The CDC wants you to prepare for a zombie apocalypse. (Yes, you read that right.)

If zombies were to start roaming the streets – yes, we said zombies – the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants you to be prepared.

In the midst of providing guidelines on an unprecedented pandemic, the Center for Disease Control updated its tips to prepare for another extreme occurrence: A zombie apocalypse.

While the CDC says it began as a "tongue-in-cheek campaign," it actually is a practical guide for any emergency, like hurricanes, earthquakes or floods.

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New Zealand: New tsunami warning after third earthquake hits

A magnitude 8 earthquake struck off the northeastern coast of New Zealand early on Friday, the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) said, triggering tsunami warnings.

TSUNAMI WARNING: Areas that need to evacuate are indicated on this map. Evacuate these areas even if you did not feel the earthquake. DO NOT WAIT. A damaging tsunami is possible. More info at https://t.co/ccVFYQQoBr pic.twitter.com/bnEgZy8ikF

— National Emergency Management Agency (@NZcivildefence) March 4, 2021

The powerful quake, which hit just before 9 a.m. local time (2000 GMT Thursday) off the Kermadec Islands (1,000 km/621 miles northeast of New Zealand), followed earlier 7.4 and 7.2-magnitude quakes. 

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Communities warned Tropical Cyclone Niran could intensify with 100km/h winds

Tropical Cyclone Niran is hovering off Far North Queensland this morning, with warnings the category two storm could intensify. 

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said the weather system will strengthen this morning.

Residents in areas between Cape Flattery and Innisfail are being warned they could experience gale-force winds of up to 100km/h as the cyclone intensifies. 

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Polar Bear Sculptures Bring Snowy Smiles to Central Park

Artist Heide Hatry has been tending to some delightful visitors to Central Park. Her Polar Bear snow sculptures that she started crafting two weeks ago have been a hit since she first started working on them at night, leaving folks walking by mystified and excited the next morning. 

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'It's heartbreaking still': Bushfire survivors reflect one year on from the Black Summer crisis

It was January 4 last year when the Black Summer bushfires reached the doorstep of Ella Bandur childhood home in Batemans Bay. When she looks outside a year later, the blackened earth is covered in a layer

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Investigation concludes Joe the pigeon had a fake US leg band and won't be executed, says Australian Government

A pigeon initially declared a biosecurity risk after flying to Australia from the United States will not be executed following an investigation by the Department of Agriculture. It comes after an American bird organisation declared its identifying leg band was a fake.

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Whistle-blower: US faces ‘darkest winter in modern history’

The United States faces the “darkest winter in modern history” unless leaders act decisively to prevent a rebound of the coronavirus, according to a government whistle-blower who alleges he was removed from his job for warning the administration of US President Donald Trump to prepare for the pandemic.

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Severe storms on the way for Queensland, temperatures soar in WA

An intense heatwave is continuing for parts of Western Australia today while a severe thunderstorm warning is in place for parts of Queensland. A trough and low are generating areas of rain and storms across the central Queensland

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One killed, boy in intensive care after frozen waterfall crumbles

A person has been killed as a large chunk of ice from a frozen 40-metre waterfall crumbled away at a popular tourist attraction in Russia. The person was among four who became trapped when the chunk 

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Two states set to swelter in summer heatwave while rain persists for east coast

Heat is on its way to large parts of the country today temperatures set to soar across Western and South Australia. Perth is sizzling through what the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) classifies as a low

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Heatwave to batter South Australia for a week

A severe heatwave is set to sweep South Australia in coming days, with residents warned to prepare. It has been a relatively mild start to summer in the state but temperatures in Adelaide are set to top 30C by tomorrow.

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Georgia Senate runoffs weather forecast: What to expect

Georgia will experience decent weather for Tuesday’s runoff election, according to forecasters. "A beautiful day in Georgia for election day with mostly sunny skies for most," tweeted Fox News Senior Meteorologist Janice Dean on Tuesday morning. "Cool, but right around average for this time

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Carbon cop handed tough new powers

As part of the government's carbon tax package released yesterday, the new Clean Energy Regulator will be given extensive powers to conduct investigations on company premises, compel people to testify even if it requires providing self-incriminating evidence and to make copies of sensitive documents, according to a report by The Australian.

The new regulator will enforce the new six cents per litre fuel tax that will be charged to some 60,000 businesses, among other measures introduced as part of the carbon tax, the report said.

The new powers given to the regulator come with the threat of up to 10 years in prison or up to $1.1 million in fines for corporations that do not cooperate or who break the carbon tax laws.

Australian Tax Office data shows that this tax increase will directly affect up to 60,000 businesses from 1 July, 2012, and nearly 100,000 companies when an additional 40,000 road transport businesses are captured by the tax on 1 July, 2014," an MCA spokesman said.

He added that it would raise $3.3 billion in the first three years and $16bn to 2020, including the change to aviation excise.

The government has consistently claimed the tax would directly apply to only 500 firms. Last night it argued the fuel treatment in the scheme did not change those figures as the companies concerned faced no extra administrative arrangements and were not liable to directly pay for pollution permits. This was limited to about 500 companies that emitted more than 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent a year and would be liable to pay for pollution permits.

The MCA spokesman said that, based on Australian Taxation Office data, from July 1 next year, 22,500 construction firms, 5300 manufacturing businesses and 1500 mining operators would pay more for fuel.

A spokesman for Mr Combet said the government announced on July 10 that there would be a carbon price for off-road business fuel use through reduced fuel tax credits -- but this would not apply to the agriculture, forestry and fishery industries. He said households paid 38c a litre in fuel excise and would pay no more.

"By contrast, off-road business fuel use is normally free of excise, due to fuel tax credits," he said. "The government will reduce the fuel tax credits by around 6c a litre. This will not impose any additional administrative burdens because businesses already fill out the forms for fuel tax credits, but it will create incentives to improve fuel efficiency and lower pollution from the transport sector."

Tony Abbott, speaking yesterday in the northern NSW electorate held by Tony Windsor, taunted Julia Gillard to resume her carbon tax promotion tour. "The Prime Minister is hiding . . . refusing to talk to the Australian people," the Opposition Leader said. "Not only did she not wear out the shoe leather, she didn't even wear the shoes in. At the first sign of a blister she's back in her office hiding . . . because she knows the more she talks about this tax the less people like it.

Snow problems ease in south, but ice returning

Icy winter storm appears to have loosened its grip on parts of the country but forecasters are predicting one last blast with snow, hail and squalls pushing in from the south.

WeatherWatch.co.nz head weather analyst Philip Duncan said people should not be fooled if the sun was shining in their area.

The North Island was in for round two with a second pool of cloud, snow, hail and squalls pushing in from the south and southwest, he said.

Sleet fell in parts of west Auckland, with snow clouds clearly visible over the city - an extremely unusual sight for the region.

The heaviest snow in decades has fallen along the Kaimai Ranges, with heavy snow clearly seen above 500m and lighter snow estimated to have fallen to about 300m on Mt Te Aroha.

The next burst of energy is likely to be the last main one. It brought blizzards to Christchurch and other parts of Canterbury this morning and was now moving towards Wellington and southern Wairarapa, and in the west moving over Taranaki and up the west coast towards northern and central parts of the North Island.

Heavy snow continues to fall at Stratford, Taranaki, and WeatherWatch.co.nz says more is to come this afternoon before easing and clearing.

Heavy isolated hail storms are also expected right up into Auckland and beyond.

It snowed in parts of Wellington, down to sea level, but was isolated and not settling, Mr Duncan said.

The secondary burst could bring snow to the top of the Waitakeres during isolated squally showers, with a higher chance of snow on the Hunua Ranges to the south and the Coromandel ranges to the east.

Christchurch, Queenstown and Dunedin Airport have all cleared their runways of snow, and limited flights resumed on Monday afternoon.

Lines company Orion says power has been restored to all but a few small pockets in Canterbury, with about 50 homes still without power.

About 1,700 homes in Christchurch were without power earlier on Monday afternoon, including homes in the earthquake-affected suburbs of Burwood and Spencerville.

In Christchurch, where Radio New Zealand reporters measured snow as deep as 15cm, it was falling as fast as contractors could clear it on major routes, including around the four avenues.

Christchurch Airport incident controller Geoff Eban says staff tried to clear snow from the runways and aircraft parking areas for much of the day with snow ploughs and a grader, but each time they did so, more snow fell.

The Fire Service reported power lines down in Christchurch and Rakaia, while tree branches fell on to roads with the weight of snow.

St John Ambulance attended 19 incidents, in which people were injured by slipping on ice or snow, around the South Island during the morning.

Some firms are reporting only a handful of personnel were able to make it in to work.

Abbott's climate plan "a magic pudding"

Ms Gillard today toured the Hazelwood power station, one of the nation's dirtiest coal fired power stations, at Morwell in the state's east.

With the Latrobe Valley set to feel the biggest impact from the carbon tax plan, locals had called for Ms Gillard to personally explain the package to them.

Ms Gillard told residents she understands why they are anxious about the impact of the carbon tax package, but believes the region has a strong future.

She said the Government would be working alongside communities through the process.

"I am very confident that the Latrobe Valley has a bright future," she said.

Ms Gillard said the workers asked some hard questions as she explained the package away from the glare of the media.

"There's a lot of anxiety there and that's why I'm here to talk issues through with people, to be there directly available to have a conversation," she told reporters on Saturday.

The union leaders also told the Prime Minister that the Hazelwood workers deserve a fair share of the Government's compensation package and she should look after them.

Part of the Government's clean energy package includes closing some power stations, with Hazelwood thought to be at the top of the list.

Ms Gillard was unable to say if any Latrobe Valley power station would definitely close, saying it had to go through a tender process and any closure would take a number of years.

The Prime Minister says she has a fully costed, modelled carbon pollution reduction package available to the Australian people to examine and Mr Abbott has a "hocus pocus" plan that he pretends can cut carbon pollution.

She says the coalition's package will cost households $720 a year, which Mr Abbott must explain.

Only the best, unless I'm wrong, says Ross Garnaut

Professor Garnaut, who compiled his original Climate Change Review in 2008 and an updated version last November, said much of the media and public discussion on climate change was crude and distorted.

He described reaction to some of his conclusions as "somewhat rabid" and chided the media for misrepresenting US climate change policy.

Prof Garnaut also warned of the worst result of a rejection of carbon pricing would send Australia into a political retreat.

"If carbon pricing were defeated this time around it would open the way to myriad regulatory interventions," Prof Garnaut told a Melbourne conference.

"These would raise costs directly, there would be no opportunity to introduce productivity-raising tax cuts as a form of compensation to low and middle income earners.

The effects of climate change will be one of the reasons to expect higher food prices and higher agricultural prices in the 21st century . . . The question will be what parts of the world will retain a capacity to make use of those better markets," Professor Garnaut said.

He said farmers would also benefit if carbon pricing saw a slowing of growth in the coal and mining sector. "If the huge growth of coal and gas is a bit slower, if the mining industry is right, that will lead to a lower real exchange rate and a huge benefit to the rural sector."

Professor Garnaut conceded he was interested in seeing the final package to come out of the climate pricing negotiations. But he was cautious about passing judgment on the likely overcompensation of low-income earners through a 20 per cent "battler's buffer".

"We don't want the scheme to make lower- or middle-income Australians poorer, but I thought the job was done by just making sure we didn't make them poorer," he told The Australian.

Professor Garnaut said it was optimal for Australia to have a fixed price for three years to allow a comfortable transition to an emissions trading scheme and avoid extreme fluctuations "while the politics settles down".

But he acknowledged a cost of such an approach was that fluctuations in international prices, such as the EU emissions trading scheme, could "get out of step" with the Australian price.

"I recommended three years because it was the best. I only recommend the best for Australia," he said with a smile. "Unless I make a mistake, in which case I am very honest about correcting it.

Climate change sceptic Lord Monckton takes umbrage at gassing

Professional orator, who admits he has no academic qualification on climate science, today addressed a Perth mining conference and will tonight deliver a speech at Notre Dame University which has been sponsored by West Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart.

More than 50 Australian academics have signed a letter urging the university to cancel the speech on the basis that Lord Monckton ''stands for the kind of ignorance and superstition that universities have a duty to counter".

Lord Monckton was this week forced to apologise to the Gillard government's chief climate change adviser, Ross Garnaut, for comparing him to a Nazi during a recent speech in the US.

Today he lashed out at the Australian media for failing to accurately represent his views.

After addressing the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies annual conference, he said journalists should be asking climate scientists why they were predicting a rate of warming up to five times greater than experienced over the past 60 years.

The media should also be asking how much money it would cost to mitigate global warning compared to the cost of the climate damage that may arise if no action was taken.

''If you were more curious about those questions you would find just how fascinating this whole scam that has been put together to lead people away from those questions,'' he said.

''You should start asking these questions because great damage will be done to your economy if you go down the road of a carbon tax and the MRRT. Both of these are disasters in the making and will drive Australia straight into the third world.

Lord Monckton said on his side of the climate change debate, when people "screwed up" they didn't pretend they hadn't.

His comments came amid pressure from 50 Australian academics who are calling on the University of Notre Dame to cancel his talk tonight.

Lord Monckton is being sponsored by mining magnate Gina Rinehart to deliver the Lang Hancock Lecture at the university.

But postgraduate student Natalie Latter has written to Notre Dame saying it is inappropriate for him to speak and infringes on its academic credibility.

Lord Monckton said he was not fazed by the push, but said if it only involved 50 academics then Australian academia "is in a better state than many parts of the world".

"I'm glad to see a free country where we are allowed to speak out and the university very gladly resisted the blandishments of those who say 'no you mustn't listen to this man'," he said.

"All credit to Notre Dame for saying 'no, we will hear both sides of this cause'."

Lord Monckton said academics should not be threatened by a layman like him, but by scientists who shared his view.

During his speech at the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies, Lord Monckton said the cost of trying to reduce the effects of global warming far outweighed the cost of inaction.

He said the carbon tax would also put Australian companies at a severe disadvantage in competing with China.

Climate change is now critical, says the Climate Commission

NO amount of tree-planting or using biofuels in cars will stop the planet warming, the first report by the Climate Commission warns.

The findings are a blow to Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, who opposes the Government's carbon tax and has instead proposed to combat global warming through an offsets policy.

The report, which pulled together the latest peer-reviewed science on climate change, concluded that the controversial science behind climate change was beyond denial.

"The atmosphere is warming, the ocean is warming, ice is being lost from glaciers and ice caps and sea levels are rising," it said.

"Global surface temperature is rising fast; the last decade was the hottest on record. Human activities — the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation — are triggering the changes we are witnessing in the global climate.

The report also is highly critical of climate change sceptics, whom it claimed were intimidating climate scientists and confusing the public.

A Federal Parliament forum on climate change will be held tomorrow against a backdrop of Opposition Leader and climate change sceptic Tony Abbott's commitment to a carbon offsetting policy.

Coalition policy would see polluters and government investing in ways of storing greenhouse gases - in forests, biofuels or the earth - rather than being penalised for not reducing emissions.

But report author Professor Will Steffen, executive director of the Australian National University's Climate Change Institute, said yesterday offsetting simply could not substitute for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

"We have to reduce fossil fuel use and while locking away CO2 can be a good thing, it can't work alone. It must be accompanied by fossil fuel use and emissions reductions," he said.

"Putting CO2 into, say, soil, doesn't actually remove it from the ecosystem and it can be vulnerable to changes in land use. And if we get temperatures in the future higher than expected, offsetting might make warming worse because that carbon, that CO2, you paid people to put back into the earth can go back up into the air.

"Poorly constructed offsetting could lock in more severe climate change for the future."

Prof Steffen said the next decade was critical with Australia already suffering social, environmental and economic consequences of warming.

Prof Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, the Director of the Global Change Institute, University of Queensland, said the report should guide politicians and compel them into action.

"It is vitally important that responsible governments everywhere face up to the urgency of the situation that we face with respect to climate change, and to act on the recommendations of their experts," he said.

"They must listen to the experts, devise meaningful responses and act immediately on this important issue.

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Students due just minutes after storm

The tornado struck Glenfield College and scattered pine trees across a road just minutes before students would have been walking underneath them.

Glenfield College principal Ted Benton said no one was injured at the school but the outcome could have been much worse.

Forty-year-old pines were uprooted in seconds, smashing onto the cars of waiting parents below.

Ravi Naicker was waiting to pick up his two teenage daughters after school, unaware he was waiting in the path of a tornado.

A ridge of trees bordering the school was the worst hit, the wrought iron fences twisted and collapsed.

Although chaotic at times, administrators were calling the first day back a “success.”

Greene Central High School Principal Don Marr said the middle school portion of the day and the transition of students would be the most difficult part of the day.

“So far I think it is going really well,” Marr said. “I guess the proof in the pudding is going to be when we have one group coming into the school and one group leaving.

O'Hara is just one of several students on York College's campus with their guard up a little more than usual. He's reacting to news that two groups of students were robbed at gunpoint, just 15 minutes and a few blocks apart.

At 10 pm Saturday, two students were walking in the commuter lot on West Jackson Street. Three males, including one with a gun, ordered the students to the ground.

Then, the same thing happened to two other students walking in the 300 block of Springettsbury Avenue.

Students were made aware through bulletins, Residential Assistant's and Safety Officers. York College leaders say they do all they can to keep students protected, but something like this is a reminder they aren't immune to the real world just outside their campus.

Since the students will no longer have afternoon classes, many teachers are adding more homework to prepare the students.

Ginn told her class to expect homework on a nightly basis.

As high school students arrived at the school they were sent to the gym to wait for the middle school day to conclude. Administrators said the high school students would start their day in third period — their lunch period — and finish the day in second period.

The tornado went across the tennis courts of the school.

Ms White said no one at the school was injured. Students were kept in their classrooms for about half an hour and school buses were delayed.

Nearby, Albany Junior High School principal Mike Jackson said the tornado hit just as students were leaving school.

"It was a strange way to finish the day really."

He watched from his office window as the tornado, carrying roofing iron, "touched down" twice.

Tornado kills 1, leaves 14 injured

The destructive tornado which swept across Auckland's North Shore today killed one person, injured 14 others and left a trail of destruction from Albany to Glenfield.

While this is at the lower end of the scale compared to the type of tornadoes that have been ripping through the United States in recent weeks, it is still the largest tornado to hit New Zealand in several years.

"If the winds were strong enough to lift cars, they would probably be more than 200kmh and we just don't get events like this in New Zealand very often. Usually they are EF0 or 'mini-tornadoes.

Auckland Mayor Len Brown later told Campbell Live a man in his 30s had died, while other reports said he was found in the Albany Mega Centre carpark.

St John Ambulance northern region operations manager Murray Holt said a triage centre was set up at Albany shortly after the tornado swept through.

There's probably six or seven seriously damaged cars, and I saw cars flying off the ground about 30 metres in the air. They landed in car parks and some went through the old Placemaker's building."

The twister hit Albany, about 15km north of the Auckland Harbour Bridge, just before 3pm, ripping roofs off houses and commercial buildings in teh suburb's commercial centre, uprooting trees and turning cars and a campervan on their sides.

Tornadoes were very rare in New Zealand because the land mass in much colder than tornado-prone areas like the southern US, Hickey said.

During May 1991, a tornado hit Albany causing roofing iron to be lifted from homes and the destruction of a small church on the south-western side of the village.

New Zealand's worst tornado hit Hamilton in 1948, killing three people, injuring 80 others and destroying more the 200 homes and businesses.