Space Travel News  
Disasters killed 20,000 in 2007: study

by Staff Writers
Zurich (AFP) March 11, 2008
Natural and man-made disasters killed 20,000 people in 2007 and cost the world economy more than 70 billion dollars (45 billion euros), reinsurer Swiss Re said Tuesday.

The world was hit by 142 natural catastrophes and 192 man-made disasters in 2007, the company said in a report, with most deaths in Bangladesh, India, China and Pakistan as a result of heavy flooding and cyclones, the report said.

The statistics "confirm a trend towards an increase in the number -- and cost -- of natural catastrophes and man-made disasters," Swiss Re said.

Industrial fires, explosions and aviation and spacecraft losses topped the list of man-made disasters, which in total claimed 6,900 lives in 2007.

"Shipping and boating accidents as well as bombings and social unrest caused the most casualties," the report said.

Europe was unusually hard-hit by natural disasters in 2007, with insured property losses amounting to around 11 billion dollars after both winter storm Kyrill, which hit much of northern Europe, and summer flooding in Britain.

Total insured property losses amounted to more than 23 billion dollars.

Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
A world of storm and tempest
When the Earth Quakes



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


Major storm sparks travel chaos and damage in Britain, France
London (AFP) March 11, 2008
Heavy storms were expected to cause more travel chaos in Britain Tuesday, with France also preparing for more bad weather, after three vessels ran into problems in the Channel a day earlier.







  • Space X Falcon 9 Facing More Delays As Shuttle Replacement Looms
  • SpaceX Completes Qualification Testing Of Falcon 1 Merlin Regeneratively Cooled Engine
  • First Firing Of European Staged-Combustion Demonstration Engine
  • Iran gives details on controversial space launch

  • Falcon 1 To Launch Operationally Responsive Space Satellite On Next Flight
  • Sea Launch Prepares For The Launch Of DirecTV 11
  • Europe Launches Jules Verne Robot Space Freighter
  • Russia To Launch US Communications Satellite On March 15

  • Space shuttle Endeavour is launched
  • STS-123 Begins First Full Day In Space
  • Shuttle Endeavour Lifts Off In Smooth Midnight Launch
  • Endeavour is 'go' for Tuesday launch

  • Jules Verne On Track For Long Journey To ISS
  • NASA Ponders Future Without Shuttles
  • Twenty years on, Japan's 'Hope' lab to blast into space
  • Space Station Orbit Raised Five Clicks

  • New Advert To Be Broadcast Into Space
  • Russia Dumps Korean Astro Boy For Astro Girl In Textbook Scandal
  • Space tourism: The next frontier?
  • Energia Hosts Second Convention For Students Of Space

  • China's Recoverable Moon Rover Expected In 2017
  • First China Spacewalk On Course For October
  • China To Launch Second Olympic Satellite In May
  • China Kicks Off New Space Launch Center Project

  • iRobot Receives Award For DARPA LANdroids Program
  • Coming soon to Japan: remote control with a wink
  • Japanese cellphones to turn into 'robot' buddies
  • Killer Military Robots Pose Latest Threat To Humanity

  • HiRISE Discovers A Possibly Once-Habitable Ancient Mars Lake
  • Mechdyne Enables Virtual Reality Of Mission To Mars
  • Mars And Venus Are Surprisingly Similar
  • Tenacious Spirit Might See Rover Through Martian Winter

  • The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright Space.TV Corporation. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space.TV Corp on any Web page published or hosted by Space.TV Corp. Privacy Statement