LA TIMES - Turkey earthquake death toll could soar, Oct 24, 2011

A survivor is carried to an ambulance in Tabanli village, Turkey, after a 7.2 earthquake killed at least 138 people. (Reuters / October 23, 2011)

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Times staff and wire reports, Los Angeles Times

October 24, 2011, 2:22 a.m.

Reporting from Ankara, Turkey— 

As rescuers in easternTurkey combed through rubble in search of earthquakesurvivors early Monday, officials said the number of deaths from the 7.2 temblor had reached 239 and could go much higher.

Many buildings were destroyed or damaged. Emergency workers and residents pressed to find hundreds of people believed to be buried under debris in the cities of Van and Ercis, where a student dormitory collapsed.

In Van, some residents using their hands and shovels worked frantically under floodlights or only flashlights after reportedly hearing the voices of people calling from under mounds of broken concrete in pitch darkness and cold.

PHOTOS: Powerful quake strikes Turkey

Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said at least 100 people were killed in Van and 117 others died in Ercis, an eastern city close to the Iranian border.

"The most important problem now is in the villages close to Van city center because the buildings are made of adobe," said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who reportedly traveled to the disaster area by helicopter. "They are more vulnerable to quakes. I must say that almost all buildings in such villages are destroyed."

The quake struck at 1:41 p.m. Sunday and was centered in the village of Tabanli in Van province, said Turkey's Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute.

U.S. scientists recorded more than 100 aftershocks in eastern Turkey within 10 hours of the quake, including one with a magnitude of 6.

The earthquake also shook buildings in neighboring Armenia and Iran, but no injuries were reported.

In Turkey, thousands of people reportedly fled into the streets running, screaming or trying to reach relatives on cellphones as apartment and office buildings cracked or collapsed.

Erdogan urged people to stay away from damaged buildings and promised assistance to all survivors.

"We won't leave anyone to fend for themselves in the cold of winter," he said.

About 1,275 rescue teams from 38 provinces were being sent to the region, officials said. Troops were also assisting search-and-rescue efforts, they said.

Many buildings also collapsed in the district of Celebibag, near Ercis.

INDIA Today - Muammar Gaddafi was shot in the head: Autopsy, Oct 24, 2011

Former Libyan leaderMuammar Gaddafi died of a gunshot wound to the head, the chief pathologist said after doctors completed the autopsy on Sunday.

Othman el-Zentani did not disclose additional findings, such as whether Gaddafi suffered the wound in crossfire or at close-range, the CNN reported.

Gaddafi, who ruled Libya for 42 years, was killed on Thursday by National Transitional Council (NTC) fighters near his hometown of Sirte.

Zentani said the report would now go to the attorney general's office before being released to the public.

He also informed that doctors performed the autopsy at a Misrata hospital in the presence of officials from the prosecutor's office.

But no foreign or independent officials were present, he added.

Autopsies were also conducted on the bodies of Gaddafi's son, Mutassim, and his former defence minister, Abu Baker Yunis.

The three bodies would likely return to a cold storage at a Misrata meat market for public viewing, Zentani stated.
Read more at:http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/muammar-gaddafi-shot-dead-autopsy/1/157280.html

INDIA Today - Diwali in jail for Kanimozhi and Yeddyurappa, Amar goes home, Oct 24, 2011

The cases of the high profile personalities arrested in various cases of graft - Amar Singh for the 2008 cash-for-votes scandal in Parliament, Kanimozhi and six others for the 2G spectrum allotment scam and Yeddyurappa for land deals - came up on Monday.

While the Delhi High Court gave an ailing Amar Singh a reprieve, a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court took up the case of the seven 2G accused and decided to reserve bail orders till November 3. The Karnataka High Court put off Yeddyurappa's plea till October 28.

Read more at:http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/diwali-in-jail-for-kanimozhi-and-yeddyurappa-amar-goes-home/1/157409.html

CHINA News - Death toll rises to 264 in Turkey earthquake: interior minister, Oct 24, 2011

A rescuer searches for survivors on the ruins in Van province of Turkey, on Oct. 24, 2011. (Xinhua/Ma Yan)

ANKARA, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from the powerful earthquake in southeast Turkey has risen to 264, Turkish Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin told local media Monday.

Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay earlier put the death toll at 239 and the number of the injured at some 1,300.

Speaking at a televised news conference, Atalay said rescue teams had managed to reach all areas in Van province that was hit by the quake.

Tents, woollen blankets and food were being distributed in the quake-stricken zone, expected to cover all the quake-hit zone Monday.

Local media reports said earlier that the death toll was expected to rise further as hundreds remain unaccounted for.

ABC News, Australia - WikiLeaks halts publishing due to lack of funds, Oct 24, 2011

"The whistleblowing website WikiLeaks says it is suspending publishing classified US diplomatic files to focus instead on fundraising "to ensure our future survival".

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said that as a result of a financial "blockade" mounted by Visa, MasterCard and other companies, it was "now forced to temporarily suspend its publishing operations and aggressively fundraise".

WikiLeaks has enraged US authorities by releasing tens of thousands of classified diplomatic cables.

Many relate to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, while others contain frank and sometimes embarrassing assessments of world leaders made by US diplomats.

Assange said in a statement that since December last year, "an arbitrary and unlawful financial blockade has been imposed by Bank of America, Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and Western Union".

UPI.com - Planet-sized object as cool as Earth found, Oct 24, 2011

An artist's impression of the coldest imaged companion, named WD 0806-661 B, (right foreground) orbiting at a large distance from a white dwarf --the collapsed-core remnant of a dying star. Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/Francis Reddy

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa., Oct. 20 (UPI) -- The Spitzer Space Telescope has captured images of the coldest companion object to be directly imaged outside our solar system, U.S. scientists say.
Penn State astronomy Professor Kevin Luhman said the planet-sized brown dwarf moving through space with a companion white dwarf star is as cool as Earth.
"This planet-like companion is the coldest object ever directly photographed outside our solar system," said Luhman, who led the discovery team. "Its mass is about the same as many of the known extra-solar planets -- about six to nine times the mass of Jupiter -- but in other ways it is more like a star.
"Essentially, what we have found is a very small star with an atmospheric temperature about cool as the Earth's."
A brown dwarf forms just like a star out of a massive cloud of dust and gas but its mass is not enough to ignite thermonuclear reactions in its core, resulting in a failed star that is very cool.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/10/20/Planet-sized-object-as-cool-as-Earth-found/UPI-25921319162566/#ixzz1bic8OsCB

NZ HERALD - Rugby World Cup: Emergency services busy as fans celebrate, Oct 24, 2011

"Revellers kept emergency services busy in parts of the country last night following the Rugby World Cup win, with celebrations continuing today.
As excited and boisterous fan packed into fan zones and city centres to celebrate the All Blacks' Rugby 8-7 victory, police, fire and ambulance services attended a rush of incidents during the night.
In downtown Auckland police and emergency services were kept busy as fans flooded the streets to celebrate the result.
It was a "fairly disorderly night'', with 46 arrests, said police.
Ambulance services were also stretched, with almost 400 callouts across the city, including Eden Park, the CBD and fan zones, and about 40 people were taken to hospital."

CBS News - Queen Elizabeth mooned on Australian trip - World Watch, Oct 24, 2011

Queen Elizabeth II greets the crowd along the Brisbane River Oct. 24, 2011, in Brisbane, Australia.

(Credit: Getty Images)

The Australian city of Brisbane isn't supposed to see a full moon for another two weeks, but a 22-year-old construction worker reportedly decided to change that in honor of Queen Elizabeth II's visit Monday.

Liam Warriner of Sydney was released on bail Monday afternoon after being arrested for allegedly mooning the queen alongside her motorcade while clenching an Australian flag between his cheeks, British newspaper The Telegraph reported.

"I mooned the queen," Warriner told Australian newspaper The Courier Mail after his release. "Everybody's seen someone's butt, come on. You see it on TV all the time, you see it in movies, it's accepted in PG-rated programming these days, but yet it's an offense to the queen."

Warriner was charged with public nuisance and willful exposure. He's expected to appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court Friday.

The construction worker told The Courier Mail his co-workers dared him to do it while they were unloading shipping crates. He said he didn't fully commit until the queen waved at him from the motorcade.

He made it about 50 yards before the police caught up with him, telling the newspaper he made sure to only show his backside and not go full-frontal in front of the crowd.

"I wouldn't want all of them seeing [that]," he told the Courier Mail.

Monday's incident isn't Warriner's first public demonstration. He told the newspaper that he had protested recently in Sydney as part of the worldwide Occupy movement that started in New York.

Special Section: Occupy Wall Street Protests

Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh are expected to end their 10-day visit to Australia Friday.

Read the full Courier Mail story here

REUTERS - Turkey quake kills more than 260, hundreds missing, Oct 24, 2011

Earthquake rescues continue (01:04)

By Jonathon Burch and Seda Sezer

ERCIS, Turkey | Mon Oct 24, 2011 11:06am EDT

(Reuters) - Rescuers pulled survivors from beneath mounds of collapsed buildings and searched for the missing on Monday after a major earthquake killed at least 264 people and wounded more than 1,000 in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey.

Hundreds more were feared dead after Sunday's 7.2 magnitude quake, Turkey's most powerful in a decade, toppled remote villages of mud brick houses.

As desperate survivors cried for help beneath mounds of smashed concrete and twisted metal, some using mobile phones, earth-moving machines and troops joined rescue efforts in the city of Van and the town of Ercis, some 100 km (60 miles) to the north.

"Be patient, be patient," rescuers in Ercis told a whimpering boy pinned under a concrete slab with the lifeless hand of an adult, a wedding ring on one finger, visible just in front of his face.