World

Earthquakes in Turkey, Syria Claims Hundreds of Lives

Published

2 years ago

February 6, 2023

Eric

A 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Turkey and Syria early on Monday, killing hundreds of people as they slept, levelling buildings, and sending tremors that were felt as far away as the Island of Cyprus and Egypt.

One of the largest to strike Turkey in at least a century wiped out entire sections of major cities in a region filled with millions of people who have fled the civil war in Syria and other conflicts.

The head of Syria’s National Earthquake Centre, Raed Ahmed, told pro-government radio that this was “historically, the biggest earthquake recorded in the history of the centre”.

At least 245 people died in government-controlled parts of Syria, as well as the northern areas held by pro-Turkish factions, according to the health ministry and a local hospital.

At least 284 people died in Turkey, Vice President Fuat Oktay said on Monday, adding that more than 2,300 people had been injured and that search and rescue work was continuing in several major cities.

The rescue was being hampered by a winter blizzard that covered major roads in ice and snow.

Television images showed shocked people in Turkey standing in the snow in their pyjamas, watching rescuers dig through the debris of damaged homes.

– Election test for Erdogan –

The quake struck at 04:17 am local time (0117 GMT) at a depth of about 17.9 kilometres (11 miles) near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, which is home to around two million people, the US Geological Survey said.

Turkey’s AFAD emergencies service centre put the first quake’s magnitude at 7.4, adding that it was followed by more than 40 aftershocks.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who will be under intense pressure to oversee an effective response to the disaster heading to a tightly-contested May 14 election, conveyed his sympathies and urged national unity.

“We hope that we will get through this disaster together as soon as possible and with the least damage,” the Turkish leader tweeted.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Washington was “profoundly concerned”.

“We stand ready to provide any and all needed assistance,” Sullivan said.

The earthquake struck a restive, predominantly Kurdish area of Turkey near Syria, a country gripped by more than a decade of violence that has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions.

– ‘People under rubble’ –

Images on Turkish television showed rescuers digging through the rubble of levelled buildings in the city of Kahramanmaras and neighbouring Gaziantep, where entire sections of cities were destroyed.

A fire lit up the night sky in one image from Kahramanmaras, although its origin remained unclear.

Buildings also crumbled in the cities of Adiyaman, Malatya and Diyarbakir, where AFP reporters saw panicked people rush out on the street.

Kahramanmaras Governor Omer Faruk Coskun said it was too early to estimate the death toll because so many buildings were destroyed.

“It is not possible to give the number of dead and injured at the moment because so many buildings have been destroyed,” Coskun said. “The damage is serious.”

A famous mosque dating back to the 13th century partially collapsed in the province of Maltaya, where a 14-story building with 28 apartments also collapsed.

In other cities, anguished rescuers struggled to reach survivors trapped under the debris.

“We hear voices here — and over there, too,” one rescuer was overheard as saying on NTV television in front of a flattened building in the city of Diyarbakir.

“There may be 200 people under the rubble.”

– Dam warning –

The Syrian health ministry reported damage across the provinces of Aleppo, Latakia, Hama and Tartus, where Russia is leasing a naval facility.

AFP correspondents in northern Syria said terrified residents ran out of their homes after the ground shook.

Even before the tragedy, buildings in Aleppo, Syria’s pre-war commercial hub, often collapsed due to the dilapidated infrastructure after more than a decade of war as well as little oversight to ensure safety of new construction projects, some built illegally.

Naci Gorur, an earthquake expert with Turkey’s Academy of Sciences, urged local officials to immediately check the region’s dams for cracks to avert potentially catastrophic flooding.

Turkey is in one of the world’s most active earthquake zones.

Middle East

War Brews in Middle East As Israeli Strikes Hit Iran’s Nuclear Sites, Kill Military Chiefs

Published

3 hours ago

June 13, 2025

Eric

Israel launched a stunning series of strikes Friday morning on Iranian nuclear sites and killed several of the nation’s security chiefs, in a remarkable coup of intelligence and military force that decapitated Tehran’s chain of command. President Trump warned that further attacks would be “even more brutal” and redoubled pressure on Iran to reach a new deal to curb its nuclear program.

The Israeli military said that its strikes were continuing on Friday afternoon, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the assault as a last resort to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran, which Israel views as an existential threat. The attacks also killed top Iranian officials and nuclear scientists and hit Tehran’s long-range missile facilities and aerial defenses.

Footage shared by Iranian news agency WANA showed crowds of student-led protesters rallying in Tehran on Friday, calling for retaliation for the Israeli strikes on Iran.

Israel hit bases and nuclear sites in a stunning assault that went beyond past attacks on Iran. President Trump warned Tehran to agree to new limits on its nuclear program because further strikes could be “even more brutal.”

Source: New York Times

World

How I Survived Ill-fated Air India Flight 171 Crash – Lone Survivor

Published

4 hours ago

June 13, 2025

Eric

Only the passenger in seat 11A on Air India Flight 171 lived to tell the tale, a survival nothing short of a miracle.

When the Air India plane with 242 people onboard crashed into a building moments after taking off from the international airport in Ahmedabad, it burst into flames. The impact, heat and smoke was so intense, officials said, that escape was impossible.

Except for Viswash Kumar Ramesh, 38.

In the hours after the crash, grainy footage of a man with wounds on his face and blood on his shirt went viral on social media. He walked himself to an ambulance with a slight limp, and told a crowd around him that he had come “from inside” the plane.

Mr. Ramesh’s story initially appeared too good to be true; the crash was so severe that the bodies of most victims were charred beyond recognition, officials said. But by late evening, Air India confirmed that there had been one survivor, who was getting treatment at the hospital. Amit Shah, India’s home minister, said he had visited the survivor, and Indian media ran photos of Mr. Shah standing at Mr. Ramesh’s bedside.

“I still can’t believe how I got out alive,” Mr. Ramesh said on Friday in an interview from his hospital bed with India’s state broadcaster, Doordarshan. “I thought I was also about to die.”

Mr. Ramesh said the plane had felt “stuck five or 10 seconds after takeoff,” and it seemed to be trying to accelerate when it crashed.

The front of the plane, after hitting buildings, crashed into an open area, he said, while the tail was stuck in a building, which was later identified as the dining facility of a medical college.

Mr. Ramesh said he unbuckled his seatbelt after the crash when he saw a chance for escape. He did not make clear whether he had to open the emergency exit he was sitting next to, or if the impact had caused it to open.

“When my door broke, I saw there was some space — that I could try to get out,” he said in the interview. “The other side, people couldn’t get out, as it was crushed against a wall.”

Mr. Ramesh, who is a British citizen, was returning to England after vacationing in India along with his brother Ajay, their younger brother Nayan said. Ajay, who the passenger list showed was seated in 11J on the right side of the plane, did not survive.

Shortly after the crash, Mr. Ramesh made a video call from near the wreckage to his family in Leicester to confirm he was safe, the younger brother said. The family home there was a scene of both mourning for Ajay and stunned amazement that Viswash had somehow walked away.

Source: New York Times

World

The Day of The Jackal Author, Frederick Forsyth, Dies at 86

Published

3 days ago

June 10, 2025

Eric

Best-selling author Frederick Forsyth, known for thriller novels including The Day Of The Jackal, has died at the age of 86, his agent has said.

“We mourn the passing of one of the world’s greatest thriller writers,” Jonathan Lloyd said in a statement.

Forsyth published more than 25 books, also including The Odessa File and The Dogs of War, and sold 75 million books around the world, he said.

His publisher Bill Scott-Kerr said: “Still read by millions across the world, Freddie’s thrillers define the genre and are still the benchmark to which contemporary writers aspire. He leaves behind a peerless legacy which will continue to excite and entertain for years to come.”

Born in Kent in 1938, Forsyth joined the RAF at the age of 18 before becoming a war correspondent for the BBC and Reuters. He revealed in 2015 he also worked for British intelligence agency MI6 for more than 20 years.

Many of his fictional plots drew on his real-life experiences around the world.

He made his name with his first novel, 1971’s The Day Of The Jackal, which he wrote when he was out of work.

“[I was] skint, in debt, no flat, no car, no nothing and I just thought, ‘How do I get myself out of this hole?’ And I came up with probably the zaniest solution – write a novel,” he said.

It is a gripping tale, set in 1963, about an Englishman hired to assassinate the French president at the time, Charles de Gaulle.

The Day Of The Jackal was turned into a 1973 film starring Edward Fox as the Jackal, and then became a TV drama starring Eddie Redmayne last year.

Mr Scott-Kerr said working with Forsyth had been “one of the great pleasures of my professional life”.

“The flow of brilliant plots and ideas aside, he was the most professional writer an editor could hope for,” he said.

“His journalistic background brought a rigour and a metronomic efficiency to his working practice and his nose for and understanding of a great story kept his novels both thrillingly contemporary and fresh. It was a joy and an education to watch him at work.”

Singer Elaine Paige, a friend of Forsyth, said she felt “total sadness” at the news of his death.

“His academic knowledge of places, palaces and geography was bar none,” she wrote on X. “He’ll be much missed for so many reasons.”

English composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, who worked with Forsyth on Love Never Dies, the follow-up to Phantom of the Opera, said: “He really understood the romance and thrills which make the Phantom such an alluring character.

“Thank you Frederick, for creating stories which will live on for generations in your honour.”

And Conservative MP Sir David Davis said his “great friend” was a “terrific man” and a “fabulous wordsmith”.

“He was a great believer in the old values – he believed in honour and patriotism and courage and directness and straightforwardness and [was] a big defender of our armed forces,” he told Sky News.

Forsyth followed The Day Of The Jackal with The Odessa File in 1972, which was adapted for the big screen in a film starring Jon Voight two years later.

The author had written a follow-up, Revenge of Odessa, with fellow thriller writer Tony Kent, which will be published this August.

His other best-selling works included 1984’s The Fourth Protocol, which became a film starring starring Michael Caine and Pierce Brosnan.

He was made a CBE for services to literature in 1997.

He had two sons with first wife Carole Cunningham. His second wife Sandy Molloy died last October.

BBC