Ananya Dutta

KOLKATA: Kolkata has been ranked as the fourth most vulnerable among 11 major coastal cities in Asia that are threatened by climate change as it is

Calcutta figures high on the list of Asian cities most vulnerable to climate change in a report to be released on Thursday by WWF-International in Gland, Switzerland.

A twister that blew across the Bulathsinhala area in Kalutara last night damaged at least 103 houses.

The Disaster Management Center said that 89 houses have been completely destroyed and others were partially damaged.

For more than 40 years, Earth has been sending out distress signals. We have responded through staging processions on Earth days, holding seminars, passing environmental laws and forging a few international treaties, like in the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janiero.

Floods, storms, drought and other climate-related natural disasters drove 20 million people from their homes last year, nearly four times as many as were displaced by conflicts, a new UN report said on Tuesday. The study tried to quantify for the first time the number of people forced to flee their homes because of climate change.

A huge outback dust storm swept eastern Australia and blanketed Sydney on Wednesday, disrupting transport, forcing people indoors and stripping thousands of tonnes of valuable farmland topsoil.

The dust blacked out the outback town of Broken Hill on Tuesday, forcing a zinc mine to shut down, and swept 1,167 km (725 miles) east to shroud Sydney in a red glow on Wednesday.

A dust storm swept across eastern Australia and blanketed Sydney on Wednesday, disrupting transport, placing health authorities on alert for widespread respiratory illness and stripping thousands of tonnes of topsoil off Australia's main farmlands.

Following are answers to questions about the storm.

WHAT CAUSED THE DUST STORM?