Heavy rains flood villages in Russia

MOSCOW: Heavy rainfall has flooded several villages in Yakutia, in Russia’s Far East region, authorities said on Tuesday.

Yakutia has been badly affected in recent summers by extreme weather -- including wildfires and floods -- that scientists say is linked to climate change. Such extreme weather events are expected to become even more frequent, more prolonged and more intense in the future. The government of Yakutia said the rains had broken structures around a dam and left a remote village in Siberia "almost entirely" flooded.