The European Union Times |
- 27 dead, dozens injured in Bucharest club explosion
- NASA releases images of enormous 8,000-year-old patterns
- World’s most mysterious whale observed for first time
- Norway Immigrants Brutally Gang Rape 14-Year-Old Girl, One Gets Off With Community Service
Posted: 31 Oct 2015 12:48 PM PDT
At least 27 people have been killed and nearly 180 injured in an explosion and fire which happened during a concert accompanied by a pyrotechnics show at a nightclub in Bucharest, Romania. Officials have confirmed the deaths of at least 27 people, while a further 180 suffered injuries and had to be rushed to nearby hospitals from Colectiv Club. The death toll has risen to 27 with many of the injured in critical condition, said Deputy Prime Minister Gabriel Oprea, according to Realitatea TV. In total nearly 180 people were admitted to the city’s hospitals, according to healthcare undersecretary Raed Arafat. More than 60 ambulances and fire trucks have been deployed to the scene, according to the interior ministry. Emergency services have set up a mobile hospital in order to immediately treat the most severely injured people. However, it has been reported that the first responders had insufficient supplies to help all of those who needed the most urgent medical attention. The cause of the explosion has not yet been officially confirmed, but according to reports the performance was supposed to have been accompanied by a pyrotechnics show that apparently went terribly wrong. The fireworks reportedly set the stage installations on fire, causing thick smoke and forcing the audience flee to the exit, causing a stampede, according to a witness cited by someseanul.ro. “There was a stampede of people running out of the club,” a witness told Reuters. Dozens of people suffered severe burns, according to first responders on the ground. Some reports have stated that part of the club’s roof collapsed, further injuring people inside. The incident happened at around 10:20pm local time, and dozens of ambulances arrived at the scene some 15 minutes later. Some of those who had been injured were treated at the scene, while those with severe injuries were rushed to hospitals. Authorities have urged citizens to donate blood as the situation has been deemed critical, with emergency wards fully packed and extra medical personnel being called in. By midnight firefighters confirmed the full evacuation of the building and handed the investigation over to police. The National Committee for Emergency Situations has announced an emergency meeting for Saturday morning. All ministers have been summoned, according to local media. Some 400 people had been inside the nightclub at the time of the incident, according to Arafat. According to earlier reports, there had also been some minors at the club when the blast happened. The concert was being held to mark the launch of a local rock band’s new album. “I am shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic event that occurred tonight,” Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said on Facebook, expressing his compassion and solidarity with the families of the victims. The Romanian President Klaus Johannis has expressed his condolences to the families of those killed in the tragedy, saying he was “shocked” and “deeply saddened”. “I am shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic event that occurred tonight in downtown,” the president posted on Facebook. “It is a very sad for all of us, for our nation and for me personally. In this painful time, I express my full compassion and solidarity with the families of those affected by this tragedy.” Johannis has pledged “support” for the families of those killed and injured, calling on them to trust the responsible institutions. Source |
Posted: 31 Oct 2015 10:30 AM PDT
NASA has uploaded satellite images of ancient earthworks that were discovered by a Kazakh archaeologist. Ancient geoglyphs discovered by Kazakh archaeologist Dmitriy Dei have sparked the interest of NASA, which published satellite images of the earthworks on its website earlier this month. Dei uncovered the geoglyphs, which can only be seen from the air, by studying images from Google Maps of the historical Turgay region of Kazakhstan. The north of the region is now part of Kazakhstan’s Kostanay administrative region, where Dei concentrated his search for the geoglyphs. The researcher found the first geoglyph in 2007. In an interview, he modestly characterized his achievement as a bringing together of earlier research. “I just put together the pieces of previous discoveries, which were made by different researchers and scientific groups,” said Dei. “In February 2007 I found the first objects: the Ushtogaysky Square and Turgay Swastika. Immediately I was struck by the phenomenal scale of the constructions: the side of the square is 287 meters, one quarter larger than the area of the base of the great pyramid of Giza. It is made from exactly 101 mounds.” Approximately 50 earthworks similar to the Ushtogaysky Square have been found, said the researcher, as well as other shapes, such as crosses and swastikas. Dei’s hypothesis is that the geoglyphs were a kind of ancient solar calendar, used by settlers who had traveled from western Siberia to make observations of the horizon. The researcher, who was inspired to search for the geoglyphs after watching a documentary about the pyramids of ancient Egypt, sees similarities to the Chankillo complex of ancient monuments in the coastal desert of Peru, which dates back more than 2,300 years. Some preliminary studies of the site in Kazakhstan date the earliest of its constructions to around 8,000 years ago, pre-dating even the pyramids. “I think everything began in Altay, 13-20 thousand years ago,” says Dei, whose research project on the earthworks has been published online by the University of Pittsburgh. His intriguing theory is that the earthworks were made by tribes who were some of the earliest settlers to the Middle East and Europe. ’ “In Turgay, faced with particular conditions, a part of the Altaiy tribe laid the foundations of a new civilization around eight thousand year ago.” “A flow of salt water from the Aral Sea around 6,400 years ago rushed north into the Turgay hollow, and practically destroyed the oasis in the Turgay basin. Neolithic Mahandzhar tribes made their way west. Some crossed the Caucasus and invaded the Middle East, 6,000 years ago, coinciding with the appearance of the ancient Sumerian civilization.” “Some of these tribes moved further to the west, and 5,000 years ago the Egyptian civilization suddenly appeared.” “Then tribes moved further across the territory of northern Africa to the Strait of Gibraltar, overcame it, and began to settle in Europe,” said Die, who is now working on a nascent five-year $1.5 million project to unravel the mystery of the earthworks. Source |
Posted: 31 Oct 2015 09:48 AM PDT
The elusive Omura’s whale has been documented for the first time ever by an international group of scientists, over a decade after the mysterious mammal was described as a new species. Previously, no living Omura’s whales had been observed in the wild, according to the study published in the Royal Society Open Space journal. Researchers confirmed that they are tracing the first-detected living population of Omura’s whales. Salvatore Cerchio, of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, along with his colleagues, started their observations eight years ago, and until 2011, their search was in vain. “They appear to occur in remote regions and are difficult to find at sea because they are small,” he said.
Location of the study site off northwest coast of Madagascar, including the Nosy Be and Nosy Iranja study areas.
Then, they spotted the elusive species for the first time. Initially, researchers thought they had seen the species called Bryde’s whales, bigger and without specific markings characteristic of Omura’s whales: the right side of the jaw is dark, while the left side is lighter.“From the little information on their habitat and range, Omura’s whales were not supposed to be in that part of the Indian Ocean,” Cerchio said.
Images of Madagascar Balaenoptera omurai displaying details of pigmentation and external appearance.
However, in 2013, they observed more whales and obtained skin biopsies from 18 adult whales, confirming the animals are indeed Omura’s whales.The scientists also observed four mother whales with their calves, and recorded their song-like voices. About 25 whales have been photographed so far, but the size of the population remains unconfirmed.
Images of Madagascar Balaenoptera omurai displaying details of pigmentation and external appearance.
Source |
Posted: 31 Oct 2015 09:20 AM PDT
Three African immigrants who brutally raped a 14-year-old girl to the point where she wanted to kill herself were given extremely light sentences by a court in Norway, with one receiving community service and avoiding prison altogether. The incident happened on the night of July 30 when the three men accosted the girl on a commuter train before also molesting her in a farm house and at an apartment in Oslo. During her ordeal, the girl was raped both orally and anally before being forced to take drugs. According to reports, the abuse, which lasted for hours, was so horrific that at one point the girl expressed a desire to take her own life to end the suffering. The girl suffered “severe mental damage” and PTSD as a result of the incident, missed a year of school and is still struggling to deal with what happened. The three men, 18-year-old Bile Mohamed Elmi, 21-year-old Abdirizak Nur Ali and 21-year-old Mohamed Abdirisak Mohamed, were initially charged with gang rape, which carries a maximum sentence of 21 years. However, prosecutor Cecilie Schloss Møller insisted there wasn’t enough evidence and the three men were convicted of sexual contact with a child under 16 years of age, which carries a lighter sentence. As a result, one of the men, Bile Mohamed Elmi received just 344 hours community service “for two counts of sexual intercourse with the girl in a particularly offensive manner.” Mohamed Abdirisak Mohamed received 17 months imprisonment, while Abdirizak Nur Ali received just 10 months imprisonment. Despite the men’s names being known, some Norwegian news outlets are still refusing to publish them. The case again underscores the huge rape crisis that has enveloped Scandinavia which has been completely ignored by liberals and feminists because the culprits in many of the cases are immigrants. In Norway, almost half of all rapes committed in Oslo in 2011 were carried out by individuals of African, Middle Eastern or Asian origin, despite the fact that Muslim immigrants only represent 1.5-2 per cent of the population. In addition, 100 per cent of aggravated rapes involving physical violence were committed by individuals of African, Middle Eastern or Asian origin. Leftist political leaders responded to the figures by absolving “traumatized asylum seekers” of blame and instead pointed fingers at police for encouraging “xenophobia and prejudice” merely for reporting the statistics. The wave of migrants flooding into Europe has stoked fresh concerns about an increase in rape cases. German police have been accused ofcovering up the scandal in order to not legitimize critics of mass immigration. Meanwhile in Finland, cops have been ordered by the country’s national police board not to publicly identify migrants as criminal suspects over concerns that doing so would encourage a ‘racist’ backlash against the wave of asylum seekers entering Scandinavia. Source |