Nocere – Earth Disasters

Three United States drone attacks have taken the lives of no less than 18 people at the unstable Afghan-Pakistan border according to authorities.

The first of the three attacks struck a seminary along with a compound in the South Waziristan Tribal area. A third drone struck a vehicle.

The attacks come only days following the death of al-Qaeda organizer Ilyas Kashmiri who is said to have died in the US strike in the area.

Rebels have sworn to retaliate over his death and also the death of Bin Laden just last month.

Ilyas Kashmiri was the leader of a squad which specializes in organizing numerous assaults on specific locations and was a crucial commanding officer in the al-Qaeda.

He is widely thought to have organized a daring assault. The attack on the Mehran naval airbase in Karachi last month. There were 6 well prepared activists that were able to successfully hold off a Pakistani squad for 15 hours. The squad was the equivalent of a squad of US Navy Seals.

The initial hit was aimed at a seminary inShalam Raghzai. It is located about 6 miles on the northwest side of Wana. The second assault hit two hours after the first aimed at another seminary in Wacha Dana. It is found 7.5 miles on the northwestern side of Wana. The third attack, once again a few hours later hit a vehicle that was in the Bray Nishtar locality located on the border of North and South Waziristan.

Authorities are thinking that is is possible that there were foreign militants amongst the dead from Monday’s drone assaults.

Numerous Militants are presumed to be hiding in the semi-autonomous tribe areas of the North and South Waziristan. The United States has
Tagged this area as the “most dangerous place on earth.”

The US officials don’t usually announce that they are responsible for the drone attacks, but the experts are saying that only the United States has the ability to do so in that area.

There have been quite a few militants killed the the drone assaults. A few of them were seniors. There have also been 100′s of residents killed. The Pakistani civilians are not for the drone attacks.

The press has said that these strikes in the past have had the approval of the Pakistani officials, but they always deny secretly endorsing them.

Just in the past few months, Pakistan’s senior officials have been said to be trying to put a stop to these strikes.
Ferocity has escalated in Pakistan over the past few weeks.

Sunday, there was an explosion at a bakery that killed 18 people. It was located in the garrison town of Nowshera in NW Pakistan.

Another bomb had exploded earlier at a bus stop outside of Peshawar killing 6 people.

Both of the last two assaults are being faulted on the Pakistan Taliban.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Health officials are scrambling to find what is the cause behind an outbreak of E.coli that has appeared now in 10 countries. It is a uncommon type of E coli and has now been the cause of 16 people deaths. There are many more sick with the disease.

In Germany, 9 people perished from a type of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome or HUS. 6 perished due to a form of E.coli that causes bleeding in the intestines. The result is stomach cramping and diarrhea with blood in it.

There has been 499 people discovered with HUS in Europe and 1115 people have been found with the enterohemorrhagic E. coli, EHEC.

The cases are showing up in other countries besides Germany and Sweden. Now they are being detected in Austria, Denmark, France, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Most of these people had been in contact or had lately been to Germany. Only 2 had not done either.

The type of E coli in Germany is a new super toxic strain. It has been seen before but is very uncommon. The CDC has noted that it has very little experience with this type. At this time, there is no knowledge of this uncommon type having ever been discovered in the US. There have been cases of it reported in other countries. Britians Health Protection Agcy has said that they feel the form in the outbreak is an uncommon type that has seldom been seen in the UK.

To help prevent the spread of the disease into Russia, they have stopped all imports of fresh vegetables from the Europe Union. They have done this to stop the disease from entering Russia and people becoming ill. Gennady Onishchenko, the head of the Russian Fed’l Agcy for Health and Consumer Rights released a statement saying that the ban will remain in effect “until we become convinced that this situation is resolved.”

Popularity: 7% [?]

There were 570 migrants rescued from the choppy waters of the Mediterranean Sea leaving another 250 not found. The boat filled with people fleeing Libya flipped over in the choppy sea water close to Kerkennah. It is not certain as to how many boats there were transporting people. It is thought that the missing 250 people have perished beneath the waves. People fleeing to find a better life, lost their lives instead.

The coastguard and other rescue members worked as quickly as they could managing to save 570 people. All the people saved were from the sub-Saharan Africa. The Kerkennah islands are located in a shallow area of the sea on the east side of the Tunisian coast.

It is possible that only one boat was bringing the migrants to Italy. It is not uncommon to find fishing boats crammed with people trying to get away from the violence in Libya. With possibly 800 people on board one fishing boat, the weight could have caused the boat to turn over in the rough waters. Just the other day, a single boat with 932 people on board it was found off the coastal area of Sicily.

It is possible that the boat actually hit a sandbar Tuesday late evening. There was a report that a boat with 800 passengers on it was stuck on a sandbank approximately 20 miles out from the Kerkennah islands.

Many attempts at rescuing the stranded passengers was fruitless. The water was too shallow for many of the larger boats to go into. Smaller boats were later brought in and were able to get closer to the stranded boat.

Many of the missing may have died when they tried to get to the boats they could see in the distance. Thinking they could swim to them, but didn’t make it.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Is it possible that Yemen is being pulled into a civil war? That is the fear that many in Sanaa have. Overnight in street combats in the Yemeni capital there were at least 39 people killed.

The conflict erupted after a truce was broken that had been between the authorities and the people who continue to be faithful to Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar, the head of the tribal alliance. Both sides are blaming each other for breaking the ceasefire.

The president, Ali Abdullah Saleh is refusing to step down as the president after having been president for 33 years.

US on Tuesday tried to encourage him “to move Yemen forward” by signing a Gulf Co-operation Council-broker deal. Handing this deal over to his deputy would prevent him from formal charges.

There have been possibly over 350 people that have died in these battles since the people began protesting and calling for the President’s resignation last January. These protest were pepped up by the rebellions in Tunisia and Egypt.

It is feared that these battles are going to pull Yemen into a civil war.

Popularity: 3% [?]