News and Infotainment

In Washington, thousands of people gathered quickly outside the White House, waving American flags, cheering and chanting “USA, USA, USA.” Car drivers blew their horns in celebration and people streamed to Lafayette Park across from the presidential mansion. Police vehicles with their lights flashing stood vigil.

“Justice has been done,” Obama said in a dramatic, late-night White House speech announcing the death of the elusive mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people. Having the body may help convince any doubters that bin Laden is really dead.

Bin Laden had been hunted since he eluded U.S. soldiers and Afghan militia forces in a large-scale assault on the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan close to the Pakistan frontier in 2001.

The trail quickly went cold after he disappeared and many intelligence officials believed he had been hiding in Pakistan.

While in hiding, bin Laden had taunted the West and advocated his militant Islamist views in videotapes spirited from his hideaway.

Besides September 11, Washington has also linked bin Laden to a string of attacks — including the 1998 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2000 bombing of the warship USS Cole in Yemen.

Obama said U.S. forces led a targeted operation that killed bin Laden in Abbotabad north of Islamabad. No Americans were killed in the operation and they took care to avoid civilian casualties, he said.

Former President George W. Bush, who famously vowed to bring bin Laden to justice “dead or alive” but never did, called the operation a “momentous achievement” after Obama called him with the news.

Said former President Bill Clinton: “I congratulate the president, the national security team and the members of our armed forces on bringing Osama bin Laden to justice after more than a decade of murderous al Qaeda attacks.”

Source:reuters

On March 11 at 02:46 am Japan struck by twice earthquake 7.4 and 8.9 magnitude, triggering a massive tsunami. Cars, ships and buildings were swept away by a wall of water after the 8.9-magnitude tremor, which struck about 400km (250 miles) north-east of Tokyo.

Thousands of people living near the Fukushima nuclear power plant have been ordered to evacuate. Japanese nuclear officials said pressure inside a boiling water reactor at the plant was running much higher than normal after the cooling system failed. And here’s a Videos of Tsunami Japan.

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia warned yesterday that its most volatile volcano could erupt at any time and started evacuating some of the thousands of villagers living on the mountain’s slope.

Mount Merapi has seen increased volcanic activity over the past week and officials have raised the alert level for the 9,737-foot-high mountain to the most urgent level, said government volcanologist Surono, who uses only one name.

Also yesterday, a powerful earthquake hit off western Indonesia, briefly triggering a tsunami warning that sent thousands of panicked residents fleeing to high ground. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The 7.7-magnitude temblor struck at a depth of 13 miles off Sumatra island, the US Geological Survey said.

Mount Merapi last erupted in 2006, when it sent an avalanche of blistering gases and rock fragments racing down the mountain that killed two people. A similar eruption in 1994 killed 60 people, and 1,300 people died in an eruption in 1930.

“Officials have predicted that if it erupts, magma would flow to the southern side,’’ said Sri Purnomo, the head of Sleman district on Java island, where Mount Merapi is located.

He said officials were warning some 11,400 villagers living on the mountain’s southern slope to prepare for “urgent evacuation.’’ About 40,000 people live close to the mountain.

Purnomo said camps to take in the evacuees were being set up at buildings and sports fields more than 6 miles away. Hundreds of senior citizens and children have been moved from villages near the slopes of Mount Merapi to Umbulharjo village, where they are being placed in government buildings and tents prepared by local officials.

There are more than 129 active volcanoes to watch in Indonesia, which is spread across 17,500 islands and is prone to eruptions and earthquakes because of its location within the so-called “Ring of Fire,’’ a series of fault lines stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia.

When yesterday’s earthquake struck, at least five towns in the provinces of Bengkulu and West Sumatra were badly jolted, officials and witnesses said, as were the nearby Mentawai islands.

Areas closest to the epicenter of the 9:42 p.m. quake were sparsely populated, and there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, said Ade Edward, a disaster management agency official.

A 5.0-magnitude aftershock hit less than an hour after the original quake, and a 6.1-magnitude aftershock was recorded early this morning.

Indonesia’s Mount Merapi erupted three times Tuesday, emitting searing clouds and volcanic ash, a government volcanologist said. “We heard three explosions around 6:00pm [local time], spewing volcanic materials as high as 1.5 kilometers [0.93 miles] upward and heatclouds down on the slopes,” said government volcanologist Surono.

Before the latest eruption, people living in the shadow of Indonesia’s most active volcano had been warned to evacuate or risk being killed. Authorities had put an area 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) around the crater of Mount Merapi on red alert Monday, ordering 19,000 people to flee.

“This eruption is certainly bigger than the 2006 eruption, during which the heat clouds occurred for only seven minutes after the eruption,” Surono said. “Today’s eruption released heat clouds of gas and ash down the slopes for about two hours. We cannot tell you how far the searing clouds went down on the slopes because it’s dark.”

Television footage showed thousands of people fleeing Tuesday’s eruptions in panic, some covered in white ash, as officials with megaphones tried to help them escape the area.

An eyewitness quoted by Associated Press saw up to 20 injured people being rushed to medical treatment.

The 2006 blast Surono referred to killed two people.

Before the latest eruption, officials said nearly 15,000 people had ignored evacuation orders despite several minor eruptions that sent lava spewing down Merapi’s southern slopes.

Many people sleeping in camps returned to their homes during the day to work and tend to their cattle. Some men refused to leave altogether, confident they would be able to escape.

Field coordinator Widi Sutikno, of the Sleman district on the southern slopes of the 9,616 feet (2,914 meter) mountain, said only about 3,700 people out of 11,400 in his area had sought shelter in makeshift refuges.

“We have evacuated many women, pregnant women, sick people, elderly people and children,” Sutikno said. “We let some people return to their fields for their daily activity. But they need to go back to the camps and not their houses.”

Source: boston

A year ago, West Sumatra was rocked by an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale. The earthquake occurred at 17:16 pm centered at 57 kilometers Pariaman coast devastated coastal areas of West Sumatra, 30 September 2009. Thousands of lives lost due to buried under the rubble. West Sumatra was crying. Body bags began arriving in the parking lot at the hospital pharmacy M Djamil Padang the next day. Ambulance after another wailed and transporting the bodies of victims exposed to injuries from collapsed buildings. Search and Rescue teams from various countries began to arrive towards the locations of collapsed buildings.

At the Hotel Ambacang, hundreds of people buried under the rubble of a collapsed hotel hit by the earthquake. In places such as tutoring Gama, LBA LIA, the parents scream hysterically because her fate is still unclear. In Padang Pariaman District not far from the epicenter of the quake, landslides due to the hills divided by the earthquake to hoard hundreds of residents who inhabit the slopes. Similar conditions also occur in Agam District.

West Sumatra became the center of world attention. Some assistance in the form of blankets, snacks, and emergency tents to arrive to alleviate the suffering of the people.

Here are some photos of the time of the Sumatra Earthquake, 2009:

The September 2009 Sumatra earthquake occurred just off the southern coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The major shock hit at 17:16:10 local time on September 30, 2009 (10:16:10 UTC) and had a moment magnitude of 7.6. The epicenter was 45 kilometres (28 mi) west-northwest of Padang, Sumatra, and 220 kilometres (140 mi) southwest of Pekanbaru, Sumatra. Early death-toll estimates extended beyond 1300. Government reports have to date confirmed 1,115 dead, 1,214 severely injured and 1,688 slightly injured. The most deaths occurred in the areas of Padang Pariaman (675), Padang (313), Agam (80) and Pariaman (37). In addition, around 135,000 houses were severely damaged, 65,000 houses were moderately damaged and 79,000 houses were slightly damaged. An estimated 250,000 families (1,250,000 people) have been affected by the earthquake through the total or partial loss of their homes and livelihoods.

More Photos, HERE

Background
The whole of Indonesia except Borneo, Bangka Belitung, Riau Islands and Timor is situated within a zone of high seismic activity known as the “Pacific Ring of Fire”. Along the Sunda megathrust, the Indo-Australian Plate is being subducted beneath the Eurasian plate. The subduction creates regular earthquakes, many of them of megathrust type. Specifically the Sumatran segment is currently experiencing a period of increased activity that began with the catastrophic 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake. Each earthquake of the sequence adds additional stresses to segments of the plate boundary that have not moved recently.

Because of its depth and the computed focal mechanism, the first earthquake is thought to have resulted from deformation within the mantle of the descending Australian plate, rather than from movement on the plate boundary itself. The second earthquake has been linked to dextral (right-lateral) movement on the Great Sumatran fault which takes up the strike-slip component of the convergence between the two plates.

Effects
Tremors from the first earthquakes were felt in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, Malaysia and Singapore. The management of some high-rise buildings in Singapore evacuated their staff.

A tsunami watch was triggered and there was reports of house damage and fires. Hotels in Padang were destroyed, and communications to the city were disrupted.

Local news channel Metro TV reported fires in Padang where panicked residents had run onto the streets as the first quake hit. Teams of rescuers from nearby branches of the National Search and Rescue Agency have been deployed to Padang. Large buildings came down in the earthquake. It was also reported that some water pipes in Padang were broken and there was flooding in the street. There have also been reports that at least two hospitals and several schools have collapsed as a result of the earthquake.

Padang’s Minangkabau International Airport suffered minor damage, with parts of the ceiling in the boarding area falling down. The airport reopened on 1 October.

Responses
Indonesian officials have suggested that the death toll is likely to rise sharply, because of the large number of people trapped in collapsed buildings. Authorities announced that several disaster management teams were en route to Padang although it took several hours for them to reach more remote areas. Rescue workers pulled dozens of survivors from the rubble and rushed them to Djamil Hospital. The hospital itself was overwhelmed with patients, and many patients were treated in tents set up outside the hospital.

A man was trapped beneath a flattened hotel for 25 hours with a broken leg before rescue workers pulled him free. The Indonesian military deployed emergency response teams with earth moving equipment to help move rubble and recover trapped victims. Rescue workers and volunteers searched the rubble of a collapsed 3-story course building, rescuing survivors and recovering bodies while parents waited nearby. Indonesian villagers used their bare hands to sift through ruins and try to find survivors. On October 5, Indonesian rescue workers called off their search for trapped survivors and increased efforts to recover bodies, clear rubble, and provide aid to survivors. Indonesian authorities used helicopters to airdrop instant noodles, blankets, milk, and dry food into remote areas, and to bring the wounded from these areas to hospitals.

World Vision, Oxfam, IFRC, Muslim Charity and Mercy Corps have confirmed that they are flying their emergency response teams to the devastated Padang area to do the rapid assessment of the catastrophe. The Red Cross is seeking donations to help cover earthquake relief costs. World Vision has also airlifted 2,000 collapsible water containers and will distribute them immediately to the area most affected by earthquake. Additionally World Vision has launched US$ 1 million appeal for the relief effort.

List of countries that have sent aid
Below is the table of countries that have sent or pledged aid for Indonesia

Aftershocks
Only aftershocks with magnitude 5.0 or higher are listed. The mainshocks with moment magnitude 7.6 Mw and 6.6 Mw are highlighted in light blue. A second earthquake, which measured 6.6 Mw, struck the province of Jambi in central Sumatra, 01:52:29 local time on 1 October 2009 at a depth of 15 kilometres (9.3 mi), about 46 kilometres south-east of Sungaipenuh. The USGS said the earthquake, although in the same region, was not an aftershock as it was located too far from the initial quake.

Source: wikipedia