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Record-breaking heat wave grips western United States

A record early heat wave striking the western United States on Friday is a one-in-500-year event and almost certainly the result of human-caused climate change, experts say. The heat has been toppling records this week and is set to continue into the weekend across western cities while expanding eastward. Four locations in the desert area near the California-Arizona border registered 44.4 degrees Celsius on Friday, a US national record for March. The readings were recorded near Yuma and Martinez Lake in Arizona, and around Winterhaven and Ogilby in California. Read: Intense heatwave grips US, triggering record-breaking temperatures Already, 65 cities have recorded new March highs, ranging from Arizona and California to Idaho, Weather.com reported. Death Valley reached 40°C on Thursday, while typically cool and foggy San Francisco tied its historic March record at 29°C. In Colorado, skiers were seen hitting the slopes shirtless. The National Weather Service issued extreme heat warni...
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Jamaica surveys ruins in hurricane's wake

A demolished church, roofs blown off homes, shattered windows and debris-strewn, impassable roads: Hurricane Melissa dealt a direct hit to Jamaica's southwestern coastal communities that face a long haul picking up the pieces. "It has been devastating," officer Warrell Nicholson told AFP by phone from the Black River police station, a building that was damaged but has still become something of a refuge for people seeking shelter. Footage of the area shows felled trees, smashed cars, downed power lines and ruined homes — a portrait of wreckage that is only starting to come clear as assessment is hampered by a lack of power and communications across the Caribbean island. Hurricane Melissa smashed into Jamaica as a ferocious top-level storm, whose sustained winds peaked at 185 miles (295 kilometers) per hour while drenching the nation with torrential, life-threatening rain. A little up the coast from Black River, Andrew Houston Moncure took shelter with his wife and 20-month-old son in a lower level of the luxury hotel he owns in Bluefields. It's far from his first hurricane — but "it's never been this bad," he told AFP. At one point the family took pillows and blankets into the shower to put as many walls between themselves and the brutal weather as possible.

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At least 32 miners dead after bridge fails at cobalt site in southeast DR Congo

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