Ebola Death Toll Skyrockets by Almost 200 in One Day

The death toll from the worst Ebola outbreak in history has jumped by almost 200 in a single day to at least 2,296 and is already likely to be higher than that, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

The WHO said it had recorded 4,293 cases in five West African countries as of Sept. 6, a day after its previous update.

But it still did not have new figures for Liberia, the worst-affected country, suggesting the true toll is already much higher. The WHO has said it expects thousands of new cases in Liberia in the next three weeks.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said on Tuesday she expects the Ebola crisis gripping her country to worsen in the coming weeks as health workers struggle with inadequate supplies, a lack of outside support and a population in fear.

Liberia's defense minister told the United Nations Security Council that Ebola posed a mortal threat to the country.

As well as struggling to contain the disease, the U.N. health organisation is having difficulty compiling data on the number of cases, said Sylvie Briand, the director of WHO's department of pandemic and epidemic diseases.

"We know that the numbers are under-estimated," Briand told a news briefing in Geneva. "We are currently working to estimate the under-estimation.

"It's a war against this virus. It's a very difficult war. What we try now is to win some battles at least in some places."

The outbreak began last December and has been gathering pace for months, but about 60 percent of Liberia's cases and deaths occurred within the last three weeks, the data showed.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said that Liberia's Montserrado County, which includes the capital, Monrovia, needs 1,000 beds to treat Ebola patients but the medical charity can only provide around 400 of those.

"We know that every day there are more people that need to be taken care of than we can include in our program. At the moment, there are insufficient beds," MSF emergency coordinator Laurence Sailly told a news conference on Tuesday.

In Guinea and Sierra Leone, the other two countries at the center of the outbreak, only 39 percent of cases and around 29 percent of deaths have occurred in the past three weeks, suggesting they are doing better at tackling the outbreak.

The new figures also showed two new suspected cases in Senegal in addition to one previously confirmed case there. In Nigeria, the overall number of cases fell to 21 from 22, as at least one suspected case turned out not to be Ebola. Baltimore Sun

Canada : September Snow Falls in Calgary

Calgary got an early dose of winter this morning as drizzling rain turned into big fluffy flakes of snow.

Environment Canada issued a snowfall warning for the city Monday evening.
 

"The first significant snowfall of the season is occurring," said the national weather agency on its website. "General snowfall accumulations of five centimetres are expected, however, greater accumulations are possible in some areas — including higher elevations. Snowfall accumulations will vary significantly depending on surface type and snowfall intensity. Snow will taper off this evening in Calgary and overnight in Pincher Creek."

A cold front that brought rain to Calgary, and other parts of southwestern Alberta overnight, had even colder air behind it that is producing accumulations of snow.

Blowing wet snow west and north of the city is reducing visibility on the highways in the area.

Record rainfall swamps Southwest, two dead in Arizona

USA Today

Torrential rain from the remnants of a Pacific Ocean hurricane swamped the Desert Southwest Monday, with Phoenix and Tucson seeing some of the worst flooding. Rain and floods were also reported in southern California.

In Phoenix, the rain turned freeways into lakes and forced the closure of highways, streets and schools throughout the region.

In Tucson, one woman died after her car was swept away by heavy floods and became trapped against a bridge.

Monday was the rainiest single day in the history of Phoenix, where weather records go back to 1895.

More rain was in the forecast for Monday night and early Tuesday.

Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport recorded 3.29 inches of rain, which broke the all-time calendar day record total of 2.91 inches, the National Weather Service reported.

That record was set in 1933.

Gov. Jan Brewer ordered non-essential state employees to stay home Monday and she declared a "statewide emergency for areas impacted by today's severe rainfall and flooding."

School administrators throughout the Valley canceled and delayed classes as a result of the massive storm.

The 3 inches of rain is more than the Arizona capital usually gets in the entire three months of July, August and September.

Channel 12 meteorologist James Quiñones said already the region was coping with the biggest flood in 44 years.

The rain was due in part to the remnants of eastern Pacific Hurricane Norbert. These tropical-type storms occur only once every five to 10 years in Arizona and result in prolonged, widespread rain. Monsoon storms, by comparison, are shorter and much more isolated.

"This is pretty historic, what we're seeing," said Randy Cerveny, a weather expert and professor of geological sciences at Arizona State University.

The storm system brought a rare, brief rainfall to Los Angeles and parts of Southern California, and heavier amounts caused flash flooding on highways in desert and other inland areas.

Around Palm Springs, more than 40 water-related rescues were reported Monday morning and at least one school was evacuated because of flooding, The Desert Sun reported. A slow-moving thunderstorm knocked out power in some areas and created a traffic mess on heavily traveled Interstate 10.

California Highway Patrol spokesman Mike Radford said the rain left "tons of debris" on highways and flooded side roads throughout the Coachella Valley desert.

"This is definitely one of the worst storms I've seen'' in the valley, Radford told The Desert Sun.

Parts of five western states -- California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Colorado -- were under flood watches or warnings as of late afternoon, the National Weather Service reported.

Small Meteorite Strikes near Nicaragua’s Capital

In this Sunday Sept. 7, 2014, publicly distributed handout photo provided by the Nicaraguan Army shows an impact crater made by a small meteorite in a wooded area near Managua's international airport and an air force base.

 Nicaragua's government said Sunday that a mysterious boom heard overnight in the capital was made by a small meteorite that left a crater in a wooded area near Managua's airport.

Government spokeswoman Rosario Murillo said a committee formed by the government to study the event determined it was a "relatively small" meteorite that "appears to have come off an asteroid that was passing close to Earth."

Murillo said Nicaragua will ask international experts to help local scientists in understanding what happened.

The crater left by the meteorite had a radius of 12 meters (39 feet) and a depth of 5 meters (16 feet), said Humberto Saballos, a volcanologist with the Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies who was on the committee. He said it is still not clear if the meteorite disintegrated or was buried.

Humberto Garcia, of the Astronomy Center at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, said the meteorite could be related to an asteroid that was forecast to pass by the planet Saturday night.

"We have to study it more because it could be ice or rock," he said.

Wilfried Strauch, an adviser to the Institute of Territorial Studies, said it was "very strange that no one reported a streak of light. We have to ask if anyone has a photo or something."

Local residents reported hearing a loud boom Saturday night, but said they didn't see anything strange in the sky.

"I was sitting on my porch and I saw nothing, then all of a sudden I heard a large blast. We thought it was a bomb because we felt an expansive wave," Jorge Santamaria told The Associated Press.

The site of the crater is near Managua's international airport and an air force base. Only journalists from state media were allowed to visit it.

Pakistan : 174 People Missing by Unexpected Early Heavy Snowfall and Blizzards

174 people have gone missing in heavy snow fall and storm in Deosai plain and Kala Pani of the Gilgit-Baltistan.

According to the details, 452 people got struck in the snow storm along with their live stocks. Local authorities on information by their relatives managed to reach to 280 people and shifted them to safer places. However the administration said 174 people with their live stocks are still missing.

They said due to extremely harsh weather condition, they are unable to launch search for the missing persons. The officials said that once the weather improves, they would launch rescue operation to search the missing persons and save their lives. Daily Times

Indian Girl Marries a Dog to Warn off Evil Spirits

Mangli Munda, from a remote village in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, said 'I do' to the stray canine in a lavish ceremony surrounded by 70 friends and family.

The wedding was organised by village elders after a local guru led Mrs Munda's parents to believe that she possessed bad luck, and that marrying a man would bring devastation to her village.

The furry groom, Sheru, arrived at the ceremony in style - escorted in a chauffeur driven car - and was greeted by well-wishers.

But Mrs Munda, who has not been to school, said that she had more than cold feet on the big day.

The hesitant bride admitted that she was not happy to marry a dog, but did so in the hope that her luck would change.

She said: "I am marrying a dog because the village elders believe that my evil spell will be passed on to the dog.

"After that is done, the man I will marry will have a long life."

Her father, Sri Amnmunda, was happy for his daughter to go through with the matrimony and even picked out the privileged pooch  .

He said: "The village elders told us that we should organise the wedding as soon as we can. We had to make sure that the evil spell is destroyed.

"And marrying a dog is the only way to get rid of the bad luck."

Amazingly, this is not the first time that a local girl has wed a canine in Mrs Munda's village.

Her father added: "Many weddings like this have taken place in our village and also the other neighbouring villages.

"This is a custom that we thoroughly believe in."

According to village customs, Mrs Munda is free to marry again later in life without divorcing the dog.

"My villagers say that many girls like me have followed this ritual and they have gotten rid of their evil spells and are living happy lives now," she said.

"I will also be free to marry a man of my dreams after after the evil spell is over."

But despite the fact that the groom is a bit on the furry side, Mrs Munda's mother insists that this was just like any other wedding.

"Apart from the fact that the groom is a dog, we followed all customs," said Seema Devi.

"We respect the dog as much as we would respect a normal groom.

"We had to spend money on this wedding in the same way as we would in a normal wedding.

"But that is the only way we can get rid of her bad luck and ensure the benevolence of the village."

Now that the big day is over, Mrs Munda will go on to look after Sheru like any other pet while looking out for her true prince charming.

She added: "I will marry a man one day.

"It is the dream of every girl to marry a prince charming.

"So I am also waiting for my prince."

Mystery Crater on Utah Farm Baffles Geologists

Gary Dalton was draining the irrigation pond on his farmland in Circleville, Utah, when he made a startling discovery: a giant crater staring back up at him from the bottom of the basin.

"The sun was just right, so I saw this blasted thing that no one had ever seen," he tells KSL.com. The algae-filled hole, measuring about 25 feet across and at least 7 inches deep in the center—with a few more inches' give in the middle—has baffled not only the Daltons, but area geologists as well.

"We've got several theories … [but] most of them have gone up in smoke," says a scientist from the Utah Geological Survey. Possibilities had included a pushy natural spring emerging from underneath, a buried pipeline, an earthquake, a meteor, or a methane "burp"—but they either don't seem geographically likely or have been ruled out with photographic evidence.

The most likely explanation is that the crater was formed when soil underneath the body of water collapsed from the constant draining and refilling of the pond, which caused an eruption of water and air to make the hole.

But what do the Daltons think caused it? Gary tells KSL.com, "My heck, I guess that's Martian art," while one of his sons simply shrugs and says, "I have no idea."
(Read about another mystery crater at the "end of the world" in Siberia.) 

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