Jumat, 29 Juli 2011

Korban Hujan Badai di Korsel Bertambah

Korban Hujan Badai di Korsel Bertambah

Upaya penyelamatan melibatkan ribuan petugas pemadam kebakaran, tentara, dan petugas SAR

JUM'AT, 29 JULI 2011, 11:54 WIB
Renne R.A Kawilarang, Indrani Putri

VIVAnews - Jumlah korban tewas akibat hujan badai yang mengguyur Korea Selatan sejak Kamis, 28 Juli 2011, meningkat menjadi sedikitnya 57 jiwa. Pusat Penanggulangan Bencana Korsel juga melaporkan bahwa masih banyak korban yang dinyatakan hilang atau terjebak, sehingga angka ini bisa membengkak lagi.

Menurut stasiun berita
CNN pada Jumat 29 Juli 2011, hujan yang disebut-sebut paling deras sepanjang sejarah Korsel itu mengakibatkan banjir bandang dan tanah longsor di beberapa daerah di Korsel. Badai juga turut merendam stasiun, tempat-tempat usaha, dan jalan raya sehingga kegiatan lalu lintas sempat terganggu.

Korban dilaporkan paling banyak jatuh akibat tanah longsor. Dilansir dari LA times, longsor menelan 17 korban tewas di Seoul, 13 korban tewas di Chuncheon termasuk 10 mahasiswa yang sedang rapat di sebuah motel dan 26 lain dilaporkan terluka.

Hujan badai ternyata turut menyapu ranjau darat yang selama ini tersimpan di bawah tanah. Militer Korsel sekarang sedang berusaha mengumpulkan kembali separuh dari 93 ranjau yang tersapu ombak. Masyarakat dihimbau untuk waspada karena 10 ranjau dinyatakan tidak diketahui keberadaannya.

Upaya penyelamatan terus dilakukan ribuan pemadam kebakaran, tentara, dan petugas penyelamat sejak Kamis. Mereka menggunakan alat-alat berat dan sekop untuk menyisir daerah yang terdampak guna mencari korban hilang. Lebih dari 700 rumah dan 4000 kendaraan masih tergenang banjir.

Pihak berwenang Seoul menyatakan para pengungsi banjir kini sudah tertampung di tempat penampungan darurat. Presiden Korsel Lee Myung-bak telah menghimbau mereka untuk tetap tenang. "Tetaplah mengambil tindakan menyeluruh dan tetaplah kontak dengan pemerintah," katanya.

Hujan badai mengguyur Seoul dan sekitarnya sejak Rabu dengan curah hujan 50 milimeter per jam. Pada Jumat, curah hujan diperkirakan akan meningkat dua kali lipat.

• VIVAnews

Rabu, 27 Juli 2011

Tanah longsor di Korsel, belasan tewas

Rabu, 27/07/2011 22:16 WIB
Tanah longsor di Korsel, belasan tewas
BBCIndonesia.com - detikNews

Tim penyelamat mengeluarkan seorang korban tewas akibat tanah longsor.

Setidaknya 17 orang tewas dalam bencana tanah longsor di Korea Selatan. Bencana ini terjadi setelah hujan deras mengguyur kawasan utara di utara negeri itu.

Tim penyelamat menyatakan 12 orang korban tewas di antaranya tertimbun longsor di sebuah hotel di kawasan wisata Chunceon, sebelah timur Seoul.

Pihak berwenang mengatakan sebagian besar korban tewas di Chuncheon adalah mahasiswa yang tengah melakukan kerja sukarela di kawasan tersebut.

Saat ini, ratusan anggota pasukan penyelamat masih menggali lokasi longsor untuk menemukan korban selamat di lokasi bencana.

Sedangkan lima korban tewas lainnya dipastikan berada di sebuah distrik di Seoul.

HUJAN DERAS

Tanah longsor yang terjadi tak lama setelah tengah malam waktu setempat itu menghancurkan berbagai bangunan seperti hotel, restoran dan kedai-kedai kopi di kawasan itu.

"Saya sedang tidur di lantai dua ketika saya mendengar suara gemuruh tanah longsor. Tangga ambruk dan saya terkubur di bawah lumpur," kata seorang mahasiswa yang selamat dari maut kepada kantor berita Yonhap.

Tim penyelamat mengatakan dua orang lagi yang diperkirakan berada di lokasi itu belum ditemukan.

Sementara itu, ratusan rumah warga terendam banjir di Seoul. Badan Meteorologi setempat menyatakan curah hujan deras belum akan berhenti.

Hujan deras juga memutus jaringan telepon selular dan mengakibatkan sejumlah jalan utama tak bisa dilalui.

(bbc/bbc)

Sabtu, 23 Juli 2011

Gelombang panas landa AS dan Kanada

Sabtu, 23/07/2011 04:50 WIB
Gelombang panas landa AS dan Kanada
BBCIndonesia.com - detikNews
gelombang panas di as

Suhu udara di beberapa tempat menembus rekor tertinggi sejak 1930-an

Gelombang panas melanda kawasan tengah dan timur Amerika Serikat dan Kanada dengan suhu udara mencapai 37 derajat celcius.

Setidaknya 22 orang meninggal dunia akibat gelombang panas tersebut.

Layanan cuaca AS memperingatkan kelembaban dan panas di kawasan timur hari Jumat (22/7) berada di level bahaya dan suhu tidak akan turun setidaknya hingga hari Minggu.

Eli Jacks, pakar cuaca di AS, mengatakan tekanan tinggi di atmosfir belum menunjukkan tanda-tanda mereda.

"Ketika udara mendekat ke permukaan bumi, udara tersebut makin padat dan hangat. Udara juga makin kering, jadi tidak banyak terbentuk awan yang bisa menghalangi matahari," kata Jacks kepada BBC.

Ia menambahkan kombinasi tingginya panas dan kelembaban membuat tubuh sulit untuk mendapatkan suhu ideal karena keringat tidak bisa kering secara efektif.

Petugas prakiraan cuaca mengatakan suhu udara di New York mencapai 38 derajat celcius, memecahkan rekor hari terpanas sejak 1936.

AIR MINUM GRATIS

Perusahaan listrik Con Edison mengatakan mungkin terjadi pemadaman listrik di beberapa bagian di New York dalam beberapa hari ke depan akibat lonjakan pemakaian pendingin udara.

Ketika panas mencapai puncaknya di pantai timur para pejabat memperingatkan korban meninggal diperkirakan akan bertambah.

Tiga belas orang meninggal dunia di negara bagian Missouri dan beberapa orang tewas di negara bagian tetangga Oklahoma termasukan anak berusia tiga tahun.

Di kota Hutchinson, Kansas, tiga warga usia lanjut meninggal dunia.

Sejumlah kota mendirikan tempat-tempat khusus yang dilengkapi pendingin udara untuk kalangan miskin dan warga usia lanjut.

Para pejabat di Philadelphia mengerahkan para petugas yang menyediakan air minum gratis untuk warga yang kehausan.

Gelombang panas yang mematikan ini juga berdampak terhadap ternak dan tanaman pangan. Di Minnesota tingkat kematian ternak mencapai angka tertinggi dalam tiga dasawarsa, kata koran Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Ayam kalkun dilaporkan banyak yang mati akibat cuaca ini.

Jumat, 22 Juli 2011

Heavy Storms in Poland

Page last updated at 10:17 GMT, Friday, 24 July 2009 11:17 UK

Heavy storms kill seven in Poland

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Heavy storms kill seven in Poland

Heavy storms have killed at least seven people in Poland, uprooted trees in many areas and toppled power lines.

The TVN24 news channel said central and south-western areas of Poland had been worst hit by the overnight storms, which also injured dozens of people.

The Czech Republic and a wide swathe of Germany also suffered from falling trees and local flooding.

The storms disrupted road and rail traffic in many areas. Thousands were left without electricity in Poland.

Seventeen people suffered electrical burns when a power line came down in Krotoszyn, western Poland, the AFP news agency reports.

Fallen tree in Poland, 23 Jul 09 (still from Polish TV)
Fallen trees were a hazard in many storm-hit areas of Poland

A spokesman for Poland's state fire service, Capt Jacek Lep, told the BBC that 12,216 firefighters were now tackling the aftermath of the storms.

There were three deaths in the central Lodzkie province, as two people were crushed by trees and one person was electrocuted, Polish television reported. The victims included a 24-year-old pregnant woman who died after her car was crushed by a tree.

Three people died and nearly 50 were injured in the southern province of Lower Silesia. Two were crushed by falling trees while the third drowned.

The central Wielkopolskie district reported one person crushed to death by a tree. Thirty-six others were injured.

Climate change 'threatens peace', UN official warns

Climate change 'threatens peace', UN official warns

A displaced Somali girl carries water at the Halabokhad IDP settlement in Galkayo, northwest of Somalia"s capital Mogadishu, 20 July 2011Crises such as that in Somalia could be far worse as a result of climate change, Mr Steiner says

Related Stories

Climate change poses a major threat to future peace and security, a senior UN official has warned.

Achim Steiner from the UN Environment Programme said climate change would also "exponentially" increase the scale of natural disasters.

His comments followed a UN declaration of famine in parts of Somalia.

Meanwhile, Russia rejected a Security Council statement backed by Western nations which asserted the link, but later agreed to a weaker text.

The Russian envoy Alexander Pankin said he was sceptical about the implications of putting climate change on the security council's agenda.

Security Council members finally agreed to a text which spoke of the "possible security implications" of climate change.

'Exponential growth'

Mr Steiner warned that an increase in the frequency of natural disasters across the globe could prove a major challenge in the coming decades.

He said recent crises, such as in Somalia, illustrate that "our capacity to handle these kinds of events is proving a challenge, particularly if they occur simultaneously and start affecting, for instance, global food markets, regional food security issues, displacing people, creating refugees across borders".

Start Quote

This is a good day today for climate security”

Peter WittigGerman Ambassador

"Clearly the international community - if the scenarios in climate change for the future come true - will face an exponential growth of these kinds of extreme events," he added.

His comments came as the Security Council formally debated the environment for the first time in four years, with Germany pressing for the first-ever council statement linking climate change to global peace and security.

Diplomats said there were intense negotiations between Germany and Russia, which initially opposed any council action, before a statement on the issue was agreed to.

Speaking as negotiations were continuing, Mr Pankin argued that the move was unnecessary and opposed by many countries.

"We believe that involving the Security Council in a regular review of the issue of climate change will not bring any added value whatsoever and will merely lead to further increased politicisation of this issue and increased disagreements between countries," he said.

However US Ambassador Susan Rice said that the council had an "essential responsibility to address the clear-cut peace and security implications of a changing climate" and said all countries should be demanding action.

She also called failed attempts to reach consensus earlier in the day "pathetic" and "shortsighted".

Somalia famine

The final statement expressed "concern that possible adverse effects of climate change may, in the long run, aggravate certain existing threats to international peace and security".

It also requested UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to include information on possible climate change impacts in his regular reports on global trouble-spots.

German Ambassador Peter Wittig welcomed the outcome, describing it as a "good day today for climate security".

"We had quite extensive discussions," Mr Wittig said. "We wanted to get everyone on board. And we did."

The council had failed to agree on whether climate change was an issue of world peace in 2007, when Britain brought up the issue.

The move came after two regions of Somalia were declared a famine, after the worst drought in six decades.

Conditions for famine include more than 30% of children being acutely malnourished, and four children out of every 10,000 dying daily.

More than 10 million people have been affected by the crisis across east Africa.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14229237

Fossil 'is first pregnant lizard

Fossil 'is first pregnant lizard'

Half of the pregnant Yabeinosaurus (Image: Yuan Wang/IVPP)The lizard was just days from giving birth when it died and was buried

Related Stories

A 120-million-year-old fossil is the oldest pregnant lizard ever discovered, according to scientists.

The fossil, found in China, is a very complete 30cm (12in) lizard with more than a dozen embryos in its body.

Researchers from University College London, who studied the fossil, say it was just days from giving birth when it died and was buried during the Cretaceous period.

The team reports the findings in the journal Naturwissenschaften.

Start Quote

When I examined it under the microscope, I could see all these little babies”

Prof Susan EvansUniversity College London

The fossil is especially interesting to scientists because it is a reptile that produced live young rather than laying eggs.

Only 20% of living lizards and snakes produce live young, and this shows it is an ancient, if unusual, trait.

"I didn't think much of the fossil when I first saw it," said Prof Susan Evans, joint lead author of the paper, from University College London.

But when her colleague, Yuan Wang, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, examined the fossil he spotted the tiny remains of at least 15 almost fully developed embryos inside it.

"Sure enough, when I examined it under the microscope, I could see all these little babies," Prof Evans recalled.

Close-up of one of the embryos inside YabeinosaurusThe heads of at least 15 lizard embryos are visible inside the body of the fossil

The fossil is so well preserved that the minuscule teeth of the developing young are visible on very close inspection.

"This specimen is the oldest pregnant lizard we have seen," said Prof Evans.

"It implies physiological adaptations, like adequate blood supply to the embryos and very thin shells - or no shells at all - to allow oxygen supply, evolved very early on."

Up until now the fossil records only contained examples of marine lizards giving birth to live young.

Scientists thought that, in extinct reptiles, live birth was restricted to aquatic species, such as marine ichthyosaurs. These creatures would have been able to move through water with relative ease, even when heavily pregnant.

An iguana embryo of approximately the same age as those within the body of the Yabeinosaurus fossilMost lizard species, such as iguanas, lay eggs

Prof Evans said: "We do know that this lizard lived near to water and we think it likely that they could swim even though they primarily lived on land.

"This would make sense as a pregnant lizard would be less constrained by carrying offspring - she'd be able to escape into water if a hungry dinosaur came along."

The fossil comes from world famous rocks of the Jehol Group in north-eastern China, where the fine limestone there has been worn away to gradually reveal hundreds of exquisite specimens of dinosaurs, but also fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, plants and invertebrates.

The mother lizard has been identified as a specimen of Yabeinosaurus, a large, slow-growing and relatively primitive lizard.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/14200255