health: Lincoln Tribune

الخميس، 22 مارس 2012

Lincoln Tribune

Bomb blast kills British soldier in southern Afghanistan
Rain-triggered landslides, avalanches kill 9 in Pakistan
Bomb blast hits Indonesian embassy in Paris, no injuries
Dutch soldiers find suspected WWII mass grave in dunes
UPDATE 1 — Strong earthquake jolts Papua New Guinea, no damage reports

Bomb blast kills British soldier in southern Afghanistan

Posted: 21 Mar 2012 10:57 PM PDT

KABUL, Afghanistan (BNO NEWS) -- A British soldier was killed on Wednesday when a roadside bomb targeted a patrol in southern Afghanistan, Britain's Ministry of Defense said. It raises the number of British troops killed in Afghanistan since 2001 to 405.

Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Mackenzie, a spokesman for Task Force Helmand, said the soldier was killed when he was struck by an explosion in the Mirmandab region of Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province. He was working alongside an Afghan security forces' patrol.

"Sadly, I must report that a soldier from the 2nd Battalion, The Mercian Regiment was killed in an explosion from an improvised explosive device while working alongside an Afghan security forces' patrol to disrupt insurgents in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand Province," Mackenzie said. "The thoughts and condolences of everyone serving in the Task Force are with his family and friends."

Mackenzie said the soldier's family has been informed and have asked for a 24-hour period of grace before other details are released.

Wednesday's death raises the number of coalition troops killed in Afghanistan so far this year to 84, according to official figures. Six British soldiers were killed earlier this month when a roadside bomb struck an armored vehicle in Helmand province, making it the war's worst single loss of British life in one incident due to enemy action.

There are currently more than 130,000 ISAF troops in Afghanistan, including some 90,000 U.S. troops and more than 9,500 British soldiers. U.S. President Barack Obama previously ordered a drawdown of 23,000 U.S. troops later this year, and foreign combat troops are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

Rain-triggered landslides, avalanches kill 9 in Pakistan

Posted: 21 Mar 2012 09:11 PM PDT

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (BNO NEWS) -- At least nine people were killed on Tuesday when rain-triggered landslides and avalanches buried a number of homes in northern Pakistan, a local newspaper reported on Wednesday.

One incident happened on early Tuesday morning in the village of Qurqulti, located in the Ghizner Valley of Gilgit-Baltistan, when heavy rain triggered a landslide and buried nearly a dozen homes. At least three people were killed.

An official with the Pakistan Red Crescent Society told the Express Tribune newspaper that local authorities had warned residents to relocate because of the threat of heavy rainfall. However, some residents ignored the warnings and were caught by the landslide.

In a separate incident, at around 9 a.m. local time on Tuesday, an avalanche struck the village of Waht, about 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) from Garam Chashma, the headquarters of Lotkuh tehsil in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Local police officials told the newspaper that at least five women were killed in the avalanche. All of them were from the same family and were identified as Rashida Bibi, her three daughters, Syeda, Zarina and Naiba and another member of the family named Shaihda.

A second avalanche happened in the Tau area of Mastuj Tehsil in upper Chitral, destroying a bridge and several roads but causing no casualties.

Bomb blast hits Indonesian embassy in Paris, no injuries

Posted: 21 Mar 2012 09:01 PM PDT

PARIS, France (BNO NEWS) -- A bomb exploded near the Indonesian Embassy in Paris on early Wednesday morning, breaking windows and damaging cars but causing no casualties, officials said. It is unclear who is behind the attack.

The attack happened at around 5:15 a.m. local time when a bomb exploded about 20 meters (65 feet) from the embassy's entrance, breaking a number of windows at nearby buildings and damaging several vehicles which were parked in the street. Two vehicles were destroyed.

An embassy spokesperson said local police officers responded quickly, securing the scene and establishing a police line around the compound. "The security forces are currently conducting an investigation into the explosion," the spokesperson said. "So far the motive behind this explosive event is not known."

Although it remains unclear who was the target of the attack or who was behind it, the Indonesian Embassy in Paris has called on Indonesian citizens in France to remain vigilant in performing their daily activities. Services at the diplomatic compound were not disrupted by Wednesday's attack.

Dutch soldiers find suspected WWII mass grave in dunes

Posted: 21 Mar 2012 05:13 PM PDT

TILBURG, the Netherlands (BNO NEWS) -- Dutch soldiers have possibly found a mass grave which may contain the bodies of up to fifteen people who were executed by German police during World War II, the government announced on Wednesday.

The Dutch Ministry of Defense said a group of soldiers discovered two suspected graves last week while searching the Loonse and Drunense Dunes, a national park located between the cities of Tilburg, Waalwijk and Den Bosch, with ground-penetrating radar. It is believed up to fifteen people may be buried there.

"After an afternoon of intensive research, soldiers from the 41st Armored Engineer Battalion discovered two disturbances on the radar," the Ministry of Defense said in a statement on Wednesday. "This indicates the soil is different in composition in these locations. Around it they detected barbed wire and they found ammunition and a mortar."

The search was part of an exercise but focused on the story of Rien Broeders who previously provided information to the War Aftercare Department of the Netherlands Red Cross. The area in the Loonse and Drunense Dunes is known to have been used as a shooting range by German forces during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.

Broeders, who was at the time a young boy and lived in the area, would regularly visit the shooting range to collect shells after German soldiers had left. He knew the German soldiers had dug two pits, surrounded by barbed wire, where they could take shelter in the event of a threat.

But when Broeders returned after the war, he discovered the pits had been closed.

According to information from the Foundation for Information World War Two (STIWOT), most of the victims are likely resistance fighters who were executed by the Nazi's Order Police in May 1944. Fourteen men, between the ages of 22 and 34, were taken from their cells at Haaren prison and brought to the dunes where they were executed.

According to STIWOT, at least 28 shots were heard in the area before the men were buried at an unknown location in the dunes. Two searches in July 1946 and January 1974 failed to find the graves, and the search has been hampered by the dunes which continuously change in shape.

Local broadcaster Omroep Brabant said five of those executed had been accused of direct and indirect involvement in connection with the robbery of a distribution center in Bergen op Zoom in March 1944. They were also accused of setting a German storage facility on fire in January 1944 and possessing weapons and ammunition.

UPDATE 1 — Strong earthquake jolts Papua New Guinea, no damage reports

Posted: 21 Mar 2012 03:48 PM PDT

GOROKA, Papua New Guinea (BNO NEWS) -- A strong earthquake struck the island of New Guinea in Papua New Guinea on early Thursday morning, seismologists said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

The 6.7-magnitude earthquake at 8:15 a.m. local time (2215 GMT Wednesday) was centered about 63 kilometers (39 miles) east-southeast of Goroka, the capital of the Eastern Highlands Province in the Oceanian country. It struck about 105.9 kilometers (65.8 miles) deep, making it an earthquake with intermediate depth, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties from the region, but the USGS estimated that approximately 147,000 people near the epicenter may have felt 'strong' shaking which could result in light to moderate damage. Another 3.5 million people may have felt light to moderate shaking.

Because the earthquake struck fairly deep and on land, no tsunami warnings were issued. "A destructive tsunami was not generated based on earthquake and historical tsunami data," the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in a bulletin.

Earthquakes in the mountainous nation of Papua New Guinea, which is on the so-called 'Pacific Ring of Fire', do rarely cause damage or casualties as most structures in the region are light and flexible. This allows them to bend, rather than snap when a major earthquake happens.

In December 2011, a powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck near the town of Wau in Morobe province. The earthquake was felt as far away as the capital Port Moresby, about 221 kilometers (137 miles) south-southeast of the epicenter, but there were no reports of damage or casualties.

In July 1998, a powerful 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck just off the north coast of the country's island of New Guinea, causing a landslide which resulted in a local tsunami. The disaster left at least 2,183 people killed and thousands more injured.

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الخميس، 22 مارس 2012

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