At least 30 dead in Beijing after heavy rain
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CNA
29 minutes ago
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Indonesia's Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki erupts again, spews ash plume 18km high
JAKARTA: Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki, one of Indonesia's most active volcanoes, erupted for a second straight day, sending a column of volcanic materials and ash up to 18 kilometres into the sky early Saturday (Aug 2) and blanketing villages with debris. No casualties were immediately reported. Another eruption Friday evening had sent clouds of ash up to 10 kilometres high and had lit up the night sky with glowing lava and bolts of lightning. The two eruptions happened in a span of less than five hours. Indonesia's Geology Agency recorded an avalanche of searing gas clouds mixed with rocks and lava travelling up to 5 kilometres down the slopes of the mountain. Drone observations showed deep movement of magma, setting off tremors that registered on seismic monitors. Volcanic material, including hot thumb-sized gravel, was thrown up to 8 kilometres from the crater, covering nearby villages and towns with thick volcanic residue, the agency said. It asked residents to be vigilant about heavy rainfall that could trigger lava flows in rivers originating from the volcano. Saturday's eruption was one of Indonesia's largest since 2010 when Mount Merapi, the country's most volatile volcano, erupted on the densely populated island of Java. That eruption killed more than 350 people and forced hundreds of thousands to evacuate. It also came less than a month after a major eruption on Jul 7 forced the delay or cancellation of dozens of flights at Bali's Ngurah Rai airport, and covered roads and rice fields with thick, gray mud and rocks. Lewotobi Laki-laki, a 1,584-metre volcano on the remote island of Flores, has been at the highest alert level since it erupted on Jun 18, and an exclusion zone has been doubled to a 7-kilometre radius as eruptions became more frequent. The Indonesian government has permanently relocated thousands of residents after a series of eruptions there killed nine people and destroyed thousands of homes in November. Indonesia is an archipelago of more than 280 million people with frequent seismic activity. It has 120 active volcanoes and sits along the 'Ring of Fire', a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
CNA
a day ago
- CNA
Chongqing residents seek shelter as heatwave hits China's southwest
CHONGQING, China: Temperatures topping 40 degrees Celsius have broiled Chongqing, a metropolis in China's southwest known for its fiery hotpot restaurants and cyberpunk cityscape, pushing some locals to cope with the increasingly hot weather in innovative ways. "It's getting hotter and hotter," said Liu Fengying, 60, a local resident. As afternoon temperatures soared on Thursday (Jul 31), Liu avoided the heat by playing card games and sharing snacks with friends among around 100 retirees sheltering in the air-conditioned chill of a subway entrance. "Aside from coming here, there's really no other way to avoid the heat. Last night, even with the AC set to 17 degrees Celsius, it was still hot and wouldn't cool down." Record heat across China has strained its power grid as demand surges to new all-time highs, now in excess of 1.5 billion kilowatts, with records broken four times just in July. After daily peaks exceeding 40 degrees Celsius for a week, Chongqing elevated its heat-wave warning to the highest level - a red alert - on Thursday, with 21 out of its 38 districts forecast to hit up to 43 degrees Celsius. A peak of 44 degrees Celsius is projected for Sunday. Historically, daily peaks in the city of nearly 32 million people have rarely exceeded 39 degrees Celsius in July, which is already very hot by global standards. Since the start of May, the number of days the city recorded temperatures exceeding 35 degrees Celsius this year was double the historic average. But some Chongqingers remain unfazed - for now. Xie, 79, one of dozens of swimmers who gathered at a tributary of the Yangtze as the sun started to set on Thursday, cools down with regular swims in China's longest river. "Chongqing has always been a furnace city, but we have the river to cool down," he said before diving off a 2m tall riverbank in his underwear. On the same night, Qiu Xianhui, 36, came with friends to eat hotpot, Chongqing's famously spicy broth, at a restaurant in one of the city's old bomb shelters, where the air cools naturally.
CNA
2 days ago
- CNA
Beijing officials admit 'gaps' in readiness after rain kill dozens
Out of those deaths, 31 took place at an "elderly care centre" in the town of Taishitun in the northeast of the city, Xia said. Among those still missing are local officials working on search and rescue, he added. "On behalf of the municipal party committee and the city government, I would like to express deep mourning for those who have regrettably lost their lives, and profound condolences to their relatives," he said. Xia vowed to "learn profound lessons" from the disaster. "Our ability to forecast and warn of extreme weather is insufficient, and disaster prevention and mitigation plans have not been fully developed. There are still shortcomings in the construction of infrastructure in mountainous areas," he said. Yu Weiguo, ruling Communist Party boss in the hard-hit Miyun district, also admitted there had been "gaps" in readiness. "Our knowledge of extreme weather was lacking. This tragic lesson has warned us that putting the people first, putting human life first, is more than a slogan," he said. Natural disasters are common across China, particularly in the summer when some regions experience heavy rain while others bake in searing heat. China is the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases that drive climate change and contribute to making extreme weather more frequent and intense.
