MUNDIAL FATALISM AND UNCOMMON HAPPENINGS UPDATES

An earthquake kills at least 63 people and destroys more than 87,000 homes in Java, Indonesia

2009-09-08T04:52:00.000-07:00

The 2009 West Java earthquake was a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that occurred on September 2, 2009 at 14:55 local time in West Java, Indonesia,which killed at least 63 people. Dozens are said to be missing.More than 87,000 homes have been destroyed.

The quake was felt in the capital Jakarta although damage there was minimal. Rescue efforts are underway to retrieve those trapped under landslides. It is Indonesia's deadliest earthquake since 2006.

The earthquake's focus lies close to the major fault plane where the Indo-Australian Plate is being subducted beneath the Eurasian Plate. However, the focal mechanisms determined for this event shows reverse faulting at a high angle to the trend of the subduction zone and it has been suggested that the cause was deformation within the descending slab.
At least thirty-two people were initially reported to have been killed by the quake. Buildings in Bandung and Tasikmalaya, the town closest to the epicenter, were damaged, and hundreds of people were injured. An estimated 18,300 homes and offices were earlier thought to have been damaged. This figure later rose to 87,000+.

The quake was felt as far away as Jakarta, Indonesia's capital; causing evacuation in many office buildings and hotels.

At least 11 houses were covered by a landslide in Cianjur.
Around 37 inhabitants, including 13 children, of Cikangkareng were affected by a landslide caused by the quake and are thought to have been buried beneath rubble. The area has become a breeding ground for voyeurs who are flocking to the area to take photographs of the destruction and victims.
At least one hospital was destroyed by the quake.
Confirmed death tolls by area were issued by The Jakarta Post on 4 September.
in Cianjur 21 people a was killed while in Garut 10 were recorded and in Tasikmalaya 9. in Bandung 8 was killed while in Ciamis At least 1.in Sukabumi At least 1 while in
Bogor At least 1. also in West Bandung At least 1

Residents fearful of aftershocks are staying indoors.
4.9 magnitude, on September 2, 2009, at 16:28 local time

Some roads were cleared on 4 September. Aid is also arriving at the affected areas.

The Bandung Health Agency says nearby victims of the quake will be eligible for free medical treatment for at least a month. Rescuers have been equipped with machinery but are struggling. 34 doctors and 52 paramedics have been sent to at least 12 districts.
More than 25,000 affected people are being housed in makeshift tents.

AIR FRANCE PLANE FLIGHT 447 CRASH ON THE ATLANTIC CLAIMS 228

2009-07-08T08:46:00.002-07:00

Air France Flight 447 was a scheduled commercial flight from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Paris, that on 1 June 2009 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 216 passengers and 12 crew members.

The aircraft, an Air France Airbus A330-200 registered as F-GZCP, took off on 31 May 2009 at 19:03 local time (22:03 UTC). The last contact with the crew was a routine message to Brazilian air traffic controllers at 01:33 UTC, as the aircraft approached the edge of Brazilian radar surveillance over the Atlantic Ocean, en-route to Senegalese-controlled airspace off the coast of West Africa. Forty minutes later, a four-minute-long series of automatic radio messages was received from the plane, indicating numerous problems and warnings. The exact meanings of these messages are still under investigation, but the aircraft is believed to have been lost shortly after it sent the automated messages.

On 6 June 2009, a search and rescue operation recovered two bodies and debris from the aircraft floating in the ocean 680 mi (1,090 km) northeast of the Fernando de Noronha islands off Brazil's northern coast. The debris included a briefcase containing an airline ticket, later confirmed to have been issued for the flight. On 27 June the search for bodies and debris was called off, having recovered 51 bodies.

This accident is the deadliest in the history of Air France, surpassing the crash of an Air France charter flight from Paris-Orly Airport to Atlanta on 3 June 1962, and the airline's first fatal crash since the Concorde Flight 4590 in July 2000.Paul-Louis Arslanian, the head of the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile (BEA, Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety), described it as the worst accident in French aviation history. It is the second fatal accident involving the Airbus A330; the first A330 accident with fatalities was a test flight.

The investigation continues, but is severely hampered by the absence of the flight data recorders, lack of eyewitness accounts or radar tracks, and the BEA did not reach any definitive conclusion in its interim report published on 2 July 2009.
1 JuneApproximate flight path of AF 447. The solid red line shows the actual route. The dashed line indicates the planned route beginning with the position of the last transmission heard. All times are UTC.The aircraft departed from Rio de Janeiro-Galeão International Airport on 31 May 2009 at 19:03 local time (22:03 UTC), with a scheduled arrival at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport approximately 11 hours later.

An Air France spokesperson stated on 3 June that “the aircraft sent a series of electronic messages over a three-minute period, which represented about a minute of information. Exactly what that data means hasn't been sorted out, yet.” An aviation safety expert explained a few days later that “complete failure would require 100% failure of the electrical system,” which “did not happen early in the flight, because the system was uplinking data to the maintenance facility, indicating there was some electricity on the airplane.”

The messages, sent from an onboard maintenance system, Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), were made public on 4 June 2009. These transcripts indicate that between 02:10 UTC and 02:14 UTC, 5 failure reports (FLR) and 19 warnings (WRN) were transmitted. The messages resulted from equipment failure data, captured by a built-in system for testing and reporting, and cockpit warnings also posted to ACARS. The failures and warnings in the 5 minutes of transmission concerned navigation auto-flight, flight controls, and cabin air-handling (codes beginning with 34, 22 , 37 and 21, respectively).

Among the ACARS transmissions in the first minute is one message that indicates a fault in the pitot-static system (code 34111506). Sources close to the investigation have confirmed that “the first automated system-failure message in a string of radio alerts from the crashed jet explicitly indicated that the airspeed sensors were faulty”. The twelve warning messages with the same time code indicate that the autopilot and auto-thrust system had disengaged, that the TCAS was in fault mode, and flight mode went from 'normal law' to 'alternate law'. The 02:10 transmission contained a set of coordinates which indicated at that the aircraft was at 2°59′N 30°35′W / 2.98°N 30.59°W / 2.98; -30.59.

The remainder of the messages occurred from 02:11 UTC to 02:14 UTC, containing a fault message for an Air Data Inertial Reference Unit (ADIRU) and the Integrated Standby Instrument System (ISIS). At 02:12 UTC, a warning message NAV ADR DISAGREE indicated that there was a disagreement between the independent air data systems (more precisely: that after one of the three independent systems had been diagnosed as faulty and excluded from consideration, the two remaining systems disagreed). At 02:13 UTC, a fault message for the flight management guidance and envelope computer was sent. One of the two final messages transmitted at 02:14 UTC was a warning referring to the air data reference system, the other ADVISORY (Code 213100206) was a "cabin vertical speed warning".

A meteorological analysis of the area surrounding the flight path showed a mesoscale convective system extending to an altitude of around 50,000 feet (15 km; 9.5 mi) above the Atlantic Ocean before Flight 447 disappeared. From satellite images taken near the time of the incident, it appears that the aircraft encountered a severe thunderstorm, likely containing severe turbulence.

Detailed analysis of the weather conditions for the flight shows it is possible that the aircraft's final 12 minutes could have been spent "flying through significant turbulence and thunderstorm activity for about 75 mi (121 km)", and may have been subjected to rime icing, and possibly clear ice or graupel. Satellite imagery loops from the CIMSS clarify that the flight was coping with a series of storms, not just one.

Commercial air transport crews routinely encounter this type of storm in this area. Generally, when storms of this type are encountered at night, pilots use onboard radar to navigate around them.

In this instance, shortly after the last verbal contact was made with Air Traffic Control about 350 mi (560 km) north-east of Natal, Brazil (station identifier SBNT), the aircraft likely traversed an area of intense deep convection which had formed within a broad band of thunderstorms along the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). Turbulence in the vicinity of these rapidly-developing storms may have contributed to the accident.According to news sources, 12 other flights shared more or less the same route that Flight 447 was using at the time of the accident.

Colonel Jorge Amaral, deputy head of the Aeronautical Communications Center of the Brazilian Air Force, discussing the search for the aircraft.On June 1 at 02:20 UTC, Brazilian air traffic controllers contacted air traffic control in Dakar after noticing that the plane had not made the required radio call signaling its crossing into Senegalese airspace.The Brazilian Air Force then began a search and rescue operation from the Brazilian archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, and at 19:00 UTC on 1 June, Spain sent a CASA 235 maritime patrol plane in search and rescue operations near Cape Verde. French reconnaissance planes were also dispatched, including one Breguet Atlantic from Dakar, and the French requested satellite equipment from the United States to help find the plane. Brazilian Air Force spokesperson Colonel Henry Munhoz told Brazilian TV that radar on Cape Verde failed to pick up the aircraft over the Atlantic Ocean.

Later on June 1, officials with Air France and the French government had already presumed that the plane had been lost with no survivors. An Air France spokesperson told L'Express that there was "no hope for survivors," and French President Nicolas Sarkozy told relatives of the passengers that there was only a minimal chance that anyone survived.

Also late on 1 June, the deputy chief of the Brazilian Aeronautical Communications Center, Jorge Amaral, confirmed that 30 minutes after the Air France Airbus had transmitted the automatic report, a commercial pilot had reported the sighting of "orange dots" in the middle of the Atlantic, which could indicate the glow of wreckage on fire. his sighting was reported by a TAM Airlines crew flying from Europe to Brazil, at approximately 1300 km (700 miles) from Fernando de Noronha. Another similar sighting of "something flashing brightly over the ocean then taking a descending vertical trajectory" was reported by the Spanish pilot of Air Comet Flight 974 flying from Lima to Madrid. The Brazilian newspaper O Globo reported that wreckage debris was discovered off the Senegalese coast, but that its origin was still uncertain. EarthTimes and news.com.au reported that the crew of the French freighter Douce France spotted debris floating on the ocean in the area earlier indicated by the TAM crew.

The crew of a Brazilian Air Force C-130 Hercules searches for wreckage from the Airbus A330 of Air France Flight 447, while flying at low level 650 km (350 miles) north of Fernando de Noronha islands.
(3 June 2009)On 2 June at 15:20 (UTC), the Brazilian Air Force, using an Embraer R-99A Erieye, found wreckage and signs of oil, possibly jet fuel, strewn along a 5 km (3 mi) band 650 km (400 mi) north-east of Fernando de Noronha Island, near Saint Peter and Paul Rocks. Spotted wreckage included a plane seat, an orange buoy, a barrel, "white pieces and electrical conductors". Later that day, after meeting with relatives of the Brazilians on the aircraft, Brazilian Defence Minister Nelson Jobim announced that the Air Force believed the wreckage was from Flight 447. Brazilian vice-president José Alencar (acting as president since Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was out of the country) declared three days of official mourning.

Also on 2 June, two French Navy vessels, Foudre and Ventôse, were en route to the suspected crash site. In addition, other ships sent to the site included the French research vessel Pourquoi Pas?, equipped with two mini-submarines able to descend to 6,000 m (20,000 ft),since the area of the Atlantic in which the plane went down may be as deep as 4,700 m (15,000 ft). A United States Navy Lockheed Martin P-3 Orion anti-submarine warfare and maritime patrol aircraft was also deployed in the search due to its low altitude endurance, patrol capability, search and rescue sonobuoys and magnetic anomaly detector (MAD) sensor suite.

On 3 June, the first Brazilian Navy ship, the patrol boat Grajaú, reached the area in which the first debris was spotted. The Brazilian Navy has sent a total of five ships to the debris site; the frigate Constituição and the corvette Caboclo were scheduled to reach the area on 4 June, the frigate Bosísio on 6 June and the replenishment oiler Almirante Gastão Motta on 7 June.

On 5 June, French defence minister Hervé Morin announced that the nuclear submarine Émeraude was being sent to the area, to assist in the search for the missing flight recorders or "black-boxes" which might be located at great depth. The submarine would use its sonar to listen for the ultra-sonic signal emitted by the black boxes' "pingers". On 10 June, the Émeraude reached the crash zone of Air France Flight 447 with plans to troll 13 sq mi (34 km2) a day, listening for the pingers. The Émeraude was to work with the mini-sub Nautile, which can descend to the ocean floor and was a key part of the search for the RMS Titanic. The French submarines would be aided by two U.S. underwater audio devices, capable of picking up signals even at a depth of 20,000 ft (6,100 m).

Colour bathymetry relief map of the part of Atlantic Ocean into which Air France Flight 447 crashed. Image shows two different data sets with different resolution.

FLOODING KILLS AT LEAST 66 IN VIETNAM AS LANDSLIDES KILLS 26 IN PHILIPINES

2009-05-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

HANOI, Vietnam - The death toll from nearly a week of flooding across northern and central Vietnam stood at 66 Monday and parts of the capital remained under water, but rains were easing and floodwaters receding in many areas.

Hanoi alone recorded 18 deaths since heavy rains started lashing the city Friday, authorities said. Elsewhere 48 deaths have been reported, authorities said.

Rains were expected in Hanoi and some northern provinces Monday and Tuesday, but weather forecasters said they would be lighter than the downpours that soaked the capital over the weekend.

That would provide welcome relief to residents of Hanoi, where many streets were under three feet (a meter) of water and scores of businesses remained shuttered.

"I have been stuck in my house for the past three days," said Nguyen Manh Hung, a businessman who lives on a street in southern Hanoi where water reached his waist. "It's unbelievable to see people navigating the street in boats and by horse-drawn carriages."

Vietnamese television on Sunday night quoted Hanoi Mayor Nguyen The Thao as saying it would take the city four or five days to pump excess water into the Red River — longer if heavy rains resume.

More than 20 inches (500 millimeters) of rain have fallen on the city in the past three days, the heaviest rains in more than two decades.

Authorities reported six deaths in the northern provinces of Vinh Phuc, Bac Giang and Thai Nguyen on Monday.

The central Nghe An province became worst-hit after 10 more bodies were recovered Monday, bringing the death toll there to 22, said provincial disaster official Nguyen Dinh Thuy.

Rains continued to fall in the province, preventing rescue workers from accessing affected areas, Thuy said.

"Water is everywhere. Many parts of the province are still isolated," said Thuy. "We have to use motorboats to rush food aid to villagers, who have been in hunger for several days."

Floods have inundated more than 100,000 homes across northern and central Vietnam, the national committee for flood and storm control said on its Web site.

More than 590,000 acres (240,000 hectares) of rice and vegetables have been destroyed and about 100 miles (170 kilometers) of rural roads damaged, it said.

MANILA, Philippines - Mudslides tumbled down a rain-soaked mountain in the southern Philippines, burying dozens of shanties in a gold mining village and killing at least 26 people, a provincial governor said Tuesday.

A 50-member police and military rescue team headed to the remote village of Napnapan to help search for at least six people missing a day after the landslides hit, said Gov. Arthur Uy of Compostela Valley province.

The village, which normally has no police presence, is about 64 miles (40 kilometers) from the nearest main town and the rescuers brought a back hoe and other heavy equipment to clear the only road leading to it, police Inspector Winifredo Regidor said.
One mudslide slammed into about 30 shanties, followed by another that swept away a house, Uy told The Associated Press by telephone.

About 19 people, most of them miners, were treated for injuries, Uy said. Three of them were airlifted in an air force helicopter that brought in a medical team, police said.

Residents ignored warnings
The landslide-prone area was saturated after days of rain and residents had ignored warnings to leave, Uy said.

"We have been asking them to leave, and we are planning to cordon the area," Uy said. "We are happy to have this gold mining area here. But the dark side are the deaths that occur in these natural calamities."

The area around Mount Diwata — about 580 miles southeast of Manila — has about 40,000 residents, mostly miners and their families.

Forecasters said additional rain over the southern Philippines could trigger more flooding and landslides.

SWINE FLU OUTBREAK KILLS AT LEAST 69

2009-05-20T06:52:00.000-07:00

The 2009 outbreak of Influenza A virus subtype H1N1 is an epidemic of a new strain of influenza virus identified in April 2009, commonly referred to as "swine flu" by the media. The source of the outbreak in humans is still unknown. Cases were first discovered in the U.S. and officials soon suspected a link between those incidents and an earlier outbreak of late-season flu cases in Mexico. Within days hundreds of suspected cases, some of them fatal, were discovered in Mexico, with yet more cases found in the U.S. and several other countries in the Northern Hemisphere. Soon thereafter, the U.N.'s World Health Organization (WHO), along with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), expressed concern that the A(H1N1) could become a worldwide flu pandemic, and WHO then raised its pandemic disease alert level to "Phase 5" out of the six maximum, as a "signal that a pandemic is at the imminent level".

Although virologists have noted that the outbreak has proven relatively mild and less fatal than historic pandemics, other health officials, including CDC Director Richard Besser, worry about what might happen later in the year, stating that "we are not seeing any sign of this petering out. We are still on the upswing of the epidemic curve. The number of cases is expected to rise as the new flu spreads across the country." In addition, the new virus strain could mutate over the coming months, leading to a new and potentially more dangerous flu outbreak later in the year.

The new strain is an apparent reassortment of four strains of influenza A virus subtype H1N1.Analysis by the CDC identified the four component strains as one endemic in humans, one endemic in birds, and two endemic in pigs (swine).However, other scientists have stated that analysis of the 2009 swine flu (A/H1N1) viral genome suggests that all RNA segments are of swine origin, and "this preliminary analysis suggests at least two swine ancestors to the current H1N1, one of them related to the triple reassortant viruses isolated in North America in 1998." One swine influenza ancestor strain was widespread in the United States, the other in Eurasia.
Both the place and the species in which the virus originated are unknown. Analysis has suggested that the H1N1 strain responsible for the current outbreak first evolved around September 2008 and circulated in the human population for several months before the first cases were detected. The new strain was first diagnosed in two children by the CDC, first on April 14 in San Diego County, California and a few days later in nearby Imperial County, California. Neither child had been in contact with pigs.
Spread within Mexico
Further information: 2009 swine flu outbreak in Mexico
The outbreak was first detected in Mexico City, where surveillance began picking up a surge in cases of influenza-like illness (ILI) starting March 18. The surge was assumed by Mexican authorities to be "late-season flu" (which usually coincides with a mild Influenzavirus B peak) until April 21, when a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention alert concerning two isolated cases of a novel swine flu was reported in the media. Some samples were sent to the U.S.-based CDC on April 18. The Mexican cases were confirmed by the CDC and the World Health Organization to be a new strain of H1N1.
Cases were also reported in the states of San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo, Querétaro and Mexico State.Mexican Health Minister José Ángel Córdova on April 24, said "We’re dealing with a new flu virus that constitutes a respiratory epidemic that so far is controllable." Mexican news media speculate that the outbreak may have started in February near a Smithfield Foods pig plant amid complaints about its intensive farming practices, although no pigs in Mexico have tested positive for the virus. Smithfield Foods retorted that that it had found no clinical signs or symptoms of the presence of swine influenza in the company's swine herd, or its employees at its joint ventures in Mexico, and routinely administers influenza virus vaccination to their swine herds and that it conducts monthly testing for the presence of swine influenza.
The first death from swine flu occurred on April 13, when a diabetic woman from Oaxaca died from respiratory complications. The Mexican fatalities are alleged to be mainly young adults of 25 to 45, a common trait of pandemic flu. Although by late April there had been reports of 152 "probable deaths" in Mexico, the WHO had received reports of only 7 confirmed deaths as of April 29 and explicitly denied the larger figure. Later, Mexico's Health Secretary declared that around 100 early suspected deaths from swine flu could not be confirmed because samples were not taken.The WHO Rapid Pandemic Assessment Collaboration has estimated that 23,000 individuals may have been infected in Mexico in 14 to 73 generations of flu propagation prior to late April.
Southern Hemisphere
The outbreak comes at the beginning of the flu season for the Southern Hemisphere, including Australia, Oceania, southern Africa, and most of South America. July is usually the height of flu season in this part of the world.In a May 18th article, CDC’s Dr. Richard Besser was quoted as saying in reference to the Southern Hemisphere: “We’ll be looking at the virus to see [if it] has mutated into something more severe.”

The new strain has spread widely beyond Mexico and the U.S., with confirmed cases in forty-one countries and suspected cases in fifty. Many countries have advised their inhabitants not to travel to infected areas. Areas including Australia, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand are monitoring visitors returning from flu-affected areas to identify people with fever and respiratory symptoms. Many countries have also issued warnings to visitors of flu-affected areas to contact a doctor immediately if they had flu-like symptoms. Mexico's schools, universities, and all public events were closed from April 24 to May 6, 2009. By May 3, 2009, more than 400 school closures in the U.S., which included entire school districts in Texas, affected 250,000 students due to confirmed or probable cases in students or staff.
Most cases outside North America are recent travellers to Mexico or the US. Intra-national infections have been reported only from Mexico, the USA, Canada,the UK,Spain, Germany,Italy, Belgium and Panama.

Although the FAO, WHO, and OIE have reaffirmed that "Influenza viruses are not known to be transmissible to people through eating processed pork or other food products derived from pigs," and although influenza A viruses are inactivated by heating, nevertheless some countries banned import and sale of pork products "as a precaution against swine flu".

Several countries, including Serbia, China and Russia banned the import of pork products from North America in general as a response to the outbreak, despite assurances from the WHO that the disease is not spread through pork. On April 29, the Egyptian Government decided to kill all 300,000 pigs in Egypt, despite a lack of evidence that the pigs had, or were even suspected of having, the virus.This led to clashes between pig owners and the police in Cairo.On May 5, Afghanistan's only pig, which resides at the Kabul zoo, was quarantined amid flu fears. On May 10, in Alberta, Canada, 500 pigs were culled on a farm which housed pigs confirmed to have H1N1. Authorities state it was to better quarantine those pigs that had H1N1, and maintain that the culling was not a direct action against the virus.
In Alberta, Canada, provincial and federal officials announced on May 2 that a 2,200-head pig herd in central Alberta was under quarantine after preliminary findings indicated some of the animals were infected with swine flu in a case of reverse zoonosis; it was presumed that a carpenter who had recently visited Mexico infected the swine while installing a roof vent on their barn. The farm was quarantined and 500 infected pigs were destroyed even though they were recovering.Alberta agriculture minister George Groeneveld said that health officials expected no problems with export of pork from Canada to the United States, and that there was "absolutely no evidence" that the flu virus can be transmitted through eating pork.

6 CAR BOMBINGS KILLS 17 AS L'AQUILA EARTHQUAKE KILLS 250

2009-05-20T05:58:00.000-07:00

The 6 April 2009 Baghdad bombings were six car bombings across the Iraqi captial of Baghdad, though it was not known if the attacks were a result of coordination and planning or merely coincedence.

The attacks came a week after Iraqi forces putting down an uprising by members of an Awakening Council angry over the arrest of their commander.

Despite a seeming decline in violence since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the capability of many armed groups to strike with deadly results still exists. Though the government insists it is only detaining those wanted for grave crimes, certain fighters -- many of them former insurgents -- see it as settling sectarian scores. To this end some 250 Iraqis were killed in violent attacks in the month of March Attack
The bombings in the Shia neighbourhood of Sadr City had at least 10 deaths and 60 other injuries. In the central Allawi district, another explosion killed four people and wounded 15 others. A car bomb targeted the convoy of a senior interior ministry official resulting in one one civilian death and another policeman dead while four policemen were injured in a southeastern neighbourhood of New Baghdad. A vehicle explosion near a market in the district of Hussainiya resulted in two other deaths and 12 others wounded. Another car bomb near the Doura district, killed four people and injured 15 more.

The 2009 L'Aquila earthquake was an earthquake of 6.3 moment magnitude that occurred in the central Italian region of Abruzzo on 6 April 2009, following a series of about a hundred minor tremors since January 2009, including a 4.0-magnitude one on 30 March. The majority of the damage occurred in the medieval city of L'Aquila (capital city of the Abruzzo region) and the surrounding villages. 297 people are known to have died, making this the deadliest earthquake to hit Italy since the 1980 Irpinia earthquake.
This earthquake was caused by movement on a NW-SE trending normal fault according to moment tensor solutions.Although Italy lies in a tectonically complex region, the central part of the Appenines has been characterised by extensional tectonics since the Pliocene epoch (i.e. about the last 5 million years), with most of the active faults being normal in type and NW-SE trending. The extension is due to the back-arc basin in the Tyrrhenian Sea opening faster than the African Plate is colliding with the Eurasian Plate.
The earthquake occurred at 01:32 GMT (03:32 CEST local time) at the relatively shallow depth of 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) and with an epicentre at 42.423°N, 13.395°E or approximately 90 kilometres (60 mi) north-east of Rome, at the village of Paganica near to the city of L'Aquila. The earthquake was reported to measure 6.3 on the moment magnitude scale.
Italy frequently experiences earthquakes but it is uncommon for them to be very deadly. The last major earthquake was the 5.9 magnitude 2002 Molise earthquake which killed more than 25 people and was the deadliest in 20 years. Earthquakes mark the history of L'Aquila, a city built on the bed of an ancient lake, providing a soil structure that amplifies seismic waves. The city was struck by earthquakes in 1315, 1349, 1452, 1501, 1646, 1703, and 1706. The earthquake of February 1703, which caused devastation across much of central Italy, largely destroyed the city and killed around 5,000 people.
The earthquake caused damage to between 3,000 and 11,000 buildings in the medieval city of L'Aquila. Several buildings also collapsed. 297 people were killed by the earthquake, including two Czechs, five Romanian citizens, two Palestinians, one Greek citizen, one French citizen, one Ukrainian citizen and one Israeli citizen, and approximately 1,000 people were injured. Only 20 of the victims were children.Around 66,000 people were made homeless.
The main earthquake was preceded by two smaller earthquakes the previous day. The earthquake was felt as far away as Rome (92 kilometres (57 mi) away), in other parts of Lazio, as well as Marche, Molise, Umbria and Campania. Schools remained closed in the Abruzzo region. Most of the inhabitants of L'Aquila abandoned their homes and the city itself; in the city centre of L'Aquila, and the nearby village of Paganica which was also badly damaged, many streets were impassable due to fallen masonry. The hospital at L'Aquila, where many of the victims were brought, suffered damage in the 4.8 aftershock which followed the main earthquake an hour later. Powerful aftershocks, some only slightly weaker than the main shock, were felt throughout the following 2 days.
Villages in the valley along Strada Statale 17 just outside l'Aquila suffered the greatest damage while medieval mountain hill towns lying high above the valley suffered little damage. Onna was reported to be mostly leveled with 38 deaths among the 350 residents. The villages of Villa Sant'Angelo and San Pio delle Camere were badly damaged. Fatalities were reported in Poggio Picenze, Tornimparte, Fossa, Totani and San Pio delle Camere.
Many of L'Aquila's medieval buildings have been damaged. The apse of the Basilica of Saint Bernardino of Siena, L'Aquila's largest Renaissance church was seriously damaged, and its campanile has collapsed. Almost the whole dome of the 18th-century church of Anime Sante in Piazza Duomo has fallen down. The 13th-century Basilica di Santa Maria di Collemaggio collapsed from the transept to the back of the church and Porta Napoli, the oldest gate to the city, was destroyed in the quake. The third floor of Forte Spagnolo, the 16th-century castle housing the National Museum of Abruzzo, has collapsed, as has the cupola of the 18th-century Baroque church of St Augustine, damaging L'Aquila's state archives. This church was rebuilt after it was destroyed in the 1703 earthquake. The Cathedral of L'Aquila has lost part of its transept and maybe more with the effects of the aftershocks. Slight damage was also reported to the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, but other Roman monuments such as the Colosseum and Roman Forum were unharmed.
The damaged Santa Maria Church in the town of PaganicaWhile most of l'Aquila's medieval structures suffered damage, many of its modern buildings suffered the greatest damage, for instance, a dormitory at the university of l'Aquila collapsed. Even some buildings that were believed to be "earthquake-proof" were damaged. L’Aquila Hospital's new wing, which opened in 2000 and was thought capable of resisting almost any earthquake suffered extensive damage and had to be closed.
Around 40,000 people who were made homeless by the earthquake found accommodation in tented camps and a further 10,000 were housed in hotels on the coast. Others sought shelter with friends and relatives throughout Italy. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi caused a controversy when he said, in an interview to the German station n-tv, that the homeless victims should consider themselves to be on a "camping weekend" - "They have everything they need, they have medical care, hot food... Of course, their current lodgings are a bit temporary. But they should see it like a weekend of camping."To clarify his thought, he also told the people in a homeless camp: "Head to the beach. It’s Easter. Take a break. We’re paying for it, you’ll be well looked after." The billionaire prime minister offered his own houses to some of the survivors.
Poor building standards or construction materials seem to have further contributed to the large number of victims. According to firefighters and other rescuers, some concrete elements of the fallen buildings "seemed to have been made poorly, possibly with sand". An official at Italy's Civil Protection agency, Franco Barberi, said that "in California, an earthquake like this one would not have killed a single person." According to Italian media, L'Aquila's chief prosecutor has opened a probe into possible criminal blame for the collapses. Wikinews has related news: 5.6-magnitude aftershock earthquake strikes Italy
The epicentral region saw dozens of significant aftershocks following the main earthquake. The strongest, which hit on 7 April at 19:47 CEST local time measured magnitude 5.3 ML and caused further damage. According to the Italian National Geophysics Institute director Boschi, the aftershock epicentres have migrated south-east, thus lessening the risk of other major shocks that are near to populated areas.

Aftershocks cause safety issues for rescue crews with cranes and backhoes who are searching for injured people among precarious loose bricks and broken timbers of structures in the historic center of L'Aquila, a medieval city. Even a small aftershock can trigger the collapse of seriously damaged walls or parapets. Aftershocks also cause sustained psychological trauma to small children and elderly who have already been traumatized by the main earthquake of 6 April 2009. The Italian government is aware of this psychological trauma situation, and therefore has temporarily relocated thousands of citizens away from the epicentral area.

Within two weeks, it is expected that both the rate and magnitude of aftershocks will decay. During April and May 2009, seismologists will study the full extent of the oval-shaped fault-rupture surface, as illuminated by the sequence of aftershocks, and then make a final determination of the "official" moment magnitude.

As a result of aftershocks, the dome of the Anime Sante Basilica in L'Aquila, already heavily damaged by the main shock, has almost entirely collapsed. Further buildings have collapsed in L'Aquila and in neighbouring boroughs. The aftershock was so strong as to be felt in Rome, where it caused an elderly man to die of cardiac arrest.
Only shocks with magnitude 4.0 or higher are listed. There have been dozens of small magnitude aftershocks, Mw 1-3, but these generally do not cause further structural damage. Shocks with magnitude 5.0 or higher are highlighted in light blue. The main shock with moment magnitude 6.3 Mw is highlighted in dark blue. Earthquake magnitude symbols: Mw = moment magnitude scale; mb = body wave magnitude; ML = local magnitude, also known as the Richter magnitude scale.
Emergency personnel review damaged buildingsMany Italian companies have offered some sort of help. All Italian mobile companies (Telecom Italia Mobile, Vodafone Italy, WIND (Italy),[citation needed] H3G[citation needed]) as well as some Mobile virtual network operators, sent free minutes and credit to all their pre-paid customers in Abruzzo, suspended billing to all post-paid customers and extended their coverage with additional mobile base stations to cover homeless camps. In addition, some companies sent free mobile phones, SIM Cards and chargers for those who lost their mobiles, and set up a national unique number to send donations to, by placing a call or sending an SMS. Poste Italiane sent to homeless camps some mobile units acting as Postal Office, to allow people to withdraw money from their accounts as well as their retirement. Many companies, such as pay-tv SKY Italia, suspended billing to all customers in Abruzzo, and offered some decoders to homeless camps to allow them to follow the funerals and the news. Ferrovie dello Stato offered its railway sleeping carriage to host some homeless people, and offered free tickets to all people and students living in Abruzzo. AISCAT (Associazione Italiana Società Concessionarie Autostrade e Trafori) declared that all toll-road in Abruzzo will be free of charge. All tax billing for all Abruzzo residents have been suspended by the government, as well as mortgage payments.
Italian laboratory technician Giampaolo Giuliani predicted a major earthquake on Italian television a month before, after measuring increased levels of radon emitted from the ground. He was accused of being alarmist by Director of the Civil Defence Guido Bertolaso, and forced to remove his findings from the Internet (old data and descriptions are still on line. He was also reported to police a week before the main quake for "causing fear" among the local population when he predicted an earthquake was imminent in Sulmona, about 50 km (31 mi) from L'Aquila, on 30 March where a 4° quake happened (later Sulmona only suffered minor damages by the 6 April earthquake. Enzo Boschi, the head of the Italian National Geophysics Institute declared: "Every time there is an earthquake there are people who claim to have predicted it. As far as I know nobody predicted this earthquake with precision. It is not possible to predict earthquakes." Predicting earthquakes based on radon emissions has been studied by scientists since the 1970s, but enthusiasm for it has faded due to inconsistent results.

AIRCRASH IN INDONESIA KILLS AT LEAST 98

2009-05-20T03:02:00.000-07:00

An Indonesian Air Force C-130 Hercules airplane carrying 112 crashed at about 6:30 local time on May 20, 2009, while flying from Jakarta to eastern Java in Indonesia. The plane was carrying 98 passengers, including 10 children at the time of the crash. The crash resulted in at least 97 deaths, at least five of which occurred on the ground when the plane plowed through a neighborhood in the village of Geplak.At least 70 others had been taken to a local hospital.

The airplane had been on a normal flight transporting military personnel and their families from Jakarta to a military base in eastern Java. The plane was attempting to land at Iswahyudi Air Force Base, but instead crashed in the village of Geplak, about 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) away. Flying conditions were good and the weather was clear at the time of the crash.

LANDSLIDES IN CHINA KILLS 40, 43 MISSING.

2008-11-27T15:02:00.000-08:00

The death toll from a landslide in southwestern China has risen to 40, a state-run news agency reported Wednesday.

China's official Xinhua News Agency said five more bodies have been recovered in hard-hit Chuxiong prefecture in Yunnan province.

It said hundreds of soldiers, police and medical staff have been dispatched, and the government has sent rice and clothes to the victims. Forty-three people are still missing and 10 are injured.

More than 60,000 people have been evacuated since Tuesday after 10 days of heavy rain caused landslides and mud-rock flows. More than 1 million people have been affected in nine cities, including the provincial capital Kunming where four people died.

More than 1,000 houses collapsed and another 2,300 were damaged in the disaster, the report said.

Crops, power supply, telecommunication and transportation were also affected.

The first batch of relief goods, such as tents, quilts and clothes, were being sent to the affected areas, Xinhua said, citing the Red Cross Society of China.

The local government was also sending rice, clothes and other necessary materials. Soldiers, police officers, local government officials and medical staff were also helping those affected

99 dead in Santa Catarina Flooding in Brazil as 10 killed in Volcanic Eruption in Colombia.

2008-11-27T14:47:00.000-08:00

The 2008 Santa Catarina floods occurred after a period of heavy rainfall during late November 2008, most significantly during days 20, 21, 22 and 23 of November. The state suffered constant rainfalls for over two months (during late September, October, and November) on the coast, which turned the soil wet enough to cause a landslide during the storm that hit the state in late November. It affected around 60 towns and over 1.5 million people in the state of Santa Catarina in Brazil. At least 99 people are confirmed to have been killed with over 54,000 being forced to evacuate their homes. A further 150,000 have been left without electricity, whilst water rationing is being carried out in at least one town due to purification problems. Santa Catarina state Governor Luiz Henrique da Silveira has suggested that the final death toll is likely to be over 50. Several towns in the region have become cut off due to floodwater and landslide debris and on November 23 the Mayor of Blumenau, João Paulo Kleinubing, declared a state of emergency in the city.Water levels in the Vale do Itajaí have risen to nine metres above normal.

The Brazilian government announced R$100 million in funds for health, reconstrution and instant help for homeless victims.

Soon after the floods began, various bloggers from Blumenau engaged reporting live the situation on Twitter providing photos, videos, forecast conditions and river levels for other people on internet isolated by floods.Brazilian blogosphere created a site to keep people informed and offering a channel for donations.

The State Governor Luiz Henrique da Silveira has suggested that "Santa Catarina is facing its worst weather tragedy". The floods were compared by other historic ones in 1895 and 1983.

Nevado del Huila, at 5,365 metres (17,602 ft), is the highest volcano in Colombia, located in Huila Department. After being dormant for more than 500 years, the volcano showed heavy signs of activity in 2007 and 2008. As of February 20, 2007, there were more than 7000 "minor" seismic events, and a high state of alert was in place for the departments of Cauca, Huila, Caldas and Valle del Cauca. The volcano erupted twice in April 2007, once in April 2008 and again in November 2008. Any eruption would affect the small villages around the volcano, mostly Paez, Cauca, where their habitants still have in memory the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano and the destruction of Armero.

On April 18, 2007, the volcano erupted twice causing avalanches into the Paez River; this event caused water levels to rise along the Magdalena River. Some 4,000 people were evacuated with no casualties reported.

Nevado del Huila became active again in March 2008. After a multitude of earthquakes inside the volcano, Colombian authorities declared a state of yellow alert on March 18. The state of alert was increased to orange on March 29, meaning an eruption could be expected within days or weeks. Hundreds of people were evacuated. On April 14, 2008 at 11:08 pm, an ash eruption took place, prompting the government to issue a red alert and evacuate 13,000 to 15,000 people from around the mountain. The state of red alert was again lowered to orange on April 16, following diminished activity.

The volcano in April 2008 (top) and after the November 2008 eruption (bottom)On November 20, 2008, the volcano erupted at 0245 GMT (at 2145 on November 20 local time) according to Colombian Institute of Geology and Mining. An immediate mass-scale evacuation was put in motion by the Colombian authorities, which the inhabitants of some towns reportedly refused. There were no injured reported at the time. On November 23, 2008, BBC News, citing Colombian authorities, announced that the eruption had claimed ten lives, with 12,000 nearby residents being evacuated and emergency services unable to reach many of the more remote locations. The eruption had triggered an avalanche of earth and debris that damaged houses, bridges and crops on plantations. The three small towns of Paicol, La Plata and Belalcázar along the Paez River were affected by this eruption.

President Álvaro Uribe flew over the affected area after the volcano erupted. Extensive instrumentation of the volcano, put in place by the existing national system for prevention and care of disasters, which includes training of local inhabitants in high-risk regions and deployment of alarms in nearby towns, reportedly prevented large scale deaths. President Álvaro Uribe ordered the Air Force of Colombia to create an "air bridge" to provide supplies for cut off towns along the Paez River.

10 TERRORISTS ATTACKS KILLS 125 IN MUMBAI INDIA.

2008-11-27T14:02:00.000-08:00

The November 2008 Mumbai attacks were a series of ten terrorist attacks that occurred across Mumbai, India's financial capital and largest city, on 26 November 2008. The main targets of the attack appeared to be Americans, Britons and Jews, but most of the casualties were locals and foreign tourists caught in the gunfire. At least 125 people, including at least six foreign nationals, have been confirmed dead, and at least 327 have been injured. All except one of the attacks took place in South Mumbai; at the crowded Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) railway station; at two five-star hotels: the Oberoi Trident at Nariman Point, and Taj Mahal Palace & Tower near the Gateway of India; at the Leopold Café, a popular tourist restaurant in Colaba; at the Cama Hospital; and at the police headquarters where at least three high-level officers, including chief of the Anti Terrorism Squad of Maharashtra, were killed by gunfire. Between fifty and sixty terrorists have been involved in the attacks.

According to AP, the last 3 terrorists in Taj Mahal were shot by commandos.A previously unknown organization identifying itself as the Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility by email sent to news organizations.Due to the apparent targeting of Britons, Americans, and Jews, the number of militants involved, the amount of equipment they used, and the pattern of co-ordinated attacks, several reporters and media analysts speculate that non-Indian Islamic terrorists may have been responsible.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said the attacks probably had “external linkages,” believing that the attack could not have occured without help. Some media reports have attributed these terrorist attacks to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based Islamic militant group.According to some news reports, a terrorist holding hostages at the Oberoi told an Indian TV channel that they wanted all 'Mujahideen' in Indian prisons released before they released their hostages. He also indicated that there were seven terrorists holding hostages at that location. Other reports indicate that this demand was made through a hostage at Nariman House, in a call to the Israeli consulate in New Delhi.

According to Indian news reports, Indian intelligence agencies believed that attackers came by sea to Mumbai from the Pakistani port of Karachi in the ship MV Alpha. These reports were later dismissed after a search of the MV Alpha by the Indian Navy returned no evidence of involvement

India has suffered a wave of bomb attacks in recent years, and Mumbai, the financial capital of India, has also been the target of many of these attacks.

At 8:10 pm local time on November 26, a boat carrying around eight young men with several large bags docked onto the shore of Mumbai's Cuffe Parade neighborhood, where six of the men disembarked and the rest continued sailing along the shore. When local residents asked about their occupation, the group responded that they were students.

The attacks began around 9:50 pm later that day, when gunfire was heard inside the Leopold Cafe in Colaba.Next, armed with AK rifles, two terrorists entered the passenger hall of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station at about 10:30 pm and opened fire and threw grenades, killing at least ten people. Two terrorists held fifteen hostages, including seven foreigners, in the Taj Mahal hotel. CNN reported at 11 pm that the hostage situation at the Taj had been resolved and quoted the police chief of Maharashtra state as saying that all hostages were freed, however, it was later known that there were still hostages in the hotel. Forty people are being held as hostages in the Oberoi Trident hotel. Six blasts are reported to have taken place at the Taj hotel and one at the Oberoi Trident. The Taj Mahal Hotel was reported to be completely under government control at 4:22 am.Both hotels are on fire and have been surrounded and stormed by Rapid Action Forces commandos. Reports emerged of terrorists using live feeds broadcast by television stations; feeds to the hotels have subsequently been blocked. All terrorists are out of the Taj hotel, and police and firefighters are working to rescue the estimated 50 people trapped inside. Low-intensity blasts were reported in Vile Parle and a grenade attack in Santa Cruz. Two blasts were reported in the Nepean Sea Road area of south Mumbai. A petrol pump was blown up. Local trains Mumbai Suburban Railway on the Western Railway are operational, whereas Central Railway are suspended. More blasts were reported at the Oberoi as the siege continued. Meanwhile, police seized a boat filled with arms and explosives anchored at Mazgaon dock off Mumbai harbour.

About 65 Army commandos and 200 National Security Guards (NSG) commandos and MARCOS commandos were sent to Mumbai. The army was reported to have secured one of the hotels, and 8 hostages have been were freed at the Jewish outreach group.

Also caught up in the shooting were the President of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, while checking in at the Oberoi Trident, and Indian MP, N. N. Krishnadas of Kerala, while having dinner at a restaurant in the Taj hotel.

The New York Times is reporting that terrorists are holding several hostages at Nariman House in Colaba, owned by Chabad Lubavitch. Chabad Lubavitch also expressed concern that its representative in Mumbai, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, and his wife, Rivka Holtzberg, were missing.They are believed to be taken hostage by the terrorists. According to the Times of India, the Indian Jewish Federation reported that a rabbi and his family had been taken hostage at the Chabad house. Haaretz Daily has since reported that Rivka Holtzberg and their two-year-old child were released unharmed. Times Online reports about Sir Gulam Noon - MBE's experience on how he escaped the bombed Taj Mahal Hotel.

Maharashtra state home secretary, Bipin Shrimali, has announced that the police have killed four gunmen when they attempted to flee in cars in two separate incidents, and state home minister, R. R. Patil, says nine suspects have also been arrested.

As a result of this incident, all schools, colleges and most offices, including the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange will remain closed on 27 November 2008. Shooting of Bollywood films and TV serials have also been halted in the city. Many international airlines temporarily discontinued operations to Mumbai in the interest of passenger and crew safety.

The terrorists are said to have come by boat via sea routes from Karachi in Pakistan. This led the Indian Navy and coast guard to begin searching ships off of India's western coast. The Gujarat Police have said the terror strikes were similar to the Akshardham Temple attacks of 2002.

Some media reports have attributed these terrorist attacks to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based Islamic militant group. The New York Times has stated that international security experts "drew a blank on" the Deccan Mujahideen group, with one analyst labeling it a "front name". If Lashkar-e-Taiba was invovled, the attack may have had al Qaeda influence. Lashkar-e-Taiba denies any involvement. Sky News has reported that one of the terrorists shouted "Are you aware how many people have been killed in Kashmir? Are you aware how your army has killed Muslims?" and spoke with a Pakistani accent. The Guardian called speculation about al Queda "immediate, simplistic - and probably misleading". A St Andrews University professor quoted by The Telegraph argues that "Al-Qaeda set the blueprint for terrorist operations and now we see different people, different groups in different parts of the world, copying it." Many analysts said the November attacks were more likely to have been carried out by indigenous, Indian extremist groups blamed for a series of bombings eariler this year than Pakistani-linked ones.

An official in the Indian Navy refused to rule out the possibility that the attacks are related to regional pirate activity, in the context of its drastic increase and with the INS sinking of a pirate ship. At least 125 people have been killed in the attacks and 327 wounded. Seven Britons, three Americans, two Australians, and two Canadians were among those injured. Among the dead are 81 Indian civilians, 14 policemen and six foreigners, including one Japanese, one Australian, one Briton, one Canadian, one Italian, and one German. In addition, nine terrorists were killed and another nine were arrested. According to British High Commissioner in India, Sir Richard Stagg, seven Britons have been injured in the terror strikes and one dead. Andreas Liveras, a British yachting tycoon, was among those confirmed killed. Eleven other foreigners of different nationalities were injured in the terror strikes and were admitted to the Bombay Hospital. Hospital sources said the injured foreigners are from Australia, USA, Norway, Spain, Canada and Singapore. However, Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs maintains that no Singaporean has been injured in the attacks. Three Americans and two Australians are reported amongst the injured.

According to Maharashtra chief minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, fourteen policemen have been killed in total, including the following high profile officers:
Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad Chief Hemant Karkare, who headed the team investigating the politically sensitive 2006 Malegaon blasts. Karkare had also been receiving death threats recently, including a threat to bomb his residence,[73] but it is unclear if these were related to his death.
Additional Commissioner of Police: Ashok Kamte
Encounter specialist: Vijay Salaskar
Three railway officials of Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus also have been killed in the terror strikes.

The Government of Maharashtra announced Rs. 5 lakh (about 10,000 USD) compensation to the kin of those killed in the terror attacks and Rs. 50,000 (about 1,000 USD) to the seriously injured.

At least one media source (Press Trust of India, posted to NDTV.com) was reporting a death toll of more than 280 as of 27 November.

94 dead and 150 others injured in Pétionville school collapse

2008-11-11T11:13:00.001-08:00

Location of Pétionville within HaitiThe Pétionville school collapse occurred on November 7, 2008, at College La Promesse Evangelique, a church-operated school in Haiti called "The Evangelic Promise," in Pétionville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, when the school collapsed at around 10:00 a.m. local time (15:00 GMT). About 700 students from kindergarten through high school attended the school, however it is unclear how many were in the three-story building when it collapsed. At least 93 people, mostly children, have been confirmed killed and the death toll is expected to rise as more students and teachers are still trapped in the rubble.Over 150 were also injured. At least 35 students, 13 girls and 22 boys, were rescued from the rubble alive on November 8. on CNN a rescue worker told that "Throughout history, there's been people found 48, 72 hours later -- still alive, in good shape.", "They could be injured or just trapped." (Michael Istvan of the U.S. Agency for International Development).

During the collapse, the first floor of the school buckled under, and the second and third floors of the building came down upon it. The collapse also destroyed several nearby homes. However, only the first and second floors were filled with students, and some students were in the playground area. The cause of the collapse remains officially unstated, but residents of the town have said they suspect poor-quality construction as a cause.

The school had previously experienced a partial collapse in 2000, but it was rebuilt. After the first collapse, neighbors living downhill from the school abandoned their property out of fear that the building would fall onto their homes. The owner of the church-run school attempted to buy these vacated properties. In addition, the third floor of the building was under construction at the time of the 2008 collapse.
After the collapse, at least 200 people were seen at hospitals in and around Port-au-Prince. However, because of strikes at General Hospital and Hospital de la Paix, two hospitals in the town, Trinité Hospital and University of Haiti Hospital saw most of the injured.

College La Promesse school owner, Rev. Fortin Augustin, Protestant minister and preacher, was arrested on November 8, 2008. He was charged with involuntary manslaughter and brought to a Haiti police station, after he allegedly told Haiti President, Rene Preval, that "the church school had been built with hardly any structural steel or cement to hold its concrete blocks together; he constructed the building all by himself, saying he didn't need an engineer as he had good knowledge of construction."Haiti's neighbor, the Dominican Republic sent two helicopters to assist in evacuating the injured. United Nations peacekeepers, stationed in the country since the 2004 rebellion, are assisting in the rescue efforts, as are members of the aid group Doctors Without Borders and the International Red Cross. The U.S. Agency for International Development sent a disaster response team to the school, and will be providing more logistical and rescue equipment. This consists of some 38 Virginia search-and-rescue officials and 4 rescue dogs, (led by Capt. Michael Istvan, operations chief for the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue team, flewn by Alexandre Deprez, acting director for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Haiti). Also, a team of 15 Martinique firefighters and doctors, led by Daniel Vigee, and groups from Medecins sans Frontieres and Haiti arrived to rescue the remaining trapped children.

Hilario Davide, Jr. reported that "Filipino Blue Berets were the first to arrive at the scene on November 7 and immediately went to action, using their bare hands to roll over concrete slabs and dig through the rubble in their bid to pull out both the living and the dead. 157 officers and enlisted personnel from the Philippine Army, Navy, and Air Force, as well as 13 other officers from the Philippine National Police, are serving with the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). The Filipinos were instrumental in the recovery of 9 victims who survived the tragedy." The Filipino peacekeepers worked with blue helmets from Brazil, Chile, and Ecuador and Haiti police.

flooding in Vietnam and China claims at least 100 lives as series of bomb blasts in Assam, India kills at least 77 and injures 470

2008-11-04T14:48:00.000-08:00

The 2008 Vietnam floods affected north and central Vietnam, as well as southern China after three days of heavy raining. The rainfall, which began October 30, is the heaviest in 24 years, a state meteorological official told the Vietnam News Agency, and were the worst floods in Hanoi since 1984. At least 66 in Vietnam and 34 in China have been killed because of the flooding. Overall, 15,000 families evacuated their homes, and almost 100 schools, 100,000 houses, 241,000 hectares of crops, and 25,400 hectares of fish farms were submerged or damaged in the floodwaters.

Vietnam
In Hanoi, 20, including 3 children, were found dead after 13 more bodies were recovered. Up to one meter of water flooded the city's streets, and transportation was halted. Food prices, especially those of meat and vegetables, reached exorbitant highs in the city, as the rains ruined many crops. Schools were closed on November 3, and damage in Hanoi exceeded 3 trillion Vietnamese đồng ($US 177 million).

Elsewhere in Vietnam, 10 people, including 4 children were killed in Nghe An Province from the floods.17 were killed in Ha Tinh Province, 4 each in Quang Ngai Province and Quang Binh Province,, 3 in Bac Giang Province, 2 each in Hoa Binh Province, Thai Nguyen Province, and Vinh Phuc Province, and 1 each in Ninh Binh Province, Phu Tho Province, Quang Nam Province, and Phu Yen Province.In addition water levels on the Cả River, Hoang Long, the upper Ma River were very high.

China deaths by province: Yunnan 26 Guangxi 8
: Total 34
The heavy rains affected southern China as well, causing mudslides and floods, and killing a total of 34 there. Yunnan Province was hit the hardest, where 26 were killed and 45 remain missing. 8 were killed in Pingguo, Guangxi. Overall, 410,000 were affected in China, and 3,200 homes there were damaged or destroyed.
ASSAM BOMBINGS
The 2008 Assam bombings occurred on October 30, 2008, before noon in markets in Guwahati city and the surrounding area of western Assam. Reports indicated as many as eighteen bombs went off, causing at least 84 deaths and 470 injuries.

Union Minister Shakeel Ahmed confirmed 10 blasts took place, however, reports did indicate the number could have been as high as eighteen. The blasts ripped apart Guwahati, Barpeta, Bongaigaon and Kokrajhar.

The explosions in Guwahati ripped through Pan Bazar, Fancy Bazar and Ganeshguri, which were crowded with shoppers and office goers. Three blasts were also Kokrajhar, with another possible grenade explosion; two in Bongaigaon and one in Barpeta. Indian media outlets pointed out that the blasts took place just after the Diwali holidays making the blasts even more unexpected and adding to a toll count. The bomb at Ganeshguri was planted in a car and took place about 100 meters from Chief Minister of Assam Tarun Gogoi's official residence.

In Guwahati, 41 people were killed; in Kokrajhar, 21; and in Barpeta, 15. On November 2, four more succumbed to their injuries here. Three died at Gauhati Medical College Hospital, while another died at the Basistha Army Hospital. Twentry others were also in a critical condition.

Police officials added that huge amounts of explosives like RDX or other plastic explosives, like C4, have been used as a fire erupted immediately following the blasts. Timers were also speculated to have been used to execute the blasts, which were seen with timing almost to perfection as the blasts took place within a short span of 15 minutes. It was further speculated, after investigations were initiated, that motor bikes may have been used. However, Assam police chief RN Mathur also said most of the bombs were "planted in cars."

Synchronised bombings strike Indian state of AssamIn addition to the immediate casualty toll seven more people succumbed to their injuries overnight.

Immediately following the attack the Government of Assam issued a high alert and called out paramilitary forces to control a potentially volatile situation.[10] Security was also increased in the Jalpaiguri district following the blasts. The police and Sima Suraksha Bal (BSF) were said to be keeping a joint vigilance along the Bangladesh border. The superintendent of police, Jalpaiguri, Manoj Varma, said that police had been instructed to keep a round the clock vigilance over important public places in the district.
Following the blasts, angry crowds clashed with police in some areas of Guwahati. Some people were injured in the clash and, at one point, police had to fire in the air to disperse an angry mob. It was also reported on the television media that mobs were hampering efforts by police and the fire brigade to clean up after the blasts. The mobs were seen attacking police and fire equipment. A curfew had been imposed in Guwahati and some other cities of Assam following the serial bomb blasts.
It was also reported that members of the Assamese diaspora trying to contact relatives following the blasts faced jammed telephone networks, making it impossible to get information out of the region.
Guwahati Medical College hospital where the victims are being treated has reported acute shortage of blood. The Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarmah has urged the people to donate blood. Asom Gana Parishad has directed the party cadres to donate blood. Several NGOs and volunteers of social organisations have come forward to donate blood and provide help to family members of the injured and those who have lost their lives.
In response to the Tarun Gogoi government's alleged failure to protect Assam, a motley crowd attempted to storm into the state secretariat with two charred bodies from the blasts as hundreds more took to the streets in protest. The mob, shouting slogans like "Tarun Gogoi murdabad," was stopped at the gates of the seat of government by the security staff. They also demanded that "Gogoi come out and see what your failure to protect the people has caused. It has killed innocent people."

On the same day a convoy of police cars in Assam came under fire from rebels resulting in seven police and three civilian casualties.

A spontaneous bandhs, total shut down, was observed the next day at Kokrajhar on a call given by the VHP, the BJP, and the Bajrang Dal, while schools and educational institutions also remained closed in Guwahati. Only a few shops in the captial were opened and vehicular traffic was thin with most people choosing to stay indoors. BJP leader L. K. Advani, who arrived in Assam on the same morning, visited the blast site near the Deputy Commissioner's office, where he also faced a group of angry lawyers who shouted slogans saying "Advani go back." He also visited the Guwahati Medical College Hospital and met the injured. The Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, who was arrived later in the day, visited Kokrajhar and Barpeta. He also held a high-level meeting at the Lokopriyo Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in the evening. Attendance in commercial areas where offices are located was thin, and in many areas shops and business establishments, particularly those in and around the blast sites remained closed. Few public transport were seen plying on the roads in the morning. The opposition Asom Gana Parishad observed a Black Day with all its leaders and cadres sporting black badges. Lawyers from both Gauhati High Court and the Sessions Court in Guwahati abstained from work and held protests outside the court premises.

A curfew was again clamped on the worst-hit Ganeshguri in the afternoon, after the initial curfew was relaxed the previous evening, as an angry mob braved tight security in the presence of the city SS and went on a rampage. The police then resorted to firing blanks, injuring at least five people in the ensuing melee. The leader of the opposition and former Deputy Prime Minister Advani visited the spot just minutes before the disturbance.

On November 1 the prime minister was set to visit his home constitency to take the stock of the situation after the blasts. He would meet the Assam Governor Shiv Charan Mathur and Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, as well as visit the Guwahati Medical College hospital to see the injured in the blasts.

The Union home secretary, Madhukar Gupta, said a team of NSG experts from New Delhi also visited the blast sites at Ganeshguri, the deputy commissioner's office and Fancy Bazaar. When asked about the nature of the explosives, he said forensic experts were already examining the blasts sites. In regards to more paramilitary forces, saying there were already enough forces already deployed, he added: "We will retain them for some more time and probably not deploy them on poll duties (in six states)." A high-level team comprising of senior Home Ministry officials also visited Assam to make an on-the-spot assessment of the situation arising out blasts.

Police said they had picked up about a dozen suspects for interrogation within the first 24 hours. An official in the police department said: "We are making good headway in our investigations and should be able to zero in on the people or groups involved in the serial bombings." Two persons from Nagaon district were arrested in connection with the attacks. Asib Mohammed Nizami and Zulfikar Ali were the owners of two vehicles in which the bombs were planted in the Ganeshguri area of Guwahati and Bongaigaon.

On November 1, the army told the Prime Minister that it had previously intercepted a message from Calcutta one week before the incident that said: "Attack Guwahati." The army told the PM that had known about the impending terror strikes in the western Assam towns for six weeks and had tried to prevent them. Lt. Gen. B.S. Jaswal, of the GOC 4 Corps, told the PM the army had received "non-specific" information on September 17 about possible strikes in Guwahati, Barpeta Road and Kokrajhar. CM Gogoi, who heads Assam’s unified command that includes the army, corroborated the message with Singh. In admitting such knowledge he added that the government did not anticipate the scale of the blasts. The government then also formed a special team, headed by the inspector-general of police (special task force), R. Chandranathan, to probe the blasts and issue a report within 30 days.

Union Minister Shakil Ahmed hinted that communal riots in Assam for the preceding several days could be inter-linked to the attacks. He said that the politics of hate was a plausible reason behind the attacks.

Though the Assam government said it was too early to reach a conclusion on the perpetrators, Assam's Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said: "It is very early to make a conclusion but ULFA has a history of triggering serial blasts." To corroborate this speculation the intelligence officials said the pro-independence ULFA was responsible for the blasts. This follows most fighters in one of the ULFA's elite strike battalion having previously announced a ceasefire with the government, with the security services have used the lull to attack and killed many other ULFA fighters in the weeks preceding. A faction that did not agree to the ceasefire was said to be responsible for the blasts. Assam police chief R N Mathur added that "So the Ulfa is striking back in a massive way by taking on soft targets. No other group can trigger so many blasts in so many places in such a coordinated fashion."

Leader of the opposition, L. K. Advani, used the blasts to lambaste the ruling UPA-led government. He said: "I believe that these blasts are symbolic of the sense of insecurity in the country. This also proves the total failure of the government in combating terrorism," adding that it was likely that illegal Bangladeshi migrants in Assam, with an increasing influx of such immigrants, could be involved in the blasts.

The next day he came out again blaming illegal infiltration from Bangladesh as the main reason for the breeding of terrorism in Assam saying "I blame the state and the central government for the blasts in Assam." He continued to question the PM, "I ask the prime minister, who is elected from Assam, what his government has done after the Supreme Court’s landmark judgment on the IMDT (Illegal Migrants Determination by Tribunals) Act indicting the Government of India for having colluded with external aggression. The government only incorporated all those provisions in the struck down IMDT in the Foreigners Act, which the Supreme Court declared as unconstitutional." He also visited blast sites and met injured victims at the hospitals.

Union Minister of State for Home, Shriprakash Jaiswal, also condemned the blasts and added: "The blasts will have no impact on the forthcoming Assembly elections in Mizoram. The Home Ministry has asked for a report on the serial blasts from the Assam government." He claimed that due to the sincere efforts of the ruling central coalition government, incidents of terror in the northeastern sister states had gone down by as much as 50 per cent in the last four years.

The prime minister also strongly condemning the blasts and added that his government would take all possible steps to bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice. Along with the UPA chairperson, Sonia Gandhi, were set to visit Assam on November 1. The day before Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, also arrived in Assam and visited blast sites in Kokrajhar and Guwahati, as well as holding a security meeting with the chief minister, and senior police and administrative officials. He said: "We shall nab the culprits involved in the blasts. Investigations are on and we should be able to come out with something concrete."

The Jharkhand government also came out strongly condemning the serial blasts, while having summoned a cabinet meeting in Ranchi for the next day to discuss the security situation in his region. Deputy Chief Minister, Sudhir Mahto, described the act as one of "cowardice" and said the state machinery had been alerted in Jharkhand following the incident. He added that he expressed confidence that the UPA government at the centre would initiate all necessary steps to rein in anti-national elements who are bent upon weakening the prevailing peace and tranquility, while appealing to the central government to provide adequate compensation to the family members of the victims. While he also denied the fact that the militant activities were on the rise in the country at large during the rule of the UPA government, he expressed concern over the recent revelation that Hindu militants' were involved in the Malegaon incident. He said this by alluding to the fact that vested interests were keen on dividing the country by creating panic. Vigilance was also stepped up along the West Bengal border with Assam following the blasts. Additional security forces were rushed to assist in combing operations to track down those responsible for the blasts attempting to flee from Assam through the border with north Bengal. State’s Home Secretary, Ashok Mohan Chakavarty, said an alert had been sounded across West Bengal, with security tightened in the captail city. Further security arrangements were under review, particularly in the border districts where check-posts have been set up. A senior police official in West Bengal said: "A special alert has been sounded in the region. Vehicles passing through the border with Assam are being checked." He added that surveillance had also been considerably tightened at West Bengal’s international borders with Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mayawati, also strongly condemned the serial blasts, while demanding that the Prime Minister take effective measures to ensure that such incidents are not repeated.

U.N Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who was in India at the time of the attack, issued a statement via a spokesman expressing his deep sorrow and sympathy to the government and people of India for the loss of life and destruction caused by the attacks. He also strongly condemns this act of terrorism in its targeting of civilians, declaring that there can be absolutely no justification for such indiscriminate violence.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev resolutely condemned the deadly blasts dubbing them as an "inhuman and monstrous" crime which cannot have any justification. In a message to Indian President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Singh, he expressed his indignation at the "barbarous" act and called for strict punishment for those responsible. He said: "I learnt with deep indignation about the series of coordinated terrorist acts in Assam, which led to the deaths of scores of innocent people. Such inhuman and monstrous in cruelty crime have no justification. Terrorists guilty of committing this barbarous act must be severely punished." The Russian Foreign Ministry also said: "The Foreign Ministry of Russia resolutely condemns the acts of terrorists. They have no and cannot have any justification. The criminals must be severely punished for their acts."

Bangladesh also strongly condemned the attack. Foreign adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury term the attack an act of "cowardly terrorism." Adding: "We strongly condemn the bomb blast in the North Eastern India that led to so many deaths and injuries. It is a cowardly act of terrorism. Violence cannot be a tool for achievement of political objectives."

19 DIED IN THREE SUICIDE ATTACKS IN MOGADISHU, SOMALIA.

2008-10-29T04:26:00.000-07:00

A spokesman for a breakaway republic in northern Somalia says at least 19 people have died in three suicide attacks.

Ismail Adani says officials are still counting the bodies after Wednesday's attacks, so the death toll could rise.

A wave of suicide attacks hit targets in Somaliland's capital, Hargeisa, including a U.N. compound, the Ethiopian consulate and the presidential palace.

Also Wednesday, suicide bombers attacked two intelligence facilities in the northern Somali region of Puntland.

Muse Gelle Yusuf, governor of Somalia's northern port city of Bossaso, says a security official and he two suicide bombers and died in those attacks.

EARTHQUAKE IN QUETTA PAKISTAN KILLS 150, RENDERS 150,000 HOMELESS.

2008-10-29T04:17:00.000-07:00

A strong earthquake struck before dawn Wednesday in southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 150 people, injuring scores more and leaving an estimated 15,000 homeless, officials said.

The death toll was expected to rise as reports arrived from remote areas of Baluchistan, the impoverished province bordering Afghanistan where the magnitude 6.4 quake struck.

The worst-hit area appeared to be Ziarat, where hundreds of mostly mud and timber houses had been destroyed in five villages, Mayor Dilawar Kakar said. Some homes were buried in a landslide triggered by the quake, he said.

"There is great destruction. Not a single house is intact," Kakar told Express News television.

Maulana Abdul Samad, the minister for forests in Baluchistan, said at least 150 people were confirmed to have died. Kakar said hundreds of people have been injured and some 15,000 were homeless.

"I would like to appeal to the whole world for help. We need food, we need medicine. People need warm clothes, blankets because it is cold here," Kakar said.

In the village of Sohi, a reporter for AP Television News saw the bodies of 17 people killed in one collapsed house and 12 from another. Distraught residents were digging a mass grave in which to bury them.

"We can't dig separate graves for each of them, as the number of deaths is high and still people are searching in the rubble" of many other homes, said Shamsullah Khan, a village elder.

Other survivors sat stunned in the open, with little more than the clothes in which they had been sleeping.

Hospitals in the nearby town of Kawas and the provincial capital Quetta were flooded with the dead and injured.

One patient in Quetta Civil Hospital, Raz Mohammed, said he was awoken by the sound of his children crying before he felt a jolt.

"I rushed toward them but the roof of my own room collapsed and the main iron support hit me," he said. "That thing broke my back and I am in severe pain but thank God my children and relatives are safe."

With some roads blocked by landslides, officials said the army was ferrying hundreds of troops and medical teams on four helicopters to villages in the quake zone and had set up a field hospital in Quetta.

Officials said they were distributing thousands of tents, blankets and food packages and sending in earth-moving equipment to help dig mass graves.

The quake struck two hours before dawn and had a magnitude of 6.4, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. It was a shallow 10 miles below the surface and was centered about 400 miles southwest of the capital, Islamabad.

Pakistan is prone to violent seismic upheavals. Wednesday's quake was the deadliest since a magnitude-7.6 quake devastated Kashmir and northern Pakistan in October 2005, killing about 80,000 people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.

Officials said the area hit on Wednesday was much less densely populated.

Baluchistan is home to a long-running separatist movement, but is not considered a major battleground in the fight against Taliban insurgents that plague other border regions.

Associated Press writer Mattiullah Achakzai in Quetta and APTN cameraman Abdul Rahman in Sohi contributed to this report. yahoonews

A BOMB BLAST IN IMPHAL, INDIA KILLS 17 AND INJURES MORE THAN 30.

2008-10-28T15:00:00.000-07:00

In the 2008 Imphal bombings, at least 17 people were killed and more than 30 were injured on October 21, 2008. Hospital authorities said that the toll is expected to rise.

This was the second blast of such magnitude in the Indian Seven Sister States in the month of October 2008. It also follows a season of bomb blasts around the country in 2008 that have been carried out by various factions, contributing to a precipitous domestic instability.

The attack was a single blast triggered from a bomb rigged on to a Luna moped in the provincial capital of Manipur. The attack occurred at the gate of Ragailong in the Imphal West District.

The attack had targeted the barracks of security personnel, as well as civilians in the area, who were gambling ahead of the Diwali holiday. Police said they suspected the headquarters of the 20th Battalion, Assam Rifles, and the Manipur police commando complex, where personnel live with their families, were the targets of the attackers.

The blast came just two days after an explosion near the Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh's official residence in the capital.

Two days later security forces shot as many as eight militants who were said to be members of the Kangleipak Communist Party (MC). Imphal East SP, Radheshyam Singh, said: "At least three encounters took place in the two police districts of Imphal East and Imphal West on Thursday evening, during which eight militants have been killed."

Police believed the bomb was to avenge the killing of at least eight rebels by security forces last month. They have suspected the separatist People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK) to be responsible for the attack.

The following day the Kangleipak Communist Party (Military Council) (KCP (MC)) claimed responsibility for the blast saying it was a reaction to the gambling that reaches its peak during the Diwali holidays. The claim, distributed to newspaper offices in Imphal, said the explosion was triggered "in order to put an end to lagao," a form of gambling which it said was an "alien culture" that was adversely affecting Manipuri society. A statement said "Lagao is a form of gambling which is alien to Meitei culture and it needs to be stopped." The statement was signed by Lanheiba Meitei, a leader of the KCP (MC) faction formed out of the original KCP that was formed in 1980. Kangleipak is the historical name of Manipur which was adopted by the KCP in its attempt at the preservation of the Meitei culture, while it also demands secession of Manipur from India in order to achieve such goals.

The KCP in general has seen increased level of activity this month as the police reported the execution of two former members. They said the KCP's Thoubal district commander, identified as 2nd lieutenant Udoi alias Nongyai or Angousana, and his female companion, Leisa of Khangabok, were executed by the outfit for their anti-party and anti-revolutionary activities.

In the intial response to the attack in a highly fortified area like Ragailong, meant the CM instructed the top brass of the security services to "take up all necessary measures so that such attacks do not recur." This especially rang true with the upcoming festivals of Diwali and Ningol Chakkouba, so as to ensure both pass off peacefully. The SSP of Imphal West, L Kailun, said "apart from intensifying security vigil at all strategic locations in Imphal, the police has also started conducting a massive drive to check any abandoned vehicles." An appeal was also made to citizens to be on high alert and to notify the police if they come across any suspicious objects in market places or crowded areas.

India says some 3,000 rebels, live and train in the camps inside the jungles of the Kabaw Valley in Sagaing Division. Although India has signed a pact with Myanmar to share intelligence, it has proven insufficient to tackle the insurgency that is said to be caused by New Delhi's plundering of the region's mineral and forest resources with little investment returning. In retaliation the rebels want to throw non-Manipuris out of the province, while seeking statehood, a demand India does not acquiesce to.

About 700 armed PREPAK rebels have carried out regular attacks in the area. According to police, the rebels were believed to have escaped across a large porous border to their camps in neighbouring Myanmar. The border with Myanmar stretches about 370 km (230 miles), and security officials want the entire stretch to be barbed-wired to stop the smuggling of weapons and explosives. The entire area, home to more than 200 tribes, has been racked insurgencies virtually since India's independence.

SEVERE FLOODING IN YEMEN KILLS 90, DISPLACES 20,000.

2008-10-28T14:48:00.000-07:00

The 2008 Yemen Cyclone, officially known as Deep Epression ARB 02/2008 and also known as Cyclone 03B. On October 19 the IMD noted that an area of low pressure which located to the south east of Salalah, Oman had intensifed in to a tropical depression and was assigned the number ARB 02. On October 21 IMD updated the system to a Deep Depression while it lay 700 km south of Salalah, Oman near the east coast of Somalia. It lost its strength while crossing the Gulf of Aden due to entry of dry air and land interaction as it passed close to the northeastern coast of Somalia. It later was downgraded to a Depression, named TC 03B by the JTWC.On October 24 it made landfall on the south-eastern coast of Yemen, and caused severe flooding, leaving about a 180 dead.The Yemeni governorates of Hadhramaut, Lahij, Al Mahrah and Ta'izz were affected the worst by the floods, and most of the fatalities were in Hadhramaut.

The remnants of Deep Depression ARB 02 caused the flooding.The flooding was preceded by several days of rain starting on October 23, as the remnants of a tropical cyclone moved over the area. Rain continued, with weather systems coming in from neighbouring Saudi Arabia and southern Somalia, resulting in severe flooding in some areas of Yemen.Better conditions are expected by Sunday.

Thousands of families fled Hadhramaut alone; many schools were used as evacuee shelters, but these could only accomodate 10% of the affected. According to search and rescue teams, the number of fatalities may increase due to the likelihood of people trapped in flooded houses. Electricity and telephone lines were disrupted, and many homes were damaged.

Survivors were seen signalling to rescue helicopters in Hadramout and Mahra, which had seen at least 30 hours of heavy rain. A Yemeni official was quoted as saying, "About 7,000 people have been made homeless and there are about 100 dead or missing.

Along with fatalities, approximately 730 homes were destroyed, along with businesses and other infrastructure projects. The severe thunder of the preceding thunderstorms resulted in at least nine deaths from lightning in the Al Mahrah, Ta'izz and Lahij governorates.The rain also destroyed large amounts of farmland and killed large numbers of livestock.

The Hadhramaut Governorate was the worst affected. The Yemeni government promised to supply tents as a means of emergency shelter, along with other emergency supplies, with six transport aircraft loaded with supplies taking off from Sanaa on Saturday and more scheduled for later. President Ali Abdullah Saleh ordered the creation of a committee to provide aid to affected civilians. Also, the United Arab Emirates declared their intent to provide relief. However, several residents in the city of Shibam say that government assistance and support, if any, is low.

The Organisation of the Islamic Conference declared the situation a "national catastrophe" and started a drive on Saturday to collect funds for the relief of flood victims.

Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh said, "The damages... are great and the catastrophe is also great."

EARTHQUAKE IN CHECHNYA, RUSSIA CLAIMS FIVE LIVES AS HURRICANE NOBERT REACHES CATEGORY THREE

2008-10-12T10:14:00.000-07:00

The 2008 Chechnya earthquake was a 5.8 Mw earthquake that occurred on October 11, 2008 at 09:06:10 UTC in Chechnya, Russia. At least 12 people were killed in the quake and a series of aftershocks, which were felt throughout the North Caucasus and which rattled Grozny for more than 30 seconds, the regional Emergency Situations Ministry office said. The death toll may rise further as more information is received from outlying districts.

Dagestan, Ingushetia, North Ossetia and Stavropol also experienced the tremors, with a total of 16 shocks between 3 and 6 on the Richter scale.

Some tremors lasted up to 30 seconds, causing serious structural damage in two Chechen districts.

A strong magnitude 5.3 aftershock struck the region approximately 16 minutes after the initial quake.

The origins of Norbert were from a area of disturbed weather that formed near the Gulf of Tehuantepec on September 28. Drifting westward off the coast of Mexico, the system initially consisted of a broad low pressure area and an area of disorganized convection. It slowly organized for several days, and by early on October 4 the system developed enough organized convection to be classified as Tropical Depression Fifteen; at that point, it was located about 230 miles (370 km) south of Acapulco. The depression was located over an area of warm water temperatures and moderate vertical wind shear, and as such was forecast to intensify gradually.

About six hours after forming, the circulation of the depression became exposed from the deep convection, due to the wind shear. At the same time, two tropical cyclone forecast models predicted the tropical cyclogenesis of a larger disturbance to the southeast of the depression. One model predicted the new cyclone to absorb the depression, although most other models forecast for the depression to remain the dominant system. By early on October 5, deep convection developed and organized around the center of the depression, and satellite intensity estimates using the Dvorak technique suggested tropical storm force winds; as a result, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) upgraded the depression to Tropical Storm Norbert, about 245 mi (394 km) south of Zihuatanejo.Norbert was upgraded to a hurricane on October 6. On October 7, it reached Category 2 intensity on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. Overnight, an eye appeared on infrared satellites, indicated that Norbert was intensifying and was upgraded to a major hurricane respectively. Continuing to strengthen, it reached Category 4 that afternoon, before weakening into a Category 1 by October 9, but restrengthened into a minimal major hurricane on October 11, and made landfall that day as a category 2.

The 2008 Pacific hurricane season is an ongoing event in the annual cycle of tropical cyclone formation. It officially started May 15, 2008 in the eastern Pacific, started on June 1, 2008 in the central Pacific, and will last until November 30, 2008.

Hurricane Norbert is the strongest storm thus far in the 2008 Pacific hurricane season. Norbert is the fifteenth tropical cyclone, fourteenth named storm, seventh hurricane of the season, and second major hurricane of the season

Hurricane Norbert struck Mexico's Baja California peninsula on Saturday with torrential rains and winds of up to 155 km/h. Strong winds bent palm trees along coastal areas. Some streets were in knee-deep water in the town of Puerto San Carlos. Norbert was ripping off roofs, knocking down trees and left one person missing and more than 20,000 homes without electricity, local authorities say. Some 2850 people were housed in temporary shelters. Forty per cent of homes were totally or partially damaged on the islands of Margarita and Magdalena, mainly having lost their roofs, said a report from state protection services. La Paz international airport suspended its activities at midday local time Saturday, but the tourist resort of Los Cabos remained open. Hotel reservations were down by around 40 per cent mainly in Los Cabos and Loreto, local tourism officials said.
Norbert was a Category 2 hurricane at landfall, which made Norbert the first October hurricane to strike the Baja California peninsula since Hurricane Pauline forty years prior, and Norbert was the stronger of the two.

TWO EARTHQUAKES WERE RECOREDED TODAY(6TH OCTOBER, 2008) KILLING NOT LESS THAN 100 PEOPLE

2008-10-06T19:15:00.000-07:00

IN Kyrgyzstan an earthquake of magnitude 6.6, struck today at 21:52 local time (15:52UTC) killing at least 72 and injuring about 100. The center of the earthquake was near the town of Nura, it destroyed 100 buildings and did minor damage in Xinjiang Province. The quake was felt throughout Central Asia.

also In Damxung, an earthquake Damxung County, Xizang, in the People's Republic of China around 16:30 CST.

FATAL PLANE CRASHES TO REMEMBER! FROM 2005 TILL DATE

2008-09-30T16:37:00.000-07:00

2005
February 3 – Kam Air Flight 904, a Boeing 737, crashes in a snowstorm in Afghanistan. All 96 passengers and eight crew members die.
May 3 – Airwork Flight 23, a Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner crashes in Taranaki, New Zealand killing both crew members.
June 9 – US Airways Flight 1170 and Aer Lingus Flight 132 almost collide on a runway at Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts. None of the 381 people on either planes are harmed.
August 2 – Air France Flight 358, an Airbus A340, skids off a runway in Toronto, Ontario, while landing and catches fire; all 309 on board escape without fatalities or serious injuries, but the aircraft is completely destroyed by the fire.
August 10 – Copterline Flight 103, a Sikorsky S-76 helicopter crashes off Tallinn, Estonia killing all 14 on board.
August 14 – Helios Airways Flight 522, a Boeing 737, crashes near Kalamos, Greece with 115 passengers and 6 crew members on board; there are no survivors.
August 16 – West Caribbean Airways Flight 708, an MD-82, crashes in western Venezuela. All on board, 152 passengers and 8 crew members, die.
August 23 – TANS Peru Flight 204, a Boeing 737, crashes near Pucallpa, Peru. Forty of the 92 passengers on board, as well as four of the six crew members, perish.
September 5 – Mandala Airlines Flight 091, a Boeing 737, crashes in Medan, Indonesia, killing 103 of the 111 passengers and all 5 crew members on the plane and an additional 47 people on the ground.

JetBlue Airways Flight 292 upon landing in Los AngelesSeptember 21 – JetBlue Airways Flight 292, an Airbus A320, makes an emergency landing in Los Angeles, California in the United States because of landing gear steering failure. There are no injuries to the 139 passengers and six crew members.
October 22 – Bellview Airlines Flight 210, a Boeing 737, crashes in central Nigeria, killing all 117 people on board.
December 7 – A passenger disembarking American Airlines Flight 924, a Boeing 757, in Miami, Florida is shot and killed by an air marshal when the marshal believes that he hears the man say that he has a bomb.
December 8 – Southwest Airlines Flight 1248, a Boeing 737, slides off the runway during landing at Chicago Midway International Airport in Chicago, Illinois in heavy snow. None of the people on board are injured, but the plane hits two automobiles on the ground, killing a six-year-old boy.
December 10 – Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145, a DC-9 with 110 people on board, crashes during landing in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. 107 people die.
December 19 – Chalk's Ocean Airways Flight 101, a Grumman Mallard, crashes off the coast of Miami Beach, Florida, killing all 20 on board.

2006
May 3 – Armavia Flight 967, an Airbus A320, crashes into the Black Sea near the Russian city of Sochi, killing all 113 on board.
July 9 – S7 Airlines Flight 778, an Airbus A310, crashes into a concrete barricade and catches fire on landing in Irkutsk, Russia. Of the 203 people on board, 128 are killed.
July 10 – Pakistan International Airlines Flight 688, a Fokker F27, crashes into a wheat field near Multan, Pakistan ten minutes after taking off, killing all 41 passengers and 4 crew members on board.
August 22 – Pulkovo Airlines Flight 612, a Tupolev Tu-154, crashes near Donetsk, Ukraine, killing all 170 people on board.
August 27 – Comair Flight 5191, a CRJ-100, crashes during takeoff near Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49 of the 50 people on board.
September 1 – An Iran Air Tours Tu-154 carrying 148 people crashes while attempting to land in Mashad, Iran killing 28 people.
September 29 – Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907, a Boeing 737, collides with an Embraer Legacy business jet and crashes in Mato Grosso, Brazil. The Embraer Legacy, with seven on board, lands safely with no reported injuries. All 154 people on board the Boeing 737 perish.
October 3 – Turkish Airlines Flight 1476, a Boeing 737, is hijacked over Greece. The plane lands in Brindisi, Italy. None of the 113 people on board are hurt.
October 10 – Atlantic Airways Flight 670, a BAe 146, slides off the runway at Stord, Norway, killing four of the 16 people on board.
October 29 – ADC Airlines Flight 53, a Boeing 737, crashes near Abuja, Nigeria, killing 97 of the 104 people on board.
2007
January 1 – Adam Air Flight 574, a Boeing 737 with 102 people on board, crashes into the ocean off the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia, killing all on board.
January 9 – An AerianTur-M Antonov An-26 crashes near Balad, Iraq, killing 34 of the 35 people on board. The official cause of the crash is poor weather conditions, but other sources claim that the plane was shot down by a missile.
January 24 – Air West Flight 612, a Boeing 737 with 103 people on board, is hijacked over Sudan shortly after taking off from Khartoum, but lands safely in N'Djamena, Chad.
February 15 – An Air Mauritanie Boeing 737 is hijacked after taking off from Nouakchott, Mauritania, but lands safely in Las Palmas, Spain without any serious injuries among the 79 people on board.
February 18 – A Shuttle America Embraer ERJ-170 jet, operating as Delta Connection flight 6448, is substantially damaged when it overruns a snow covered runway by 150 feet on landing at the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, Cleveland, Ohio and contacts the localizer antenna and fence. None of the 74 aboard were injured.
February 21 – Adam Air Flight 172, a Boeing 737, suffers structural damage while landing near Surabaya, Indonesia. None of the 149 people on board were seriously injured.
March 7 – Garuda Indonesia Flight 200, a Boeing 737, overshoots the runway and crashes while landing at Yogyakarta, Indonesia, killing 22 of the 140 people on board.
March 17 – UTair Flight 471, a Tupolev Tu-134, suffers severe structural damage while landing in Samara, Russia, killing six of the 63 people on board.
March 23 – A TransAVIAexport Airlines Ilyushin Il-76 crashes in Mogadishu, Somalia killing all 11 on board; the plane, which crashes during the Battle of Mogadishu, is thought to have been shot down.
March 30 – A Sudan Airways flight with 284 people on board is hijacked but lands safely in Khartoum, Sudan.
May 5 – Kenya Airways Flight 507, a Boeing 737 with 114 people on board, crashes near Douala, Cameroon killing everyone on board.
June 3 – A Paramount Airlines Mil Mi-8 helicopter crashes in Lungi, Sierra Leone killing all 22 people on board.
June 21 – A Free Airlines Let-410UVP crashes shortly after takeoff from Kamina Town, Democratic Republic of Congo because of severe overloading, killing 1 and injuring 4 of the 21 people on board.
June 25 – PMTair Flight 241, an Antonov An-24, crashes in southwestern Cambodia killing all 22 on board.
June 28 – A TAAG Angola Airlines Boeing 737, D2-TBP, with 78 people on board, loses control while landing and crashes in M'banza-Kongo, Angola, killing at least six people on board and injuring an unknown number of others.

The wreckage of TAM Airlines Flight 3054July 17 – TAM Airlines Flight 3054, an Airbus A320, crashes in São Paulo, Brazil killing all 187 people on board and 12 on the ground.
August 9 – An Air Moorea de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter crashes into the lagoon of the island of Moorea in French Polynesia just 11 seconds after take off, killing all 20 on board. Suspected failure of steering equipment.
August 20 – China Airlines Flight 120, a Boeing 737, bursts into flames after landing at Naha, Japan. None of the 165 passengers were seriously injured.
Scandinavian Airlines 2007 Dash 8 landing gear incidents:
September 9 – Scandinavian Airlines Flight 1209, a de Havilland Canada Dash 8, experiences a landing gear failure in Aalborg, Denmark. None of the 73 people on board were seriously injured, but three days later, after a similar incident, the airline grounds the type.
September 12 – Scandinavian Airlines Flight 2748, a de Havilland Canada Dash 8, experiences a landing gear failure in Vilnius, Lithuania. None of the 52 people on board were injured, but because of a similar incident three days earlier, all their Dash 8s are grounded.
October 27 – Scandinavian Airlines Flight 2867, a de Havilland Canada Dash 8, experiences a landing gear failure in Copenhagen, Denmark. None of the 44 people on board were injured, but because of similar incidents in September, the airline "permanently" removes its Dash 8s from service. Cause is eventually ascribed to maintenance error.
September 16 – One-Two-GO Airlines Flight 269, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 carrying 130 people, crashes and bursts into flames after attempting to land in Phuket, Thailand during poor weather conditions killing 90 people.
October 4 – An Africa One Antonov An-26 crashes into a residential area in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, shortly after taking off. At least 50 people are killed, most of whom were on the ground.
November 30 – Atlasjet Flight 4203, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83, crashes into a mountain near Isparta, Turkey killing all 57 on board.
2008
January 2 – Asian Spirit Flight 321, an NAMC YS-11, overruns the runway while landing in Masbate City, Philippines, all 47 on board survived.
January 4 – A Transaven Let L-410 Turbolet crashes near the Los Roques archipelago off Venezuela killing all 14 on board.
January 10 – Air Canada Flight 190, an Airbus A319 experiences severe turbulence over the Canadian Rocky Mountains, injuring ten of the 88 on board, and is forced to divert and make an emergency landing at Calgary International Airport.
January 17 – British Airways Flight 38 a Boeing 777 lands short of the runway at London Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom. Nine of the 152 people on board are treated for minor injuries, but there are no fatalities.
February 8 – Eagle Airways Flight 2279, a BAe Jetstream 32 is hijacked ten minutes after taking off from Blenheim, New Zealand by a passenger who attacked both pilots. The hijacker is eventually restrained by the co-pilot and the flight lands safely at Christchurch. All nine on board survive the incident.
February 14 – Belavia Flight 1834, a Bombardier CRJ200, hits its left wing on the runway while taking off from Yerevan, Armenia. All 21 on board escape the aircraft before it erupts into flames.
February 21 – Santa Bárbara Airlines Flight 518, an ATR 42-300, crashes shortly after taking off from Mérida, Venezuela killing all 46 on board.
April 3 – An Antonov An-28 operated by Blue Wing Airlines crashes near Benzdorp in Suriname. All nineteen on board are killed.
April 11 – A Sudanese airline Antonov An-32 crashes returning shortly after taking off from Chişinău International Airport, Moldova for Turkey. All eight on board are killed.
April 15 – A Douglas DC-9 operated by Hewa Bora Airways crashes into a market near Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing 40 people, including three passengers.
May 25 – A Kalitta Air Boeing 747 cargo crashes at Brussels Airport and snaps in two, but without serious injury.
May 30 – TACA Airlines Flight 390, an Airbus A320, overruns the runway at Toncontín International Airport in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, killing five (including two on ground).
June 10 – Sudan Airways Flight 109, an Airbus A310, crashes at Khartoum International Airport and breaks apart, catching fire. 30 deaths are confirmed, 6 passengers are listed as missing.
July 25 – Qantas Flight 30, a Boeing 747-438 en route from Hong Kong to Melbourne, performs an emergency descent and lands in Manila after a hull penetration results in rapid decompression. All aboard survive.
August 20 – Spanair Flight 5022, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 crashes on takeoff at Barajas Airport in Madrid, Spain. Of the 172 people on board, 154 are killed.
August 24 – Itek Air Flight 6895 Boeing 737-200 crashes just after take-off from Manas Airport in capital Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. While it is initially known that 6 crew members on the flight survive, reports suggest some 71 are killed while 19 survive, of the 83 passengers and 7 crew aboard. Initially, it was reported that the flight was operated by Iran Aseman Airlines, however later it was reported by Kyrgyz and Iranian authorities that Itek Air owned and operated the Boeing 737-200.
September 14 - Aeroflot Flight 821, a Boeing 737-500, crashes on approach to Perm Airport from Moscow. All 88 people on board are killed.

147 KILLED IN TEMPLE STAMPEDE IN INDIA

2008-09-30T16:30:00.000-07:00

At least 147 people have been killed and over 425 injured in a major stampede at the Chamunda Devi Temple in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, where devotees had gathered in large numbers on the occasion of the start of Navaratri.

According to eyewitnesses there was a scramble on the narrow two-km path for gaining entry into the temple.

The casualties were mostly men as the stampede occurred in the queue meant for them while the queue for women and children was largely unaffected.

Some devotees slipped on the slope of the temple path, others started falling on each other causing the stampede.

A majority of those killed died due to suffocation. The shrine is in the Mehrangarh Fort run by the erstwhile Jodhpur royal family.

The District Collector of Jodhpur, Naresh Pal Gangwar said a ramp inside the temple collapsed, which led to the stampede.

"In the temple inside the palace, there is a ramp, on which there is a slope. People started pushing each other, and stampede bagan. Some people died due to suffocation. The injured have been rushed to all hospitals nearby," Gangwar said.

Rajasthan Director General of Police KS Bains said that an investigation has been ordered into the tragic incident.

"It is being inquired. There were a large number of devotees and early morning there was a power failure. That is the cause of stampede. Some people slipped because of which there was a stampede," Bains said.

He also clarified that that was no bomb scare which led to the stampede.

"There is no bomb blast rumours and police was deployed in full strength. Most of the dead are male," he said.

A police official, however, said there is difficulty in giving the exact figures as most of the people have taken the dead bodies of their near and dear ones fearing post-mortem.

At least 30 bodies have been brought to the Mahatma Gandhi Hospital at Jodhpur, while the remaining 10 were taken to the Mathura Das Hospital, Divisional Commissioner Kiran Soni Gupta was quoted by news agency PTI as saying.

Jodhpur helpline number: 0291 - 2650316

Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria said, "Enough police deployment was ensured to avoid an eventuality but the rush was just too much. There was a separate line for women too."

According to some eyewitnesses, a rumour of a bomb being planted in the temple was the reason that the stampede started.

It is feared the number of casualties may go up.

First Pics: Rajasthan's temple of doom

In August this year, a stampede outside the Naina Devi temple left 145 pilgrims dead.

Authorities have already ordered a probe into possible organisational lapses that led to a stampede outside the Naina Devi temple in Himachal Pradesh.

Rumours of a landslide had triggered that stampede. The pilgrims ran down a narrow mountain trail from the temple in Bilaspur district, only to meet thousands of people walking up in the opposite direction.

Most were trampled while dozens fell to their death after railings broke on the steep mountainside. More than 100 people were injured.

ISLAMABAD MARRIOT HOTEL BOMBING ON 20 SEPTEMBER

2008-09-23T14:25:00.000-07:00

The Islamabad Marriott Hotel bombing occurred on 20 September 2008, when a dump truck filled with explosives detonated in front of the Marriott Hotel in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, killing at least 53, injuring at least 266 and leaving a 60 ft (20 m) wide, 20 ft (6 m) deep crater outside the hotel. The majority of the casualties are believed to be Pakistanis; although about fifteen foreigners have also been reported injured. The attack occurred mere hours after President Asif Ali Zardari made his first speech to parliament. The Marriott was the most prestigious hotel in the capital, located near government buildings and diplomatic missions. It was popular with foreigners and the Pakistani elite. The hotel had previously been the target of militants. In 2007, a suicide bomber killed himself and another person in an attack at the hotel.

Map of the location of the hotel and its surroundings with the hotel highlighted in blueThe blast caused a natural gas leak that set the top floor of the five-story, 258-room hotel on fire, police said. The massive explosion was heard 15 kilometres away.The blaze that followed quickly engulfed the entire structure of the hotel. About two-thirds of the building caught fire as a result of the explosion after
a natural gas pipe was blown open, and the reception area was completely destroyed.

The owner of the hotel, Hashoo Group,owned by Sadruddin Hashwani, who is an Ismaili Shia, said the truck carrying the bomb had been stopped at the front barrier. "Some shots were fired. One of our guards fired back, and in the meantime he detonated all the explosives. All the guards on the gate died," said hotel owner Sadruddin Hashwani.

After the attack, vans were temporarily banned from entering the capital territory.

In addition, six Germans, four Britons and a Filipina receptionist from the hotel were among the injured. Two American military personnel were also killed, and a Danish Secret Service agent and a U.S. State Department employee were missing and presumed dead.

The Czech ambassador to Pakistan, Dr. Ivo Žďárek, died in the ensuing fire along with his Vietnamese companion. Although Žďárek had survived the initial blast, he returned to the hotel to help in the rescue effort but was trapped in the burning building.

Pakistan's top leaders were to have been in the Islamabad Marriott hotel when it was bombed - but changed their plans at the last minute, and gathered instead at a dinner at the Prime Minister's house, a few hundred yards from the explosion, following a parliamentary address by President Asif Ali Zardari. "The national assembly speaker had arranged a dinner for the entire leadership - for the president, prime minister and armed services chiefs - at the Marriott that day," the Interior ministry head, Rehman Malik, told reporters.

However, the hotel owner, Sadruddin Hashwani, denied that such a meeting had ever been scheduled to take place.

Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said both Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani condemned the attack and vowed their determination to deal with terrorism, with Law Minister Farooq Naek stating "this is Pakistan's nine-eleven".

Government advisor Rehman Malik said RDX and TNT were used in the attack.]

Approximately 600 kg of RDX were mixed with TNT (Torpex or H6) and a mixture of mortar and other ammunition to increase the explosiveness. Aluminum powder was also mixed with the material to further enhance this capability. Torpex is about fifty percent more powerful than TNT by weight. The blast was heard for many miles throughout the capital.

A minor explosion first alerted guards but was followed by the much larger explosion about four minutes later.

"Delay switches" might also have been used.

Pakistan released the CCTV footage of the attack at a press conference saying that a six-wheeled dumper truck filled with explosives and an accelerant pulled up at the gate and first caught fire before exploding a few minutes later.

An unnamed senior security official stated that about 30 U.S. Marines, scheduled to go to Afghanistan, were staying at the hotel, and they were believed to be the targets of the bombing. This conflicted with information given by another unnamed official who stated that the marines were in Pakistan in connection with the visit by US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen who met the Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani and other government officials on Wednesday The personnel were staying on the fourth floor of the hotel, which also the most severely damaged by the fire which ensued following the bomb blast. According to the Dawn, a number of the marines who stayed at the hotel sustained injuries; the newspaper also cited an unnamed law enforcement official stating "personnel of a US security agency" were in all likelihood the target of the attack. There are also reports that more Americans were present at the hotel, as several senior CIA officers were visiting Islamabad at the time of the attack and believed to be staying at the hotel, according to unnamed "well placed sources".

An MP for the ruling Pakistan People's Party, Syed Mumtaz Alam Gillani, has come forward with testimony evidencing a purportedly serious security breach at the Marriott on Friday night, the day before the bombing.Alam Gilani describes how he and two friends witnessed steel boxes being unloaded from a US Embassy truck by the marines and, according to someone at the hotel, transported the wares to the fourth and fifth floors of the hotel. Among the several people who witnessed this incident was PPP leader Sajjad Chaudhry.However, Alam Gilani was the only one who objected to and protested the apparent security breach taking place, but was met with silence from the American marines. The hotel security staff did not respond to Alam Gilani's protests as they passively watched what was taking place, not being allowed to go near the boxes by the US marines.

President Asif Ali Zardari is considering delaying his visit to the US to attend the UN General Assembly session in the wake of the bombing. MP Ayaz Amir said that he felt that the president should cancel his visit given the circumstances, and instead should combat terrorism and extremism. He added, "I believe that the UN General Assembly annual session is the most useless event in the world where leaders go to listen their own speeches."

Due to the attack, British Airways suspended flights to Pakistan as a precautionary measure "until further notice."

The BBC reported that Pakistan was an important ally of the United States in its "war on terror", but that it had disagreements over tactics and had complained about US raids from Afghanistan. Following an apparent power vacuum as a result of the stepping down of former president Pervez Musharraf earlier in the month, U.S. missile-strikes have increased, culminating in the Baghar Cheena airstrike on 17 September.After the event, president Asif Ali Zardari appealed for "all democratic forces" to help to save Pakistan and he pledged to rid Pakistan of Islamic militants: "Terrorism is a cancer in Pakistan, we are determined, God willing, we will rid the country of this cancer. I promise you that such actions by these cowards will not lower our resolve." Pakistan's chief adviser on internal security, Rehman Malik, said "the authorities would fight on until the last terrorist is cleared. We think that the safe Pakistan, safe Afghanistan is safety for the world and therefore we will not let them have easy way."

A Taliban spokesperson denied the group's involvement in the blast, saying they "do not believe in killing so many locals.

An American intelligence official stated that the attack bears all the hallmarks of a terrorist operation carried out by Al Qaeda or its associates.

Some investigators suspect an Islamist group, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, is responsible for the attack based upon the similarities between this incident and four previous attacks allegedly conducted by its operatives.

Dubai-based Arabiya Television says a group calling itself Fedayeen Islam or Islamic Commandos, has called Arabiya's correspondent in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. The correspondent said he received a text message on his mobile phone showing a telephone number. He said he called the number and then heard a recording in which the group admitted launching Saturday's attack. The Arabiya television correspondent says the speaker spoke in English with a South Asian accent. The Fedayeen Islam group has issued several demands including for Pakistan to stop its cooperation with the United States.

60 ALLEGED MILITANTS KILLED IN NORTHWEST PAKISTAN AS FINLAND SCHOOL GUNMAN KILLS 9

2008-09-23T07:38:00.000-07:00

Security forces backed by helicopter gunships and artillery killed more than 60 insurgents in northwest Pakistan in offensives aimed at denying al-Qaeda and Taliban militants safe havens, officials said Tuesday.

The attacks come amid intense U.S. pressure on Pakistan to crack down on militants blamed for attacks both at home and on coalition forces in neighboring Afghanistan.

A truck bombing over the weekend at a luxury hotel in the capital Islamabad that killed 53 people underscored the threat extremists pose to the nuclear-armed nation.

More than 50 of the alleged insurgents, along with one soldier, died in clashes since Monday in the Kohat region, which borders Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal areas, army spokesman Maj. Murad Khan said.

He said the military had retaken control of a key mountain tunnel from the insurgents.

In the nearby Bajur tribal region, security forces killed at least 10 militants during an ongoing offensive there, government official Iqbal Khattak said.

That operation, which began in early August, has won praise from U.S. officials worried about rising violence in Pakistan and Afghanistan, but has triggered retaliatory suicide bombings elsewhere in Pakistan.

Some officials believe the weekend bombing of the Marriott Hotel may have been a response to the Bajur operations, which the army says has left more than 700 suspected militants dead.

Washington says the operation in Bajur — a rumored hiding place of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden — appears to have reduced violence across the border in Afghanistan.

Pakistan's army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas has said Bajur had turned into a "mega-sanctuary" for militants and the military was determined to flush them out.

However, a rash of U.S. cross-border operations in neighboring tribal regions, including suspected missile strikes and a ground assault, underscore Washington's concerns that Pakistan is either unwilling or incapable of rooting out extremists on its own.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was expected to discuss the cross-border attacks with President Bush on Tuesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

In the latest such alleged breach, two U.S. helicopters crossed one mile into Pakistan late Sunday in the Alwara Mandi area in North Waziristan, two intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Citing informants in the field, they said Pakistani troops and tribesmen responded with small arms fire, but it was not clear whether the bullets were aimed at the choppers or were warning shots. The helicopters did not return fire and re-entered Afghan airspace without landing, the officials said.

That account was denied by Pentagon officials. "There was no such incursion, there was no such event," said Defense Department spokesman Col. Gary L. Keck.

Pakistan has protested U.S. cross-border operations, calling them violations of its sovereignty. But its government has called for diplomatic measures to resolve the dispute.

Zardari told NBC television in a recent interview that he welcomed U.S. intelligence help, but not its troops. "Give us the intelligence and we will do the job," he said. "It's better done by our forces than yours."

Experts and officials say the Marriott truck bombing bore the hallmarks of al-Qaeda, but that the Taliban may still have assisted in its execution.

Late Monday, Dubai-based TV channel Al-Arabiya said it received a tape from a shadowy group calling itself "Fedayeen Al-Islam" — Arabic for "Islam commandos" — claiming responsibility for the Marriott bombing and calling on Pakistan to end cooperation with the United States.

The bombing at the hotel, a favorite spot for foreigners in Islamabad, has led diplomatic missions, aid groups and other expatriate organizations to review security measures.

A spokesman for British Airways on Tuesday said it was "indefinitely" suspending its flights to and from Pakistan "in light of the current security situation."

Meanwhile, the company that runs four visa application centers for the British High Commission in Pakistan has closed them pending a security review, commission spokesman Aidan Liddle said.

FINLAND SCHOOL GUNMAN KILLS 9
Finland's interior minister says a man who killed nine people in a school shooting was questioned by police a day before the massacre but released.

Anne Holmlund says the gunman was detained for questioning on Monday about YouTube postings in which he is seen firing a handgun. She says police released him because they had no legal reason to keep him detained.

She says the man used a 22-millimeter caliber handgun in Tuesday's attack in Kauhajoki, 180 miles (300 kilometers) northwest of Helsinki. Holmlund says he got the license for the gun in August.

The shootings began just before 11 a.m. local time as about 150 students went to class in Kauhajoki, 180 miles northwest of Helsinki. Witnesses said panic broke out as the hooded gunman entered the school and began firing.

"Within a short space of time I heard several dozen rounds of shots, in other words it was an automatic pistol," school janitor Jukka Forsberg told broadcaster YLE. "I saw some female students who were wailing and moaning and one managed to escape out of the back door."

Broadcaster STT, citing police at the school, reported nine people were killed, that the school building was on fire and the gunman reportedly had explosives on him.

Jussi Muotio, superintendent of the Kauhajoki police, confirmed that several people had been wounded but could not immediately confirm the deaths. "The incident is over now," Muotio said.

Vesa Nyrhinen, detective superintendent from the local police, declined to say how seriously the gunman was injured. "He was wounded by his own bullets," he said.

College rector Timo Varmola told YLE there were 150 students in the school at the time.

The shootings happened almost a year after another gunman killed eight people and himself at a school in southern Finland, an attack that triggered a fierce debate about gun laws in this Nordic nation with deep-rooted traditions of hunting in the sub-Arctic wilderness.

With 1.6 million firearms in private hands, Finland is an anomaly in Europe, lagging behind only the United States and Yemen in civilian gun ownership, studies show.

Finnish media said YouTube clips of a man firing a gun appeared to be linked to the shooting. In one of them, a young man wearing a leather jacket fires several shots in rapid succession with a handgun at what appears to be a shooting range.

The posting was made five days before the shooting and the location was given as Kauhajoki. The posting included a message saying: "Whole life is war and whole life is pain. And you will fight alone in your personal war."

The person who posted the clip identified himself as a 22-year-old with the name "Mr. Saari." He also posted three other clips of himself firing a handgun in the past three weeks.

Clips from the 1999 Columbine school shootings in Colorado were listed among his favorite videos.

Police could not immediately confirm whether the postings were linked to Tuesday's shooting.

Last year, Pekka-Eric Auvinen, described by police as a bullied 18-year-old outcast, opened fire at his high school in southern Finland on Nov. 7. He killed six students, a school nurse and the principal before ending his own life with a gunshot to the head.

Finnish investigators have said Auvinen left a suicide note for his family and foreshadowed his attack in YouTube postings.

After Auvinen's rampage, the government said it would raise the minimum age for buying guns from 15 to 18, but insisted there was no need for sweeping changes to Finland's gun laws.

MEN RAPES BABY AS CURE FOR HIV AIDS IN SOUTH AFRICA

2008-09-22T16:24:00.001-07:00

Two men are due to appear at a court in Johannesburg on Tuesday, accused of raping a five-month-old girl who was discovered covered in blood and in tears.

It is the latest in a series of rapes of baby girls - some of them involving children less than one year-old, which has left South Africans reeling with horror.

Every day the newspapers bring awful revelations: a nine-month-old girl gang-raped by six men; an eight-month-old raped and left by the roadside.

I don't know how to take my anger out. I don't know why he did this

Mother of abused child

Outside the central Johannesburg magistrates' court, 200 demonstrators gathered carrying banners with slogans like "child rapists are not human".

Yet many protesters seem unable to understand why the rapes are happening.

"I don't have an answer, it's inhuman, it's inhuman," one told me.

Rape statistics from South Africa are so shocking as to be almost unbelievable - women's rights activists say one South African is raped every 26 seconds.

It is the young who are particularly vulnerable, with the police saying that more teenagers are raped than any other age group.

But even in a country numbed to horrific events, these cases are bewildering to South Africans, and making them question where their society is heading.

It is hardly believable - but some think that this is not new, only that a horrible truth is finally being acknowledged

Township youngsters are among the most vulnerable

"Actually it's not a new phenomenon, it's been something that you hide, you regard it as an embarrassment within the family. But now people have started to talk, they've decided that they've had enough," a woman protester told me.

A typical story reveals the horror.

On a poor Johannesburg estate, a family of eight sleep in one dirty bedroom.

Last week a neighbour seized the nine year old daughter, showed her pornographic magazines and then raped and indecently assaulted her. He gave her a few coins, and said sorry.

The little girl needed extensive surgery - her mother and father are inconsolable.

"I'm very angry, I'm very angry, I don't know how to take my anger out. I don't know why he did this, he used to come here and play with my children..." said the mother.

The father said he wanted to hunt down the rapists.

"How many parents' hearts must be broken?"

He is not alone in his rage.

Last weekend in Soweto a suspected child rapist was stoned to death.

The government is appealing for calm.

It is also trying to dispel a widespread rumour - that having sex with a virgin cures Aids.

Traditional healers, or witchdoctors, are blamed for spreading this idea, and encouraging child rape.

A sociologist, Lisa Vetton, draws a parallel with Europe, when child prostitution was rampant

"At that time venereal disease like Aids today was incurable. If you had gonorrhea or syphilis you were going to die. And exactly the same myth emerged, that sex with a virgin is going to cure you - so it seems like a very old response whenever sex and death are combined. Suddenly women - girls - get attributed with magical healing powers".

We must re-educate and empower men

Politician Nomvula Mokanyane

Some demonstrators are calling for longer sentences, even castration. Others are more considered.

Local politician Nomvula Mokanyane says that under apartheid, African men were stripped of power and prestige. Now they take their revenge on women, and on tiny children.

"We must re-educate and empower men. There are those who are sick who need to be re-educated. My worry is that men's power is threatened so they use their sexual organ to inflict pain on women."

South Africa's history, its poverty and the Aids pandemic all give insights into how some men behave.

But the rape of tiny children leaves people as mystified here as they would be in any other part of the world.

IN Nigeria as well, quite a number of such acts were recorded more than 50 times on the face of newspaper from 2005 till date.

two men were arraigned before a magistrate court in Kaduna in the year 2005 as a result of their lawless act. one of which was 45 years old and the other being 42 raping a girl of just 2 years old around september in 2005. more than 30 of such occured in Lagos metropoly. WHAT A LAWLESS ACT.

PLANE CRASH IN RUSSIA KILLS 88 PEOPLE ON BOARD

2008-09-22T16:20:00.000-07:00

82 passengers and six crew members have been killed in a plane crash near Perm in the Ural Mountains of central Russia. Emergency workers say there are no survivors. Seven children, including a baby, are reported to have been on the flight from Moscow, which was operated by Aeroflot subsidiary, Aeroflot Nord.

EFFECTS OF HURRICANE IKE

2008-09-22T03:27:00.000-07:00

Officials Friday delayed the arrival of a cargo ship at the International Space Station, after NASA shut down its space center in Houston as Hurricane Ike barreled down on Texas, the US space agency said.

The Russian cargo spacecraft Progress, launched Thursday from Kazakhstan, is carrying more than two tons of supplies to Russian cosmonauts aboard the orbiting space station (ISS).

But US and Russian officials delayed its docking from Saturday to Wednesday, after the Johnson Space Center in Houston, which controls many of the systems at the ISS, was shut down because of the approaching storm.

Ike has killed more than 100 people in the Caribbean and was gathering strength as it rampaged across the Gulf of Mexico, threatening Galveston Island and Houston in southeastern Texas with a direct hit.

Control of the ISS has been handed to flight controllers at backup facilities further inland in Texas and Alabama until the storm has passed, NASA said.