The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. – Benjamin Franklin
MANILA, Feb 22, 2008 (AFP) – At least 21 people have been killed and more than 294,000 displaced by floods and landslides in the central and southern Philippines, relief officials said Friday.
Read morePhilippines floods and landslides leave 21 dead: officials
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said he is deeply concerned about the sharp rise in global food prices.
Mr Ban said the trend would hinder progress towards the millennium development goals (MDGs), which aim to halve extreme poverty by 2015.
The UN World Food Program (WFP) and other agencies may be forced to ration food aid, he said in a BBC interview.
He said shortages might be eased by a “green revolution” to transform farming methods in Africa.
Global food prices have risen by 40% in nine months and food reserves are at their lowest for 30 years.
The WFP is facing a $500m (£248m) shortfall in its attempts to feed 73 million people this year.
MAPUTO, March 13 (Reuters) – The tropical cyclone that has lashed parts of Mozambique, killing 10 people, is expected to hit the southern tourist region of the country before gathering speed on its way to Madagascar, authorities said on Thursday.
Cyclone Jokwe struck ferociously last Friday, displacing 55,000 people, destroying electricity pylons and uprooting trees in the northern Nampula province.
“It is too dangerous for shipping. It is now over the Mozambique channel on its current course and is likely to strike both Mozambique and Madagascar again,” Mussa Mustafa, head of the National Institute of Meteorology, said in an interview.
Read moreCyclone heads to Mozambique tourist area and Madagascar
TREND: Ocean currents, global warming and wind combine to leave the Arctic ice fragile. New data this winter on Arctic winds and currents indicate that next summer’s ice loss at the North Pole may be even greater than 2007’s record-setting shrinkage.
ATLANTA – Georgians will be able to water their azaleas and swim in their pools this spring after the state eased a ban on outdoor watering.Barely 400 miles away, residents of Raleigh, N.C., should be so lucky. Their city council just enacted the toughest water restrictions available, essentially banning all outdoor watering in Raleigh and six surrounding towns.
GENEVA — The current La Nina weather phenomenon may just be a partial cause of South China’s freeze-up at the start of 2008, said the United Nations World Meteorological Agency (WMO) Monday.
The latest La Nina pattern, which began in the third quarter of 2007, has picked up strength in the past three months, with sea surface temperatures now about 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius colder than average over large parts of the eastern and central equatorial Pacific Ocean, said the latest report issued by the WMO.
A rescuer carries an 80-year-old woman out of Jinlian village in Longnan county, East China’s Jiangxi Province, Feb. 3, 2008. After being trapped for days in frozen weather and without electricity and water supply, 1,761 people in the village were rescued successfully on Sunday. [Xinhua]
Read moreWMO: La Nina may be partial cause of S China’s freeze-up