4.8 Magnitude Earthquake CENTRAL PERU - 7th August 2012

A magnitude 4.8 earthquake has struck CENTRAL PERU at a depth of 123.9 km (77 miles), the quake hit at 02:02:50 UTC Tuesday 7th August 2012
The epicenter was 22 km (13.6 miles) Northeast of Tingo Maria, Peru
No Reports of Damage or Injuries at this time

5.2 Magnitude Earthquake ATACAMA, CHILE - 7th August 2012

A magnitude 5.2 earthquake has struck ATACAMA, CHILE at a depth of 64.3 km (40 miles), the quake hit at 00:39:05 UTC Tuesday 7th August 2012
The epicenter was 52 km (32.2 miles) SSW of Copiapo, Chile
No Reports of Damage or Injuries at this time

4.9 Magnitude Earthquake EASTERN XIZANG - 7th August 2012

A magnitude 4.9 earthquake has struck EASTERN XIZANG at a depth of 35.2 km (21.9 miles), the quake hit at 00:17:58 UTC Tuesday 7th August 2012
The epicenter was 63 km (39 miles) South of Domartang, China
No Reports of Damage or Injuries at this time

4.7 Magnitude Earthquake HALMAHERA, INDONESIA - 6th August 2012

A magnitude 4.7 earthquake has struck HALMAHERA, INDONESIA at a depth of 70.3 km (43.7 miles), the quake hit at 23:13:52 UTC Monday 6th August 2012
The epicenter was 108 km (67 miles) ESE of Tobelo, Indonesia
No Tsunami Warning Issued - No Reports of Damage or Injuries at this time

Injured Whale Calf Swims In Sydney Harbour

Sikhs say attacks on community are 'collateral damage' of 9/11

Harjit Jeji Shergill would not go so far as to say there was an inevitability to the murder of six Sikh worshipers at his local temple, but after years of people venomously calling him "Bin Laden" he feared it might come to this somewhere in America.

As Oak Creek's Sikh community grapples with Sunday's tragedy it is buffeted by shock and mourning for some its best-known figures. There is also appreciation for the police officers who stopped the gunman – including one who took several bullets – and almost certainly saved other lives.

But underpinning everything is a pouring forth of frustration, just short of anger, at what Sikhs in Oak Creek and other parts of the US say is the frequent assumption that because of their turbans and beards they are Muslims – with all the weight that carries since 9/11.

One Sikh leader said that is an assumption "with deadly consequences". Another said that the Oak Creek killings are the "collateral damage" of the al-Qaida attacks.

Jeji Shergill, 62, said that since 9/11 he has regularly been assumed to be Muslim and that routinely spills over into abuse. "They compare us to the Muslims and we're completely different," he said. "I own a gas station. I am working there. People, they call me Bin Laden. Then I explain to them: sorry, you are misunderstanding. You are mixing us up with the Muslims. You try to explain about the turban and the beard. They still call you Bin Laden." more

Thoughts: *Reads last paragraph and sighs*

Islamic Society of Joplin mosque razed in fire; 2nd blaze this summer (But that's alright, since it wasn't a Church or more importantly, a Synagogue. Nothing to see here, folks.)

Investigators say it will take a few days to determine if the fire that destroyed a southwest Missouri mosque was arson.

Imam Lahmuddin holds his hands over his face after a fire destroyed the Islamic Society of Joplin, Mo., mosque, Monday, Aug. 6, 2012, in Joplin, Mo. The fire was the second fire to hit the Islamic center in little more than a month.

A Carl Junction, Mo., firefighter works to extinguish the smoldering remains of the Islamic Society of Joplin mosque, Monday, Aug. 6, 2012, in Joplin, Mo. The fire was the second fire to hit the Islamic center in little more than a month. source

Mt Tongariro eruption: Code red - New Zealand

A thick ash cloud is covering much of the central North Island after Mt Tongariro erupted for the first time in more than a century late last night.

The volcanic alert level for Mt Tongariro has risen from 1 to 2, while the aviation colour code has been raised to red.

Roads are closed, flights are likely to be disrupted and nearby residents are advised to stay indoors as ash and rock spews from the mountain.

GNS science is reporting that about 11.50pm on Monday night ash fall began to be reported in the volcano's vicinity - it has since been reported as far east as SH5 near Te Haroto and in Napier.

It is the first time the mountain has erupted since 1897.

GNS duty volcanologist Michael Rosenberg told Radio New Zealand that some people are reported to have left their houses on the southern shores of Lake Rotoaira, though no formal notices of evacuation have been issued so far by Civil Defence.

He said residents in the area have told GNS of hearing several loud explosions, lightning and plumes of smoke and police have been told by an onlooker that "a new hole in the side of the mountain" had formed.

They have also reported bright red rocks flying out of the mountain. Read More

Sea of Trouble: 'US-China tension spells trouble for Asia-Pacific'

Pussy Riot's 'unholy prayer' splits society

'Aljazeera, Trojan horse of Muslim world'

5.4 Magnitude Earthquake HALMAHERA, INDONESIA - 6th August 2012

A magnitude 5.4 earthquake has struck HALMAHERA, INDONESIA at a depth of 216.2 km (134.3 miles), the quake hit at 18:55:13 UTC Monday 6th August 2012
The epicenter was 116 km (72 miles) NNE of Tobelo, Indonesia
No Tsunami Warning Issued - No Reports of Damage or Injuries at this time

Grand Master Jerry Sears shot dead while cleaning outside Masonic lodge

The killing of a Masonic leader in front a Detroit lodge in broad daylight has left detectives baffled.

Grand Master Jerry Sears was shot once in the neck while he was cleaning outside the building, located on Detroit's west side in Fenkell.

The 56-year-old was the leader of the Mt. Olive Grand Lodge Ancient York Masons. His body was found by another Mason on the lawn shortly after 3.30pm on Saturday.

It is believed the gunman came from around the corner of the building before shooting Mr Sears.

His death has stunned those who know him, who have described Mr Sears as being intelligent, articulate and logical.

Speaking to the Detroit Free Press, Barry Short, state grand financial secretary of the lodge, said: 'Who could do such a heinous thing to such a nice person? He would help everybody.' Read More

Standard and Poor's downgrades 15 Italian banks, warning country's recession could be deeper than feared

Standard and Poor's has downgraded 15 of Italy's biggest banks, and cut the ratings of 15 more.

The credit ratings agency said today that Italy's recession could potentially be deeper and more prolonged than previously thought.

It said problem assets are mounting and that many banks have reduced provisions for loan losses, making them more vulnerable.

The ratings of UniCredit SpA and Intesa Sanpaolo SpA were confirmed by S&P. Banca Carige SpA, Banca Popolare dell'Alto Adige and Unione di Banche Italiane, among others, also saw their ratings reduced.

S&P lowered its rating on 34 banks in February, citing the country's financial vulnerability and expectations of lower earnings.

The move came as Italian prime minister Mario Monti gave an interview claiming that the nation needs moral support from Germany, but not its cash.

Mr Monti told German magazine Der Spiegel he was concerned about growing anti-euro, anti-German and anti-European Union sentiment in the parliament in Rome. Read More

Dealing with illegal immigration, Greek-style: 6,000 people detained in ONE weekend

Authorities in Greece are rounding up thousands of suspected illegal immigrants in a large-scale deportation drive to combat what one government official compared to a 'prehistoric invasion'.

Greece has long been Europe's main entry point for illegal immigrants from Asia and Africa seeking a better life in the West, but now the country's severe economic problems and high unemployment have spurred the government to address the issue.

Police said today that 6,000 people were detained over the weekend in Athens in a massive operation incongruously named after the ancient Greek god of hospitality, Zeus Xenios.

Officers across the city were seen stopping mostly African and Asian people in the street for identification checks. Most were only briefly detained, but about 1,600 were arrested for illegally entering Greece and sent to holding centres pending deportation. Read More

Samantha Harper charged after children, two and three, die after being locked in a sweltering car for an hour

Two children, aged three and two, have died from apparent heat stroke after being left in a locked car for more than an hour.

Three-year-old Daniel Marise and her two-year-old sister Savannah were found dead by their mother who is accused of leaving them in the car.

Police said Samantha Harper admitted putting the children in the car and then falling asleep.

The 25-year-old woke up to find her children unresponsive in the car parked outside her home in Smyrna, Tennessee.

Officials said temperatures outside the vehicle would have been in the mid 90s, but far hotter inside.

'You put someone in a car with the windows rolled up, with no ventilation, it can increase the temperature easy 30 to 40 degrees inside the vehicle,' said Smyrna police spokesman Sgt. Bobby Gibson.

Harper has been charged with aggravated child abuse, but further charges could follow. Read More

Oklahoma town completely wiped out by devastating wildfire... but police say ARSON could be to blame

While residents of a quiet Oklahoma town sifted through their charred belongings after flames ravaged their community, police say they are investigating if the fire could have been deliberately set.

The fire near Luther, about 25 miles northeast of Oklahoma City, destroyed nearly five dozen homes and other buildings before firefighters were able to gain some measure of control on Saturday.

The Oklahoma County sheriff's department said it was looking for someone in a black pickup truck who was seen throwing newspapers out a window after setting them ablaze.

Department spokesman Mary Myers said there were 'no arrests, no suspects', but added that deputies were 'working around the clock' to find anyone responsible.

Oklahoma County sheriff's deputies arrested a man Saturday suspected of stealing a flat screen television from an evacuated home in Luther. Read More

Lawyer shoots dead his own sister in 'honour killing' in packed courtroom 'because he was opposed to her marriage'

A lawyer shot dead his own sister in the middle of a courtroom because she had 'brought shame' on the family for marrying a man they disapproved of, it has emerged.

In an honour killing that has shocked Pakistan, Javed Iqbal Shaikh shot his 20-year-old sister Rahila through the head in the middle of Hyderabad's Sindh High Court (SHC) Circuit Bench.

Shaikh smuggled a pistol into a courtroom under his lawyer's coat - passing security checks and body searches - and opened fire in front of dozens of witnesses.

Rahila was shot at point blank range to the left side of her head. Shaikh then attempted to fire at his sister's husband Zulfiqar Sehto, but police overpowered him before taking him into custody.

According to the Guardian, Sehto - who was uninjured in the attack - said: 'Before she fell to the ground, my wife was looking straight at me.'

Rahila married Zulfiqar Sehto in the Halani town of Tehsil Mahrabpur, in the Naushehro Feroze district - but it was a marriage her family opposed. Read More

Joshua Kimbrough 'sets fire to his girlfriend as she sits in their house before stealing a car'

A crazed man set his girlfriend alight on a chair and left her fighting for her life before going on a city-wide crime spree, police said.

Officers in Lakeland, Florida, said the alarm was raised on Friday morning after witnesses reported seeing the 26-year-old victim running out of a property on fire.

She crossed the road before a neighbour covered her with a sheet until emergency crews arrived.

Micheal Barnes told ABC News he was working on his car, when he saw the woman running towards him.

Mr Barnes said: 'She started hollering. I look up and she was completely in flames and was running towards us.

'The grass was kind of damp. So we had to roll and smother it out. We got a blanket and put it over her.

'The neighbours over here helped and we sat there and it started to drizzle. So we held a blanket over her so water wouldn't hit.'

The man said to be behind it, 32-year-old Joshua Kimbrough, committed several other crimes across the city before tips from the public helped to track him down, according to police. Read More

Voyager 1 prepares to leave our solar system after travelling eleven-billion miles during 35-year journey

On the same day NASA makes a historic encounter with Mars, one of Man's earliest rockets is setting it's own truly historic record.

In the last week, Voyager 1, which floated into the heavens in 1977, has signalled it has passed two of the 'key changes' expected when it passes out of the furthest fringes of our solar system - a staggering 11,100,000,000 miles away.

This is the furthest distance any man-made object has ever travelled - and on July 28th, it's long and arduous journey was broken by cosmic changes.

The data received from the Voyager, which travels at six miles an hour, on July 28th showed a five per cent spike in the level of high-energy cosmic rays.

This implies the Voyager is moving out of the heliosheath - the 'protective bubble' around the solar system created from charged particles from the sun. Read More

Merkel is running the 'Fourth Reich': Fury after Italian newspaper prints picture of German Chancellor with hand raised and compares her to the Nazis

An Italian newspaper owned by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has caused controversy by printing a front page headline which said 'Fourth Reich' above a picture of German chancellor Angela Merkel.

The picture in newspaper Il Giornale also showed Chancellor Merkel raising her right arm in salute, a gesture associated with the Nazi salute used by Hitler's followers.

The article, which was published on Friday, has heightened a bitter war of words between Italy and Germany over the handling of the ongoing Euro crisis.

The angry article attacked tough talking Chancellor Merkel saying that her intransigence had brought 'us and Europe to its knees' adding that 'Italy is no longer in Europe but in the Fourth Reich.'

It went on to say: 'In the First Reich, Germany also wanted the title Emperor of Rome and in the next two they used their own means again against the states of Europe, two world wars and millions of dead, obviously this was not enough to quieten German egomania.

'Once again it has surfaced but this time not with the use of cannon, this time it's the Euro.

'The Germans believe it's theirs and we have to submit, surrender, hand ourselves over to the new Kaiser Angela Merkel who wants to rule in our own house.' Read More

Cathy Huynh and Karin Joy Bowerman suffer mysterious and agonizing deaths two days apart after 'being poisoned while on holiday in Vietnam'

Two friends who went backpacking across Vietnam collapsed and died within days of one another from a mystery poison.

Canadian-born Cathy Huynh, 26, who taught English in South Korea, decided to take a week-long break with her friend and fellow teacher Karin Joy Bowerman, 27, from Illinois in the United States.

While sharing a room at the Son and Daughter guesthouse in the coastal city of Nha Trang, Miss Bowerman fell ill and was taken to the Khanh Hoa Province General Hospital by her friend last Monday evening.

She did not have any apparent injuries, but was suffering from serious respiratory failure and her blood pressure had dropped to zero.

By 10.30pm that night, Miss Bowerman had died.

Two days later, Miss Huynh, who is of Vietnamese origin, was treated in the same hospital for symptoms of shock and while under intensive care, reportedly suffered several cardiac arrests.

She died in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Forensic official Pham Xuan Thong said authorities have not been able to determine the cause, but it was likely they had been poisoned.

He said samples will be analysed at the National Forensic Examination Center in Hanoi. Read More

TSA screeners LOSE woman who 'tested positive for explosives', allow her to leave on plane..and THEN put airport on lock down and cancel 100 Flights

TSA screeners at Newark Liberty International Airport lost a woman who reportedly tested positive for explosives on Sunday and only put the airport on lock-down when she boarded a flight to Cleveland, Ohio.

Earlier in the day, the Transportation Security Administration at the airport misplaced a piece of checked luggage that had also tested positive for explosives and couldn't find it for 45 minutes. The bomb squad cleared the oversize bag -- but only two and a half hours after it was discovered.

The security failures caused more than 100 flights at the busy airport to be cancelled and dozens more delayed as furious passengers waited for hours -- only to learn their planes were not going to take off.

About 8.45am, a woman slipped through a TSA checkpoint at Terminal C before being fully screened.

Fox 5 New York reported that the woman was flagged in a preliminary test for explosives.

The TSA refused to comment on the report that possible explosives were involved. Read More

Dr Donald Liu gives his life to save two young boys drowning in Lake Michigan as he dies in rescue

Chicago is mourning one of its most talented children's surgeons today, after he died while trying to save the lives of two young boys.

Dr Donald Liu, 50, drowned in Lake Michigan as he went to help the children, who were struggling in choppy waters.
Dr Liu’s widow, Dr Dana Suskind, said the couple had been spending Sunday morning at a friend’s beach-side home with their children Genevieve, 13, Asher, 10, and Amalie, 7, when disaster struck.

After seeing the two boys in difficulties, the doctor went out to help before rescue workers could arrive.

The stricken boys survived the traumatic incident and were safely returned to the beach, but Dr Liu perished after being caught in a riptide at around 10am.

Tributes have poured in for the father-of-three, who was surgeon-in-chief and professor of surgery and pediatrics at Comer Children’s Hospital in Chicago.

The Chicago Sun-Times quoted his friend and colleague Dr Jeffrey Matthews, chairman of surgery at the University of Chicago Hospital, who said: 'Dr Liu drowned while successfully saving two children who got caught in heavy surf in Lake Michigan.

'He managed to help them but he got pulled down by the undertow himself. He really died a hero.' Read More

Spanish stocks halted for 5 hours due to trading glitch

Computerized trading problems aren't unique to the United States apparently. The main stock market in Spain was halted Monday for nearly 5 hours due to a "technical glitch," according to the index operator.

The IBEX 35 was offline from 10:05 a.m. to 2:50 p.m. local time, a spokesman for the Bolsas y Mercados Españoles said. The index rallied after trading resumed, gaining 2.8%. The spokesman said he did not yet know what caused the outage, but indicated that a statement would be issued once the source was fully uncovered.

Spain has been at the center of market concerns since June, when the government asked its fellow euro area nations for help bailing out its banks. But yields on Spanish government bonds, particularly shorter-dated maturities, were lower Monday as investors took a positive view of last week's announcement by the European Central Bank.

The market malfunction in Spain comes on the heels of a technical glitch in the U.S. that revived concerns about the dangers of high-frequency trading. Read More

NATO driver Killed in Pakistan

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Militants killed a driver of a container truck carrying supplies for NATO in Pakistan's tribal region on Monday, a government official told CNN.

Three gunmen in a car opened fire on the truck in the Jamrud area of Khyber Agency, a district in Pakistan's tribal region bordering Afghanistan, said Bakhtiyar Khan, a government official in the district.

Khan said three members of the truck crew were also injured in the incident as the vehicle moved towards the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Several anti-American militant groups, including the Taliban, are active in the region.

Pakistan reopened routes into Afghanistan a month ago after closing it to NATO traffic in anger at the killing of 24 Pakistani troops by coalition forces.

The Pakistani Taliban threatened to attack NATO trucks when the border reopened, saying the supplies are used to target its members fighting against occupation in Afghanistan.

Taliban have attacked NATO supplies in the past, and killed drivers and other crew. Read More

Rover Curiosity: First pictures from Mars rover

Judoka Delpopolo expelled from Olympics for positive marijuana test

(CNN) -- American judoka Nicholas Delpopolo has been thrown out of the Olympics after a failed drug test he blamed on inadvertently eating food that had been baked with marijuana.

The 23-year-old has been disqualified from the 73-kilogram class competition by the International Olympic Committee, after finishing seventh.

Delpopolo is the first athlete at the 2012 Games to fail an in-competition drug test and in a statement released by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) he said he was embarrassed by his mistake.

"My positive test was caused by my inadvertent consumption of food that I did not realize had been baked with marijuana, before I left for the Olympic Games," Delpopolo said. Read More

11-year-old girl married to 40-year-old man

Before their wedding ceremony begins in rural Afghanistan, a 40-year-old man sits to be photographed with his 11-year-old bride. The girl tells the photographer that she is sad to be engaged because she had hoped to become a teacher. Her favorite class was Dari, the local language, before she had to leave her studies to get married.

She is one of the 51 million child brides around the world today. And it's not just Muslims; it happens across many cultures and regions.

Photographer Stephanie Sinclair has traveled the world taking pictures, like the one of the Afghan couple, to document the phenomenon. Christiane Amanpour spoke with Sinclair about a book which features her photographs called, "Questions without Answers: The World in Pictures by the Photographers of VII."

Amanpour asked Sinclair if the 11-year-old Afghan girl married in 2005, and others like her, consummate their marriages at such an early age. Sinclair says while many Afghans told her the men would wait until puberty, women pulled her aside to tell her that indeed the men do have sex with the prepubescent brides. Read More

'Germany will die to make Euro live'

Standard Chartered 'exposed US to terrorists' with $250bn in Iran transactions

Standard Chartered has been accused of leaving the US financial system vulnerable to terrorists, drug kingpins and corrupt regimes by "scheming" with the Iranian government to conduct secret transactions worth $250bn (£160bn) spanning almost a decade.

When an executive in the US highlighted the risk that staff could face criminal liability for defying sanctions, it is claimed that the group executive director in London said “You f---ing Americans. Who are you to tell us, the rest of the world, that we’re not going to deal with Iranians.” Read More

Wade Michael Page Wisconsin temple shooter

Oak Creek, Wisconsin (CNN) -- An Army veteran who neighbors say played in a far right punk band was the lone shooter in the rampage at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin that killed six people and wounded four, according to information from law enforcement authorities.

Wade Michael Page, 40, was shot to death by police responding to the Sunday morning attack in the Milwaukee suburb of Oak Creek, the community's chief of police told reporters Monday.

It was the latest violence against the Sikh community in the United States in apparent misdirected revenge for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The attacker shot people inside and outside the temple, including a police officer. Oak Creek Police Chief John Edwards said. Another police officer with a rifle then shot the gunman, who died at the scene.

According to Edwards, police have received information that the suspect "may have been involved in" the white supremacist movement, but he added it remains unconfirmed. Read More

Aerial Bombardment Of Aleppo

Fighter jets scream in an almost vertical dive unleashing bombs and machine gun rounds into the heart of Aleppo.

The noise and the percussion waves from the explosions are sickening. Day and night.

Helicopters strafe Fee Syrian Army (FSA) fighter positions while selecting targets for the Russian-made MIG jets' continuous sorties.

In the target zones, where they are strongest, the FSA scamper to hide their spoils.

A tank is moved under the dubious protection of a tree line while trucks with heavy machine guns bolted to the back, career around the streets in a deadly game of cat and mouse; trying to claim the prize of a jet while still staying alive. Read More

UK Bank Accused Of '£160bn Scheme With Iran'

The London-listed Standard Chartered bank has been accused of violating US laws by conducting more than £160bn worth of secret transactions with Iranian entities.

Officials in New York state said a banking unit of Standard Chartered bank (SCB) conducted transactions in violation of US anti-money laundering laws.

It said the bank's officials lied to investigators and that it may lose its licence to operate in New York state.

The Department of Financial Services said the transactions "left the US financial system vulnerable to terrorists, weapons dealers, drug kingpins and corrupt regimes".

It said: "For almost ten years, SCB schemed with the government of Iran and hid from regulators roughly 60,000 secret transactions, involving at least $250 billion (£160bn), and reaping SCB hundreds of millions of dollars in fees.

"SCB's actions left the US financial system vulnerable to terrorists, weapons dealers, drug kingpins and corrupt regimes, and deprived law enforcement investigators of crucial information used to track all manner of criminal activity."

The news was announced just before the FTSE 100 stock market in London closed, with shares in the bank plunging more than 6%. Read More

Clegg Vows Revenge As Lords Reform Ditched

The Deputy PM has said he was dropping Lords reform after David Cameron told him Tory MPs were not prepared to support changes.

Nick Clegg said that the Tories had "broken the contract" between the coalition partners, even though his party had consistently delivered on its side of the deal.

He told a news conference in London: "The Conservative Party is not honouring the commitment to the Lords reform and, as a result, part of our contract has now been broken.

"Clearly I cannot permit a situation where Conservative rebels can pick and choose the parts of the contract they like, while Liberal Democrat MPs are bound to the entire agreement.

"Coalition works on mutual respect; it is a reciprocal agreement, a two-way street. So I have told the Prime Minister that when, in due course, parliament votes on boundary changes for the 2015 election I will be instructing my party to oppose them."

He said he was dropping the Lords reform bill after David Cameron informed him that an "insufficient number" of Tory MPs were prepared to support the changes.

But he insisted that the Lib Dems would carry on in the coalition. Read More

4.2 Magnitude Earthquake NORTHERN COLOMBIA - 6th August 2012

A magnitude 4.2 earthquake has struck NORTHERN COLOMBIA at a depth of 156.5 km (97.2 miles), the quake hit at 15:31:51 UTC Monday 6th August 2012
The epicenter was 12 km (7.4 miles) NNE of Villanueva, Colombia
No Reports of Damage or Injuries at this time

4.6 Magnitude Earthquake AEGEAN SEA - 6th August 2012

A magnitude 4.6 earthquake has struck the AEGEAN SEA at a depth of 15.3 km (9.5 miles), the quake hit at 15:22:12 UTC Monday 6th August 2012
The epicenter was 30 km (18.6 miles) Southeast of Skyros, Greece
No Tsunami Warning Issued - No Reports of Damage or Injuries at this time

4.6 Magnitude Earthquake KASHMIR-XINJIANG BORDER REGION - 6th August 2012

A magnitude 4.6 earthquake has struck the KASHMIR-XINJIANG BORDER REGION at a depth of 73.3 km (45.5 miles), the quake hit at 14:15:46 UTC Monday 6th August 2012
The epicenter was 133 km (82 miles) Northeast of Thang, India
No Reports of Damage or Injuries at this time

4.6 Magnitude Earthquake SAMAR, PHILIPPINES - 6th August 2012

A magnitude 4.6 earthquake has struck SAMAR, PHILIPPINES at a depth of 100 km (62 miles), the quake hit at 13:28:50 UTC Monday 6th August 2012
The epicenter was 9 km (5.6 miles) South of Hernani, Samar, Philippines
No Tsunami Warning Issued - No Reports of Damage or Injuries at this time

5.1 Magnitude Earthquake SOUTHWEST OF AFRICA - 6th August 2012

A magnitude 5.1 earthquake has struck SOUTHWEST OF AFRICA at a depth of 10.1 km (6.3 miles), the quake hit at 12:20:45 UTC Monday 6th August 2012
The epicenter was 709 km (440 miles) ENE of Bouvet Island, Bouvet Island
No Tsunami Warning Issued - No Reports of Damage or Injuries at this time

Humpback whale and calf are injured after colliding with ferry in Sydney Habour

They are the giants of the deep, but when a pair of humpback whales surfaced near Sydney Harbour they had a painful shock as an early morning ferry collided with them.

Eyewitnesses say the migrating pair were struck by the propeller blade of The Collaroy on the 8.40am Circular Quay to Manly service, leaving the female adult with a gash near the dorsal fin and the calf with an 80cm wound.

The incident comes just five days after a humpback whale was discovered washed up in a public swimming pool by Sydney's Newport Beach.

The Collaroy was traveling through the harbour's western channel off the Clifton Gardens area when today's incident occurred.

A whale warning had been issued earlier stating that the huge animals which can grow to the size of a London bus were in the area. Read More

Syrian Prime Minister is 'sacked' amid rumours he's defected to Jordan... as bomb blasts rips through state TV station

Syria's Prime Minister Riyad Hijab has been sacked amid rumours he had defected with his family to neighbouring nation Jordan.

The former agriculture minister was only handed his post by President Bashar Assad in June following a parliamentary election.

Authorities said the vote was a step towards political reform, but opponents dismissed the ballot as a sham.

Officials said Omar Ghalawanji, who was previously a deputy prime minister, had today been appointed to lead a temporary caretaker government.

It came as this morning a bomb blast ripped through the third floor of the Syrian state television and radio building in Damascus - injuring at least three people.

Footage showed the latest explosion to hit the Syrian capital destroyed walls, overturned desks, blew out cabinet doors and shattered glass.

Workers were shown tending to a wounded colleague as the station managed to remain on air. Read More

Lions 'poisoned' by visitor at Berlin's famous zoo

A pair of lions began foaming at the mouth and became critically ill after being 'poisoned' by a visitor at Berlin's famous zoo.

Aru and Aketi were spotted foaming at the mouth five days ago and stopped eating and drinking.

They also developed colic - a condition where they repeatedly cried out in distress.

Zookeepers believe the pair must have been poisoned by a visitor to the 168-year old zoo located in the Tiergarten area of the city.

The zoo said that the meat fed to the pair as part of their diet was not contaminated; the meat is eaten by all 16 big cats at the zoo and no others fell ill. Read More

David and Frances Champion jailed for beating their daughter, 17, for 'bringing shame on the family' by having a black boyfriend

A mother and father who repeatedly punched their daughter while screaming 'vile' racist insults because they said she had 'brought shame' on their family by dating a black man have been jailed.

David and Frances Champion assaulted their then-17-year-old daughter Jane and her boyfriend Aflonce Ncube in two ‘disgraceful’ racist attacks.

Miss Champion was repeatedly punched in the face, grabbed round the throat and had her hair pulled which left her with lumps and bruises.

Her boyfriend, Mr Ncube was kicked in the legs while being subjected to a torrent of abuse over his skin colour.

Mr Champion was jailed today for 12 months and his wife for nine months after two 'vile' racial attacks on the pair. Read More

Al-Qaeda thrives as US helps to 'flip' Syria

'Scrap banks or they'll bring chaos' - Nobel Economist

5.0 Magnitude Earthquake SOUTHWEST OF AFRICA - 6th August 2012

A magnitude 5.0 earthquake has struck SOUTHWEST OF AFRICA at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles), the quake hit at 11:49:14 UTC Monday 6th August 2012
The epicenter was 708 km (439 miles) ENE of Bouvet Island, Bouvet Island
No Tsunami Warning Issued - No Reports of Damage or Injuries at this time

Explosion at illegal workshop in eastern China kills 13 people

BEIJING — An explosion at an illegal workshop in eastern China has killed 13 people.

The official Xinhua News Agency said Monday another 14 people were hurt in Sunday’s blast in Wenzhou city in Zhejiang province.

It said the family-run workshop, which made locks, was illegal. The blast happened when sparks from a polishing machine ignited dust in the workshop.

Industrial safety is a problem in China, with safety rules standards widely ignored and many small factories operating without proper safety equipment. Source