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June 13 (Reuters) – At least 12 people were killed and 22 wounded on Sunday after a bomb attack on Iraq’s central bank and a subsequent gun battle between security forces and gunmen, officials said.
The attackers, who might have been attempting to rob the bank’s vaults, had ended up on the rooftops of some of the buildings within the Central Bank of Iraq’s compound, said a bank spokesman. (Reporting by Suadad al-Salhy; Writing by Michael Christie;
Bangkok, May 21 (ANI): Bangkok is in a state of anarchy following the Thailand government’s forced eviction of the UDD demonstrators’ rally site that has left 52 dead in the last six days.
The damage wreaked by disgruntled Red-Shirts has far exceeded the Government’s projections.
Parts of Bangkok’s glitzy commercial centres are now barely recognizable, as they have been gutted by fires started by the looters and arsonists.
Thirty-six buildings were burnt in Bangkok alone, some of them, such as the CentralWorld shopping centre, that sustained massive damage in the fire that raged on for 20 hours.
Meanwhile, the establishment maintained that there was no scope for a resolution, “The Prime Minister never said he would sit down to talk. He said the [time for] negotiation had passed,” the Bangkok Post quoted the country’s deputy Prime Minister Korbsak Sabhavasu, as saying. (ANI)
Peshawar, Apr.7 (ANI): A four-member team from the US has arrived in Peshawar to probe Monday’s terror strike on the American consulate.
The team visited the crime scene to collect ground evidence. The rubble from the adjacent buildings, damaged in the attack, has still not been cleared, The Daily Times reports.
Meanwhile, North West Frontier Province (NWFP) Police chief Malik Naveed has rejected reports of there being any security failure.
“It was a great success that the attackers were not allowed to reach their target,” Naveed said.
The militants had first exploded a car bomb, then opened gun fire and hurled grenades and tried to enter the consulate, but were prevented.
Two Pakistani security officials were killed and many others were njured, but no American was killed or injured. (ANI)
A major earthquake of 7.2 magnitudes hit Baja California in Mexico, shaking skyscrapers in San Diego and Los Angeles, whose strong tremors were felt as far as Phoenix and Las Vegas as well.
The immediate impact of the earthquake on people and buildings were not immediately known.
The quake was centred about 25 kilometre south-southwest of Guadalupe Victoria, the US Geological Service said, which initially said it measured around 6.9 magnitude, but quickly revised it to 7.2.
US Geological survey said, the earthquake occurred about 32 kilometres below the earth’s surface.
“Experts have said that such a depth increases the chances that the earth might absorb a majority of the shock, reducing the chances of damage on the surface,” The New York Times reported.
A 7.2 earthquake can cause major damage in structures, crack the ground and shift foundations.
The Los Angeles Fire Department said it was going into “earthquake” mode, checking buildings and bridges for possible structural damage and checking reports of people stuck in elevators.
“Rides were temporarily closed at the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim,” The Los Angeles Times reported.
“There were no reports of major infrastructure damage in Los Angeles, but reports were still coming in from San Diego and Mexico. San Diego fire officials were responding to at least one report of a damaged building,” the daily said in its news report posted on its website.
A major 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck near the Mexico-California border on Sunday, killing at least one person as it rocked buildings, ruptured a highway and panicked residents from Tijuana to Los Angeles.
One person died when a house in Mexicali collapsed, Alfredo Escobedo, director of emergency services in Baja California state, Mexico, said. He said others had been trapped in elevators, retaining walls collapsed in some places and electricity was out in several parts of the state.
“There are around 100 people injured,” Escobedo told Reuters, but he had no reports of people stuck under collapsed buildings.
Local newspaper La Cronica said two people had died.
The relatively shallow quake was centred in a lightly populated area in northeastern Baja California near the city of Mexicali on the U.S. border. It knocked down power lines, cut off most phone communications and tore big cracks in a highway linking Tijuana to Mexicali.
The U.S. town of Calexico, over the border from Mexicali, suffered substantial structural damage but no casualties, local Fire Chief Pete Mercado told ABC7 TV News in Los Angeles.
“We are a population of 40,000 people, bordered next to 1.5 million. So we have a significant amount of damage down in Mexicali,” he said. “I have not got an update from the Mexican side.”
Mexicali is a prosperous city and a busy border crossing with the United States. Local industry is mainly agriculture, food processing plants and assembly-for-export plants. Images after the quake showed damaged but not collapsed buildings.
A series of aftershocks rocked the area around the epicentre, 30 miles (50 km) to the southeast of Mexicali and close to the town of Guadalupe Victoria for several hours.
“It’s still shaking,” Nadia Camacho, a receptionist at a Mexicali hotel which had cracks in its floor and walls, said hours after the quake struck at 3:40 p.m. Pacific time (2240 GMT). “We are all on alert. Nobody is inside the hotel, everybody’s outside.”
NERVES IN QUAKE-PRONE AREAS
The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at 7.2, a magnitude that can cause serious damage to urban areas.
Devastating earthquakes in Haiti and Chile this year have left many people nervous across tremor-prone Latin America.
An empty multistory parking garage under construction in Mexicali collapsed and broken gas pipes sparked a number of fires, Baja California civil protection official Eduardo Sandoval told Mexican radio.
In Tijuana, about 135 miles (200 km) from the epicentre, a Reuters witness said the quake visibly jolted cars in a parking lot and shook a computer on her desk.
Some neighbourhoods of San Diego reported minor structural damage and burst water pipes and callers to local radio said the rolling tremor made it hard to keep vehicles on the road.
“This was by far in recent memory the biggest jolt to our area,” said a commentator on local San Diego radio station.
People in Los Angeles, some 200 miles (320 km) northwest of the epicentre, felt buildings swaying.
“I’m shaking like a leaf … the pool water was just going everywhere,” said Jean Nelson in Indio, California, outside Palm Springs, about 120 miles (190 km) from the epicentre.
Southern California with its many active faults is prone to frequent quakes, and many residents fearfully anticipate the next big one. The last to cause major damage was the 6.7 magnitude Northridge quake in 1994 that left 57 dead, injured 9,000 and resulted in about $40 billion in property damage.
(Additional reporting by Robert Campbell and Tomas Sarmiento in Mexico City, Mary Milliken in Los Angeles and Jackie Frank in Washington; Writing by Robert Campbell and Catherine Bremer; Editing by Will Dunham and Chris Wilson)
The Greater Taree City Council expects people to respect new widespread smoking bans.
Smoking will soon be banned 10 metres from playgrounds, sporting fields and council owned buildings as well as covered bus stops and taxi ranks.
The executive leader of service delivery, Ron Posselt, says many local government areas are introducing similar changes.
He says most smokers understand that other people do not want to inhale their smoke and will obey the signs.
“There will be signs erected to advise people that they’re not to smoke in those areas and we’ll be implementing an education program,” Mr Posselt said.
“In the first instance we are looking at educating the public to smoke elsewhere. It’s not that people can’t smoke, there are many places they can smoke.
“Quite often they only need to take half a dozen paces in one direction and they’ll be able to smoke in those areas.”
Mr Posselt says the bans are strongly supported by the Cancer Council.
“Council have been out to public consultation on this issue and the feedback we’ve received was very positive to implement these bans,” he said.
Students and teachers have returned to their classrooms after a fire at a Melbourne secondary school.
About 150 people were evacuated from one of the buildings at Footscray City College after loud explosions were heard and black smoke was seen coming from a power switchboard room.
The fire brigade says the switchboard short circuited and caught fire.
The blaze was put out after power was cut to the building.
It is estimated the fire caused about $20,000 damage to electrical equipment.
A property valuation firm says heritage costs associated with maintaining buildings in Toowoomba’s CBD makes it harder for new businesses to buy into the city centre.
Heron Todd White’s monthly report described the central business district as a “secondary retail location” with a reduction in rental levels and quality of tenants.
Toowoomba director Ian Douglas says although most CBD properties do not change hands very often, there are extra costs involved with buying older property in the CBD.
“Whether the building has heritage significance or not doesn’t really make much difference to the tenant using it,” he said.
“It just means from a property owner’s point of view they may be restricted in how they can renovate that building internally and they might have heritage issues.”
The Port Macquarie-Hastings Council has completed a draft local environmental plan (LEP) and development control plan for the local government area.
The documents will go on public display for feedback from today.
The council’s Matt Rogers says the local environment plan will set in place the fundamental planning provisions for all properties.
“What they do is provide for zones that allow for particular uses of land or development to occur, like residential zones, commercial zones, industrial and rural, just to name the most common zones, and they also prescribe other requirements such as height limits on buildings and minimum lot sizes,” Mr Rogers said.
“This LEP and an accompanying development control plan which provides more detail about development design and other aspects of development will be on display for six weeks.
“We’ll be having a number of information sessions during that period and we encourage landowners to come in and talk to council’s planning staff.”
New Delhi, Sep 1 (ANI): Home Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday inaugurated a biometric identification system in his ministry to ensure punctuality among the staff.
“I hope that people will absorb the spirit and the purpose behind the system which is being introduced. This is a message to the whole country that everyone must do their work for the allotted hours,” he said.
“The Ministry understands that some flexibility is needed but whoever comes late will have to work that much time extra,” he added.
The Web-based system consists of 15 machines installed at various gates in three buildings where offices of MHA are housed, namely – North Block, Jaisalmer House and Lok Nayak Bhawan.
Under this system, all officers/officials of the Ministry will be registering their arrivals in the morning and departure for the day.
There are around 2,700 employees in the Home Ministry of which 1,500 work in the North Block premises. (ANI)
Guwahati, Aug 27 (ANI): Experts have claimed that a big earthquake might hit Assam shortly.
“There is no accurate method of prediction of earthquake. It is difficult to say whether a big earthquake will be coming soon or in the near future. But our study shows that a big earthquake is due in this region. We have used a model. According to that model, a big earthquake should occur in this region within a short time,” said Surjya Kanta Sarmah, Professor, Geo-Physics, Guwahati University.
Two consecutive earthquakes measuring below five on the Richter scale shook Assam last week.
City builders are taking all precautions while undertaking construction projects in Assam, which falls in a earthquake prone zone.
” Since Assam falls under zone 5 – 6, so we have to take extra precautions in constructing buildings. Most of the buildings here are earthquake resistant, ” said Biswajuti Bora, a builder.
The major worry among the scientists is that Assam is seated on the highly volatile seismic zone five.
Among all the earthquakes that Assam has experienced, the earthquakes of 1897 and 1950 are among the ten biggest earthquakes in world history. (ANI)
Swat, Aug. 9 (ANI): The Swat education department has said that the Taliban has destroyed 238 out of 1,576 schools affecting more than 56,250 students in the province.
The department has demanded a grant of 2,203 million rupees from the provincial government, for the reconstruction of more than 238 school destroyed by the Taliban, The Dawn reports.
Recently, most Swat parents had expressed hesitation about sending their daughters to the tent schools without proper security arrangements.
The Swat Taliban had destroyed 162 girls’ schools calling them anti-Islamic.
Parents had urged the education department to hire buildings for girls’ schools and appoint security guards to avert any militant attack, The Dawn reports.
Even schoolteachers are not confident about the security situation in Swat Valley, from where militants are yet to be cleared.
Teachers are not being allowed leaves, as they were bound to complete the course of the academic session. (ANI)
Bhatinda, June 29 (ANI): Agitated over an employee’s death, over a hundred of his colleagues burnt vehicles and damaged property in Bhatinda on Monday.
Noticing agitated persons turning violent and damaging property, police resorted to firing after baton charging the mob.
“One worker had died in the refinery due to heat. Other employees were agitated with the refinery administration over his death and went on a rampage burning some vehicles and buildings in the town later,” said Ajay Maluja, Superintendent of Police (SP), Bhatinda.
Maluja added that the situation which had deteriorated, have been brought under control by police.
The workers were demanding adequate compensation for the victim’s family. However, the refinery management has refused the demand for any compensation. (ANI)
Lahore, June 27 (ANI): Pakistan intelligence agencies have warned that extremists may strike the US embassy, consulates and other strategically important American establishments in the country.
According to an intelligence report, a militant named Muhammad Ayub, who belongs to Quetta, has been assigned the work to carry out terror strikes on US buildings, The Daily Times reports.
The Interior Ministry’s Crisis Management Cell has alerted all the provincial governments regarding the impending threat.
Security forces have been put on high-alert in the light of the threat, and asked to maintain a tight vigil across US establishments. (ANI)
London, May 19 (ANI): A ginger and white cat has been nicknamed ‘Spidercat’ because of its unique ability to scale the walls of his master’s home in Denny, near Falkirk, Scotland, to sneak indoors via the upstairs balcony door.
What’s more, the super cat can hold onto the entire pebbledash surface of the walls while making his vertical ascent.
Owner Hannah Smith said she discovered her pet’s talent when she let him out of the front door downstairs, only for him to reappear indoors moments later.
“Charlie miaows at the front door to be let out. So we let him out but no sooner is he let out than he wants back in,” the Telegraph quoted Smith as saying.
“But if no one hears him at the front door, he wanders round to the back of the buildings to find the balcony. He then climbs up to the balcony to get back in.
“So Charlie really goes out the front door and in the back door.
“I got him as a wee kitten and out of the litter Charlie was the one that looked most mischievous and I liked that about him. He’s certainly lived up to his reputation.
“I think it is totally incredible how Charlie is able to climb up a roughcast wall. I’ve seen cats climb trees but I’ve never seen a cat climb a wall. It’s amazing,” she added. (ANI)
Rome – The death toll after the Italian earthquake rose with the recovery of another 22 bodies, to 272, by late Wednesday, according to Italian rescue officials.
The new figure was released after the Italian government announced it would extend rescue efforts through Sunday, three days beyond a previous limit set by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Monday’s temblor destroyed scores of buildings in the city of L’Aquila and other nearby towns in the country’s central Abruzzo region and left an estimated 20,000 people homeless.
It’s not clear how many people were still missing in the disaster, which left 1,000 people wounded, many of them with serious injuries. (dpa)
Geneva – The World Health Organization said Tuesday that developed nations should not be lax in taking steps to make sure their hospitals are safe in times of emergencies, particularly in light of the earthquake in Italy.
United Nations agencies noted that a hospital in the medieval town of L’Aquila had to be evacuated owing to severe structural damage caused by the quake.
“If we are prepared, we certainly can save an untold number of lives,” said Fadela Chiab, WHO spokeswoman in Geneva.
Being prepared, she noted, meant making the buildings safe and stable, securing the equipment and training personnel for disasters.
These recommendations for national policy plans applied to all UN members, including those in the developed world, Chiab stressed.
The evacuated hospital was relatively new, having been built about 15 years ago.
Tuesday is World Health Day, marked each year on April 7. The theme this year was centered on making hospitals safer in times of emergencies, such as natural disasters, wars, outbreaks of diseases and large scale attacks.
The death toll from the quake early Monday in central Italy, which registered between 5.8 and 6.2 on the Richter scale, has risen to 179. An additional 34 people were still missing.(dpa)
Rome, April 6 (Xinhua) At least 13 people, including four children, were killed Monday in a strong earthquake in central Italy, TV channels reported.
The earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 rocked central Italy early Monday, damaging buildings in the town of Aquila, where the epicentre was located, some 95 km northeast of Rome.
The US Geological Survey initially put the quake’ magnitude at 6.7 and later revised it to 6.3.
Quoting Aquila’s public safety officials, Italy’s state television said the quake measured 5.8.
According to the US agency, the quake struck at 03.32 a.m. (0232 GMT) and its epicentre was located 33 km underground.
The quake was also felt in Rome, waking residents there.
Lahore, Apr.5 (ANI): The US based private research agency, Stratfor, has downed comparison between the Manawan police training academy terror strike and the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks .
Stratfor’s analysis said that the two incidents should not be compared as the Mumbai attacks were significantly different from the one in Manawan
The buildings of the two luxury hotels taken under siege by the terrorist in Mumbai were far more complex in design and occupied a larger area than the training academy’s building in Manawan, the report said.
The Mumbai incident was intricate because it involved foreign citizens taken hostage at three different locations situated far away from each other.
“Pakistani authorities did not have to worry about international sensibilities or killing a foreign citizen with friendly fire,” The Daily Times quoted Stratfor’s analysis, as saying.
Furthermore, it said that unlike Mumbai, the police training academy is situated in an isolated place which made the work of the security forces much easier. (ANI)
Washington, Feb 22 (IANS) The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has taken note of a hypothesis proposed by a group of US experts and students that Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was most likely hiding in northwest Pakistan.
Using standard geographical tools routinely employed to locate endangered species and fugitive criminals, the group said there is a high probability that Bin Laden has been hiding in one of three buildings in the northwestern Pakistani city of Parachinar, a long-time hideout for mujaheedin fighters.
‘He may be sitting there right now,’ said Thomas W. Gillespie, a bio-geographer with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) who led the study published online Tuesday in the MIT International Review.
Gillespie told the Los Angeles Times that he and his students contacted the FBI’s local field office before publishing their paper, but they haven’t heard back.
Laura Eimiller, a spokeswoman for FBI’s Los Angeles bureau, was quoted as saying that the information was forwarded to two people working on the case, but ‘because it is an active investigation, it would not be appropriate’ to comment on the information’s fate.
The study employed two geographic principles used to predict the distribution of wildlife. The first, ‘distance-decay theory’, says as an animal — or a human being — moves away from its preferred habitat, the probability of finding a compatible environment decreases exponentially.
The second principle, ‘island bio-geographic theory’, holds that the animal or person is most likely to move into the largest, closest area that can fulfil all its needs.
Gillespie and his students started with a satellite map centred on bin Laden’s last known location, in Tora Bora, in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border, the Los Angeles Times noted.
They eliminated areas in Afghanistan because they were under the control of US forces at the time of bin Laden’s disappearance. Then they evaluated the cities and towns in the remaining territory and calculated the likelihood that the Al Qaeda chief would have relocated there.
They concluded that he must have trekked nearly two miles over mountainous terrain to the Pakistani tribal area of Kurram and settled in Parachinar, the largest city in the region, with a population of half a million.
The researchers zeroed in further by searching satellite images for buildings with walls at least 10 feet high (for safety), at least three rooms (to house his bodyguards) and electricity (to power his kidney dialysis machine), among other features.
The research thus led them to two compounds that are thought to be residences, and a third, with crenelated towers on the corners, that may be a prison or an army officers club.
‘You develop a testable hypothesis that can be accepted or rejected just like in any other type of science,’ Gillespie said.
Such ‘geographic profiling techniques’ have been used to capture criminals before, said Kim Rossmo, director of the Center for Geospatial Intelligence and Investigation at Texas State University.
‘This is a paper that should be paid attention to by the military and intelligence agencies for some of the ideas,’ Rossmo said. ‘But it’s not going to be a case of, ‘X marks the spot, there’s Osama bin Laden.’ ‘
Indo Asian News Service
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