Translate

Search This Blog

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Pakistan Flood 2010

few picture’s showing efforts
shortly

Tsunami on disaster anniversary

A powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck off the western Pacific nation of Vanuatu on Sunday, triggering a small tsunami exactly six years after giant waves killed 220,000 people around the Indian Ocean. The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the shallow quake generated a tsunami, but it cancelled a regional warning after the wave measured only 15 centimetres (six inches) higher than normal in Vanuatu. "Sea level readings confirm that a tsunami was generated," the centre said in its bulletin. "This tsunami may have been destructive along coastlines of the region near the earthquake epicentre," it said, but cancelled the warning when no destructive wave hit. The quake struck at 12:16 am on Sunday (1316 GMT Saturday), and the initial tsunami warning covered Vanuatu, Fiji and the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia. There were no reports of damage or casualties. Jackie Philip, a member of staff at the Melanesian Port Vila Hotel in the Vanuatu capital, said the hotel was busy with late-night Christmas revellers when the quake struck. "Some of us, we ran outside and stood and watched the sea for a few minutes but nothing happened. There is no damage and no injuries," he said, adding that no tsunami warning had been given on local radio. A receptionist at Port Vila's Grand Hotel called it a "small" earthquake, adding that calls to the meteorological office went unanswered. Staff at the nearby Island Magic Hotel also said there had been no local tsunami warning. "We haven't had any notification of a tsunami," a worker told AFP. "We definitely felt the earthquake but we are notified if there's actually a tsunami." The US Geological Survey said the quake was just 12.3 kilometres (7.6 miles) deep, and its epicentre was 145 kilometres (90 miles) west of Isangel, on the island of Tanna -- home to an active volcano -- in the Vanuatu archipelago. The USGS revised its initial readings for the magnitude and distances involved, after first recording the quake at 7.6. Three aftershocks of 5.6, 5.5 and 5.1 magnitude came in the two hours afterwards, it said. Vanuatu, which lies between Fiji and Australia and north of New Zealand, is part of the "Pacific Ring of Fire" -- an ocean-wide area alive with seismic and volcanic activity caused by the grinding of enormous tectonic plates. Sunday's quake came on the sixth anniversary of one of the worst natural disasters of modern times, when a huge tsunami triggered by an undersea quake off Indonesia killed more than 220,000 people around the Indian Ocean. After the disaster, which came with little or no warning for millions of coastal residents, regional governments deployed a string of monitoring buoys in the Indian and Pacific Oceans to keep track of any abnormal waves. In August, a 7.5-magnitude earthquake off Vanuatu generated a small tsunami and sent thousands of frightened people running for the hills. In September last year, Samoa in the Pacific suffered its worst natural disaster when three rapid-fire quakes of up to 8.1 magnitude unleashed waves as high as 15 metres (50 feet) that flattened villages and tourist resorts. The seismic catastrophe claimed 143 lives in Samoa, 34 in the US-administered territory of American Samoa and another nine in Tonga. Vanuatu lies between Australia and Fiji and has a population of 220,000 scattered across several islands including Tanna, south of Port Vila, where the fiery Yasur volcano is a major tourist draw.

South Korea Drill ‘Inviting Nuclear War’


North Korea said the U.S. and South Korea are “inviting a nuclear war” by conducting military drills, even as a Seoul-based think tank predicted that Kim Jong Il’s regime may hold another atomic test next year.  South Korea’s Dec. 20 artillery drill on Yeonpyeong Island near the disputed sea border was an intentional provocation, and North Korea is closely watching “the reckless behavior of the warmongers inviting a nuclear war,” the communist country’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said today, citing commentaries in the Rodong newspaper. The comments follow a threat North Korea made yesterday to wage a “sacred war” using nuclear weapons if attacked. North Korea may conduct a third nuclear test next year as it needs to refine its plutonium bomb, South Korea’s state-run Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security said in a report posted on its website yesterday. North Korea has repeatedly claimed that military maneuvers by South Korea and the U.S. are preparations for a full-scale invasion. The regime is “fully prepared to launch a sacred war of justice of Korean style based on the nuclear deterrent,” KCNA reported yesterday, citing Kim Yong Chun, the minister of its People’s Armed Forces. Retaliation to any further attack by the north would include airstrikes, South Korea’s Defense Minister Kim Kwan Jin said Dec. 3. South Korea held an artillery drill on Yeonpyeong Island on Dec. 20, the first live-firing exercise on the island since last month. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have increased since North Korea shelled the island on Nov. 23, killing two soldiers and two civilians. The south conducted another one-day exercise on Dec. 23 involving jet fighters, mobile artillery and about 800 troops in an area between Seoul and the Demilitarized Zone that separates the nation from its communist neighbor. Both drills ended without retaliation from the north.

Pakistan blast

At least 42 people were killed and nearly double the number injured when a suicide bomber detonated himself at a World Food Programme distribution centre in the Bajaur tribal agency along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border on Saturday when people were queuing up to collect emergency food rations. The incident took place in Khar, the main town of Bajaur where the Army had claimed success against terrorists. Reports from the tribal agency — which is out-of-bounds for the media — suggest that the suicide bomber was wearing a burqa, giving rise to considerable speculation of the attacker being a woman. The terrorist first lobbed grenades into the crowd before detonating the bomb. According to the Political Tehsildar of the Bajaur Agency, Wasal Khan, 41 people were killed on the spot. Many of them were women and children. The critically injured were taken to Peshawar where better medical facilities are available. This is not the first time that suicide bombers have struck at relief facilities for Internally Displaced Persons who were forced to move out of their native places because of the military operations against terrorists in the tribal agencies. Bajaur is one of the tribal agencies were people had begun returning to their damaged homes earlier this year. On Friday, the Taliban launched simultaneous attacks on security personnel at five check points in adjoining Mohmand tribal agency. In the crossfire that lasted several hours, 11 Frontier Corps personnel and 24 terrorists were killed, according to official reports.