A powerful under-sea earthquake in Indonesia on Monday killing one person and leaving many injured.
According to officials, at least twenty people were hospitalized with broken bones and at least 80 sustained minor injuries. It was believed that two people had been killed by the tremor but the number was reduced to one. The man who was killed after being hit by falling debris and died after being treated in hospital for seven hours.
The quake struck Felt Island at 3:41 am with a magnitude of 6.7. The quake entered at about 830 miles from the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, at a depth of 11 miles below water level. A Tsunami warning was not issued as the quake was too deep to cause a destructive tsunami.
The quake damaged at least 720 homes, seven government buildings and blocked a main road.
The quake hit at a bad time after the people are still clearing the rubble of a quake that hit in September and killed 1,100 people.

The West Atlas rig in the Timor Sea that has been leaking oil and fuel for 10 weeks burst into flames on Saturday for as yet unknown reasons. PTTEP has been inquiring as to what started the fire and their Federal resources minister told ABC that they will be holding an independent inquiry as to what started the fire.

There are claims that, the well is producing fuel for the fire and that if it is not closed, the fire has a virtually never-ending source of fuel and will never go out.
According to PTTEP’s chief financial officer Jose Martins they were executing a well-killing operation when a fire broke out on the Montara platform. He also says that the measures they have been taking have been to merely keep the fire isolated- not to put it out. He claims that the only way to put out the fire is to kill the well, stopping the flow of gas and oil to the H1 well and depriving the fire of fuel.

PTTEP is planning to set up a nearby oil rig, West Triton rig, to pump a thick heavy mud mixture into the well to cut off the gas supply and stop the flow of fuel to the fire.

There has been an outburst of reactions from environmentalists of shock and outrage. They are reportedly furious over the fact that since the fire broke out there has been no information as to what caused the leak or the fire in the first place or the plans are to clean up the mess.
PTTEP has lost an estimated $170 million (£159 million). They have set aside a great deal of money, as the rig and oil isn’t insured for full value.

Apparently no rig workers were injured and everyone managed to escape off the rig before the fire started. Though, a Resources analyst claims that if the situation had been even slightly different, then many injuries would have occurred and that the rig workers were in fact, extremely lucky to have escaped. He also claims that the fire is the result of the Commonweath taking full custody and responsibility of the rig.
He said that he is confident with the handling of the situation but is concerned for the safety of rig workers in future.

Here’s a quick rundown of what we know about H1N1 Influenza A “Swine Flu” that’s currently sweeping the media, as opposed to the globe.

• The H1N1 virus appears to be a mild influenza, and is nowhere near as dangerous as N5N1.
• The H1N1 virus appears to bind to the receptors in the upper respiratory tract causing mild illness (compare this to H5N1 which binds to the lungs directly).
• The swine flu strain is the same type as seasonal flu which circulates throughout the world every year, and kills roughly 1% of those infected.

A powerful earthquake tore through central Italy on Monday devastating historic mountain towns and killing at least 40 people, authorities said.

Many remained unaccounted for as emergency services scrambled to find victims trapped under collapsed buildings in L’Aquila, which bore the brunt of the quake, and officials warned that the toll would rise.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi declared a state of emergency and cancelled a trip to Russia so he could go to L’Aquila, capital of Abruzzo region, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) northeast of Rome.

Google

An Italian scientist predicted a major earthquake around L’Aquila weeks before disaster struck the city on Monday, killing dozens of people, but was reported to authorities for spreading panic among the population.

The first tremors in the region were felt in mid-January and continued at regular intervals, creating mounting alarm in the medieval city, about 100 km east of Rome.

Vans with loudspeakers had driven around the town a month ago telling locals to evacuate their houses after seismologist Gioacchino Giuliani predicted a large quake was on the way, prompting the mayor’s anger.

Reuters

The global sea level looks set to rise far higher than forecast because of changes in the polar ice-sheets, a team of researchers has suggested.

Scientists at a climate change summit in Copenhagen said earlier UN estimates were too low and that sea levels could rise by a metre or more by 2100.

The projections did not include the potential impact of polar melting and ice breaking off, they added.

The implications for millions of people would be “severe”, they warned.

Ten per cent of the world’s population – about 600 million people – live in low-lying areas.

BBC News