More than 2,000 dead in Turkey and Syria after major earthquakes
Summary
- A rescue operation is under way across much of southern Turkey and northern Syria following a huge earthquake that has killed more than 2,300 people
- The 7.8 magnitude quake struck near Gaziantep in the early hours of Monday while people were asleep
- A new 7.5-magnitude tremor hit at around 13:30 local time (10:30 GMT), which officials said was "not an aftershock"
- The country's disaster agency says some 1,500 people were killed in Turkey alone after the first quake, and more than 5,300 were wounded
- Syrian authorities are reporting 810 dead and more than 2,000 injured, according to the AFP news agency
- Rescuers are racing to save people trapped beneath the rubble after hundreds of buildings collapsed in both countries
- World leaders have pledged to send aid after Turkey issued an international appeal for help
- Millions of people across Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus and Israel felt the earthquake
What caused the initial earthquake?
The Earth's crust is made up of separate bits, called plates, that nestle alongside each other.
These plates often try to move, but are prevented by the friction of rubbing up against an adjoining one. But sometimes, the pressure builds until one plate suddenly jerks across, causing the surface to move.
In this case, it was the Arabian plate moving northwards and grinding against the Anatolian plate.
Investigate Bolsonaro for genocide, says Brazil’s Marina Silva
Former president Jair Bolsonaro should be investigated for genocide, Brazil’s environment minister, Marina Silva, has said, as she prepares an operation to drive illegal gold miners from the site of a humanitarian disaster on Indigenous land.
In the coming days, armed police and environmental protection agents will launch the first of a series of operations by plane and helicopter to expel thousands of miners, who proliferated in Brazil’s Yanomami Indigenous territory during Bolsonaro’s administration, contaminating Amazonian rivers, wrecking the rainforest and spawning Brazil’s worst health crisis in living memory.
Footballer Christian Atsu trapped ‘under rubble’ after Turkey earthquake, reports say - latest updates
More than 1,400 people have died after a significant earthquake and reports suggest members of Turkish football club Hatayspor have been caught in the disaster
Footballer Christian Atsu is reportedly among those trapped after an earthquake in Turkey.
A 7.8 magnitude tremor struck southern Turkey and northern Syria early on Monday morning, before a subsequent 7.5 magnitude quake. A major rescue operation is underway in the region with more than 1,000 people dead and many more injured or missing.
Reports in Turkey suggest that Atsu, the 31-year-old former Chelsea and Newcastle winger, is among them. The Ghanaian joined Hatayspor last summer, and the club’s sporting director Taner Savut is also thought to be trapped. Istanbul-based journalist Yagiz Sabuncuoglu tweeted: “Hatayspor Sporting Director Taner Savut and Cristian Atsu were left under the rubble. Search and rescue teams are looking for two names.”
Hong Kong: Landmark national security trial begins
Dozens of pro-democracy figures have been charged with "conspiracy to commit subversion" and are facing possible life sentences. Their trial opened two years after the initial arrests.
Hong Kong's largest national security trial of 47 pro-democracy advocates began on Monday.
The prominent figures have been accused of "conspiracy to commit subversion" related to their involvement in an unofficial primary election in July 2020. If convicted, they risk life sentences.
The trial will focus primarily on the 16 who have pleaded not guilty to the charges. The other 31 have pleaded guilty and will be sentenced after the trial.
In a rare protest, supporters carrying a banner that read "crackdown is shameless" and "immediately release all political prisoners" were seen before the court convened.
Rash of violent robberies drives up sales of home security items
By YOSUKE WATANABE/ Staff Writer
February 6, 2023 at 19:01 JST
A recent string of violent burglaries across Japan has sparked a rush to beef up home security, with some stores seeing security products flying off the shelves.
Customers flocked to a section of the Super Viva Home Saitama Shin-Toshin home center store lined with security products on Feb. 1.
“I’m scared of robberies,” said a woman in her 50s living in Saitama Prefecture who was at the store. “I came here to buy film sheets to keep my windows from being broken.”
Why the Chinese balloon crisis could be a defining moment in the new Cold War
The Chinese balloon saga threatens to be a watershed moment in the world’s dangerous new superpower rivalry: For the first time, Americans experienced a tangible symbol of the national security challenge from Beijing.
The craft, described by US intelligence as a surveillance balloon, presented a comparatively low-tech, modest security threat compared to the multi-layered espionage, economic, cyber, military and geopolitical rivalry escalating every day.
But as it wafted through US skies before being shot down Saturday off of the Carolinas, the balloon created a sudden moment when the idea of a threat by China to the US homeland was neither distant, theoretical, unseen, or years in the future. And it underscored how in today’s polarized America, Washington’s first reaction in the face of a threat is to point fingers rather than unify.
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