Rescuers search for survivors at the scene of a supermarket collapse in the Latvian capital Riga on November 22, 2013. The death toll from the collapse of the roof of a supermarket in the Latvian capital Riga has risen to 51 as more bodies are recovered from the rubble. There were a large number of customers in the building on Thursday evening when a big part of the roof collapsed. Firefighters who... 

The United Nations has nearly doubled the death toll from the devastating typhoon that struck the Philippines to over 4,400 people – a substantial rise from an earlier estimate of 2,357. However, the Philippines’ National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council has raised the number of deaths to 3,621, still below the UN count, which has caused friction between the world body and... 

The Philippine President Benigno Aquino has declared a state of national calamity to enable the government to respond more effectively to the devastation and chaos caused by monster Typhoon Haiyan. “We declare a state of national calamity to hasten the action of the government to rescue, provide help and rehabilitate the provinces affected by [Haiyan],” the president said in a televised... 

A new investigation has revealed that the United States’ ethanol mandate is severely harming the environment without producing enough tangible benefits. Since the Obama administration began implementing the ethanol mandate – requiring a certain level of the biofuel to be added to the gasoline supply – the Associated Press found that the damage done by the program has dwarfed any suspected benefits,... 

Oconee Nuclear Station A reactor at one of the nation’s largest nuclear power plants has been taken offline due to a radioactive leak within a containment building. “Out of an abundance of caution,” service was temporarily removed from Unit 1 at the Oconee Nuclear Station in western South Carolina early Monday, according to ONS spokeswoman B.J. Gatten. A robot was used to confirm the leak... 

As super-typhoon Haiyan has left some 10,000 dead in the Philippines, over 600,000 people have been evacuated as it approaches Vietnam. “Those who do not move voluntarily will be forced” to move, Vietnam’s flood and storm control department said. Vietnam is preparing its defenses after the storm annihilated the Philippines over the weekend, leaving thousands dead and a trail of devastation through... 

An estimated 10,000 people might have been killed in the central Philippine province of Leyte alone, which was almost completely destroyed by the powerful typhoon Haiyan, local authorities said. The typhoon has devastated up to 80 percent of the Leyte province area as it ripped through the Philippines, Chief Superintendent Elmer Soria told Reuters. “We had a meeting last night with the governor... 

Red Cross officials say at least 1,200 people have been killed by Typhoon Haiyan in two worst-hit areas of Philippines after the massive storm swept through the Southeast Asian country on Friday. Gwendolyn Pang, secretary-general of the Philippine Red Cross, said on Saturday the numbers came from preliminary reports by Red Cross teams on the ground. Sources say the death toll is expected to rise sharply... 

Wildfires threaten the suburbs of Australia’s largest city, Sydney, as an investigation finds out the fires were ignited by a military exercise. A fire service spokesman said late Wednesday that more than 1,500 Australian firefighters continue to battle the fire to keep flames from reaching the western suburbs of Sydney. A combination of high winds and temperatures have fueled fears the bushfires... 

Catastrophic weather systems known as ‘fire clouds’, sparked by heat from the raging bush blazes outside Sydney, could see south west Australia hit by devastating lightning storms. The dramatic cloud formations have already been seen over some burning parts of the New South Wales bush last week. But a merging of the biggest wild fires into one ‘mega blaze’ could see temperatures... 

A potentially catastrophic asteroid has been discovered by astronomers, who say there’s a slim chance that the 410-meter-wide minor planet will crash into Earth in 2032, creating a blast 50 times greater than the biggest nuclear bomb. The asteroid, described as 2013 TV135, was found in the Camelopardalis (Giraffe) constellation by the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in southern Ukraine, the Minor... 

Australians still in the path of forest fires 140 kilometres west of Sydney were told on Saturday it was too late to be evacuated and they should take whatever shelter they could find. Lithgow, at the foot of the Blue Mountains in the south-eastern region, had lost nearly 200 homes in the firestorm that swept through Thursday. The blaze is the latest of dozens in an emergency that Rural Fire Service... 

Firefighters attempt to extinguish a fire in a warehouse storing sugar at the Brazilian port of Santos, the biggest of Latin America, on October 18, 2013. A massive fire has ravaged about 180,000 tons of raw sugar in Brazil’s largest port, pushing international prices to a one-year high. The blaze, which started at around 06:00 a.m. local time (1000 GMT) on Friday, damaged all of Copersucar’s... 

Typhoon Wipha shot through Tokyo and up Japan’s Pacific coastline early Wednesday, killing at least 17 people. Thousands were advised to evacuate, although no major damage was reported. The storm, with sustained winds of 126 kph (78 mph) at its center, was marked by hurricane-level winds and rain that soaked the city’s morning rush hour, leading to disrupted flights, train services, and school... 

Philippine officials say at least 93 people have been confirmed dead and dozens more injured by a devastating earthquake that struck the central parts of the Southeast Asian country. The 7.2-magnitude quake was centered about 385 miles (619 kilometers) south-southeast of Manila, near Catigbian, and its depth was 12 miles (20 kilometers), according to the US Geological Survey. According to the Philippines...