Tropical Cyclone Mahasen (01B) is now centered several hundred miles south of Kolkata, India, and will impact areas from northeastern India to Bangladesh and Myanmar over the next few days. The system is about to enter into an area of warm sea surface temperatures and lower wind shear which will intensified the cyclone and give it opportunity to become even better organized. Landfall is expected to occur on May 16, 2013 with most forecast models putting the path between Chittagong (Bangladesh) and Maungdaw (Myanmar).
On May 13, 2013 the Suomi NPP satellite caught an interesting glimpse of the storm as it moved off the eastern coast of India. The VIIRS Day-Night Band was able to resolve lightning flashes towards the center of the storm, along with mesopheric gravity waves emanating outwards like ripples in a pond. These gravity waves are of particular interest to air traffic controllers so assist in identifying areas of turbulence. (Credit: NOAA/NASA/VIIRS)
TC Mahasen will bring life-threatening conditions to millions of people from northeastern India and into Bangladesh and Myanmar. Due the low elevations of this region (mostly shallower than 200 meters), flooding, mudslides and storm surge present the greatest threats. These areas have been hit by some of the deadliest cyclones across the globe.
According to GDACS, up to 22.3 million people people can be affected by wind speeds of tropical storm strength or above. In addition, 4.1 million people people are living in coastal areas below 5m and can therefore be affected by storm surge.
The highest impact, surge and rainfall predictions are for the Chittagong and Cox’s Bazaar areas of Bangladesh but there are serious concerns for Rakhine State where there are more than 140,000 IDPs. (Credit: OCHA/ReliefWeb)
Torrential rains caused floods and landslides across Sri Lanka, which are responsible for seven reported deaths. Several overcrowded boats carrying hundreds of evacuees capsized off the coast of western Myanmar after the lead boat crashed into rocks and more than 50 people are feared dead. Myanmar state television reported Monday that 5,158 people were relocated from low-lying camps in Rakhine state to safer shelters. But far more people are considered vulnerable.
Bathymetry of the Bay of Bengal (Credit: Geomap/MGDS)
Storm surge prediction model (Credit: IMD)
According to latest report by Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC), TC Mahasen is located approximately 246 nm southward of Calcutta, India. The system is moving north-northeastward at speed of 12 knots. Upper level analysis indicates an anticyclone to the east of the system continues to move into better vertical alignment with the low level circulation center, leading to a decrease in vertical wind shear to low levels (10 knots).
Rohingya women reinforce their tents at the Ohnedaw Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp on the outskirts of Sittwe on May 15, 2013, as Cyclone Mahasen heads towards landfall. Hundreds of thousands of people in Bangladesh and Myanmar were ordered to evacuate Wednesday as a cyclone bore down on coastal areas home to flood-prone refugee camps for victims of sectarian unrest. Soe Than WIN/AFP/Getty Images
Bangladeshi marine sailors stand on the banks of the Bay of Bengal sea, as they prepare for the coming of tropical cyclone Mahasen, in Chittagong, Bangladesh, Wednesday, May 15, 2013. People living in coastal areas in Bangladesh and Myanmar are being evacuated as cyclone Mahasen appears to make landfall late Thursday or early Friday, according to news reports. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)
Cyclone Mahasen has struck the southern coast of Bangladesh, lashing remote fishing villages with heavy rain and fierce winds that flattened mud and straw huts and forced the evacuation of more than 1 million people. The main section of the storm reached land on Thursday and immediately began weakening, according to Mohammad Shah Alam, director of the Bangladesh meteorological department. However, its forward movement was also slowing, meaning that towns in its path would have to weather the storm for longer, he said. Even before the brunt of the storm hit, at least 18 deaths related to Mahasen were reported in Bangladesh, Burma and Sri Lanka. The storm could bring life-threatening conditions to about 8.2 million people in Bangladesh, Burma and north-east India, according to the UN’s Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Danger was particularly high for tens of thousands of displaced Rohingya people living in plastic-roofed tents and huts made of reeds in dozens of refugee camps along Burma’s western coast.
Driven from their homes by violence, members of the Muslim minority group refused to follow evacuation orders. Many distrust officials in the majority-Buddhist country, where Rohingya have faced decades of discrimination. UN officials, hoping they would inspire greater trust, fanned out across the area to encourage people to leave. Early on Thursday, the cyclone battered the southern Bangladesh fishing village of Khepurpara along the Bay of Bengal with 62mph (100km/h) winds and was heading east toward the city of Chittagong and the seafront resort town of Cox’s Bazar. River ferries and boat services were suspended, and scores of factories near the Bay of Bengal were closed. The military said it was keeping 22 navy ships and 19 air force helicopters on alert. Tens of thousands of people fled their shanty homes along the coast and packed into cyclone shelters, schools, government office buildings and some of the 300 hotels in Cox’s Bazar to wait out the storm. Some brought their livestock, which took shelter outside.
Earthquake rocks north of Mandalay just hours after strong 6.8 magnitude quake kills 12 people and injures dozens more.
A bridge that was under construction across the Irrawaddy River in Shwebo collapsed, killing five people [AFP]
A 5.6 magnitude earthquake has struck Myanmar, hours after a stronger tremor killed at least 12 people and injured dozens more, the US Geological Survey says.
The USGS said the quake, early on early Monday morning, occurred at a depth of 9km (5.6 miles), 135km north of the central city of Mandalay.
Hours earlier a strong earthquake struck the same region of northern Myanmar.
Scattered damage and injuries also were reported on Sunday in areas close to the quake’s epicentre.
According to news reports, the most significant damage appeared to be the collapsing of bridge under construction across the Irrawaddy River in the town of Shwebo, the location of the quake’s epicentre.
The website of Weekly Eleven magazine said five people were killed when the bridge, which was 80 per cent built, collapsed.
According to a witness, the huge concrete gate of a monastery collapsed and several sculptures from another pagoda were damaged in the town.
A series of strong aftershocks on Sunday added to the nervousness.
The shallow 6.8-magnitude quake hit around 116km north of Mandalay at a depth of just 10km, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. It initially put the magnitude of the quake at 7.0.
“I ran from my bed carrying my daughter out to the street. There were many people in the road. Some were shouting and others felt dizzy,” Mandalay resident San Yu Kyaw told the AFP news agency by telephone.
“People are now scared of more earthquakes. Especially those who live or run businesses in high-rise buildings are desperate and don’t know what to do,” he said.
The were no immediate reports of casualties but building standards are generally poor in the country formerly known as Burma, one of Asia’s most impoverished nations.
The USGS issued a yellow alert, saying “some casualties and damage are possible” but that the impact should be relatively localised.
The quake hit at 7:42 am (0112 GMT) and was followed by two shallow 5.0-magnitude aftershocks within 20 minutes, according to the USGS.
It struck around 572km east of the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, one of the world’s biggest cities.
The quake was felt in neighbouring Thailand, including in the capital Bangkok, according to reports on social media websites.
It comes little more than a week before US President Barack Obama is due in Myanmar on a historic visit, as the West begins to roll back sanctions to reward a series of dramatic political reforms under President Thein Sein.
Earthquakes are relatively common in Myanmar, which is emerging from decades of military rule under a new quasi-civilian government.
Kyaw Kyaw Lwin, an official at the National Earthquake Information Division in the capital Naypyidaw, said it was the strongest quake in the area since a 6.0-magnitude quake in 1991.
More than 70 people were killed in March 2011 when a powerful 6.8-magnitude quake struck Myanmar near the borders with Thailand and Laos, reducing homes and government buildings to rubble and affecting thousands of people.
Aid workers at the time praised Myanmar’s regime for its speedy response to that quake, in contrast to the aftermath of previous disasters to strike the country under the old military junta.
000
WEIO23 PHEB 110122
TIBIOX
TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 001
PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS
ISSUED AT 0122Z 11 NOV 2012
THIS BULLETIN IS FOR ALL AREAS OF THE INDIAN OCEAN.
... TSUNAMI INFORMATION BULLETIN ...
THIS MESSAGE IS FOR INFORMATION ONLY.
THIS BULLETIN IS ISSUED AS ADVICE TO GOVERNMENT AGENCIES. ONLY
NATIONAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO MAKE
DECISIONS REGARDING THE OFFICIAL STATE OF ALERT IN THEIR AREA AND
ANY ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN IN RESPONSE.
AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS
ORIGIN TIME - 0113Z 11 NOV 2012
COORDINATES - 22.5 NORTH 96.0 EAST
LOCATION - MYANMAR
MAGNITUDE - 7.0
EVALUATION
A DESTRUCTIVE TSUNAMI WAS NOT GENERATED BASED ON EARTHQUAKE AND
HISTORICAL TSUNAMI DATA. THIS EARTHQUAKE IS LOCATED TOO FAR
INLAND TO GENERATE A TSUNAMI IN THE INDIAN OCEAN.
THIS WILL BE THE ONLY BULLETIN ISSUED BY THE PACIFIC TSUNAMI
WARNING CENTER FOR THIS EVENT UNLESS ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
BECOMES AVAILABLE.THE JAPAN METEOROLOGICAL AGENCY MAY ISSUE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
FOR THIS EVENT. IN THE CASE OF CONFLICTING INFORMATION...THE
MORE CONSERVATIVE INFORMATION SHOULD BE USED FOR SAFETY.
A major earthquake hit central Myanmar on Sunday near Mandalay, its second-biggest city, but early information suggested damage was limited and initial reports mentioned only one person dead, although several construction workers were missing. The 6.6 magnitude earthquake struck around 60 km (37 miles) northwest of Mandalay, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It was quite shallow at around 10 km (6 miles) deep. “I’ve never felt such a strong tremor. I also heard some loud noises and the light went out. No idea about the damage,” one Mandalay resident said by telephone. Several very strong aftershocks also hit the region but there were no reports of serious damage in Mandalay. Residents in Bangkok, the capital of neighboring Thailand, also felt the quake. An official at Mandalay Meteorological Department said the epicenter was near the town of Shwebo and struck at 7:41 a.m. (0111 GMT). Local media said a half-built bridge over the Irrawaddy River near Shwebo and Kyauk Myaung had collapsed and there may have been casualties. A police officer in Shwebo said one woman had died and 10 people had been injured in Kyauk Myaung. “A house collapsed in Kyauk Myaung. The Radana Thinga Bridge, still under construction, over the river was badly damaged. A huge steel beam fell into the river and five workers went missing,” he said. A resident of Singgu, opposite Kyauk Myaung on the east side of the Irrawaddy, said some people were injured in the town and a few were killed at the river bank but this could not be confirmed with official sources. State television, the usual mouthpiece for government statements in Myanmar along with state-run newspapers, gave a report on the quake that did not mention casualties or damage. Local media reported minor damage in several areas around Mandalay, including Amarapura, a town popular with tourists because of its monasteries and the longest teak bridge in the world. Pagodas had been damaged there, media said.
Tectonic Summary
Seismotectonics of the Himalaya and Vicinity
Seismicity in the Himalaya dominantly results from the continental collision of the India and Eurasia plates, which are converging at a relative rate of 40-50 mm/yr. Northward underthrusting of India beneath Eurasia generates numerous earthquakes and consequently makes this area one of the most seismically hazardous regions on Earth. The surface expression of the plate boundary is marked by the foothills of the north-south trending Sulaiman Range in the west, the Indo-Burmese Arc in the east and the east-west trending Himalaya Front in the north of India.
The India-Eurasia plate boundary is a diffuse boundary, which in the region near the north of India, lies within the limits of the Indus-Tsangpo (also called the Yarlung-Zangbo) Suture to the north and the Main Frontal Thrust to the south. The Indus-Tsangpo Suture Zone is located roughly 200 km north of the Himalaya Front and is defined by an exposed ophiolite chain along its southern margin. The narrow (<200km) Himalaya Front includes numerous east-west trending, parallel structures. This region has the highest rates of seismicity and largest earthquakes in the Himalaya region, caused mainly by movement on thrust faults. Examples of significant earthquakes, in this densely populated region, caused by reverse slip movement include the 1934 M8.1 Bihar, the 1905 M7.5 Kangra and the 2005 M7.6 Kashmir earthquakes. The latter two resulted in the highest death tolls for Himalaya earthquakes seen to date, together killing over 100,000 people and leaving millions homeless. The largest instrumentally recorded Himalaya earthquake occurred on 15th August 1950 in Assam, eastern India. This M8.6 right-lateral, strike-slip, earthquake was widely felt over a broad area of central Asia, causing extensive damage to villages in the epicentral region.
Terremotos de los últimos 2 días en las Islas Canarias de magnitud igual o superior a 1.5 o sentidos:Earthquakes for the last 2 days on the Canary Islands magnitude equal or greater than 1.5 registered
JAKARTA, Indonesia – A volcano in northern Indonesia has spewed hot smoke and ash thousands of feet into the air in two new eruptions.
Mount Lokon on Sulawesi island had been dormant before rumbling back to life last year.
Government volcanologist Hendrasto says it unleashed two strong eruptions Friday.
Residents have been put on alert, but no evacuations are planned since the nearest villages are beyond the danger area about 2.5 kilometres (1.5 miles) from the crater.
Mount Lokon’s last major eruption in 1991 killed a Swiss hiker and forced thousands to flee. The volcano is one of five on high alert in Indonesia. The archipelago straddles the “Pacific Ring of Fire” and has more active volcanoes than any other nation.
Niamey, Niger – At least 92 people have died in floods that have swept Niger following torrential rains, according to the latest data released by the Prime minister’s office on Friday. The data indicate that 72,396 families are affected with 511,484 people being victims, as at Thursday. All the country’s eight regions are affected by floods with Tillabéry, Dosso and Niamey being the worst affected. Huge damage is reported on basic socio-economic infrastructure and other items crucial to the people.
Rice crops, schools, health centres, roads, bridges, dams have all been affected while a huge quantities of food and many cattle have been swept away by flood waters.
The chairperson of the technical committee in charge of managing the floods, Mrs Saadatou Malam Barmou, said that thanks to national solidarity and international cooperation, food needs are covered for 45 days out.
Water containers have been distributed to victims to fetch potable water to reduce water-related diseases. The ministry of Health has also set up health centres at the sites and mobile teams to solve health problems.
The government has made available 3,400 tonnes of cereals for the victims and raised 700 million CFAF to support re-housing and buy additional food.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Flooding continues to cause problems throughout Southcentral Alaska.
Jeremy Zidek, spokesman for the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, says in a release that there have been reports of flooding, landslides and road closures throughout the area.
But there has been no report of major injuries.
Residents in East Talkeetna are being told to evacuate because of flooding.
The Red Cross has established three shelters in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and helped with another in Seward.
Weather problems are not confined to Southcentral Alaska.
Zidek says a landslide has blocked access from the village of Chenega to its airport, and state transportation officials are working to restore access. And an assessment team is in Tanacross to evaluate damage from Sunday’s wind storm.
Cameroon authorities have found six more bodies in flood waters, bringing the number killed to as high as 40 in the wake of tropical downpours and the breaching of a dam in the west African country. The inundation in the Far North Region has affected more than 26,000, officials said Thursday, and in neighboring Nigeria at least 15 deaths are blamed on waters rushing into the country from Cameroon’s compromised Lagdo Dam on the Benoue River. Cameroon’s Communication Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary has described the flooding as “a calamity” and called for urgent action to save lives and property. Local officials are calling it the worst flood disaster in over 60 years. Water has submerged swaths of the North Region downstream, wiping out homes, farms and livestock, and Cameroon’s government has dispatched a military contingency to assist and evacuate victims.
Residents of Talkeetna are being asked to evacuate the town after its dike system against heavy flooding failed Friday, according to local firefighters. The evacuation is now voluntary, although an initial order was mandatory. Talkeetna Fire Department Battalion Chief Johnny Murdoch, the incident commander for flooding in the area, says the Susitna River started backing up to the Talkeetna River, causing the dike to fail. According to local officials the decision to evacuate Talkeetna was made by Alaska State Troopers, with authorities expecting water to continue rising Friday afternoon. The Associated Press reports that overnight rains in Talkeetna ranged from half an inch to 1 1/2 inches over a 6- to 8-hour period. The Talkeetna River was within a foot of its record stage of 17.4 feet, with officials telling the AP about 35 percent of Talkeetna has some form of water coverage. Students from Talkeetna’s elementary school were being bused to the local high school Friday. Traffic was blocked from entering Talkeetna until the evacuation was no longer mandatory, a change made shortly before 2 p.m. In a flood warning effective through 10 p.m. Friday, the National Weather Service says a levee protecting the town was breached as of 1 p.m. The Talkeetna River is 4 feet above flood stage, and expected to crest Friday evening. âAll persons in the vicinity of Talkeetna should take precautions now to protect life and property,â meteorologists wrote. The NWS advises people to avoid crossing flowing streams — even small ones â on foot, or driving across flooded roadways in cars, under the slogan âTurn around, donât drown.â
This shows Fukushima after a tsunami in March 2011. Credit: IAEA
The tsunami in Japan in March 2011 unleashed a series of negligence related with the resulting nuclear disaster. A scientific study headed by Spanish researchers has for the first time identified those atomic power plants that are more prone to suffering the effects of a tsunami. In total, 23 plants are in dangerous areas, including Fukushima I, with 74 reactors located in the east and southeast of Asia.
Tsunamis are synonymous with the destruction of cities and homes and since the Japanese coast was devastated in March 2011 we now know that they cause nuclear disaster, endanger the safety of the population and pollute the environment. As such phenomena are still difficult to predict, a team of scientists have assessed “potentially dangerous” areas that are home to completed nuclear plants or those under construction. In the study published in the ‘Natural Hazards’ journal, the researchers drew a map of the world’s geographic zones that are more at risk of large tsunamis. Based on this data, 23 nuclear power plants with 74 reactors have been identified in high risk areas. One of them includes Fukushima I. Out of them, 13 plants with 29 reactors are active; another four, that now have 20 reactors, are being expanded to house nine more; and there are seven new plants under construction with 16 reactors. “We are dealing with the first vision of the global distribution of civil nuclear power plants situated on the coast and exposed to tsunamis,” as explained to SINC by José Manuel Rodríguez-Llanes, coauthor of the study and researcher at the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) of the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. The authors used historical, archaeological, geological and instrumental records as a base for determining tsunami risk. Despite the fact that the risk of these natural disasters threatens practically the entire western coast of the American continent, the Spanish/Portuguese Atlantic Coast and the coast of North Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean and areas of Oceania, especially in South and Southeast Asia are at greater risk due to the presence of atomic power stations.
23 nuclear power plants are in tsunami risk areas Credit: SINC For Debarati Guha-Sapir, another coauthor of the study and CRED researcher, “the impact of natural disaster is getting worse due to the growing interaction with technological installations.” China: a nuclear power in the making Some 27 out of 64 nuclear reactors that are currently under construction in the world are found in China. This is an example of the massive nuclear investment of the Asian giant. “The most important fact is that 19 (two of which are in Taiwan) out of the 27 reactors are being built in areas identified as dangerous,” state the authors of the study. In the case of Japan, which in March 2011 suffered the consequences of the worse tsunami in its history, there are seven plants with 19 reactors at risk, one of which is currently under construction. South Korea is now expanding two plants at risk with five reactors. India (two reactors) and Pakistan (one reactor) could also feel the consequences of a tsunami in the plants. The ghost of Fukushima “The location of nuclear installations does not only have implications for their host countries but also for the areas which could be affected by radioactive leaks,” as outlined to SINC by Joaquín Rodríguez-Vidal, lead author of the study and researcher at the Geodynamics and Paleontology Department of the University of Huelva. According to the study, we should learn our lessons from the Fukushima accident. For the authors, prevention and previous scientific studies are the best tools for avoiding such disasters. “But since the tsunami in 2004 the Indian Ocean region is still to take effective political measures,” warn the researchers. The Fukushima crisis took place in a highly developed country with one of the highest standards in scientific knowledge and technological infrastructure. “If it had occurred in a country less equipped for dealing with the consequences of catastrophe, the impact would have been a lot more serious for the world at large,” claim the experts. Therefore, Professor Rodríguez-Vidal recommends the drafting of more local analyses that consider the seismic amplification of each nuclear power plant and determine the adaptation of installation identified in the study. More information: Rodríguez-Vidal, Joaquin ; Rodríguez-Llanes, Jose M. ; Guha-Sapir, Debarati. “Civil nuclear power at risk of tsunamis “
Natural Hazards 63 (2) : 1273-1278 DOI: 10.1007/s11069-012-0162-0 , septiembre de 2012.
Last week, Japan surprised the world by announcing that it plans to abandon atomic energy completely by the 2030s. But now in an abrupt turnaround, the Japanese Cabinet appears to be backpedaling on that decision, dropping any mention of the 2030s deadline in its approval of Japan’s new energy policy.
Arnie Gundersen @Congressional Briefing Cannon House Office Building — Room 121
About 11:05 of 9/22/2012, Tepco dropped a steel frame of 7m long and 470kg into the SFP of reactor3. 514 assemblies of spent fuel and 52 fuel assemblies are kept in the pool.
Tepco was removing debris by the remote controlling crane and dropped it into the pool mistakenly.
The steel frame was 30cm×20cm×7m, 470kg. It was dropped from South-East side.
Tepco states the radiation level did not change, the dosimeter set 2m above the pool did not measure any change in radiation level either. Water level and the temperature did not change.
It hasn’t happened that such a large material dropped into the pool. Tepco is planning to investigate if the fuel assemblies are not damaged by underwater camera.
PRISTINA, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) – At least five people in the Balkans have died from West Nile virus and several dozen others have been hospitalized in the past four weeks, according to health authorities in Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia and Croatia.
West Nile virus is a mosquito-borne disease usually found in temperate and tropical regions. While many cases are mild and have no symptoms, severe disease symptoms can include headaches, high fever, neck stiffness, coma, tremors, convulsions, muscle weakness and paralysis.
Kosovo confirmed its first fatality on Wednesday, saying the victim was a woman from central Kosovo who died on Sept 14. Macedonia’s health officials said on Thursday one woman had died and two other people were infected with the virus.
A spokesman for the Kosovo Health Ministry told Reuters on Thursday two other people who died recently were also suspected of having the same virus, but the cases had not been confirmed with laboratory blood tests.
The United States is currently experiencing one of its worst outbreaks of West Nile virus since 2003.
In Serbia, three people have died and 35 were hospitalized since mid-August.
“This is the first time the West Nile virus has been officially registered in Serbia,” the country’s Department for Public Health said in a statement.
All the infected people were over 50 and had other chronic diseases, it said. Serbia’s western neighbor Croatia has registered five probable cases of the virus but no deaths.
Measles epidemic Congo – An outbreak of measles, which has been raging in Likouala, North-eastern Congo since April, has already killed 22 people, the state-run radio said Friday.
The epidemic, which initially hit Liranga and Bétou, have now reached Impfondo and Epena.
Following the outbreak, the Ministry of Health Thursday launched a 5-day vaccination campaign against measles in the district.
Vaccination teams will travel throughout the localities of Likouala, which since 2009 has sheltered over 100,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), who are fleeing inter-ethnic violence in the Equateur province.
- In light of confirmation of a measles case in a school-aged child in Ulster County, State Health Commissioner Nirav R. Shah, M.D., M.P.H., advises all New Yorkers to be vaccinated against measles. “Many people think measles is a childhood disease of the past, but it remains a highly-contagious viral disease that can cause serious health problems and even death,” Shah said. “The good news is that measles is preventable, and people who are vaccinated can protect themselves against the disease.” The current Ulster County measles case involves a child who attends a school where nearly half of the students are not vaccinated against measles. Although vaccination against measles is one of the required immunizations for school children in New York, exemptions from the requirement may be granted by a school. The Ulster County Health Department is working with the school district to protect other school children from measles. Unvaccinated children who attend the same Ulster County school as the child with measles and unvaccinated school staff are being excluded from the school for 21 days to help prevent them from contracting or spreading the disease. Individuals are not at risk of contracting measles if they are immune. A person is considered immune if they were born before January 1, 1957, have a history of physician-diagnosed measles, a blood test confirming immunity, or have received two doses of the MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella) vaccine. Measles is a highly contagious respiratory disease caused by a virus and is spread by direct contact with nasal or throat secretions of infected people. Due to widespread immunization in the United States, the measles virus does not circulate in this country, but is present in some foreign countries, including some in Europe and Asia. It is strongly recommended that anyone traveling to a country where measles is circulating be immunized before their trip; those who are not immunized could potentially contract the disease while abroad and infect other non-immunized individuals upon their return back to the U.S.
Biohazard name:
Measles
Biohazard level:
2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
The international humanitarian agency Oxfam is warning that living conditions of refugees in a camp in Upper Nile state are becoming increasingly desperate, and more people will probably die if help does not arrive soon. More than 100,000 refugees have fled fighting between Sudanese armed forces and rebels in Sudan’s Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan states. At least 16 refugees have died in the past two weeks from an outbreak of Hepatitis E, according to the U.N. Pauline Ballaman, Oxfam’s South Sudan director, said the best way to curb the spread of the water-borne disease is to relocate thousands of Sudanese refugees to a safer place. “The government of South Sudan and UNHCR, who are the lead agencies, would encourage them to look at all other possibilities because this is not going to be a sustainable job or solution,” Ballaman said. South Sudan and the UN refugee agency considered relocating the refugees to areas along the Nile River, according to Ballaman, but she said no decision has been made so far. Ballaman said more people are showing symptoms of Hepatitis E. She added, “there are a lot more people affected and, of course, it is far more serious for the nursing and pregnant mothers and young children, and malnutrition kicks in as well,” According to Ballaman, no season is favorable to housing more than 100,000 refugees. Widespread flooding during South Sudan’s rainy season is the problem right now, but when the dry season arrives the problem will be not enough water.
Biohazard name:
Hepatitis E. Outbreak
Biohazard level:
2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
Symptoms:
Status:
confirmed
23.09.2012
Epidemic Hazard
USA
State of New York, New Paltz [Mountain Laurel Waldorf School]
A case of measles has been confirmed in a student who attends the Mountain Laurel Waldorf School in New Paltz, according to the Dutchess County Department of Health. The measles case was reported by Dutchess County Health Commissioner Dr. Michael Caldwell in a press release emailed to local media outlets late Friday. It was not immediately clear why the release came from a Dutchess County official rather than one in Ulster County, where the private school is located, and the name and hometown of the infected person were not provided. Caldwell said his office has “been in close communication” with the Ulster County Department of Health and the state Department of Health. Caldwell said anyone who has visited the school since Sept. 10 or has had contact with anyone from the school since that date should make sure their measles vaccinations are up to date. Those who lack proper vaccinations should consult with a doctor. Caldwell said his department has learned that a number of students at the New Paltz school have not been vaccinated for measles, meaning they could become ill and put others at risk. Caldwell said all medical practices and laboratories in the area should be on high alert that there may be a number of children and family members who have been exposed and could spread the disease further. Incidents of measles, which is highly contagious, have increased in the United States recently due to a growing number of unvaccinated individuals who travel to countries where measles is prevalent, Caldwell said.
Biohazard name:
Measles
Biohazard level:
2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
A massive fireball was seen right across Ireland last night which may be “one of the best ever seen” in Europe and was a “huge event”, according to Astronomy Ireland. The trail of fragments passed across the sky at about 10.55pm with sightings reported from Dublin, Donegal, Cork, Sligo, Carlow, Longford, Antrim and across Britain and as far away as as The Netherlands. It was “very unusual to see it in multiple countries,” David Moore of Astronomy Ireland said. “I’ve never seen one fragmented like that and streaked across the sky,” he said. The fireball later exploded into fragments. Mr Moore said the cause of the fireball was not yet clear. “It is a piece of space debris, but whether it is man made or natural is not known,” he said. He said it was too slow for natural debris and was going the wrong direction for man-made debris. “It is probably a space rock that has skidded across the atmosphere.” Meteorites will have been dropped “but whether they landed in Ireland or at sea we will have to figure out”, he said. Witnesses described a trail of seven to 12 fireballs in a straight line across the sky. No sound was to be heard either by witnesses in the city or the countryside. Kielder Observatory in Britain last night reported a sighting of a “huge fireball” .Mr Moore asked for witnesses to submit a fireball report to the Astronomy Ireland website “This will help us to triangulate the path,” he said. Twitter and Facebook filled with reports of the strange sightings last night, with meteor trending on Twitter in Ireland. “Spotted what looked like about eight fireballs travelling east to west over the M1 at Santry, Dublin at 10.56pm. Amazing,” wrote one tweeter last night. The Irish Coast Guard had reports from the north coast right down the east coast.
22.09.2012
Event into space
United Kingdom
Scotland and England, [Between Airdrie and Arbroath, Greater Manchester]
A suspected meteorite shower over Scotland has prompted a flurry of 999 calls from worried members of the public. Concerned callers from Airdrie to Arbroath likened the lights they saw in the sky to flares, fireworks and even a plane crash. Coastguard and police forces up and down the country were inundated with reports from around 11pm on Friday night. A spokesman for Forth Coastguard said: “From talking to other stations and to the RAF it’s almost certainly meteorite activity. “Calls came in from all over the place, thick and fast. We’ve had people report possible plane crashes, and others the weirdest fireworks they’ve ever seen. “Folk just haven’t known how to describe what they’ve seen. It’s quite extraordinary.” The spokesman said reports had come from Crail, Johnshaven and Arbroath. Clyde Coastguard said it had received a “flurry” of calls reporting flares seen in Drummore, Airdrie and Brodick on Arran. A spokeswoman said: “When we get it all over and at the same time then we attribute them to meteorites. There was meteorite activity forecast from September 15 to 21.” Shetland Coastguard said a report of a flare at 11.10pm at Duncansby Head near John O’Groats was thought to be part of the meteorite shower.
MessageToEagle.com – Beautiful and mysterious structures known as superbubbles result from the stellar winds and supernovae of OB [spectral types O or early-type B] associations.
Astronomers believe they play play a fundamental role in the structure and energetics of the ISM [interstellar medium] in star-forming galaxies.
Their influence may also dominate the relationship between the different interstellar gas phases.
How do superbubbles form and evolve?
How do they affect the local and global ISM?
The Magellanic Clouds provide a superior opportunity to study this shell-forming activity, since both stellar content and gaseous structure can be examined in detail.
A superbubble in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) was observed by astronomers using Chandra X-ray Observatory.
LMC is a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, located about 160,000 light years from Earth.
Many new stars, some of them very massive, are forming in the star cluster NGC 1929, which is embedded in the nebula N44.
The massive stars produce intense radiation, expel matter at high speeds, and race through their evolution to explode as supernovas.
The winds and supernova shock waves carve out huge cavities called superbubbles in the surrounding gas. X-rays from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue) show hot regions created by these winds and shocks, while infrared data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope (red) outline where the dust and cooler gas are found.
The optical light from the 2.2m Max-Planck-ESO telescope (yellow) in Chile shows where ultraviolet radiation from hot, young stars is causing gas in the nebula to glow.
A long-running problem in high-energy astrophysics has been that some superbubbles in the LMC, including N44, give off a lot more X-rays than expected from models of their structure.
A Chandra study published in 2011 showed that there are two extra sources of the bright X-ray emission: supernova shock waves striking the walls of the cavities, and hot material evaporating from the cavity walls.
The observations show no evidence for an enhancement of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium in the cavities, thus ruling out this possibility as an explanation for the bright X-ray emission.
Click on image to enlarge
NGC 1929 is a star cluster embedded in the N44 nebula, which is found in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Massive stars in the cluster produce intense radiation, expel matter at high speeds, and explode relatively quickly as supernovas.
Winds from the massive stars and shocks from the supernovas carve out “superbubbles” in the gas seen in X-rays by Chandra (blue). Infrared data show dust (red) and cooler gas and optical light (yellow) reveals where ultraviolet radiation is causing the gas to glow. Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/U.Mich./S.Oey, IR: NASA/JPL, Optical: ESO/WFI/2.2-m
This is the first time that the data have been good enough to distinguish between different sources of the X-rays produced by superbubbles.
The Chandra study of N44 and another superbubble in the LMC was led by Anne Jaskot from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The co-authors were Dave Strickland from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, Sally Oey from University of Michigan, You-Hua Chu from University of Illinois and Guillermo Garcia-Segura from Instituto de Astronomia-UNAM in Ensenada, Mexico.
MessageToEagle.com – Cassini spacecraft has taken great photos of Saturn and its largest moon, Titan.
The colors are spectacular and on one of the images you can even see the changing hues of Saturn’s northern and southern hemispheres as they pass from one season to the next.
Upon Cassini’s arrival at Saturn eight years ago, Saturn’s northern winter hemisphere was an azure blue.
Now that winter is encroaching on the planet’s southern hemisphere and summer on the north, the color scheme is reversing: blue is tinting the southern atmosphere and is fading from the north.
Some of these views, such as those of the polar vortex, are only possible because Cassini’s newly inclined — or tilted — orbits allow more direct viewing of the polar regions of Saturn and its moons.
Click on image to enlargeColorful Colossi and Changing Hues
A giant of a moon appears before a giant of a planet undergoing seasonal changes in this natural color view of Titan and Saturn from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.
Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, measures 3,200 miles, or 5,150 kilometers, across and is larger than the planet Mercury. Cassini scientists have been watching the moon’s south pole since a vortex appeared in its atmosphere in 2012.
As the seasons have changed in the Saturnian system, and spring has come to the north and autumn to the south, the azure blue in the northern Saturnian hemisphere that greeted Cassini upon its arrival in 2004 is now fading. The southern hemisphere, in its approach to winter, is taking on a bluish hue. This change is likely due to the reduced intensity of ultraviolet light and the haze it produces in the hemisphere approaching winter, and the increasing intensity of ultraviolet light and haze production in the hemisphere approaching summer. Image credit: NASA
Scientists are looking forward to seeing more of the same — new phenomena like Titan’s south polar vortex and changes wrought by the passage of time and seasons — during the remainder of Cassini’s mission.
“Cassini has been in orbit now for the last eight years, and despite the fact that we can’t know exactly what the next five years will show us, we can be certain that whatever it is will be wondrous,” said Carolyn Porco, imaging team lead based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.“It is so fantastic to experience, through the instruments of Cassini, seasonal changes in the Saturn system,” said Amanda Hendrix, deputy project scientist, based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
“Some of the changes we see in the data are completely unexpected, while some occur like clockwork on a seasonal timescale.
It’s an exciting time to be at Saturn.”
Click on image to enlargeObscured by Rings
Saturn’s rings obscure part of Titan’s colorful visage in this image from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. The south polar vortex that first appeared in Titan’s atmosphere in 2012 is visible at the bottom of this view. Image credit: NASA
Click on image to enlargeA Ring of Color
Titan’s north polar hood can be seen at the top of this view, and a hint of the south polar vortex can be detected at the bottom. Image credit: NASA
Click on image to enlargePolar Vortex in Color
The recently formed south polar vortex stands out in the color-swaddled atmosphere of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, in this natural color view from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. The south polar vortex can be seen approximately centered over the south pole in the lower left of the image. Image credit: NASA
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes 'FAIR USE' of any such copyrighted material.]
Magnitudes and frequencies should decrease in the coming days, experts say.
Tico Times
The National Seismological Network released this map with the aftershocks registered from September 5. Courtesy of RSN
The latest report from the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (Ovsicori), released Monday morning, states that 1,650 aftershocks have been registered since the magnitude-7.6 earthquake that hit the country last Wednesday.
The strongest aftershock was felt Saturday, with a magnitude of 5.6. However, it was felt only in the Central Valley.
Ovsicori seismologist Walter Jiménez said the aftershocks will continue in upcoming days, but he also stated that the magnitudes and frequencies of them will go down, ranging from 2 to 3 in magnitude.
Experts confirmed the Sept. 5 magnitude-7.6 earthquake was the ‘Big One’ they’ve been expecting, but the fault rupture was only of 50 percent.
After a series of analyses conducted in the northwestern province of Guanacaste, experts from the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (Ovsicori) reported Tuesday that another quake of equal or greater magnitude could occur in Nicoya Peninsula, but predicting when it would happen is “impossible .”
Marino Protti, Ovsicori’s lead scientist, explained that the magintude-7.6 earthquake on Sept. 5 caused a 40 percent slip and an inclination of 1.8 meters on the fault located in Nicoya.
He also said that although the quake was the “big one” experts had been expecting for Guanacaste, the fault ruptured by only 50 percent, meaning that the possibility that another earthquake of equal or greater magnitude in the area still remains.
Ovsicori’s report, released Tuesday, also stated that the earthquake triggered the activation of three faults in Aguas Zarcas (in the northern region), the Guanacaste Volcanic Area and Irazú Volcano (north of Cartago). Seismologists will continue monitoring the areas.
By Tuesday morning, the total count of aftershocks from the recent earthquake was 1,650. On Sept. 5 at 8:42 a.m., the 7.6-magnitude earthquake shook the country and was felt as far away as Nicaraguan and Panama. Its epicenter was located 20 kilometers northwest of Sámara in the Nicoya Península.
Anak Krakatau had the largest eruption in over 10 years on the 2nd of September 2012. I visited the volcano on the 8th of September to check out the action. Lots of smoke, warm lava and new land had been generated.
Ongoing activity by Indonesia’s Mount Anak Krakatau has residents of nearby coastal areas concerned as the volcano spewed more lava, officials said. On Monday the volcano in the Sunda Strait spewed hot lava and other volcanic material 2,000 feet above its peak, the Antara news agency reported. “Tremors have not stopped rocking this area since yesterday,” Hamdani, the head of the volcano monitoring post in the village of Hargopancuran, South Lampung, said. Black clouds were obscuring the peak of the volcano, Hamdani said. Officials warned fishermen to stay away from the volcano although they said the ongoing tremors would not cause a tsunami.
Activity in the San Cristobal volcano in Nicaragua has calmed a day after three loud explosions were accompanied by a huge eruption of ash and gas that led officials to evacuate about 3,000 people from nine nearby communities. Officials say the area remains under an alert. Nicaragua’s geological institute says sporadic explosions have been heard Sunday and occasional ash columns have billowed up to heights between 4,950 feet and 16,500 feet. On Saturday, the 5,740-foot volcano spewed out clouds of ash that traveled 31 miles. San Cristobal has been active since 1520.
Summer 2012 was the third hottest summer on record for the contiguous United States since recordkeeping began in 1895. According to the latest statistics from NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, the average temperature for the contiguous United States between June and August was over 74° Fahrenheit, which is more than 2° F above the twentieth-century average. Only the summers of 2011 and 1936 have had higher summer temperatures for the Lower 48.
Reds show June-August temperatures up to 8° F warmer than average. Blues show temperatures up to 2° F cooler than average—the darker the color, the larger the difference. (Map by NOAA climate.gov team, based on U.S. Climate Division Data from the National Climatic Data Center.)
These maps show patterns of temperature (above) and precipitation (below) across the United States from June through August 2012 compared to the recent long-term average (1981-2010). The summer season was warmer than average for a large portion of contiguous United States, with the Southeast and parts of the Northwest being exceptions. Sixteen states across the West, Plains, and Upper Midwest had summer temperatures among their ten warmest. Colorado and Wyoming each had their record-hottest summer, and much of the Northeast was warmer than average, with seven states from New Hampshire to Maryland having a top-ten-warmest summer.
Browns indicate areas that received less than 100 percent of average June-August precipitation, while greens indicate up to 200 percent of average. (Map by NOAA climate.gov team, based on U.S. Climate Division Data from the National Climatic Data Center.)
Drier-than-average conditions prevailed across much of the central United States, from the Rocky Mountains to the Ohio Valley. Nebraska’s summer precipitation was almost 6 inches below average, and Wyoming’s precipitation was more than 2 inches below average, marking the driest summer on record for both states. Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska, and New Mexico had summer precipitation totals among their ten driest.
However, the summer was wetter than average across the West Coast, the Gulf Coast, and New England. Florida had its wettest summer on record, partially driven by Tropical Storm Debby in June and Hurricane Isaac in August. The total statewide summer precipitation was almost 9 inches above the long-term average. In addition, Louisiana and Mississippi each had one of their ten-wettest summer seasons.
A comparison of drought maps* from August 28 (left) and September 4 (right) show how little relief Hurricane Isaac (estimated track shown by blue line) brought to parched states in the central U.S. A handful of states in the Lower Mississippi and Lower Ohio Valleys saw modest improvements. Maps by NOAA Climate.gov team, based on U.S. Drought Monitor Data.) *Update: This is an updated version of the image, with a more accurate estimate of the track of Isaac through the Lower Mississippi Valley. See original.
The U.S. Climate Extremes Index (USCEI), an index that tracks the highest and lowest 10 percent of extremes in temperature, precipitation, drought, and tropical cyclones across the contiguous U.S. was more than one and a half times the average value during summer 2012, and marked the eighth largest USCEI value for the season. Extremes in warm daytime temperatures, warm nighttime temperatures, and extremely dry conditions covered large areas of the Nation, contributing to the above-average USCEI value.
These climate statistics and many others are part of NOAA’s National Climate Summary. The National Climatic Data Center produces these monthly climate reports as part of the suite of climate services that NOAA provides government, business, and community leaders so they can make informed decisions.
Tropical storm Leslie arrived in Newfoundland, Canada, Tuesday morning. Tropical storm Leslie brought heavy rains and hurricane-force wind gusts up to 81 m.p.h.
By Staff, Associated Press
The Canadian Hurricane Centre shows the forecast tracks of tropical storm Leslie and Michael in the Atlantic.
Meteorologist Bob Robichaud says the potent storm touched down at about 8:30 a.m. AST (7:30 a.m. EST, 1130 GMT) as it continued to barrel north-northeast.
He says a swath of the province from Fortune, on the Burin Peninsula, all the way east to St. John’s on the Avalon Peninsula was getting pounded with stiff winds and heavy rains.
Winds were still building, with the St. John’s airport recording hurricane-force gusts of up to 81 mph (131 kph), while waves were reaching 10 yards (meters) at an offshore buoy.
There were widespread power outages in St. John’s and communities along the southeastern coast of the Avalon Peninsula.
Heavy rains also drenched province’s western portion.
Commuters wade through rainwater at Clock Tower Road during the downpour in Sukkur. PHOTO: PPI
SUKKUR: At least 58 people, including women and children, were killed, and hundreds injured, in rain-related incidents throughout upper Sindh over the past 24 hours. An emergency has been declared in Jacobabad and Kandhkot, where the army has been called in to provide relief.
Almost all cities and towns are submerged in a mixture of rain and sewage, while the drainage system has collapsed. Much of the region experienced blackouts for over 30 hours till the filing of this report.
According to the Met office, Sukkur, Rohri and other nearby areas received 178 mm of rain till Monday morning, while 441 mm of rain has been recorded in Jacobabad – the highest in a century. Reports from different parts of upper Sindh reveal that hundreds of katcha houses have collapsed in different areas, due to which at least 58 people have been killed while hundreds are reportedly injured.
The most affected area is Kandhkot, the district headquarters of Kashmore, where 24 persons have been killed. Some 15 people were killed in Shikarpur, two in Khairpur, five in Sukkur, five in Ghotki and other areas and four in Jacobabad. Three people have died in Larkana, while 5,000 houses were damaged in Shikarpur. In Lakhi Ghulam Shah, boats are being used for transport due to the high level of flooding.
Archaeological site at risk
Meanwhile, the archaeological site of Moen Jo Daro is also under threat, as recent rainfall has partially damaged its stupa, while rainwater has been accumulating in different areas of the historical site, including the Great Bath.
Culture Department Additional Secretary Ashfaq Mussavi said that although they have access to generators and heavy machinery, they’re avoiding their use as they could damage the walls of the site. He added that more than 30 officials are draining out the water to prevent further damage.
Damage to agriculture
The devastating rains have also caused extensive damage to the agriculture sector throughout upper Sindh. Standing crops in Jacobabad, Kashmore, Kandhkot, Shikarpur, Larkana and other areas which comprise the rice cultivating belt have been destroyed. The crisis has been exacerbated since the crops were grown unseasonally late – farmers had earlier halted cultivation in protest over an acute shortage of water. In Sukkur, Khairpur and Ghotki districts, standing crops of paddy, cotton and sugarcane have been destroyed by the rains.
In the wake of devastating rains throughout upper Sindh, all the canals of the Guddu and Sukkur barrages have been shut to prevent breaches.
While the casualties in lower Sindh remained low, the damage to infrastructure was substantial. Torrential rain continued in Badin district on Monday, damaging mud houses and ravaging crops on thousands of acres, creating panic near to the Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD). According to official reports, Badin received 51 mm of rain. Deputy Commissioner Kazim Hussain Jatoi said that the LBOD was being monitored, adding that no relief camp had been established so far.
Jatoi said the main crops affected were cotton, rice, chillies and vegetables. Mithan Mallah, the district president of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, alleged that the government did not inform fishermen about heavy rains in the region. “We rescued 250 fishermen and around 150 are still at the sea,” he told the Daily Sindh Express.
An eight-year-old boy Kazim Ali Shah died when the wall of his house collapsed in Allah Bachayo Bhatti village late Sunday night.
Authorities claim that dozens of machines have been fixed on the banks of the LBOD but only one pumping machine was seen when the Daily Sindh Express visited the drain on Monday.
Extensive damage was also reported in Naukot and Umerkot.
On the directives of Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, the Provincial Minister for Rehabilitation Haji Muzaffar Ali Shujra, along with Secretary Rehabilitation/Director General of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Syed Hashim Raza Zaidi, called an emergency meeting on Monday at the PDMA office. Shujra called on all affected district administrations to declare a rain emergency in their districts and mobilise all the available resources to provide relief to the victims.
The Sindh CM also cancelled leave grants for commissioners, deputy commissioners, revenue officers and officials, doctors and staff of hospitals and other essential services.
WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY HAMEED SOOMRO IN BADIN, IMAM DINO RANTO IN SAJAWAL, GM WALHARI IN UMERKOT AND SAGAR LASHARI IN NAUKOT
At least 78 people have died in floods in in Pakistan in the last three days, officials say.
They say that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and Pakistani-administered Kashmir are the worst hit regions, accounting for more than 60 deaths.
Hundreds of tents have been sent to these areas as part of relief efforts.
Officials say many people continue to live in low-lying areas prone to flash floods, despite warnings to relocate. More rain is due in the next two days.
The heavy monsoon rain – which began falling last week – had destroyed more than 1,600 houses while damaging a further 5,000, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) spokesman Irshad Bhatti said.
He said that most of the casualties were caused by houses collapsing and people being caught in rapidly rising water.
Police told the AFP news agency that an Afghan refugee family of eight – including two women and six children – were all killed in the north-western district of Swabi when the roof of their mud house collapsed on Sunday night.
Officials say that a state of emergency has been declared in the Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur districts of Punjab province, where troops have joined rescue work.
Weather forecasters say that most of the rain expected over the next two days will fall in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, Sindh and Balochistan provinces.
Questions
The BBC’s Aleem Maqbool in Islamabad says that while the number of people affected is far lower than the previous two years, in Punjab canals have burst their banks and low-lying areas of Sindh province are under water. In Balochistan, communication links have been severed.
In November 2011 at least five million people were affected by flooding in Sindh, which also killed livestock and destroyed crops, homes and infrastructure as the country struggled to recover from record downpours in 2010.
About eight million people in total were affected in 2011 and an estimated 20 million the year before. There was also large scale structural damage.
Our correspondent says that questions have already been asked about what the disaster management authorities have done in the last 12 months to prevent flooding.
Until recently, areas in southern Pakistan were still under water from last year’s monsoon rains, with locals complaining that even the basic work of clearing debris from drainage channels had not been done.
An apparent object impact captured about 6:35 am on Sept. 10, 2012 from Dallas, Texas USA. The impact was observed by Dan Peterson visually this morning. His observation was posted later on the ALPO_Jupiter forum. When I saw the post, I went back and examined the videos that I had collected this morning. Click on the image to the left to see a larger version. This is a screen capture from QuickTime of a single frame from the video. The video was captured with a 12″ LX200GPS, 3x Televue Barlow, and Point Grey Flea 3 camera. The capture software was Astro IIDC. Here is a link to a 4 sec. video of the event on Flickr.
An apparent object impact captured about 6:35 am on Sept. 10, 2012 from Dallas, Texas USA. Credit: George Hall.
UPDATE: Yes, there was an impact! An amateur astronomer in Dallas Texas, George Hall captured the impact flash in his webcam — click here to see his website and image – at about 6:30 am on Sept. 10, 2012.
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From astronomer Heidi Hammel of the Space Science Institute comes news about a potential new impact on Jupiter. She reports there has been a visual sighting of an apparent fireball on Jupiter earlier today (about 10 hours ago, as of this posting) so the impact site should be visible again over the next few hours. According to amateur astronomers discussing this on G+, the impact area on Jupiter won’t be visible again until about 05:00 UTC, (01:00 EDT). The amateur who observed the flash was Dan Petersen, from Oregon, who made the observation at approximately 11:35 UTC on September 10. Petersen reported it to Richard Schmude of the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (ALPO). Hammel says the report sounds realistic, but obviously it needs confirmation if possible: a) by looking for any ‘impact scar’ tonight or over the next few days; b) by searching any webcam video that any observers might have been recording at the time. From the time and position given, the flash was on the North Equatorial Belt at approximately L1=335, L2=219, L3=257. “Let’s hope someone has a record of it!” Hammel says.
If it was the impact was sizable enough, it might have left an impact scar like those seen after the Shoemaker-Levy/9 impacts and this one in 2010:
Color image of impact on Jupiter on June 3, 2010. Credit: Anthony Wesley
This morning (9/10/2012) at 11:35:30 UT, I observed a bright white two second long explosion just inside Jupiter’s eastern limb, located at about Longitude 1 = 335, and Latitude = + 12 degrees north, inside the southern edge of the NEB. This flash appeared to be about 100 miles in diameter. I used my Meade 12″ LX200 GPS telescope and a binoviewer working at 400X for the observation, seeing was very good at the time. I was thinking about imaging Jupiter this morning but decided to observe it instead, had I been imaging I’m sure I would have missed it between adjusting webcam settings and focusing each avi. We’ll have to wait and see if a dark spot develops inside the southern regions of the NEB over the next day or two. Good luck imaging this. My best guess is that it was a small undetected comet that is now history, hopefully it will sign its name on Jupiter’s cloud tops.
If you make any observations or find you have webcam footage that may show such an impact, please send us an email.
Via astronomer Pete Lawrence (@Avertedvision on Twitter) is a simulated view showing where impact may have occurred (X marks the spot).
A strong sulphuric odor first noticed throughout Riverside County on Sunday night hung in the air today, but authorities were at a loss to explain it.
(Flickr/Phil Konstantin)
“It’s not something originating here in the city,” Riverside Public Utilities Chief Deputy Director Steve Badgett told City News Service. “It hit me when I went out to get my paper this morning 45 miles away.”
The rotten-egg odor wafted into Riverside around 10 p.m. Sunday and was reported in Murrieta, Indio, Calimesa and other locations, as well.
Officials at the Eastern Municipal Water District, which services customers from Moreno Valley to Temecula, said the stench was not connected to any of the district’s operations.
The EMWD directed further inquiries to the South Coast Air Quality Management District, but calls to the agency were not immediately returned.
Badgett said there were indications the source of the smell might be the Salton Sea, but there was no confirmation.
“We had that storm system dragging everything up from the desert yesterday, so who knows?” he said. “The weather pattern is high humidity and no air movement above us.”
A massive fish die-off in the Salton Sea is the prime suspect in a rotten smell that swept the region, but experts can’t recall a bad odor ever traveling so far.
By Hector Becerra, Phil Willon and Andrew Blankstein, Los Angeles TimesSeptember 10, 2012, 10:31 p.m.
When the rotten egg smell wafted into the Santa Clarita United Methodist Church in Saugus on Monday morning, Kathy Gray thought the church’s sewer pipe had burst.
More than 70 miles to the east, steelworker Chris Tatum’s nostrils got the punch in Riverside. He assumed a brush fire had just broken out.
“It reeks,” he said. “It smells like rotten mush.”
Southern California awoke Monday morning to a foul odor that wouldn’t go away.Residents clogged 911 lines with calls, prompting health officials from Ventura County to Palm Springs to send investigators looking for everything from a toxic spill to a sewer plant leak.
The prime suspect, however, lay more than 100 miles away from Los Angeles. The leading theory is that the stink was caused by the annual die-off of fish in the Salton Sea. Officials believe Sunday evening’s thunderstorms and strong winds churned up the water and pushed that dead-fish smell to points west overnight.
Officials from the Air Quality Management District and other agencies said they have never dealt with a stench quite like this. Although the fish die-off usually causes foul odors in parts of the Inland Empire, officials cannot recall it traveling this far.
“It’s very unusual that any odor would be this widespread, from the Coachella to Los Angeles County,” said Sam Atwood, spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District. “We’re talking well over 100 miles. I can’t recall ever confirming an odor traveling that distance.”
The Salton Sea did track 40-mph winds Sunday night, and officials said that probably served as a trigger.
“The winds could have stirred up the water,” said Bill Meister, president of the Sea and Desert Interpretive Assn. “Because the lake is so shallow, and there is 100 years worth of decayed material at the bottom, you’d get that rotten egg smell.”
At its deepest points, the Salton Sea is only about 50 feet, said Andrew Schlange, general manager of the Salton Sea Authority. The 360-square-mile body of murky, highly saline water is also receding into the desert. More water is evaporating from the sea than is flowing in from agricultural runoff. In some places the falling waterline has uncovered thermal fields studded with features like geysers and boiling mud pots spewing clouds of steam and sulfur dioxide gas that smells like rotten eggs.
The “accidental sea” was created in 1905 when the Colorado River jumped its banks during a rainy season and gushed north for months, filling an ancient salt sink. It’s 35 miles long, 15 miles wide and 227 feet below sea level.
Schlange said it’s a common occurrence for fish populations to explode and then suffer die-offs when oxygen is depleted from the sea.
“The problem is [the odor] would have to have migrated 50 to 100 miles, without it being dissipated by mixing with other air. It doesn’t seem possible,” he said. “I’ve been in Southern California my whole life, and I’m not aware of any time in the past where the odor from the Salton Sea has migrated as far as people are telling us.”
Schlange said several factors could explain the far-traveling smell. In the last week, the blistering heat reduced oxygen levels in parts of the Salton Sea, causing fish to die and settle to the bottom, where they decomposed with other organic material.
Then a thunderstorm barreled through the area Sunday night, churning moisture-laden air counterclockwise and pushing it from the southeast.
“That atmospheric flow would bring the smell up from the Salton Sea into the L.A. Basin here,” said Bill Patzert, a climatologist for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. “This was an ill wind that dropped from the Coachella Valley into the Inland Empire cul-de-sac and boogied west … into the San Gabriel Valley and L.A. County. The stink is normal around the Salton Sea. The strong winds are the unique occurrence that moved it into our ‘hood.’ “
Whatever its provenance, the stench made the rounds.
Pacoima comedian Jose Chavez said at first he thought some eggs he bought had gone bad.
“When I realized it wasn’t the eggs, I thought it must be me, so I changed my clothes,” Chavez said. “Finally I saw the reports…. With the weather the way it is, the smell was awful.”
Czech officials say at least three more people have died after drinking bootleg alcohol tainted with toxic methanol, bringing the death toll to six. Police spokeswoman Miluse Zajicova says a 45-year-old man died in a hospital in the eastern town of Prerov, and a 21-year-old woman was found dead in nearby Osek and Becvou. Petra Pekarova, spokeswoman for Prague’s General University Hospital, said Tuesday that a 38-year-old man had died there of methanol poisoning. Authorities announced Monday that three deaths in the country’s east had been linked to the cheap, illicit liquor. About two dozen other people have been hospitalized, some in critical condition. Authorities have launched a nationwide check of restaurants, bars, liquor stores and street markets in an effort to discover the origin of the bootleg booze.
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes 'FAIR USE' of any such copyrighted material.]
Tsunami Information Bulletin in New Ireland Region P.n.g., Pacific Ocean
000
WEPA42 PHEB 282011
TIBPAC
TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 001
PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS
ISSUED AT 2011Z 28 JUL 2012
THIS BULLETIN APPLIES TO AREAS WITHIN AND BORDERING THE PACIFIC
OCEAN AND ADJACENT SEAS...EXCEPT ALASKA...BRITISH COLUMBIA...
WASHINGTON...OREGON AND CALIFORNIA.
... TSUNAMI INFORMATION BULLETIN ...
THIS BULLETIN IS FOR INFORMATION ONLY.
THIS BULLETIN IS ISSUED AS ADVICE TO GOVERNMENT AGENCIES. ONLY
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AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS
ORIGIN TIME - 2004Z 28 JUL 2012
COORDINATES - 4.7 SOUTH 153.2 EAST
DEPTH - 71 KM
LOCATION - NEW IRELAND REGION P.N.G.
MAGNITUDE - 6.6
EVALUATION
NO DESTRUCTIVE WIDESPREAD TSUNAMI THREAT EXISTS BASED ON
HISTORICAL EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI DATA.
HOWEVER - EARTHQUAKES OF THIS SIZE SOMETIMES GENERATE LOCAL
TSUNAMIS THAT CAN BE DESTRUCTIVE ALONG COASTS LOCATED WITHIN
A HUNDRED KILOMETERS OF THE EARTHQUAKE EPICENTER. AUTHORITIES
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CHINA SEA REGION. IN CASE OF CONFLICTING INFORMATION... THE
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A long forgotten geothermal spectacle on New Zealand’s North Island could be coming back to life after more than 40 years, scientists said.
In the first half of the 20th century the Waikite Geyser in the Whakarewarewa geothermal area near Rotorua was known for its spectacular hot water eruptions reaching up to 65 feet but had not produced a significant eruption since 1969, the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences said.
However, in the past year scientists have increasingly noticed geothermal waters coming into the throat of the geyser, a major tourist attraction, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.
Geothermal features like geysers can be naturally variable and stay dormant for years, GNS geothermal scientist Ed Mroczek said in a statement.
“This makes it difficult to distinguish what is part of a natural cycle and what is disruption caused by human activity,” he said.
Scientists say they believe a sharp increase in the number of bores drilled in Rotorua since the 1950s by homeowners and businesses seeking cheap energy caused underground pressures to drop.
But new research at Whakarewarewa suggests pressure has increased and water from deeper in the earth was being pushed toward the surface, scientists said.
“We have no way of knowing if Waikite will recover to its former magnificence, but the signs we are seeing are very encouraging,” Mroczek said.
Firefighters in Russia’s Siberia had extinguished 45 forest fires covering 522 hectares of forest in the past 24 hours, but 131 wildfires were still burning on the area of almost 15,000 hectares, the regional forestry department said Friday. A total of 29 wildfires covering an area of more than 5,000 hectares were localized, and 14,948 hectares of forest continued to burn in the Krasnoyarsk Krai, Tomsk Region, Tuva, Khakassia and Irkutsk Region. Some 3,000 people, 412 units of fire-fighting equipment and 24 aircrafts have been mobilized to fight the blazes, which are believed to be caused by hot and dry weather in the region where the temperature reaches 35 degrees. Reports said the wildfires posed no threat to populated areas or industry.
Almost two thirds of the continental US are now suffering drought conditions Enlarge A field of dead corn sits next to an ethanol plant July 25, in Palestine, Illinois. The drought in America’s breadbasket is intensifying at an unprecedented rate, experts warned, driving concern food prices could soar if crops in the world’s key producer are decimated. The drought in America’s breadbasket is intensifying at an unprecedented rate, experts warned, driving concern food prices could soar if crops in the world’s key producer are decimated. Ads by Google EHR Software Demo – Watch the EHR Demo Online Now Meaningful Use with Ease of Use! – AdvancedMD.com/Elec-Health-Record The US Drought Monitor reported a nearly threefold increase in areas of extreme drought over the past week in the nine Midwestern states where three quarters of the country’s corn and soybean crops are produced. “That expansion of D3 or extreme conditions intensified quite rapidly and we went from 11.9 percent to 28.9 percent in just one week,” Brian Fuchs, a climatologist and Drought Monitor author, told AFP. “For myself, studying drought, that’s rapid. We’ve seen a lot of things developing with this drought that were unprecedented, especially the speed.” Almost two thirds of the continental United States are now suffering drought conditions, the largest area recorded since the Drought Monitor project started in 1999. “If you are following the grain prices here in the US, they are reflecting the anticipated shortages with a price increase,” Fuchs said. In some rural areas, municipal water suppliers are talking about mandatory restrictions Enlarge A farmer moves an irrigation system into a cornfield near Whiteland, Indiana. The drought in America’s breadbasket is intensifying at an unprecedented rate, experts warned, driving concern food prices could soar if crops in the world’s key producer are decimated. “In turn, you’re going to see those price increases trickle into the other areas that use those grain crops: cattle feed, ethanol production and then food stuffs.” In some rural areas, municipal water suppliers are talking about mandatory restrictions because they have seen such a dramatic drop in the water table that they fear being unable to fulfill deliveries to customers, Fuchs said. “Things have really developed over the last two months and conditions have worsened just that quick and that is really unprecedented,” he added. “Definitely exports are going to suffer because there is going to be less available and the markets are already reflecting that. Ads by Google Dating Sites for Seniors – Over 50 and looking for a soulmate? Try here. Free membership! – MatureSinglesClick.com “It’s anticipated that this drought is going to persist through the next couple of months at least and conditions are not overly favorable to see any widespread improvement.” President Barack Obama’s administration has opened up protected US land to help farmers and ranchers hit by the drought and encouraged crop insurance companies to forgo charging interest for a month. Officials have said the drought will drive up food prices since 78 percent of US corn and 11 percent of soybean crops have been hit and the United States is the world’s biggest producer of those crops. The current drought has been compared to a 1988 crisis that cut production by 20 percent and cost the economy tens of billions of dollars. Officials have said the drought will drive up food prices Enlarge A farmer talks with an official from the US Department of Agriculture while veiwing drought damage to his farm, near Goreville, Illinois. The drought in America’s breadbasket is intensifying at an unprecedented rate, experts warned, driving concern food prices could soar if crops in the world’s key producer are decimated. The US Department of Agriculture issued retail price forecasts Wednesday for 2013 and they already showed an impact from the drought, with consumers expected to pay between three and four percent more for their groceries. “The 2013 numbers reflect higher-than-average inflation which is partly a function of the drought and the higher crop prices,” said Ephraim Leibtag of the USDA’s Economic Research Service. “The drought effects are starting now at the farm and agricultural level. “Those things take two to 12 months to work through the system. So you’ll see some effects as early as the fall (autumn) in terms of the grocery stores and restaurants, certainly later in the year and into 2013.” The full impact of the drought on food prices won’t be known for months. “It’s too early to tell as we don’t know how much of the crop is going to be lost and how much higher corn and soybean prices will go,” Leibtag said. “We are not forecasting major impacts on retail food at this point. If the drought gets worse or corn and soybean prices rise even more, that would start to have a bigger impact.” Even before the last week, farmers were telling AFP they may have to cut their losses — chopping down fields of half-mature, earless corn to feed the stalks to cattle. Weather forecasters predicted no respite. (c) 2012 AFP
At least 85 houses were destroyed in the wake of a tornado that struck four barangays in Jagna, Bohol at 11 a.m. last Friday. The tornado struck barangays Can-upao, Bunga Mar, Cantagay and Ipil while a heavy downpour was taking place, according to the Jagna Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. “The residents said they felt their houses shake. In one house, the kitchen got pulled out and landed in the sala. The residents got out of their homes and ran away,” said council staffer Vicente Orias. Orias said some residents described seeing a black funnel of air in the sky which later spun towards the ground. Several houses made of nipa were uprooted, Orias said. The roofs of some houses, including those made of galvanized aluminum sheets, were blown away. “It looked like the roofs were cut open by the wind,” Orias said. Pag-asa Mactan weather specialist Boy Artiaga said the tornado occurred due to the presence of the southwest monsoon winds and the low pressure area in the eastern part of the Visayas. Barangay Can-upao was hardest hit with 43 destroyed or damaged houses, followed by Bunga Mar with 39 houses, two in Cantagay and one in Ipil. No one was reported injured, Orias said. The affected families transferred to houses of their relatives or neighbors. Bohol provincial police said property damage was estimated at P800,000. The tornado also damaged 13 pumpboats worth P300,000, a sari-sari store and fruit-bearing trees worth P200,000. Bohol Gov. Edgar Chatto, Vice Gov. Concepcion Lim and social welfare personnel went to the affected areas to distribute rice, noodles, and canned goods.
FLOODING across impoverished North Korea this month has killed 88 people, left tens of thousands homeless and devastated swathes of farmland.
A week of floods “caused by typhoon and downpour … claimed big human and material losses”, Pyongyang’s official news agency said. The new death toll was a dramatic increase from the figure of eight reported Wednesday.
A total of 134 people were injured and almost 63,000 people were left homeless by the floods, which started on July 18, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported, with thousands of houses damaged or destroyed.
The biggest loss of human life was in two counties of South Pyongan province, which were hit by torrential rains on Monday and Tuesday, it said.
More than 30,000 hectares of land for growing crops was “washed away and buried” or “submerged”, KCNA said, a potential blow for a state that is beset by persistent severe food shortages.
With rugged terrain and outmoded agricultural practices, the country faces serious difficulties in feeding its 24 million people. Hundreds of thousands died during a famine in the mid to late-1990s.
UN agencies, after a visit to the North, estimated last November that three million people would need food aid in 2012.
Some 300 public buildings and 60 factories were damaged in the floods, as well as large stretches of road, KCNA said.
State media reported earlier this week that 60 flood victims were rescued thanks to a helicopter urgently sent by leader Kim Jong-Un.
The victims, including children and women, were trapped on Monday on a hillock in the northwest of the country after a river flooded due to heavy rain, the official news agency said.
“Isolated incommunicado, they did not find a way out, in panic at rising water. At that time a helicopter appeared,” it said.
“After receiving an urgent report, the dear respected Kim Jong-Un issued an emergency sortie order to a unit of the Air Force of the Korean People’s Army.”
After decades of deforestation, the impoverished North Korea is particularly vulnerable to flooding.
Dozens were killed or injured by a storm and torrential rain in the North in June and July last year. Thousands were also made homeless and large areas of farmland were flooded.
The United States reached a deal on February 29 this year to offer North Korea badly needed food aid in return for a freeze on nuclear and missile tests.
But it rescinded the plan after the North’s failed rocket launch in April, seen by the United States and its allies as an attempted ballistic missile test.
The North has been developing nuclear weapons for decades and staged two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.
(Reuters) – An outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus has killed 13 people in Uganda and efforts are under way to contain the hemorrhagic fever, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Saturday.
There is no treatment and no vaccine against Ebola, which is transmitted by close personal contact and, depending on the strain, kills up to 90 percent of those who contract the virus.
Joaquim Saweka, WHO’s representative in Uganda, said that although suspected Ebola infections emerged in early July in Kibale district, about 170 km (100 miles) west of the capital Kampala, the outbreak was not confirmed until Friday.
“There are a total of 20 people suspected to have contracted Ebola and 13 of them have died,” Saweka said.
“A team of experts from the government, WHO and CDC (U.S. Centers for Disease Control) are in the field and following up on all suspected cases and those who got into contact with patients.”
Saweka said the origin of the outbreak had not yet been confirmed, but 18 of the 20 cases are understood to be linked to one family.
Kibale is near the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where the virus emerged in 1976, taking its name from the Ebola River.
The symptoms include sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat, followed by vomiting, diarrhea, rashes, impaired kidney and liver function and both internal and external bleeding.
Ebola was last reported in Uganda in May last year when it killed a 12-year-old girl. The country’s most devastating outbreak was in 2000 when 425 people were infected, more than half of whom died.
Sixteen people are reported dead in Uganda from a mystery illness. The Uganda publication UG Pulse reports that a strange illness, cause unknown, is spreading in the Kibaale district in western Uganda. The District Health Officer, Dr. Dan Kyamanwa, stated that 11 of the deaths were from the same family in the Nyamarunda Sub County. A twelfth death was a health officer. There are also reports of the illness appearing in the clinical officer who treated the family from Nyamarunda and a driver who transported the deceased. Kyamanwa says that symptoms of the illness include high fever, vomiting, diarrhea and systems failure. Death occurs within four to seven days.The Ugandan government is reportedly sending a team of experts to investigate the outbreak.
Biohazard name:
Unidentified fatal disease
Biohazard level:
4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:
Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
An artist’s conception of the now-vanished dust disc surrounding the star TYC 8241 2652 1. (Gemini Observatory/AURA artwork by Lynette Cook / July 5, 2012)
By Thomas H. Maugh II Los Angeles TimesJuly 5, 2012, 8:46 a.m.
A disc of planet-forming dust around a distant star has disappeared unexpectedly, leaving astronomers scratching their heads and questioning current theories of how planets are formed. “It’s like the classic magician’s trick: Now you see it, now you don’t,” said astronomer Carl Melis of UC San Diego, who led the team that discovered the phenomenon. “Only in this case, we’re talking about enough dust to fill an inner solar system and it is really gone.” The team has proposed several possible explanations for the disappearance, but “none are really compelling,” Melis said.
The star in question is a called TYC 8241 2652. It is a younger version of our own sun, only about 10 million years old (our own solar system is 4.5 billion years old), and lies 450 million light-years away in the constellation Centaurus. It was first seen in 1983 by NASA’s Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS). The dust disc heats up from absorbed light from its star and re-emits the energy in the infrared, giving the system a characteristic appearance. IRAS has discovered hundreds of such stars.
The team reported Thursday in the journal Nature that they reexamined the star in 2008 using the Gemini South Observatory in Chile and found the same infrared signature observed in 1983. But when they looked at it again in 2009 with NASA’s orbiting Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, about two-thirds of the dust had disappeared. Observations with other telescopes the following year showed that virtually all of the dust was gone. “It’s as if you took a conventional picture of the planet Saturn today and then came back two years later and found that its rings had disappeared,” said co-author Ben Zuckerman of UCLA.
Researchers have offered at least three potential mechanisms for the disappearance. One might be runaway planetary accretion. It is generally believed that the condensation of such dust particle around a star into a planet occurs over long periods — hundreds of thousands of years. In this case, it could have been accelerated by some unknown force, occurring over just a few years. The star is too far away to observe any potential planet, however.
A second possibility is that, for some reason, the dust has all fallen into the star itself, perhaps as a result of the star’s gravity or some external force. The third explanation might be that the dust particles are so small that the constant stream of light from the star has ejected them all into space, where they have cooled off.
“Many astronomers feel uncomfortable with the suggested explanations for the disappearance of the dust because each of them has nontraditional implications,” said co-author Inseok Song of the University of Georgia. “But my hope is that this line of research can bring us closer to a true understanding of how planets form.”
Toxic Algae Found In Salamonie Reservoir, Health Officials Say
ANDREWS, Ind. — Indiana health officials are warning residents that toxic algae found this summer in several lakes poses a health threat to people and animals.The warning comes after the death of two dogs playing in a northern Indiana reservoir tainted by the toxic algae.The Board of Animal Health said toxins released by blue-green algae are likely what caused two dogs belonging to Larry and Marge Young to die last week after the dogs played in Salamonie Reservoir.
The Wabash couple’s two other dogs were sickened and are being treated for liver failure.State officials have found high blue-green algae levels in seven Indiana lakes, including Salamonie, where record levels were discovered.The others are Raccoon Lake, Hardy Lake, Brookville Lake, Whitewater Lake, Sand Lake and Worster Lake.
Japanese women have fallen behind Hong Kong in global life expectancy rankings for the first time in 25 years.
This was partly due to the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit the country in March 2011, said an annual report by Japan’s health ministry.
The expected lifespan for Japanese women dropped from 86.30 years in 2010 to to 85.90 years in 2011.
The official life expectancy for women in Hong Kong last year was 86.70 years.
Japan has topped the women’s rankings for a quarter of a century, with longevity attributed in part to a healthy traditional diet.
The magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that left more than 20,000 dead or missing pushed the life expectancy down.
However the report noted that even without the disaster Japanese women would still have dropped behind Hong Kong in the statistics.
Other factors contributing to the dip included a rise in the number of suicides among Japanese women, disease and other natural death causes, the report said.
The life expectancy for men in Japan also declined from 79.55 in 2010 to 79.44 last year.
The men dropped from fourth place in 2010 to eighth last year in the global life expectancy ranking, said Japan’s Kyodo news agency.
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes 'FAIR USE' of any such copyrighted material.]
[JURIST] Newly elected Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] on Thursday ordered the release of 572 people who had been convicted by the military. Morsi, Egypt’s first elected civilian president, had formed a committee to review all the cases of prisoners who had been sentenced by military courts since the beginning of the revolution that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak [Al Jazeera profile; JURIST news archive] last year. Activists and international rights groups have repeatedly called for Egypt to end the practice of civilian trials by military commissions [AFP report], which have been criticized for not meeting the requirements of independence and impartiality. Morsi also commuted the life sentences of 16 individuals [Egypt State Information Service report] to seven years imprisonment. Earlier this month Morsi appointing a fact-finding committee to investigate the deaths of protesters[JURIST report] in last year’s demonstrations. 9,714 individuals have been released out of the 11,879 Egyptians detained by the military since last year’s uprising.Earlier this month, a few days after he was sworn in, Morsi issued a decree [JURIST reports] calling the dissolved Egyptian parliament back into session, despite a previous ruling by the country’s Supreme Constitutional Court [official website] dissolving it due to its finding that one-third of its members were elected illegally [JURIST report]. The court suspended Morsi’s decree two days later, after which Morsi vowed that he would respect the ruling [JURIST reports]. A court struck down [JURIST report] a government decree in June that restored broad arrest powers to Egyptian military officials. Days before its dissolution, the Egyptian parliament elected a new constitutional council after lawmakers finally reached an agreement [JURIST reports] on the political composition of the council. In April the country’s Administrative Court effectively suspended [JURIST report] the work of the 100-member council responsible for drafting the country’s new constitution after ruling in favor of a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the formation of the panel.
Gun control calls follow Colorado theater shootings, but few expect major changes
By Jordy Yager and Mike Lillis
A handful of Democrats are pressing for tougher gun laws in the wake of the Colorado movie theater shootings that left 12 people dead.
Moving such bills has become extraordinarily difficult on Capitol Hill because of powerful gun rights allegiances, however, and Republican strategists predicted the latest gun violence was unlikely to lead to significant changes.
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) — whose husband was killed and son seriously injured in a 1993 shooting on a Long Island commuter train — told reporters on Friday that the National Rifle Association (NRA) and other opponents of gun control have a simple but effective strategy following gun violence tragedies.
“They will wait it out, wait it out, wait it out, until people forget about it again, until another tragedy happens like last night,” said McCarthy. “We should be proactive before another tragedy happens.
“There are ways of doing this without infringing upon anyone’s rights,” she said.
[JURIST] Beijing’s Chaoyang District Court on Friday rejected the appeal brought by dissident artist Ai Weiwei [BBC profile] challenging the government’s imposition of 15 million yuan (USD $2.4 million) tax evasion penalty. The fine was leveled against Fake Cultural Development Ltd., the company that helps Ai, 55, produce and market his works, which was accused and charged with tax evasion in November. Ai, an internationally acclaimed artist [AFP report] whose works have been exhibited around the world, claims that by imposing such penalty, the government violated the tax law, and he urged the court to overturn the Beijing tax office’s rejection of his appeal against the penalty. Friday’s ruling did not surprise Ai[Reuters report] because the court on Friday morning rejected lawyers’ requests to see evidence against the company, produce witnesses and have an independent auditor verify figures.The tax penalty is widely viewed as a government attempt to silence one of the country’s most outspoken dissidents. About 30,000 people donated money to help Ai cover an 8.45 million yuan bond required to contest the tax charges. Ai plans to appeal the court’s decision.
Ai spent 81 days in secret detention last year. Last month the court banned Ai from attending [JURIST report] the first hearing in the case, and further banned him from attending any hearings, including Friday’s delivery of the verdict. Ai’s wife Lu Qing, the legal representative of Fake Cultural Development, attended the hearing with other lawyers and reported that during the hearing witnesses they requested were blocked from testifying including Ai. Other rights activists such as Hu Jia [advocacy blog; JURIST news archive] were also barred from attending the hearing. The court also closed the five-seat chamber to journalists and filming. The court agreed to hear [JURIST report] the case in May, surprising many with its ruling since Chinese courts rarely accept appeals claims brought by dissidents and their relatives.
Subcommittee Chairman McCaul Opening Statement at Hearing on the Impact of UAVs in the Homeland
On Twitter: @HouseHomeland
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Management delivers an opening statement at a hearing entitled: “Using Unmanned Aerial Systems Within the Homeland: Security Game Changer?”
Privacy advocates satisfied with Lieberman’s cybersecurity rewrite
By Brendan Sasso
Revisions that Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) made to his Cybersecurity Act seem to have appeased privacy advocates who lobbied against an earlier version of the bill.
Michelle Richardson, a legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), told The Hill that Lieberman and other co-sponsors made “substantial changes” and undertook a “Herculean effort to build privacy protections” into the bill.
Sharon Bradford Franklin, senior policy counsel at The Constitution Project, applauded the changes, saying they “go a long way toward alleviating our concerns.”
“The amendments address key civil liberties concerns that have dogged the cybersecurity debate,” agreed Leslie Harris, president and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology.
The statements mark a major shift for the privacy groups, which had urged the Senate to reject the previous version of Lieberman’s bill to prevent an erosion of civil liberties.
Supporters of Lieberman’s bill, including Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), conducted months of negotiations behind closed doors with the privacy groups to develop the revised proposal.
Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) also pushed for tougher privacy protections.
Like the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) that passed the House in April, Lieberman’s Cybersecurity Act would encourage companies to share information about cyber threats with the government.
The privacy groups fought fiercely against CISPA, saying it would lead private companies to hand over their customers’ personal information to military spy agencies.
President Obama also threatened to veto CISPA over privacy and civil liberty concerns.
Canadians took to the streets this weekend to display their antipathy towards what they call the anti-democratic government of Saudi Arabia. Activists voiced concerns with the backing the Saudi monarchy receives from Western governments which regularly claim to be concerned with Human Rights and democracy in the Middle East.
Press TV’s Joshua Blakeney reports from Calgary.
Mexico protest: Over 30,000 march against new president
Conservative groups are gearing up to spend millions of dollars over the next three months on ads attacking President Obama’s health-care law and Democrats who support it, but in many cases voters will have no way of knowing who paid for the barrage.
The ads amount to the next wave of opposition to Obama’s health-care plan, which was upheld by the Supreme Court last month as constitutional under the federal government’s taxing authority. Some of the groups most active on the issue have received funding from health-care firms opposed to parts of the legislation.
The American Action Network (AAN), for example, is targeting House Democrats who voted for “Obamacare” with $1.2 million in digital ads, mailings and other efforts. As a tax-exempt “social welfare” organization, the group is not required to identify its funders to the public.
“How far will they go to protect Obama’s agenda?” a narrator asks in one digital ad, which equates a trio of New York Democrats with the Three Stooges comedy troupe. “Tell congressmen Bill Owens, Tim Bishop and Louise Slaughter to repeal the health care tax.”
Two donations to the group have emerged publicly from the health-care sector: $3 million in 2011 from insurance giant Aetna and $4.5 million in 2010 from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA), Washington’s biggest drugmaker lobby.
Aetna and PhRMA officials say their contributions were made in support of general policies, not political ads.
The effort underscores the secrecy that pervades many of the political ads inundating voters this year, particularly in a dozen crucial swing states that are likely to decide the presidential race between Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
Swiss bankers Wegelin & Co. Swiss have been charged with conspiring to help American taxpayers to hide $1.2 billion from the Internal Revenue Service.
The wealthiest people in the world have exploited loopholes in international tax rules, evading the taxman and sheltering a staggering $21 trillion or more in offshore accounts, according to a report released Sunday.
To give perspective to the scale of the offshore economy, the economic transparency group Tax Justice Network said the sum is larger than the entire United State’s economy, or enough money to entirely solve the European debt crisis.
The report, called The Price of Offshore Revisted, says between $21 trillion and $32 trillion could be hidden in tax havens in countries like Switzerland and the Cayman Islands. The first details of the report were released to the Observer in London.
And most of the money hidden overseas comes from people who would make the was majority of the top 1 percent turn green with envy, economists said.
Instead, some $10 trillion that has been stashed in off-shore accounts is owned by only 92,000 people, or 0.001 percent of the world’s population, the report finds.
“These estimates reveal a staggering failure: inequality is much, much worse than official statistics show,” said John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network. “People on the street have no illusions about how unfair the situation has become.”
July 23 – The only way is down for euro/dollar today after media reports that six Spanish regions could need financial help, says Reuters FX Analyst Neal Kimberley.
K Street hopes for lift from lame duck
By Bernie Becker and Megan Wilson
Revenue on K Street is in a holding pattern ahead of a lame-duck session that could be one for the record books.
Friday was the deadline for lobby firms to disclose their second-quarter reports for 2012 as required under the Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA). While some on K Street reported revenue gains over 2011, others saw a decline despite an active spring session for Congress.
Some lobbyists predicted the preparations for the lame-duck session after the election — when lawmakers are expected to tackle big-money issues like the Bush-era tax rates and automatic spending cuts — would bring a spike in business at the end of the year.
They noted that the heat of a presidential election is putting legislating on hold until then, as both Republicans and Democrats push for votes they think will put them in a good political position come November.
Firms including Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, Ogilvy Government Relations, Williams & Jensen, Alston & Bird and Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti reported slight to moderate gains for the first half of the year, ranging from 2 percent to 6 percent.
But the top dog on K Street, Patton Boggs, reported a slight decline from last year, while Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, the traditional No. 2, took a 13 percent dive.
The Podesta Group, which had the third-highest revenues for 2012’s first half, reported no change between this year and last.
Four other shops — Van Scoyoc Associates, Cassidy & Associates, Cornerstone Government Affairs and Dutko Grayling — saw double-digit drops in LDA revenue.
Kevin O’Neill of Patton Boggs said that, with a payroll tax cut extension and broad transportation measure already through Congress this year, lawmakers had in many ways exceeded expectations.
But he said the 2012 campaign might have caused some parts of corporate America to be less aggressive on the lobbying front. Patton Boggs raked in a reported $24.2 million in lobbying revenue for the year’s first half, a 2 percent decline from 2011’s $24.8 million.
“There’s a natural sense in the business community right now that election years, especially presidential election years, can’t be as jam-packed with signatures achievements as a non-election year,” said O’Neill, the firm’s deputy chairman for public policy.
“That’s a common perception and may cause clients to take their foot off the pedal quicker than they otherwise might.”
But O’Neill also said that the firm was satisfied with its numbers, especially because lots of their work on regulatory issues falls “under the radar” and isn’t reflected by the LDA reports.
He noted that extensive preparations are being made for the lame-duck session, and said clients are eager to make sure they aren’t caught flat-footed when Congress moves into overdrive in December.
“Putting the game plan down, figuring out which players you need to have on the field: Astute clients may not be as visible in a quarter like this, but they’re doing an awful lot to get ready,” O’Neill said, comparing the current period to a pep rally before the big game.
Smith Davis, a partner at Akin Gump, noted that his firm was heavily reliant on billable hours last quarter, and partly attributed the revenue drop to a slowdown on Capitol Hill after the failure of last year’s supercommittee.
WASHINGTON — As a member of the “Gang of Six,” Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho has emerged as something of a hero among advocates of bipartisanship, one of three conservative Republicans working with three Democrats to cut the deficit by closing loopholes that allow businesses and households to avoid paying taxes.
Senator Mike Crapo, Republican of Idaho, fought to save a tax loophole for the timber industry.
A one-stop destination for the latest political news — from The Times and other top sources. Plus opinion, polls, campaign data and video.
Yet earlier this year, the senator made sure that a $3 billion loophole — protecting “black liquor,” an alcoholic sludge used as fuel in timber mills and factories — remained open in the negotiations over the highway bill that President Obama signed this month. Many budget experts criticize the loophole as a tax dodge because it allows the sludge to qualify for an energy subsidy created to wean the country off imported oil for vehicles, which black liquor does not do.
On Capitol Hill, lawmakers casually point to closing loopholes as the answer to much that ails the country. Negotiations to avoid automatic military spending cuts in January, to enact sweeping deficit reduction and to lower corporate and personal income tax rates all hinge on closing unidentified loopholes.
But the back-room actions on black liquor point to just how difficult it will be to lower the budget deficit through painless changes in the tax code. Even for a self-proclaimed deficit hawk like Mr. Crapo, one man’s loophole can be another’s vital constituent interest.
An Idaho company “feared losing the write-offs could affect employment decisions,” said Lindsay Nothern, a spokesman for Mr. Crapo.
Mr. Nothern would not identify the company, but Matt Van Vleet, a spokesman for Clearwater Paper, a Spokane company with a large pulp mill in north-central Idaho, confirmed that his company had gone to Mr. Crapo seeking to keep the tax break open.
“We would have felt significant pain,” he said.
Federal tax receipts are reduced by more than $1 trillion a year by various tax deductions and credits, known as tax expenditures, often tied to a policy aim. Ending them would nearly eliminate the federal deficit, which is projected to be $1.2 trillion in the current fiscal year.
But the three largest are as popular as they are expensive: the mortgage interest deduction has cost about $75 billion a year recently, the employer deduction for health care has cost $120 billion a year, and the charitable-giving deduction has cost $38 billion a year, according to the bipartisan Joint Committee on Taxation.
Others are more hotly debated, like the exclusion or deferral of taxes on overseas corporate earnings. Legislation by Senator Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan, to end a tax deduction for the expense of moving business overseas fell to a Republican filibuster in the Senate this week.
Still other tax breaks verge on the unpopular, criticized by aides of both parties. Offshore tax havens and other tax shelters cost the government about $150 billion a year, said Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee.
For tax aides in both parties, black liquor falls into the category of the hard to defend.
Mr. Nothern, the spokesman for Mr. Crapo, confirmed the senator’s role in the disappearance of the provision that would have eliminated the loophole, which happened sometime between its approval by the Senate Finance Committee and its arrival on the Senate floor this spring.
But he added that those actions bore no impact on the deficit negotiations that Mr. Crapo helped start. Mr. Nothern said in an e-mail: “Instead of discussing individual loophole closures to save a buck here or there (more than likely so the bucks can be immediately spent elsewhere), the Gang of Six and bipartisan partners remain talking about a much larger agreement — a simultaneous effort to agree on spending caps, tax reforms (including loophole adjustments and lowering of tax rates), plus reforms to Social Security, Medicare and related programs to keep them solvent.”
The company in question did not appear to be a political contributor to Mr. Crapo, but the forestry and forest products industry has given him $216,286 over his career, ranking 13th among industry givers, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Since the 1930s, the timber industry has used an alcoholic sludge produced as a byproduct of wood processing to power its mills and plants. In 2009, black liquor became something else — a tax haven. The timber industry labeled black liquor an alternative fuel under the provision Congress created to encourage ethanol production for cars and trucks. Congress never agreed, but the Internal Revenue Service did, backing the timber industry’s interpretation.
That year, black liquor cost the Treasury more than $4 billion.
[JURIST] The UN Security Council [official website] on Friday extended the UN monitoring mission in Syria for an additional 30 days. The mandate for the UN Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) [official website], deployed as part of the peace plan of UN Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan [official profile], received a unanimous vote for a 30-day extension [Reuters report] in the Security Council. Amnesty International (AI) and three other rights groups had urged the UN to renew the mandate [JURIST report], stating that human rights abuses in the country are on the rise and that the UN must continue to pressure the government to improve humanitarian conditions. The UN Syria mission, approved in April, sent up to 300 unarmed military observers and other humanitarian aid[JURIST report] to supervise the implementation of a peace plan. Most of the monitoring was suspended in June due to increased risk from rising violence.Earlier this month UN Chief Military Observer in Syria Major-General Robert Mood stated that he believed Syrian authorities were committed to implementing the peace agreement [JURIST report] that was reached earlier this month. Mood, who works with the UNSMIS, confirmed that the UN would continue to provide humanitarian support as the violence subsides, even if the UNSMIS mission is not renewed. In June the UNSMIS concluded in a report that Syrian forces “may have been responsible” for the killing of more than 100 civilians [JURIST reports] in Al-Houla in May. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad [BBC backgrounder], however, said earlier that month that the government had nothing to do with the attacks [JURIST report]. In April Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report [JURIST report] stating that Syrian security forces had killed more than 100 civilians and opposition fighters in recent attacks. In March HRW also reported on and linked to videos of Syrian forces rounding up civilians for use as human shields [JURIST report], including women and children, forcing them to walk in front of soldiers and tanks during troop movements and attacks so that opposition fighters would not shoot at them.
Over 100 killed in Iraq blast wave as Al-Qaeda ‘returns with revenge’
Over 100 people have been killed in a wave of blasts in Iraq in the bloodiest day the country has seen this year – READ MORE: http://on.rt.com/j0vgao
The violence mostly targeted security forces and follows a warning from the new Al-Qaeda leader in the country that the terrorist group is returning to its former strongholds there. He also threatened the US. with attacks.
Mark Almond, professor of international relations at Bilkent University in Turkey warns of a grim fate for the region if the invasion of Iraq is repeated in Syria.
Syrian government’s chemical weapons stash raises alarm in Washington
By Julian Pecquet
Reports that the Syrian government is at risk of losing control of its chemical weapons stockpile have set off alarm bells in Washington.
Hawks in Congress who have been pushing the Obama administration to step up its involvement in the Syrian conflict said the revelations about the weapons show the urgent need for an intervention by the United States.
“The longer this lasts,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said on CNN, “the more likelihood that these chemical weapons stockpiles that Bashar Assad has gets in the wrong hands, or maybe even used.”
Others urged caution, arguing the United States should partner with other countries in the region to gain control of the weapons if the regime of President Bashar Assad falls.
“What it means is that there’s a larger concern that maybe will concentrate people’s focus a little more,” said Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), who rejected the idea that time is running out for action in Syria. “I think it increases the vigilance and accelerates the consideration of options.”
The latest frenzy was set off by a Wall Street Journal report that quoted U.S. officials as saying that Assad had moved “parts of its vast arsenal of chemical weapons out of storage facilities.” On Monday, Syria’s former ambassador to Iraq, who defected last week, added to the tension by telling the BBC that Assad “will not hesitate to use chemical weapons” if he’s cornered.
Kerry said such accusations should be taken with a grain of salt.
“Everybody says everybody’s going to do something over there,” Kerry told The Hill following a speech at the annual conference of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition. “I think we have to make our own judgments. I think we have to look at it very carefully. The good thing is we have the capabilities to watch very closely what’s going on.
“Nobody knows what the rationale may be for moving anything yet. There are a number of possibilities — some bad, some good,” he said, referring to the possibility that Assad intends to use them or simply wants to keep them from falling into the hands of potential terrorists. “You’ve got to figure them out.”
The White House put Syrian officials on notice that they would be held responsible for safeguarding the weapons.
“There are certain responsibilities that go along with the handling and storage and security of those chemical weapons,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. “We believe that the individuals who are responsible for living up to those challenges should do so and will be held accountable for doing so.”
Syria is believed to have a stockpile of nerve agents such as mustard gas and even more dangerous nerve agents like Sarin in at least 50 chemical weapon production and storage facilities around the country, according to the Heritage Foundation. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said the challenge of securing weapons in Syria is perhaps “100 times worse” than in Libya, where thousands of surface-to-air missiles are still unaccounted for following the rebellion there.
Experts have differing views about what to do about the stockpiles.
Some advocates of intervention say the United States should up its involvement in order to strengthen its hand with the rebels if Assad’s regime falls.
“Without greater U.S. involvement now, our ability to shape the post-Assad country will be severely limited and the odds of sheer chaos or an extremist takeover go up,” the conservative writer Max Boot wrote for Commentary magazine on Thursday.
“This has the makings of a very dangerous situation, especially because the Assad regime has chemical weapons which could conceivably fall into the wrong hands.”
But Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs panel on nonproliferation, said the United States has already done plenty.
“We’ve done a lot that’s on the record, we’ve done a lot that’s off the record,” Sherman told The Hill this week after a subcommittee hearing on securing Syria’s chemical weapons. “We’ve done plenty for the Syrian rebels, and commitments about what happens to chemical weapons that fall into their hands … are very important and a very small thing to ask, given what we’ve done, which is more than you can determine by reading the newspaper.”
Others have suggested bombing the chemical weapons storage areas.
The Israelis are considering such a move, but have been warned against it by the Obama administration, according to a report in The New York Times.
International community remains silent on ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, Egypt’s striking workers to occupy Mahalla factory until their demands are met, Protestors defy government ban on rallies with 25 marches across Bahrain, and more.
Today’s headlines in full:
International community remains silent on ethnic cleansing in Myanmar
Al Jazeera, Qatar
Egypt’s striking workers to occupy Mahalla factory until their demands are met
BBC Arabic, UK
Protestors defy government ban on rallies with 25 marches across Bahrain
Al-Alam, Iran
Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province holds candlelight vigil for protests’ martyrs
Al-Alam, Iran
Israel points finger at Hezbollah for Bulgarian bus bombing
New TV, Lebanon
Syrians hold funeral for killed officials as clashes continue in Damascus
New TV, Lebanon
Experts doubt Hezbollah orchestrated Israeli bus bombing
Press TV, Iran
Saudi intelligence chief sacked for poor performance
Press TV, Iran
Yemenis in Sa’ada call for expulsion of US ambassador, condemn US drone attacks
Press TV, Iran
Image: A Rohingya man from Myanmar cries after being arrested by Border Guards of Bangladesh (BGB) while trying to get into Bangladesh, in Teknaf June 18, 2012: REUTERS/Andrew Biraj
Mosaic is a Peabody Award-winning daily compilation of television news reports from the Middle East, including Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, Syria, the Palestinian Authority, Iraq and Iran. Watch more Mosaic at http://www.linktv.org/mosaic
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes 'FAIR USE' of any such copyrighted material.]
Crews on Saturday battled a fast-moving wildfire in northern Colorado that has scorched about 8,000 acres and prompted several dozen evacuation orders. Larimer County Sheriff’s Office spokesman John Schulz said the fire was reported just before 6 a.m. Saturday in the mountainous Paradise Park area about 25 miles northwest of Fort Collins. The blaze expanded rapidly during the late afternoon and evening and by Saturday night, residents living along several roads in the region had been ordered to evacuate and many more were warned that they might have to flee. An evacuation center has been set up at a Laporte middle school. Officials didn’t specify how many residents had evacuated but said they had sent out 800 emergency notifications alerting people to the fire and the possibility that might have to flee. “Right now we’re just trying to get these evacuations done and get people safe,” Schulz told Denver-based KMGH-TV, adding that “given the extreme heat in the area, it makes it a difficult time for (the firefighters).” Temperatures near Fort Collins reached the mid-80s Saturday afternoon with a humidity level of between 5 percent and 10 percent. Ten structures have been damaged, although authorities were unsure if they were homes or some other kind of buildings. No injuries have been reported. The cause of the fire was unknown. Aerial footage from KMGH-TV showed flames coming dangerously close to what appeared to be several outbuildings and at least one home in the area, as well as consuming trees and sending a large plume of smoke into the air. Two heavy air tankers, five single-engine air tankers and four helicopters were on the scene to help fight the blaze, which appeared to be burning on private and U.S. Forest Service land and was being fueled by sustained winds of between 20 and 25 mph. “It was just good conditions to grow,” National Weather Service meteorologist Chad Gimmestad told The Associated Press. “The conditions today were really favorable for it to take off.”
Impact from volcanically active region could last for years, researchers say
OurAmazingPlanet
A large eruption in the volcanically active region of Central America could release enough ozone-depleting gases to significantly thin the ozone layer for several years, researchers announced Tuesday.
Such a volcanic eruption could double or triple the current levels of the chemical elements bromine and chlorine in the stratosphere, the upper atmosphere layer where ozone gas protects us from ultraviolet radiation, the researchers calculated, based on the levels of these chemicals released from 14 volcanoes in Nicaragua over the past 70,000 years. The researchers presented their work at a scientific conference in Iceland.
Bromine and chlorine need an electron to become stable, and can easily rip it off passing molecules, like ozone. They are gases that “love to react — especially with ozone,” study researcher Kirstin Krüger, a meteorologist with GEOMAR in Kiel, Germany, explained in a statement. “If they reach the upper levels of the atmosphere, they have a high potential of depleting the ozone layer.”
To estimate the past release of these chemicals by volcanoes, the researchers measured levels of halogens (the group of highly reactive elements that bromine and chlorine belong to) in rock layers deposited before and after historic eruptions. The average eruption released two to three times the quantity of human-produced bromine and chlorine currently in the stratosphere, they found.
“As we have bromine and chlorine together, we believe that this can lead to substantial depletion,” Krüger said. “And this is from one single eruption.”
Previous studies have estimated that in large, explosive eruptions — the type that sends mushroom clouds of ash miles high — up to 25 percent of the ejected halogens can reach the stratosphere.
Because the effects are in the stratosphere, where the volcanic gases can be carried across the globe, eruptions of tropical volcanoes could lead to ozone depletion over a large area, even having an impact over Antarctica and the Arctic, where seasonal “holes” in the ozone layer already exist.
Some volcanic gases can last in the stratosphere up to six years, Krüger said, although the most significant impacts from eruptions like the intense eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 were within the first two years. Pinatubo’s eruption reduced global temperatures by about 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit (0.5 degrees Celsius) during the following year.
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
LOS ANGELES/OXNARD CA
EUREKA CA
MEDFORD, OR
POINT CONCEPTION TO GUADALUPE ISLAND
POINT ST GEORGE TO POINT ARENA
POINT ARENA TO POINT CONCEPTION
BALTIMORE CANYON TO HATTERAS CANYON OUT TO 36N 70W TO 34N 71W
BALTIMORE CANYON TO HAGUE LINE S OF 1000 FM
ANCHORAGE ALASKA
STRONG winds battered South-West coastal communities of Western Australia as a dangerous storm front approached overnight.
The intense storm packing dangerous winds of up to 125km/h – consistent with a category two cyclone – is expected to persist into the early hours of thismorning.
Last night Cape Naturaliste and Cape Leeuwin have already recorded gusts of up to 96km/h, while winds at Busselton Airport have touched 87km/h.
Closer to the metropolitan area, Rottnest Island was also being buffeted with persistent gusts above 80km/h.
FESA warns people to take shelter
FESA warned people living in parts of WA, south of a line from Geraldton to Laverton to Forrest, to take action with the start of the dangerous weather.
“This intense storm will be of similar strength to the system that affected the southwest on Sunday,” FESA said in a statement late yesterday.
If they have not already done so, FESA advises that people should stay away from windows and ensure pets and animals are in a safe area.
Motorists planning travel in or to the South-West region should review unnecessary travel plans.
Nine News reports that there has been a scramble for supplies in southern suburbs, with shelves left empty.
The highest winds recorded during Sunday’s storm was 146km/h, one of the highest recorded gusts in the South West.
But much of the South West was buffeted by destructive gales up to 125km/h.
As the clean-up continued from Sunday’s storms, Nine News reports that FESA has called in the defence department, with 100 naval personnel assisting in the Mandurah and Rockingham areas.
Another 25 people from South Australia’s SES flew in yesterday, while other states have more crews on standby.
Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Neil Bennett said the winds would be particularly strong on the south coast, but would affect the entire southern half of the state.
“It is going to be really nasty down there,” Mr Bennett said.
“Everywhere is going to be hit, but the worst of it is going to be that south coastal area.”
Mr Bennett said destructive winds could last until about 2am (WST).
“Overnight we can expect those 125km/h winds and as we’ve seen this week, that sort of wind is strong enough to start taking the roofs off houses.”
Mr Bennett said the storm, a typical strong winter cold front will contain thunderstorms which will bring wind gusts equally as destructive as Sunday’s winds.
The stark warning of another storm came as Western Power workers last night struggled to reconnect about 40,000 customers who were still without power after Sunday’s massive system left the electricity system in chaos.
At 3pm yesterday, about 14,000 homes were still without power.
Schools close early to beat storm
Schools affected by the recent severe weather, and the further storms expected overnight, will be closed today.
Department of Education Director General Sharyn O’Neill said schools would not open today if they had experienced storm damage or were without power or water.
About 45 schools in Perth, the South West and Wheatbelt stayed closed yesterday due to damage or disruption from the weekend storms, while some South West schools closed at 1pm in anticipation of the severe weather expected.
At 5am yesterday Western Power reported that 18,300 customers remained without power after more than 20,000 were restored since 10pm on Sunday.
Areas still without power included 1082 properties in the Perth suburb of Kewdale and parts of the towns of Boddington, Pinjarra and Donnybrook.
Despite working in wet and windy conditions, Western Power crews have successfully reconnected more than 150,000 storm-hit customers in the past 36 hours.
“However, bad weather continues to make work difficult for our crews and more storms are expected to continue this week through the South-West, which may result in more power outages,” a spokeswoman said.
Widespread damage has been recorded across the state, including roofs being blown off buildings, trees uprooted and roads flooded, particularly those near the Swan River in Perth.
In what could result in a horror week for emergency services personnel, significant damage and destruction to homes and property is again predicted.
Households southwest of a line from Geraldton to Southern Cross to Israelite Bay have been told to batten down, with high winds, dangerous surf and torrential rain forecast.
“Winds associated with this storm are much stronger than a usual winter storm and are likely to be of similar strength to the winds experienced on Sunday,” FESA said.
Bureau of Meteorology spokesman Grahame Reader said it was rare – a once in 10 years event – for Perth to be hit by three major storms in just a few days.
Mr Reader said the initial impact would be in the southwest corner of the state, moving up to Perth during the evening, then peaking at around midnight.
Yesterday Emergency Services Minister Troy Buswell said the storm was unprecedented both in terms of severity and the size of the affected area.
Mr Buswell said at least 10 hospitals lost power during the storm and were forced to use generators.
Several schools had to suspend classes because of damaged roofs and lack of power.
Mr Buswell said 52 traffic lights were not operating but major intersections were either being manned by police or powered by generators.
“This week shapes to be a difficult week for our state and particular for the South-West in terms of dealing with storms,” Mr Buswell said.
Mr Buswell said damage from the storms could be exacerbated by remaining debris that emergency services workers were battling to clear.
He said it remained to be seen whether today’s weather would lead to a natural disaster being declared.
At around 11am today, a tornado hit Venice in Italy. Initial reports indicate that trees were damaged, market stalls overturned and some buildings were damaged. No injuries have been reported,
One of the worst hit areas was the Sant’Elena island where an open air market was in progress. The tornado caused terrified shoppers to dash for cover.
A water bus ticket office had its roof ripped off by the tornado which some reports stated was a waterspout. A number of boats were capsized.
Around one hundred trees on Certosa Island were knocked down by the tornado and the outdoor dining area of the island’s restaurant was completely destroyed.
On Sant’Erasmo island, the roofs were removed from around a dozen houses, according to reports from emergency services in the area. In the interests of safety, the cemetery on Sant’Erasmo island has been closed.
Here are two videos of today’s tornado:
This is one of the trees which fell victim to today’s tornado:
A Tree Brought Down by Today’s Tornado in Venice
Venice is no stranger to such events, the most damaging of which occurred in 1970. Another tornado blew through Venice in 2008.
Torrential downpours and turbulent weather wreaked havoc across the city yet again with power cuts, flooding and traffic chaos. And forecasters at the Met Office have said it is not due to improve any time soon with more “wet weather” expected throughout the week. Roads across the city became water logged yesterday afternoon as the heavens opened and the downpour began. Drivers faced problems with surface water on the A38, The Parkway, Marsh Mills roundabout, Embankment Road, Woodford Avenue in Plympton, Plymouth Road and Outland Road to name just a few. A number of businesses in the city also took a lashing from the rain, with firefighters attending floods at Plymouth Homes estate agents, Crownhill, and Broadway Fruit and Veg in Plymstock. Sarah Holland, a forecaster at the Met Office, said: “There is more heavy rain to come – it’s not going to be very pleasant in Plymouth over the next couple of days and people need to be aware of the hazardous driving conditions.” The Met Office also said to expect between 10 and 15mm of rain an hour while the showers persist.Flood alerts have been placed on the River Plym and Tory Brook in Plympton as a precaution, but a spokesperson for the Environment Agency said there was “nothing to worry about”. Businessman Chris Russell, who was commuting between the city centre and Plympton yesterday, said: “The Woodford Avenue area was horrendous with flooding. There were even cars getting stuck in the water. There must have been at least two feet of water across the road. I’ve never seen flooding that bad in 30 years of living in Plymouth.” Meanwhile, Western Power Distribution were faced with hundreds of angry football fans as a lightning bolt hit an electricity pole in the area causing 462 customers to lose power in St Mellion and St Dominick. Lindsay Hewison, landlady of the Coryton Arms in St Mellion, said: “The electricity cut out at about 4.50pm, just before kick-off of the UEFA Euro 2012 England vs France game. We lost a lot of trade, probably about 40 customers, due to the power cut and the freaky weather.” St Mellion Golf Club, which had organised a special hog roast to accompany the screening of the live football match, also suffered the same fate. Bus services were also affected by the treacherous weather and emergency services were called to a couple of minor car collisions.
Today
Flood
Philippines
MultiProvinces, [Sarangani, North Cotabato, Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat provinces]
Flood in Philippines on Wednesday, 13 June, 2012 at 02:47 (02:47 AM) UTC.
Description
Two days of rain has flooded several villages and towns in southern Philippines and forced nearly 700 people to flee their homes on Tuesday. Benito Ramos, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council head, said parts of Sarangani, North Cotabato, Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat provinces were flooded after two days of pounding rain set off by a brewing tropical storm. Two men died while a total of 250 houses were destroyed when a flashflood hit two villages in Glan town, Sarangani province Tuesday. The flashflood struck the villages of Big Margus Proper and Pangyan Cross. The Armed Forces of the Philippines reported 50 families were also displaced by flashfloods. Sarangani Governor Miguel Rene Dominguez identified the victims as Sagapo Cabigding and Rolando Mata. A certain Rani Pregoner is also reported missing. Nineteen fishermen were also rescued by the authorities from the big waves that battered the area for several hours. The governor said that based on the report coming from Ben Solarte of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office, about 139 houses were totally damaged while 111 houses were partially destroyed by the floodwaters.A flashflood also struck four villages in Kalamansig, Sultan Kudarat on Monday. It started around 9 p.m. and affected barangays Obial, Sta. Clara, Hinalaan, and Himulan. A total of 2,460 families were affected by the flooding, while 23 families were forcibly evacuated by the authorities. In Malaybalay, Bukidnon, a flashflood also struck barangays Cabangahan, Bangkud, Aglayan, and Linabo at 4:45 p.m. after Bugkaon River overflowed due to continuous heavy rains brought about by the shallow low pressure area. Some 44 families whose houses are situated near a riverbank in this city evacuated to higher grounds when floodwaters reached as high as 15 feet at around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, residents said. Nurkaya Patadon, 42, one of the flood victims in this city, said many of their appliances and valuables were swept out to the Nuangan River, one of the longest rivers in North Cotabato. Patadon’s family, including 43 other families, decided to leave their homes for fear the waters might rise again due to torrential rains. Heavy rains started to pour at around 9:30 p.m. on Monday and continued until Tuesday afternoon, said Psalmer Bernalte, head of the Kidapawan City Emergency Response Unit (KidCeru), one of the groups that conducted rescue operations. Kasan Maruhom, one of the displaced residents, said that Tuesday’s flashfloods was the worst since 2000.”We never thought the floodwaters could rise as high as 15 feet. What happened was the worst. I’ve lived in this area for more than 30 years,” Maruhom said. Maruhom said he would transfer his family to Mundog Subdivision in Poblacion. Others, however, have problems finding areas for their relocation. “We don’t know where to go. We have no place to stay other than the riverbank. Our workplace is here in the Poblacion,” said Salik Quila, also one of the flood victims. Bernalte said the waters of Nuangan River, already considered a dead river in Kidapawan City, became turbulent as heavy rains continue to fall across North Cotabato due to low pressure area, which brought widespread rain showers and thunderstorms. Mayor Rodolfo Gantuangco has already ordered the immediate evacuation of the families living near the riverbanks, including Lapu-Lapu Street, Cotelco Village, and Licatan Subdivision, all in Poblacion here. “We’ve already given them orders in the past to leave the place, yet, they won’t listen,” Gantuangco said. Gantuangco said a relocation site in Barangay Balindog, about five kilometers away from the Poblacion, is set for the victims. He said they will declare this city under state of calamity so they can use a portion of their funds to help the flood victims. He added that he already ordered the City Social Welfare and Development Office and the City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council to assess and evaluate the situation and immediately conduct relief operations on Wednesday.
Downpours hit Alto Lario, in the area of the Lake of Como. During the last few hours a mudslide fell towards a group of houses in Porlezza, (Como) and the Local Police immediately evacuated two buildings for precautionary reasons. Six people were evacuated. The mudslide hit the Cima hamlet and the two houses are in Via San Giorgio. One was only just brushed by the river of mud and debris, the other had the whole ground floor flooded. The family was sleeping on the first floor.
Crook County health officials believe a man being treated at a Bend hospital probably has bubonic plague. The man in his 50s had contact with a sick stray cat. The disease can spread through contact with a sick animal or a bite from an infected flea. A family member told KTVZ ( ) the man is in critical condition at St. Charles Medical Center-Bend. Karen Yeargain of the Crook County Health Department says plague is treatable with antibiotics if caught early. She says people should use a flea treatment on pets to prevent them from bringing fleas into your home. Plague is rare in Oregon. Only three human cases have been diagnosed statewide since 1995.
Biohazard name:
Bubonic Plague
Biohazard level:
4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:
Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
It appears that questions regarding the strange “explosions” which occurred all over the state of Michigan days ago are only continuing to grow.
With a puzzling lack of interest even from the local media, complete silence by law enforcement/military outlets, and activist investigators being arrested for attempting to obtain a statement at a U.S. military base, one would clearly be justified in wondering if there is not a cover up in the works.
For those unfamiliar with the story, throughout June 6-7 Michigan residents from all corners of the state began to report hearing loud “explosions” that actually rocked the ground hard enough to shake their houses.
Although some reports have focused on the “explosions” occurring in the Northern Indiana/Southern Michigan area, other reports have revealed that these “explosions” have also been heard and felt near Saginaw (Central Eastern Michigan) and on up to Northern Michigan.
“Explosions” are the only way to explain these types of sounds, because no one is claiming that ground movement was the result of an earthquake or anything else commonly seen. Indeed, after speaking with Bob Powell of The Truth Is Viral, it has been described as similar to the firing of artillery both in terms of sound and impact.
Whatever the cause, the fact is that the explosions must have been massive in scale – enough to trigger reports of them for at least 100 square miles – yet, at the same time, so small as to not cause serious enough damage as to be readily apparent.
There are, however, numerous reports of an area where 60-foot trees are now inexplicably missing their tops, and many that were simply snapped in half. This apparently occurred around the same time as the mysterious “explosions.” There is no evidence as to what might have caused this damage as of yet. Indeed, Bob Powell described this area as being “out in the middle of nowhere.”
And then there is the matter of radiation spikes in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana region. This was reported by two privately owned radiation measurement facilities, BlackCatSystems and Radiation Network, as well as some individual radiation monitors, which communicated an alarming increase in the level of radiation in the area around the same time the mysterious “explosions” were felt and heard.
Although normal radiation levels in this region usually stay at or around 5-6 CPM (Counts Per Minute), on the evening of June 6, radiation levels skyrocketed to 7,139 CPM. This figure was reported by both of the private radiation measurement facilities. It should be noted that both of these facilities are separately operated.
According to Anthony Gucciardi of Natural Society, these figures were confirmed by the EPA’s own radiation level readings. However, the actual EPA levels were quickly hidden from the viewing of the general public, and the EPA online measuring tool was disabled. Subsequently, Radiation Network and BlackCat announced that they had experienced “technical difficulties” and “errors in the system” resulting in a change in the readings posted online.
Of course, the possibilities for false readings always exist, but the fact that both of these systems “malfunctioned” at the same time and produced the same reading seems a bit more far-fetched. If Gucciardi’s claims are true, then it would be just as likely that the spikes in radiation were real but were edited once attention was drawn to them.
In addition, Gucciardi also writes that startling increases in radiation levels have been recorded by private individuals as far away as Colorado.
With all of these very strange “coincidences,” one obviously wonders what could have caused such loud “explosions” with such a level of impact.
Furthermore, one must wonder what could have caused the tree damage which was reported, as well as the increased levels of radiation.
For instance, Bob Powell states that there are no fracking projects being conducted for at least 150 miles. If this is true, then the likelihood of fracking as the source of the “explosions” is minimal. Likewise, Powell says that he contacted NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency) and was told there was no seismographic evidence of any earthquake or even any explosion in the region.
Powell also stated that he was reassured by the relevant authorities that sinkholes, another hypothesis put forward by puzzled onlookers, could not have produced the “boom” that was heard by so many.
All of these questions seem like a local journalist’s dream. However, at least at this point, the local media has refused to investigate the cause of the “explosions” even in the face of so many Michigan witnesses.
One could argue that there is a similarity between the Michigan “explosions” and the Wisconsin groaning noises which were heard by small town residents on what was, at one time, a regular basis. Although the citizens largely knew that the “official” explanations for the noises was rubbish, the local media quickly accepted whatever claims were put out to the general public and ceased coverage.
But at least they did cover it at the beginning. That’s much more than can be said about the Michigan media. Thus, it has once again fallen on local activists and the alternative media to uncover the events surrounding these bizarre occurrences.
Of course, this is exactly what local activists and independent media have tried to do. Indeed, they might be more successful at doing so if they were not being handcuffed and interrogated for simply trying to obtain an official PR statement from the Alpena Regional Combat Training Center, which is exactly what happened to Bob Powell.
Powell claims that when he attempted to enter the military base, as he has done on numerous occasions before when attached to CBS, he was instructed to park in the designated area. When he returned to the guard shack, he was met by security where he was arrested. Bob Powell states:
I went up to the guard shack and I was handcuffed and put down on my knees, legs crossed, you know, the whole nine yards. . . . . . And all of a sudden here comes a bunch of Air Force security guys with M-4s and I said ‘So are you gonna put a bullet in the back of my head now?’ But surprisingly, the answer was ‘No.’ But it turns out that I’m on a list. And I can only assume it’s because of the work that I’ve been doing so far. And I’m no longer allowed on military reservations. And, apparently, I can’t even film outside of a military installation. . . . . I was, I wouldn’t say interrogated, but I was talked to about what I was doing there and what my purpose was and all that. I was held in custody for about two hours. And the Air Force didn’t do anything. They released me to the Sheriff’s Department.
Powell states that he was then charged with Driving Under Suspension, as his license was suspended in South Carolina, his home state, for not having insurance. You can see Powell’s video regarding his arrest below.
Reporter Detained/Arrested Investigating Mysterious Explosion That Rocked N.E. Mi On 6-6-12 (1 of 2)
Reporter Detained/Arrested Investigating Mysterious Explosion That (2 of2)
In an interview with Powell, he also claims that the entire law enforcement community has remained silent regarding the “explosions” in the area.
Thus, while the initial question was centered around the nature of the booming noise, it appears that a much bigger question has arisen. That is, why are the authorities and the media apparently ignoring these “explosions?” Even more so, why are they covering it up? Why such systemic silence?
Though some may be tempted to legitimize the “no comment” position maintained by the media and the government, it is almost impossible to believe that these agencies and outlets have no interest in what is obviously a big deal to many of the people who have personally heard the “explosions.”
In fact, the longer this whole thing continues, the more it seems that a cover up is very much in the works.
Particularly interesting are the photos posted by Anthony Gucciardi regarding what many of his readers are claiming to be military vehicles heading for the center of the “explosions.” Gucciardi writes:
Eyewitnesses on the ground near the media-blacked-out elevated radiation zone near the border of Indiana and Michigan, . . . . . are now sending in a large number of photos and videos documenting massive explosions accompanied by unmarked helicopters, A-10 Thunderbolts, and military personnel. These reports come after a Department of Homeland Security hazmat fleet was sent out to the location after ‘years’ of inactivity.
Of course, it should be noted that there are military bases located nearby to at least some of the areas that have experienced these “explosions.” This should be taken into consideration when one mentions troop or military vehicle movements. In addition, it should be mentioned that the claims regarding the DHS hazmat fleet are somewhat suspect and have yet, to my knowledge at least, been proven or corroborated.
Nevertheless, in the midst of this mystery, one thing is for certain – something is happening in Michigan. The only question is what it is and why it is being covered up. At the very least, why the silence?
As Bob Powell concluded:
If you’re looking for information in the local media, good luck. Because they’re not saying a word.
MessageToEagle.com – Astronomers are keeping their eyes on a bright spark in Messier 99.
The nature of the object remains unknown and for the time being scientists have classified it as an unexplained phenomenon.
What makes astronomy so interesting is the fact that we often discover new unidentified objects in the Universe.
In recent years, a number of unexplained phenomena in Messier 99 have been studied by astronomers.
Among these is the nature of one of the brighter stars visible in this image. Cataloged as PTF 10fqs, and visible as a yellow-orange star in the top-left corner of this image, it was first spotted by the Palomar Transient Facility, which scans the skies for sudden changes in brightness (or transient phenomena, to use astronomers’ jargon). These can be caused by different kinds of event, including variable stars and supernova explosions.
This image, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows a detailed view of the spiral arms on one side of the galaxy Messier 99.Messier 99 is a so-called grand design spiral, with long, large and clearly defined spiral arms – giving it a structure somewhat similar to the Milky Way.Lying around 50 million light-years away, Messier 99 is one of over a thousand galaxies that make up the Virgo Cluster, the closest cluster of galaxies to us.Messier 99 itself is relatively bright and large, meaning it was one of the first galaxies to be discovered, way back in the 18th century.
This earned it a place in Charles Messier’s famous catalog of astronomical objects.
What is unusual about PTF 10fqs is that it has so far defied classification: it is brighter than a nova (a bright eruption on a star’s surface), but fainter than a supernova (the explosion that marks the end of life for a large star).
Scientists have offered a number of possible explanations, including the intriguing suggestion that it could have been caused by a giant planet plunging into its parent star.
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA. Acknowledgement: Matej Novak
So, once again we are confronted with an astronomical mystery that will hopefully be solved one day in the near future. MessageToEagle.com
View GalleryA woman wears a mask as she walks along a street in front of a Chinese temple during a hazy day in Wuhan, Hubei province June 11, 2012. China’s carbon emissions could be nearly 20 percent higher than previously …more
Young and old residents of the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan were advised to stay indoors on Monday after a thick haze blanketed the city of nine million people, official media said.
Described by residents as opaque with yellowish and greenish tinges, the fug descended suddenly in the morning, prompting people to rush to put on face masks, witnesses told AFP.
The official Xinhua news agency quoted the environmental protection department of Hubei province saying in a statement: “Children, the elderly and people with heart or respiratory diseases are advised to stay indoors.”
Xinhua said straw burning was the cause and denied there had been any industrial accidents in or near Wuhan, after Internet rumours suggested there had been an explosion at a chemical complex northeast of the city.
“I looked out of the window of my office and I could not believe my eyes,” said resident Li Yunzhong.
“At first I thought it was going to rain. In 31 years in Wuhan I have never known anything like it. We are very worried because we do not know what it is.”
France’s consulate-general in the central city advised residents to stay at home, close their windows and limit the use of air-conditioning.
“The source of the thick cloud that has covered the city of Wuhan since this morning is at present unknown,” it said on its website.
“Local authorities have promised us the information as soon as possible.”
Xinhua described the haze as grey-yellow in colour and said it was seen in seven cities in Hubei province, including Wuhan.
Air pollution is increasingly acute in major Chinese cities and authorities are frequently accused of underestimating the severity of the problem in urban areas, especially in Beijing.
Air-quality monitoring showed Wuhan’s PM10 particulate concentration stood at 0.574 mg per cubic metre at 2:00 pm, more than triple the daily average of 0.150 mg, Xinhua reported.
But it quoted the environmental protection department saying industrial accidents were not responsible and analysis showed an increase in carbon particles from burning organic matter.
“Many farmers choose to burn crops that are left behind in their fields after harvesting,” Xinhua said.
But Li was sceptical. “I doubt that,” he said. “We don’t practise large-scale shifting agriculture in our region.”
Another resident told AFP she was leaving the city because of the cloud.
Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province and an industrial centre where many foreign firms have set up factories, including the French automotive group PSA Peugeot Citroën.
Alstom also manufactures boilers for coal-fired power plants there.
China’s environment suffers from industrial pollution, increasing traffic and lax protection measures.
Official air-quality statistics are sometimes at odds with non-government measurements, and are often viewed with distrust.
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MessageToEagle.com – Beautiful and mysterious structures known as superbubbles result from the stellar winds and supernovae of OB [spectral types O or early-type B] associations.
MessageToEagle.com – Cassini spacecraft has taken great photos of Saturn and its largest moon, Titan.
A state of emergency has been declared in the Dera Ghazi Khan district
The March 2011 earthquake and tsunami contributed to pushing life expectancy figures down
MessageToEagle.com – Astronomers are keeping their eyes on a bright spark in Messier 99.
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