CARACAS: It turns out there is a Guinness record for the place with the most lightning, and an area of Venezuela with 3,600 flashes of it per hour has won. The certification was handed over on Tuesday by Guinness Book of World Records representative Johanna Hessling. The natural phenomenon in the western state of Zulia is called the Catatumbo Lightning, which generates myriad electrical storms from April to November at the mouth of the River Catatumbo, at the southern end of Lake Maracaibo. The numbers of lightning bolts are indeed staggering: an estimated 18 to 60 per minute, up to 3,600 per hour and 1.2 million a year, with each flash packing enough juice to light up 100 million light bulbs, according to the Agencia Venezolana de Noticias. Venezuelan Vice President Jorge Arreaza received the certificate from the Guinness people. The phenomenon was proposed to Guinness last year by a Venezuelan environmentalist named Erick Quiroga, who has been monitoring the lightning for 17 years.
Anti-kidnapping squad in Mexico
MEXICO CITY: Mexico’s government yesterday created an anti-kidnapping agency after abductions soared 20 percent last year despite President Enrique Pena Nieto’s vow to reduce the crime. The new department will answer to the country’s interior ministry, where Pena Nieto has centered his anti-crime programs after his predecessor relied on police and the military. Government data showed that reported kidnapping jumped to 1,695 cases last year compared with 1,407 in 2012 in an embarrassment for Pena Nieto, who said he would shift the government’s focus from hunting drug lords to reducing kidnappings and extortion.
Storm, cold snap paralyse US South
WASHINGTON: The usually balmy US South was paralysed by a freak snowstorm that forced children to shelter in their schools overnight and prompted officials across the region to issue emergency declarations. Schools remained closed in many localities across the South yesterday, as authorities struggled to shake off snowfall and freezing temperatures. Temperatures in Atlanta fell to minus 10 degrees Celsius, the coldest in memory for many residents. The wintry conditions were felt as far south as Texas and affecting Florida, Alabama and South Carolina.
ITV to launch first pay-TV channel
LONDON: ITV is launching its first pay-TV channel, one dedicated to British drama, exclusively on Sky’s satellite and online platforms as part of a new four-year partnership with its pay-TV rival, the UK broadcaster said yesterday. ITV Encore, due to launch later this year, will broadcast re-runs of shows previously transmitted on ITV’s free-to-air channels, ITV said, and from 2015 it will also screen original commissions.
Agencies
