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At least 11 dead as tornado rips through Mexican border town

By Jaime Escamilla

CIUDAD ACUNA, Mexico (Reuters) - At least 13 people died and dozens more were injured after a freak tornado ripped through the northern Mexican city of Ciudad Acuna on Monday morning, flipping over cars and tearing down homes, the government said.

Among the dead were three children as the whirlwind damaged an estimated 750 homes in the city across the Rio Grande from Del Rio, Texas, said Jesus Garcia, spokesman for the local state of Coahuila.

Walls and ceilings collapsed under the force of the whirlwind, which traveled at a speed of some 31 mph (50 km per hour) and blew gusts over 124 mph, the government said, taking the border city unawares in the early hours of Monday.

President Enrique Pena Nieto viewed the damage wrought by the tornado from both the air and ground level late on Monday.

"This was a surprise event with no alert whatsoever from a satellite or any other kind of system that monitors these kinds of events," he said during a briefing with local, state and federal officials.

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People survey a destroyed car in Ciudad Acuna, Mexico on May 25, 2015 after a tornado ripped into th …

The tornado's path of destruction stretched for 1.1 miles (1.8 km) through the city.

"We're not used to such destruction," Ciudad Acuna's mayor Evaristo Lenin Perez told local radio. "We don't have records of a single tornado in Acuna, a 110-year-old city."

"Most of the dead are people who were outside, not people who were inside their homes."

The number of injured stood at 290 people, while 44 remain hospitalized, according to the health ministry.

A spokesman for the National Meteorological Service said it was the strongest tornado for at least 15 years in Mexico. Preliminary findings suggested it registered between a grade EF2 and EF3 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, the spokesman said.

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Residents stand outside their damaged house after a tornado hit the town of Ciudad Acuna, state of C …

Meanwhile, power outages hit about 4,900 users in the area, according to national electricity utility CFE, while full restoration is expected by the middle of the week.

After the twister had swept through the city, photos showed children climbing past mangled cars that had been swept into their homes, while adults salvaged valuables from the rubble.

Authorities have set up seven refuge points for those whose houses were destroyed, the Coahuila government said.

"We're working on clearing the debris of the destroyed buildings and cars that were displaced," said Francisco Martinez, the deputy minister for Civil Protection in Coahuila.

Coahuila's governor Ruben Moreira arrived this afternoon in Acuna, which had a population of around 134,000 in 2010, and promised authorities will lead the city's recovery.

(Reporting by Luis Rojas, Max De Haldevang, Gabriela Lopez and David Alire Garcia; Editing by Peter Galloway, Marguerita Choy, Diane Craft and Simon Cameron-Moore)

A volcano atop one of the Galapagos Islands has erupted for the first time in 33 years, spewing fire, smoke and lava into the night sky – and threatening a fragile ecosystem that inspired Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

Ecuador's Galapagos National Park administration said the mile-high Wolf volcano erupted before dawn Monday. The eruption could be seen for miles.

The volcano lies on the northern tip of Isabela Island, the archipelago's largest.

Authorities said no tourist activity was affected – and for now, lava flowing in the southwest direction poses no risk to the world's only population of pink iguanas, which live on the island's northwest tip.

Darwin visited the eastern Pacific island chain in 1835, and the trip influenced his findings presented in the book “The origin of Species.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

U.S. military forces aboard Amphibious Assault Vehicles (AAV) manuevre on South China Sea near the shore of San Antonio, Zambales during the annual "Balikatan" (shoulder-to-shoulder) war games with Filipino soldiers in northern Philippines April 21, 2015. REUTERS/Erik De Castro

By Matt Siegel

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Japan will join a major U.S.-Australian military exercise for the first time in a sign of growing security links between the three countries as tensions fester over China's island building in the South China Sea.

While only 40 Japanese officers and soldiers will take part in drills involving 30,000 U.S. and Australian troops in early July, experts said the move showed how Washington wanted to foster cooperation among its security allies in Asia.

The Talisman Sabre biennial exercises, to be held in locations around Australia, will encompass maritime operations, amphibious landings, special forces tactics and urban warfare.

"I think the U.S. is trying to get its allies to do more," said Euan Graham, director of the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute in Sydney.

"There is an obvious symmetry between Japan as the upper anchor of the Western Pacific alliance and ... Australia as the southern anchor."

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A U.S. Navy crewman aboard a P-8A Poseidon surveillance aircraft views a computer screen purportedly …

All three nations have said they were concerned about freedom of movement through the seas and air in the disputed South China Sea, where China is creating seven artificial islands in the Spratly archipelago, a vital shipping corridor.

Some security experts say China might impose air and sea restrictions in the Spratlys once it completes construction work that includes at least one military airstrip. China has said it had every right to set up an Air Defence Identification Zone but that current conditions did not warrant one.

China claims most of the South China Sea. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also have overlapping claims.

The Japanese personnel will embed with U.S. forces while 500 New Zealand troops will join Australian contingents, according to the Australian Defence Force website.

Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani rebuffed suggestions the exercises were aimed at China, telling Reuters that Japan simply wanted to improve military cooperation with the United States and Australia.

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A visitor takes a picture of a model of Japan Maritime Self-Defense Forces Soryu diesel-electric sub …

China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, asked if Beijing was concerned the exercises appeared to be targeted toward China, said it was "not worried".

"We believe the relevant countries should all play a proactive and constructive role to strengthen mutual trust and cooperation between countries in the region," she said at a regular news briefing.

"UNPRECEDENTED TRILATERAL COOPERATION"

Security cooperation between Canberra and Tokyo has already flourished under Prime Ministers Tony Abbott and Shinzo Abe, with Japan seen as the frontrunner to win a contract to supply next generation submarines to the Australian navy. U.S. commanders have publicly supported such a tie-up.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense David Shear highlighted Washington's goal of boosting cooperation between its allies in testimony to the U.S. Senate this month.

"To expand the reach of these alliances, we are embarking on unprecedented trilateral cooperation," he said.

"In some cases this cooperation directly benefits our work on maritime security. For example, we're cooperating trilaterally with Japan and Australia to strengthen maritime security in Southeast Asia and explore defense technology cooperation."

Winning the submarine deal would be a big boost for Japan's defense industry and potentially pave the way for the sale of advanced Japanese weapons to countries such as the Philippines and Vietnam, which are at loggerheads with Beijing over the South China Sea, experts have said.

Australia also hopes to sign a deal with Japan this year that would smooth the passage of military personnel into one another's country for joint exercises, the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported over the weekend.

Deals such as this would likely become more common as Abbott and Abe push to cement the security ties they have fostered before they leave office, said the Lowy Institute's Graham.

"There will be more of this, and it's important in the next couple of years that the relationship beds in because otherwise ... you could quickly find it isn't a self-sustaining relationship," he said.

(Additional reporting by Nobuhiro Kubo in TOKYO and Michael Martina in BEIJING; Editing by Dean Yates)

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More than 500 dead from Indian heat wave

At least 800 people have died in a major heatwave that has swept across India, melting roads in New Delhi as temperatures neared 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit).

Hospitals were on alert to treat victims of heatstroke and authorities advised people to stay indoors, with no end in sight to the searing conditions.

India's Meteorological Department said it had issued heat warnings to several states where temperatures were forecast to top 45 degrees Celsius over the next few days.

"As of now, we don't predict any respite from the extreme heatwave for the next few days," said spokesman B. P. Yadav.

Hundreds of people -- mainly from the poorest sections of society -- die at the height of summer every year across the country, while tens of thousands suffer power cuts from an overburdened electricity grid.

Streets were deserted in Hyderabad, capital of the worst-hit state of Andhra Pradesh in southern India where 551 people have died in the last week.

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An Indian man shields his face from the heat as drives his scooter in Hyderabad on May 26, 2015 (AFP …

"The state government has taken up education programmes through television and other media to tell people not to venture into the outside without a cap, to drink water and other measures," said P. Tulsi Rani, special commissioner for disaster management in the state.

"We have also requested NGOs and government organisations to open up drinking water camps so that water will be readily available for all the people in the towns."

Hyderabad street vendor P. Gangamma said the heat was making her head pound, but she had no choice but to stay outside.

"For the past three days hot wind has been coming in," said the 65-year-old, who sells cigarettes on a busy intersection.

"I am a diabetes patient, but I have no husband and no sons, so I have to stay here and keep shop."

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An Indian man rests in the shade to escape soaring temperatures in Hyderabad on May 26, 2015 (AFP Ph …

- 'Bad business' -

Large parts of India, including the capital New Delhi, have endured days of sweltering heat, prompting fears of power cuts as energy-guzzling air conditioners work overtime.

The Hindustan Times daily said the maximum temperature in the capital hit a two-year high of 45.5 degrees Celsius on Monday -- five degrees higher than the seasonal average.

The paper carried a front-page photo of a main road in the city melting in the heat, with the white pedestrian crossing stripes curling and spreading into the black asphalt.

"It's baking hot out here -- our outing has turned into a nightmare," said Meena Sheshadri, a 37-year-old tourist from the western city of Pune who was visiting Delhi's India Gate monument with her children.

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A policeman stands in the shade at the Indian Defence Ministry in New Delhi on May 26, 2015 (AFP Pho …

"My throat is parched, even though I've been constantly sipping water."

Delhi street food vendor Hari Om said business was slow, with few people venturing out in the furnace-like conditions.

"All the food is getting spoilt even though I prepared it fresh in the morning. It's bad business but what to do," he said.

"People are not coming out and they also don't feel like eating. All they want is to sip cold water all day."

In Telangana state, which borders Andhra Pradesh in the south, 231 people have died in the last week as temperatures hit 48 degrees Celsius over the weekend.

In the western state of Orissa 11 people were confirmed to have died from the heat.

Another 13 people have died in the eastern state of West Bengal, where unions urged drivers in the city of Kolkata to stay off the roads during the day.

India's power industry has long struggled to meet rapidly rising demand in Asia's third largest economy, with poorly maintained transmission lines and overloaded grids.

The Hindustan Times warned that some of the hot, dry conditions could plunge the worst-affected states into drought before monsoon rains arrive.

The monsoon is forecast to hit the southern state of Kerala towards the end of this month before sweeping across the country, but it will be weeks before the rains reach the arid northern plains.