Deadly Thai floods close factories, threaten Bangkok

Nearly 200 factories, including one run by Japanese car maker Honda Motor Co Ltd , closed in the central Thai province of Ayutthaya because of flooding, which could threaten Bangkok this week, officials said today.

About 261 people have died since late July in flood-related incidents, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said. Some 2.3 million people have been affected in the worst flooding to hit parts of Thailand in 50 years, mainly in the centre, north and northeast.

The Rojana estate in Ayutthaya province, run by Rojana Industrial Park Pcl , was flooded after a wall of sandbags failed to hold back water overnight.

Taj Mahal could collapse within five years because wooden foundations are rotting

The Taj Mahal will collapse within five years unless urgent action is taken to shore up its foundations, campaigners have warned.

The 358-year-old marble mausoleum is India’s most famous tourist attraction, bringing four million visitors a year to the northern city of Agra.

But the river crucial to its survival is being blighted by pollution, industry and deforestation.

In danger: The Taj Mahal, near Agra in India. Experts have said it could be in danger of collapsing within five years because its wooden foundations are rotting.Architectural wonder: The 358-year-old tomb is built on mahogany post foundations sunk into wells fed by the nearby Yamuna River. That river has now run dry, and cracks appeared in the walls last year

Japan earthquake - IAEA: Japan underestimated nuclear plant tsunami risk

Shares of Tokyo Electric Power Co fell to 289 yen on Thursday, the lowest level since it was listed on the stock exchange, coming under increasing pressure from selling by retail investors.

Radioactive water accumulating in Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant is set to start overflowing from storage trenches in five days, data provided by the company show. ...

The radiation from Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi reactors poisoned farmlands, contaminated the sea, and sent invisible mists of radiation wafting around the world. The latest – and it's just the latest – atomic accident has raised new ...

WWF takes images of rare tigers in logging forest

A Sumatran tiger plays with its cub in the Bukit Tigapuluh forest in central Sumatra in this image captured using camera traps on April 14, 2011, and released today, May 9, 2011.


The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has recorded images of 12 endangered Sumatran tigers, including a mother playing with cubs, in an Indonesian forest that it said is about to be cleared by loggers.

WWF, which estimates that there are only 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild, captured the images on camera traps in the Bukit Tigapuluh forest on central Sumatra island, which has seen rampant deforestation for palm oil and paper plantations.

Karmila Parakkasi, leader of WWF’s tiger research team in Sumatra, said the number of big cats seen in two months of observation was impressive.

Tornadoes, storms rip through US South, 185 dead

Overnight tornadoes leaves part of Pratt City, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, in ruins April 28, 2011. Devastating storms and tornadoes raked though the US South, killing at least 185 people as they ripped houses to rubble, flipped cars and uprooted trees and power lines, officials said today.

Devastating storms and tornadoes raked though the US South, killing at least 185 people as they ripped houses to rubble, flipped cars and uprooted trees and power lines, officials said today.

In the deadliest series of storms in nearly four decades in the United States, 128 people were killed in Alabama, the worst-hit state.

In Mississippi, 32 were killed, while 10 people died in Georgia and 11 in Arkansas. Louisiana and Tennessee also reported deaths as the clusters of powerful tornadoes and storms tore a swathe of destruction from west to east.

One month to the day after Japan was devastated by the tsunami that left 25,000 dead, ANOTHER earthquake strikes off the SAME coast

* Tremors struck as country prepared to remember the dead
* Crippled nuclear plant evacuated after latest seismic activity
* Government pledges to do all it can to help survivors
* Frustrations increasing among residents of Fukushima exclusion zone
* Nuclear officials admit they cannot offer end date for plant crisis
* Evacuation zone around stricken plant could be expanded due to accumulation of radiation

A tsunami warning was issued for an hour after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit Iwaki in Fukushima province, a month after a massive earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan's north-east coast.

The latest quake came as sombre ceremonies were planned today to mark one month passing since the tragedy.

And there are fears it could have catastrophic ramifications for the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

The plant has since been evacuated, although its operator said no nuclear damage has been reported after this latest burst of seismic activity.

 Silent reflection: Japan's Ground Self-Defence Force members in a moment of silence at 2:46 pm, exactly a month after a massive earthquake struck the area in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture

 Police officers in protective suits search for bodies at a destroyed area, about 18km from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power station

 Memorial: A group of Japanese Shinto priests (on the left) and Buddhist monks at Yugihama Beach during a pray for Japan memorial event in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture

 Police officers in protective suits observe a moment of silence for those who were killed by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, as they search for bodies at a destroyed area in Minamisoma, Fukushima prefecture

 Buddhist monks pray in an area destroyed by tsunami in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan, one month to the day after an earthquake and tsunami devastated the city

Hungarian sludge firm CEO faces no charges

A judge on Wednesday dismissed prosecution demands that the head of a metals company linked to Hungary's devastating red sludge spill be charged with negligence and he has been released from police custody, his lawyer said.

Appearing after the closed court hearing reviewing the case, Zoltani Bakonyi's lawyer, Janos Banati, said the judge ruled in his favor after finding that prosecutors couldn't substantiate their argument that Bakonyi did not sufficiently prepare emergency warning and rescue plans in case of accidents like the sludge spill.

Banati said prosecutors were preparing an appeal.


An aerial view of Kolontar village covered by toxic red mud, 164 kms southwest of Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2010 after the dyke of a reservoir containing red mud of an alumina plant in nearby Ajka broke eight days earlier, and over one million cubic meters of the poisonous chemical sludge inundated three villages, killing eight people and injuring over hundred.


An aerial view of Kolontar village covered by toxic red mud, 164 kms southwest of Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2010 after the dyke of a reservoir containing red mud of an alumina plant in nearby Ajka broke eight days earlier, and over one million cubic meters of the poisonous chemical sludge inundated three villages, killing eight people and injuring over hundred.

Court Frees Executive Arrested in Hungary Spill

The managing director of the company linked to Hungary's red sludge disaster was released from custody without charge, his lawyer said Wednesday, citing a lack of sufficient evidence.

Toxic clean-up in Hungary - Hungary declares state of emergency after fatal toxic spill - Cleanup, Probe of Sludge Flood in Hungary

Emergency workers and construction crews in Hungary are struggling to clear roads and homes hit by a spill of toxic red sludge.

Hundreds of people were evacuated after the disaster, when a gigantic sludge reservoir burst its banks at a metals plant in Ajka, a town 100 miles south-west of Budapest.

The torrent inundated homes, swept cars off roads and damaged bridges, disgorging an estimated one million cubic metres of toxic waste onto several nearby towns.

Hungarian officials have declared a state of emergency, calling the spill "an ecological disaster" that could threaten the Danube River, one of Europe's great waterways

Emergency workers wearing masks and chemical protection gear also rushed to pour 1,000 tons of plaster into the Marcal River in an attempt to bind the sludge and keep it from flowing on to the Danube, 45 miles away.

Named for its bright red colour, the material is a waste product in aluminium production that contains heavy metals and is toxic if ingested.

BP permanently ‘kills’ Gulf of Mexico well

With a final shot of cement, BP Plc permanently “killed” the runaway Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico that had unleashed the worst oil spill in US history, the top US spill official said today.

The well flowed unchecked for 87 days after an April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers and unleashed a torrent of oil that marred the coasts of four Gulf Coast states and spurred a moratorium on all new US offshore drilling.

BP cited for North Sea safety lapses as outgoing boss Tony Hayward faces grilling by MPs

BP's operations in the North Sea were investigated six months before the Gulf of Mexico explosion amid questions about staff safety training, it emerged today.

The Health and Safety Executive found new staff were not being trained to 'basic safety standards', according to a letter obtained under Freedom of Information laws.

Inspectors found several of the oil giant's installations in the North Sea had broken emergency rules for training staff on how to respond to spills.

Outgoing BP chief Tony Hayward is sure to be asked about the inadequate training when he appears before a Commons select committee today.


Safety lapses: Inspectors found BP was not training staff on its North Sea rigs properly six months before the Deepwater Horizon explosion

BP report shifts blame for Gulf of Mexico oil spill to American contractors-'There was a bad cement job':

BP triggered a further backlash last night as it tried to shift the blame for the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.

In a report released yesterday into the cause of the spill, the beleaguered British oil giant claims two other multinational companies were largely at fault.

The 193-page internal investigation plays down BP's culpability for America's worst ever oil leak, which took 87 days to plug and strained relations between the U.S. and Britain.


* BP highlights roles of Transocean and Halliburton
* 'Shoddy' cement caused gas & oil to enter well
* Oil rig workers took 40minutes to realise fault
* Explosion caused 5m barrels of oil to leak into Gulf

Findings: BP has admitted failures among its staff which led to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

The Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico. A blow-out caused the biggest ever off-shore oil spill

U.S. offshore oil fire may delay lift of drill ban

The Obama Administration is likely to stay focused on toughening regulatory oversight of the U.S. offshore oil industry and may push back lifting a ban on deepwater drilling after the latest accident in the Gulf of Mexico, analysts said on Thursday.

Boats spray water to extinguish a fire on an oil and gas platform operated by Mariner Energy off the Louisiana coast September 2, 2010

13 oil workers pulled from sea after second offshore rig explodes in Gulf of Mexico

An offshore petroleum platform has exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, west of the site of the April blast that caused the massive oil spill.

U.S. Coast Guard officers received reports of the explosion at the rig which produces 1,400 barrels of oil a day from a commercial helicopter company at about 2.30pm today.

Seven helicopters, two aeroplanes and four boats were sent to the site, about 100 miles south of Vermilion Bay off the central Louisiana coast.

Flashback: The explosion at the Deepwater Horizon rig in April killed 11 workers and saw 206 million gallons of oil spill into the Gulf

Escape: The 13 workers are pictured shortly before they were rescued after evacuating the burning oil rig

Obama vows to finish US Gulf Coast recovery

US President Barack Obama pledged yesterday to finish restoring the Gulf Coast area hit by Hurricane Katrina, five years after the storm ravaged the region and hurt the credibility of his Republican predecessor.

Obama visited New Orleans — the city hardest hit by the disaster — with his family at the end of a week-and-a-half vacation on the island of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.

During the 2008 presidential election, Democrat Obama sharply criticised then-President George W. Bush for his administration’s slow response to the flooding and devastation that played out live on television.

People burn incense during a ceremony to mark the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana, August 29, 2010

Obama visit Gulf of Mexico , the job is not done yet.Obama speak about BP oil disaster recovery.

Obama, daughter swim in Gulf in act of reassurance

US President Barack Obama (L), First Lady Michelle Obama (R) and their daughter Sasha

US President Barack Obama and his daughter have taken a dip in the Gulf of Mexico in an attempt to reassure Americans that, despite a massive oil spill, its waters remain safe for tourists.

The president, First Lady Michelle Obama, and their younger daughter, Sasha, traveled to this Florida panhandle city to talk to local officials and business leaders, and highlight the region's tourist attractions.

"Oil is no longer flowing into the Gulf," said Obama, speaking at a regional US Coast Guard headquarters.

"But I'm here to tell you that our job is not finished, and we are not going anywhere until it is."

Thieves compound misery in Pakistan floods

A man stands on a flooded road leading to his village in Karampur, August 14, 2010.

Pakistani farmer Taj Mohammad was taking his family back to his flooded village today despite the danger of rising waters to protect what few possessions he had left, not from the deluge but from thieves.

Two weeks after huge floods hit Pakistan many of the 14 million people affected have yet to get any help from the government or aid groups, and amid the desperation, there are signs of increasing lawlessness.

“There’s a dry patch and I’m taking my family back there,” said Mohammad as he and a group of relatives, including a gaggle of children, clambered onto a trailer hitched up to a farm tractor.

Cholera confirmed in Pakistan as PM says 20m people have been hit by devastating floods

Deluge: The Pakistani Prime Minister says 20million people have been affected by the floods

The first case of cholera has been confirmed in Pakistan as the number of people affected by its floods was today put at a massive 20million.

The United Nations says one case of the highly infectious, deadly waterbourne disease has emerged in the Swat Valley with others suspected.

More than 1,500 people have died and millions have lost their homes and livelihoods in the floods - the worst in the country's history.

Prime Minister Raza Yusuf Gilani, in an Independence Day speech, said the challenges the country now faces are similar to those of the 1947 partition.

Mudslides trap 500, kill five in southwest China

A resident walks on a landslide-hit street in Zhouqu County of Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province August 12, 2010

Mudslides after heavy rain have killed five people and trapped more than 500 in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, the Xinhua state news agency said tpday, the latest natural disaster to strike China recently.

The rains started late yesterday in Mianzhu, close to provincial capital Chengdu, Xinhua said. The area was hard hit during a massive earthquake in 2008 in which at least 80,000 people died.