International Glance
A major earthquake that rumbled across Vancouver Island was felt as far away as B.C.'s Okanagan Valley to the east and Seattle to the south, but caused no injuries and apparently little damage when it hit midday Friday.
The estimated 6.4-magnitude tremor occurred at 12:41 p.m. PT, with an epicentre about 50 kilometres off the west coast of the island, about 300 kilometres west of Vancouver.
Initial reports estimated the quake was as large as magnitude 6.8, but those estimates were later downgraded No tsunami warning was issued.
6.4 magnitude quake shakes southwest British Columbia
Mexico mourns 52 casino dead in 'act of terrorism'
His voice cracking with emotion, President Felipe Calderon Friday declared three days of national mourning for what he described as “an act of terror” by gangsters who doused gasoline in a casino and caused a fire that left at least 52 people dead.
“Today is a day of grief for Monterrey and all of Mexico,” Calderon said in a nationally televised address before flying to the northern industrial city where the attack occurred Thursday afternoon. Authorities released a video taken by closed circuit camera showing how gunmen in four vehicles approached the Casino Royale in a posh area of western Monterrey Thursday at 3:48 p.m., went inside and set the installation ablaze.
Israel Aerospace Industries unveils unmanned aircraft GHOST
Israel Aerospace Industries unveiled over the weekend its latest development in the field of secret unmanned aerial vehicles - a miniature aircraft weighing four kilograms, known as GHOST to foreign customers.
In a Washington exhibition, the IAI showcased the unmanned aircraft that is able to provide intelligence imagery in real time to soldiers in urban areas, and is also suitable for civilian use. GHOST lands and launches vertically and is able to fly and hover while automatically maintaining its altitude.
Turkey launches air assault on Kurds in Iraq
The Turkish military launched an air assault on Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq overnight Wednesday, hitting 60 targets by plane and another 168 with artillery from across the border.
The assault was a response to the killing of nine Turkish soldiers in southeastern Turkey Wednesday by Kurdish separatists and targeted a region "frequented" by the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), which has fought for autonomy in southeastern Turkey for decades, The New York Times reports. Both Turkey and the US have the PKK listed as a terrorist organization.
Pakistan Let China See Crashed U.S. 'Stealth' Copter
Chinese intelligence has been given access to a secret US helicopter which crashed during the raid in Pakistan in which Osama bin Laden was killed, the Financial Times reported yesterday.
Pakistan gave China access to the previously unknown “stealth” helicopter despite explicit CIA requests not to, it reported.
Japan Held Nuclear Data, Leaving Evacuees in Peril
The day after a giant tsunami set off the continuing disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, thousands of residents at the nearby town of Namie gathered to evacuate.
Given no guidance from Tokyo, town officials led the residents north, believing that winter winds would be blowing south and carrying away any radioactive emissions. For three nights, while hydrogen explosions at four of the reactors spewed radiation into the air, they stayed in a district called Tsushima where the children played outside and some parents used water from a mountain stream to prepare rice.
Lawmakers seek to drop Arabic as one of Israel's official languages
Forty lawmakers from both the coalition and opposition Wednesday submitted a proposal to the Knesset for a new Basic Law that would change the accepted definition of Israel as a "Jewish and democratic state."
The bill, initiated by MKs Avi Dichter (Kadima ), Zeev Elkin (Likud ) and David Rotem (Yisrael Beiteinu ), and supported by 20 of the 28 Kadima MKs, would make democratic rule subservient to the state's definition as "the national home for the Jewish people."
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