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More than 622 people have died in a heat wave in southern India during the past week.Temperatures soared to 120 degrees F near the Bay of Bengal.

It has been an abnormally hot May in southern India, with dry winds blowing from the northwestern deserts much earlier than usual. Temperatures have been 7% higher than normal for the month. The state’s weather officials say it is simply due to wind patterns, not global warming.

However, the government has ordered a scientific committee to examine the causes of the heat wave, which has killed mostly the elderly, weak, and laborers who have to work in the heat, such as farm workers, rickshaw pullers and village cleaners.
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Chris Opondo, an African anthropologist, and Dr. Ann Stroud, a systems agronomist, both of the African Highlands Initiative (AHI), say Christian missionaries are responsible for the growing consumption of bush meat. They say the churches’ efforts to change traditional African beliefs have eroded taboos which helped to protect many species.
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A Pennsylvania school district is trying to figure out whether the deaths of six students since December are connected. 13-year-old student Jessica Batdorf collapsed April 22 while walking to her homeroom with friends at East Pennsboro Middle School and died at a hospital. The coroner’s office has not yet ruled on the cause of death. Her parents want to know if environmental problems are to blame.

State epidemiologists this week plan to begin reviewing the health records of Jessica and five other students who have died in the 2,800-student East Pennsboro Area School District. The deaths have involved students of different ages who died from different causes. Records of students who visited the nurse’s office also will be examined.
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The crew of the International Space Station was forced to activate back-up oxygen generating equipment on Wednesday after the ISS’s main supply system broke down.Russian engineers are struggling to repair the main “Elektron” oxygen supply system, which is located in the Russian Zvezda living module. The system converts water into hydrogen and oxygen.

Both Russian and U.S. officials say the crew is in no danger. Secondary oxygen supplies should last for at least 100 days and a shuttle mission is scheduled to bring fresh supplies to the station in early June.
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