At least 1 dead, 7 hurt after storm cluster rakes Southern states
PANAMA CITY, Fla. — A cluster of severe storms swept across Southern states early Saturday, leaving at least one dead in Louisiana, bringing down trees and power lines in Mississippi, dropping large hail on a coastal Alabama city and leveling buildings in the Florida Panhandle.
St. Landry Parish President Jessie Bellard confirmed a fatality related to an early morning tornado in Palmetto, Louisiana. Bellard tells KLFY-TV that Jose Antonio Higareda, 27, was killed when the tornado struck his home. In addition, he said, seven people were transported with injuries to local hospitals.
The National Weather Service has said the tornado that hit the area was an EF-3, with wind speeds between 130 and 140 mph.
In Mississippi, a possible tornado ripped down power lines and trees in Rankin County, but no injuries were reported.
In Panama City Beach, Florida, a home and convenience store were leveled by a possible tornado, city officials said in a Facebook post. A resident’s photo posted by The Panama City News Herald shows the store’s roof and walls ripped away, but its counters, shelves and the merchandise they held appear untouched. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
The town is in Bay County, which was heavily damaged by Hurricane Michael in 2018.
“Many people were saying, ‘Hey, we know what to do. Sadly, we’ve been through it before’ and they pulled together as a community,” Panama City Mayor Mark Sheldon told the News Herald.
In Pensacola, Florida, the roof of a downtown brewery was ripped off by the storm, local news reports show. The National Weather Service has not confirmed if that was caused by a tornado but reported winds of up to 60 mph. The Pensacola News Journal reports that about 5 inches of rain fell.
Images shared by news outlets showed car windshields shattered by hail about as large as baseballs in Orange Beach, Alabama.
Caribbean volcano: Ash rained down across the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent on Saturday and a strong sulfur smell enveloped communities a day after a powerful explosion at La Soufriere volcano uprooted the lives of thousands of people who evacuated their homes under government orders.
Villages were covered under a blanket of fine soot, which also hung in the air, obscuring the sun.
Some ash fell as far away as Barbados, about 120 miles east of St. Vincent.
Nearby nations including Antigua and Guyana have offered help by either shipping emergency supplies or temporarily opening their borders to the roughly 16,000 evacuees fleeing ashcovered communities with as many personal belongings as they could stuff into suitcases and backpacks.
Cruise ship lines offered to help some of the evacuees leave the island, though that was not expected to happen before Monday.
The volcano, which last had a sizable eruption in 1979, kept rumbling and experts warned that explosions could continue for days or weeks. A previous eruption in 1902 killed some 1,600 people.
China fines Alibaba: Alibaba Group, the world’s biggest
e-commerce company, was fined $2.8 billion by Chinese regulators Saturday for anti-competitive tactics, as the ruling Communist Party tightens control over fast-growing tech industries.
Party leaders worry about the dominance of China’s biggest internet companies, which are expanding into finance, health services and other sensitive areas. The party says anti-monopoly enforcement, especially in tech, is a priority this year.
Alibaba was fined for “abusing its dominant position” to limit competition by retailers that use its platforms and hindering “free circulation” of goods, the State Administration for Market Regulation announced. It said the fine was equal to 4% of its total 2019 sales of $69.5 billion.
“Alibaba accepts the penalty with sincerity and will ensure its compliance with determination,” the company said in a statement.
The move is a new setback for Alibaba and its billionaire
founder, Jack Ma, following a November decision by regulators to suspend the stock market debut of Ant Group, a finance platform spun off from the e-commerce giant.
It would have been the world’s biggest initial public stock offering last year.
A strong earthquake killed at least eight people, injured 23 others and damaged more than 300 buildings on Indonesia’s main island of Java and was also felt on the tourist hotspot of Bali, officials said Saturday. No tsunami warnings were posted.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude 6.0 quake struck off the island’s southern coast at 2 p.m. local time.
Rahmat Triyono, the head of Indonesia’s earthquake and tsunami center, said in a statement the undersea temblor did not have the potential to cause a tsunami. Still, he urged people to stay away from slopes of soil or
Deadly Indonesia quake:
rocks that have the potential for landslides.
This was the second deadly disaster to hit Indonesia this past week, after Tropical Cyclone Seroja caused a severe downpour Sunday that killed at least 174 people and left 48 still missing.
Some victims were buried in either mudslides or solidified lava from a volcanic eruption in November, while others were swept away by flash flooding.
‘Ecological uprising’:
Protesters in Serbia rallied Saturday demanding that the government protect the environment in a Balkan nation that has seen record levels of air pollution and scores of other ecological problems following decades of neglect.
Several thousand people gathered outside the Serbian parliament building in the capital of Belgrade for an “ecological uprising” against what organizers say is a widespread environmental
devastation in the nation aspiring to join the European Union.
Serbia has faced mounting problems that include poor garbage management and high air pollution caused by the use of poor-quality coal and other pollutants.
The protesters demanded a ban on building small hydroelectric plants, better environmental education, greener urban areas and cleaner air. International studies have suggested that air pollution is shortening the lifespans of people living in the Western Balkans.
Hours before the rally, the Serbian Environment Ministry said that Serbia’s many problems are not new and insisted the government has launched projects aimed at finding long-term solutions to pollution.
Environment Minister Irena Vujovic later described the protest as political, saying organizers wanted to make “quick political gains” rather than work to solve problems.