Strong earthquake rocks Iceland

A strong earthquake measuring 6.1 has hit southern Iceland, 50km (30 miles) from the capital, Reykjavik.

Cyclone Nargis

A Guardian special on the cyclone is here.

Tremor injures 400 as flood risk grows

A powerful aftershock caused further damage and injured hundreds of people in Sichuan yesterday, as concern grew over the threat of flooding. The magnitude 5.8 tremor destroyed 71,000 houses and triggered fresh mudslides, the state news agency Xinhua reported. One person died and 400 were injured, 24 seriously.

Guardian reports on the earthquake are here

China earthquake toll tops 40,000

The death toll from last week’s earthquake in south-west China has risen to 40,075, officials have said.

UN head tours cyclone-hit Burma

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has arrived in cyclone-hit Burma to tour the devastated Irrawaddy Delta and meet military ruler Gen Than Shwe.

Players at England’s oldest golf course told to let it crumble into the sea

 

 

England’s oldest golf course is slipping into the Bristol channel, and players and locals have been ordered to allow it to happen and stop shoring up its sea defences by hand.

As coastal erosion accelerates, the seventh and eighth holes at the 144-year-old Royal North Devon Golf Club near Westward Ho! could disappear as early as next year, according to senior club members.

Two disasters, contrasting reactions

Two Asian countries reeling from the horror of tens of thousands of people probably dead and hundreds of thousands more made destitute and homeless.

And two governments, one a military junta and the other a Communist oligarchy, both traditionally suspicious of outside intervention.

But what a contrast between the different ways they are handling their situations.

Mapping the earthquake zone

Nearly 15,000 people have died in the devastating earthquake that hit China’s Sichuan province on Monday. Click on the map to find out more about some of the worst-affected places.

Thirsty Barcelona Gets Water Shipments

Barcelona has begun the unprecedented move of shipping in drinking water as the region experiences its worst drought in at least 60 years

Great volcano videos

Among the phenomena that nature offers up for our eyes to see, there is nothing more grandiose, more amazing, more mysterious or more terrifying than an active volcano. It shakes, rumbles, cracks, bursts open, roars, explodes, smokes, gushes, flows…volcano videos are here