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More than 200,000 people were killed in the January 12 earthquake that hit Haiti, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said yesterday.

Mr Bellerive said 300,000 people were injured in the disaster, including 4,000 amputees. Previous estimates from the Haitian government had put the toll between 150,000 and 200,000 dead.

Meanwhile, the United Nations yesterday assigned former US President Bill Clinton, now UN special envoy to Haiti, to coordinate international relief efforts in the earthquake-devastated country. Read More / Watch Video »

Online fraudsters have carried out a “widepread” cyber attack on the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), the EU commission said Thursday, promising a security review.

The scam involved fake emails asking users of the carbon trading registries to log on to a malicious website and disclose their user identification code and password, the commission said. Read More / Watch Video »

GOLDEN – For three weeks, 9NEWS has been telling you about earthquakes under Yellowstone National Park.

It is one of the most intense quake swarms ever recorded in the park’s history and it still shows no sign of slowing down.

In fact, the activity increased during a six-hour period last night. During that time, two quakes, both nearly magnitude 3’s happened within a few minutes of each other. Read More / Watch Video »

Visiting British climate change commentator Christopher Monckton has attacked the Federal Government’s emissions trading scheme (ETS), arguing part of it is unconstitutional.

Lord Monckton is using a speaking tour of Australia to question the need for countries to cut carbon emissions.

He told a gathering in Canberra that a provision in the ETS that allows the state to expropriate land is against the constitution. Read More / Watch Video »

British farming soil could run out within 60 years, leading to a catastrophic food crisis and drastically higher prices for consumers, scientists warn.
Fertile soil is being lost faster than it can be replenished and will eventually lead to the “topsoil bank” becoming empty, an Australian conference heard.
Chronic soil mismanagement and over farming causing erosion, climate change and increasing populations were to blame for the dramatic global decline in suitable farming soil, scientists said. Read More / Watch Video »

The Philippines, the world’s largest rice importer, said Thursday it feared global food prices would spike this year as India suffers its worst drought in nearly four decades.

“There’s been a big drought in India which affected half of her territory and which may affect global food prices,” Economic Planning Undersecretary Dennis Arroyo told reporters.

Arroyo listed the Indian dry spell as among the potential obstacles to a full Philippine recovery this year from the global financial crisis, which dragged its economic growth last year to an 11-year low 0.9 percent. Read More / Watch Video »

HAITI’S police chief says bandits are preying on vulnerable earthquake survivors, even raping women, in makeshift camps set up in the capital after the disaster.

“With the blackout that’s befallen the Haitian capital, bandits are taking advantage to harass and rape women and young girls under the tents,” national police chief Mario Andresol said.

“We have more than 7000 detainees in the streets who escaped from the National Penitentiary the evening of the earthquake.

“It took us five years to apprehend them. Today they are running wild.” Read More / Watch Video »

The United States Thursday officially told the United Nations it will cut carbon emissions, predicting Congress would move ahead on fighting climate change but pressing other countries to do likewise.

President Barack Obama’s administration outlined US climate goals in a submission to the United Nations, which was requested of all nations by January 31 as part of the Copenhagen summit held last month. Read More / Watch Video »

A WILD storm in southeast Queensland on Friday afternoon has left more than 8,000 homes without power.

The hardest hit area was the Sunshine Coast and Caboolture/Redcliffe area where some 5000 homes were affected.

More than 100 lighting strikes were recorded and there were reports of local flash flooding. Read More / Watch Video »

Center for Research on Epidemiology of Disasters says more than 780,000 people were killed in nearly 4,000 disasters.

A United Nations report finds more people died from earthquakes in the past decade than from any other disaster. Data compiled by the Center for Research on Epidemiology of Disasters says earthquakes remain a serious threat for millions of people worldwide.

The report presents some staggering figures in terms of the number of deaths and economic losses caused by natural disasters during the past decade. Read More / Watch Video »