SLOVAKIA: Slovakia is on the brink of a power blackout after a fire forced the partial shutdown of a coal power plant, said the Economy Minister Lubomir Jahnatek on Monday. Dominant power generator Slovenske Elektrarne, a unit of Italy's Enel, which operates the coal plant Novaky, said it continued to deliver contracted volumes of electricity to the power grid.

AUSTRALIA: Queensland - Cairns has been declared a disaster area after days of torrential rain and strong winds. Hundreds of homes and businesses have been flooded and roads have been cut, isolating regions.

FIJI: Heavy rain sparked fresh flash floods Tuesday in Fiji, where thousands of people huddled in emergency shelters and scores of homes were inundated by a brown tide of rising water. Officials posted the second severe flood warning in five days after a spate of tropical storms killed at least eight people on this Pacific island nation.

AUSTRALIA: South Australia - More than 100 volunteer firefighters and seven water-bombing aircraft were on Tuesday battling a forest fire that has claimed two houses near Port Lincoln on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula. The flames, fuelled by soaring temperatures and 50km/h winds, prompted Country Fire Service spokesperson Brenton Eden to warn that conditions would worsen.

USA: Vermont - A radioactive leak at Vermont Yankee is fixed. Yankee says the leak happened in the system that feeds the steam generator in the reactor. Yankee says the water was mildly radioactive and the leak was small. A routine inspection discovered the problem. What caused the leak is unknown, but the weld holding the pipe is the original one installed 37 years ago. Entergy Nuclear is now checking all similar welds. During the repair, the reactor reduced power to 40-percent. It is now back to full strength.

EGYPT: An Egyptian girl of 21 months has contracted bird flu and is in hospital in stable condition, a health ministry official said on Monday. She is the 52nd case among humans in Egypt and the second of this winter season.

SLOVAKIA: Strong detonation was heard from Slovakia's oil refinery Slovnaft on Monday around 9.30 p.m. This detonation was linked to the smooth launch of polyethylene unit, Slovnaft refinery corporate communication director Kristina Felova told TASR. According to Felova, air decomposition on polyethylene unit number 7 occurred on Monday around 9.30 p.m., accompanied by a strong sound effect similar to explosion. This was an automatic depressing of the appliance. The detonation was heard in peripheral districts of Bratislava as well, people living nearby the refinery reported strong shakes. The explosion allegedly caused material damage in the refinery.

USA: Montana - A new series of what are described as a "modest swarm of earthquakes" began Friday in Yellowstone National Park, about 10 miles northeast of the north end of Yellowstone Lake, where a swarm of approximately 900 quakes had occurred between Dec. 26 and Thursday.

GERMANY: Blocks of ice up to 40 centimetres (16 inches) thick have closed long stretches of three German rivers to shipping, authorities said Monday as the cold snap claimed another fatality. After around 100 kilometres (60 miles) of
the River Elbe were declared unnavigable on Friday, the ice was so thick along parts of the Mosel and the Main that vessels could no longer use these either.

ZIMBABWE: Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic has killed 1,937 people and a total of 38,334 have contracted the normally preventable disease, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday.

ALGERIA / MORROCO: A mother and her five children were killed when a landslide struck their home in eastern Algeria on Tuesday. The landslide was triggered by heavy rains in the village of Chehna in Jijel province, some 360 km (225 miles)from the capital Algiers, APS cited emergency services as saying. Unusually heavy rains have hit Algeria and Morocco in recent months and dozens have been killed by flash floods, landslides, road accidents and collapsing buildings.

SOUTH AFRICA: Eastern Cape - A swarm of locusts has descended on farms in the Eastern Cape, destroying crops, the department of agriculture said yesterday.

UGANDA: Meningitis has killed nine people out of 42 patients in Arua district. The director for clinical and community health services in the health ministry, Kenya Mugisha, said most of the patients were from Dadama and Oluko sub-counties.

CAMEROON: A measles outbreak has hit the town of Maroua in northern Cameroon Extreme-Nord province, leaving 2 dead and over 160 infected. Medical officials in the town are on high alert to abate the progress of what they now refer to as an epidemic.

Feeling guilty about your success?

Is this the pre-show for 2012?

Nope, reviewing this info is just part of my daily work routine.

That's depressing.

Any good news?

I want my click back

That's the book of Revelation, starting chapter 4 (I think). The paraphrasing is tough to say chapter and verse.

Just means the trumpet is about to sound...

Quote:

Good News?