Here’s a quick rundown of what we know about H1N1 Influenza A “Swine Flu” that’s currently sweeping the media, as opposed to the globe.

• The H1N1 virus appears to be a mild influenza, and is nowhere near as dangerous as N5N1.
• The H1N1 virus appears to bind to the receptors in the upper respiratory tract causing mild illness (compare this to H5N1 which binds to the lungs directly).
• The swine flu strain is the same type as seasonal flu which circulates throughout the world every year, and kills roughly 1% of those infected.

A powerful earthquake tore through central Italy on Monday devastating historic mountain towns and killing at least 40 people, authorities said.

Many remained unaccounted for as emergency services scrambled to find victims trapped under collapsed buildings in L’Aquila, which bore the brunt of the quake, and officials warned that the toll would rise.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi declared a state of emergency and cancelled a trip to Russia so he could go to L’Aquila, capital of Abruzzo region, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) northeast of Rome.

Google

An Italian scientist predicted a major earthquake around L’Aquila weeks before disaster struck the city on Monday, killing dozens of people, but was reported to authorities for spreading panic among the population.

The first tremors in the region were felt in mid-January and continued at regular intervals, creating mounting alarm in the medieval city, about 100 km east of Rome.

Vans with loudspeakers had driven around the town a month ago telling locals to evacuate their houses after seismologist Gioacchino Giuliani predicted a large quake was on the way, prompting the mayor’s anger.

Reuters

The global sea level looks set to rise far higher than forecast because of changes in the polar ice-sheets, a team of researchers has suggested.

Scientists at a climate change summit in Copenhagen said earlier UN estimates were too low and that sea levels could rise by a metre or more by 2100.

The projections did not include the potential impact of polar melting and ice breaking off, they added.

The implications for millions of people would be “severe”, they warned.

Ten per cent of the world’s population - about 600 million people - live in low-lying areas.

BBC News

Indonesia has issued a tsunami warning after an earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale struck in the Indonesian Taulad Islands.

The USGS put the depth of the quake at around 20 miles beneath the ocean floor and said it was centered 200 miles northeast of Manado, a town on Sulawesi island.

There is no danger of a widespread destructive tsunami, according to the US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center but earthquakes of this size can sometimes trigger local tsunamis which can be destructive along coasts within 100km of the epicenter.

Great, if not somewhat alarmist headline from the folks at New Scientist!

AN ASTEROID that had initially been deemed harmless has turned out to have a slim chance of hitting Earth in 160 years. While that might seem a distant threat, there’s far less time available to deflect it off course.

Asteroid 1999 RQ36 was discovered a decade ago, but it was not considered particularly worrisome since it has no chance of striking Earth in the next 100 years - the time frame astronomers routinely use to assess potential threats.

Article also mentions that it may be time to reassess the 100-year impact time frame currently used identify asteroids that present a collision hazard.