Earthquake Los Angeles, La Earthquake, An earthquake east of downtown Los Angeles rippled across Southern California before dawn Tuesday, jolting millions of people awake and putting first-responders on alert. “All is calm in the city of Los Angeles,” Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Steve Ruda said. “The building started shaking. The quake hit not far from the 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake, a magnitude 5.9 quakes that killed eight people and caused more than $350 million in damage. A 4.4 magnitude earthquake shook California early this morning just east of downtown Los Angeles.
Earthquake Odds: A Global Perspective

A 4.4 magnitude earthquake rattled the Los Angeles area this morning, striking at 4:04 am. This quake follows a 6.6 magnitude quake that hit Tokyo on March 14. This latest series of quakes started with Haiti’s catastrophic earthquake (magnitude 7.0) on January 12.

According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), between 2000 and 2009 the world averaged 1.3 earthquakes annually in the 8.0 to 9.9 range, 13.1 quakes measuring 7.0 to 7.9, and 144.5 events with magnitudes between 6.0 and 6.9 (any quake measuring 6.0 or higher is likely to cause damage in populated areas).

Some of the most deadly earthquakes in history have occurred around the Ring of Fire, including the 2004 Indonesian quake (magnitude 9.1), which triggered a tsunami that killed nearly 228,000 people, the Great Tokyo Earthquake of 1923 (7.9), which killed 142,800 people, and a 1970 earthquake in Peru (7.9) that caused 70,000 deaths. Both Chile and Haiti are at serious risk from aftershocks—lesser quakes that occur in the same area as Earth’s crust adjusts to the main quake’s impacts.
4.4 Magnitude Earthquake Wakes Los Angeles California

The AP is reporting that a 4.4 magnitude earthquake tore across Los Angeles, California just before sunrise this morning. Thankfully, there are no reports of damage or injuries in conjunction with the California earthquake.

According to the US Geological Survey, the 4.4 magnitude earthquake epicenter was about 10 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. There is a minor chance that this 4.4 magnitude California earthquake foreshadows a larger earthquake.

Japan’s biggest Internet forum, where anonymous netizens trade anything from cooking tips to death threats, has long been an anarchic zone of uninhibited free speech and a magnet for controversy.

This week the raw commentary on 2channel — which with 10 million visits a month is one of the world’s largest online bulletin boards — saw tempers flare anew.

A massive hacker attack from South Korea crippled the site in retaliation for users’ online slights against Olympic skater Kim Yu-Na, after she beat Japanese rival Mao Asada to take gold at the Vancouver Winter Games.

The site was attacked on Monday, the anniversary of a 1919 uprising in Korea against Japanese colonial rule, and shut down for two days.

Japanese web users counter-attacked by bombarding South Korean sites, including that of the presidential office, according to South Korea’s JoongAng Daily, which called the tit-for-tat flaming “infantile”.

The Japanese site, www.2ch.net, does not ask for personal ID details and hosts unfiltered views, in contrast to most chat forums where registration and vetting have become the norm in a bid to keep discussion orderly.

“This is a vast group of bulletin boards on everything from hacking to porn,” the site tells users. It boasts about 1,000 topics, from politics to sport to manga comics.

“Sender information cannot be detected, so you can access it from your office, school or prison,” users are told. “Please write as you like.”

The site was launched in 1999 by a college student, Hiroyuki Nishimura, who has since written several books and is a regular on television shows.

Not counting online role-playing games, it is easily Japan’s biggest bulletin board by number of users and page views, according to research firm NetRatings Japan.

The site has given space for discussion on touchy subjects, including Japan’s royal family, and gay and lesbian life.

Companies and pollsters review the site to build marketing strategies and study the raw pulse of users and consumers.

At their best, the site’s postings have spawned books and movies, including a passionate chronicle by a shy man known as the Train Guy who dated a woman and sought advice from fellow 2channel users.

But no-holds-barred messages also voice sexist, nationalistic and xenophobic sentiments, many targeting Chinese and Koreans.

South Koreans were furious recently when a writer said the mob killing of a Korean college student in February in Irkutsk was “Russia’s good deed”.

At times, users have threatened crimes on the site.

One of them was Tomohiro Kato, who sent messages from his cellphone shortly before he killed seven people in a stabbing frenzy in Tokyo’s neon-lit electronics district in 2008, Japan’s bloodiest crime in years.

Nishimura, who gave up control of the site last year but maintains interests in many Internet companies, is unabashed about the darker side of 2channel.

“Ten million people come to the site every month. There is no city in the world with a population of 10 million that has no crime,” he said.

Tsutomu Kanayama, professor of journalism and communications at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, said 2channel laid bare the pluses and minuses of the social media revolution.

“Mainly because of the anonymity system, it has gone too far and is now full of offensive and meaningless comments,” he said.

“But on the other hand, it’s a positive trial for a future cyber-forum where anyone can pose real opinions freely. It has both a light and a dark side.”

Latest news update Earthquake Delhi Megacities: Earthquake Delhi are something new on the planet. Earthquakes are something very old. The two are a lethal combination, as seen in the recent tragedy in Port-au-Prince, where more than 200,000 people perished — a catastrophe that scientists say is certain to be repeated somewhere, and probably soon, with death tolls that once again stagger the mind.

In 1800, there was just one city with more than a million people — Beijing. Now there are 381 urban areas with at least 1 million inhabitants. Urbanization crossed a threshold last year when, for the first time, more people lived in city settings than rural ones. About 403 million people live in cities that face significant seismic hazard, according to a recent study by seismologist Roger Bilham of the University of Colorado.

The next Big One could strike Tokyo, Istanbul, Tehran, Mexico City, New Delhi, Kathmandu or the two metropolises near California’s San Andreas Fault, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Or it could devastate Dhaka, Jakarta, Karachi, Manila, Cairo, Osaka, Lima or Bogota. The list goes on and on.

“You can name about 25 cities that are like Port-au-Prince. They’re not going to shake but every 250 years [on average]. But if you can name 25 of them, you’re going to have an event like this every 10 years,” said David Wald, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.

In many vulnerable cities, people are effectively stacked on top of one another in buildings designed as if earthquakes don’t happen. It is not the tremor that kills people in an earthquake but the buildings, routinely constructed on the cheap, using faulty designs and, in some cities, overseen by corrupt inspectors. The difference between life and death is often a matter of how much sand went into the cement or how much steel into a supporting column. Earthquakes might be viewed as acts of God, but their lethality is often a function of masonry.

“In recent earthquakes, buildings have acted as weapons of mass destruction,” Bilham writes in the journal Nature.

TOKYO: A former close aide to Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama was charged on Thursday over falsified political funding records, public broadcaster NHK said, in a development that threatens to erode support for the government.

The scandal, which has been public knowledge for months, is thought unlikely to force Hatoyama to resign but the indictment will be another headache for his government, which marked 100 days in office on Thursday and faces key decisions on next year’s budget and relocating a U.S. airbase.

A sharp slide in voter approval could endanger the premier’s grip on his post ahead of an upper house election in mid-2010, in which his Democratic Party wants to win an outright majority to reduce the clout of two tiny but vocal coalition partners.

Opinion polls have shown voters are unhappy with Hatoyama’s explanation of the scandal over misreported donations, but a majority have said he need not resign over the affair.

Jiji news agency said the Tokyo summary court would fine the former aide 300,000 yen ($3,280). Tokyo prosecutors’ office said it could not confirm the report.

The indictment is thought unlikely to cause a quick, sharp drop in Hatoyama’s voter support, although it has slipped to as low as just below 50 percent from initial highs over 70 percent as doubts grow over the premier’s leadership skills.

Media reports have said prosecutors will not charge Hatoyama himself.

“It coincides with the end of the honeymoon period, as Hatoyama’s government marks 100 days in office and in that sense, it is symbolic and fateful,” said Kyohei Morita, chief economist at Barclays Capital Japan, adding that he expected limited impact on financial markets.

“The (opposition) Liberal Democratic Party is too weak to force him to resign… and I don’t think Hatoyama will voluntarily step down either. But it may worsen voter support ahead of the upper house election,” he said.

Hatoyama said earlier in the day he would explain more about the funding scandal once prosecutors make decisions.

WASHINGTON: Latest news about Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, President Barack Obama said the September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be put on trial in New York City.

Speaking in Tokyo, Mr. Obama said Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed organiser of the al-Qaeda terrorist plot that killed almost 3,000 people in 2001, would face “exacting” US justice.

Bringing such notorious suspects to US soil to face trial would be a key step in Mr. Obama’s plan to close the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay.

Mr. Obama initially planned to close the centre at the US naval base on Cuba by Jan 22 next year, but his administration is no longer expected to meet that deadline.

It is also a major legal and political test of Mr. Obama’s overall approach to terrorism. If the case suffers legal setbacks, the administration will face second-guessing from those who never wanted it in a civilian courtroom.

The New York case may force the court system to confront a host of difficult legal issues surrounding counter-terrorism programmes begun after the 2001 attacks, including the harsh interrogation techniques once used on some of the suspects while in CIA custody. The most severe method – waterboarding, or simulated drowning – was used on Mohammed 183 times in 2003, before the practice was banned.

The US attorney general Eric Holder is due to annonce that a major suspect in the bombing of the USS Cole, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, will face justice before a military commission, as will a handful of other detainees to be identified at the same announcement, an official said.

The transfer of the detainees from Guantanamo to New York is not expected to happen for many more weeks because formal charges have not been filed against most of them.

Barack Obama and Japan’s new prime minister have pledged to revitalise their nations’ strained security alliance.
The American leader and Yukio Hatoyama met in Tokyo as their two countries try to adapt to China’s rising economy, which is set to overtake Japan as the world’s number two. But the heads of state left a feud over a US military base on Japan’s southern Okinawa island unresolved.

The matter is damaging Washington’s links with Japan’s new government, which has pledged to steer a diplomatic course less dependent on its ally and forge closer relations with Asia.

After their summit, Mr Hatoyama said: “I told him (Mr Obama) that the US-Japan alliance is the cornerstone of everything. But, given the changing times and global environment, I would like to deepen the alliance and create a new US-Japan alliance that is constructive and future-oriented.”

Mr Obama agreed: “Our alliance will endure and our efforts will be focused on revitalising that friendship so that it’s even stronger and more successful in meeting the challenges of the 21st century.” The president is on a nine-day tour of Asia that will also take him to Singapore for an Asia-Pacific summit, before talks in China on climate change and trade imbalances.

Barack Obama Delays Japan Visit after Texas Shooting, US President Barack Obama has delayed his visit to Japan next week by one day, a Japanese foreign ministry official said on Saturday, following a deadly shooting at a military base in Texas.

Japanese national broadcaster NHK and Jiji Press reported that Washington had asked Tokyo to change the schedule for the two-day visit to allow Obama to attend a memorial service for the 13 people killed in Thursday’s shooting.

Obama had been due to arrive for his first trip to Japan on Thursday for talks with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and to meet Emperor Akihito.

“The (US) government has requested a delay,” a foreign ministry official told AFP, adding that the Japanese government had agreed to the request.

Obama would now be arriving on Friday and stay until Saturday, the official said. A meeting scheduled for Friday with Hatoyama would go ahead as planned, Kyodo News reported, quoting an unnamed foreign ministry source.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs earlier told reporters in the United States that Obama would attend a memorial service for those killed when a Muslim army doctor went on the rampage at the Fort Hood base.

“When a service is scheduled the president will attend,” he said, adding only that the timing of the memorial would be scheduled “for the convenience of the families.”

The US president’s visit to Japan is likely to be dominated by a row over an American military base on the southern island of Okinawa.

Residents have long complained about the base and plan to relocate it to another part of the island, while Hatoyama’s government, which came to power in September, has promised to review the issue.

Hatoyama on Friday said he did not plan to make a decision on the base before Obama’s visit.

While the Japanese leader has promised to review a pact under which a new US base would be built on the island, Washington has insisted Tokyo stick to the agreement.

The issue has clouded ties ahead of Obama’s visit.

Kanpur: India Vs Srilanka 2nd Test Live Streaming, It was India’s willow all the way on the first day of the second Test against Sri Lanka as the final scorecard read 417/2. The innings was studded with some elegant shot-making and one could only feel for the bowlers, who had no help from the Kanpur pitch either.

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Gambhir was the man of the day, having crossed one hundred fifty runs, with the panache of the best stroke masters of cricket.

He finally fell to Murali’s guile and was caught out at a score of one hundred sixty seven runs.

Rahul Dravid continued with his good form with the bat, scoring a fine half-century as his shots were in sync with his centurion effort of the previous match.

The first and only jolt of the first half of the day had come in the form of Virender Sehwag’s scalp as the batsman was out at 131 runs from just 122 balls while trying to whack another one out of the park.

Muralitharan was his nemesis too, with the tweaker lofting one up to catch Sehwag’s fancy, resulting in his dismissal. However, Gautam Gambhir kept the tempo up, recording his 8th Test century in the process.

India were off to a great start with Sehwag and Gambhir hitting amazing knocks, reasserting the notion that they are the best opening pair in the world. Their stroke-play turned the scoreboard into a Tokyo taxi, with the total near the 250-run mark in a jiffy.

If the pre-lunch session had India stamped all over it, the post-lunch session was not much different either, barring the wicket of Sehwag.

It was an incredible session of play for India in the morning too, as the world’s most dangerous openers unleashed a flurry of boundaries on the islanders, rotating the strike at will.

Scorecard: India Vs Sri Lanka

There have been two changes floated into the Indian side with S Sreesanth and Pragyan Ojha coming in for Ishant Sharma and Amit Mishra respectively. Sri Lanka too made a change to their line-up, bringing in Ajantha Mendis, the mystery spinner to have a three pronged spin attack.

With the three spinner theory not working for Sri Lanka, Sangakkara would hope to use the morning dew tomorrow to try and shake the middle order from turning loose an array of records on a batsmen friendly pitch.

Kanpur: India Vs Sri Lanka 2nd Test Today, The first jolt to the Indian juggernaut came in the form of Virender Sehwag’s scalp as the batsman was out at 131 runs from just 122 balls while trying to whack another one out of the park.

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Muralitharan was his nemesis, with the tweaker finally getting rewards for his efforts of the day. However, Gautam Gambhir kept the tempo up, recording his 8th Test century in the process.

India were off to a great start with Sehwag and Gambhir hitting amazing knocks, reasserting the notion that they are the best opening pair in the world. Their stroke-play turned the scoreboard into a Tokyo taxi, with the total near the 250-run mark in a jiffy.

If the pre-lunch session had India stamped all over it, the post-lunch session was not much different either, barring the wicket of Sehwag.

It was an incredible session of play for India in the morning too, as the world’s most dangerous openers unleashed a flurry of boundaries on the islanders, rotating the strike at will.

Live score: India Vs Sri Lanka »

There have been two changes floated into the Indian side with S Sreesanth and Pragyan Ojha coming in for Ishant Sharma and Amit Mishra respectively. Sri Lanka too made a change to their line-up, bringing in Ajantha Mendis, the mystery spinner to have a three pronged spin attack.

India (Playing XI): Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni(w/c), Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, S Sreesanth, Pragyan Ojha

Sri Lanka (Playing XI): Tillakaratne Dilshan, Tharanga Paranavitana, Kumar Sangakkara(c), Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Angelo Mathews, Prasanna Jayawardene(w), Muttiah Muralitharan, Chanaka Welegedara, Rangana Herath, Ajantha Mendis

Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga outgunned Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny 6-3 6-3 to win the Japan Open with a dazzling mix of guile and brute force on Sunday.

The world number seven and tournament second seed took 69 minutes to blow Youzhny off court and capture his third title of the year and fifth of his career.

“I will celebrate in the plane to Shanghai with a beer and maybe a little dance,” Tsonga told reporters with a huge grin.

“When I play like that it’s tough for my opponents,” added Tsonga, who won his semi-final against compatriot Gael Monfils by the same scoreline on Saturday.

Tsonga broke through in the eighth game of the first set, forcing Youzhny to smack a forehand wide and the Frenchman took the set with a 201kph ace into the corner.

Another fierce forehand pressured Youzhny into netting a backhand to give Tsonga the crucial break for a 4-3 lead in the second.

The Russian had a sniff of an opportunity at deuce in the next game but Tsonga ruthlessly slammed the door with two of his 11 aces, the first on a second serve.

Tsonga chased down a Youzhny drop shot, dinking the ball cross court to bring up match point, which he converted with a high volley off a clever sliced approach into the corner.

He celebrated by climbing into the players’ box to hug his entourage as a packed Tokyo crowd bathed in sunshine after a week of typhoon rain roared in appreciation.

A first title since winning in Marseille in February moved Tsonga closer to securing a place in the season-ending World Tour Finals in London, exclusive to the world’s top eight.

Victory at the Tokyo hardcourt event was worth $300,000 to Tsonga, who now has a 5-1 record in ATP Tour finals.

Youzhny offered no excuses after losing his 10th career final.