Sakura (Japan) (AFP) – Streets remain flooded, and cars are left abandoned in Japan’s eastern Chiba region the day after torrential downpours triggered landslide warnings and power outages. Forecasters issued the highest level heavy rain warning for the region for the first time as at least five people died after the heavy rain.
Catania (Italy) (AFP) – Molten lava pours out of the slopes of an erupting Mount Etna in Sicily, Italy, drawing in flocks of tourists to the active volcano site despite local guides’ concerns. The rising plumes have forced Italian authorities to stop flights, with the closure of Catania Airport. Mount Etna is the tallest active volcano in Europe.
Upper Hambleton (United Kingdom) (AFP) – England’s dry weather has revealed the remains of a former village, flooded in the 1970s to create a reservoir. It is located within the East Midlands, one of the many regions under drought after England and Wales experienced their driest July on record.
Cali (Colombia) (AFP) – Vickye Giraldo, a 56-year-old lawyer whose building was destroyed by the earthquake in Colombia’s Cali, happily greets Polux, one of her pet cats rescued from the rubble. Colombia’s magnitude 7.4 quake has killed at least 265 people, injured more than 3,500 and left almost 500 missing, according to local authorities, as the critical 72-hour window for finding people alive draws to a close.
Cali (Colombia) (AFP) – Volunteers and rescue workers in Cali continue to clear rubble and try to locate earthquake survivors as the critical 72-hour window for rescue operations neared its end. The magnitude 7.4 quake, the strongest to hit Colombia this century, has killed 265 people, injured more than 3,500 and left almost 500 missing, according to local authorities. IMAGES
Castellón de la Plana (Spain) (AFP) – Day briefly turns to night in Spain, as the country witnesses its first total solar eclipse in more than a century, plunging it into eerie darkness in one of nature’s greatest spectacles. “It’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen,” says 54-year-old Anabel Poveda.
Getxo (Spain) (AFP) – One of nature’s greatest spectacles –- a rare total solar eclipse –- casts its shadow, briefly turning day into night in Russia’s remote Arctic north and western Iceland before heading towards mainland Europe. Supplies of special viewing glasses were in high demand, as a partial eclipse was visible across Europe, as well as in Canada, the northern United States and northwest Africa.
Turkistan (Kazakhstan) (AFP) – In an effort to tackle severe droughts that plague the country, Kazakhstan has turned to cloud seeding, using special aircraft to disperse a substance that sticks to cloud droplets, making them heavy enough to fall as rain. Kazakh authorities are betting on the technique to reduce the impact of drought and water shortages in its southern Turkestan region, the country’s leading cotton-growing region. “We are not creating the cloud,” explains Adnan Yarmohammed, an Emirati official involved in the initiative, adding, “We are just enhancing the cloud that’s already available.”
Rothbury (AFP) – A leading UK conservation charity is crowdfunding £30 million to buy a swathe of rolling moorlands and woodlands, in the largest land sale in England for three decades. The estate hosts thousands of hectares of “rare beauty” owned by an English lord and could become one of the UK’s biggest sanctuaries for biodiversity. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and we can’t let this go,” says Peter Batchelor, the project’s managing director at The Wildlife Trusts.
Rescuers and volunteers continue to search for survivors underneath the rubble and clear debris in Pereira after an earthquake that killed more than 200 people and demolished scores of buildings in the west of the country. Colombia has declared three days of mourning for victims. IMAGES
Fontanil de los Oteros (Spain) (AFP) – British astrophysicist Graham Jones and his team have travelled to northern Spain, where the eclipse will be visible in its entirety, a phenomenon that “hasn’t come to mainland Europe since August 1999,” he says. Across Europe, people have been scrambling to buy special eclipse glasses to safely observe the sun, with many retailers selling out.
Russian President Vladimir Putin threatens to seize ships belonging to European countries in retaliation for plans to intercept and seize Russian vessels suspected of being part of Moscow’s ‘shadow fleet’. “We will be forced to respond in kind,” Putin says while overseeing naval drills in Russia’s Far East.
