Solomon Islands earthquake...[ 3049 ]

Teams start assessing tsunami-hit Solomon Islands

  BBC , 7 February 2013 Last updated at 10:03 GMT
-
-   

-

Reports suggest dozens of houses were swept away in five villages

Aftershocks continued to rock the Solomon Islands, a day after a powerful earthquake triggered a tsunami that left at least nine people dead.

A metre-high wave swamped several villages on Santa Cruz island, in the far east of the Pacific nation, after the quake early on Wednesday.
Aid teams are starting to assess the scale of damage in the remote region.
Dozens of houses were damaged or swept away in at least five villages and a number of people are still missing. 
-
A number of aftershocks have struck since the initial magnitude 8.0 earthquake. One, on Thursday morning, had a magnitude of 6.2, the US Geological Survey said.
Six people - five elderly villagers and a child who were sucked under by the water - have been confirmed dead.
Another three bodies were found on Thursday, said George Herming, a spokesman for Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo.
-
"Several others are missing and dozens of strong aftershocks were keeping frightened villagers from returning to the coast," the AFP news agency quoted him as saying.
"People are still scared of going back to their homes because there's nothing left, so they are residing in temporary shelters on higher ground."
-
Airport damage

 

 Lata's small airport has been put out of action by the tsunami

Red Cross disaster manager Cameron Vudi told AFP there were indications that the number of casualties could increase.
"There are still reports coming in. Most of the reports are confined to areas that are accessible by road but there are a lot more communities that have been damaged."
The National Disaster Management Office said up to 3,000 people were believed to have been displaced, but that it was too early to have a clear picture of the extent of the damage in Santa Cruz province, known as Temotu.
-
"The high number of aftershocks and the difficulties inherent in accessing Temotu makes gathering swift accurate information a challenge," the agency said in a statement quoted by New Zealand media.
-
"The concern is for the more remote areas of Temotu where no reports have been forthcoming thus far."
Santa Cruz island, also known as Nendo, is the largest island in the Santa Cruz island chain which lies more than 600km (370 miles) from the Solomons capital, Honiara.

Radio New Zealand said one aid team had arrived by helicopter but that the airstrip in Lata, the island's main town, was swamped by the tsunami and left littered with debris.
It quoted the premier of Temotu province, Father Charles Brown Beu, as saying work was going on to clear the runway, and that "any time tomorrow or the following day airplanes should be landing".
-
Boats carrying supplies are expected to leave Honiara later in the day but are not due to arrive at the island until the weekend, AFP news agency said.
Police teams based in Lata were also trying to reach areas to assess damage, a government statement said.

The true meaning of 'jihad' [ 3048 ]

Muslim activists aim to reclaim the word 'jihad' with ad campaign

By Jonathan Helman and Athena Jones

February 4, 2013 -- Updated 0228 GMT (1028 HKT)

Teaching the true meaning of 'jihad'

(CNN) -- A Muslim activist group has launched a new ad campaign to reclaim a word they say has been abused and distorted by Muslim extremists and by anti-Muslim groups.

The MyJihad ad campaign is using print ads and social media to educate the public about what they say is the true meaning of the word "jihad."

-

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines the term as 

"1: a holy war waged on behalf of Islam as a religious duty; also: a personal struggle in devotion to Islam especially involving spiritual discipline" 

and "2: a crusade for a principle or belief."

-

But some religious activists dispute the emphasis on "holy war." They say the word is often misunderstood and has been co-opted and "misapplied" by radical Muslims who use it to justify terrorist acts and by anti-Muslim groups who use the word to foment fear in non-Muslims.

"The word 'jihad' literally means struggle, struggle for a good cause," said Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

-

"It is a concept, a noble concept, within Islam that emphasizes a personal struggle within yourself to be a better person, a better husband, better wife, better worker, better neighbor," he explained. "It is not aggression, and it does not mean to commit harm against other people. If people commit harm against innocent people, it will be in violation of the spirit of Islam and a violation of the concept of jihad."

-

The campaign is the brainchild of Ahmed Rehab, an activist who is also the executive director of CAIR in Chicago. He launched the effort in December with a small group of activists.

-

They began running ads on 25 city buses in Chicago and later expanded to buses in San Francisco. The ads began running at four metro stations in Washington in late January. They depict Muslims and non-Muslims sharing how they define their personal struggles. One shows a white Jewish man and a black Muslim man standing side by side, with the slogan "#MyJihad is to build bridges across the aisle." Another shows a young female photographer wearing a headscarf and holding a camera. The slogan reads "#MyJihad is to capture the truth even when it's unpopular."

-

Rehab said the donor-funded campaign is about making sure Muslim children can grow up in a world where they're judged on their own merits and not according to radical stereotypes.

"I don't wake up in the morning looking for my Kalashnikov or AK-47," he said, highlighting one such stereotype.

-

The group has also taken its campaign to social media, asking supporters to post on their Facebook pages and use #MyJihad on Twitter to share their personal struggles. Rehab said they have received tens of thousands of encouraging tweets, Facebook messages, letters and e-mails.

-

The campaign has also attracted skeptics, especially online.

A user with the Twitter handle @Shaqton wrote: "Al-Qaeda: #MyJihad is carrying 'earth-shattering, shocking and terrifying' attacks against 'heart of the land of non-belief' -- U.S. and Europe."

Another user, with the handle @PeterTownsend7,wrote: "Claiming that critics read the Quran 'out of context' is another way of saying that you wish it did not say what it plainly does #myjihad."

Awad said the organizers of the campaign should expect to face resistance to their message but believes they will be successful in starting a conversation about this important tenet of Islam.

-

"It's an uphill battle, because you are trying to dismantle preconceived ideas about the concept of jihad, because traditionally people have seen stereotypes and they have seen actions by some Muslims, and the majority of Muslims did not step in to say, 'No, this is our faith, and we are going to claim it,'" he said. 

-

"It is going to be an uphill battle, because you are trying to undo accumulation of misperception and mispractice -- misperception by non-Muslims and mispractice by some Muslims, and I think it's important for us to take this initiative."

-

The group hopes to place ads in more cities in the United States and around the world and to expand to other media such as radio and television.

"The message is global. The goal is anti-radicalization," Rehab said.

-

Biden's first visit to France ...[ 3047 ]

Biden Praises French Action in Mali

-

 

AP

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, left, and French President Francois Hollande attend a press conference after their talks, in Paris, Monday, Feb. 4, 2013. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena) Close

PARIS February 4, 2013 (AP)

U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden is hailing France's military intervention in Mali to drive back Islamist extremists who had seized control over much of the African country.
-
Biden met with French President Francois Hollande in Paris on Monday. Biden said Hollande's "decisive action" to send troops and airstrikes to Mali "was not only in the interest of France but of the United States and everyone."

-

France and the United States have worried that northern Mali, under control of Islamist radicals and drug traffickers, could become a haven for terrorists.
-
It's Biden's first visit to France as vice president. Biden also praised Hollande's tough stance on Iran, and the two said they "regretted" the refusal by Iran's leadership to meet international obligations of transparency around its nuclear program.

North Korea is threatening the U.S. ...[ 3046 ]

North Korea threatens US over response to rocket launches

Published February 02, 2013

Associated Press

• 
  Jan. 30, 2013: South Korea's rocket lifts off from its launch pad at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Korea. (AP)
  

    Jan. 30, 2013: South Korea's rocket lifts off from its launch pad at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Korea. (AP)

SEOUL, South Korea –  North Korea is threatening to retaliate for what it calls U.S. double standards over recent rocket launches by Pyongyang and U.S. ally Seoul.

A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman did not elaborate on what that might entail in his comments Saturday to the official Korean Central News Agency. But Pyongyang has recently threatened to conduct its third nuclear test in response to what it calls U.S. hostility.

Washington says Seoul's rocket launch Wednesday had no military intent while Pyongyang's in December was a test of banned ballistic missile technology.

The U.N. Security Council has imposed new sanctions on Pyongyang for its launch. Pyongyang says it should be allowed to launch satellites for peaceful purposes.

Both Koreas say their satellites are working properly. U.S. experts say Pyongyang's satellite is apparently malfunctioning.

Pyongyang's state television made no mention of the South Korean launch Wednesday, but about an hour after liftoff it showed archive footage of North Koreans cheering the North's three-stage rocket from last month. Images from the launch frequently appear in North Korean propaganda.

The satellite launched by Seoul is designed to analyze weather data, measure radiation in space, gauge distances on earth and test how effectively South Korean-made devices installed on the satellite operate in space. South Korean officials said it will help them develop more sophisticated satellites in the future.

South Korea did need outside help to launch the satellite: The rocket's first stage was designed and built by Russian experts. North Korea built its rocket almost entirely on its own, South Korean military experts said earlier this month after analyzing debris retrieved from the Yellow Sea in December.

Kim Seung-jo, South Korea's chief space official, told reporters that his country should be able to independently produce a rocket capable of putting a satellite into orbit by as early as 2018.

Spending on science and technology is expected to increase under South Korea's incoming President Park Geun-hye, who takes office next month. She pledged during her campaign to increase such spending to 5 percent of South Korea's GDP by the end of her five-year term.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/02/02/north-korea-threatens-us-over-rocket-launches/#ixzz2JlPf8gVf

Satellite Launches...[ 3045 ]

Tracking and Data Relay Satellite Launches

The umbilical tower drops back from a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket as it lifts off Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Launch, with NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-K or TDRS-K aboard, was at 8:48 p.m. EST on Jan. 30.

The TDRS-K spacecraft is part of the next-generation series in the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System, a constellation of space-based communication satellites providing tracking, telemetry, command and high-bandwidth data return services.
Photo credit: NASA/Tony Gray and Robert Murray