WASHINGTON: A major magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck off the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean and a tsunami warning was issued for South Pacific islands, US officials said.
The US Geological Survey said the quake struck at 0112 GMT near the Santa Cruz Islands, which are part of the Solomon Islands nation, with a depth of 3.6 miles (5.8 kilometers). The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center warned that the large quake could trigger a "destructive tsunami" near the epicenter.
- AFP/ck
The candidate, identified as Girish Parmar, has been detained, police said.
The incident took place at Derai village of Bayad taluka this evening after counting of votes for the district panchayat, gram panchayat and nagarpalika elections got over.
"Fifteen persons received injuries after they dipped their hands in hot oil to prove to the lost candidate of their community that they had voted for him. We have already nabbed the candidate," Sabarkantha superintendent of police Chirag Koradiya told PTI.
"We will lodge a complaint against the candidate though none of the persons, who received injuries, is coming forward to register the complaint as they all belong to one community," he said.
"This is a superstition followed in the village to convince a candidate of their community that they voted for him," he added.
It's a question that actors from Laurence Olivier to Kevin Spacey have grappled with: What did Richard III, the villainous protagonist of Shakespeare's famous historical drama, really look and sound like?
In the wake of this week's announcement by the University of Leicester that archaeologists have discovered the 15th-century British king's lost skeleton beneath a parking lot, news continues to unfold that helps flesh out the real Richard III.
The Richard III Society unveiled a 3D reconstruction today of the late king's head and shoulders, based on computer analysis of his skull combined with an artist's interpretation of details from historical portraits. (Related: "Shakespeare's Coined Words Now Common Currency.")
"We received the skull data before DNA analysis confirmed that the remains were Richard III, and we treated it like a forensic case," said Caroline Wilkinson, the University of Dundee facial anthropologist who led the reconstruction project. "We were very pleasantly surprised by the results."
Though Shakespeare describes the king as an "elvish-marked, abortive, rooting hog," the reconstructed Richard has a pleasant, almost feminine face, with youthful skin and thoughtful eyes. His right shoulder is slightly higher than the left, a consequence of scoliosis, but the difference is barely visible, said Wilkinson.
"I think the whole Shakespearean view of him as being sort of monster-like was based more on his personality than his physical features," she reflected.
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People are naturally fascinated by faces, especially of historical figures, said Wilkinson, who has also worked on reconstructions of J.S. Bach, the real Saint Nicholas, the poet Robert Burns, and Cleopatra's sister.
"We make judgments about people all the time from looking at their appearance," she said. "In Richard's case, up to now his image has been quite negative. This offers a new context for considering him from the point of view of his anatomical structure rather than his actions. He had quite an interesting face."
A Voice From the Past
Most people's impression of Richard's personality comes from Shakespeare's play, in which the maligned ruler utters such memorable lines as "Now is the winter of our discontent/Made glorious summer by this son of York," and "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!"
But how would the real Richard III have expressed himself? Did he have an accent? Was there any sense of personality or passion in his choice of words?
To find out more about the mysterious monarch, Philip Shaw, a historical linguist at University of Leicester's School of English, analyzed the only two known examples of Richard III's own writing. Both are postscripts on letters otherwise composed by secretaries—one in 1469, before Richard became king, and one from 1483, the first year of his brief reign.
Shaw identified a quirk of spelling that suggests that Richard may have spent time in the West Midlands, or perhaps had a tutor who hailed from there.
"I was looking to compare the way he spells things with the way his secretaries spell things, working on the assumption that he would have been schooled to a fairly high level," Shaw explained.
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In the 1469 letter, Richard spells the word "will" as "wule," a variation associated with the West Midlands. But Shaw also notes that by 1483, when Richard wrote the second letter's postscript, he had changed his spelling to the more standard "wyll" (the letters 'i' and 'y' were largely interchangeable during that period of Middle English).
"That could suggest something about him brushing up over the years, or moving toward what would have been the educated standard," Shaw said, noting that the handwriting in the second example also appears a bit more polished. "One wonders what sort of practice and teaching he'd had in the interim."
Although it's hard to infer tone of voice from written letters, there is certainly emotion in the words penned by Richard III.
In the 1469 letter, the 17-year-old seeks a loan of 100 pounds from the king's undertreasurer. Although the request is clearly stated in the body of the letter, Richard adds an urgent P.S.: "I pray you that you fail me not now at this time in my great need, as you will that I show you my good lordship in that matter that you labour to me for."
That could either be a veiled threat (If you don't lend me the money, I won't do that thing you asked me to do) or friendly cajoling (Come on, I'm helping you out with something, so help me out with this loan).
"His decision to take the pen himself shows you how important that personal touch must have been in getting people to do something," Shaw said.
The second letter, written to King Richard's chancellor in 1483, also conveys a sense of urgency. He had just learned that the Duke of Buckingham—once a close ally—was leading a rebellion against him.
"He's asking for his Great Seal to be sent to him so that he can use it to give out orders to suppress the rebellion," Shaw said. "He calls the Duke 'the most untrue creature living. You get a sense of how personally let down and betrayed he feels."
Shaw said he hopes his analysis—in combination with the new facial reconstruction—will help humanize Richard III.
"He probably wasn't quite the villain that Shakespeare portrays, though I suspect he was quite ruthless," he said. "But you probably couldn't afford to be a very nice man if you wanted to survive as a king in those days."
Feb 5, 2013 3:54pm
The White House today defended the use of targeted drone strikes against U.S. citizens abroad suspected of high-level terrorist activity, but declined to detail the criteria for ordering such an attack.
“Sometimes we use remotely piloted aircraft to conduct targeted strikes against specific al Qaeda terrorists in order to prevent attacks on the United States and to save American lives,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters.
“We conduct those strikes because they are necessary to mitigate ongoing actual threats, to stop plots, to prevent future attacks and, again, save American lives. These strikes are legal, they are ethical, and they are wise,” he said.
U.S. Air Force
Administration lawyers found it is lawful to kill an American citizen if a “high-level” government official believes the target is an operational leader of al Qaeda who poses “an imminent threat of violent attack against the United States” and if capture is infeasible, according to a newly disclosed Justice Department document.
The 16-page white paper, first obtained by NBC News, finds there “exists no appropriate judicial forum to evaluate these constitutional considerations” and that the administration does not need to present evidence to a court before or after ordering such an attack.
“The condition that an operational leader present an ‘imminent’ threat of violent attack against the United States does not require the United States to have clear evidence that a specific attack on U.S. persons and interests will take place in the immediate future,” the document reads.
Carney repeatedly declined to discuss the details of the white paper.
“I would point you to the ample judicial precedent for the idea that someone who takes up arms against the United States in a war against the United States is an enemy and therefore could be targeted accordingly,” he told ABC News’ Jon Karl.
“[The president] takes his responsibility as commander in chief to protect the United States and its citizens very seriously. He takes the absolute necessity to conduct our war against al Qaeda and its affiliates in a way that’s consistent with the Constitution and our laws very seriously,” he said.
The white paper is believed to be a summary of the reported classified memo that outlined the legal justification for the drone attack that killed American-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in September 2011.
The American Civil Liberties Union has called the newly discovered document “profoundly disturbing.”
“It’s hard to believe that it was produced in a democracy built on a system of checks and balances. It summarizes in cold legal terms a stunning overreach of executive authority — the claimed power to declare Americans a threat and kill them far from a recognized battlefield and without any judicial involvement before or after the fact,” ACLU National Security Project director Hina Shamsi said in a written statement.
The Obama administration has carried out more than 300 CIA drown strikes in Pakistan, far more than his predecessor, President George W. Bush, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
Pressure is building from Capitol Hill for the White House to outline its legal authority to kill American citizens in counterterrorism operations.
“It is vitally important… for Congress and the American public to have a full understanding of how the executive branch interprets the limits and boundaries of this authority,” a group of eleven bipartisan Senators wrote in a letter to the president Monday, “so that Congress and the public can decide whether this authority has been properly defined, and whether the President’s power to deliberately kill American citizens is subject to appropriate limitations and safeguards.”
The U.S. Postal Service issued a Rosa Parks “forever” stamp Monday, honoring the civil rights activist on what would have been her 100th birthday.
The Postal Service unveiled the stamp during a National Day of Courage celebration at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich.
Parks, an African American, became a prominent figure in the civil rights movement when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Ala.
Parks’s defiance led to a boycott of the city’s bus system and helped springboard the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. into the national spotlight.
Deputy Postmaster General Ronald A. Stroman described Parks as “the epitome of courage.” He served as a young lawyer on the staff of Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) when Parks worked at Conyers’s Detroit office, according to the Associated Press.
“[Parks’s] quiet strength helped to change a nation,” Stroman said. “Let this stamp be a symbol of her courage and determination. And let it remind us to never forget the indignities of days gone by — and to never stop fighting for the aspirations of generations yet unborn.”
The Parks stamp marks the second in a new civil rights collection from the Postal Service.
The USPS issued its first civil rights stamp Jan. 1, unveiling the Emancipation Proclamation forever stamp at the National Archives in Washington. The series wraps up in August with the dedication of a stamp recognizing the 50th anniversary of the “March on Washington,” where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.
— Josh Hicks
LONDON: Reg Presley, lead singer of British 1960s rock band The Troggs, has died aged 71, a friend said late Monday.
Presley, best known for hits including "Wild Thing" and "Love Is All Around", had announced a year ago that he was battling cancer and would retire from the band.
Veteran music journalist Keith Altham, a close friend of Presley's, wrote on his Facebook page that the singer had died "surrounded by family and friends" on Monday at his home in Andover, southeast England.
"My dear old pal Reg Presley of The Troggs died today," he wrote.
"He was one very real person in a sometimes very unreal world. Our thoughts are with his wife Brenda and the the family and those legion of fans who loved his music and his band. I will miss him hugely."
He added that the singer had suffered a number of recent strokes as well as being diagnosed with cancer.
Presley's daughter Karen told the music website WENN: "He passed away peacefully at home and myself, my brother and our mother were with him. We're absolutely heartbroken."
The singer had announced his retirement in January 2012 after he was taken ill during a gig in Germany the previous month.
"During my stay in hospital tests showed that in fact I have lung cancer," he wrote in a letter posted on the band's website.
"I am receiving chemotherapy treatment and at the moment not feeling too bad.
"However I've had to call time on The Troggs and retire. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for the cards and calls and for your love, loyalty and support over the years."
The Troggs' manager did not immediately respond when contacted by AFP.
-AFP/fl
In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, CPM general secretary Prakash Karat called the decision to charge the market rate of diesel for these bulk consumers retrograde and causing a financial crisis. "There are reports of State Transport Corporations curtailing their services and reducing the routes on which buses ply. Steps are being taken to increase the bus fares," Karat wrote expressing concern about the move crippling public transport.
Karat stressed on the need to subsidize diesel for bulk consumers in order to strengthen public transport. "The sharp increase in private vehicles and traffic is causing pollution and a major environmental problem. The only way out is to restrict the expansion of private vehicles and to strengthen public transport," wrote Karat.
Illustration courtesy Foster and Partners/ESA
The European Space Agency (ESA) announced January 31 that it is looking into building a moon base (pictured in an artist's conception) using a technique called 3-D printing.
It probably won't be as easy as whipping out a printer, hooking it to a computer, and pressing "print," but using lunar soils as the basis for actual building blocks could be a possibility.
"Terrestrial 3-D printing technology has produced entire structures," said Laurent Pambaguian, head of the project for ESA, in a statement.
On Earth, 3-D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, produces a three-dimensional object from a digital file. The computer takes cross-sectional slices of the structure to be printed and sends it to the 3-D printer. The printer bonds liquid or powder materials in the shape of each slice, gradually building up the structure. (Watch how future astronauts could print tools in space.)
The ESA and its industrial partners have already manufactured a 1.7 ton (1.5 tonne) honeycombed building block to demonstrate what future construction materials would look like.
—Jane J. Lee
Published February 4, 2013
A week-long standoff in Alabama, where a retired trucker held a 5-year-old boy hostage in an underground bunker, has ended with the kidnapper dead and the child safe, according to law enforcement.
Officials had been able to insert a high-tech camera into the bunker to monitor the movements of the suspect, Richard Lee Dykes, and they had become increasingly concerned that he might act out, according to a law enforcement source with direct knowledge.
"FBI agents safely recovered the child who's been held hostage for nearly a week," FBI Special Agent Steve Richardson said at a news conference.
The agent said negotiations with Dykes "deteriorated" in the past 24 hours.
"Mr. Dykes was observed holding a gun," Richardson said. "At this point, the FBI agents, fearing the child was in imminent danger, entered the bunker and rescued the child."
The boy, identified only as Ethan, "appears physically unharmed" and is being treated at a hospital, authorities said.
Joe Songer/AL.com/AP Photo
Dykes, 65, is dead, but officials have not yet provided details on how he died.
"Right now, FBI special agent bomb technicians are in the process of clearing the property for improvised explosive devices," the FBI said in a written statement. "When it is safe to do so, our evidence response teams, paired with state and local crime scene technicians, will process the scene."
PHOTOS: Worst Hostage Situations
Dykes allegedly shot and killed a school bus driver last week and threatened to kill all the children on the bus before taking the boy, one of the students on the bus said.
"He said he was going to kill us, going to kill us all," Tarrica Singletary, 14, told ABC News.
Dykes had been holed up in his underground bunker near Midland City, Ala., with the abducted boy for a week as police tried to negotiate with him through a PVC pipe. Police had used the talks to send the child comfort items, including a red Hot Wheels car, coloring books, cheese crackers, potato chips and medicine.
Dykes was a decorated Vietnam vet who grew up in the area. He lived in Florida until two years ago, the AP reported, and has an adult daughter, but the two lost touch years ago, neighbor Michael Creel said. When he returned to Alabama, neighbors say he once beat a dog with a lead pipe and had threatened to shoot children who set foot on his property.
President Obama said on Sunday that the Boy Scouts of America should end its ban on gay members and Scout leaders.
With the venerable national organization weighing whether to lift its prohibition on gays, Obama was asked in a Super- Bowl pregame interview with CBS’s Scott Pelly whether the Boy Scouts should be open to gays.
Obama gave a one-word answer: “Yes.”
Pressed to elaborate, the president said, “I think that my attitude is that gays and lesbians should have access and opportunity the same way everybody else does in every institution and walk of life.”
Last August the White House said Obama disagreed with the Boy Scouts’ ban on gay members, but Sunday’s interview was the first time Obama publicly addressed the issue since the Boy Scouts said last week it would consider lifting the ban.
Boy Scouts leaders are expected to discuss lifting the ban on gays at its national executive board meeting this week in Texas.
On Saturday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican presidential candidate in 2012, spoke to a group of Texas Scouts and urged the organization to maintain its policies prohibiting openly gay members.
“Hopefully the board will follow their historic position of keeping the Scouts strongly supportive of the values that make scouting this very important and impactful organization,” Perry said, according to the Associated Press.
Perry, a former Eagle Scout, wrote a book in 2008 titled, “On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For.”
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