A fierce earthquake struck Haiti late Tuesday afternoon, causing a crowded hospital to collapse, leveling countless shantytown dwellings and bringing even more suffering to a nation that was already the hemisphere’s poorest and most disaster-prone.

The earthquake, the worst in the region in more than 200 years, left the country in a shambles. As night fell in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, fires burned near the shoreline downtown, but otherwise the city fell into darkness. The electricity was out, telephones were not working and relief workers struggled to make their way through streets blocked by rubble.

In the chaos, it was not possible for officials to determine how many people had been killed and injured, but they warned that the casualties could be substantial.

Source/Full Story: NYTimes.com

Residents are cleaning up the damage caused by a 6.5-magnitude quake that struck Saturday off the coast of Eureka, California.

At the height of quake-related outages, nearly 28,000 customers, most of them in Humboldt County, were without power, said David Eisenhower, spokesman for Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

As of 11:30 p.m. (2:30 a.m. ET), power had been restored to 22,000 customers. The rest are expected to have power restored by early Sunday.

The northern California quake, which ran about 13.5 miles deep, hit offshore at 4:27 p.m. (7:27 p.m. ET) about 33 miles from the coastal city of Eureka, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Nearly a dozen aftershocks followed, the strongest at 4.5 magnitude. There was no tsunami warning issued.

Source/Full Story: CNN.com

Much of the Northern Hemisphere is in the grip of arctic air and record snowfalls that have been inflicting hardship and havoc from China to Russia to Western Europe and over to the American Plains.

Meanwhile, the Southern Hemisphere has been experiencing a warmer than average summer.

Planetwide, the weather has become remarkably unpredictable.

There are few precedents for the global sweep of extreme cold and ice that has killed dozens in India, paralyzed life in Beijing and threatened the Florida orange crop. Chicagoans are taking shelter from a potentially deadly freeze, Paris is enduring sunny Siberian cold and Poland has counted at least 13 deaths in record low temperatures of about 13 degrees below zero. A string of deadly avalanches in northern Italy’s Alps led to seven deaths.

In northeastern Asia, they are suffering the worst winter weather in six decades. More than 10 inches of snow cover Seoul, the South Korean capital — the heaviest snowfall since records began in 1937.

But life in the warmer parts of the planet is equally off-kilter. 2009 was the hottest year in history in most parts of South Asia and Central Africa. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported in September that the world’s ocean surface temperature was the warmest for any August on record, according to a preliminary analysis based on records dating back to 1880.

Source/Full Story: FOXNews.com

The secret to beating the superbug MRSA could be found in the pomegranate.

Scientists have created an ointment that tackles drug-resistant infections by harnessing chemicals that are contained in the fruit’s rind.

They found that by combining pomegranate rind with other natural products they created a strong, infection-busting compound.

Secret weapon? The pomegranate has long been touted as a ’superfood’. Now scientists have created an ointment from its rind to tackle drug-resistant infections, like MRSA

It is hoped that this could lead to the creation of a lotion for hospital patients, or even an antibiotic.

The need for a new method of tackling superbugs is growing more and more desperate as they continue to develop resistance to common antibiotics.

Source/Full Story: Mail Online

A moderate strength earthquake rattled both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border on Wednesday, breaking windows and scaring residents but there were no immediate reports of injuries.

The 5.8-magnitude quake, which struck near the Mexican border city of Mexicali, was felt widely in the San Diego and Tijuana areas.

Buildings were evacuated on both sides of the border and several small aftershocks were felt after the initial temblor.

Mexicali, east of the city of Tijuana, is home to a number of factories that assemble goods for export to the United States.

The U.S. Geological Survey originally measured the quake as a 5.9 magnitude but later downgraded the size.

Source/Full Story: Reuters

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Rain-fueled flooding in Argentina has killed at least two people and forced the evacuation of 3,000 residents, officials said Tuesday.

The city of San Antonio de Areco, in northern Buenos Aires Province, was hit particularly hard, with 90 blocks underwater, Gov. Daniel Scioli told the state-run Telam news agency. He said the flooding was unlike any he had seen, and it caught the area by surprise.

“The ambulance was underwater. So were the doctors’ cars,” Scioli said. “Water even reached the Guiraldes Museum, with its rich heritage.”

Alejandro Delgado Morales, director of press and information for Buenos Aires Province, told CNN there had been two deaths but could not provide further details.

San Antonio de Areco is about 120 kilometers (75 miles) northwest of the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina’s capital.

Source/Full Story: CNN.com

Panasonic is charging into the green space headlong — first with deals to supply batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles — and now announcing that it will launch a massive lithium-ion storage battery capable of powering an average home for up to a week, the company says.

Source/Full Story: VentureBeat