Environment

28 Jan 2019; AFP: Brazilian mining giant Vale lost more than $18 billion of its value Monday in a dramatic share plunge on the Sao Paulo stock exchange as investors reacted to the collapse of one of its dams that killed scores and left hundreds missing.

The 24.5 percent drop followed an eight percent dive on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, the day the disaster occurred. The Brazilian bourse was closed that day for a public holiday.

30 Jan 2019; AFP: The death toll from the collapse of a Brazilian dam rose to 84 on Tuesday as mining giant Vale announced that moves to dismantle similar structures would hit production.

Brazilian authorities are stepping up their probe of Vale, with five engineers involved in the operating licenses and the last inspection of the dam arrested on prosecutors' orders in the state of Minas Gerais, where the disaster occurred Friday at one of the firm's mines.

28 Jan 2019; DW: The Scandinavian state hopes to stop German swine from crossing the border and ruining the economy. The border fence has attracted considerable criticism, for practical as well as political reasons.

Denmark began construction of its controversial swine fence on the German border on Monday.

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — As the Trump administration rolls back environmental and safety rules for the energy sector, government projections show billions of dollars in savings reaped by companies will come at a steep cost: more premature deaths and illnesses from air pollution, a jump in climate-warming emissions and more severe derailments of trains carrying explosive fuels.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of fish died on Monday in the third mass death in recent weeks on a stretch of a major Australian river that local officials blamed on drought but critics said at least partly stemmed from water mismanagement.

The latest deaths began overnight in the Darling River near the township of Menindee in western New South Wales state. That’s the same area where hundreds of thousands of fish were found floating dead in early January and shortly before Christmas.

HAVANA, Cuba (AP) — Cuba’s president says a tornado in eastern Havana has killed three people and injured 174 others.

The Cuban capital was battered late Sunday and early Monday by powerful winds and heavy rains. A blackout hit many Havana neighborhoods around 9 p.m.

Early Monday, President Miguel Diaz-Canel posted photos of himself on Twitter with rescue workers besides what appeared to be a vehicle overturned by the storm. Little further information about the storm appeared in state media.

BANGKOK, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Kasikorn Research Center (K-Research) said on Monday that initial economic loss from the fine dust fouling the air in Bangkok and surrounding areas is estimated at 2.6 billion baht (82 million U.S. dollars) or more.

K-Research attributed it mainly to lost opportunities in tourism. "The initial opportunity cost for tourism was at 1-3.5 billion baht, representing 2.5-4.5 percent of tourism income contributed by Bangkok," said the report.

MOSCOW, January 26. /TASS/ At least 50 people died after a mining dam burst in the south-east of Brazil, Brazilian media reported on Saturday.

Earlier reports said seven people died in the disaster, and around 200 remain missing.

A dam collapsed at an iron-ore mine in Brumandinho in the Minas Gerais state.

25 Jan 2019; AFP: Temperatures in southern Australia topped 49 degrees on Thursday, shattering previous records as sizzling citizens received free beer and heat-stressed bats fell from trees.

The Bureau of Meteorology reported temperatures of 49.5 Celsius (120 Fahrenheit) north of Adelaide, while inside the city temperatures reached 47.7 Celsius, breaking a record that had stood since 1939.

MASAITI, Zambia, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Construction works of a dam in Zambia's Masaiti district on the Copperbelt Province funded by the Chinese government was on course, the contractor said on Tuesday.

Construction works of the 450 million U.S. dollars Kafulafuta Dam was commissioned in October last year by President Edgar Lungu.

Bruce Zhu, a business manager with the China National Complete Engineering Corporation, said about 23 percent of works have so far been done and that everything was on schedule.