Rocks reach the roof of a home after a mudslide overtook at least 8
homes during heavy rains in Camarillo Springs, California, December 12,
2014
(Reuters / Jonathan Alcorn)
December 15, 2014 - CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
- Authorities are still on the lookout for mudslides after a major
storm hit draught-suffering Southern California on Friday, causing
floods and burying homes. Tens of thousands were left without power and
dozens of evacuations were ordered.
WATCH: Evacuations as storm strikes Southern California, mudslides bury homes.
The storm moved in from
Northern California with five inches of rain falling down, causing
random landslides and debris. At least 10 homes were completely wrecked,
according to AP.
No power, strong winds, flooding
Up to 50,000 people lost power as the wind speed reached up to 60 mph in some areas and street flooding was reported.
A
mudslide coming from a hillside around 50 miles (80 km) from Los
Angeles, in the city of Camarillo, covered up dozens of homes with
debris, including silt, sticks, and rocks – some of them as big as a
table. Some of the houses were covered up to their rooftops with debris.
Dozens of evacuations ordered
Local
authorities ordered at least 124 mandatory evacuations from the area,
according to Ventura County Sheriff's Capt. Don Aguilar. Meanwhile, 40
people were displaced following the storm’s damage and two people taken
to hospital.
The landslide was so powerful that two large
earthmovers used as a barrier were knocked over and one of them was
almost completely buried.
Rocks traveling down streets
The
suburb of Glendora, located east of Los Angeles, witnessed rocks and
bricks flowing down the streets, police Lt. Matt Williams told AP.
Fire rescue teams were involved in saving two people from the Los Angeles River on Friday.
A parked automobile is surrounded by water as a winter storm brings rain
and high winds to San Diego, California December 12, 2014 (Reuters /
Mike Blake)
Los Angeles Fire Department personnel stand by next to the Los Angeles
river during a rescue operation in Los Angeles, California December 12,
2014
(Reuters / Mario Anzuoni)
A woman watches waves roll in near a damaged house in Washaway Beach,
Washington December 11, 2014 as
a Pacific winter storm hits the western
United States (Reuters / David Ryder)
High waves crash under the Ocean Beach Pier as a winter storm brings
rain and high winds to San Diego, California December 12, 2014 (Reuters /
Mike Blake)
A group of houses are pictured after boulder-strewn rivers of mud swept
down hillsides during a winter storm,
in Camarillo Springs, California
December 12, 2014 (Reuters / Mario Anzuoni)
TV news crews set up across from a damaged home after a mud slide
overtook at least 18 homes during heavy rains
in Camarillo Springs,
California December 12, 2014 (Reuters / Jonathan Alcorn)
Mudslide alert in effect
California
has been suffering from a draught, so the rain was welcomed. But as the
sudden downpour caused mudslides, authorities called on people to
remain vigilant.
Rescuers remain worried about hills affected by
wildfires in the past, fearing that the soil, which is no longer
supported by roots, could be swept away.
Weather forecasts project that the storm will move east and head towards Nevada and Arizona. - RT.
Rain Soaks California Threatening More Flooding and Mudslides
After a wild week of weather across the Pacific states, more rain and wind will affect the West coast as two additional storms move inland.
The main storm track will send the bulk of the energy into California, the site of last week's worst weather.
This
means another round of drenching rainfall, gusty winds and snow in the
higher terrain, although the intensity is not expected to reach that of
last week's storm.
"This next Pacific storm looks less severe than the previous storm," said AccuWeather Storm Warning Meteorologist Alex Avalos.
Despite this storm being slightly weaker, the threat for flooding and mudslides will be renewed.
"Heavy
rain will pose the threat for mudslides in the higher elevations where
loose soil from the previous event and burn scars are prevalent," added
Avalos.
Travel delays will also be quite common through this week.
Mudslides will not only bring the threat for debris-filled roadways,
but flooding could washout some roadways also. Folks will want to be on
alert for road closures and should have alternative routes planned.
For those taking to the air, some of the major hubs on the West Coast will be under delays due to the rain and wind.
The first round of heavy rain will target the Bay area, as well as much of central and northern California through Monday night.
San Francisco
was hit hard with rain this past Thursday, measuring 3.43 inches.
Thursday's rainfall surpassed the amount of rain that the city received
all of last year (3.38 inches).
The first storm this week could bring another couple of inches to San Francisco and areas northward into northern California.
Episodes of rain will also push south into Los Angeles and San Diego Monday night into early Wednesday.
This
storm system will likely last longer than last week's storm keeping the
rain around through the middle of the week. Part of the reason will be
because of a second pulse of moisture that will move through.
"Most regions will get 1 to 3 inches of rainfall, with any accumulating snow generally above 5,000 feet," said Avalos. Know when the snow will affect your location by using AccuWeather's MinuteCast®.
It has the minute-by-minute forecast for your exact location. Type your
city name, select MinuteCast, and input your street address. On mobile,
you can also use your GPS location.
That snow could cause
disruptions across some of the higher passes, including Donner Pass.
Parts of the Sierra may get over a foot of snow.
Gusty winds will
accompany the rain and may put some communities in the dark, although
widespread power outages are not expected.
Another storm system
will arrive towards the end of the week, entering the region farther
north across Washington and Oregon and eventually diving down into
California late Friday and into Saturday.
The storm track will
continue to push farther north through the weekend and into next week,
which will keep the bulk of the storms north of California and mainly
into Oregon, Washington and British Columbia for Christmas week.
Despite flooding and mudslides, this stretch of unsettled weather will have helped the region in some ways as well.
"Before the rainy pattern takes a break, cumulative rainfall will have taken a huge slice out of the long-term drought," said AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski. - AccuWeather.
December 15, 2014 - PARADIGM SHIFT - Months after the formation of new financial institutions like the $100 billion BRICS Bank and the China-led Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank,
Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund
(IMF), said Friday that the organization is ready to discuss IMF voting
reforms without the United States to give BRICS and emerging countries
greater voting power.
Lagarde said the IMF is disappointed with
the US inaction to ratify the governance and quota reforms and will now
move forward without Washington.
“The IMF’s membership has been
calling on and was expecting the United States to approve the IMF’s 2010
Quota and Governance Reforms by year-end. Adoption of the reforms
remains critical to strengthen the Fund’s credibility, legitimacy, and
effectiveness, and to ensure it has sufficient permanent resources to
meet its members’needs,” Lagarde said in a statement.
“I have now
been informed by the U.S. Administration that the reforms are not
included in the budget legislation currently before the U.S. Congress. I
have expressed my disappointment to the U.S authorities and hope that
they continue to work toward speedy ratification,” she said.
“As
requested by our membership, we will now proceed to discuss alternative
options for advancing quota and governance reforms and ensuring that the
Fund has adequate resources, starting with an Executive Board meeting
in January 2015,” she added.
Earlier in September this year, in her opening address at the United Nations General Assembly,
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff warned that international financial
institutions are in danger of losing legitimacy if developing countries
like BRICS are not given proper representation.
“It is also
imperative to eliminate the disparity between the growing importance of
developing countries in the global economy and their insufficient
representation and participation in the decision-making processes of
international financial institutions, such as the Monetary Fund and the
World Bank. The delay in the expansion of voting rights of developing
countries in these institutions is unacceptable,” Rousseff said.
“These institutions are in danger of losing legitimacy and efficiency,” she added.
The
IMF reforms will hand more IMF voting powers to BRICS, a long-standing
demand of the group and will also reduce the concentration of
representative power of Western Europe at the IMF board.
China and
other emerging economies, including BRICS, have long protested against
their limited voice at global financial platforms, including the World
Bank, International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank.
The
IMF quota reform calls for a 6 per cent shift in quota share to emerging
economies. It will lift China, which still has less voting power than
the Benelux countries ( Belgium, Holland and Luxemburg), to the third
largest shareholder. Shares for Russia, India and Brazil will also see
hefty rise.
The reforms, however, have been delayed for four years
owing to a block by the US Congress as the US retains a veto. IMF chief
Lagarde hinted at a “Plan B” in April if the US fails to endorse the
reforms by year-end. - The BRICS Post.
December 15, 2014 - EARTH
- The following constitutes the latest reports of unusual and symbolic
animal behavior, mass die-offs, beaching and stranding of mammals, and
the appearance of rare creatures.
White rhino on verge of extinction: Second-last male dies
Photo from Wikipedia.org
The
white rhino is one step closer to extinction with the death of Angalifu
at the San Diego Zoo Safari. Only five members of the heavily-poached
species exist now, including one male and four females.
The
animal, estimated to be 44 years old, died from age-related ailments,
park officials announced. Angalifu was in decline for some time and had
refused food for several days. "Angalifu's death is a tremendous loss to all of us," Rancy Reiches, curator of mammals at the Safari Park, told the Los Angeles Times.
The
rhino is survived by elderly female Nola, who is living at the US zoo.
Conservation scientists had been trying for years to coerce the pair
into mating and producing progeny, but the attempts were futile.
Angalifu was transferred to the San Diego Zoo in the late 1980s from a zoo in Khartoum, Sudan.
The
Ol Pejeta Conservancy in central Kenya has three more white rhinos, one
male and two females, although attempts to breed the near-extinct
animal there were not successful either.
Angalifu passed away. 5 northern white rhinos remain #RIP#EndExtinction Please share condolences. Photo: Helene Hoffman
The effort is a gamble,
since the females are both from the northern variety of the species
while the male is a southern white rhino.
A male white rhino died in the Kenyan preserve earlier in 2014.
And an elderly female lives in Czech Republic’s Dvur Kralove Zoo, the same one that loaned Nola to its American colleagues.
White
rhinos are the biggest in the family and have been heavily poached for
their horns. Buyers value them as dagger handles and for their supposed
medicinal properties – a superstition disproved by scientists, but
persistent in many Asian cultures.
The San Diego Zoo Institute
stored semen and testicular tissue from Angalifu for possible use in a
project to revive the species, if the technology to do so is ever
developed. - RT.
18 turtles found dead along the coast of Rimini, Italy
In Pictures: Repertoire
Unfortunately continue to increase the occurrence of turtles that are stranded on the coast of Rimini.
Today, four of which were 18 in Riccione, two in Torre Pedrera, two in
Rimini and in Igea, where a second reported was not found again. Numbers away from November 2013, when in a single day in Rimini is spiaggiarono 42 turtles, but worrying. These are animals that died at different times - says the president of the Foundation Cetacea Sauro Pari - whose concentration "is a plausible explanation in the heavy seas of these days." A Cervia, a few steps from a large tortoise, was also a baby dolphin beached in an advanced state of decomposition.
Thanking the people for the messages that are helpful for the work of
the Harbor and the Regional Network of Marine Turtles, on whose behalf
the Cetacean Foundation intervenes, Pari also highlights how animals
beached not go absolutely touched "and for health reasons , may
cause the onset of serious illnesses, which for legal reasons: Sea
turtles are protected species in the CITES list.Who should trafugarli or hold them, living or dead, is punishable by fines very salty. " - Newsremini. [Translated]
Cops kill cow after wild chase through Pocatello's north side
Police fatally shot a 1,000-pound cow Friday afternoon that had led them on a lengthy chase through the city’s north side.
The
heifer eventually died after being shot by a Pocatello police officer
in the backyard of a residence at Henderson and Jessie Clark lanes
around 1:30 p.m.
Police had shot the animal earlier in the pursuit but the wounded cow kept running.
Pocatello
Police Chief Scott Marchand said the two shots his officers took at the
cow were fired because of the safety risk the animal posed.
During the pursuit, the cow rammed a Pocatello animal control truck and two police cars in residential neighborhoods.
The
heifer also nearly caused motor vehicle accidents on Hawthorne Road and
had run through a playground. Police felt like the animal might trample
someone as it charged through the residential neighborhoods on the
city’s north side.
A Pocatello police officer prepares to shoot a cow that had escaped a
butcher shop Friday afternoon and led police and animal control units on
a long chase through the city's north side. The cow was shot twice by
police during the chase before it died in the
back yard of a residence
at Henderson and Jessie Clark lanes.
The cow that escaped from a butcher shop in Pocatello Friday afternoon tries to evade pursuing police units.
Pocatello police corner the escaped cow on the city's north side on Friday afternoon.
A Pocatello police officer chases a cow in the Henderson Lane area on
Friday afternoon. The animal had escaped from a butcher shop.
A Pocatello police officer prepares to shoot a cow on Friday afternoon
in the Henderson Lane area. The animal had escaped from a butcher shop.
Pocatello police and animal control officers along with Anderson butcher
shop employees in the back yard of a house on the city's north side
moments
after a police officer fatally shot a cow on Friday afternoon.
The animal had escaped from the butcher shop.
Marchand said he’s very thankful the pursuit ended with no injuries to people.
The
incident began around 12:40 p.m. at Anderson Custom Pack, a meat
processing business at Garrett Way and North Main Street. When an
Anderson employee prepared to slaughter the cow, it jumped over a 6-foot
fence and ran across Garrett Way and then north up Hawthorne Road.
Anderson
employees dialed 911 and within minutes the cow was being pursued by
Pocatello police and animal control units on Hawthorne.
Police
officers and witnesses said that at one point the cow was running up
the middle of Hawthorne Road, nearly causing accidents.
The
cow eventually left Hawthorne and headed west on Quinn Road where it
retreated to a resident’s backyard on the road’s south side.
A
police officer then shot the cow in the head, but instead of
succumbing, the animal bolted past the police cars that were supposed to
block its path out of the yard. The cow crossed to the north side of Quinn and ran through OK Ward Park.
With
several police and animal control officers in pursuit on foot and in
vehicles, the cow emerged onto Henderson Lane from the park and headed
north.
Police and animal control officers spent the next several minutes chasing the cow on Henderson and adjoining streets.
They
eventually cornered the cow in the backyard of a house at Henderson and
Jessie Clark lanes. A police officer shot the cow again in the head,
and this time the animal died instantly.
Several residents in the Henderson Lane area emerged from their houses because of the sound of the gunshot.
The
damage to the police cars that were rammed by the cow during the chase
was minimal. A side-view mirror on the animal control truck was
destroyed when the vehicle was struck by the animal.
After the cow died, Anderson employees loaded it onto a truck and took it back to the meat processing business. - ISJ.
Raccoon attacks woman in Monroe, Louisiana
One
Monroe family is concerned for their safety, and the well-being of
their pets after a raccoon attacked them this weekend. Now, they're
speaking out so others know of the danger.
Ruth Ulrich never expected to spend her Saturday afternoon warding off a diseased raccoon.
"It
was during the daylight, it's laying around as though it were a cat or
something, all stretched out. Then it would wake up from that state and
would have something that appeared to be like seizures," said Ulrich.
Ulrich says it was hissing and charging at her. She wasn't sure what to do, so she called the police.
"The policeman said if there's any problems, call me back, but he needed to go on and do other things," said Ulrich.
At that point she hit the raccoon in the face 3 times with a shovel--and that still didn't stop it.
"When it did not get scared off when it got hit that hard with a shovel. There was a problem," said Ulrich.
WATCH: Raccoon attacks Monroe family.
If you see an animal like a raccoon out at a strange time of day, and it doesn't run away, don't go near it.
"If that animal does not run from you or try and hide or try and get in
a position that it can't be seen or try to get away. Then there's an
issue," said Joe Clawson, director of Louisiana Purchase Gardens &
Zoo.
The raccoon Ulrich was dealing with tested positive for
distemper when Wildlife and Fisheries was finally able to pick it up. No
area is off limits for a raccoon, or any other wild animal.
"Even the most densely populated areas of the City of Monroe and the City of West Monroe. There are raccoons," said Clawson.
Ulrich says this seems to be a problem in the Garden District. Her neighbor dealt with a similar situation last week. They want people to be aware of the threat.
"So many have been picked up lately with the same actions that they're
doing, that apparently distemper is going through the raccoon population
very fast," said Ulrich.
The disease is very contagious and
can infect your pets. So, how can you keep them and yourself safe? Make
sure they're fully vaccinated, don't leave your pet's food outdoors, and
make sure it's stored so other animals can't get into it. - KNOE.
Residents complain of 'rotten fish' smell in Santa Rosa, Florida
Local officials can't confirm the source of a strange stench that has area residents complaining on social media.
Area residents are complaining on social media about
a strange smell that stretches from Pace to Gulf Breeze and the
beaches. But local officials can't confirm what the smell is or where
it's coming from.
"We haven't had any reports
of any issues," said Joy Tsubooka, the public information officer for
Santa Rosa County. "It's hard to say what it is because on very clear,
very cold days like this, odors can travel very far."
Residents have described the stench as smelling like spoiled milk and dead fish.
"Why does it smell of rotten fish all over #Pensacola this morning?" one resident asked on Twitter.
"Man it smells bad outside," Pensacola beach resident Sean Rogan posted
on his Facebook page. "They were talking about a nonhazardous gas that
had Pace smelling yesterday. Guess north wind has brought it to us."
After Rogan's post, people from Santa Rosa County and parts of Escambia reported smelling the odor.
Gulf Breeze officials have fielded several calls from residents
complaining about the smell and inquiring about the source, City Clerk
Stephanie Lucas said.
"It's nothing we're doing ... or from us," she said. "People are smelling it all down the highway (U.S. 98)."
Tsubooka ruled out possible sources such as the Taminco gas supplier
plant in Pace, and Tiffany Cowie, press secretary for the Florida
Department of Environmental Protection, said the smell definitely wasn't
caused by the oil leak that erupted Wednesday in Jay.
"The
smells (residents are describing) are not consistent with the smells
coming from the oil leak at the actual site," Cowie said. "The odor
isn't coming from there." - PNJ.
Thousands of dead fish found floating in a river in Pelalawan, Indonesia
At
least thousands more fish tail was found dead floating along the Kampar
River, starting from the village of Kuala Tolam, Stimulation and Sungai
Ara Village, District Pelalawan. Not yet known, the exact cause of death of the fish. From the information summarized by GoRiau.com,
the death of the fish incident flow along the Kampar River, which
crosses the village of Kuala Tolam, Stimulation and Sungai Ara village
began on Wednesday (12/10/2014) then. "To
this day there is still a dead fish float, although the amount is not
as much as yesterday. Kejadianya's been four days and we do not know
what the exact cause flotation of these fish," said village chief
stimuli, Khairat, Sunday (12/14/2014 ). Described
Khairat, from all kinds of fish were found floating dead in the Kampar
River are the types of fish that lives at the bottom of the river. "The fish that died this kind of fish that lives in the river or fishing grounds," he explained. Khairat
further mention, some basic types of fish found floating dead fish that
include such Wajang, Senggarat, Tapa and fish Botot. "This includes a very unusual occurrence. It has never been anything dead fish in this river, but not this bad," he said. More or less the same thing delivered by Jefri, the village head Ara River.
Jefri's knowledge, the number of dead fish floating in the Kampar River
flow allegedly due to river water contaminated by waste. "This
could be the result of waste. Yes, if the computed-ditung, residents
have been getting hundreds of pounds of fish were floating in the
river," said Jefri. According to him, the dead fish incident allegedly due to waste, because it does not usually happen in this peritiswa Ara River. The incident is the first time this has happened in their village. "So it's like a fish die, sir, but when we caught was still alive. But many fish we found dead in the river," he said. - Goriau. [Translated]
December 15, 2014 - SPACE - When a telescope atop Hawaii's Haleakala swept up a fast-moving object in August 1996, astronomers didn't know what to make of it.
Designated 1996 PW, the little interloper had the highly elongated
orbit of a comet that had ventured inward from the Oort Cloud, at the
solar system's outermost fringe.
But it had no tail or coma — visually and spectroscopically, it looked like an asteroid.
At
the time, dynamicists Paul Weissman (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and Hal
Levison (Southwest Research Institute) proposed that 1996 PW might
actually be a rare hybrid: an asteroid from the Oort Cloud. Their
suggestion ran completely counter to the consensus notion that only comets
existed in that vast, distant reservoir. But Weissman and Levison had
run the numbers: they calculated that, along with a trillion or so
comets, roughly 8 billion asteroids could have been flung out into the
Oort Cloud by close planetary encounters early in solar-system history.
When discovered, the object 1996 PW looked like an asteroid but had the elongated, 5,900-year-long orbit of an Oort Cloud comet. JPL / Horizons
When
other researchers suggested that 1996 PW was probably just an "extinct"
comet, having depleted the volatile ices that create a coma or tail,
the notion of asteroids in the Oort Cloud got shelved — but not
completely forgotten.
In the decades since, dynamicists have
radically altered their views of the early system. Now it's widely
believed that the orbits of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune must
have moved around — and maybe a lot. In one scenario, dubbed the "Grand Tack,"
Jupiter dove inward to about where Mars orbits today before retreating
(thanks to a resonance with Saturn) to its current location.
In
any case, this gravitational chaos must have flung small bodies
everywhere — into each other, into planets or the Sun, and out of the
solar system entirely. The ones that just fell short of escaping into
interstellar space ended up in the Oort Cloud.
An artist's concept of the 8.4-meter Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), which should being scanning the sky from the summit of Cerro Pachón in Chile in 2019.LSST Corp.
Now dynamcists led
by Andrew Shannon (University of Cambridge) have taken a fresh look at
what-went-where in the early solar system. Their computer simulations,
published October 29th in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
confirm that lots of rocky bodies originally within 2½ astronomical
units of the Sun should be lurking among the Oort Cloud's half trillion
comets. It's a tricky calculation, because astronomers can only guess
the assorted sizes of those distant bodies. (Observers now have data on
three of them: C/2013 A1, which skirted by Mars last month; C/2013 P2; and C/2014 S3.)
Shannon
and his colleagues find that Oort Cloud asteroids are a minority,
perhaps 4% of all the bodies out there. But that's still 8 billion objects
(eerily matching the Weissman-Levison estimate), totaling perhaps a
third of Earth's mass. "The Oort Cloud has more asteroids than the
asteroid belt does!" they point out. In fact, it's even possible that
chunks of debris from the postulated Moon-forming impact might have been hurled out there.
So
how come interlopers like 1996 PW aren't more common? They're small,
likely dark, and lack a typical comet's large, bright coma, so they're
too faint to see. Even the powerful Large Synoptic Survey Telescope,
which might be ready by 2019, will be challenged to spot them. Shannon's
team estimates that the LSST might sweep up a dozen Oort Cloud
asteroids over a decade. - Sky and Telescope.
December 15, 2014 - EARTH - The Earth is about to begin a steep drop in global temperatures off its present global temperature plateau. This
plateau has been caused by the absence of growth in global temperatures
for 18 years, the start of global cooling in the atmosphere and the
oceans, and the end of a short period of moderate solar heating from an
unusually active secondary peak in solar cycle #24. Average global atmospheric and oceanic temperatures will drop significantly beginning between 2015 and 2016and
will continue with only temporary reversals until they stabilize during
a long cold temperature base lasting most of the 2030's and 2040's.
The
bottom of the next global cold climate caused by a "solar hibernation"
(a pronounced reduction in warming energy coming from the Sun) is
expected to be reached by the year 2031.
The predicted
temperature decline will continue for the next fifteen years and will
likely be the steepest ever recorded in human history, discounting past
short-duration volcanic events.
Global average temperatures during the 2030's will reach a level of at least 1.5° C lower.
WATCH: 30 Top Scientists Predict Global Cooling 2015-2050.
WATCH: Unusual Phenomenon in the Seas off Greenland.
December 15, 2014 - JAPAN
- Over 1,300 passengers spent the night trapped in trains stranded due
to power blackouts caused by heavy snowfalls in Japan's northern Niigata
Prefecture.
Some 1,350 passengers found themselves spending
the night on trains stranded in Japan's northern Niigata Prefecture on
Sunday, according to The Japan Times.
The trains were stranded by a power outage resulting from heavy snowstorms. The blackout occurred on Sunday evening and power was resumed only on Monday morning. But
as the stations and trains draw power from different sources, the
trains' heaters remained working, and passengers were supplied with food
and drinks.
The outage also prompted West
Japan Railway Co. to call back a train that had departed for
Echigo-Yuzawa Station from Kanazawa.
Upon the train's return to
Kanazawa Station, the 85 passengers were moved to another train in which
to spend the night and were given rice balls and blankets.
Heavy snow in the area has disrupted train services along a section
connecting Kanazawa and Niigata Prefectures, which remained suspended on
Monday morning. - Sputnik News.
Police rescue personnel carry an injured woman from the Lindt cafe,
where hostages are being held, at Martin Place
in central Sydney
December 16, 2014. (Reuters/Jason Reed)
Witnesses have reported the
sound of automatic gunfire at the scene, with police deploying flash
bangs before storming the premises. Paramedics wearing bulletproof vests
were seen entering Lindt Cafe, where over 40 people were taken hostage
on Monday.
Police have now formed a line in front of media. #sydneysiege
Live shot from #sydneysiege now on @7NewsPerth some hostages injured, gunman is down, siege over
Police officers position themselves at a corner near Lindt cafe in
Martin Place, where hostages are being held,
in central Sydney December
15, 2014.(Reuters / Jason Reed)
#BREAKING: Man Monis has been named as the gunman behind the #SydneySiege. #9News
Public urged to go about its business as usual - Martin Place siege
Hostages held in Sydney cafe forced to hold an 'Arabic flag' at the window - http://huff.to/1AaSNOb #sydneysiege
"The exchange was started by three discrete bangs.
The first brought about five people from the building. A space followed
between the subsequent two and then a near-continuous volley rang out.
Dozens of shots," James Robertson, a reporter for the Sydney
Morning Herald, reported at the bottom of Martin Place; about 150 metres
from the scene.
One woman was seen being carried out with blood
running down her leg. Paramedics have been seen carrying at least 4
stretchers into the building. Unconfirmed reports say that eleven
additional hostages have been freed, with four people injured. One
police officer was reportedly injured in the operation.
The
dramatic scene follows a 16 hour standoff, after Iranian-born Sheik Man
Haron Monis, took over 40 people hostage. Monis, who refers to himself
as “the Brother”, is apparently a supporter of the radical militants
from the Islamic State, an Iraq and Syria-based terrorist organization
aiming to create a fundamentalist nation, or a caliphate in the region. -
RT.
Souderton neighborhood under siege. Heavily armed officers and armored vehicle looking for gunman.
December 15, 2014 - PENNSYLVANIA, UNITED STATES
- Police say a suspect in five killings at three separate locations in
Pennsylvania is believed to be barricaded inside a home in Souderton.
Police also say the suspect is believed to be alive inside the home and SWAT teams are taking position outside.
This, after police were called to Franklin and Garfield streets in Souderton where two people were found dead.
Police add that two children who were reportedly taken from Lower Salford Twp. during this incident have been found safe.
Road blocked off Broad Street in Souderton.
Sources told the ABC affiliate that all the victims had been shot at
close range. The gunman is believed to be a military veteran, police
say.
Meanwhile,
the Souderton Area School District, which includes schools in the
Souderton, Pa. and Harleysville, Pa. are are under a shelter-in-place.
The district says all students are safe and are secured in their
classrooms. Visitors will not be allowed in the schools until further
notice.
Police
and SWAT teams took position outside a home at Franklin and Garfield
streets in Souderton where two people were found dead.
The
first shooting was reported at 3:55 a.m. in the 100 block of Main
Street in Lower Salford. Police arrived to find a woman shot to death.
A
second call came in half an hour later, at 4:25 a.m., for another
shooting 100 block of West 5th Street in Lansdale. Officers arrived at
that location to find two more people shot and killed.
December 15, 2014 - SPACE-
Scientists have calculated that 2014 UR116 asteroid will fly in
dangerous proximity to Earth every three years. If it collides with the
planet the energy of the explosion could be a thousand times greater
than the impact of the Chelyabinsk meteorite.
Vladimir Lipunov, a
leading scientist on the team which discovered the asteroid this
October, says the scientists now know its orbit and its period which is 3
years, but they cannot say precisely when the asteroid will approach
the Earth. “We should track it constantly. Because if we have a
single mistake, there will be a catastrophe. The consequences can be
very serious,” he said in the documentary “Asteroids attack” posted on Roscosmos website.
The
new asteroid, called 2014 UR116 is about 370 meters in diameter. Its
size exceeds the famous Apophis which the Earth can meet in the next
decade. The exact trajectory of 2014 UR116 is yet to be determined, but
theoretically it may collide with the Earth, Mars or Venus. Its
trajectory can fluctuate because of the gravitational pull of these
planets.
Some specialists believe we can be sure for a
certain period of time that no collision will happen. Viktoria Damm from
the Siberian Geodesic Academy Planetarium told TASS news agency that
when the asteroid flies near Mars, its trajectory may change. That’s why
the time of approach is unknown but she believes it will not happen in
the coming two years.
Orbit of asteroid 2014 UR116 as of November 3 (Image credit: JPL/NASA)
In
case of a collision with the Earth the energy of the explosion could be
a thousand times greater than the Chelyabinsk meteorite. When a
meteorite burst above the city of Chelyabinsk in February 2013, the
impact was estimated to be equivalent to 440-500 kilotons of TNT. But
the Chelyabinsk meteorite was relatively small, about 17 meters in
diameter and it disintegrated with a blast at an altitude of over 20
kilometers.
It is also important to define the composition of an
asteroid. If it consists of stone it generally breaks into small parts,
but metal asteroid can reach the surface of Earth, according to
Stanislav Korotky, Ka Dar observatory scientific director. The famous
Arizona crater is the track of a metal asteroid.
The
Chelyabinsk meteorite prompted the scientists to fully engage in
projects of space security. Russian space agency Roscosmos plans to work
out a special system to stand against dangerous asteroids by 2025. The
agency wants to use new technologies to change the orbits of asteroids,
including different kinds of robots, for instance, robots-cleaners to
take away the space rubbish from Earth orbit.
Meanwhile, NASA is
working on projects Orbita@home and Spacewatch and plans to deploy The
Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in 2015.
The
asteroid 2014 UR116 was discovered with the help of Russia's network of
robotic telescopes which perform the sky survey without human direction
and can create its own data bases. - RT.
December 15, 2014 - JAPAN
- Japan’s nuclear watchdog says the radioactive water that has
accumulated at the battered Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant must
be decontaminated and dumped into the ocean, local media reported. The
news has sparked concern from local fisherman. “We have to dispose of the water,”
Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA),
told a media conference after visiting the crippled nuclear power plant
on Friday, Asahi Shimbun reported.
The NRA chief was referring
to the contaminated water stored in tanks on the premises of the
crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant. He added that the water – which
is tainted with radioactive material – poses a risk to the safety of the
decommissioning work.
Tanaka has previously stated that the
radioactive water at the site needs to be decontaminated so it falls
under safety standards – and then it must be released into the sea.
This is aimed at battling growing amounts of toxic water accumulating
in the plant’s buildings, and at reducing the volume of groundwater that
is flowing through the premises and becoming contaminated.
“We
also have to obtain the consent of local residents in carrying out the
work, so we can somehow mitigate [the increase in tainted water],” he added on Friday. “While [the idea] may upset people, we must do our utmost to satisfy residents of Fukushima.”
Local
fishermen have expressed concern over the contaminated water and other
issues linked with water management at the Fukushima plant.
Fukushima
Prefectural Federation of Fisheries Co-operative Associations submitted
a petition that calls on the government and Tokyo Electric Company
(TEPCO) – the nuclear plant's operator – to make sure that the water
released into the Pacific is safe and below the required radiation
levels.
Plans to dump the water from the crippled nuclear plant
into the ocean after removing the most dangerous radioactive elements
were voiced as early as March. However, TEPCO’s initial efforts failed and the plan was indefinitely suspended after malfunctions crippled the water purification process and recontaminated thousands of tons of already cleaned liquid.
Some
400 tons of untainted groundwater are believed to be seeping into the
buildings of the Fukushima plant on a daily basis. It is then mixing
with the toxic water generated in the process of cooling the crippled
reactors. TEPCO collects the radioactive groundwater and stores it at
the site of the plant. However, storing the groundwater becomes more
difficult each day, as the water quantity continues to increase.
Following the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, three reactors
at the plant suffered nuclear meltdowns, causing a radioactive fallout.
The catastrophe was the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl
in 1986. TEPCO is engaged in a cleanup process at the site, which has
been dogged by delays and setbacks. In January, the company started
erecting a controversial underground frozen wall which is planned to
stop radioactive water from seeping into the sea. - RT.
December 15, 2014 - UNITED STATES-
The U.S. experienced fewer tornadoes in the past three years than any
similar span since accurate records began in the 1950s. Yet
meteorologists aren't sure exactly why.
As this year comes to a close, about 150 fewer damaging tornadoes than average
have hit the U.S., according to data from the Storm Prediction Center
(SPC). Explanations for the decrease in twisters the past three years
range from unusual cold to unusual heat, or just coincidence.
Despite the calmer than average years, deaths due to twisters remain
near the average of 60 each year, with 68 killed in 2012, 55 in 2013 and
42 so far this year, according to the SPC. That pales in comparison
with the 553 Americans killed by tornadoes in 2011.
So far this year,just 348 EF-1 or stronger tornadoeshave touched down across the country, marking the third-lowest number on record.An
average year sees about 500 EF-1 or greater tornadoes. A total of 364
EF-1 or stronger tornadoes touched down in 2012 and 404 in 2013.
EF refers to the Enhanced Fujita Scale of tornado intensity, which runs
from EF-0 to EF-5. Most twisters that cause damage and deaths are EF-1
or higher, with wind speeds of at least 86 mph.
Harold Brooks, a meteorologist with the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla., said there's no consistent reason
for the three-year lull - the calmest stretch since a similar quiet
period in the late 1980s - because weather patterns have varied
significantly from year to year.
While 2012 tornado activity was likely suppressed by the warm, dry conditions in the spring, 2013 was on the cool side
for much of the prime storm season before cranking up briefly in late
May, especially in Oklahoma, SPC meteorologist Greg Carbin said. Then, activity quickly quietedfor the summer of 2013.
"(This year) the area of the country usually most productive for tornadoes again experienced below-normal temperatures
but not as extreme as 2013," Carbin said. "The last two years, it
seems, have more in common with one another than the extreme heat of
2012."
In addition to cooler weather, which limits instability, the past two years also lacked the stronger, large-scale weather systems that bring together the ingredients necessary for widespread severe thunderstorm and tornado outbreaks, Carbin said.
So what can we expect next year? No one can predict that.
"There is no such thing as a long-range severe storm or tornado
forecast," the SPC said. "There are simply too many small-scale
variables involved which we cannot reliably measure or model weeks or
months ahead of time." - USA Today.
