An Ethiopian airline crashed in a ball of fire into the Mediterranean with 90 people aboard.
Read the full story from BBC News...
Two Britons on Ethiopian Airlines crash plane
Two Britons were on board an Ethiopian Airlines plane which crashed shortly after take-off from the Lebanese capital Beirut, it has been confirmed.
The Boeing 737 bound for Addis Ababa in Ethiopia fell into the Mediterranean in a ball of fire with 90 people on board.
At least 21 bodies have been recovered, and there has been no news of anyone surviving the crash.
The Foreign Office said one British national and one with dual nationality were on board Flight ET409.
A British RAF helicopter, based in Cyprus, has joined the Lebanese authorities' search-and-rescue operation.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "Our thoughts are with the families of all those involved in this tragedy."
No further details about the two people would be released until next of kin had been informed, the spokeswoman added.
Passenger list
Ethiopian Airlines said there were 82 passengers and 8 crew on board the flight.
The passenger list included two Britons, 51 Lebanese, 23 Ethiopians, and one person each from Canada, France, Russia, Turkey, Syria and Iraq.
Map
The cause of the crash is being investigated, but police have ruled out terrorism.
Lebanon's transport minister Ghazi Aridi said the plane took off at about 0230 local time (0030 GMT), before crashing two miles off the coast.
An Ethiopian Airlines statement said: "A team is already working on gathering all pertinent information.
"An investigative team has already been dispatched to the scene and we will release further information as further updates are received."
The Foreign Office said British nationals requiring consular assistance should contact its office on 00961 (0) 3 345520.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Another Strong Haiti Earthquake
After more than 40 significant after shocks following the 7.0 magnitude earthquake of January 12, another strong earthquake hit Haiti at a magnitude of 6.1.
For full story, see below:
New 6.1-quake hits Haiti, people flee into streets
By PAUL HAVEN and MICHELLE FAUL, Associated Press Writers Paul Haven And Michelle Faul, Associated Press Writers – 2 mins ago
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The most powerful aftershock yet struck Haiti on Wednesday, shaking more rubble from damaged buildings and sending screaming people running into the streets eight days after the country's capital was devastated by an apocalyptic quake.
The magnitude-6.1 temblor was the largest of more than 40 significant aftershocks that have followed the Jan. 12 quake. The extent of additional damage or injuries was not immediately clear.
Wails of terror rose from frightened survivors as the earth shuddered at 6:03 a.m. U.S. soldiers and tent city refugees alike raced for open ground, and clouds of dust rose in the capital.
The U.S. Geological Survey said Wednesday's quake was centered about 35 miles (60 kilometers) northwest of Port-au-Prince and 6.2 miles (9.9 kilometers) below the surface — a little further from the capital than last week's epicenter was.
"It kind of felt like standing on a board on top of a ball," said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Steven Payne. The 27-year-old from Jolo, West Virginia was preparing to hand out food to refugees in a tent camp of 25,000 quake victims when the aftershock hit.
Last week's magnitude-7 quake killed an estimated 200,000 people in Haiti, left 250,000 injured and made 1.5 million homeless, according to the European Union Commission.
The strong aftershock prompted Anold Fleurigene, 28, to grab his wife and three children and head to the city bus station. His house was destroyed in the first quake and his sister and brother killed.
"I've seen the situation here, and I want to get out," he said.
A massive international aid effort has been struggling with logistical problems, and many Haitians are still desperate for food and water.
Still, search-and-rescue teams have emerged from the ruins with some improbable success stories — including the rescue of 69-year-old ardent Roman Catholic who said she prayed constantly during her week under the rubble.
Ena Zizi had been at a church meeting at the residence of Haiti's Roman Catholic archbishop when the Jan. 12 quake struck, trapping her in debris. On Tuesday, she was rescued by a Mexican disaster team.
Zizi said after the quake, she spoke back and forth with a vicar who also was trapped. But he fell silent after a few days, and she spent the rest of the time praying and waiting.
"I talked only to my boss, God," she said. "I didn't need any more humans."
Doctors who examined Zizi on Tuesday said she was dehydrated and had a dislocated hip and a broken leg.
Elsewhere in the capital, two women were pulled from a destroyed university building. And near midnight Tuesday, a smiling and singing 26-year-old Lozama Hotteline was carried to safety from a collapsed store in the Petionville neighborhood by the French aid group Rescuers Without Borders.
Crews at the cathedral recovered the body of the archbishop, Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot, who was killed in the Jan. 12 quake.
Authorities said close to 100 people had been pulled from wrecked buildings by international search-and-rescue teams. Efforts continued, with dozens of teams hunting through Port-au-Prince's crumbled homes and buildings for signs of life.
But the good news was overshadowed by the frustrating fact that the world still can't get enough food and water to the hungry and thirsty.
"We need so much. Food, clothes, we need everything. I don't know whose responsibility it is, but they need to give us something soon," said Sophia Eltime, a 29-year-old mother of two who has been living under a bedsheet with seven members of her extended family.
The World Food Program said more than 250,000 ready-to-eat food rations had been distributed in Haiti by Tuesday, reaching only a fraction of the 3 million people thought to be in desperate need.
The WFP said it needs to deliver 100 million ready-to-eat rations in the next 30 days, but it only had 16 million meals in the pipeline.
Even as U.S. troops landed in Seahawk helicopters Tuesday on the manicured lawn of the ruined National Palace, the colossal efforts to help Haiti were proving inadequate because of the scale of the disaster. Expectations exceeded what money, will and military might have been able to achieve.
So far, international relief efforts have been unorganized, disjointed and insufficient to satisfy the great need. Doctors Without Borders says a plane carrying urgently needed surgical equipment and drugs has been turned away five times, even though the agency received advance authorization to land.
A statement from Partners in Health, co-founded by the deputy U.N. envoy to Haiti, Dr. Paul Farmer, said the group's medical director estimated 20,000 people are dying each day who could be saved by surgery.
"TENS OF THOUSANDS OF EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS NEED EMERGENCY SURGICAL CARE NOW!!!!!" the group said in the statement. It did not describe the basis for that estimate.
The reasons are varied:
• Both national and international authorities suffered great losses in the quake, taking out many of the leaders best suited to organize a response.
• Woefully inadequate infrastructure and a near-complete failure in telephone and Internet communications have complicated efforts to reach millions of people forced from their homes.
• Fears of looting and violence have kept aid groups and governments from moving as quickly as they would like.
• Pre-existing poverty and malnutrition put some at risk even before the quake hit.
Governments have pledged nearly $1 billion in aid, and thousands of tons of food and medical supplies have been shipped. But much remains trapped in warehouses, or diverted to the neighboring Dominican Republic. Port-au-Prince's nonfunctioning seaport and many impassable roads complicate efforts to get aid to the people.
Aid is being turned back from the single-runway airport, where the U.S. military has been criticized by some of poorly prioritizing flights. The U.S. Air Force said it had raised the facility's daily capacity from 30 flights before the quake to 180 on Tuesday.
About 2,200 U.S. Marines established a beachhead west of Port-au-Prince on Tuesday to help speed aid delivery, in addition to 9,000 Army soldiers already on the ground. Lt. Cmdr. Walter Matthews, a U.S. military spokesman, said helicopters were ferrying aid from the airport into Port-au-Prince and the nearby town of Jacmel as fast as they could.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the military will send a port-clearing ship with cranes aboard to Port-au-Prince to remove debris that is preventing many larger aid ships from docking.
The U.N. was sending in reinforcements as well: The Security Council voted Tuesday to add 2,000 peacekeepers to the 7,000 already in Haiti, and 1,500 more police to the 2,100-strong international force.
"The floodgates for aid are starting to open," Matthews said at the airport. "In the first few days, you're limited by manpower, but we're starting to bring people in."
The WFP's Alain Jaffre said the U.N. agency hoped to help 100,000 people by Wednesday.
Hanging over the entire effort was an overwhelming fear among relief officials that Haitians' desperation would boil over into violence.
"We've very concerned about the level of security we need around our people when we're doing distributions," said Graham Tardif, who heads disaster-relief efforts for the charity World Vision. The U.N., the U.S. government and other organizations have echoed such fears.
Occasionally, those fears have been borne out. Looters rampaged through part of downtown Port-au-Prince on Tuesday, just four blocks from where U.S. troops landed at the presidential palace. Hundreds of looters fought over bolts of cloth and other goods with broken bottles and clubs.
USGS geophysicist Bruce Pressgrave said nobody knows if a still-stronger aftershock is possible.
"Aftershocks sometimes die out very quickly," he said. "In other cases they can go on for weeks, or if we're really unlucky it could go on for months" as the earth adjusts to the new stresses caused by the initial quake.
___
Associated Press writers contributing include Paul Haven, Michael Melia, Jonathan M. Katz, Michelle Faul and Vivian Sequera in Port-au-Prince; medical writer Margie Mason in Hanoi, Vietnam; Charles J. Hanley in Mexico City; Lori Hinnant in New York; Tales Azzoni in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations; and Seth Borenstein, Pauline Jelinek, Anne Flaherty and Jennifer Loven in Was
For full story, see below:
New 6.1-quake hits Haiti, people flee into streets
By PAUL HAVEN and MICHELLE FAUL, Associated Press Writers Paul Haven And Michelle Faul, Associated Press Writers – 2 mins ago
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The most powerful aftershock yet struck Haiti on Wednesday, shaking more rubble from damaged buildings and sending screaming people running into the streets eight days after the country's capital was devastated by an apocalyptic quake.
The magnitude-6.1 temblor was the largest of more than 40 significant aftershocks that have followed the Jan. 12 quake. The extent of additional damage or injuries was not immediately clear.
Wails of terror rose from frightened survivors as the earth shuddered at 6:03 a.m. U.S. soldiers and tent city refugees alike raced for open ground, and clouds of dust rose in the capital.
The U.S. Geological Survey said Wednesday's quake was centered about 35 miles (60 kilometers) northwest of Port-au-Prince and 6.2 miles (9.9 kilometers) below the surface — a little further from the capital than last week's epicenter was.
"It kind of felt like standing on a board on top of a ball," said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Steven Payne. The 27-year-old from Jolo, West Virginia was preparing to hand out food to refugees in a tent camp of 25,000 quake victims when the aftershock hit.
Last week's magnitude-7 quake killed an estimated 200,000 people in Haiti, left 250,000 injured and made 1.5 million homeless, according to the European Union Commission.
The strong aftershock prompted Anold Fleurigene, 28, to grab his wife and three children and head to the city bus station. His house was destroyed in the first quake and his sister and brother killed.
"I've seen the situation here, and I want to get out," he said.
A massive international aid effort has been struggling with logistical problems, and many Haitians are still desperate for food and water.
Still, search-and-rescue teams have emerged from the ruins with some improbable success stories — including the rescue of 69-year-old ardent Roman Catholic who said she prayed constantly during her week under the rubble.
Ena Zizi had been at a church meeting at the residence of Haiti's Roman Catholic archbishop when the Jan. 12 quake struck, trapping her in debris. On Tuesday, she was rescued by a Mexican disaster team.
Zizi said after the quake, she spoke back and forth with a vicar who also was trapped. But he fell silent after a few days, and she spent the rest of the time praying and waiting.
"I talked only to my boss, God," she said. "I didn't need any more humans."
Doctors who examined Zizi on Tuesday said she was dehydrated and had a dislocated hip and a broken leg.
Elsewhere in the capital, two women were pulled from a destroyed university building. And near midnight Tuesday, a smiling and singing 26-year-old Lozama Hotteline was carried to safety from a collapsed store in the Petionville neighborhood by the French aid group Rescuers Without Borders.
Crews at the cathedral recovered the body of the archbishop, Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot, who was killed in the Jan. 12 quake.
Authorities said close to 100 people had been pulled from wrecked buildings by international search-and-rescue teams. Efforts continued, with dozens of teams hunting through Port-au-Prince's crumbled homes and buildings for signs of life.
But the good news was overshadowed by the frustrating fact that the world still can't get enough food and water to the hungry and thirsty.
"We need so much. Food, clothes, we need everything. I don't know whose responsibility it is, but they need to give us something soon," said Sophia Eltime, a 29-year-old mother of two who has been living under a bedsheet with seven members of her extended family.
The World Food Program said more than 250,000 ready-to-eat food rations had been distributed in Haiti by Tuesday, reaching only a fraction of the 3 million people thought to be in desperate need.
The WFP said it needs to deliver 100 million ready-to-eat rations in the next 30 days, but it only had 16 million meals in the pipeline.
Even as U.S. troops landed in Seahawk helicopters Tuesday on the manicured lawn of the ruined National Palace, the colossal efforts to help Haiti were proving inadequate because of the scale of the disaster. Expectations exceeded what money, will and military might have been able to achieve.
So far, international relief efforts have been unorganized, disjointed and insufficient to satisfy the great need. Doctors Without Borders says a plane carrying urgently needed surgical equipment and drugs has been turned away five times, even though the agency received advance authorization to land.
A statement from Partners in Health, co-founded by the deputy U.N. envoy to Haiti, Dr. Paul Farmer, said the group's medical director estimated 20,000 people are dying each day who could be saved by surgery.
"TENS OF THOUSANDS OF EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS NEED EMERGENCY SURGICAL CARE NOW!!!!!" the group said in the statement. It did not describe the basis for that estimate.
The reasons are varied:
• Both national and international authorities suffered great losses in the quake, taking out many of the leaders best suited to organize a response.
• Woefully inadequate infrastructure and a near-complete failure in telephone and Internet communications have complicated efforts to reach millions of people forced from their homes.
• Fears of looting and violence have kept aid groups and governments from moving as quickly as they would like.
• Pre-existing poverty and malnutrition put some at risk even before the quake hit.
Governments have pledged nearly $1 billion in aid, and thousands of tons of food and medical supplies have been shipped. But much remains trapped in warehouses, or diverted to the neighboring Dominican Republic. Port-au-Prince's nonfunctioning seaport and many impassable roads complicate efforts to get aid to the people.
Aid is being turned back from the single-runway airport, where the U.S. military has been criticized by some of poorly prioritizing flights. The U.S. Air Force said it had raised the facility's daily capacity from 30 flights before the quake to 180 on Tuesday.
About 2,200 U.S. Marines established a beachhead west of Port-au-Prince on Tuesday to help speed aid delivery, in addition to 9,000 Army soldiers already on the ground. Lt. Cmdr. Walter Matthews, a U.S. military spokesman, said helicopters were ferrying aid from the airport into Port-au-Prince and the nearby town of Jacmel as fast as they could.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the military will send a port-clearing ship with cranes aboard to Port-au-Prince to remove debris that is preventing many larger aid ships from docking.
The U.N. was sending in reinforcements as well: The Security Council voted Tuesday to add 2,000 peacekeepers to the 7,000 already in Haiti, and 1,500 more police to the 2,100-strong international force.
"The floodgates for aid are starting to open," Matthews said at the airport. "In the first few days, you're limited by manpower, but we're starting to bring people in."
The WFP's Alain Jaffre said the U.N. agency hoped to help 100,000 people by Wednesday.
Hanging over the entire effort was an overwhelming fear among relief officials that Haitians' desperation would boil over into violence.
"We've very concerned about the level of security we need around our people when we're doing distributions," said Graham Tardif, who heads disaster-relief efforts for the charity World Vision. The U.N., the U.S. government and other organizations have echoed such fears.
Occasionally, those fears have been borne out. Looters rampaged through part of downtown Port-au-Prince on Tuesday, just four blocks from where U.S. troops landed at the presidential palace. Hundreds of looters fought over bolts of cloth and other goods with broken bottles and clubs.
USGS geophysicist Bruce Pressgrave said nobody knows if a still-stronger aftershock is possible.
"Aftershocks sometimes die out very quickly," he said. "In other cases they can go on for weeks, or if we're really unlucky it could go on for months" as the earth adjusts to the new stresses caused by the initial quake.
___
Associated Press writers contributing include Paul Haven, Michael Melia, Jonathan M. Katz, Michelle Faul and Vivian Sequera in Port-au-Prince; medical writer Margie Mason in Hanoi, Vietnam; Charles J. Hanley in Mexico City; Lori Hinnant in New York; Tales Azzoni in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations; and Seth Borenstein, Pauline Jelinek, Anne Flaherty and Jennifer Loven in Was
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Christian-Muslim Violence in Nigeria
We are all creations of God, so whether we are Christians or Muslims, we are all brothers and sisters. We are all adopted children of God. God wants us unified.
For unification, visit www.one date.org
For the news on the violence between Christian and Muslims in Nigeria, read the story below:
Christian-Muslim Mayhem in Nigeria Kills Dozens
By ADAM NOSSITER
Published: January 19, 2010
DAKAR, Senegal — Armed with guns, machetes, torches, and bows and arrows, Christian and Muslim antagonists in central Nigeria’s religiously volatile city of Jos have been fighting for three days in sporadic clashes that have left dozens dead, witnesses and local news accounts said Tuesday.
It was difficult to ascertain the precise toll in Jos, the scene of frequent religious violence over the past decade. Estimates ranged from 30 to 300 deaths, as the city was still consumed by mayhem Tuesday evening, with security forces descending on Jos in an attempt to contain it.
Gunshots could be heard throughout the city, and smoke from burning buildings was visible everywhere, witnesses said.
“This morning there was smoke, and a lot of shooting by the military personnel,” said Shimaki Gad Peter, director of the League for Human Rights, which is based in Jos, in a telephone interview. The violence began Sunday when Muslim youths attacked a church, according to Mr. Peter, “and they were resisted by church members.”
Subsequently, “innocent persons were macheted,” Mr. Peter said. “I saw youths holding bows and arrows, and machetes,” he said. While “the majority” of people killed Sunday appeared to be Christians, he said, there was now a “balance of terror” among the religious groups.
The Rev. Emmanuel Joel of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria said, “Personally, I have seen over 100 bodies.” He said he had seen the bodies in Red Cross trucks going to the morgue.
Mr. Joel said Jos was “still boiling.” He was critical of the security forces’ efforts to contain the violence, saying, “While they are trying to contain it in one area, it is breaking out in another area.”
Government spokesmen could not be reached for comment. News reports said a curfew had been imposed on the city.
“Nobody comes in, nobody goes out,” Mr. Joel said. “We are all scared of coming out, standing outside.”
Several thousand people have been killed in religious rioting in Jos since 2001. The city is situated near the frontier between Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north and the mostly Christian south.
“All we see is smoke coming out of burnt structures,” Mr. Joel said. “And gunshots, seriously.”
Lord, shine your light on us. let's pray the prayer taught by Mama mary through tlig.org:
Father all Merciful,
let those who hear and hear again
yet never understand,
hear Your Voice this time
and understand that it is You, the Holy of Holies;
open the eyes of those who see and see,
yet never perceive,
to see with their eyes this time
Your Holy Face and Your Glory,
place Your Finger on their heart
so that their heart may open
and understand Your Faithfulness,
I pray and ask you all these things, Righteous Father,
so that all the nations be converted and be healed
through the Wounds of Your Beloved Son, Jesus Christ;
amen;
For unification, visit www.one date.org
For the news on the violence between Christian and Muslims in Nigeria, read the story below:
Christian-Muslim Mayhem in Nigeria Kills Dozens
By ADAM NOSSITER
Published: January 19, 2010
DAKAR, Senegal — Armed with guns, machetes, torches, and bows and arrows, Christian and Muslim antagonists in central Nigeria’s religiously volatile city of Jos have been fighting for three days in sporadic clashes that have left dozens dead, witnesses and local news accounts said Tuesday.
It was difficult to ascertain the precise toll in Jos, the scene of frequent religious violence over the past decade. Estimates ranged from 30 to 300 deaths, as the city was still consumed by mayhem Tuesday evening, with security forces descending on Jos in an attempt to contain it.
Gunshots could be heard throughout the city, and smoke from burning buildings was visible everywhere, witnesses said.
“This morning there was smoke, and a lot of shooting by the military personnel,” said Shimaki Gad Peter, director of the League for Human Rights, which is based in Jos, in a telephone interview. The violence began Sunday when Muslim youths attacked a church, according to Mr. Peter, “and they were resisted by church members.”
Subsequently, “innocent persons were macheted,” Mr. Peter said. “I saw youths holding bows and arrows, and machetes,” he said. While “the majority” of people killed Sunday appeared to be Christians, he said, there was now a “balance of terror” among the religious groups.
The Rev. Emmanuel Joel of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria said, “Personally, I have seen over 100 bodies.” He said he had seen the bodies in Red Cross trucks going to the morgue.
Mr. Joel said Jos was “still boiling.” He was critical of the security forces’ efforts to contain the violence, saying, “While they are trying to contain it in one area, it is breaking out in another area.”
Government spokesmen could not be reached for comment. News reports said a curfew had been imposed on the city.
“Nobody comes in, nobody goes out,” Mr. Joel said. “We are all scared of coming out, standing outside.”
Several thousand people have been killed in religious rioting in Jos since 2001. The city is situated near the frontier between Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north and the mostly Christian south.
“All we see is smoke coming out of burnt structures,” Mr. Joel said. “And gunshots, seriously.”
Lord, shine your light on us. let's pray the prayer taught by Mama mary through tlig.org:
Father all Merciful,
let those who hear and hear again
yet never understand,
hear Your Voice this time
and understand that it is You, the Holy of Holies;
open the eyes of those who see and see,
yet never perceive,
to see with their eyes this time
Your Holy Face and Your Glory,
place Your Finger on their heart
so that their heart may open
and understand Your Faithfulness,
I pray and ask you all these things, Righteous Father,
so that all the nations be converted and be healed
through the Wounds of Your Beloved Son, Jesus Christ;
amen;
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Haiti Continuing Rescue
Rescuers are still searching and rescuing from the ruble of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti.
Because of the stench of dead bodies, residents paint toothpaste around their nostrils and ask for mask to cut the smell.
Read the MSN full story below.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - With food, water and other aid flowing into Haiti in earnest, relief groups and officials are focused on moving the supplies out of the clogged airport and to hungry, haggard earthquake survivors in the capital.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was expected in Port-au-Prince on Saturday, scheduled to confer with President Rene Preval and U.S. and international civilian and military officials on how best to help the recovery effort and Haitian government.
Clinton on Friday cited a "race against time" before anxiety and anger create additional problems. Relief workers warned that unless supplies are quickly delivered, Port-au-Prince will degenerate into lawlessness.
A water delivery truck driver said he was attacked in one of the city's slums. There were reports of isolated looting as young men walked through downtown with machetes, and robbers reportedly shot one man whose body was left on the street.
"I don't know how much longer we can hold out," said Dee Leahy, a lay missionary from St. Louis, Missouri, who was working with nuns handing out provisions from their small stockpile. "We need food, we need medical supplies, we need medicine, we need vitamins and we need painkillers. And we need it urgently."
The Red Cross estimates 45,000 to 50,000 people were killed in Tuesday's magnitude-7.0 earthquake. While workers are burying some in mass graves, countless bodies remain unclaimed in the streets and the limbs of the dead protrude from crushed schools and homes.
'Help us get the bodies out'
Other bodies were thrown into trucks and driven to the outskirts of town to be burned Friday. Residents paint toothpaste around their nostrils and beg passers-by for surgical masks to cut the smell.
"If the government still exists and the United Nations is around, I hope they can help us get the bodies out," said Sherine Pierre, a 21-year-old communications student whose sister died when her house collapsed.
A third of Haiti's 9 million people may be in need of aid. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the World Food Program was providing high-energy biscuits and ready-to-eat meals to around 8,000 people "several times a day."
"Obviously, that is only a drop in the bucket in the face of the massive need, but the agency will be scaling up to feed approximately 1 million people within 15 days and 2 million people within a month," he said.
U.S. officials on Friday also acknowledged the limits of their initial relief efforts, and promised a quick ramp-up in delivery of badly needed supplies. Dr. Rajiv Shah, the White House's coordinator of the U.S. relief effort who was also expected to arrive Saturday, indicated aid would begin flowing more freely in the next few days.
The effort to get aid to the victims has been stymied by blocked roads, congestion at the airport, limited equipment and other obstacles. U.N. peacekeepers patrolling the capital said popular anger was rising and warned aid convoys to add security to guard against looting.
Officials said some of the delivery problem was due to the damaged seaport. The arrival Friday of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson started helping immediately, taking pressure off the city's jammed airport. Within hours, an 82nd Airborne Division rapid response unit was handing out food, water and medical supplies from two cargo pallets outside the airport.
'Crisis of unspeakable magnitude'
Others tried to help in smaller ways.
Milero Cedamou, the 33-year-old owner of a small water delivery company, twice drove his small tanker truck to a tent camp where thousands of homeless people are living. Hundreds clustered around to fill their plastic buckets.
"This is a crisis of unspeakable magnitude, it's normal for every Haitian to help," Cedamou said. "This is not charity."
Medical teams from other nations set up makeshift hospitals to tend to the critically injured. Time, however, was running short for the rescue of people who still might be alive under the rubble.
"Beyond three or four days without water, they'll be pretty ill," said Dr. Michael VanRooyen of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative in Boston. "Around three days would be where you would see people start to succumb."
Please make your donations to the right agency.
Because of the stench of dead bodies, residents paint toothpaste around their nostrils and ask for mask to cut the smell.
Read the MSN full story below.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - With food, water and other aid flowing into Haiti in earnest, relief groups and officials are focused on moving the supplies out of the clogged airport and to hungry, haggard earthquake survivors in the capital.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was expected in Port-au-Prince on Saturday, scheduled to confer with President Rene Preval and U.S. and international civilian and military officials on how best to help the recovery effort and Haitian government.
Clinton on Friday cited a "race against time" before anxiety and anger create additional problems. Relief workers warned that unless supplies are quickly delivered, Port-au-Prince will degenerate into lawlessness.
A water delivery truck driver said he was attacked in one of the city's slums. There were reports of isolated looting as young men walked through downtown with machetes, and robbers reportedly shot one man whose body was left on the street.
"I don't know how much longer we can hold out," said Dee Leahy, a lay missionary from St. Louis, Missouri, who was working with nuns handing out provisions from their small stockpile. "We need food, we need medical supplies, we need medicine, we need vitamins and we need painkillers. And we need it urgently."
The Red Cross estimates 45,000 to 50,000 people were killed in Tuesday's magnitude-7.0 earthquake. While workers are burying some in mass graves, countless bodies remain unclaimed in the streets and the limbs of the dead protrude from crushed schools and homes.
'Help us get the bodies out'
Other bodies were thrown into trucks and driven to the outskirts of town to be burned Friday. Residents paint toothpaste around their nostrils and beg passers-by for surgical masks to cut the smell.
"If the government still exists and the United Nations is around, I hope they can help us get the bodies out," said Sherine Pierre, a 21-year-old communications student whose sister died when her house collapsed.
A third of Haiti's 9 million people may be in need of aid. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the World Food Program was providing high-energy biscuits and ready-to-eat meals to around 8,000 people "several times a day."
"Obviously, that is only a drop in the bucket in the face of the massive need, but the agency will be scaling up to feed approximately 1 million people within 15 days and 2 million people within a month," he said.
U.S. officials on Friday also acknowledged the limits of their initial relief efforts, and promised a quick ramp-up in delivery of badly needed supplies. Dr. Rajiv Shah, the White House's coordinator of the U.S. relief effort who was also expected to arrive Saturday, indicated aid would begin flowing more freely in the next few days.
The effort to get aid to the victims has been stymied by blocked roads, congestion at the airport, limited equipment and other obstacles. U.N. peacekeepers patrolling the capital said popular anger was rising and warned aid convoys to add security to guard against looting.
Officials said some of the delivery problem was due to the damaged seaport. The arrival Friday of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson started helping immediately, taking pressure off the city's jammed airport. Within hours, an 82nd Airborne Division rapid response unit was handing out food, water and medical supplies from two cargo pallets outside the airport.
'Crisis of unspeakable magnitude'
Others tried to help in smaller ways.
Milero Cedamou, the 33-year-old owner of a small water delivery company, twice drove his small tanker truck to a tent camp where thousands of homeless people are living. Hundreds clustered around to fill their plastic buckets.
"This is a crisis of unspeakable magnitude, it's normal for every Haitian to help," Cedamou said. "This is not charity."
Medical teams from other nations set up makeshift hospitals to tend to the critically injured. Time, however, was running short for the rescue of people who still might be alive under the rubble.
"Beyond three or four days without water, they'll be pretty ill," said Dr. Michael VanRooyen of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative in Boston. "Around three days would be where you would see people start to succumb."
Please make your donations to the right agency.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Television show - TV Show - Yahoo! TV
Ascerbic American Idol judge, Simon Cowell, leaving for X Factor.
Read more...
Television show - TV Show - Yahoo! TV: "American Idol
American Idol News
Read more...
Television show - TV Show - Yahoo! TV: "American Idol
American Idol News
Sunday, January 10, 2010
From Sunny Florida to Chilly Florida
Florida is a winter respite, the weather is usually sunny. But on Saturday afternoon, it was 35 degrees and a there was a chance of snow.
See full story below...
Cold stuns Floridians, causes deaths elsewhere
By BRENDAN FARRINGTON, Associated Press Writer Brendan Farrington, Associated Press Writer –
ORLANDO, Fla. – Mark and Barbara Willard were at home in Wickford, England two weeks ago checking the weather forecast on the Internet before packing for their trip to Orlando — sunny and 70 degrees.
On Saturday afternoon they had the hoods on their brand new coats pulled tight around their heads as the walked down the International Drive tourist strip. The weather: 35 degrees and cloudy with a chance of icy rain or even snow.
"The good news is two days after we go home we're off to Jamaica," said Mark Willard.
The bad news is they paid in advance for theme park tickets and instead spent more time at shopping malls buying winter clothing — a few hundred dollars worth, he said.
Across Florida, the weather was freakishly cold for a state that's a winter respite for so many. There were snow flurries spotted in several parts of the state, as far south as Naples on the gulf coast. In Miami, the temperature was forecast to drop just below freezing overnight and threatened to break the record for low temperatures in the city.
In suburban Atlanta, which has seen an unusually long stretch of low temperatures, two teens died Saturday after falling through the ice on a partially frozen pond. The surviving teen was in fair condition at Gwinnett Medical Center, said hospital spokeswoman Andrea Wehrmann.
The two boys who died were in the frigid water for nearly an hour before rescuers could reach them, said Gwinnett County Fire and Emergency Services Capt. Tommy Rutledge. He said the three, ages 13 to 15, were playing and sliding on the semi-frozen pond when the ice broke.
Just the day before, Rutledge said the department issued a warning that that local ponds, lakes and streams might look more icy than normal, but they still aren't solid enough to be safe. "Even though it looks inviting, it's a very dangerous thing," he said.
In other parts of the country, the weather was less unusual for winter, but still harsh.
In Vermont, state police said a snowmobiling accident on a partially frozen lake killed three people Saturday, including a 3-year-old girl.
Police say three snowmobiles carrying a total of six people went through ice on Lake Dunmore near Salisbury at around noon Saturday. Killed were: 50-year-old Kevin Flynn, of Whiting; 24-year-old Carrie Flynn, of Whiting; and 3-year-old Bryanna Popp.
An ice jam along the Mississippi River prompted the National Weather Service to issue a flood warning for southwest Illinois and northeast Missouri. The weather service said the river was near the 16-foot flood stage in Hannibal, Mo., on Saturday.
And the ferry that serves as the only connection between western Kentucky and eastern Missouri was shut down Saturday afternoon because of ice in the harbor and Mississippi River. Kentucky Department of Transportation spokesman Keith Todd said with temperatures expected to remain below freezing, operations for the Dorena-Hickman Ferry would be evaluated daily to decide when the crossing can resume.
Amtrak said some trains between Chicago and Denver and between St. Paul, Minn., and Seattle wouldn't operate Saturday and Sunday because of cold, high winds and drifting snow.
As the arctic cold began to ease in some parts of the nation, residents in northern Florida were under a hard freeze warning with temperatures expected to drop to 20 or below overnight.
In the Florida Keys, a tropical paradise where people usually pay attention to the heat index, a term more often reserved for Northerners was being used: wind chill. Gusts were predicted to make the air feel like the upper 20s.
For Alfonso Idiaquez, the weather brought back flashbacks to the life he left behind in Cleveland seven years ago.
"It feels like we're living in Ohio," said Idiaquez, 43, of Kissimmee. "My son was laughing. He said, 'We need to buy shovels for the snow.'"
Marion White was not laughing. She was shivering uncontrollably from head to toe as she and her family walked down Orlando's International Drive.
"It ruined our holiday," said White, 46, of Dublin, Ireland. "It's absolutely dreadful."
See full story below...
Cold stuns Floridians, causes deaths elsewhere
By BRENDAN FARRINGTON, Associated Press Writer Brendan Farrington, Associated Press Writer –
ORLANDO, Fla. – Mark and Barbara Willard were at home in Wickford, England two weeks ago checking the weather forecast on the Internet before packing for their trip to Orlando — sunny and 70 degrees.
On Saturday afternoon they had the hoods on their brand new coats pulled tight around their heads as the walked down the International Drive tourist strip. The weather: 35 degrees and cloudy with a chance of icy rain or even snow.
"The good news is two days after we go home we're off to Jamaica," said Mark Willard.
The bad news is they paid in advance for theme park tickets and instead spent more time at shopping malls buying winter clothing — a few hundred dollars worth, he said.
Across Florida, the weather was freakishly cold for a state that's a winter respite for so many. There were snow flurries spotted in several parts of the state, as far south as Naples on the gulf coast. In Miami, the temperature was forecast to drop just below freezing overnight and threatened to break the record for low temperatures in the city.
In suburban Atlanta, which has seen an unusually long stretch of low temperatures, two teens died Saturday after falling through the ice on a partially frozen pond. The surviving teen was in fair condition at Gwinnett Medical Center, said hospital spokeswoman Andrea Wehrmann.
The two boys who died were in the frigid water for nearly an hour before rescuers could reach them, said Gwinnett County Fire and Emergency Services Capt. Tommy Rutledge. He said the three, ages 13 to 15, were playing and sliding on the semi-frozen pond when the ice broke.
Just the day before, Rutledge said the department issued a warning that that local ponds, lakes and streams might look more icy than normal, but they still aren't solid enough to be safe. "Even though it looks inviting, it's a very dangerous thing," he said.
In other parts of the country, the weather was less unusual for winter, but still harsh.
In Vermont, state police said a snowmobiling accident on a partially frozen lake killed three people Saturday, including a 3-year-old girl.
Police say three snowmobiles carrying a total of six people went through ice on Lake Dunmore near Salisbury at around noon Saturday. Killed were: 50-year-old Kevin Flynn, of Whiting; 24-year-old Carrie Flynn, of Whiting; and 3-year-old Bryanna Popp.
An ice jam along the Mississippi River prompted the National Weather Service to issue a flood warning for southwest Illinois and northeast Missouri. The weather service said the river was near the 16-foot flood stage in Hannibal, Mo., on Saturday.
And the ferry that serves as the only connection between western Kentucky and eastern Missouri was shut down Saturday afternoon because of ice in the harbor and Mississippi River. Kentucky Department of Transportation spokesman Keith Todd said with temperatures expected to remain below freezing, operations for the Dorena-Hickman Ferry would be evaluated daily to decide when the crossing can resume.
Amtrak said some trains between Chicago and Denver and between St. Paul, Minn., and Seattle wouldn't operate Saturday and Sunday because of cold, high winds and drifting snow.
As the arctic cold began to ease in some parts of the nation, residents in northern Florida were under a hard freeze warning with temperatures expected to drop to 20 or below overnight.
In the Florida Keys, a tropical paradise where people usually pay attention to the heat index, a term more often reserved for Northerners was being used: wind chill. Gusts were predicted to make the air feel like the upper 20s.
For Alfonso Idiaquez, the weather brought back flashbacks to the life he left behind in Cleveland seven years ago.
"It feels like we're living in Ohio," said Idiaquez, 43, of Kissimmee. "My son was laughing. He said, 'We need to buy shovels for the snow.'"
Marion White was not laughing. She was shivering uncontrollably from head to toe as she and her family walked down Orlando's International Drive.
"It ruined our holiday," said White, 46, of Dublin, Ireland. "It's absolutely dreadful."
Saturday, January 9, 2010
California Quake
California was hit by a 6.5 earthquake.
Read below for more news:
Power disrupted but no injuries reported in Eureka quake
Los Angeles Times - 1 hour ago
The earthquake near Eureka, Calif., this afternoon -- a reported magnitude 6.5 -- snapped power lines, toppled televisions and shook up local stores, but so far no injuries have been reported.
6.5 Quake Strikes Off California Coast Wall Street Journal
6.5 earthquake strikes off California coast CNN International
New York Times - Fort Worth Star Telegram - San Francisco Chronicle - WLOS
Read below for more news:
Power disrupted but no injuries reported in Eureka quake
Los Angeles Times - 1 hour ago
The earthquake near Eureka, Calif., this afternoon -- a reported magnitude 6.5 -- snapped power lines, toppled televisions and shook up local stores, but so far no injuries have been reported.
6.5 Quake Strikes Off California Coast Wall Street Journal
6.5 earthquake strikes off California coast CNN International
New York Times - Fort Worth Star Telegram - San Francisco Chronicle - WLOS
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
