Natural Disasters News

In this photo provided by Joanne Dollarton, people watch as fire engulfs three homes near the beachfront, Friday, April 18, 2014, in Sea Isle City, N.J. .

A powerful earthquake has struck off the South Pacific nation of Papua New Guinea.

The tiny island state 2,500 miles from the nearest continent is so critical to the nation's modern corn-growing business that the industry's leading companies all have farms here, growing new varieties genetically engineered for desirable traits like insect and drought resistance.

Massive wildfires are on the increase in the Western USA due to rising temperatures and worsening drought from climate change, and the trend could continue in the decades to come, new research suggests.

Long time HIV survivor Sean Strub has played a central role in the movement for self-empowerment of the HIV infected.

New Brunswickers living in flood-prone communities are being urged to stay vigilant as cleanup from this week's flooding continues.

An internal state government memo says auditors have found the Illinois Medicaid program has paid an estimated $12 million for medical services for people listed as deceased in other state records.

Drought-stricken California farmers and cities are set to get more water as state and federal officials ease water cutbacks due to recent rain and snow, officials announced on Friday.

The federal government is starting a new program to help monitor and possibly control the spread of a virus that has killed millions of pigs since showing up in the U.S. last year.

It met the definition of a major one, but the magnitude-7.2 earthquake that struck Friday in southern Mexico's Guerrero state didn't land the kind of punch that it might have.

A powerful earthquake shook central and southern Mexico on Friday. The U.S. Geological Survey calculated its magnitude at 7.5 and said it was centered near the Pacific resort of Acapulco, where many Mexicans are vacationing for the Easter holiday.

Tens of thousands of spring-run Chinook salmon are being released into the San Joaquin River, marking a major milestone in the federal plan to restore native fish populations to the state's second-longest river.

A record number of Ohioans died from heroin-related overdoses in 2012, the state Department of Health said as it released the newest available figures for a problem that's been called an epidemic and a public health crisis.

Attorney General Eric Holder Wednesday told a group of police leaders it is time for street cops to start carrying the drug Narcan that can reverse deadly heroin overdoses.

Call it the year of the baby: Chelsea Clinton and her husband, Marc Mezvinsky, are expecting their first child later this year.

The Andina state news agency quotes Agriculture Minister Juan Benites as saying it will take three days beginning Thursday to move the residents of two southern districts and their 30,000 sheep, cows, horses, burros and other animals.

Iran's state TV says a magnitude 5.3 earthquake has jolted a sparsely populated district in the south of the country.

The 3.2-magnitude earthquake, powered from a depth of 2.5 miles, struck the Oakham area of Rutland at 7.07am.

That's why it hurt so much one year ago Thursday when an enormous explosion at a fertilizer plant claimed 15 lives while destroying 120 homes and damaging 200 others across 37 blocks, shattering windows well beyond that.

Former SA president Thabo Mbeki has met Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, a report says, adding the two leaders exchanged views on various matters affecting the African continent.