A magnitude 5.5 earthquake has struck Eastern Turkey at a depth of just 4.4 km (2.7 miles), the quake hit at 03:22:36 UTC Thursday 22nd September 2011.
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake has struck the Tonga Region at a depth of 36.4 km (22.6 miles), the quake hit at 00:49:59 UTC Thursday 22nd September 2011.
A magnitude 4.4 earthquake has struck the Izu Islands, Japan Region at a depth of 126km (78.3 miles), the quake hit at 23:43:10 UTC Wednesday 21st September 2011.
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake has struck the Samoa Islands Region at a depth of 34.8 km (21.6 miles), the quake hit at 23:10:46 UTC Wednesday 21st September 2011.
A magnitude 5.1 earthquake has struck Taiwan at a depth of 17.9 km (11.1 miles), the quake hit at 22:18:32 UTC Wednesday 21st September 2011.
The government is calculating the cost of Scotland splitting from Britain to reinforce its case against nationalist demands for independence, a cabinet minister said on Monday.
Syria's security forces opened fire on Monday during a ackdown on opposition activists in the town of Houla in central Homs province, activists said. "Five residents, including a woman, were shot dead on Monday by security forces, who have been conducting a sweep in Houla since Sunday," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement, quoted by AFP.
A century ago, phrenologists would measure people’s heads in a quest to explain differences in their social position, and healthy, well-behaved families would be sent to ‘eugenics camps’ to breed more of their kind. Today, policymakers seek to explain everything from income equality to anti-social behaviour through the formation of toddlers’ brains, and parents are instructed in the precise arts of cuddling their children and singing nursery rhymes in order to optimise synaptic development.
Inmates staged near simultaneous jailbreaks from three prisons in the Mexican state of Veracruz early Monday and at least 32 of them escaped, officials said.
Armed men from Congo burst into a pub in the central African nation of Burundi and killed 36 people, an official said Monday. One wounded man said an attacker yelled, “Make sure there’s no survivors.”
Hong Kong police have made their biggest ever cocaine bust, seizing more than 1,200 pounds (560 kilograms) of the drug and arresting eight people.
The Bureau of Land Management says a fossil found by employees on federal land represents the earliest record of living beavers in North America.
According to an organization that tracks UFO reports, this summer has been an especially busy period for UFO sightings. The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) noted that sightings increased over the past six weeks, with some states more than doubling their normal numbers.
What if one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recent history happened today? A new study suggests that a blast akin to one that devastated Iceland in the 1780s would waft noxious gases southwestward and kill tens of thousands of people in Europe. And in a modern world that is intimately connected by air traffic and international trade, economic activity across much of Europe, including the production and import of food, could plummet.
For Bill Green it was more than just a routine visit to his Dongguan factory.
Today, one does not need to blow up buildings, take hostages in political motivation, send anthrax through the mail, or even wave a gun around in a public place to be considered a terrorist threat.
Charlotte Bevins' long blond hair blows in the wind as she stands amid protesters, her eyes red and puffy from crying.
It's the same old story: At first, politicians deny the seriousness of the situation. Then, costs for the disbursement of government bonds rise immensely. A few austerity packages are launched. Then the country is downgraded by a ratings agency. Investors lose confidence in the country, followed by huge increases in government bond interest rates. Politicians hesitate, but then announce they can no longer manage on our own and must resort to the eurozone bailout mechanism.
A programme delivering food aid to 13 million poverty-hit Europeans was left in limbo Tuesday due to opposition from six austerity-driven EU nations, Polish Agriculture Minister Marek Sawicki said.
Powerful bomb exploded in the centre of the Turkish capital Ankara on Tuesday, wounding up to 15 people, senior government officials said.
The Punjab government seems helpless to control dengue virus which claimed lives of nine more people in the provincial capital on Tuesday, the highest number of deaths reported in a day since the disease hit the city.
When it was built in 1936, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was a Depression-era project that put scores of Americans to work. When its $6.3 billion replacement opens in two years, it will be an international affair from the bottom up, an example of massive outsourcing that has drawn both praise and criticism.
America’s nuclear bombers are supposed to be ready to go in a hurry. They’re subject to the strictest rules for loading and prepping aircraft with the world’s most dangerous weapons. So how did inspectors hand out a passing grade to wing of B-52s when it took them four attempts and 30 hours to get a single plane ready to fly?
An Italian couple have sought legal help to persuade their 41-year-old son to fly the nest, Italian media reported.
An insurance firm is suing Saudi Arabia in a U.S. court over claims that the country funded the terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacks.
Four migrant workers were mown down on a pedestrian crossing close to Moscow by a motorcade reportedly carrying a top banker, the head of a road safety campaign group told AFP on Wednesday.
NATO agreed on Wednesday to a three-month extension of its air and sea campaign in Libya as the country's new rulers try to dislodge well-armed Gaddafi loyalists holding out in several towns.
A Salt Lake airline passenger faces federal charges for allegedly carrying a knife onto an airplane and verbally threatening police and FBI agents.
The government is pouring effort into bringing the temperature at Unit 2 of the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant under 100 degrees Celsius to prevent the release of radioactive materials through steam, but workers are also faced with the task of dealing with huge amounts of contaminated water. The process of bringing the temperature in the reactor core under 100 degrees Celsius is known as a "cold shutdown." However, this normally applies to a properly functioning reactor, and experts are split over whether it is applicable at the Fukushima No. 1 complex, where meltdowns have occurred.
The government has stated that managing and controlling the release of radioactive materials is a condition for completing Step 2 of the roadmap for bringing the nuclear crisis under control. However, even though the temperatures of the plant's Unit 1 and 3 reactors have been brought under 100 degrees Celsius, radioactive materials continue to be released.
According to data from the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the level of radioactive materials released from the plant between Sept. 1 and 15 reached 200 million becquerels per hour. Read More
The government is calling for the Nara and Wakayama prefectural governments and local bodies to take precautions following signs that two landslide dams in the prefectures created by Typhoon No. 12 may have partially collapsed. "It's possible there've been partial breaches or overflows," a representative of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's Kinki Regional Development Bureau said. Collapse of the dams could lead to significant flooding.
One of the dams, located in Gojo, Nara Prefecture, has a maximum capacity of 550 cubic meters of water, making it the second-biggest of 17 landslide dams formed in the two prefectures. The water level had been steadily rising due to rain that fell from Sept. 20, and as of 10:10 a.m. on Sept. 21, the water level was 1.33 meters from the top of the dam. However, the water level then sank by 1.12 meters in one hour, suggesting part of the dam had collapsed.
Another dam in the Kumano district of Tanabe, Wakayama Prefecture, is believed to have overflowed on Sept. 20. Over a 1 1/2-hour period from 9:50 a.m. on Sept. 21, the water level fell by 42 centimeters. About one kilometer downstream from the dam, a sensor designed to warn of landslides was activated and a siren sounded. Officials said the water level in the river had risen but no landslides had been confirmed. Read More
Achieving a "cold shutdown" of a nuclear reactor is not difficult as long as the reactor is not broken. A cold shutdown is defined by experts as a situation in which nuclear reactors whose operations are suspended are being stably cooled down and the temperatures in them are kept below 100 degrees Celsius. However, it is no easy task to achieve a cold shutdown at the tsunami-hit Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant where fuel has melted and holes have developed in damaged reactors.
Goshi Hosono, state minister for the prevention of nuclear accidents, told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) annual general meeting under way in Vienna that Tokyo will do its best to achieve a cold shutdown of the stricken reactors at the plant by the end of this year. His remark suggests that the government intends to bring forward its target of achieving a stable cool-down of the troubled reactors and of substantially reducing the amount of radioactive substances released from the plant by January 2012.
The temperature at the bottom of the No. 1 reactor's pressure vessel has been stabilized at less than 100 degrees Celsius, and that of the No. 3 reactor has recently been kept below that level. Hosono appears to have made the remark at the IAEA conference while keeping in mind these positive signs.
It is a matter of course for the government to try its utmost to bring the crippled reactors under control as soon as possible, and it is important for it to show its determination to achieve this goal to the international community. Read More
A magnitude 5.1 earthquake has struck Sumbawa Region, Indonesia at a depth of 44.6 km (27.7 miles), the quake hit at 19:52:30 UTC Wednesday 21st September 2011.
Nasa scientists are working round the clock to tell us where and when a six-ton satellite will land this week - but the only thing that's certain is that pieces of it will hit the surface of the planet. The 20-year-old satellite will, Nasa estimates, break into more than 100 pieces on re-entry, and some will burn up - but it's estimated that around 26 of the heaviest metal pieces WILL hit the surface - in lumps weighing up to 300 pounds. In total, 1,200 pounds of metal will hit.
Debris could be scattered over an area up to 500 miles long. Nasa says there’s a 1 in 3,200 chance pieces could hit someone. It would be the first time in history someone was injured by space debris.
The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, or UARS, ran out of fuel in 2005 and could land on any of six continents. NASA says it could land at any point between 57 degrees north and 57 degrees south - which includes almost all the populated areas of our planet (see map below).
Most of the satellite will burn up during re-entry, but a 1,200 pounds of metal metal will still plummet to the Earth’s surface.
Don't worry too much, though - the odds of any one particular person being hit are much lower, around one in 21 trillion. Read More
Astronomer Dr Ian Griffin, from the UK Association of Science and Discovery Centres, says the Earth's atmosphere slows down falling satellites a great deal.
He explained that what remains of UARS will hit the ground relatively slowly and 'certainly not at orbital velocity of 17,500mph'.
Much of any satellite crashing to Earth will be disintegrated by heat, caused by friction with the atmosphere. It's the reason we get shooting stars - created by meteors burning up in the upper atmosphere. UARS is large enough, though, that up over a ton will strike the ground. It will not be in one piece, however: space vehicles experience incredible stress on re-entry. The load can be as much as 10Gs. An F1 car experiences around 5Gs with maximum braking from high speed.
The reason why the location of the crash site is so hard to predict is because the density of the atmosphere varies so greatly higher up, producing different amounts of drag.
A prediction that was wrong by even a few minutes would mean the satellite landing a huge distance away, owing to its speed.
The cold war between North and South Korea has heated up once again - with South Korea launching a radar spy plane dubbed 'Peace Eye', which is also capable of acting as an airborne command and control centre for fighter squadrons. The modified Boeing 737 is equipped with a powerful radar module made by defence giant Northrop Grumman, capable of simultaneous scans of air, sea and ground.
South Korea said this week that it was building anti-jamming equipment and planning to launch military satellites in response to signal-jamming attacks by North Korea on its military GPS system.
In total, Seoul has ordered four of the hi-tech war planes.
'Peace Eye increases South Korea's self-defense capacity with powerful airborne-surveillance and battle-management capabilities that will help enhance the security of the Korean peninsula,' said Boeing's Randy Price. Read More
If this cute little chap looks a wee bit confused, it's no wonder.His big wide eyes stare out at the world around him - which in turn is staring back at him.
Because nobody has seen a creature quite like this one before.
With a nose that looks more like a rodent's but long, pointy paws and white fur dappled with brown and orange, he is quite unique.
And zookeepers at Wenling, in eastern China, who were handed the animal by an anonymous man, have been unable to work out exactly what species he belongs to.
They think they are looking at some strange type of monkey - but other students of nature might recognise the characteristics of a bush baby.
As he sits in his cage, the creature therefore awaits an uncertain fate.
And the zookeepers sit and monitor his development and hopes he grows up into something slightly more recognisable. Source
This amazing picture shows for the first time the colourful jets deep inside one of the most mysterious elements in the galaxy, the black hole.Showing the innermost parts of a black hole’s active jets, the picture suggests that the spouts are much more dynamic than previously suspected.
And it shows that although no light can escape a black hole, energetic flares are produced inside the ultra-dense ball of matter.
Observed by NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft, this wildly fluctuating black hole is located 20,000 light-years away near the center of the galaxy.
It is estimated to have a mass at least six times greater than the sun.
Because the WISE spacecraft looks in the infrared, it was able to peer through the black hole’s turbulent disk to the base of the flaring jets. Read More
A leading FBI analyst who gave a lecture last year criticising mainstream Muslims has been caught on camera giving a second presentation urging agents to 'forget Al Qaeda' and 'go after the Death Star' of Islam.The Bureau's William Gawthrop was recorded making the 'dangerous' remarks to an audience of over 60 law enforcement officials during a counter-terrorism seminar in New York three months ago.
Gawthrop's presentation in June told the audience that the fight against Al Qaeda is a 'waste' compared to the threat posed by the ideology of Islam itself.
The controversial training seminar then went on to compare the 'internal forces which seek to exert Islamic rule' to the Death Star in the Star Wars films.
Gawthrop's 25-minute speech has since been branded 'mind-numbingly stupid and dangerous' and has drawn strong criticism from top Senators and representatives from Arab and Muslim-American groups.
During the lecture on June 8, Gawthrop tells the audience: 'We waste a lot of analytic effort talking about the type of weapon, the timing, the tactics. All of that is irrelevant... if you have an Islamic motivation for actions.' Read More
Scientists believe our solar system may have once had a fifth gas planet that was ejected from the solar system and 'orphaned'.A new study by David Nesvorny, from the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado, U.S., used different computer simulations to explore what the solar system looked like four billion years ago.
He discovered that back then planets had not yet settled into their existing orbits as they migrated and moved around.
However, after a series of tests he worked out that the solar system we recognise today could never have emerged without the existence of a fifth planet.
He came to this conclusion by using several different starting positions and ran computer simulations using the four gas planets - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune - but discovered they were to large and one would destroy another eventually.
Even using configurations where the gas planets survived, the solar system's rocky planets like Mars and Venus did not. Read More
The counterinsurgency tactic that is sending U.S. soldiers out on foot patrols among the Afghan people, rather than riding in armored vehicles, has contributed to a dramatic increase in arm and leg amputations, genital injuries and the loss of multiple limbs following blast injuries.
All it took to give nearly two dozen labor leaders from Chicago a windfall worth millions was a few tweaks to a handful of sentences in the state's lengthy pension code.
Is it possible to hide weapons in your hair?
Another TSA agent has been arrested and accused of rape.
