Environment

Manila, Jan 6 (AFP) The death toll from a storm that devastated the Philippines shortly after Christmas rose to 126, authorities said Sunday, adding landslides caused by torrential rain were the top cause.

The storm hit central and eastern Philippine islands on December 29 and caused massive flooding and landslides.

More than 100 people died in the mountainous Bicol region southeast of Manila, regional disaster officials said.

05 Jan 2019; DW: Shipping firm MSC is under criminal investigation after more than 270 cargo containers fell off one of its ships and washed ashore. Most of the containers, some holding hazardous material, have not been located.

Swiss shipping line MSC said on Saturday it will bear the "full costs" of cleaning up debris from a container spill that washed up on Dutch and German shores.

KANPUR: Nearly 51 textile factories will now stop production up to March 4. These industrial units do not have a zero discharge system. The wastes of these plants are directly falling into the Ganges. In absence of non-tapping of the ICI Drain and the Gunda Nullah, the effluents are directly going down through these streams into the Pandu River which later merges into the Ganges. This cannot be allowed until the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad.

MOSCOW, January 1. /TASS/. As 2019 approaches, it may turn out to be the warmest one on record because of the so-called El-Nino phenomenon, Head of Russia’s Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring Roman Vilfand told TASS.

"The El-Nino phenomenon occurs when ocean temperatures rise in the central and eastern Equatorial Pacific," he said. "The warming has been affecting larger areas, including other oceans. There has been a huge heat transfer from the ocean to the atmosphere, it gradually engulfs the entire Earth," Russia’s top meteorologist added.

Manila, Dec 29 (AFP) A 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck off the Philippine island of Mindanao on Saturday triggering a brief tsunami warning.

The quake struck southeast of Davao City at a depth of 59 kilometres, the US Geological Survey said, a week after a volcano-triggered tsunami killed more than 400 people in neighbouring Indonesia.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center warned "hazardous tsunami waves from this earthquake are possible" along the coasts of Indonesia and the Philippines.

NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian authorities have ordered firefighters in the capital to sprinkle water from high-rise buildings to settle dust and stop garbage fires and have banned construction activity as hazardous air quality affects millions of people.

New Delhi recorded one of the highest pollution levels of the year on Sunday with the air quality index, measuring sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide, touching 450.

25 Dec 2018; DW: Despite the yellow vests winning a reprieve from a hike in fuel taxes, millions of French people want more done to fight climate change. Their legal case for lower carbon emissions could take several years.

A petition to force the French government to take urgent action against climate change has grown to 1.7 million signatures in just a few days, the organizers' website showed on Tuesday.

KANPUR: Problem is yet not completely over. Sewage is still going into the river. The onus is being shifted to one another. But it is not the solution to the real dilemma. The mechanism is not proving to be effective. Despite all these bottlenecks, the hope has not dwindled.

JAKARTA, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from the tsunami triggered by a volcanic eruption in Sunda Strait of western Indonesia has climbed to 429 so far, with a total of 1,459 others injured, a spokesman of the national disaster agency said on Tuesday.

The tsunami, triggered by an underwater landslide after the eruption of Anak Krakatau volcano Saturday night, destroyed 882 houses, 73 hotels and villas and scores of buildings along the coastlines, and displaced a total of 16,082 people, according to spokesman of the National Disaster Management Agency Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.

MOSCOW, December 25. /TASS/. Indonesia’s authorities have warned of the danger of high waves in many coastal areas of the country, in particular in the Java Sea and the Celebes Sea, according to a statement made by spokesman for the Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG) Zairo Hendrawan, which was released on Tuesday.