Hurricane Earl lashed northern Leeward Islands with heavy rain and strong winds Monday after strengthening into a Category 2 storm. Hotels were shut tightly overnight as tourists sought shelter inside their rooms.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Earl could become a major hurricane Monday night or early Tuesday.

"It is possible that Earl could become a Category 4 hurricane as we get into the middle to late portions of the week," hurricane center specialist Michael Brennan said.

Hurricane warnings were in effect for Antigua, Barbuda, Montserrat, St. Kitts, Nevis, Anguilla, St. Martin, St. Barthelemy, St. Maarten, Saba, St. Eustatius, the British Virgin Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands. [ AP NEWS ]

Danielle's maximum sustained winds increased to near 135 mph (215 kph) with some additional strengthening possible.

Danielle was located early Friday about 545 miles (875 kilometers) southeast of Bermuda and moving north-northwest near 12 mph (19 kph). The hurricane is forecast to pass well east of Bermuda on Saturday night. But large waves and dangerous surf conditions were expected in Bermuda over the next few days, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

Swells from Danielle would also begin arriving on the East Coast of the U.S. on Saturday and were likely to cause dangerous rip currents through the weekend.

Also in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Earl was moving west with maximum sustained winds near 45 mph (75 kph). Forecasters said Earl could become a hurricane by Saturday night. [ GUARDIAN UK ]

A new superbug could spread around the world after reaching Britain from India - in part because of medical tourism - and scientists say there are almost no drugs to treat it.

While Pakistan has been hit by catastrophic flooding, Russia has endured a lethal heatwave.

Some 1,200 people have been killed in the deluges sweeping Pakistan, but in Moscow more than 30 are reported to have died in wildfires as temperatures have soared to a new record for the region of 38C (100F).

It marks out 2010 as the year of  extreme weather - and experts predict the pronounced conditions will continue across the globe. [ DAILY MAIL UK ]

A weather disturbance in the Atlantic Ocean had a 90 percent chance of developing into a tropical cyclone in the next couple of days, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Sunday.

The system was midway between the Cape Verde Islands and the Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean, and posed no immediate threat to land.

It was moving west to west-northwest on a path that could take it well east of the Bahamas by Friday. [ YAHOO NEWS ]

Hodge bought into the first of a proposed nationwide group of 20 fortified, underground shelters - the Vivos shelter network - that are intended to protect those inside for up to a year from catastrophes such as a nuclear attack , killer asteroids or tsunamis , according to the project's developers.

"It's an investment in life," says Hodge, a Teamsters union representative. "I want to make sure I have a place I can take me and my family if that worst-case scenario were to happen."

There are signs that underground shelters, almost-forgotten relics of the Cold War era, are making a comeback.

BP workers in the Gulf of Mexico have stopped drilling a relief well and are preparing to evacuate the oil spill site as a tropical depression nears.

There is a 20-30% chance of tropical storm force winds (39mph/63kph or more) at the spill site by Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center says.

Because of the slow-moving vessels at the spill site, evacuation plans are already well under way. Work on the relief well could be suspended for up to two weeks.

A "packer" - a plug used during storms - has been placed in the relief well to stabilise it. The government's incident commander, Thad Allen, along with BP, must decide whether to leave the well shut during any storm, or to open it and allow oil to gush out into the sea.

The tropical depression is over the Bahamas but is travelling west-northwest at 15mph. It could become a tropical storm later day. Storm warnings are in force in the Bahamas and on much of the Florida coastline. [ BBC NEWS ]

While BP seems to have gotten the flow of oil in the Gulf of Mexico under control for now, investigations suggest corners were cut for the sake of profit and expediency, leading to the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and fire that killed 11 workers and started the oil leak.

Taking shortcuts is one thing; purposely shutting down existing safety systems is a very different matter, and according to new information, serious safety violations may have led to the worst mine disaster in the last 25 years, the West Virginia mine explosion that killed 29 workers in April.[ LIVE SCIENCE ]

Humans have survived ice ages and deadly pandemics to become the dominant species on Earth, even if our reign over the planet barely represents a blip in a geological record that has seen countless living organisms come and go. We have adapted to live almost anywhere, and have harnessed the power of nature by splitting atoms and splicing DNA to reshape the world. Yet those same technologies could also doom humanity to extinction if misused.

Can humans survive? 

A few doom prophets say no. More experts say yes, but caution that humans must learn to wield technology more wisely to fend off natural threats such as asteroids . Wisdom can also teach humans to avoid destroying themselves with biotechnology or nanotechnology run amok. 

Britain's premier scientific organisation has launched a two-year study into global population levels. A growing body of scientists believe the time has come for politicians to confront the problems posed by the future increase in human numbers.

The Royal Society has established a working group of leading experts to draw up a comprehensive set of recommendations on human population that could set the agenda for tackling the environmental stress caused by billions of extra people on the planet.

Sir John Sulston, the Nobel laureate who took a leading role in decoding the human genome, will lead the study. A failure to be open about the problems caused by the global population explosion would set back human development, he warned.

"I don't say if, but I say when Katla will erupt," Grimsson says. "We have been waiting for that eruption for several years."

"It can create, for a long period, extraordinary damage to modern advanced society." [ ICE AGE NOW ]

The depression - denoting a tighter, more defined system - is far from South Florida, and mostly of interest only to those who keep box scores, though it is expected to steer rain to the area. But there is the threat to the gulf, so it's getting more attention than any of the many waves and depressions that come and go in June.

According to the National Hurricane Center's 6 p.m. tropical weather outlook, "Tropical Depression One" has become better organized as it approaches the Yucatan Peninsula, and is "expected" to become a tropical storm tonight or Saturday.

It has sustained winds of about 35 miles per hour, with higher gusts, the outlook said. It is still moving west-northwest at about 10 miles per hour, and should continue on that track "for the next couple of days," the forecast said. [ PALM BEACH POST ] Click image to enlarge.

With a storm threatening to disrupt oil-siphoning efforts at BP Plc's blown-out Gulf of Mexico well, the U.S. Coast Guard on Friday said collection efforts would be suspended five days before the forecast onset of gale-force winds.

A tropical disturbance over the western Caribbean could deal a big setback to efforts by BP to contain oil gushing from the well, estimated by the U.S. government at up to 60,000 barrels (2.5 million gallons/9.5 million liters) per day.

Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the U.S. government's point man on the oil spill, said it would be necessary five days before gale force winds are forecast to arrive to take down operations involving ships and other equipment siphoning some of the oil spewing from BP's ruptured deep-sea well. During this period, the oil could flow unchecked from the ruptured well into the sea for up to 14 days, Allen said.

This is the extraordinary moment a photographer captured bolts of lightning striking not one, but two Chicago landmarks at the same time.

Electricity rushed down the lightning rods atop the The Willis Tower and the Trump Tower at the exact same instant last night.

Seen through the rain from the Hancock Tower, the strikes lit up the sky around.

They came as severe storms rolled through the Windy City last night. There were tornado warnings as winds gusted to up to 80mph, and flooding closed some major roads.

The Department of Streets and Sanitation said 450 'tree emergencies' had been reported - but fortunately there were no injuries.

The storms grounded flights at O'Hare International Airport for nearly an hour. 

The Willis Tower, formerly the Sears Tower, is the city's tallest building at 108 stories and 1,451 feet. It was built in 1973.

[ DAILYMAIL UK ] 

The government said more than 1.4 million residents living on river banks and in low-lying areas had had to move, according to the official China Daily.

Zhang Zhitong, deputy director of the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, said China's second-largest waterway, the Pearl River, which crosses the south, had breached warning marks on Thursday. [ YAHOO NEWS ]

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center give the low pressure area a 40 percent chance of reaching tropical storm strength by Wednesday as it moves west northwest at about 15 mph.

The disturbance is going through an area where atmospheric conditions are becoming less favorable for it to become becoming better organized , forecasters say. [ TBO.com ]

European criticism of the World Health Organization's handling of the H1N1 pandemic intensified Friday with the release of two reports that accused the agency of exaggerating the threat posed by the virus and failing to disclose possible influence by the pharmaceutical industry on its recommendations for how countries should respond.

The WHO's response caused widespread, unnecessary fear and prompted countries around the world to waste millions of dollars, according to one report. At the same time, the Geneva-based arm of the United Nations relied on advice from experts with ties to drug makers in developing the guidelines it used to encourage countries to stockpile millions of doses of antiviral medications, according to the second report.[ WASHINGTON POST ]

Earlier this week, Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) responded to the continuing Gulf oil leak by proposing new legislative action that would raise the liability BP could face for the disaster. Sen. Schumer’s action is merely the latest move in Washington’s month-long reaction to the Deepwater Horizon explosion, and if history is any guide, it won’t be the last.

Throughout the last century, environmental and industrial catastrophes have often provoked an outraged citizenry to demand action from their elected officials, resulting in new regulations aimed at preventing future catastrophes. Experts point out, however, that many of those regulations failed to stop subsequent calamities, leading some to question whether the responses to the Gulf oil leak will have a lasting effect.

The chatter began weeks ago as armchair engineers brainstormed for ways to stop the torrent of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico: What about nuking the well?

Decades ago, the Soviet Union reportedly used nuclear blasts to successfully seal off runaway gas wells, inserting a bomb deep underground and letting its fiery heat melt the surrounding rock to shut off the flow. Why not try it here?

Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said the goal was to free the saw and finish the cut later in the day. This is the latest attempt to contain - not plug - the gusher. The best chance at stopping the leak is a relief well, which is at least two months from completion. [ YAHOO NEWS ]

Clouds of crude and chemical dispersants have formed in the Gulf of Mexico and oceanologists fear these could have devastating effects on the food chain .

The world's most damaging oil spill – now in its 41st continuously gushing day – is creating huge unseen "dead zones" in the Gulf of Mexico, according to oceanologists and toxicologists. They say that if their fears are correct, then the sea's entire food chain could suffer years of devastation, with almost no marine life in the region escaping its effects.

While the sight of tar balls and oil-covered birds on Louisiana's shoreline has been the most visible sign of the spill's environmental destruction, many scientists now believe it is underwater contamination that will have the deadliest impact. At least two submerged clouds of noxious oil and chemical dispersants have been confirmed by research vessels, and scientists are seeing initial signs of several more. The largest is some 22 miles long, six miles wide and 3,300 feet deep – a volume that would take up half of Lake Erie. Another spans an area of 20 square miles.

Katla volcano is larger and fierce than its neighbour Eyjafjoell, which has been belching out huge clouds of ash since April. It has a previous track record of erupting shortly after its neighbour.

'An eruption in the short term is a strong possibility,' experts from the University College of London said.

Bookmaker PaddyPower has slashed the odds on Iceland’s Katla volcano being the next volcano to have a major eruption to 9/4.

The researchers also cautioned that Europe's skies were likely to be hit by further ash cloud shutdowns.

Where would you go in the event of a catastrophe? For $50,000, one man says he will guarantee your family's security in the event of a nuclear blast , tsunami , earthquake or other disaster.

"That whole upper structure can be blown away, debris could fall in here -- doesn't matter, [it] won't get inside," said Robert Vicino, a San Diego inventor and real estate entrepreneur.Vicino's master plan is to build a self-contained shelter to be a safe haven in the case of a catastrophe.

"Would you want to survive or would you want to sit on the porch with chardonnay or Jack Daniels and watch the show," Vicino asked.

The Icelandic eruption that has caused misery for air travellers could be part of a surge in volcanic activity that will affect the whole of Europe for decades, scientists have warned.

They have reconstructed a timeline of 205 eruptions in Iceland, spanning the past 1,100 years, and found that they occur in regular cycles - with the relatively quiet phase that dominated the past five decades now coming to an end.

At least three other big Icelandic volcanoes are building towards an eruption, according to Thor Thordarson, a volcanologist at Edinburgh University.

“The frequency of Icelandic eruptions seems to rise and fall in a cycle lasting around 140 years,” he said. “In the latter part of the 20th century we were in a low period, but now there is evidence that we could be approaching a peak.”