WORLD NEWS

Science News And Diasters

Year 2011

Sun Erupts With Most Powerful Solar Flare in Four Years (Feb. 14): An X-class solar flare, the most powerful form of solar flare, erupts and jams radio communications in China. Such a solar blast has the potential to disrupt electrical power grids and satellites used on Earth.
Northern Lights Enhanced by Solar Flare (Feb. 17): The Aurora Borealis, commonly known as the northern lights, are more prominent due to the recent solar flare eruption. Thanks to the solar flare, the Aurora Borealis are visible farther south, even into the northern tier of the United States.
Earthquake Strikes New Zealand's Second Largest City (Feb. 22): A 6.3-magnitude earthquake hits Christchurch, New Zealand, killing at least 75 people. The U.S. Geological Survey reports the earthquake is part of an aftershock sequence from a 7.1 earthquake that hit the same area last Sept.

2011 events

Here are the key events in world news for the month of March 2011.

Egyptian Protestors Demand Faster Change and Accountability (March 6): Newly appointed Prime Minister Essam Sharaf addresses tens of thousands of protestors in Tahrir Square, where demonstrators press for faster and more substantive changes. The former interior minister, Habib el-Adly, pleads not guilty to corruption charges. A series of fires break out in government security and financial investigation offices angering protestors who suspect that senior officials are trying to destroy evidence that will implicate more of them in corruption and human rights abuses.
Upheaval Continues in Libya (March 7): Government warplanes repeatedly bomb rebel positions near an oil refinery in the coastal city of Ras Lanuf, seeking to drive them back to the east, as the country's slide into civil war continues. In Tripoli, government supporters celebrate after state television falsely reports that Col. Qaddafi's forces had regained the entire country.
Yemen President Rejects Proposal to Step Down (March 7): President Ali Abdullah Saleh rejects the political opposition's proposal that he step down by the end of the year, calling it undemocratic and unconstitutional, the official Saba news agency reports. Saleh calls for a national conference to be held, which is rejected by the opposition.
Thousands Protest in Bahrain (March 8): Thousands of Shiite protestors form a human chain around the Manama, the capital of Bahrain while hundreds demonstrate outside the U.S. Embassy in an appeal for support. Opposition leaders vow that they will not be mollified by offers of money and jobs.
Interim Government Dissolves State Security Dept. in Tunisia (March 8): The State Security Dept., which had been accused of human rights abuses under the ousted president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, is disbanded by the interim government in Tunisia. The prime minister also names a new cabinet, selecting new leaders for six ministries while retaining ministers in significant agencies like defense, interior, and justice.
Bahrain Cracks Down on Demonstrators (March 18): Bahrain brings in troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to crack down against peaceful protestors clamoring for reform. The government also tears down the monument in Pearl Square, the site of many protests. The 300-foot sculpture, a stone pearl held by six sweeping arches, is seen by protestors as the defining monument of the protest movement. The official Bahrain News Agency reports the change as a "face-lift" to "boost the flow of traffic."
No-Fly Zone is Imposed in Libya (March 19): American and European forces unleash warplanes and missiles, striking against the government of Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi in a mission to impose a UN-sanctioned no-fly zone. The goals of the no-fly zone are to keep Col. Qaddafi from using air power against rebel forces and to prevent a massacre in Libya. French warplanes begin the campaign. U.S. forces knock out air defense systems as well as missile, radar, and communication centers around Tripoli, Misurata, and Surt. NATO plans to take over the operation and enforce the no-fly zone.
Military Kill Protestors in Syria (March 25): Troops open fire in the southern part of Syria after tens of thousands take to the streets in peaceful protests around the nation. At least twenty demonstrators are killed.
Cabinet Resigns in Syria (March 29): President Bashar al-Assad accepts the resignation of his cabinet. The cabinet resignation reflects a rare responsiveness to public pressure by the Syrian government. Meanwhile, in the capital, government supporters take to the streets in an effort to counter the ongoing pro-democracy protests in several cities.

Mars to glow at its 'brightest' tomorrow

NEW DELHI: Red planet Mars will be brightest and closest "it can get" to earth tomorrow, giving sky gazers an opportunity to see it with naked eyes.

"On March 3, Mars was at opposition to sun because of which it would be brightest and closest it can get to earth on March 5," General Secretary of Planetary Society of India N Raghunandan said.

In positional astronomy, opposition defines that position of a celestial object when it is on the opposite side of the sun in the sky when viewed from earth as reference, director of NGO Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE) C B Devgun said.

The planet will be shining at -1.23 magnitude and can be seen between east and northeast direction. It will be 100.78 million km away from earth, he said.

"Mars will be brightest till end of April 2012. It will be visible in the night sky until February 2013 with decreasing brightness as it gets far from us as days pass by," he said.

The next Mars opposition will occur on April 8, 2014, whereas next closest approach is on April 14, 2014. The last time it was at opposition was on January 30, 2010.

Fourteen killed, 60 injured in Polish train crash

WARSAW: Rescue workers toiled overnight to pull survivors from the wreckage of a head-on train crash in Szczekociny, southern Poland, which left 14 people dead and sixty inured late Saturday.

"The death toll in this huge train catastrophe has risen to 14," Poland's Interior Minister Jacek Cichocki said, after rushing to the crash site early Sunday.

"It appears there are no more conscious people in the wagons," Cichocki told reporters at the scene.

Sixty people were hospitalised with about half reported to be in a serious condition, rescue officials said.

"This is the worst catastrophe in years," Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters upon his arrival at the gruesome scene. "I'm afraid the death toll will rise to 15," he added.

Ukrainian nationals were reported to be among the injured, while French and Spanish citizens were also on the trains, but apparently not injured in the crash.

A total of 350 passengers were travelling on board the two trains which collided head-on at 9:00 pm (2000 GMT) as they were travelling on the same track, according to Poland's PKP railways.

One train was en route to the southern city of Krakow from the capital Warsaw, while the other was travelling to the capital from the south-eastern city of Przemysl.

An investigation was swiftly launched into the reasons behind the fatal crash as the rescue operations continued in the early hours.

Images of the wreckage broadcast by the TVN24 commercial news channel showed tonnes of mangled metal, with reports indicating that three carriages had jumped the tracks along with the locomotives from both trains.

"We heard a deafening noise and we were hurled out of our seats," an unnamed survivor told the PAP Polish news agency. "We saw crushed bodies pinned beneath seats and we saw parts of bodies inside and outside the train wagons," the survivor said.

"It was terrifying. The scale of destruction is huge," one of the first firemen on the scene told the PAP.

Another survivor told the TVN24 news channel of dead bodies as well as people still alive but pinned down under twisted metal.

Fireman Grzegorz Widawski described the conditions at the crash site as "very challenging."

"The wagons are in very bad shape and it's difficult to get to the people trapped inside," he told the PAP.

A total 450 firemen and 100 policemen were involved in the rescue efforts, emergency response authorities said.

Saturday's accident is the worst rail catastrophe in Poland since 1990, when 16 people were killed in a collision between two trains in the Warsaw suburb of Ursus.

The country's worst train accident occurred in 1980 in Otoczyn, near the northern city of Torun when 67 people died and 62 were injured in a collision between a passenger and a freight train.