Several people froze to death in eastern Europe

Following heavy snow fall and a sudden drop in temperatures across east Europe 18 people have died in Ukraine and 10 in Poland.

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New Zeland : the stricken ship breaks in two

The container ship that ran aground on a coral reef off of New Zealand’s North Island on 5 October, leaking large amounts of fuel, has broken in two (photo, from aljazeera.com).

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Canada pulls out of Kyoto Protocol

Canadian minister of the environment Peter Kent (photo, from radio-canada.ca) has announced that his country will formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol on climate change initially adopted in Japan in 1997.

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New Zealand : oil pumping finished on the stricken ship

All of the oil has been pumped out of the cargo ship which had run aground on Astrolabe Reef (photo, from bbcimg.co.uk), on New Zealand’s North Island, officials said.

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Journalists allowed inside Fukushima nuclear plant

Journalists wearing full protective clothing have been allowed to enter the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan on Saturday, for the first time since the country was hit by an earthquake and a tsunami.

During the tour, journalists took pictures inside the damaged plant.(photo, from lefigaro.fr)

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Australia passes carbon tax

Australia’s 500 worst-polluting companies will pay a tax on their carbon emissions from 1 July 2012, as the country’s Senate has passed the Clean Energy Act on Tuesday, a law on pollution.

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New Zealand : oil pumping resumes on the stricken ship

A week ago bad weather forced salvage crews to stop pumping fuel from the stricken cargo ship, the Rena (photo, from bbcimg.co.uk), which ran aground on a coral reef off of New Zealand’s North Island on 5 October.

But the pumping was resumed on Monday, with a second pump being added in order to hasten the removal of oil.

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New Zealand’s questions over oil spill

A container ship ran aground on a coral reef off of New Zealand’s North Island (map, from bbcimg.co.uk) on Wednesday.

On Sunday the country’s prime minister John Key flew over the scene in a helicopter and said two inquiries were already under way to find out why the ship had collided with the Astrolabe Reef.

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Siemens to leave the nuclear industry

Peter Loescher (photo, from bbcimg.co.uk), the chief executive of the German industrial and engineering conglomerate, announced on Sunday in an interview with weekly magazine Der Spiegel that Siemens will withdraw from building nuclear power stations, adding : “the chapter is closed for us”.

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USA : flooding and chaos in Irene trail

Last week Irene swept through the Caribbean with winds of more than 192km/h but as it moved north-east it was downgraded to a tropical storm. About 40 people were killed by the storm on the US east coast and Irene is now on Canada’s north-east (map, from bbcimg.co.uk).

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