Environment

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A dangerous storm system in the Midwest produced dozens of tornadoes for the second consecutive day Tuesday, demolishing a racetrack grandstand and damaging buildings in a wild animal park in Missouri but sparing St. Louis, the biggest city in its path.

COLOMBO, May 21 (Xinhua) -- A heat wave will sweep through Sri Lanka in the coming days and the public have been warned to take precautionary steps, the Meteorology Department said in its latest weather update here on Tuesday.

The department said the heat levels may reach "caution levels" and temperatures were likely to reach as high as 45 degrees centigrade in some provinces.

People in Polonnaruwa in the north central province, Trincomalee in the east and Vavuniya and Mullaitivu in the north were urged to remain extra cautious.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An intense storm system moved across the Southern Plains on Monday, spawning tornadoes that caused scattered damage and a deluge of rain but not the “particularly dangerous” twisters that forecasters had feared.

No injuries were reported.

BUJUMBURA, May 19 (Xinhua) -- Nine people were killed and 16 others were injured on Saturday at a mining site in northern Burundi, after a mountain collapsed around midday due to heavy rain, a local official said Sunday.

The victims were helping miners remove earth at the foot of the mountain in Kabarore Commune, Kayanza Province, when the mountain suddenly collapsed, Kabarore administrator Victor Ntakarutimana told Xinhua in a telephone interview.

Four people in critical condition are receiving medical treatment at Kayanza Hospital, said Ntakarutimana.

ANKARA; 20 May 2019; AA: Turkey is the world’s second largest beekeeping country after China, an official said, as the country marks World Bee Day on Monday.

"Turkey is one of few self-sufficient countries in beekeeping,” Selcuk Solmaz, head of Ankara Beekeepers Association (ABA), said in an interview with Anadolu Agency.

BOKOSHE, Okla. (AP) — Susan Holmes’ home, corner store and roadside beef jerky stand are right off Oklahoma Highway 31, putting them in the path of trucks hauling ash and waste from a power plant that burns the high-sulfur coal mined near this small town.

For years, when Bokoshe residents were outside, the powdery ash blowing from the trucks and the ash dump on the edge of town would “kind of engulf you,” Holmes said. “They drove by, and you just couldn’t breathe.”

MOSCOW, May 19. /TASS/: An 6.8-magnitude earthquake was registered off New Caledonia’s shore on Sunday, the United States Geological Survey reported.

The epicenter was located 178 km east of the town of Tadine, where 7,500 people live, at a depth of 14 km.

No information about injuries and destructions was reported; no tsunami warning was issued.

New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France in the Pacific Ocean.

TOKYO, May 19 (Xinhua): The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) on Sunday raised its alert level for Mt. Hakone as seismic activity has been increasing in the popular hot-spring resort area near Tokyo.

On the JMA's alert scale that peaks at five, the agency raised its warning for the first time since 2015 from 1 to 2, advising people not to approach the volcano's crater.

The agency said it made the decision because the number of volcanic earthquakes increased to 45 on Saturday, compared with zero on the previous day.

DALLAS (AP) — A spate of tornadoes raked across the Southern Plains, leaving damage and causing few injuries, and parts of the region were bracing for more severe thunderstorms and possible flooding.

The National Weather Service confirmed an EF2 twister Saturday morning with winds up to 130 mph (209 kph) that destroyed at least two homes and left one person with minor injuries in southwestern Oklahoma.

Mumbai, May 18 (PTI) In a far cry from last year's situation, 26 reservoirs in Maharashtra have reached "zero storage" as on May 18, according to statistics put out by the Water Conservation department of the state government.

The department's website informed that water storage in Aurangabad Division, which comprises Aurangabad, Beed, Hingoli, Parbhani and Osmanabad districts, was 0.43 per cent as against 23.44 per cent at the same time last year.