SHAFAQNA

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – The French-led war in Mali has caused a serious humanitarian crisis in northern areas of the country and has displaced thousands of people, who now live in deplorable conditions, Press TV reports.

The people of northern Mali say the French war and the ruling junta are blocking the flow of humanitarian assistance to the war-affected areas, Press TV correspondent Daniel Arapmoi reported from northern Mali on Saturday.

The northern Malians say the blockade of the area by French and Malian troops has undermined the activities of healthcare workers in several refugee camps. Most of the camps have dire shortages of necessities such as food and medicine.

Dr. Salif Kone told Press TV that the war has caused a severe shortage of food and medicine and has created many problems for the Malian people.

France launched a war in Mali on January 11 under the pretext of halting the advance of rebel fighters in the country.

On February 1, Amnesty International said “serious human rights breaches” -- including the killing of children - were occurring in the French war in Mali.

Chaos broke out in the West African country after Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure was toppled in a military coup on March 22, 2012. The coup leaders said they mounted the coup in response to the government's inability to contain the Tuareg rebellion in the north of the country, which had been going on for two months.

However, in the wake of the coup d’état, the Tuareg rebels took control of the entire northern desert region, but the Ansar Dine extremists then pushed them aside and took control of the region, which is larger than France or Texas.-www.shfaqna.com/English

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – At least ten people have been injured as 6.9-magnitude earthquake hit the coast of Hokkaido, Japan. The authorities are assessing the extent of material damage. Two nuclear power plants are in the affected area.

Some of the victims were taken to hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, Japan's NHK reported.

Traffic movement on several main railway lines and highways in Hokkaido was halted as a result of the quake.

The quake that occurred at 11:17 pm (14:17 GMT) was marked 5 upper at JMA Seismic Intensity in several places in Hokkaido.

According to the US Geological Service, the epicenter of the earthquake was located at a depth of 120 kilometers.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) seismic intensity scale is used to measure earthquake strength in Japan and Taiwan and runs from 0 to 7. Starting in 1995, after the Great Hanshin earthquake, levels 5 and 6 are usually divided in ‘lower’ and ‘upper’ referring to ‘weak’ and ‘strong’.

Shaking could be felt near Hokkaido's capital Sapporo as well as in some regions of Tokyo, which is located down the island.

No tsunami warning has been issued.

Local public broadcaster NHK said nearby nuclear plants, Tomari and Higashidori, were not observing any abnormalities.

Seismic activity in the region has increased in the past few days, and several smaller quakes have rattled the region.

Back in December a powerful 7.3-magnitude undersea quake off the northeast coast of Japan triggered a one-metre-high tsunami, but it caused no major damage.

One of the most devastating earthquakes and tsunamis in history hit Japan in March 2011 when 19,000 people died or were reported missing. The disaster damaged the Fukushima nuclear power plant leading to the world’s worst atomic incident for 25 years.-www.shfaqna.com/English

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Under a gray, overcast sky, more than 1,000 protesters gathered Saturday in the Northern Ireland city of Belfast carrying large Union flags, some wrapped around their shoulders.

The silent protest outside the city hall started out peaceful, the quiet only broken by the noise of helicopters circling overhead, conducting surveillance. A few hours later, Protestant rioters got into skirmishes with police. As the protesters passed a Catholic neighborhood, Protestants and Catholics threw bottles at each other.

Many police were in the area, accompanied by dozens of heavy armored vehicles.

The rally, followed by a march to East Belfast, is the latest in a wave of protests prompted by Belfast City Council's December 3 decision to limit the flying of the Union flag to 18 days per year.

Protests were also held across Northern Ireland on Friday night.

Most were peaceful, police said, though trouble broke out in places.

One of the most serious incidents occurred at O'Neil's Road in Newtownabbey, where about 100 Protestant rioters -- many of them teenagers -- threw concrete blocks, paving slabs, bricks, planks of wood, gasoline bombs and Molotov cocktails at police.

They targeted about 30 armored police vehicles and as many as 100 police officers clad in riot gear. In all, four police officers were hurt, with one requiring hospital treatment, and two people were arrested, police said.

Amid rain and temperatures just above freezing, police brought in two water cannon, deploying one of them to push back the rioters.

Temperatures are also expected to drop later Saturday as the protesters march to East Belfast, a trouble hotspot in recent weeks.

The city was rocked by five consecutive nights of rioting at the start of the week.

The leaders of the two main unionist political parties met Thursday to discuss concerns within the unionist community.

The flag was raised Wednesday for the first time since the controversial vote to mark the birthday of Prince William's wife, Catherine. It was lowered at the end of the day.

Northern Ireland authorities have accused loyalist extremists of exploiting the decision by Belfast officials to end the century-old tradition of flying the Union flag over City Hall 365 days a year.

The British flag has long been a flashpoint between British loyalists and Irish nationalists, who want Northern Ireland to join the Irish republic.

The Belfast City Council vote followed a summer of heightened tensions between Northern Ireland's Catholic and Protestant communities. Riots in September left dozens of police injured.

The majority of Ireland gained independence in 1921 following two years of conflict. But six of the nine counties of the province of Ulster chose to stay in the United Kingdom, eventually becoming Northern Ireland.

Police: Extremist group 'orchestrating violence' in Belfast over Union Jack

In the late 1960s, the conflict between mainly Protestant loyalists, who want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom, and largely Roman Catholic nationalists, who want it to be reunited with the rest of Ireland, exploded into a political and sectarian war, known as "the Troubles."

The three decades of ensuing violence between loyalists and the IRA claimed more than 3,000 lives, most of them north of the border. While the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, also known as the Belfast Agreement, effectively ended the conflict, distrust remains between Catholics and Protestants.

Under the terms of the accord, groups on both sides dumped their weapons, and members of Sinn Fein, the political affiliate of the IRA, now work with pro-British politicians in Northern Ireland's power-sharing government.

The Union flag is also commonly known as the Union Jack. Some say the term jack should only be used to refer to the flag when it's flown on a warship but according to the Flag Institute, which runs the UK flag registry, this is a relatively recent idea.-www.shfaqna.com/English

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Eight bodies and the remains of others were found in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua over the weekend, sources and state news said.

The eight bodies showed signs of torture, according to sources from the state prosecutor's office. The victims were likely killed where they were found -- along a road in the municipality of Satevo. Their identities were not known.

Also in Chihuahua, authorities discovered the remains of an indeterminate number of victims in secret graves in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's state-run Notimex news agency said. The remains reportedly date from 2010.

Chihuahua, which borders the United States, has been hard-hit by drug-related violence.

May: Dismembered bodies found

More than 47,500 people have died across Mexico in such violence since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderon took office and announced plans to deploy federal troops to help the government's fight against organized crime.

According to Mexico's National Human Rights Commission, more than 5,300 people have disappeared throughout the country in that same time period, and the bodies of 9,000 dead have not been identified.

Calderon is set to wrap up his term as president this week. He will be replaced by Enrique Pena Nieto, who was elected in July and will be sworn in Saturday.

FBI Top 10 fugitive arrested in Mexico

Calderon proposes changing Mexico's name. - www.shfaqna.com/English

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) - Nineteen bodies have been discovered in Mexico's northern border state of Chihuahua, officials reported Sunday, including 11 apparently long-dead men found in mass graves and eight others who were tortured and killed in recent days.

The state prosecutor's office for missing people said 11 bodies were found in Ejido Jesus Carranza, near the U.S. border about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of Ciudad Juarez. The area of sand dunes is a popular spot for picnickers from Juarez, which is just across the border from El Paso, Texas.

Officials said the male victims were apparently buried two years ago at the height of battles between drug gangs seeking to control routes across the border. Federal statistics showed more than 3,000 people were killed that year in Ciudad Juarez, a city of 1.4 million, making it one of the most dangerous places on earth.

Prosecutors also said that officials had found eight bodies tossed along a road near Rosales, about 120 miles (200 kilometers) southwest of Ojinaga, Texas. The agency said the men apparently were kidnapped on Friday and were discovered on Saturday. It said they had been shot in the head after being tortured. Some had been burned, beaten and had eyes carved out.

www.shafaqna.com/English

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) - A suicide bomber has driven a vehicle packed with explosives into a Catholic church in northern Nigeria, killing at least eight people and wounding more than 100, triggering reprisal attacks that have killed at least two more, according to officials.

The attack happened in the Malali neighbourhood of Kaduna, a city on the dividing line between Nigeria's largely Christian south and mainly Muslim north, where religious rioting has killed hundreds in recent years.

The car tried to force its way past the gate at St Rita's Catholic church just before it exploded, witnesses at the church said.

Yushau Shuaib, a spokesman for Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency, said ambulances were taking the injured to hospital.

He said it was not immediately clear how many had been injured.

Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege, reporting from Nigeria said: " We know there is a rescue mission taking place with ambulances taking people to hospital."

"No claims of responsibility has taken place, we are waiting for the police and military to comment on their take, however many would feel that Boko Haram are behind the attack.

Armed with knives

Following the blast, soldiers and police surrounded the church in Kaduna, a city which has seen several other attacks on churches in recent months.

Shortly after the blast, angry Christian youths took to the streets armed with sticks and knives.

"We killed them and we'll do more," shouted a youth, with blood on his shirt, before police chased him and his cohorts away.

Daniel Kazah, a member of the Catholic cadets in the church, said he had seen three bodies on the bloodied church floor after the bomb. "But still others were taken to the mortuary," he said.

A Reuters news agency reporter also saw two bodies lying at the roadside.

An emergency worker on the scene, who had helped move casualties but was not authorised to give his name, estimated the total number of dead and wounded at around 30.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday's blast.

In June the armed group Boko Haram attacked three churches in the state of Kaduna, including one in the city. At least 50 people were killed in the bombings and the reprisals that followed.— www.shafaqna.com/English

Source: Al Jazeera

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) — A suicide bomber has driven a vehicle packed with explosives into a Catholic church in northern Nigeria, killing at least eight people and wounding several others.

The attack happened in the Malali neighbourhood of Kaduna, a city on the dividing line between Nigeria's largely Christian south and mainly Muslim north, where religious rioting has killed hundreds in recent years.

The car tried to force its way past the gate at St Rita's Catholic church just before it exploded, witnesses at the church said.

Yushau Shuaib, a spokesman for Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency, said ambulances were taking the injured to hospital.

He said it was not immediately clear how many had been injured.

Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege, reporting from Nigeria said: " We know there is a rescue mission taking place with ambulances taking people to hospital."

"No claims of responsibility has taken place, we are waiting for the police and military to comment on their take, however many would feel that Boko Haram are behind the attack.

Armed with knives

Following the blast, soldiers and police surrounded the church in Kaduna, a city which has seen several other attacks on churches in recent months.

Shortly after the blast, angry Christian youths took to the streets armed with sticks and knives.

"We killed them and we'll do more," shouted a youth, with blood on his shirt, before police chased him and his cohorts away.

Daniel Kazah, a member of the Catholic cadets in the church, said he had seen three bodies on the bloodied church floor after the bomb. "But still others were taken to the mortuary," he said.

An emergency worker on the scene, who had helped move casualties but was not authorised to give his name, estimated the total number of dead and wounded at around 30.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday's blast.

In June the armed group Boko Haram attacked three churches in the state of Kaduna, including one in the city. At least 50 people were killed in the bombings and the reprisals that followed.

www.shafaqna.com/English

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) — Those who live at or visit high northern latitudes might at times experience colored lights shimmering across the night sky. This ethereal display is known as the aurora borealis, or northern lights. What causes these lights to appear?

The aurora often appears as curtains of lights, but they can also be arcs or spirals, often following lines of force in Earth’s magnetic field. Most are green in color but sometimes you’ll see a hint of pink, and strong displays might also have red, violet and white colors. The lights typically are seen in the far north – the nations bordering the Arctic Ocean – Canada and Alaska, Scandinavian countries, Iceland, Greenland and Russia. But strong displays of the lights can extend down into more southerly latitudes in the United States. And of course, the lights have a counterpart at Earth’s south polar regions.

Some Inuit believed that the spirits of their ancestors could be seen dancing in the flickering lights. In Norse mythology the aurora was a fire bridge to the sky built by the gods.

But science tells us that the aurora happens because of the sun.

Our sun is 93 million miles away. But its effects extend far beyond its visible surface. Great storms on the sun send gusts of charged solar particles hurtling across space. If Earth is in the path of the particle stream, our planet’s magnetic field and atmosphere react.

When the charged particles from the sun strike atoms and molecules in Earth’s atmosphere, they excite those atoms, causing them to light up.

What does it mean for an atom to be excited? Atoms consist of a central nucleus and a surrounding cloud of electrons encircling the nucleus in an orbit. When charged particles from the sun strike atoms in Earth’s atmosphere, electrons move to higher-energy orbits, further away from the nucleus. Then when an electron moves back to a lower-energy orbit, it releases a particle of light or photon.

What happens in an aurora is similar to what happens in the neon lights we see on many business signs. Electricity is used to excite the atoms in the neon gas within the glass tubes of a neon sign. That’s why these signs give off their brilliant colors. The aurora works on the same principle – but at a far more vast scale.

The colors in the aurora were a source of awe and mystery throughout human history. But science says that different gases in Earth’s atmosphere give off different colors when they are excited. Oxygen gives off the green color of the aurora. Nitrogen causes blue or red colors.

So today the mystery of the aurora is not so mysterious to scientists. Yet people still travel thousands of miles to see the brilliant natural light shows in Earth’s atmosphere. And even though we know the scientific reason for the aurora, the dazzling natural light show can still fire our imaginations to visualize fire bridges, gods or dancing ghosts.

Bottom line: When charged particles from the sun strike atoms in Earth’s atmosphere, they cause electrons in the atoms to move to a higher-energy state. When the electrons drop back to a lower energy state, they release a photon: light. This process creates the beautiful aurora, or northern lights.— www.shafaqna.com/English

Source: Earth Sky

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) — Thousands of people are taking part in commemoration celebrations in Belfast to mark one of the most significant dates in the history of Northern Ireland.

On Saturday, police across Northern Ireland were out in force in case of trouble during Protestant Loyalist parades.

There are fears that the protests might degenerate into street clashes with the police and Northern Ireland's Catholic minority, who are mounting counter demonstrations in protest.

The six-mile march from central Belfast to Stormont will mark the 100th anniversary of the Ulster Covenant, to oppose Home Rule for Ireland in 1912.

The covenant signing of the document laid the foundations for the partition of Ireland and the formation of Northern Ireland a decade later.

There was no trouble at a contentious feeder parade past a north Belfast Catholic church on Saturday morning.

The Parades Commission has ruled that only hymn music is to be played as bands pass the church and has limited any nationalist protest to 150 people.

Al Jazeera's Laurence Lee, reporting from Belfast, said: "This day for the Protestants see it as a celebration, while the Catholics see this day as a catasrophe."

"These marches are used by sections of the protestant communities to wind up the Catholics," the Al Jazeera correspondent said.

Nearly two decades of peacemaking have transformed Northern Ireland almost beyond recognition from its blood-stained past.

Since 1998 there has been various paramilitary cease-fires by the IRA and Protestant groupsm which has been underpinned by disarmament, with troops being withdrawn to their barracks.

Power sharing executive has been in place since 2007, while the United Kingdom has promoted Catholic recruitment to create a balanced police force as well.— www.shafaqna.com/English

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) — A massive power outage plunged northern India into darkness and stranded thousands of travellers on trains Monday after a supply grid tripped because of overloading, officials said.

Trains across eight northern Indian states and metro services in New Delhi were affected by the power outage that struck at about 2:30 a.m. local time.

Hospitals and emergency services were running on diesel generators.

People, woken from sleep, came out of their homes in New Delhi's sweltering heat as the entire city turned dark.

It could take up to 12 hours to fully restore the electricity supply in the eight northern states, including New Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, the chairman of the state-run Uttar Pradesh state Power Corporation Avinash Awasthi said.

The power grid collapsed because some states apparently drew more power than they were authorized to do to meet the rising demand during the summer, Awasthi said, adding that Monday's outage was the worst to hit the country in 11 years.

Blackouts are a frequent occurrence in many Indian cities because of shortage of power supply and an antiquated electricity grid.

Two weeks ago, angry crowds blocked traffic and clashed with police after power blackouts in the Delhi suburb of Gurgaon that houses many high-rise apartment blocks and offices. With no power in some neighbourhoods for more than 24 hours, people erected blockades that paralyzed traffic for several hours.

Transmission and distribution losses in some states are as much as 50 per cent because of theft and connivance of employees in the power distribution sector.—www.shafaqna.com/english

Source: CBC