North Korea army mobilised as rivers run dry in worst drought in years
PUBLISHED ON JUN 23, 2014 5:45 PM
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SEOUL (REUTERS) - North Korea's rivers, streams and reservoirs are running dry in a
prolonged drough, state media said on Monday, prompting the isolated country to mobilise
some of its million-strong army to try to protect precious crops.
The drought is the worst in North Korea for over a decade, state media reports have said, with
some areas experiencing low rainfall levels since 1961.
Office workers, farmers and women have been mobilised to direct water into the dry floors of
fields and rice paddies, the official KCNA news agency said.
In the 1990s, food shortages led to a devastating famine which killed an estimated million
people but gave rise to a fledgling black market that in some areas now provides the food the
government can no longer supply.
Linda Lewis, of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker-led NGO, confirmed the
media reports and said managers on its North Korean partner farms had seen lower-thanusual rainfall levels in March and May. "They expressed concern about 'serious drought'
conditions and the impact this was having on spring ploughing and paddy field preparation,"
Lewis told Reuters via email.
In some areas, she said, farm managers had experienced 70 days without rain.
Higher-than average temperatures have exacerbated damage, affecting wheat, barley and
maize, state media said.
North Korea has previously blamed drought and floods for chronic food shortages which
observers say are the result of bad planning and a highly centralised economy.
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Strong quake strikes off New Zealand's Kermadec Islands: USGS
PUBLISHED ON JUN 24, 2014 6:10 AM
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WELLINGTON (AFP) - A strong 6.9-magnitude quake struck off New Zealand’s remote
Kermadec Islands early Tuesday, US seismologists said, but no tsunami warning was issued.
The earthquake struck at 7.19am (3.19am Singapore time) and occurred 96km south-east of
Raoul Island in the Kermadecs, the US Geological Survey said, revising earlier parameters.
The epicentre was at a depth of 20km. The largely uninhabited Kermadec Islands are located northeast of New Zealand’s North Island.
The quake was followed two minutes later by an aftershock with a magnitude of 6.3, USGS
said.
The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said of the original quake that “no
destructive, widespread tsunami threat exists based on historical earthquake and tsunami
data”.
However, earthquakes of this size “sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive
along coasts located within a hundred kilometres of the earthquake epicentre", it said.
New Zealand sits on the so-called “Ring of Fire", the boundary of the Australian and Pacific
tectonic plates, and experiences up to 15,000 tremors a year.
A shallow 6.3-magnitude quake devastated the New Zealand city of Christchurch in the
South Island in February 2011, leaving 185 people dead.
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May global temperature hits all-time high
PUBLISHED ON JUN 23, 2014 11:55 PM
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Swimmers jump into a river to seek relief from the hot weather in Rong'an county, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on
June 16, 2014. Last month was so hot it set a new record for the planet, marking the warmest May over land and water since
record-keeping began in 1880, US authorities said Monday. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Last month was so hot it set a new record for the planet, marking
the warmest May over land and water since record-keeping began in 1880, US authorities
said Monday.
The combined average temperature across the globe was 59.93°F (15.54°C), or 1.33°F
(0.74°C) above the 20th century average, said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration. The previous record for May was set in 2010.
"The majority of the world experienced warmer-than-average monthly temperatures, with
record warmth across eastern Kazakhstan, parts of Indonesia, and central and northwestern
Australia," NOAA said.
The findings are part of an ongoing trend of rising global warmth.
Each and every May over the past 39 years has been hotter than the 20th century average,
according to NOAA.
April was also historically hot across the globe, and tied with 2010 for the highest average
temperature since 1880, NOAA said.
The last time global May temperatures fell below the 20th century average was in 1976, the
agency said.
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Major quake strikes off Alaska; local tsunami warning
PUBLISHED ON JUN 24, 2014 6:03 AM
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LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Residents in a remote section of the US Aleutian islands rushed to higher ground on
Monday after an 7.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Alaska triggered a local tsunami warning, an official
said.
But the warnings were lifted an hour or two after the quake, which struck at 2053 GMT some 24 kilometres southeast of remote Little Sitkin Island, in the western Aleutians.
No major damage was reported from the quake, which was initially registered at 8.0. It was followed by a series
of aftershocks, including one 6.0 in magnitude.
“There was no panic,” Mr Layton Lockett, city manager in the town of Adak, told AFP after he sounded the alarms
to evacuate the 150 or so villagers and Navy contractors to higher ground.
“We’re a rough and tumble kind of group. We’re used to certain types of earthquake, some are stronger.. this one
was a little bit more,” he added, saying that everyone was back down two hours after initial alert.
The National Tsunami Warning Centre initially issued a warning for coastal areas from Nikolski on Umnak Island
to Attu Island at the far western end of the Aleutians.
In those areas, “widespread dangerous coastal flooding accompanied by powerful currents are possible, and may
continue for many hours after tsunami arrival.” It also said the level of tsunami danger for other US and Canadian
Pacific coasts was being evaluated. But the warning triggered by the quake was later downgraded to an advisory.
Mr Lockett said locals are used to earthquakes – and official brief Navy contractors who arrive for stays working
on the remote islands.
“If the earthquake lasts longer than 20 seconds or is significant, or if they fall over, they’re to go up on the hill,” he
said.
On this occasion “it actually went off pretty well. We’re thankful that nothing happened, and now we’re at the
inspection stage,” he said, adding that there was “no obvious damage.”
“We would expect that the buildings would be fine. We’re more worried about the main infrastructure such as
roads, if they’ve cracked at all, water and sewers, electrical.
“So we’ll be inspecting those ... but I think we’re fine,” he said.
Monday’s quake is the strongest in the region since 1965, when an 8.7 magnitude quake shook nearby Rat
Island, according to USGS figures cited by local media.
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