Bird Flu
Turkey’s Agriculture Ministry announced that 306,000 poultry
have been culled across 15 of the country’s 81 provinces in a bid
to contain an outbreak of bird flu, which has claimed at least
three human lives. Thirteen other people, mostly children and
teenagers, were being treated for infection.
By Steve Newman
Bird Flu
Turkey’s Agriculture Ministry announced that 306,000 poultry have been culled across 15 of the country’s 81 provinces in a bid to contain an outbreak of bird flu, which has claimed at least three human lives. Thirteen other people, mostly children and teenagers, were being treated for infection.
A European wildlife organization claimed that migratory birds have been wrongly accused of bringing avian influenza to Turkey. It instead blamed human traffic. The Belgian League for the Protection of Birds said: “No birds migrate from China to Europe. On the other hand, the path follows the main trade route between the Far East and Europe.” It also claimed that no migratory birds caught by hunters or scientists had been shown to carry the virus.
Eruptions
Alaska’s Augustine Volcano erupted for the first time since 1987 with a column of ash that soared about 30,000 feet into the skies southwest of Anchorage. The eruption followed months of elevated seismic activity.
An eruption of Mexico’s Colima Volcano produced a gray cloud of ash and gas, and triggered several small landslides on the mountain’s flanks.
Cyclone Season
The first tropical cyclone of the season to strike northwestern Australia forced more than 1,500 people to flee their homes and mining operations to be halted. Cyclone Clare made landfall near the town of Dampier, where the port was closed and ships were ordered out to sea. No significant damage the storm’s high winds was reported.
Sino Blizzard Emergency
Severe blizzards in western China’s Xinjiang region trapped almost a quarter of a million members of ethnic Mongolian and Kazakh herding families, and prevented their livestock from feeding. Beijing dispatched troops and civilian rescue workers to help plow roads and evacuate the stranded families and their livestock, according to the official Xinhua news agency. While no people were reported dead or injured in Xinjiang, mass starvation among the region’s livestock was feared. The worst snowstorm in 20 years dumped more than 3 feet of snow in the region and brought temperatures as cold as minus 33 degrees Fahrenheit.
Himalayan Chill
A bitter cold spell blanketing northern parts of the Indian subcontinent brought Delhi its coldest temperature in 70 years and killed at least 225 people across India, Nepal and Bangladesh. The chill also threatens the survivors of last year’s devastating earthquake who are living in makeshift shelters in northern India and Pakistan. A doctor in one of the worst-hit towns in Indian Kashmir said quake survivors are showing signs of hypothermia and frostbite.
Earthquakes
A magnitude 6.9 temblor rocked a wide area from Greece to Egypt and the Middle East but caused no significant damage. The quake was centered under the Mediterranean between the Greek islands of Crete and Kythira.
Earth movements were also felt in southern Portugal, southern Ghana, southern Iran, northern Pakistan, northwest Sumatra, the central Philippines, northern New Zealand, the California-Baja California border area, northeast Ohio and along the New York-Quebec border.
Drought Conflicts
A severe drought that threatens millions of humans across East Africa is also putting Kenya’s famed wildlife at risk. The Kenya Wildlife Service says that depleted water supplies and withered vegetation due to two consecutive failures of the rainy season are causing more frequent conflicts between the animals and humans. Elephants have killed at least two people since late December, and have even disrupted the funeral of one of the victims. Hundreds of pachyderms in the Maasai Mara National Reserve have invaded neighboring farms in search of food and water.
Kenya’s government ordered all available maize in the country be purchased and shipped to human drought victims, concentrated mainly in the northeast of the country.
Deadly Swarms
Swarms of agitated bees conducted a vicious attack on humans and animals in a remote Nigerian community after the man they were pursuing took refuge in a local mosque. The official News Agency of Nigeria reported the attacks came in the northern state of Kaduna after the “scent dealer” outran the insects, which then chased everyone else in sight. Residents took refuge in their homes for the night, but many awakened to find their goats, chickens and ducks had been killed by the bees. Stung animals that had survived were immediately slaughtered, according to the agency.
