July 31, 2012 – PAKISTAN - Prolonged and widespread power outage in most of Pakistan’s cities during scorching summer heat has triggered protests in most areas of the country. Coupled with hot and humid summer weather, the prolonged blackout has forced outraged citizens to take to the streets to protest the tough living conditions. No loss of life was reported, but the roads were blocked till late night. Reports indicate that in some areas people face 12 to 14 hours of rolling blackouts, while the rural residents suffer up to 18 hours of power outage. On Friday, a powerful storm hit some of the country’s power plants, including one of Chashma Nuclear Power Plants and three other plants in Muzaffargarh, causing them to go fully or partly offline. In the meantime, Information Minister Zamar Kaira deflected the blame for the angry protests, saying they have been caused by “political maneuvering of the PML-N (Pakistan Muslim League (N))” rather than the prolonged outages. Pakistan’s lack of around 5,000 megawatts of electrical power has forced the government to implement a rolling blackout policy in a bid to prevent a total blackout. –Press TV

July 31, 2012 – NEW DELHI - India suffered its second huge, crippling power failure in two days on Tuesday, depriving as much as half of the vast and populous country of electricity and disrupting transport networks. The first power grid collapse, on Monday, was the country’s worst blackout in a decade. It affected seven states in northern India that are home to more than 350 million people. But Tuesday’s failure was even larger, hitting eastern and northeastern areas as well. Both blackouts cut power in the Indian capital, New Delhi. The power companies that operate the affected electricity grids reported the collapse Tuesday on their websites. With about 1.2 billion people, India has the second-highest population of any country, behind China. At least 300 trains have been held up in the affected regions, said Anil Kumar Saxena, a spokesman for Indian Railways. The two consecutive days of disruption are embarrassing for India, a nation growing in international stature and the third largest Asian economy. The power companies said they were working to restore the power supply. It was not immediately clear whether the blackouts were partial or total in the different regions. The grid failure on Monday struck in the early morning hours. Residents spent the rest of the night drenched in sweat amid humid weather, and many backup power systems had run out by daybreak. Power was partially restored after about six hours, authorities said. That blackout left passengers stranded at train stations, and signal failures caused traffic snarls that choked the Indian capital’s already congested roads during office hours. Indians, however, have been no stranger to power cuts, which become more common during the summer when demand shoots up. -CNN

July 31, 2012 – MOSCOW – Russia is currently in the grips of an extremely strong heat wave. City and town residents are suffocating from the sweltering heat. For example, it is about 30 degrees in Moscow with prospects of the thermometer going up in the next few days. The heat wave situation is aggravated by wild fires producing clods of poisonous smoke. The wood rich Siberian taiga near Krasnoyarsk is fighting 83 fires on the territory of 12.130 hectares. As for rural Russia, that only last year was the world’s third-biggest grain producer, it suffers colossal damages. It threats to destroy a significant part of the crops.  –VOR

Europe wrestles with searing high temperatures

July 31, 2012 – LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Little Rock has reached its third-highest temperature ever recorded, hitting 111 at mid-afternoon. Throughout the state Monday, temperatures exceeded 100, and low humidity increased the threat for wildfires. Temperatures are expected to reach triple digits at least through the middle of the week. The 111-degree mark reached Monday at Little Rock broke the previous record for the day of 108, set in 1986. Last Aug. 3, Little Rock reached 114, the city’s hottest day in 132 years of records. On July 31, 1986, the temperature at Little Rock hit 112. Forecasters warned that wildfires can start easily and spread rapidly on winds expected to be 15 mph to 25 mph. Outdoor burning of any type is strongly discouraged. Arkansas’ all-time high is 120 degrees, set Aug. 10, 1936, in Ozark. –The Republic

NASA sees Typhoon Saola's huge reach over the Philippines

Typhoon Saola looks like a monster tropical cyclone in infrared imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite today, July 30. Although Saola's center is over 300 nautical miles (368 miles/592 km) south-southeast of Taiwan, it stretches over the north and central Philippines and has triggered a number of warnings throughout the country. 

Heavy rains in central and eastern Costa Rica trigger floods, force evacuations

Heavy rains in central and eastern Costa Rica have triggered floods that have forced evacuations and may be responsible for at least one death, relief workers said Sunday. Four people are missing, down from eight earlier, according to Freddy Roman, a spokesman for the local Red Cross. 
The government has declared a "yellow alert" in various parts of Cartago, a central province where one person was reported dead, said Roman. The person was rescued after a landslide, but died on the way to the hospital from injuries and heart failure, he said. A yellow alert is also in effect for parts of Limon, an eastern province. More than 1,500 people have taken refuge at shelters and others are waiting to be rescued, according to the Red Cross. 
"We have reports of people trapped in their houses that have been flooded by overflow from the Chirripo River, also of several communities that are isolated in other parts of Limon," said Guillermo Arroyo, director of operations of the Costa Rican Red Cross.