Environment

Kathmandu, Jul 14 (PTI) At least 43 people, including 18 women, were killed and 20 others injured in floods and landslides triggered by torrential rains in various parts of Nepal, police said.

Twenty four people have been reported missing in the rain-related incidents that displaced settlements and disrupted vehicular traffic, the Himalayan Times reported on Sunday.

Heavy rainfall since Thursday hit more than 25 districts in the hills as well as the southern plains of the country, affecting 10,385 households.

HONG KONG, July 14 (Xinhua) -- A magnitude-6.6 earthquake jolted 202 km W of Broome, Australia at 05:39:24 GMT on Sunday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The epicenter, with a depth of 10.0 km, was initially determined to be at 18.202 degrees south latitude and 120.3368 degrees east longitude.

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Police in Nepal say flooding and landslides triggered by heavy rainfall have killed at least 43 people in the past few days, with more deaths reported across the Himalayan border in India.

At least 24 others are missing in Nepal, either swept by swollen rivers or buried by mudslides since rains began pounding the region Friday. Roads and highways have been blocked in parts of Nepal while communication towers are knocked down.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Barry rolled into the Louisiana coast Saturday, flooding highways, forcing people to scramble to rooftops and dumping heavy rain that officials had feared could test the levees and pumps that were bolstered after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005.

After briefly becoming a Category 1 hurricane, the system weakened to a tropical storm as it made landfall near Intracoastal City, about 160 miles (257 kilometers) west of New Orleans, the National Hurricane Center said.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Heavy rains and gusty winds knocked out power on the Gulf Coast on Saturday as a strengthening Tropical Storm Barry churned a path to shore, threatening millions and testing flood-prevention efforts implemented after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans 14 years ago.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Go or stay?

It is a question people in and around New Orleans ask themselves every time a threatening storm lurks in the Gulf: a major hurricane like Katrina, which devastated the area in 2005 when levees failed, and now Tropical Storm Barry , which forecasters said was unlikely to become a ferocious hurricane but could still bring historic levels of rain and devastating floods.

United States (AP) —Tropical Storm Barry could affect the environment of the Gulf coast and Lower Mississippi Valley in numerous ways, from accelerating runoff of farmland nutrients to toppling trees and damaging wildlife habitat and fisheries, scientists say.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Thousands of Louisianans broke out sandbags or fled to higher ground Thursday as Tropical Storm Barry threatened to turn into the first hurricane of the season and blow ashore with torrential rains that could pose a severe test of New Orleans’ improved post-Katrina flood defenses .

National Guard troops and rescue crews in high-water vehicles took up positions around the state as Louisiana braced for the arrival of the storm Friday night or early Saturday.

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, July 11. /TASS/: An earthquake of 5 magnitude was registered off the coast of the southern Kuril Islands, the Sakhalin department of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Geophysical Service told TASS on Thursday.

"The earthquake's epicenter lay at the depth of 62 km in 116 km to the south-east of the Iturup island," the department said.

Residents of the Kuril islands did not feel the tremors, and no tsunami alert was issued.

MOSCOW, July 11. /TASS/: Wildfires have been extinguished in Russian regions on the territory of around 3,700 hectares in the past 24 hours, the press service of the Aerial Forest Protection Service said on Thursday.

"In the past 24 hours, 47 wildfires were extinguished on the territory of 3,747 hectares. As of 12am on 11 July 2019, 175 forest fires are reported on the territory of 127,886 hectares, with active firefighting efforts underway," the press service said.