The first whale death was reported in Marmot Bay on Kodiak Island, on May 23, 2015 and large whale strandings have continued since. This series of large whale deaths have been declared as an "Unusual Mortality Event" (UME), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)reported.

The total number of 30 dead whales, reported since May, is over three times the average for the area. This unusual jump in death numbers across the western Gulf of Alaska has prompted an official investigation.

To add to the unusual event, the researchers of British Columbia, Canada have reported an increase in large whale strandings during the months of July and August. This summer, uncommon numbers of bird deaths has also been reported across the Alaska Peninsula. However, it's not clear whether these deaths are in any way connected.

"NOAA Fisheries scientists and partners are very concerned about the large number of whales stranding in the western Gulf of Alaska in recent months. While we do not yet know the cause of these strandings, our investigations will give us important information on the health of whales and the ecosystems where they live." Teri Rowles, NOAA Fisheries' marine mammal health and stranding response coordinator, said in a statement.

Most whale carcasses have been floating and were not retrievable, NOAA reported. Therefore, the scientists have been able to collect a tissue sample from only one of the 30 carcasses. It could take a few months, even years to find the cause of sharp increase in whale mortality in the area.

As a part of the UME investigation process, the scientists will cooperate to review the collected data and sample future whales that strand. Although many people tend to blame the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011 for animal deaths, NOAA said the preliminary analysis shows no signs of such contamination, although conclusive results are yet to be provided.

Featured image: Stranded large whale carcass, Alaska coast, August 20, 2015. Image credit: CBC News.

(THE WATCHERS)

LONDON (AP) — A military jet taking part in a British airshow crashed into a busy main road Saturday, killing seven people and injuring more than a dozen others, police said.

The Hawker Hunter fighter jet, which was participating in the Shoreham Airshow near Brighton in southern England, hit several vehicles on a nearby road as it crashed Saturday afternoon. Witnesses told local TV that the jet appeared to have crashed when it failed to pull out of a loop maneuver.

West Sussex Police said seven people died at the scene and one patient with life-threatening injuries was taken to the hospital. Another 14 people were treated for minor injuries.

News video and photographs showed a fireball erupting near trees and huge plumes of thick black smoke rising. A witness, Stephen Jones, told the BBC that the pilot had just begun his display.

"He'd gone up into a loop and as he was coming out of the loop I just thought, you're too low, you're too low, pull up. And he flew straight into the ground either on or very close to the A27, which runs past the airport," Jones said.

The force said all the deaths were believed to have occurred on the road, and no one on the airfield was believed injured. It was not known whether the pilot was able to eject.

The road was closed in both directions Saturday.

Crashes at British airshows are rare, but in 2007 the pilot of a World War II Hurricane died at the Shoreham Airshow after performing an unplanned barrel-roll.

"We mustn't rush to knee jerk reactions about the safety of airshows," said Tim Loughton, a member of Britain's parliament who represents Shoreham. "This is an airshow that's been going for 26 years, only the second time there's been any serious accident, and the first time that spectators and people on the ground have been affected, bad though that is."

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Kabul car bomb that killed at least 12 targeted foreigners

By Frank Jack Daniel

KABUL (Reuters) - Three U.S. contractors were among 12 killed by a Kabul bomb that targeted their NATO convoy, the U.S.-led coalition said, making the attack one of the most lethal for U.S. citizens in Afghanistan in recent years.

The suicide attack outside a hospital on a residential street at rush hour killed mainly Afghan civilians and injured scores more, heightening the anger felt in Kabul after a barrage of deadly blasts this month killed dozens.

The attacker drove his car towards an armored pick-up truck belonging to contractor DynCorp International which was torn open and left twisted and blackened by the blast. Dozens of vehicles were destroyed, including a school van.

One U.S. contractor died when the bomb exploded, and two died from their wounds, the NATO coalition known as Resolute Support said late on Saturday. It did not name them.

The U.S. embassy in Kabul condemned the bombing.

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Afghan security personnel (L) keeps watch next to a damaged car belonging to foreigners, after a bom …

"The United States remains committed to assisting our Afghan partners in their efforts to ensure a peaceful future," it said in a statement.

Contractors such as DynCorp, which has a long involvement in the war and provided bodyguards for the last president, have frequently been targeted. Four U.S. DynCorp employees were killed in a similar Kabul suicide attack in 2013.

Bombings have increased in Kabul since the government and the Taliban in July confirmed that Taliban leader Mullah Omar died two years ago, putting paid to hopes that the insurgents would quickly return to the negotiating table.

The U.N. mission in Afghanistan called for an "immediate halt to all such disproportionate attacks" in civilian-populated areas.

Fighting killed 5,000 civilians in the first half of this year, more than at any point since war started in 2001.

The violence has strained Afghanistan's ties with Pakistan, with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani accusing the neighboring country of not doing enough to stop militants planning attacks from training camps that he says lie across the border.

Pakistan called the latest attack on civilians "cowardice" and promised to fight against "a common enemy".

But, referring to his belief that Islamabad only cracks down on fighters who launch attacks on its soil, Ghani issued a statement calling on Pakistan to "use the same definition of terrorism" at home and in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan's chief executive officer, Abdullah Abdullah, who shares power with Ghani and has been critical of Pakistan's record on fighting the Taliban, called the attack a war crime.

"We will do everything to protect our people and our country and go after terrorists and our enemies anywhere they are," he said.

The Taliban, fighting to re-establish hard-line Islamist rule 14 years after they were ousted, denied they was behind the attack. No group has claimed responsibility.

Security sources said the contractors worked for DynCorp International. The U.S. company, which provides training, security and aviation maintenance to the NATO mission and the Afghan military, confirmed it was the target.

(Reporting by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Explosion at chemical plant in eastern China kills 1

BEIJING (AP) — An explosion at a chemical plant in eastern China killed one person and injured nine others, a state news agency reported Sunday, less than two weeks after a similar disaster at a chemical warehouse killed 123 people.

The explosion occurred just before 9 p.m. Saturday in Zibo, a city southeast of Beijing in Shandong province, the Xinhua News Agency said. It said firefighters put out the resulting fire just before 2 a.m. Sunday.

The report gave no details of the identity of the person killed. It said the cause of the blast was under investigation.

Environmental authorities detected no contamination from the blast, according to Xinhua.

The facility, owned by Shandong Runxing Chemical Technology Co., produced adiponitrile, which can give off toxic fumes when burned, according to Xinhua. Adiponitrile is used in making nylon and other products.

The blast follows the Aug. 12 explosion at a warehouse holding chemicals in Tianjin, a port city east of Beijing.

On Sunday, the Tianjin city government announced on its microblog account that the death toll in that disaster had been raised to 123. It said 50 people were still missing.

The cause of the Tianjin disaster is under investigation. State media say that the warehouse, which stored sodium cyanide and other dangerous chemicals, was too close to homes and that its operators may have obtained falsified safety approvals.

The disaster raised concerns about the effectiveness of China's regulatory bodies and their ability to oversee industries in which they or officials might have an interest.