Chilean Barbara Hernandez, who became the first person recorded to have swum 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) in the near-freezing Antarctic Ocean, says fear -- not other people -- is her rival. . "My biggest rival is fear... not (other) people," Hernandez told AFP after completing the glacial endeavor recognized as a first by the International Winter Swimming Association.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva flew in Monday to tour the resort region turned disaster zone where floods and landslides killed at least 36 people just as Brazil celebrated carnival, where dozens were still missing.. - Holiday tragedy - The disaster struck just as Brazil celebrated carnival weekend, which draws huge numbers of tourists to Sao Sebastiao and the surrounding area.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva flew in Monday to tour the resort region turned disaster zone where at least 36 people were killed and dozens are still missing after floods and landslides, just as Brazil celebrated carnival.. The disaster struck just as Brazil celebrated carnival weekend, which draws huge numbers of tourists to Sao Sebastiao.
Mauritius was battening down the hatches on Monday as an intense tropical cyclone moved closer, with flights cancelled and normal life at a standstill in the Indian Ocean island nation.. About a dozen storms or cyclones occur each year in the southwest Indian Ocean during the November-April season. strs-txw/lc
New Zealand said Monday it was likely to cost billions of dollars to recover from Cyclone Gabrielle as the national state of emergency was extended by another week.. After spending the weekend visiting hard-hit communities, Hipkins said the national state of emergency declared last week has been extended by another seven days.
Major industrial and economic centres in China and the United States are among the most vulnerable regions in the world to the increasingly destructive power of climate change-driven weather extremes, according to a comprehensive analysis Monday.. China, India and the United States make up over half the states and provinces in the top 100.
UN member states on Monday open two weeks of negotiations aimed at finally reaching a treaty meant to protect and preserve vast areas of the world's oceans.. Given the complexity and vast reach of a treaty and the need to work with other agencies with varying authority in parts of the ocean, strong language is vital, they say.
Flooding and landslides triggered by torrential rain in Brazil claimed at least 24 lives on Carnival weekend in southeast Sao Paulo state, authorities said Sunday.. San Sebastiao, 200 kilometers (120 miles) north of Sao Paulo and where many people from the city spend the pre-Lenten holiday weekend on the beach, was hard hit, as a record 60 centimeters (nearly a foot) of rain fell in 24 hours, city officials said.
Thousands of Japanese fans on Sunday bade farewell to four beloved pandas which will be returned to China this week, with some visitors shedding tears.. In Tokyo, the final viewing of Xiang Xiang, the zoo's first baby panda since 1988, was limited to 2,600 visitors who won a lucky lottery ticket, but some fans who did not win still came.
The prospect of large-scale mining to extract valuable minerals from the depths of the Pacific Ocean, once a distant vision, has grown more real, raising alarms among the oceans' most fervent defenders.. "It's a real problem to open up a new extractive frontier in a place where you know so little, with no regulations," she told AFP. "It will be a disaster."
