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Posts Tagged ‘Pakistan’

Analysis: Why Pakistan wants to expand its nuclear arsenal

February 1, 2011 1 comment

Rob Crilly, The Daily Telegraph

Pakistan is desperate to increase the size of its nuclear arsenal as it eyes India’s rapidly growing economy and population.

Although the numbers of weapons held by either country are small in comparison, the result of the nuclear competition between the two countries is reminiscent of the Cold War arms race between the U.S. and USSR.

In India’s case, the perceived threat is China. For Pakistan, the presumed enemy is India. Paranoia is driving the acceleration of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. Read more…

Himalayan glaciers not melting because of climate change, report find

January 27, 2011 1 comment

Himalayan glaciers are actually advancing rather than retreating, claims the first major study since a controversial UN report said they would be melted within quarter of a century.

Himalayan glaciers not melting because of climate change, report finds  

The Passu glacier in the Karakorum region of Pakistan Photo: ALAMY
By Dean Nelson, New Delhi and Richard Alleyne
 

Researchers have discovered that contrary to popular belief half of the ice flows in the Karakoram range of the mountains are actually growing rather than shrinking.

The discovery adds a new twist to the row over whether global warming is causing the world’s highest mountain range to lose its ice cover.

It further challenges claims made in a 2007 report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that the glaciers would be gone by 2035.

Although the head of the panel Dr Rajendra Pachauri later admitted the claim was an error gleaned from unchecked research, he maintained that global warming was melting the glaciers at “a rapid rate”, threatening floods throughout north India.

The new study by scientists at the Universities of California and Potsdam has found that Read more…

Tectonic Plates Collapsing under Pakistan and Indonesia – 20 Foot Drop in Shoreline on Java confirmed by Google Satellite

January 27, 2011 1 comment

2004 Indian Tsunami, Ring of Fire Earthquakes
The “Ring of Fire” of Earthquakes Erupting on the Seismic Map on December 29, 2004 when the Global 9.3 Sumatra Earthquake that Triggered the Indian Ocean Tsunami that killed up to 250,000 people

This Picture is Soon to Come Again but this Time it will be with Volcanoes and Earthquakes!

On January 17, 2011, it was reported that the 17,500 Islands Nation of Indonesia was flooding. Here on the Islands of Java, the largest regions of the world’s fourth most populous country, and the largest population of Muslims in the world.  This flooding would not seem unusual but experts there reported that there was no reason for the flooding that would account for the submergence of such a large populous area along the sea coastline.

It is true that there had been two weeks of raining in the mountainous regions of Mount Mandiri. Yet, the Chief Social Service NTT Piter Manuk admitted something was unusual. As he reported:

Piter Manuk – “Residents panic was triggered by the arrival of the flood that is considered not reasonable because there are no tributaries that pass through residential areas and for the first time this has happened in the history of Read more…

Pakistan earthquake felt in India and the Middle East

January 19, 2011 Comments off
Tremors from a powerful earthquake that rattled many parts of Pakistan early Wednesday were felt as far as New Delhi, 700 miles away.
Quetta residents
Quetta residents sit on a roadside in fear of their homes being weakened a powerful earthquake rocked southwest Pakistan early on Jan. 19. The 7.2 magnitude quake struck struck near the border with Afghanistan and was felt as far away as India and the Gulf. (Banaras Khan/Getty Images) Click to enlarge photo

Tremors from a powerful earthquake that rattled many parts of Pakistan early Wednesday were felt as far as New Delhi, 700 miles away.

The 7.2 magnitude quake hit in a sparsely-populated area near the nation’s borders with Iran and Afghanistan, 640 miles west-southwest of Islamabad, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

No fatalities have been reported.

Officials in Karen, a town in a sparsely populated area close to the epicenter, told the Associated Press that the town suffered no widespread damage.

People came out of their houses in the southern city of Karachi, home to 18 million people, but no major damage was reported there either.

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Tremors shook structures in many other parts of the country and were felt as far as Dubai in the Middle East.

The earthquake’s intensity was just below that of another earthquake measuring 7.6 that struck parts of northern Pakistan in 2005 and killed more than 70,000 people.

Government officials warned of the danger of aftershocks in coming days. In some instances such aftershocks have come within a week of previous earthquakes.

“It’s not uncommon for this region to have earthquakes. It is where two tectonic plates come together” CNN quoted Kurt Frankel of the Georgia Institute of Technology.

In Pakistan’s capital Islamabad a Western diplomat quoted by CBS News warned that further damage from the earthquake, notably any of its aftershocks, could seriously undermine Pakistan’s future, right at a time when the United States is urging the country to extend more cooperation in its campaign to fight militants.

“A humanitarian crisis in Pakistan caused by the earthquake will only undermine U.S. interests,” the  diplomat said. “As it is, we must all worry about instability in a country armed with nuclear weapons and with political and economic problems,” he added.