Warning of famine in West Africa

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warns that 10 million people across the Sahel region of West Africa could face famine over the next few months. According to the charity Oxfam, eight million in Niger could be affected and two million in Chad. Some 80 percent of Chad’s population depends on subsistence agriculture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWsImr9RF3U

The threat of famine is growing across the region. Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and even Northern Nigeria are already experiencing food shortages. The strategic grain reserve in Nigeria is 65,000 tonnes short. There are reports of people crossing the Niger border into Nigeria in search of food. This is an area that has experienced communal clashes over resources.

“The Sahel is one of the most destitute regions in the world, and the spectre of hunger is pushing increasing numbers of people from the countryside into the cities, where they are searching for food to feed their families”, said Thomas Yanga of the WFP.

Nomadic herders in Niger have been particularly badly hit. At the end of the year they start to move south to look for grazing for their animals, but because of irregular rainfall there is insufficient pasture. Some have resorted to selling their animals, but are getting low prices because of their poor condition.

Warnings of a possible food emergency have been sounded since the beginning of the year. Brian O’Neill, regional director of the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Organisation, toured the area in January.
He said, “Erratic rains in the 2009/2010 agricultural season have resulted in an enormous deficit in food production…. You are talking about a crisis of enormous proportions…. If we work fast enough, early enough, it will not be a famine. If we don’t move, there is a strong risk it could be happening”.
He estimated that more than US$220 million would be needed to avert a food crisis. A leaked Niger government document confirmed O’Neill’s concerns. It forecast that half the population would experience food shortages in the coming year.
The West African countries facing food shortages are all in the Sahel region running along the southern edge of the Sahara desert. They are subject to erratic rainfall, but experts consider that global warming is exacerbating water shortage. The irregular rainfall in the 2009 rainy season has meant a shortage of pasture and poor harvests.
The current near-term outlook map for West Africa of the United States Agency for International Development’s Famine Early Warning System shows large swathes of Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Chad as being highly food insecure. The medium-term outlook map shows a big area within Niger as extremely food insecure.
An Oxfam report of May 20 states that this year’s harvest in Niger is around three-quarters of last year’s and that in the Diffa region in the east and Tillabery region in the west there was no harvest. The harvest in Chad is down a third on last year.
Mamadou Biteye, an Oxfam regional director, recalled the experience of the famine of 2005. “In 2005, the world ignored warning signs from Niger and lives were lost”. Some four million people were affected by that famine.
A UN Food and Agricultural Organisation special alert notice was issued on May 19. It warned, “The food situation is of grave concern in parts of the Sahel, notably in Niger”.
It pointed out that the region is still suffering from high prices sparked by speculation in food in 2008. It noted that the current drop in cereal and pasture production is taking place “against a backdrop of high food prices”.
The notice continued, “Cereal prices have remained well above the pre-food crisis level two years ago, notably in the eastern and central Sahel countries. Although coarse grain prices have declined from their peak of August-September 2008, millet [a staple food] prices in April 2010 in the markets of Burkina Faso…Mali…and Niger…were still 28 percent, 27 percent and 12 percent higher respectively than in the corresponding period of 2008…the recent strengthening of the Naira (Nigerian currency) against the CFA Franc as well as increased fuel prices in some countries are expected to lead to a further surge in food prices in the short term. By contrast, livestock prices have declined significantly, leading to a significant deterioration of the terms of trade for pastoralists”.
The UK Independent newspaper noted, “Even in better times, roughly half of Niger’s children suffered stunted growth”. A Medecins Sans Frontieres report of 2008, entitled “Starved for Attention,” explained, “Mothers in the Sahel…don’t just need advice about how to feed their children. They need access to energy-dense, animal-source foods that contain the 40 essential nutrients a young child needs to grow and be healthy”.
Dr. Susan Shepherd, who was co-coordinator for the nutritional programme in Maradi, Niger, in 2007, noted, “Eating millet porridge every day is the equivalent of living off bread and water…. Young children are so susceptible to malnutrition because what they eat lacks essential vitamins and minerals…”.
Two feeding stations currently being run by Niger have seen the number of children being brought who suffer from malnutrition double in recent weeks. About 1,000 children a week are arriving at these projects for help.
Despite the fact that the situation in the Sahel has been developing over many years and is well documented, no adequate steps have been taken to remedy the situation. The World Food Programme is about $100 million short of the funding it needs to finance its work in Niger alone as a result of cuts in aid following the global recession. Oxfam, one of the non-governmental agencies that operate in the region, is $17.5 million short.
The present crisis is the direct result of the failure of the former colonial powers and African governments to invest in agricultural infrastructure and poverty reduction.
Despite the revenue produced by oil, 70 percent of agriculture in Nigeria is rain-fed. This has left food production highly vulnerable to climate change.

Recent government agricultural schemes have failed, because the funds have been siphoned off to corrupt politicians. Nigeria could be feeding the region. Instead, it is the world’s second largest importer of food. Those who can afford expensive imported foods will be untouched by the famine, and some will profit from it, but the majority of the population, who live on less than $2 a day, will face serious hardship.

Haiti Quake caused by previously unknown fault

The devastating quake that slammed Haiti on Jan. 12 occurred on a previously unrecognized fault zone, report scientists who are still trying to determine the implications for the region’s long-term seismic risk.
The newly discovered fault hasn’t been officially named yet but is informally known as the Léogane fault, after one of the Haitian cities that sits directly atop it, study leader Eric Calais told Science News.
Just after the magnitude-7 temblor struck, scientists presumed that the epicenter of the quake was located on the well-known Enriquillo fault, says Calais, a geophysicist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. In fact, Calais notes, he and his colleagues published a paper in 2008 suggesting that the Enriquillo fault, which runs east-west through a long valley south of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, was ripe for a magnitude-7.2 quake.
But data collected after the quake didn’t jibe with the notion of an Enriquillo-spawned quake, Calais reported Aug. 10 at a geophysics conference called the Meeting of the Americas. For one thing, the edges of that fault are vertical and the two sides slide past each other horizontally, but comparisons of space-based images taken before and after the quake revealed that the area north of the fault had been forced substantially upward, as well as southward, during the event. During a post-quake field survey along the coastline west of Port-au-Prince, scientists also found that formerly submerged corals died when the quake lifted them above the tides by as much as 60 centimeters.
Altogether, these data point to a different culprit and suggest that this previously unknown fault is about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) long, says Calais. Unlike the Enriquillo fault, which extends vertically into the ground, the newly discovered fault dips steeply northward into the earth at an angle of about 60 degrees.
“This is part of a whole system of faults that we hadn’t recognized before,” Calais notes. The fault had escaped detection largely because Haiti has no network of seismometers, and the neighboring Dominican Republic has only a few such instruments.
During the January quake, deep parts of the Léogane fault slipped past each other as much as 5 meters (16.4 feet). Despite the significant slippage that occurred at depths between 5 and 20 kilometers, there was -- unusually, Calais says -- no rupture of the ground at Earth’s surface.

Earthquake in Haiti 2010

This is some picture of Earthquake in Haiti.........................Earthquake was destroy people life................
The video after earthquake:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsRG7j3E0eQ&feature=related

46 killed in landslides, flood in Vietnam

The death toll from the latest round of heavy rain and flooding in central Vietnam continues to soar, with 46 people killed and 21 missing, state-run media report.
Rescuers were able to save 18 people whose bus was swept away Monday on the north-south highway 1A through Ha Tinh Province, but 19 people remain unaccounted for, according to VietNamNet.
The homes of 200,000 people are underwater in Nghe An, Ha Tinh and Quang Bing provinces because of floods caused by storms that began October 14, official media report. On Sunday alone, about 30 inches of rain fell in parts of the country.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMQ_KDbcqtM

HaNoi weather

Hanoi became the capital of Vietnam in 1010. Since then, it is the social, cultural and economic center of the country. It is one of the most captivating cities in Southeast Asia. The lovely landscape of lakes, shaded avenues, verdant public parks and French-colonial architecture complements the unhurried pace of life. The historic Vietnam still comes alive in its temples, monuments and remnants of ancient culture. Although, the winds of change are flowing freely ushering in a new era. Hanoi still preserves many ancient architectural works including One Pillar Pagoda, the Temple of Literature or the Old Quarter and over 600 pagodas.
Hanoi has emerged as a fascinating and unconventional tourist destination over the years. People, weary of visiting the clichéd and over crowded places, now prefer Hanoi as a charming city unique in its own beauty and culture. Experienced travelers would like to have a brief overview of the place they are visiting and weather surely tops the information-list so that when they visit, they have a pleasant weather to have the best.
If you are thinking you have a fairly good idea about the weather in Vietnam and Hanoi will be a similar case, then, you are wrong. The climate of Vietnam varies greatly from north to south due to its long and narrow territory and you can never judge Hanoi's weather from the knowledge of other Vietnamese regions.

Features of Hanoi Weather
  -   Hanoi area, lying in a plain, belongs to the delta region of Red river and far form sea, it features of hot climatic zone under the influence of South and Northeast monsoons.
  -   Hanoi experiences the typical climate of northern Vietnam where summers are hot and humid and winters are relatively cool and dry.
  -   Summer months remain from May to September and the months are characterized by extreme hot weather with plenty of rain.
  -   Summer in Hanoi can get as hot as 38°c to 40°c (100-104°F).
  -   June can be labeled as the most sweltering hot month of the year with mercury rising up to 33°c to 39°c.
  -   Winter rules from November to March. The weather remains cold and dry.
  -   The minimum winter temperature in Hanoi can dip as low as 6-7°C (43°F)
  -   Northeast monsoon are frequent during the winter months.
  -   January is the coolest month usually accompanied by a cold north-easterly wind. The lowest temperature in average is 12°c.
  -   So, the annual temperature varies from 8°c to 38°c.
  -   During the transition months of April and October, the weather becomes unpredictable as you should be prepared for anything.
  -   Typical of a humid tropical climate, Hanoi is characterized by monsoons like most of northern Vietnam.
  -   The time from July to September witnesses heavy rainfall and sometimes, the excessive rainfall leads to floods.
  -   Autumn and first haft of winter is the most beautiful season in Hanoi.

The weather in VietNam

Geography and Climate of VietNam

Vietnam is located on the eastern margin of the Indochinese peninsula and occupies about 331,688 square kilometers, of which about 25 % was under cultivation in 1987. It borders the Gulf of Thailand, Gulf of Tonkin, and South China Sea, alongside China, Laos, and Cambodia. The S-shaped country has a north-to-south distance of 1,650 kilometers and is about 50 kilometers wide at the narrowest point. With a coastline of 3,260 kilometers, excluding islands, Vietnam claims 12 nautical miles (22.2 km; 13.8 mi) as the limit of its territorial waters, an additional 12 nautical miles (22.2 km; 13.8 mi) as a contiguous customs and security zone, and 200 nautical miles (370.4 km; 230.2 mi) as an exclusive economic zone.
The boundary with Laos, settled, on an ethnic basis, between the rulers of Vietnam and Laos in the mid-seventeenth century, was formally defined by a delimitation treaty signed in 1977 and retified in 1986. The frontier with Cambodia, defined at the time of French annexation of the western part of the Mekong River Delta in 1867, remained essentially unchanged, according to Hanoi, until some unresolved border issues were finally settled in the 1982-85 period. The land and sea boundary with China, delineated under the France-China treaties of 1887 and 1895, is "the frontier line" accepted by Hanoi that China agreed in 1957- 58 to respect. However, in February 1979, following China's limited invasion of Vietnam, Hanoi complained that from 1957 onward China had provoked numerous border incidents as part of its anti-Vietnam policy and expansionist designs in Southeast Asia. Among the territorial infringements cited was the Chinese occupation in January 1974 of the Paracel Islands, claimed by both countries in a dispute left unresolved in the 1980s.
Vietnam is a country of tropical lowlands, hills, and densely forested highlands, with level land covering no more than 20% of the area. The country is divided into the highlands and the Red River delta in the north; and the Giai Truong Son (Central mountains, or the Chaîne Annamitique, sometimes referred to simply as "the Chaine."), the coastal lowlands, and the Mekong River Delta in the south.
The spectacular Ban Gioc Waterfall is 272 km north of Hanoi and few tourists are seen there.
The delta of the Red River (also known as the Sông Hồng), is a flat, triangular region of 15,000 square kilometers^[2], is smaller but more intensely developed and more densely populated than the Mekong River Delta. Once an inlet of the Gulf of Tonkin, it has been filled in by the enormous alluvial deposits of the rivers over a period of millennia, and it advances one hundred meters into the Gulf annually. The ancestral home of the ethnic Vietnamese, the delta accounted for almost 70 % of the agriculture and 80 % of the industry of North Vietnam before 1975.
The Red River, rising in China's Yunnan province, is about 1,200 kilometers long. Its two main tributaries, the Sông Lô (also called the Lo River, the Riviere Claire, or the Clear River) and the Sông Da (also called the Black River or Riviere Noire), contribute to its high water volume, which averages 4,300 cubic meters per second.^[3] The entire delta region, backed by the steep rises of the forested highlands, is no more than three meters above sea level, and much of it is one meter or less. The area is subject to frequent flooding; at some places the high-water mark of floods is fourteen meters above the surrounding countryside. For centuries flood control has been an integral part of the delta's culture and economy. An extensive system of dikes and canals has been built to contain the Red River and to irrigate the rich rice-growing delta. Modeled on that of China's, this ancient system has sustained a highly concentrated population and has made double-cropping wet-rice cultivation possible throughout about half the region.
Vietnam has a tropical monsoon climate, with humidity averaging 84 % throughout the year. However, because of differences in latitude and the marked variety of topographical relief, the climate tends to vary considerably from place to place. During the winter or dry season, extending roughly from November to April, the monsoon winds usually blow from the northeast along the China coast and across the Gulf of Tonkin, picking up considerable moisture; consequently the winter season in most parts of the country is dry only by comparison with the rainy or summer season. During the southwesterly summer monsoon, occurring from May to October, the heated air of the Gobi Desert rises, far to the north, inducing moist air to flow inland from the sea and deposit heavy rainfall.
Annual rainfall is substantial in all regions and torrential in some, ranging from 1,200 to 3,000 millimeters (47.2 to 118.1 in). Nearly 90 % of the precipitation occurs during the summer. The average annual temperature is generally higher in the plains than in the mountains and plateaus. Temperatures range from a low of 5 °C (41 °F) in December and January, the coolest months, to more than 37 °C (98.6 °F) in April, the hottest month. Seasonal divisions are more clearly marked in the northern half than in the southern half of the country, where, except in some of the highlands, seasonal temperatures vary only a few degrees, usually in the 21–28 °C (69.8–82.4 °F) range