F-B-F.org -

The epicenter was 12.5 miles northeast of Bhachau, a town of 15,000 that was badly damaged in the January 26 quake, said SN Vhattchara, deputy director general of the department.”We were preparing to go to bed. Suddenly we felt the ground under us shaking,” said CV Patil, a government doctor who has been sheltering with other homeless in tents in Bhachau.Some alarmed people rushed from their temporary homes, but 15-year-old Suresh Keshunda said he wasn’t frightened “Now we are living in tents. So nothing will happen,” he said.The quake was followed by 10 aftershocks of magnitudes measuring between 3 and 4.More than 230 aftershocks have rocked the region since the 7.7 magnitude earthquake, India’s worst tremor in half a century.Residents across Gujarat felt the quake last night, and many who feared their buildings would collapse rushed into the street and spent the night outside. They jammed state telephone lines temporarily while trying to call loved ones in the aftermath.Some 24,000 soldiers have been deployed in Gujarat to search for bodies, clear debris and help hundreds of thousands of injured and homeless people. Many survivors of the quake are still sleeping outside under plastic sheets, awaiting tents and other relief supplies.The earthquake left no building intact in Bhachau. Today, relief workers cooked food and people waited in long queues to receive their daily meal of rice and vegetables.On the southern edge of Bhuj, though, Israeli soldiers packed up a 70-bed tent hospital at a school yard where more than 1,500 people had been treated since the quake struck.

“Our mission is done,” said Jonathan Gutfarb, a spokesman for the Israeli Defense Force.Among the last patients Israeli doctors saw was 13-month-old Sejal R Rajgor, a baby who for many has become a symbol of the quake since being photographed at the Israeli hospital last week. Sejal had been trapped in quake rubble for eight hours and emerged with a crushed leg that had to be amputated. Her mother, brother and three cousins were killed.Her father brought her in for a checkup yesterday, Gutfarb said. Doctors said she was making good progress.The Home Ministry says at least 17,000 people died and unofficial estimates say the toll is likely to reach 30,000, with many victims still buried under the rubble. Bhuj was among the hardest-hit towns, with whole neighborhoods flattened by the tremor.Some officials in the devastated regions said some towns, as well as the central part of Bhuj that was surrounded by ancient walls, were beyond repair and should be replaced by new towns built in different locations. They said they would consider relocating residents of Anjar, Rapar, Bhachau and Gandhidham.”We want to start a debate with the people,” said Anil Mukim, the district administrator of Bhuj.Gen NC Vij, a military commander supervising the relief operation, said the task of removing the rubble was “Herculean.”Hundreds of thousands of people who lost their homes in the quake are now receiving aid from a host of government and private agencies, both local and international.The UN Development Programme said Friday it was providing US$3 million worth of aid, including shelter for 40,000 families in rural areas of Gujarat. Also today, UNICEF launched its first major training session for trauma counsellors..

Bowing to public outrage over an oil spill, Taiwan’s premier has ordered an investigation into whether officials responded fast enough to stop a stranded ship from leaking fuel off the southern coast. Bowing to public outrage over an oil spill, Taiwan’s premier has ordered an investigation into whether officials responded fast enough to stop a stranded ship from leaking fuel off the southern coast.
More than 1,000 metric tons of oil have spilled from the Greek-registered cargo ship, which developed mechanical problems and became stuck on a reef on January 14.The oil has contaminated the shoreline of the Lungkeng coral reef reserve in Kenting National Park, 240 miles south of the capital.Premier Chang Chun-hsiung ordered officials to investigate whether officials should be punished for dereliction of duty in handling the accident, a government statement said.Chang also asked the state-run petroleum company to help with the cleanup, the statement said.Opposition lawmakers demanded Friday that the head of the Environmental Protection Administration, Lin Jun-yi, step down for the agency’s slow response.Critics said officials failed to pump oil immediately and let it ooze out when the ship started breaking up four days later. Action was further stalled during the weeklong Chinese Lunar New Year holiday following the accident, they said.Cleanup crews were dispatched after the holidays to scoop up the oil with long-handled ladles and buckets. But it was not until this week that a special government committee was organized to coordinate the work.Lin, the EPA head, has said the government responded as soon as possible but cleanup work was hampered by bad weather and rough seas. He apologized yesterday because the government “did not do as good a job as it should have.”Lin told reporters today that serious contamination was confined to the 1,000 metre shoreline at the coral reef reserve. As using oil dispersing chemicals could cause new contamination, a slower process will be adopted to use micro-organisms to dissolve the oil, he said.Gates will be set up at seas near the reserve to prevent the oil sludge from spreading to the nuclear power plant several miles away, Lin said..

Ousted President Joseph Estrada may ask the new government to let him fly to the United States for eye surgery in March despite an order barring him from leaving the Philippines, his son has said. Ousted President Joseph Estrada may ask the new government to let him fly to the United States for eye surgery in March despite an order barring him from leaving the Philippines, his son has said.
The former leader, ousted last month as hundreds of thousands of protesters demanded he resign amid corruption allegations, has a long-scheduled glaucoma surgery appointment in Boston next month, said Joseph Victor Ejercito, one of his sons.”He is still scheduled to go, but he has no plans about what to do,” Ejercito said. He repeated statements that his father does not want to live outside the Philippines.The Philippine Justice Ministry issued an order last month barring Estrada and 23 other people, including his wife, from leaving the country during a criminal investigation into corruption allegations.Private prosecutors allege Estrada, with the help of friends and associates, amassed as much as US$300 million in bribes and kickbacks during 31 months in office.Estrada never signed a resignation letter and claims Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the former vice president sworn in as leader the day he left office, is only the acting president.Based on that claim, Estrada says he still has presidential immunity and appealed to the Supreme Court this week to halt the corruption probe against him.. A Laotian court gave a 20 year prison sentence to a foreign couple convicted of defrauding the government through illegal mining, a newspaper reported today. A Laotian court gave a 20 year prison sentence to a foreign couple convicted of defrauding the government through illegal mining, a newspaper reported today.
The sentence was passed in absentia on New Zealander Julie Edith Bruns, the president of Gem Mining Lao PDR, and her Danish husband, Bjarne Jeppesen, the official Vientiane Times newspaper reported.The case came to light after Lao authorities arrested two Australian employees of the gem company, Kerry Danes and his wife Kay, on December 23.