The magnitude 7.1 earthquake which struck Christchurch about 4.30am today rates among the top dozen to hit New Zealand.

Christchurch residents are recounting terrifying ordeals during this morning's 7.1 magnitude earthquake.

The Govt will spend $3.5m to upgrade tsunami warning systems across the Pacific, Murray McCully announced today.

The rescue of thousands of flood victims in Pakistan can be a precarious business.

In New Orleans the healing has barely begun for some since Hurricane Katrina five years ago and, more recently, the great Gulf spill.

Five years on, Rupert Cornwell looks back on the hurricane and floods that shamed America

Authorities in Pakistan were battling yesterday to save a city in a flood-devastated southern province.

Several carriages of a passenger train fell into water after floods knocked out a bridge in China.

The tsunami that struck Tonga and Samoa last year was the result of a rare geological event.

The world's leading climate scientists are gathering in the United States this week.

Waterlogged North Island areas won't get an immediate reprieve as forecasters warn of more "wet events".

A huge undersea volcano has dramatically reduced in size after partly collapsing more than 100 metres toward the ocean floor.

As rising floodwaters threatened to wash away his home of four years all Peter Brake could do was wait, watch and hope for the best.

Bay of Plenty flood levels are dropping, but 15 people have been evacuated from their Whakatane homes.

The eastern Bay of Plenty town of Opotiki remains isolated this morning.

Central Punjab, Pakistan's fertile agricultural belt, is now besieged by unprecedented floods.