Environment - The World

The week's hottest temperature was 119.3 degrees Fahrenheit (48.5 degrees Celsius) at Jacobabad, Pakistan.

 

The week's coldest temperature was minus 84.6 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 64.8 degrees Celsius) at Russia's Vostok Antarctic research station.

Temperatures were tabulated from the more than 10,000 worldwide synoptic weather stations. The United Nations World Meteorological Organization sets the standards for weather observations, and provides a global telecommunications circuit for data distribution.

 

 

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said there were no immediate reports of damage from the 8:14 a.m. tremor, which was centered about 6 miles (10 km) beneath the northern part of Hiroshima prefecture.

But the West Japan Railway Company briefly suspended operations on its Santo line to check for track damage.

The JMA said that since the quake occurred beneath the southwestern part of Honshu Island, there was no threat of a tsunami.

A long stretch of the Bay of Bengal coast was raked by high winds and storm-surge tides as Cyclone Akash moved ashore.

The storm initially struck western Myanmar (Burma), where several buildings were either damaged or destroyed by hurricane-force winds.

Akash later left three fishermen dead and 50 other people missing along the Bangladesh coast.

Remnants of the storm then caused flash flooding across a wide area of northern Myanmar and northern Thailand.

Philippine ash

Bulusan volcano spewed ash high over the eastern Philippines, forcing nearby residents to use face masks and wet handkerchiefs to avoid breathing the volcanic debris.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said 11 villages were blanketed by falling ash, but the activity did not prompt any evacuations.

The volcanic ash caused "zero visibility'' in the towns of Juban and Irosin, according to Mayor Edwin Hamor of nearby Casiguran, who visited the area. 

Periodic ash emissions have occurred at Bulusan since last October. The mountain has erupted at least 15 times since 1886, with the most recent occurring in 1995.

Laos Quake Rocks Southeast Asia

Residents in the Thai and Vietnamese capitals, as well as in other cities across the region, rushed out of buildings during the one-minute shaking. There were no immediate reports of significant damage or injuries.

The quake occurred at 3:56 p.m. local time and was centered about 103 miles (166 km) west-northwest of the Laotian city of Luang Prabang, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Smith Dharmasaroja, chairman of Thailand's National Disaster Warning Center, said the quake was one of the strongest ever to be felt in northern Thailand.

Residents of southern China's Yunnan province also reported feeling the earthquake.

Sumatra shaker

Residents in the Nias town of Gunung Sitoli ran for safety when the quake hit at 4:31 p.m. local time, according to Rudi Teguh of the country’s meteorology and geophysics agency.

Nias and Sumatra were devastated by the December 2005 earthquake and tsunami, which affected a wide area of the Indian Ocean.