Huge quake rocks Pakistan overnight

ISLAMABAD: A powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.4 shook southwestern Pakistan early on Wednesday, jolting residents of cities as far apart as Delhi and Dubai, but the epicentre was far from major population centres.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was more than 80 km underground, close to the town of Dalbandin in Baluchistan province, near the Afghan and Iranian frontiers.

Poor communications ensured there were no immediate reports from the vicinity of the quake, but despite the major strength of the shock, the great depth may have limited damage. The USGS had first said that the earthquake was very much shallower.

The USGS said the epicentre was 55 km (34 miles) west of Dalbandin, a town of about 15,000 people, and at a depth of 83km (52 miles).

In Dalbandin, several people were injured when the roofs of their houses collapsed.

Tsunami warning after strong quake off Indonesia

JAKARTA: Earthquake monitoring agencies issued a tsunami warning on Monday after a powerful tremor measuring more than 7 on the Richter scale under the sea off the west coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra island.

The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at 7.5, and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said a local tsunami watch was in effect but a wider tsunami threat was not seen.

Indonesia’s earthquake agency also issued a tsunami warning. It said the quake hit 78 km northwest off South Pagai, one of the Mentawai islands, at a depth of 10 km. The agency measured the quake at 7.2.

There were no immediate reports of any casualties from the earthquake or any subsequent tsunami.

In December 2004, a tsunami caused by an earthquake of more than 9 magnitude off Sumatra killed more than 226,000 people.

It was the deadliest tsunami on record. AGENCIES

Magnitude 5.9 quake hits near Costa Rican capital

SAN JOSE: A moderate 5.9 magnitude earthquake shook Costa Rica’s capital on Friday, startling residents and knocking items off shelves but causing no significant damage.

Some people fled their houses, alarmed by the quake that struck 30 miles (45 km) from San Jose. The tremor occurred at a depth of 60.9 miles (98 km), the U.S. Geological Survey said.

While earthquakes of that magnitude can cause significant destruction, there were no immediate reports of injuries or damaged buildings.

“We have no reports of damages,” Vanessa Rosales, the head of the country’s emergency services organization told Reuters.

Magnitude 6.3 quake hits Indonesia’s Moluccas islands

JAKARTA: A 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia on Friday, 146 miles north east of Ternate in the Moluccas, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The quake was measured at a depth of 90 miles. AGENCIES

Magnitude 7.2 quake hits off Indonesia

WASHINGTON: A magnitude 7.2 quake struck off Indonesia, just one minute after a strong 6.6 tremor hit a few miles north, the U.S. Geological Survey reported on Wednesday.

The USGS said the second quake, which hit at 2:11 a.m. on Thursday (1711 GMT on Wednesday), was only 7.6 miles (12.3 km) deep and centered 68 miles (109 km) northwest of Dobo, in the Aru Islands, very close to the first quake.

It was not immediately known whether the quake caused any damage or casualties.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the quakes did not trigger an ocean-wide tsunami warning but could cause local tsunamis that could be destructive along the coasts located within a few hundred miles (km) of the epicenter.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” and is prone to earthquakes. AGENCIES

Jon Stewart Rally

Stewart Rally However, after the alleged promotion of a kind of milestone for a few weeks, it was announced the night in the Daily Show that he believed that most people are tired of the lunatics on both sides of the ideological divide, which controls the conversation of the national news. Say most of us, if you live or unwilling to act in a manner rude just to get attention in this way is to take a rally to restore the right.

This event will be held on the National Mall at 06:03 10/30/10. Coincidentally, perhaps, Stephen Colbert at the Colbert Report will hold a special event, and called on assembly to maintain the life and fear on the date, time and same place. The aim of this gathering to motivate those who fear nothing, anything in modern America. Seems to be something for everyone.

In other words, three days after the beginning of Stewart. Once again, a little background in case you do not have access to the media anyway. And headed the Democrats who now control a large majority in the House and Senate, about the November election at a polling station, and is expected widely to lose majority in the House of Representatives.

There are several reasons for the poor results of the survey, including the inability to seem to convince the public that all the actions Historically, liberals have taken over the past two years are not part of a plot to steal the value of the Socialist Workers of taxes. Another reason is that I took these studies of potential voters. Is to identify potential voters of the obtuse and complicated methods, which I know little, but important factor is the enthusiasm of voters, voter plans to vote, and voter history.

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Jon Stewart Rally was first posted on September 17, 2010 at 7:28 am.
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More American think Obama is a Muslim

WASHINGTON: Nearly two years after Barack Obama’s election as U.S. president, a growing number of Americans misidentify his faith as Muslim, according to a new poll released Thursday.

Despite Mr. Obama’s attendance in church and his repeated public statements about his Christian faith, nearly one in five respondents on the survey said they believed he is a practitioner of Islam, while only 34% of Americans correctly identified him as a Christian, down sharply from a year earlier.

The poll was conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Meanwhile, the percentage of people who say they are unsure what religion Obama practices has risen to 43%, from 34% a year ago.

The poll found one third of conservative Republicans believe Mr. Obama is a Muslim, a figure that has nearly doubled. But the president’s faith was incorrectly identified by rising

Most Pakistanis see US as an enemy: poll

WASHINGTON: A majority of Pakistanis view the United States as an enemy, oppose the US-led war in Afghanistan and are less concerned about the Taliban and Al-Qaeda than a year ago, a Pew Research poll said Thursday.

Despite billions of dollars in economic and military aid received from Washington, the United States” image in Pakistan was the lowest among the 22 nations included in the 2010 Pew Global Attitudes Survey of 2,000 Pakistanis taken between April 13-28.

Fifty-nine percent of the respondents described the United States an enemy, with 17 percent having a favorable view and only 11 percent considering it a partner, the poll said.

Only eight percent trusted US President Barack Obama to do the right thing in world affairs, the lowest rating of the 22-nation survey, and only 20 percent had a favorable view of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardary, down from 64 percent two years ago.

Most Pakistanis also oppose US involvement in neighboring Afghanistan, with 65 percent saying US and NATO troops should be withdrawn as soon as possible, and relatively few believe the Taliban and Al-Qaeda pose a serious threat to their country.

Only 25 percent thought it would be bad for Pakistan if the Taliban were to again take over Afghanistan, while 18 percent thought it would be a good thing and 57 percent said it did not matter or had no opinion.

The respondents were less concerned about either group getting the upper hand in Pakistan: the Taliban was rated as a serious threat by 54 percent, against 73 percent last year, and Al-Qaeda”s threat perception fell to 38 percent, from 61 percent.

Nevertheless, Pew noted, both groups still had an overall negative image in Pakistan with the Taliban getting a 65 percent unfavorable rating and Al-Qaeda 53 percent.

When asked which was the bigger threat, Taliban, Al-Qaeda or India, 53 percent chose neighboring India over 23 percent for the Taliban and only three percent for Al-Qaeda.

Despite Washington”s poor rating, most Pakistanis (64 percent) believe it is important to improve relations with their powerful ally, up from 53 percent last year, Pew Research said.

And about their own country, 84 percent of the Pakistanis surveyed by Pew were dissatisfied with the state of their nation; only 14 percent were satisfied.

UTV conducts online survey among teenagers as part of marketing plan for Udaan

In a unique way to promote its forthcoming film Udaan, UTV Motion Pictures conducted a large scale online among youngsters in the age group of 12-19 years. The idea behind this survey was to get an insight into the minds of a teenager and understand their behavioural patterns. Moreover since Udaan talks about the story of a father-son relationship and depicts what a teenage mind goes through, the makers thought that conducting such a survey would be a great idea to create awareness for their film. The survey was conducted across major Indian cities such as Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi / NCR.

Following are some of the results of the survey:

Around 30% of teens said that if given a chance they would like to change their study stream / career

30% of the teens said that they were not comfortable talking to their parents about the problems faced by them

40% of boys had smoked in their teens

40% of girls and more than 50% of boys admitted to having consumed alcohol in their teens

More than half of the teens wanted the official age to drink to be lowered to 16

Around 45% of teens admitted to having stolen money from their parents without them knowing

2 out of every 3 boys admitted to having watched a porn film by the time they were 16 years old

1 out of every 4 girls admitted to having watched a porn film by the time they were 16 years old

1 out of every 3 boys admitted that they had bunked school to watch an adult film

Every second teen has already kissed someone of the opposite sex

15% of boys and girls acknowledged getting intimate with somebody in their school/ college loo

One out of every 5 teens (both boys and girls) claimed to have had sex

9 out of 10 boys and 7 out of 10 girls are ok with premarital sex

45% of teenage girls felt that if they got pregnant, they would go for an abortion without ever letting their parents know.

Nearly 1000 teenagers have already taken part in this survey and the makers UTV plan to incorporate the results on the posters, promos and other marketing campaign of their forthcoming film Udaan.

Pakistanis unhappy with govt: survey

WASHINGTON: Pakistanis see their country in crisis and they give their national government lower ratings than at any time in this decade. And almost no one is satisfied with national conditions, a latest survey indicated.

President Asif Zardari’s popularity is at all-time low at 32 per cent while Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Nawaz Sharif has reached a new high at 79 per cent approval ratings.

The role of Pakistani media is viewed favourably as almost 77 per cent of those interviewed for the survey believe that the media is having good influence on the country.

Overall, 89 per cent say they think of themselves first as Pakistani, rather than as a member of their ethnic group, the survey said.

Conducted by the Pew Research Centre’s Global Attitudes Project, it also finds that a long-standing concern about extremism has grown even greater over the past year, and indifference and mixed opinions about both Al Qaeda and the Taliban have given way to a strong condemnation of both groups.

While views about national conditions are overwhelmingly negative, most Pakistanis are upbeat about their personal lives — 74 per cent say they are very or somewhat satisfied with their overall lives, and most are satisfied with their family lives and incomes.

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