Separate 7.4 And 6.6 Magnitude Quakes Strike Simultaneously Off Japans Coast
September 29, 2007
Two strong earthquakes struck close together south of Japan on Friday, but no tsunami warning was issued and no damages were reported, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
The first quake struck with a 6.6 magnitude at 10:41 p.m. local time. It was centered in the Pacific Ocean 930 miles south of Tokyo off Iwo Jima. At virtually the same time a 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck off the Mariana Islands, agency officials said.
Residents of northeastern towns on Japans main island of Honshu reported they felt slight shaking from the first quake.
The Mariana quake was initially measured by the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory Network as a 4.1 quake off the Big Island before officials realized they were measuring shocks from the Mariana Island event. The Mariana quake occurred some 172 miles under the oceans surface and was centered about 14 miles north and 89 miles east of the Mariana Islands.
Japan has more earthquakes than any other area of the earth because it sits atop four tectonic plates that shift and move. The Mariana Islands are about 1,500 miles south of Tokyo.
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Jibril - Israel Will Attack Syria Soon
September 28, 2007
Israel has already made a decision to attack Syria and was just mulling where to land its first strike, Ahmad Jibril, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed in an interview published Friday by Arabic paper Al Hadat.
Jibril estimated that Israeli action, several weeks after an alleged IAF foray into Syria on September 6 would likely be a wide-scale operation, and would probably be answered with attacks by Iran, Hizbullah in Lebanon and the Palestinians of Syria.
“I believe Israel has prepared all likely scenarios for war with Syria, but they are still considering where they would land the first strike, which will come very soon,” Jibril said. “They are weighing whether to attack on one front or on multiple fronts.
“There is an American Israeli plan, backed by silent agreement from the Arab world, to change the balance of power in the Middle East,” he added.
The PFLP leader said also that Israel was wary of a “domino effect” that would drag other countries into the conflict. “The Israelis have not formed a final estimate regarding the possibility of Iranian interference in case they would attack Syria. Secondly, the Lebanese resistance, led by Hizbullah’s Islamic resistance, will intervene and strike the Zionist home front with missiles,” he said.
“The Syrian brothers will not be afraid to protect their land and will continue the war with the Zionist enemy, and we, the Palestinians in Syria, will not sit idly - we will be in the front lines,” Jibril added.
However, despite Jibril’s claim that “Hizbullah would also participate,” officials in the organization hinted that they would not interfere in a future conflict. Two weeks ago, Sheikh Na’im Kassem, Deputy Secretary General of Hizbullah and Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah’s second in command, said that Israeli estimates that the group would try to take revenge on Syria’s behalf were no more that “journalistic assessments based on insufficient evidence.”
Barak Says Israel Is ‘close’ To Gaza Operation
September 28, 2007
At least two civilians were reportedly among eight Palestinians killed in Gaza yesterday by Israeli forces as Ehud Barak, the Defence Minister, warned that a “widespread” military operation in the Strip was “getting closer”.
Five militants were killed when a missile fired from the air hit the car in which they were travelling and which the Israeli military said was also carrying missiles ready for launching into Israel. Unconfirmed reports said that the men killed were from the Army of Islam, the group that kidnapped the BBC journalist Alan Johnston this year.
But Palestinian witnesses were quoted by Reuters as saying a gunman and two bystanders were also killed by a tank shell, which also wounded 21 Palestinians in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, where Israeli ground forces were attempting to halt the firing of Qassam rockets by Gaza’s militants.
Mr Barak said in an interview with Army Radio yesterday: “We are getting closer to carrying out a widespread operation in Gaza, which, for many reasons, has not taken place in the past weeks.”
But the minister also warned that such a large-scale operation, which has been demanded by right-wing politicians in response to the rocket attacks into Israel, was “not simple, not in terms of the forces and the amount of time which we will have to stay there or in terms of the operational challenges which the troops will have to meet”.
A large-scale operation against Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza was originally rejected by the cabinet last month in favour of the plans to cut fuel and power to the Strip, which the cabinet endorsed last week when it declared it a “hostile entity”.
Ministers resolved on more limited operations of the kind which resulted in the Palestinian deaths yesterday. There have been conflicting signals about the possibility of a large-scale military operation in Gaza. Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, a member of the inner security cabinet, told the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz this week that he was opposed to such an operation, which had to be “the very last alternative there is”.
Ahmadinejad Forms Anti-American Alliance With Chavez
September 28, 2007
The leaders of Iran and Venezuela cemented an alliance aimed at countering the United States while the Iranian president reached out to a new ally in Bolivia and declared that together, “no one can defeat us.”
After being vilified during his U.N. visit this week, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad traveled on to friendlier territory Thursday, first stopping in Bolivia — where he pledged $1 billion in investment — and then visiting Venezuela to meet President Hugo Chavez.
“Together we are surely growing stronger, and in truth no one can defeat us,” the Iranian leader said through an interpreter. Apparently referring to the U.S., he said, “Imperialism has no other option: Respect the peoples (of the world) or accept defeat.”
Chavez greeted the Iranian leader warmly on a red carpet in front of the presidential palace, where they both stood before microphones and let loose with rhetoric challenging Washington.
“We will continue resisting to the end in the face of imperialism,” Ahmadinejad said. “And the age of imperialism has ended.”
Chavez embraced the Iranian leader, calling him “one of the greatest anti-imperialist fighters” and “one of the great fighters for true peace.”
In his defiant speech to the U.N. General Assembly this week, Ahmadinejad rebuked “arrogant powers” seeking to curb Iran’s nuclear program.
Chavez also strongly defends Iran’s nuclear research, insisting it is for peaceful energy uses despite U.S. charges it is aimed at making nuclear weapons. The Venezuelan leader also says his country plans to eventually develop a nuclear energy program.
Chavez said he was proud of Ahmadinejad’s courage while under hostile questioning at New York’s Columbia University. “An imperial spokesman tried to disrespect you, calling you a cruel little tyrant. You responded with the greatness of a revolutionary.”
In Bolivia, the Iranian leader pledged investment over the next five years to help the poor Andean nation tap its vast natural gas reserves, extract minerals, generate more electricity and fund agricultural and construction projects.
Bolivian President Evo Morales, who joins Chavez as one of Iran’s key allies, called Ahmadinejad’s visit historic as the two nations established diplomatic relations for the first time.
Morales brushed off concerns about close ties to a country that the Bush administration says is a sponsor of terrorism, declaring that the “international community can rest assured that Bolivia’s foreign policy is dedicated to peace with equality and social justice.”
Ahmadinejad’s trip underscored his growing ties to Latin American nations, including Nicaragua and Ecuador, even as the U.S. tries to isolate him internationally.
The closer relationship is viewed with alarm by the opposition in Venezuela and Bolivia, and by Washington. U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, a Florida Republican, said they remind him “of the relationship that Fidel Castro had with Russia.” He urged Washington to reach out more to a region analysts say it has largely ignored since the Sept. 11 attacks.
Attack on Iran Said To Be Imminent
September 28, 2007
In a sign that U.N. Security Council-based diplomacy is losing steam, a number of sources are reporting that a military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities may be imminent. France and America also are pushing for tighter economic sanctions against Tehran, without U.N. approval.
Yesterday’s edition of Le Canard Enchaîné, a French weekly known for its investigative journalism, reported details of an alleged Israeli-American plan to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. The frontpage headline read: “A report sent to the Elysée — Putin tells Tehran: They’re going to bomb you!”
The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, also expressed concerns to reporters in New York that an attack on Iran might be imminent.
Like most stories in the French paper, the article was based on unnamed sources who said that in order to reduce casualties, the attack against Iran is planned for October 15, the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Israel would bomb the first targets while America would orchestrate a second wave of strikes, the report said.
Arizona Boy Dies Of Rare Infection
September 27, 2007
A 14-year-old Lake Havasu boy has become the sixth victim to die nationwide this year of a microscopic organism that attacks the body through the nasal cavity, quickly eating its way to the brain.
Aaron Evans died Sept. 17 of Naegleria fowleri, an organism doctors said he probably picked up a week before while swimming in the balmy shallows of Lake Havasu.
According to the Centers For Disease Control, Naegleria infected 23 people from 1995 to 2004. This year health officials said they’ve noticed a spike in cases, with six Naegleria-related cases so far — all of them fatal.
Such attacks are extremely rare, though some health officials have put their communities on high alert, telling people to stay away from warm, standing water.
Though infections tend to be found in southern states, Naegleria has been found almost everywhere in lakes, hot springs, even some swimming pools. Still, the CDC knows of only several hundred cases worldwide since its discovery in Australia in the 1960s.
The amoeba typically live in lake bottoms, grazing off algae and bacteria in the sediment. Beach said people become infected when they wade through shallow water and stir up the bottom. If someone allows water to shoot up the nose say, by doing a cannonball off a cliff the amoeba can latch onto the person’s olfactory nerve.
The amoeba destroys tissue as it makes its way up to the brain.
People who are infected tend to complain of a stiff neck, headaches and fevers, Beach said. In the later stages, they’ll show signs of brain damage such as hallucinations and behavioral changes.
Once infected, most people have little chance of survival. Some drugs have been effective stopping the amoeba in lab experiments, but people who have been attacked rarely survive, Beach said.
“Usually, from initial exposure it’s fatal within two weeks,” Beach said.
Researchers still have much to learn about Naegleria, Beach said. For example, it seems that children are more likely to get infected, and boys are infected more often than girls. Experts don’t know why.
“Boys tend to have more boisterous activities (in water), but we’re not clear,” he said.
The Evans family lives within eyesight of Lake Havasu, a bulging strip of the Colorado River that separates Arizona from California. Temperatures hover in the triple digits all summer, and like almost everyone else, the Evans family looks to the lake to cool off.
On Sept. 8, he brought Aaron, his two other children and his parents to Lake Havasu to celebrate his birthday. They ate sandwiches and spent a few hours splashing around one of the beaches.
“For a week, everything was fine,” he said.
Then Aaron got the headache that wouldn’t go away. Evans took him to the hospital, and doctors thought his son was suffering from meningitis. Aaron was rushed to another hospital in Las Vegas.
Evans tried to reassure his son, but he had no idea what was wrong. On Sept. 17, Aaron stopped breathing as David held him in his arms.
“He was brain dead,” David said. Only later did doctors realize the boy had been infected with Naegleria.
“My kids won’t ever swim on Lake Havasu again.”
Video Shows Mock Industrial Hacker Attack On Power Grid
September 27, 2007
A government video shows the potential destruction caused by hackers seizing control of a crucial part of the U.S. electrical grid: an industrial turbine spinning wildly out of control until it becomes a smoking hulk and power shuts down.
The video, produced for the Homeland Security Department and obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday, was marked “Official Use Only.” It shows commands quietly triggered by simulated hackers having such a violent reaction that the enormous turbine shudders as pieces fly apart and it belches black-and-white smoke.
The video was produced for top U.S. policy makers by the Idaho National Laboratory, which has studied the little-understood risks to the specialized electronic equipment that operates power, water and chemical plants. Vice President Dick Cheney is among those who have watched the video, said one U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because this official was not authorized to publicly discuss such high-level briefings.
“They’ve taken a theoretical attack and they’ve shown in a very demonstrable way the impact you can have using cyber means and cyber techniques against this type of infrastructure,” said Amit Yoran, former U.S. cybersecurity chief for the Bush administration. Yoran is chief executive for NetWitness Corp., which sells sophisticated network monitoring software.
“It’s so graphic,” Yoran said. “Talking about bits and bytes doesn’t have the same impact as seeing something catch fire.”
The electrical attack never actually happened. The recorded demonstration, called the “Aurora Generator Test,” was conducted in March by government researchers investigating a dangerous vulnerability in computers at U.S. utility companies known as supervisory control and data acquisition systems. The programming flaw was quietly fixed, and equipment-makers urged utilities to take protective measures.
There was no evidence any U.S. utility company suffered damage from hackers or terrorists using this technique, U.S. officials said. But these officials cautioned that affected systems are not routinely monitored as closely as many modern corporate computer networks, so there would be little forensic evidence to study after such a break-in.
Industry experts cautioned that intruders would need specialized knowledge to carry out such attacks, including the ability to turn off warning systems.
“The video is not a realistic representation of how the power system would operate,” said Stan Johnson, a manager at the North American Electric Reliability Corp., the Princeton, N.J.-based organization charged with overseeing the power grid.
A top Homeland Security Department official, Robert Jamison, said companies are working to limit such attacks.
“Is this something we should be concerned about? Yes,” said Jamison, who oversees the department’s cybersecurity division. “But we’ve taken a lot of risk off the table.”
President Bush’s top telecommunications advisers concluded years ago that an organization such as a foreign intelligence service or a well-funded terror group “could conduct a structured attack on the electric power grid electronically, with a high degree of anonymity, and without having to set foot in the target nation.” Ominously, the Idaho National Laboratory - which produced the new video - has described the risk as “the invisible threat.”
Experts said the affected systems were not developed with security in mind.
Another New Low for Dollar
September 27, 2007
The dollar reached yet another low Thursday, its sixth consecutive trading day searching for, and finding, a new bottom against the euro.
The dollar made some gains later in the face of data showing that new U.S. home sales have tumbled.
The euro rose as high as $1.4189 — up from $1.4136 in New York late the previous day and above its previous peak of $1.4162, which it had reached early Wednesday.
However, it dropped back to $1.4146 in late-afternoon European trading.
The dollar has hit a series of new lows against the euro since the U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a larger-than-expected half percentage point last week. Disappointing U.S. economic data have underlined the possibility of more cuts.
Lower interest rates, used to jump-start an economy, can weaken a currency as investors transfer funds to countries where their deposits and fixed-income investments bring higher returns.
Russia Promises Retaliation If Weapons Deployed In Space
September 27, 2007
Russia is ready to take appropriate measures if weapons are deployed in space, the commander of the Russian Space Forces said Thursday.
“Should any country deploy weapons in space, then the laws of armed warfare are such that retaliatory weapons are certain to appear,” Col. Gen. Vladimir Popovkin said.
He said Russia and China have drafted an international declaration on the non-deployment of weapons in space and sent it to the UN.
“It is necessary to establish the rules of the game in space,” he said, adding that the deployment of weapons in space could have unpredictable consequences, since such weapons are “very complex systems.”
“A sizable war could break out,” the commander said.
He said space must not be the sphere of interests of any one country.
“We do not want to fight in space, and we do not want to call the shots there either, but we will not permit any other country to do so,” he said.
Popovkin also said that Russia has an integrated missile attack warning system, covering the countrys entire territory.
Abu Mazen: Olmert Agreed to Make Jerusalem Arab Capital
September 27, 2007
The chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), met with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice last week and told her that Prime Minister Olmert agrees, finally, to turn eastern Jerusalem into the capital of a future state of Palestine. So reports the PA newspaper Al Hayat Al Jadeeda, quoting an unnamed “senior Palestinian source.”
Abbas reportedly told Rice that Olmert had agreed to the demand in an Olmert-Abbas meeting a couple of days before. Another Olmert-Abbas meeting is planned for next week, the paper reports.
Arutz-7’s Haggai Huberman reports on another PA media article. The Palestinian Press claims that Iran has given the order to Hamas and Islamic Jihad to reduce Kassam rocket attacks against Israel during the month of Ramadan, in order to reduce the suffering of Arab citizens in Gaza during this period. Hamas chief-in-exile Khaled Mashaal reportedly told Iran that though Hamas agrees to hold fire, Islamic Jihad does not.
Meanwhile, plans continue for U.S. President George Bush’s international Middle East summit, scheduled for this November in Washington. Secretary Rice announced Sunday night that Syria and Lebanon will also be invited to take part, though they will have to commit themselves to help find a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is not happy with the summit. “Without advance preparations and without an objective,” he said, “I don’t see what can come of it, and I don’t see any reason to convene the summit.”
High-level meetings of this nature are often accompanied by Arab violence and terrorism, and some fear that such violence this time will only intensify if the summit does not produce results favorable to the Arab side.
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