natural disasters

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner issued an updated curfew time on Twitter from 00:00 (05:00 GMT) until 05:00 (10:00 GMT), starting two hours later than previously announced in order "to allow volunteers and others to do their great work.

"We have thousands of people who are out of their homes, in shelters, waiting for water to subside," Turner told a press conference earlier.

South African humanitarian mission, Gift of the Givers, will continue to supply aid to earthquake victims in Nepal after a second earthquake rocked the country.

Gift of the Givers head, Imtiaz Sooliman, said that the foundation would continue to send aid to the country, which is now in the grip of a humanitarian crisis.

The specialised South African search and rescue team that scrambled to aid earthquake-struck Nepal, leaves the capital of Kathmandu.
 
The team, made up of paramedics, firefighters and urban search and rescue technicians has been in the country for a week.

The Gift of the Givers Foundation says Nepalese authorities have granted it permission to travel to the country to assist with rescue operations following an earthquake that hit the Himalayan nation on 25 April 2015.

A number of international charities have already dispatched their teams to Nepal where the death toll has risen to more than 4 000.

The World Bank has assured of assisting Malawi with US$50 million to help in maintaining areas that were affected by the recent floods.

Minister of Finance, Goodall Gondwe, points out that, “The [World] Bank decided to help the country having considered the diverse impact of the flooding and the desperate need for a quick response."

Gondwe says that apart from assisting those affected with the calamity, the money will also be used in rebuilding damaged roads, bridges, schools and houses of people affected.

The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has launched its biggest ever appeal for US$3.1 billion to help 62 million children at risk from a ‘new generation of humanitarian crises’.

UNICEF's director of emergency programmes, Afshan Khan, "From deadly natural disasters to brutal conflicts and fast-spreading epidemics, children across the world are facing a new generation of humanitarian crises."

Doctors without Borders (MSF) in Malawi say the south of the country has been hit hardest by the recent floods that displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
 
MSF’s Amaury Gregoire, points out that, “We are very concerned because there are still pockets of people that have no access except by helicopter.”
 
Gregoire states that the relief is being organised around the camps and MSF is going to develop strategies to access the people that are in the communities that are more difficult to access.
 

Communities in Malawi risk losing their only health facility to floods, if nothing is done to protect it from flood water from the Nyankotola River.

Nsanje District Health Officer, Dr Medson Matchaya admitted that the problem has caused strain as during rainy seasons floods hit the health facility which affects the delivery of healthcare.

The United Nations says that 13 of the 14 warmest years on record have occurred since the turn of the new millennium.

In its annual report, the United Nations' World Meteorological Organisation says that 2013 continued what is a long-term trend of the world getting warmer.

Michel Jarraud, the organisation's secretary general, says in the report: "Many of the extreme events of 2013 were consistent with what we would expect as a result of human-induced climate change."

Over 100 high-profile delegates converged on the United Nations (UN) headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, for the start of the annual Global South to South Expo.

The event, organised by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), which is hosted for the first time in a developing country, aims to improve the relations between countries from the southern hemisphere.