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Archive for April, 2011

Boy Hurt in Gaza Rocket Attack on Israeli Bus Dies of His Wounds

04/17/2011 Leave a comment

“The teenager who was critically wounded after Gaza militants launched an anti-aircraft missile at a school bus in southern Israel earlier this month succumbed to his wounds Sunday.

16-year-old Daniel Viflic died in the Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva after his condition seriously deteriorated last week.

The missile hit the bus traveling near Kibbutz Sa’ad just moments after it had dropped off the rest of the school children, wounding Viflic and the bus driver, who was moderately wounded by shrapnel wounds in his leg.”  Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam Tags:

Hailstones, Thundershowers Leave At Lead 12 Dead in Southern China

04/17/2011 Leave a comment

“BEIJING: At least 12 people died and 27 were injured as hailstones, thundershowers and gales hit south China’s Guangdong Province on Sunday, Xinhua quoted the ministry of civil affairs as stating.

The natural disasters, which began to savage cities including Guangzhou, Foshan, Dongguan and Zhongshan since 12 am Sunday, affected 506.7 hectares of farmland and caused about 50 million yuan ($7.65 million) in direct economic losses, the ministry said.”  Read more.

Categories: Natural Disasters Tags: ,

Earthquakes Rattle Pacific Ring Of Fire Nations – Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan, Tonga…

04/17/2011 Leave a comment

By MARK DUNPHY – “At least five countries located on the Pacific Ring of Fire have experienced earthquakes greater than a magnitude of 5 over the past 24 hours.

A 5.4 magnitude earthquake hit north-eastern Australia on Saturday afternoon. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake took place at 3.30pm local time (0530 GMT) about 124 kilometres southeast of Townsville, Queensland. The quake was measured at a depth of 10 kilometres. Queensland was hit by another 5.4 magnitude quake on 16 March last.

Meanwhile, Christchurch in New Zealand has been hit by more aftershocks this afternoon, leaving several parts of the city without power. The strongest of the tremors measured 5.2 on the Richter Scale. The country’s second largest city was hit by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake in February. 181 people were killed.

Elsewhere, Japan was rattled by a 5.9 magnitude aftershock on Saturday afternoon but there were no initial reports of damage and no risk of a tsunami.

Taiwan was hit by a quake measuring 5.8 on the Richter Scale. The quake struck 220km east of Keelung City. Tonga, an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, also experienced a 5.7 magnitude earthquake last night.”  Read more.

Categories: Earthquakes

Effect of Prairie Floods Ripples Into Grocery Aisles of World

04/17/2011 1 comment

“Bartley Kives, Winnipeg Free Press – “WINNIPEG – The flood of 2011 is having disparate effects on urban and rural Manitoba, as cities and towns remain largely dry while agricultural producers are bracing for another year of losses.

But these two solitudes are more connected than many city dwellers realize. The fate of farms in southern Manitoba, one of the world’s most productive agricultural regions, has implications far beyond the province’s borders.

Not only can a major flood affect the price of such staples as bread and cooking oil in Canada, it can exacerbate food-security concerns for people already struggling to feed themselves halfway around the world.

‘It’s amazing when you think about it,’ said Kreesta Doucette, executive director of Food Matters Manitoba, a non-profit organization that tries to raise awareness about food security.

‘We tend to feel we’re insulated from the food riots,’ she said, referring to recent events in India, Haiti and several African nations. ‘Most of the food we grow is exported around the world. We eat very little of what we produce.'”  Read more.

Categories: Famines and Crop Destruction, Natural Disasters Tags: , ,

Update: At Least 44 Dead in Southeast US After More Than 100 Twisters Spotted Across Region

04/17/2011 Leave a comment

By TOM BREEN and MIKE BAKER (AP) – “RALEIGH, N.C. – A furious storm system that kicked up tornadoes, flash floods and hail as big as softballs has claimed at least 35 lives on a rampage that began in Oklahoma days ago, then smashed across several Southern states as it reached a new and deadly pitch in North Carolina and Virginia.

Emergency crews searched for victims in hard-hit swaths of North Carolina, where 62 tornadoes were reported from the worst spring storm in two decades to hit the state. Ten people were confirmed dead in Bertie County, county manager Zee Lamb said. At least three deaths were reported in Virginia. Authorities warned the toll was likely to rise further Sunday as searchers probed shattered homes and businesses.

The storm claimed its first lives Thursday night in Oklahoma, then roared through Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. Seven people each were killed in Arkansas and Alabama, two people in Oklahoma and one person in Mississippi, authorities have said.” Read more.

Update 2: “(CNN) — Powerful storms that have ripped across the Southeast killed as many as 44 people over the past three days, according to National Weather Service and reports from several states.

There were 14 deaths in Bertie County, North Carolina, a rural area in the northeast part of the state, the weather service said Sunday. Although the weather service reported that number, local authorities said they were still working to determine the exact number of deaths.

“Reports are still incoming,” Mike Sprayberry, deputy director of the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management, told CNN.

The death toll across seven states includes 23 total in North Carolina; four in Virginia; seven in Alabama, two in Olkahoma, seven in Arkansas and one in Mississippi.”  Read more.

Update 3: “From Thursday, April 14, 2011 to Saturday, April, 16, 2011, devastating tornadoes rampaged across communities of the southern United States. Cities and towns from Oklahoma to North Carolina were assaulted by the deadly twisters.

The tornado outbreak led to a total of 241 tornado reports in 14 states over the three-day period. This will likely rank this tornado outbreak among the largest in history.”  Read more.

Categories: Natural Disasters Tags:

Iraq: Islamists Calling for the Complete Extermination of Christians in the Country

04/16/2011 Leave a comment

“Iraq (MNN) ― More Christians have been fleeing Iraq in recent months than ever before.

Carl Moeller with Open Doors USA says extremists are calling for the complete extermination of believers in the country.

‘We’ve been calling this a ‘religicide’–which is the systematic destruction and elimination of a religious group simply for being that religious group. And we see this now unfolding in a very shocking way,’ says Moeller.

The number of Christians in Iraq has dropped dramatically in the last few decades, dropping from 850,000 believers in 1991, to 550,000 believers in 2003, to 345,000 believers in early 2010. Now perhaps less than 250,000 Christians call Iraq home, a number which includes those who have been permanently displaced from their homes.”  Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam, Wars and Rumors of War Tags: , ,

Clinton Warns Intolerance Threatens to Hijack Arab Revolutions and Spread Extremism

04/16/2011 Leave a comment

By Matthew Lee – “BERLIN — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is warning that rising intolerance toward women and religious minorities threatens to hijack democratic transitions around the Arab world and spread violent extremism.

Clinton told an award ceremony in the German capital on Friday that she was disturbed by recent developments in post-revolt Egypt in which women and Coptic Christians were singled out for attacks and abuse. She said such incidents test the unity of pro-democracy demonstrators whose peaceful protests ousted Egypt’s authoritarian president and could fracture the reform movement.

Clinton said she feared similar backsliding elsewhere in the Mideast…” Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam, Wars and Rumors of War Tags: , ,

Muslims Attack Christian Village in Pakistan After Christians Accused of ‘Blasphemy’ and ‘Desecrating the Koran’

04/16/2011 1 comment

By Jibran Khan – “Gurjarnwala (AsiaNews) – Hundreds of Muslims attacked the Christian village of Khokarki this morning a few miles from the city of Gujranwala (Punjab), forcing its inhabitants to flee. According to AsiaNews sources, anonymous for security reasons, the attack took place following a dispute between Christian Mushtag gill and some local Muslims, who had accused the man and his son of blasphemy.

Mushtaq, 60, and his son, are accused of having desecrated the Koran. The police arrested them yesterday, after complaints of some Muslims who claim to have found torn pages of the Qu’ran in a bag hidden near the home of two Christians.” Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam Tags: ,

FBI Counter-Terror Official: Al Qaeda ‘Thrives’ After Dictators Fall

04/16/2011 Leave a comment

By Lee Ferran – “On the same day reports emerged of a new al Qaeda video that praised the revolutions sweeping the Arab world, one the U.S.’s top counter-terror officials warned the terror organization ‘thrives’ in the political unrest that follows.

‘The governments of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen have drastically changed in the last six months,’ FBI Assistant Director of Counter-Terrorism Mark Giuliano said Thursday. ‘They are now led by transitional or interim governments, military regimes, or democratic alliances with no established track record on counterterrorism efforts. Al Qaeda thrives in such conditions and countries of weak governance and political instability — countries in which governments may be sympathetic to their campaign of violence.'” Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam, Wars and Rumors of War

Radioactivity Rises in Sea Off Japan Nuclear Plant

04/16/2011 Leave a comment

By MARI YAMAGUCHI – “TOKYO (AP) – Levels of radioactivity have risen sharply in seawater near a tsunami-crippled nuclear plant in northern Japan, signaling the possibility of new leaks at the facility, the government said Saturday.

The announcement came after a magnitude-5.9 earthquake jolted Japan on Saturday morning, hours after the country’s nuclear safety agency ordered plant operators to beef up their quake preparedness systems to prevent a recurrence of the nuclear crisis.

… The level of radioactive iodine-131 spiked to 6,500 times the legal limit, according to samples taken Friday, up from 1,100 times the limit in samples taken the day before. Levels of cesium-134 and cesium-137 rose nearly fourfold.” Read more.

Categories: Man-Made Disasters Tags:

Christian Beheaded by Islamists, More Face a Menacing Upsurge in Attacks Across the World

04/16/2011 3 comments

“Recent incidents of brutal anti-Christian violence and persecution suggest that vulnerable believers are facing a menacing upsurge in such attacks across the world.

For example, in Afghanistan the Muslim Taliban have beheaded an Afghan Christian, Abdul Latif, in Herat Province. A video of the murder sent to Barnabas Aid shows one of the killers saying:

All praise be to our creator almighty god that he helped and blessed the holy warriors … so that we can implement the commandment of god on this infidel … so that he is punished according to his wrong deed, he is punished according to the commandment of god so that it is a warning to other infidels.

They shout ‘Allahu Akbar’ (‘god is great’) over and over again during the beheading, and they bring an execution notice to hang on the wall.”  Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam, Wars and Rumors of War Tags: , , ,

Texas Wildfires Continue Widespread Destruction, Evacuations

04/16/2011 Leave a comment

“GRAHAM, Texas – Wildfires sweeping across hundreds of thousands of acres in parched Texas killed a firefighter, forced hundreds of evacuations — including an entire town — and destroyed dozens of homes on Friday, officials said.

Strong winds were fueling fires that spanned about 655 square miles, according to the Texas Forest Service. Some of the fires have been burning for a week or more, including three in West Texas that have charred a combined 400,000 acres.”  Read more.

Categories: Man-Made Disasters, Natural Disasters