gautam, Head (Operations) at the NCS, an institute under the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

8 May 2020; MEMO: An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.1 struck Iran early Friday, prompting some residents in the capital to evacuate their homes, Anadolu Agency reports.

The earthquake occurred at 00:48 a.m. local time (2118GMT) in Damavand district of Tehran at a depth of seven kilometers (4.34 miles), according to the Tehran University Seismological Center.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Visakhapatnam, May 7 (PTI) A technical glitch in the refrigeration unit attached to the two styrene tanks at a chemical plant near here caused the vapour leak that killed 11 people and affected around 1,000 on Thursday, a senior district official said quoting a preliminary report.

The leak at the LG Polymers Limited was so intense that a "only around 9.30 am could we understand what exactly it was as the thick fog that formed in the area cleared," District Collector V Vinay Chand said.

NAIROBI, May 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Flooding as a result of recent heavy rains has killed more than 260 people across East Africa.

Kenya has been the hardest hit with the government recording 194 deaths.

In Rwanda, 55 people have died and floods have killed 16 in Somalia. In Uganda high water levels have trapped an estimated 200 patients inside a hospital.

East African countries have also been hit by a locust invasion and Covid-19.

The authorities in Kenya have told people in some of the affected areas to move away from “potential danger”.

New Delhi, May 7 (PTI) A specialised CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear) team of the NDRF and medical specialists are being rushed to Vishakhapatnam where 11 people have been killed and about 1,000 affected due to gas leak at a chemical factory, the Centre said on Thursday.

Director General of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) S N Pradhan said the leakage from the factory is now minimal but the NDRF personnel will be at the spot till it is totally plugged.

NEW DELHI, May 7 (NNN-PTI) – At least six persons died and about two hundred rushed to a local hospital, after a gas leak happened in a chemical plant in Vishakhapatnam district, of India’s southern state of Andhra Pradesh today, confirmed a local senior police official.

“As of now six persons have died and about two hundred people are admitted in a local government hospital. Some of them are said to be critical. Situation is under control and the whole area around the chemical plant has been cordoned off and sealed,” Vishakhapatnam Police Commissioner, R.K. Meena, said.