Moderate quake shakes Chile

WASHINGTON: A moderate earthquake measuring 5.9 shook central Chile late Friday, US researchers reported.
  
The epicenter of the tremor, which occurred at 11:58 pm local time (0258 GMT Saturday), was located 52 kilometers (32 miles) south southwest of the city of Concepcion, according to the US Geological Survey.
  
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
  
The reading was based on the open-ended Moment Magnitude scale used by US seismologists, which measures the area of the fault that ruptured and the total energy released. AGENCIES

20 killed as 6.9 quake rocks India, Nepal

A strong 6.9-magnitude earthquake hit northeast India on Sunday, killing at least 20 people, including three caught in a wall collapse at the British Embassy in neighbouring Nepal.

The US Geological Survey said the quake struck the small, landlocked Himalayan state of Sikkim — which borders Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet — at around 6:10pm.

The epicentre was just over 60 kilometres (40 miles) northwest of the Sikkim state capital Gangtok, which was plunged into darkness by a power cut after the quake.

“There is no electricity. Everybody is out on the road,” Gangtok resident C.K. Dahal told the CNN-IBN television news channel. “We all ran out our houses, some even jumped out of their windows. You can see some buildings that have developed cracks,” Dahal added.

Powerful tremors were felt across a wide region, including Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and the Indian cities of Guwahati and Kolkata, and even as far away as the Indian capital New Delhi.

In Nepal, police said three people were killed, including a motorcyclist and his eight-year-old daughter, when a wall collapsed at the British Embassy compound in the capital Kathmandu, 270 kilometres west of the epicentre.

“Another two died in a separate incident in eastern Nepal,” national police spokesman Binod Singh said. A budget debate in Nepal s parliament was stalled for 15 minutes while lawmakers leapt to their feet and fled the chamber as the entire building shook.

Telephone landlines to Sikkim, India s least populous state, were knocked out and mobile networks were swamped, making communication with the affected area difficult.

The quake was followed by two strong aftershocks, one with a magnitude of 6.1. Sikkim Chief Secretary Karma Gyatso told AFP that five people had been killed and 60 injured in and around Gangtok as the result of mudslides, building collapses and falling debris.

“We have reports of dozens of collapsed houses, and roads to many towns have ben blocked by landslides,” Gyatso said.

Another person was reported killed in a stampede by panicked residents in a town in the eastern state of Bihar. Manish Sharma, a doctor attending a conference in Gangtok, told the NDTV news channel that guests in his hotel had all run for the doors as soon as the first tremors were felt.

“I am standing in front of the legislative assembly and I can see one of the outer buildings… the upper side is in two parts,” Sharma said. “I can see light coming out of that particular portion. It has not collapsed but it is in two parts. One part has moved aside,” he said. “The police are trying to calm people down.”

In New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called an emergency meeting of the National Disaster Management Authority, and Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth said that air force planes carrying rescue teams and relief supplies had been despatched to Sikkim.

Strong tremors were felt in Guwahati, the main city in Assam state, some 600 kilometres away, sending panicked residents running into the streets. “Our apartment block was literally swaying,” said housewife Anamika Das.

In Kathmandu, traffic came to a standstill as hotels and bars were evacuated. Hundreds of anxious tourists and residents waited for news in car parks and on the streets as the seasonal monsoon rain lashed down.

In Bhutan, buildings in the capital Thimphu were also rocked. “Our wooden house is safe. Jars fell in kitchen, books fell from shelf,” Thimphu resident Aby Tharakan, a media consultant, said in a message posted on the microblogging website Twitter.

India s seven northeastern states, joined to the rest of the country by a narrow sliver of land, are located in an area of frequent seismic activity.

Japan nuclear crisis far from over, UN agency warns

TOKYO: Japanese engineers struggled on Sunday to pump radioactive water from a crippled nuclear power station while the United Nations’ chief nuclear inspector said the crisis triggered by this month’s earthquake and tsunami was far from over.

6.3-Magnitude Earthquake hits Pakistan

Breaking News

trendpk: A major earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 hit various parts of country including Islamabad, Peshawar and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Two children were injured when panic prevailed in Mansehra.

According to Met Office, the earthquake jolted Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Peshawar, Kphat, Swat, Mardan, Malakand, Mansehra, Rawlakot, Jhehlum and Haripur at 7.45am. The epicenter of the earthquake is said to be in Tajikistan.

Earlier, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake jolted southwestern Pakistan on January 18 but caused minimal damage.

7.4 Magnitude Earthquake Jolts Various Cities of Pakistan

Breaking News
Massive Earthquake Hits Pakistan: An earthquake of 7.4 magnitudes hit the country on Wednesday at 1:28am. The shocks of earthquake were also felt in India, Afghanistan and UAE.

The jolts were felt in Islamabad, Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Nowshera, Gilgit, Sawat, Muzzafarabad, Naseer Abad, Peshawar and other areas of the country. The earthquake lasted for around 1second to 60 seconds in different parts of the country.

According to the US Geological Survey, the intensity of the quake was 7.3 and its epicenter was around 50 kilometres west of the town of Dalbandin, close to the border with Afghanistan.

According to Chief Meteorologist Muhammad Riaz after shocks can be felt in coming days.

Two women died one in Quetta hospital from a heart attack following the quake but no major damage to property has been reported. People, harassed by the sudden shocks of earth quake, came out of their houses and started to recite verses of Holy Quran. The country witnessed one of the worlds worst earthquakes back in 2005 and people still cannot get out of the horrors of that quake.

Strong earthquake jolts country

KARACHI: Various parts of country including Karachi and Quetta were jolted by earthquake of mammoth 7.4 magnitude on Richter Scale after midnight towards Wednesday morning.

According to Pakistan Meteorological Department, the epicenter of the quake was found to be in Balochistan area of Kharan.

According to US Geological survey, the magnitude of the earthquake was 7.4 on Richter Scale, saying the epicenter is 55 kilometers west of Dalbadin in Balochistan.

The areas which felt severe jolts included Karachi, Bahawalpur, Thatta, Sukkar, Shikarpur, Badin, Larkana, Mirpur Khas, Khairpur, Noshehro Feroz, Nawabshah, Hyderabad, Quetta, Naseerabad, Kharan, Lahore, Sargodha, and Dera Ghazi Khan.

There are no initial reports of damage or casualties from any part of the country thus far. There are reports regarding tsunami in Indian Ocean

5.2 Magnitude Earthquake jolts Punjab and KPK

News Trends: An earthquake measuring 5.2 has jolted many parts of Punjab and KPK early Friday morning.

The quake struck at 4:17 am (2317 GMT Thursday) with its epicenter 64 kilometres east of Zhob in Baluchistan, at a depth of 19 kilometers, the United States Geological Survey said.

Tremors were felt in Faisalabad, Vehari, Jhang, Dera Ismail Khan as well as tribal areas.

Unsettled by the sudden shocks, people came out of their houses, whereas no reports of any kind of losses have been received.

Up to six more months of Pakistan flood water: EU official

ISLAMABAD: A senior EU aid official warned Friday that flood waters could linger up to another six months in Pakistan, where he said the magnitude of the crisis meant people were still going without aid.

“There is nearly water everywhere,” Peter Zangl, the director general of the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO), told a news conference in Islamabad after a five-day visit to Pakistan.

Unprecedented monsoon rains triggered catastrophic flooding across Pakistan in July and August, ravaging an area roughly the size of England and affecting 21 million people in the poverty-stricken country’s worst natural disaster.

Parts of Sindh province remain under water in southern Pakistan, where people are still camping on roadsides after the floods washed away their homes and swallowed up rice and wheat fields.

“The only

conference realignment

I have only two words to amply describe what this whole cluster [insert expletive that begins with the letter "F"] on conference realignment in college football is doing to me physically: Linda Blair.

Just old enough to appreciate the 1973 classic film The Exorcist , I feel as if this whole saga has consumed me, sadly enough to the point where my head is on the verge of recklessly spinning independent of my body, with only my shoulders to serve as an axis and keep it from flying completely off.

Extreme, I know.

But considering my alma mater (Missouri) has unjustly earned the title of Public Enemy No. 1 in all of this, and somehow still finds itself in the lurch at this point, the natural drama and mood swings that accompany a story of this magnitude and effect are exponentially amplified.

Over the past week or so, rumors, speculation, and “John Doe” sources have dominated. All of a sudden, everyone is associated with someone in the know, and you need only make a trip to your local Carl’s Jr. to get the latest scoop, where the 18-year-old zit-faced fry guy will take time to inform you that “some dude with knowledge” of the Big Ten’s plans says the conference is now considering extending an invitation to Florida International before the SEC does

Tags: amply-describe, before-the-sec, conference, florida, magnitude, now-considering, over-the-past, point, public-enemy, shoulders, Sports, the-conference

PTA directed to block Facebooks caricatures link

May 18, 2010 by Trend PK  
Filed under Pakistan

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The government has directed PTA to close down the related link on Facebook about blasphemous caricatures. According to sources, the government has asked the PTA that Facebook has hurt the emotions of Muslims with the publication of blasphemous caricatures. So, this kind of website cannot be given access in Pakistan. According to sources, PTA has started taking necessary steps in this regard to block the related link on Facebook.

Tags: asked-the-pta, bowling-yorkers, disappointment, emotions, facebook, government, losing-the-semi, magnitude, publication, related, said-on-monday, the-emotions, the-related, wind

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