An Acehnese woman looks at a house destroyed at a vilage hit by flood and landslide in Aceh Tamiang district, Indonesia, Thursday, Dec. 28, 2006. Authorities deployed boats and helicopters on Thursday to shift aid to survivors of floods and landslides in northwestern Indonesia that have killed at least 109 and displaced more than 400,000. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)

Death toll in Indonesian floods rises

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - Rescuers reached remote villages, delivering food and medicine Friday to thousands of people displaced by floods and rain-induced landslides that have claimed at least 126 lives on Indonesia's Sumatra island.

In neighboring Malaysia, which is experiencing its most severe weather in a century, authorities found the body of a 14-year-old boy floating in a flood-swollen canal, bringing the death total there to 11.

Days of torrential rain have forced more than 400,000 people from their homes in Indonesia and displaced nearly 90,000 in Malaysia.

Heavy rain continued to fall over the hardest-hit areas of Sumatra, complicating relief efforts and adding to the misery of survivors, said local government spokesman Nadir Musa.

Most affected was the northernmost province of Aceh, where helicopters dropped food, tents and medicines while volunteers in dinghies distributed aid, Musa said.

At least 76 people were killed in Aceh, said Jabad, an official in the area who goes by only one name. That was 70 less than he had reported earlier in the day. Jabad said he mistakenly added some of then 150 people listed as missing to his count of the dead.

At least 50 others have died in neighboring North Sumatra province, said Edy Sofyan, the provincial spokesman.

Seasonal downpours cause of dozens of landslides and flash floods each year in the sprawling archipelagic nation where millions of people live in mountainous areas or in fertile flood plains.

Aceh was the hardest hit province in the 2004 tsunami, losing an estimated 167,000 people, but the floods and landslides have affected inland regions that were untouched by that disaster.

Malaysian flood toll rises to 11

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - The death toll from Malaysia's worst floods in decades has risen to 11, officials have said, and the government has warned of further flooding with more heavy rain forecast.

The latest victim was a 14-year-old boy whose body was found floating in a canal, the official Bernama news agency said.

A five-year-old girl is also missing, after the car her family was travelling in was swept away by strong currents. Her father survived but the bodies of her mother and three-year-old sister have been retrieved.

The number of people forced to flee their homes and shelter in relief centres in southern Johor state, which has been hardest-hit, rose to 61,352 on Friday from 55,212 the day before, Bernama said.

The government has urged rescuers to brace themselves for another round of the disaster after forecasters perdicted more bad weather for Johor and central Pahang state until Sunday.

"If it doesn't occur, then thank God, but if it does, we must be in a state of readiness so that the necessary operations can be carried out efficiently," deputy premier Najib Razak said Thursday.

Hailstorm damages National Museum

A freak hailstorm in Canberra caused a ceiling to collapse at the National Museum of Australia late on Friday.

The museum would remain closed on Saturday while the damage was assessed, a spokesman said.

He said an administration block at the popular tourist attraction was damaged when intense storms swept through the national capital shortly after 4pm (AEDT) on Friday.

There was no damage to the museum's valuable collection of Australian materials and artefacts.

"What appears to have happened is that there's been some blockage in the drainage on the roof, in the guttering. There's been a build-up of hail and water and that's crashed through," the museum's director of public affairs Dennis Grant said.

"The damage has been confined to the administration block, so the collection is safe and secure."

Mr Grant could not put a figure on the damage, which he said was "all repairable".

There was no one in the administration area when the ceiling came down.

Strong winds, lightning and heavy rain lashed the capital for about half an hour on Friday, and the lawns of Parliament House were coated in hailstones up to one centimetre in diameter.

By 6pm (AEDT) on Friday the sun was shining again after the short downpour that delivered only 11mm of rain to Canberra, which is experiencing drought.

The ACT Emergency Services Agency said its volunteers received 22 calls for help following the storms, with Canberra's southern suburbs the worst affected.

Most requests for assistance were for minor flooding damage and fallen trees, a spokesman said.

A severe thunderstorm warning remains in force for the ACT and surrounding regions.

A spokesman for the Bureau of Meteorology said showers and thunderstorms were likely during the next few days.

The National Museum, opened in 2001, is considered one of Australia's most iconic buildings, known for its distinctive architecture and prominent location on Lake Burley Griffin.

Ancient ice shelf snaps, breaks free from Canadian Arctic

TORONTO, Ontario (AP) -- A giant ice shelf the size of 11,000 football fields has snapped free from Canada's Arctic, scientists said.

The mass of ice broke clear 16 months ago from the coast of Ellesmere Island, about 800 kilometers (497 miles) south of the North Pole, but no one was present to see it in Canada's remote north.

Scientists using satellite images later noticed that it became a newly formed ice island in just an hour and left a trail of icy boulders floating in its wake. (Watch the satellite images that clued in ice watchers)

Warwick Vincent of Laval University, who studies Arctic conditions, traveled to the newly formed ice island and could not believe what he saw.

"This is a dramatic and disturbing event. It shows that we are losing remarkable features of the Canadian North that have been in place for many thousands of years. We are crossing climate thresholds, and these may signal the onset of accelerated change ahead," Vincent said Thursday.

In 10 years of working in the region he has never seen such a dramatic loss of sea ice, he said.

The collapse was so powerful that earthquake monitors 250 kilometers (155 miles) away picked up tremors from it.

The Ayles Ice Shelf, roughly 66 square kilometers (41 square miles) in area, was one of six major ice shelves remaining in Canada's Arctic.

Scientists say it is the largest event of its kind in Canada in 30 years and point their fingers at climate change as a major contributing factor.

"It is consistent with climate change," Vincent said, adding that the remaining ice shelves are 90 percent smaller than when they were first discovered in 1906.

"We aren't able to connect all of the dots ... but unusually warm temperatures definitely played a major role."

Laurie Weir, who monitors ice conditions for the Canadian Ice Service, was poring over satellite images in 2005 when she noticed that the shelf had split and separated.

Weir notified Luke Copland, head of the new global ice lab at the University of Ottawa, who initiated an effort to find out what happened.

Using U.S. and Canadian satellite images, as well as data from seismic monitors, Copland discovered that the ice shelf collapsed in the early afternoon of August 13, 2005.

"What surprised us was how quickly it happened," Copland said. "It's pretty alarming.

"Even 10 years ago scientists assumed that when global warming changes occur that it would happen gradually so that perhaps we expected these ice shelves just to melt away quite slowly, but the big surprise is that for one they are going, but secondly that when they do go, they just go suddenly, it's all at once, in a span of an hour."

Within days, the floating ice shelf had drifted a few miles (kilometers) offshore. It traveled west for 50 kilometers (31 miles) until it finally froze into the sea ice in the early winter.

The Canadian ice shelves are packed with ancient ice that dates back over 3,000 years. They float on the sea but are connected to land.

Derek Mueller, a polar researcher with Vincent's team, said the ice shelves get weaker and weaker as the temperature rises. He visited Ellesmere's Ward Hunt Ice Shelf in 2002 and noticed it had cracked in half.

"We're losing our ice shelves, and this a feature of the landscape that is in danger of disappearing altogether from Canada," Mueller said. "In the global perspective Antarctica has many ice shelves bigger than this one, but then there is the idea that these are indicators of climate change."

The spring thaw may bring another concern as the warming temperatures could release the ice shelf from its Arctic grip. Prevailing winds could then send the ice island southwards, deep into the Beaufort Sea.

"Over the next few years this ice island could drift into populated shipping routes," Weir said. "There's significant oil and gas development in this region as well, so we'll have to keep monitoring its location over the next few years."

Denver areas smacked with 28 inches of snow

DENVER, Colorado (AP) -- The second major snow storm in a week pounded Colorado on Friday, burying the foothills under another 2 feet of snow, shutting down highways and forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights at the Denver airport.

The storm stretched across the Rocky Mountains into the western Plains, where the National Weather Service warned that the gusting wind could whip up blinding whiteouts.

Colorado Gov. Bill Owens again declared a statewide disaster, putting the National Guard on standby as areas west of Denver got 28 inches of snow Thursday and early Friday. In the city, about 16 inches had fallen by morning. Interstate 25, the main north-south highway through the state, was closed about 60 miles north of Denver.

While last week's blizzard dumped nearly 2 feet of snow in about 24 hours, making it impossible for airport and highway plows to keep up, snow from the new storm was expected to stretch over about three days.

United Airlines and Frontier Airlines, the largest carriers at Denver International Airport, both canceled 513 flights Thursday through Friday morning, trimming their schedules to ease congestion from weather delays.

"Right now, we're planning to operate a full schedule starting at noon," United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said early Friday.

Interstate 70, the main east-west highway through the state, was closed early Friday between Denver and the Kansas line. Greyhound canceled all trips out of Denver on Friday and more cancelations could follow this weekend.

The metro area's light rail trains, buses and public transit planned to run on their regular schedules, though. Maintenance crews covered Denver streets with deicer, but offices still closed early Thursday and residents stocked up on groceries.

With memories fresh of the 4,700 stranded holiday travelers and backed up flights around the country last week, New Year's travelers jammed the airport Thursday trying to get out of Colorado while they still could.

Managers at the nation's fifth-busiest airport drew up snowplowing plans, and airlines urged ticket-holders to get early flights or wait until after the storm.

Traveler: 'It's been crazy'

Chris Malmay of San Diego, California, hoped to spend a long holiday with family in Colorado, but because of the first storm, he couldn't reach Denver until Christmas Eve. On Thursday, his flight back to California was canceled because of the second storm.

"It's been crazy," Malmay said as he waited to board a plane Friday. "I'm saying, 'Please let me go back where it's sunny. You won't get snowed in, I promise."'

Ann and Mill Younkers arrived hours early to check in for an evening flight back to Naples, Florida. The couple's trip to see their daughter in Denver was delayed three days by the first storm, and they didn't get in until Christmas morning.

This time, they had backup reservations for Sunday and were ready to reclaim their rental car if necessary.

"You just have to have a good sense of humor and keep your patience," Mill Younkers said. "Try to always have a plan B."

The airport and airlines called in extra workers, and security lines moved relatively quickly. But long lines formed at ticket counters as travelers tried to adjust their plans.

The Frontier line snaked across the cavernous terminal, weaving behind the lines of ticket counters on the other side of the building.

Frontier waived its usual change fee to encourage passengers to catch earlier flights. "Let's try and get as many people out ahead of the storm as we can," Frontier spokesman Joe Hodas said.

After running out of bedding for stranded passengers during the first storm, airport managers lined up cots and blankets and urged food vendors to ensure they had plenty of supplies on hand.

Nasty storm in New Mexico

In New Mexico, Interstate 40 remained closed Friday morning from Albuquerque to Santa Rosa, with numerous crashes were reported after a storm swept through.

Residents of Cheyenne, Wyoming, also braced for another snowstorm. Heavy snow began falling around dusk, and forecasters said up to a foot was expected.

In California, a powerful winter storm left tens of thousands of people without power as winds gusted to near-hurricane force. Forecasters warned of dangerous winds, with gusts over 70 mph, through Friday morning in the valleys and mountain passes.