6.0 Magnitude Quake Hits Indonesia

(News Today) - A 6.0-magnitude quake hit Indonesia’s North Sulawesi province Friday, the local Meteorological and Geophysics agency said, but there were no immediate reports of damage and no tsunami alert was issued.

The quake struck at a depth of 65 kilometres (40 miles) 246 kilometres (152 miles) southeast of Melonguane area at 14:39 pm (0739 GMT), according to the agency.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where the meeting of continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity.

Source : kompas.com

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Haitians seek refuge, face uncertainty

(News Terupdate) - Nearly 2,000 miles from Haiti, there's a ripple effect from the earthquake that devastated the country on January 12. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents have arrested 140 Haitian men and women who have crossed the border from Canada into Vermont since late January.

Many had gone to Canada well before the earthquake to seek asylum, and thought they could take advantage of a relaxed U.S. policy on deporting Haitians.

"One of the things that's happening is that some of these individuals that have previously been either deported or ordered deported and are looking for refuge in Canada, have entered Canada illegally, are now looking to come back into the U.S. and possibly take advantage of the temporary protected status that our government has given," said David Aguilar, acting deputy commissioner at U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

That temporary protected status allows Haitians who were in the United States at the time of the earthquake to stay longer, regardless of whether they were in the country legally or not.

But the policy does not protect Haitians illegally entering the country now. "We are going to apprehend them," said Aguilar. "These are people that should not have come into this country and applied for a program that they do not benefit from."

That message was likely lost in translation, said David Watts, a court-appointed attorney for three Haitians charged with illegal entry and jailed.

"I think there's no doubt that there was some confusion," Watts said. "None of them have immigration lawyers, they're relying on the word on the street and the word in the community."

One of the men Watts represents is Arry Seguin, whose story is not uncommon. Seguin was living in the Haitian community in Montreal after going to Canada in 2008 to seek asylum. Until then, he had been living in Florida with his wife and two children, now ages 6 and 2.

Seguin left the United States after losing appeals to stay. His wife, Louizette, a naturalized citizen, lives in a cramped apartment in Lantana, Florida, and doesn't understand why her husband can't join her.

"You see, everything is a mess without him. Nothing is working well without him," she says.

She says she struggles to take care of her children, but she is also getting calls from relatives in Haiti who are desperate for help. It's the reason she believes her husband tried to return to Florida. He never made it far beyond the Canadian-Vermont border and was arrested in the early morning hours of March 21.

Because Seguin doesn't have a criminal record, his lawyer was able to reach a settlement with prosecutors. For now, Seguin will be eligible to stay in the United States under supervised release, checking in with immigration authorities. It will be up to a judge to decide if that happens.

Watts expects his client will released from jail soon. While Seguin will eventually face deportation, Watts says the goal is to return him to his family to weather their immediate personal crisis.

"So he will have achieved his goal, but for the fact that he's spent an awful lot of time in jail," Watts said. "It would have been better, given what actually happened, if he had been able to come back and help sooner."

Taking the risk of getting caught was in the cards, says Chrissy Etienne, who works as an interpreter for the Haitian men and women who've been arrested. Etienne is a Haitian native living in Burlington, Vermont, having recently graduated from Middlebury College. Because she speaks Creole, she had signed up to be a translator and was stunned when attorneys called in February asking for help.

Since then, her phone hasn't stopped ringing and she's met with dozens of Haitians who've been arrested, meeting them either in prison or in court.

"I think some thought there is a great chance I will get caught," says Etienne. "I think some expected to get caught. I think it was get to the U.S. at all costs, get to my family at all costs."

"I think that it is connected to the earthquake," says Etienne. "When you lose your home, when you lose Haiti as a whole. What is left?"

Giving a voice to the arrested Haitians, she said, has been tough since she is restrained in what she can do.

Etienne describes a common scenario with the men and women she deals with, saying, "There is that, that wish for a system that is more personal. Couldn't I just explain this to a judge? To someone? That I am not a criminal. That I have no background or criminal background. I am just trying to get to my family. Isn't there someone who is going to believe that story? And who is going to hear me?

"And there is that moment where ... I know what the attorney is going to say and I have to relate it with that same sort of calm, collected feeling, but I am also watching someone fall apart."

Source : CNN

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Dazed survivors of China quake spend chilly night in the open

(News Terupdate) - As dawn broke Thursday in earthquake-ravaged Jiegu, China, some people walked the streets in shock as others continued their all-night efforts to scour debris with their hands for survivors.

A 6.9-magnitude earthquake hit near the town in an impoverished area of Qinghai province the morning before, killing more than 580 people and injuring at least 10,000 others, according to state-run media.

"Civilians are scouring over the debris, looking for survivors, looking for whatever else they can find in rubble," CNN's John Vause reported from Jiegu, a town of 100,000 people. "It seems that most people here still seem very dazed by what happened. They seem to be walking up and down the streets, looking at the damage and the destruction."

The quake in the mountainous region had flattened homes -- many of which were made with wood and earth -- and other buildings in Jiegu and elsewhere in Yushu prefecture, a Tibetan region of Qinghai.

Many survivors spent Wednesday night in open areas in freezing or near-freezing temperatures.

Almost 1,000 people sat or lay on the ground outside a government sports building in Jiegu, some wrapping themselves with quilts they had taken from rubble, and others used their own tents, the Xinhua news agency reported.

One of them, Zhaxi Toinzhub, said her three children were buried in rubble.

"I'm hungry and thirsty. We've been waiting for help since [Wednesday] morning," she said, according to Xinhua.

Many of the dead and missing were boarding-school students who were preparing for the day when their buildings collapsed. Zhu Liang, a Yushu prefecture government worker, said he saw half of the buildings in the Yushu Vocational School fall.

"I do not know how many students have died," Zhu, who was helping with rescue efforts, told Xinhua. "Students just got up and were yet to go to class when the quake happened.

"I recovered several bodies from the debris and found they were fully dressed."

A teacher at Yushu Primary School said all of that boarding school's buildings had toppled.

Five of the school's 1,000 students died, the teacher, surnamed Chang, told Xinhua.

"Morning sessions did not begin when the quake happened. Some pupils ran out of dorms alive, and those who had not escaped in time were buried," Chang told Xinhua.

Samdrup Gyatso, a 17-year-old who ran a shop in his Jiegu home, told Xinhua that some of his relatives died as a result of the quake.

"There are 10 people in my family, and only four of us escaped. One of my relatives died. All the others are buried under the rubble," he said, according to Xinhua.

With no place to stay, many residents took vehicles out of town on Wednesday and headed to Xining, the provincial capital, according to Xinhua.

"The streets in Jiegu are thronged with panic, injured people, with many bleeding from the head," Zhuohuaxia, a prefecture spokesman, told Xinhua on Wednesday.

Many ethnic Tibetans live in Jiegu, CNN's Vause said. He said one resident told CNN that when his house began to shake, he grabbed his family and ran outside. There was another quake, and his house collapsed, he said.

His family was housed outside in tents, he said, but he had managed to buy water. He said they had seen no government assistance on Wednesday.

People were living in fear, the man said, and some were headed up into the mountains to escape the threat of flooding should an area reservoir break.

Source : CNN

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Hundreds dead in China quake, state media reports

(News Terupdate) - Some 300 people are feared dead after a rapid series of strong earthquakes hit a mountainous and impoverished area of China's Qinghai province early Wednesday, state-run media said.

The Xinhua News Agency reported 8,000 others were injured and many victims, including primary schoolchildren, were buried under debris.

A 6.9-magnitude earthquake, as measured by the U.S. Geological Survey, struck at 7:49 a.m. local time (7:49 p.m. ET Tuesday), when people were probably still at home and schools were beginning the day. The USGS also recorded several strong aftershocks -- one of magnitude 5.8 -- all within hours of the initial quake.

Xinhua reported panic on the streets as crews launched rescue efforts in the rubble of collapsed buildings.

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"We have to mainly rely on our hands to clear away the debris as we have no large excavating machines," police officer Shi Huajie told the Xinhua News Agency. "We have no medical equipment, either."

A Chinese military official told Xinhua that the death toll was expected to rise, given the damage to homes.

He said dispatched soldiers were setting up tents and transporting oxygen for the injured but affected roads leading to the airport could hamper relief efforts.

World's biggest earthquakes since 1990

The Ministry of Civil Affairs plans to distribute 5,000 tents, 50,000 coats and 50,000 quilts to the earthquake zone, Xinhua said.

The epicenter was located in remote and rugged terrain, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northwest of Qamdo, Tibet. Qinghai borders the autonomous regions of Tibet and Xingjiang and the provinces of Gansu and Sichuan.

Given the landscape, rescue efforts are sure to be "challenging," said Francis Markus, of the International Federation of the Red Cross. He spoke with CNN from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, which experienced its own tragedy in May, 2008, when a magnitude-7.9 earthquake killed roughly 70,000 people.

Can buildings be made earthquake-proof?

"But China does have a lot of experience and a lot of resources," he said. "The capability is there. It's just a question of getting it to this remote spot."

Xinhua said the quake hit the prefecture of Yushu, a Tibetan region of Qinghai with about 80,000 people.

More than 85 percent of the houses in the county seat of Jiegu, had collapsed, a prefecture official told Xinhua.

"Many are buried in the collapsed houses, and there are still lots of others who are injured and being treated at local hospitals," he said.

Xinhua said residents near the epicenter also reported casualties and collapsed buildings.

Karsum Nyima, deputy director of news at local Yushu TV, told Xinhua that most of the houses in the area were made of wood with earthen walls. He said some had come tumbling down, including a Buddhist pagoda in a park.

In 2008, 70,000 people died when a 7.9 earthquake rocked neighboring Sichuan province, northwest of its capital, Chengdu.

Source : CNN

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