Quake rattles Guatemala, Mexico; 3 reported dead

MEXICO CITY -- At least three people were reportedly killed in Guatemala after a powerful earthquake shook the Central American country Wednesday morning.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported that the quake, which registered magnitude 7.4, occurred at 10:35 a.m. CST along the northern part of Guatemala's Pacific coast, about 100 miles west-southwest of Guatemala City.

Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina declared a "national red alert," suspending public activities and recommending that buildings be evacuated. The Mexican newspaper Milenio reported that three people had been found dead under the rubble in the Guatemalan city of San Pedro Sacatepequez -- along the country's border with Mexico -- where at least 40 houses had been destroyed by the temblor.

Guatemalan media reported downed phone lines, lost power and damaged buildings in various parts of the country.

The quake was also felt in numerous areas of Mexico, including parts of Mexico City, where some buildings were evacuated. However, Mayor Marcelo Ebrard tweeted in the early afternoon that the city was "without harm."

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Photo: Crowds of people gather at a meeting point in Mexico City on Wednesday after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Guatemala near the Mexican border. Credit: Mario Guzman / EPA

Billions for Japan tsunami recovery went elsewhere, reports find

TADANOUMI, Japan -- Billions of dollars meant to help Japan recover from its devastating tsunami went to government projects that had little or nothing to do with the disaster, a new spending review shows.

Japanese politicians have questioned why millions went to a factory that makes contact lenses, or why money was spent to fend off  environmental activists opposed to whaling, or other projects in areas far removed from the tsunami. Local media have dug up numerous  examples of dubious spending, from renovating government buildings outside the disaster zones to job training in  prisons.

All in all, government documents show roughly one out of every four dollars budgeted for reconstruction went to unrelated projects, and more than half has not been allocated at all, the Associated Press reported Tuesday. An outside analysis by recovery expert Yoshimitsu Shiozaki found the same pattern of spending on projects outside the disaster zones.

PHOTOS: Japan hit by magnitude 9.0 earthquake

The funds were originally earmarked solely for the stricken areas, but the government ultimately loosened the rules, saying the money could also be used to bolster the economy and prepare for future disasters nationwide. The reconstruction money was up for grabs at a time when government agencies were downsizing, making it a tempting spigot of cash.

5 Italian officials quit in protest over convictions tied to quake warning

ROME -- A government official and four experts from an agency that advises Italian authorities in emergencies resigned Tuesday in protest after a court convicted seven experts for failing to give sufficient warning before a devastating earthquake struck in 2009, Italian news agencies reported.

Luciano Maiani, a physicist at the head of the Major Risks Commission, said that Monday's verdict that found six scientists and a public administrator guilty of manslaughter would make it impossible for professionals to offer impartial and specialized opinions in both the prevention and handling of dangerous situations.

Maiani quit along with three other panel members, citing “the impossibility that the Major Risks Commission can work in serenity and offer highly scientific analyses to the state in these complex conditions.” An official with the government’s Department of Civil Protection also resigned, news agencies said.

The seven convicted men, including six members of the commission and the deputy director of the Department of Civil Protection, were sentenced to six years in prison each by the panel of judges in the city of L'Aquila. The decision has been met with harsh criticism by scientists who say it is impossible to predict an earthquake.

More than 300 people were killed in L’Aquila in the early-morning temblor on April 6, 2009. The area around the central Italian city had been disturbed by tremors for months before the big quake hit.

The Major Risks Commission, which advises the Department of Civil Protection, did not adequately warn L’Aquila’s  residents about the risk of a possible earthquake, the prosecution argued, saying the commission gave “inexact, incomplete and erroneous information.”

Officials of the Department of Civil Protection told Italian media that they feared the verdict would erase years of progress and expertise in disaster prevention and that the agency would return to its old job of providing relief and rescue only after the fact.

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Photo: A man sits on rubble in the village of Onna, near L'Aquila, the day after a powerful earthquake struck central Italy in 2009. An Italian court Monday convicted seven scientists and experts of manslaughter for failing to adequately warn citizens before the quake. Credit: Alessandra Tarantino / Associated Press

Italian seismologists ordered to prison for not warning of quake risk

ROME -- A court found six scientists and an official guilty of manslaughter Monday for failing to properly warn residents in the central Italy city of L’Aquila about the risk of an impending earthquake that killed more than 300 people in 2009.

The three-judge court handed down a prison sentence of six years for each of the defendants, more than the four years requested by the prosecution in a case that many thought should never have gone to court because of the virtual impossibility of predicting an earthquake.

The verdict, which was watched with interest by seismologists and public administrators in other parts of the world marked by frequent seismic activity, including Los Angeles, immediately drew criticism from scientists who said that it would have a chilling effect on experts called on to assess emergencies.

Tremors of varying magnitude had plagued the area around L’Aquila for months before an 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck April 6, 2009, and devastated the city and surrounding villages across a wide area.

Prosecutors said that the men, six members of the Major Risks Commission and an official with the Civil Protection Agency, gave the already-frightened residents “inexact, incomplete and contradictory information” after meeting to evaluate the situation six days before the temblor hit.

Earthquakes kill dozens in southwest China

BEIJING -- At least 50 people were killed after a pair of earthquakes jolted a mountainous region of southwestern China on Friday, damaging thousands of buildings and forcing scores of residents from their homes, the official New China News Agency said.

The first earthquake, with a magnitude of 5.7, shook the border region of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces at 11:19 a.m. local time. An hour later, a second quake struck, measuring 5.6.

The temblors destroyed or damaged 20,000 homes and injured 150 people in the largely impoverished, rural area. State media reported that 100,000 people had been evacuated.

PHOTOS: Deadly earthquakes in China

A local official in Yunnan's Yiliang, the worst hit county, told the Associated Press that many homes had collapsed. 

"The casualty number is still being compiled," said the official, who declined to give his name. "I don't know what [it] was like for the other towns, but my town got hit badly."

Building standards remain a sensitive subject in China's countryside. In 2008, central Sichuan province was devastated by a major earthquake that killed nearly 90,000 people. Shoddy construction in the underdeveloped disaster zone was blamed for the high death toll.

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Two buses make their way through fallen rocks after earthquakes hit southwest China. Credit: AFP/Getty Images

Strong earthquake jolts Costa Rica; no early reports of deaths

 

MEXICO CITY -- A powerful earthquake jolted northwestern Costa Rica and much of Central America on Wednesday morning, with early reports of scattered damage but no deaths (link in Spanish).

The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude of the quake at 7.6 and its epicenter near the town of Hojancho, 87 miles west of the capital of San Jose. A tsunami alert was issued for parts of the region but later canceled.

It was the fourth tremor of magnitude 6 or more in the last week in some part of the world, according to the USGS.

PHOTOS: Costa Rica shaken by powerful earthquake

Costa Rica's La Nacion newspaper reported collapsed houses and structural damage in some buildings and businesses along the country's Pacific Coast. In the capital, offices and homes were evacuated amid scenes of panic, but there was little serious damage, the paper said.

The local Red Cross reported minor injures but no deaths, the Tico Times, another Costa Rican newspaper, said.

In the epicenter town of Hojancho, a city official told the Associated Press that the quake had also triggered landslides that blocked roads.

"So far, we don't have victims," the official said, according to the AP. "People were really scared .... We have had moderate quakes but an earthquake [this strong] hadn't happened in more than 50 years."

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Image: A U.S. Geological Survey map of the region struck by a strong earthquake Wednesday. Credit: USGS / EPA

Woman killed in 7.6 Philippines quake; official says not to sleep

A woman was killed after a magnitude 7.6 earthquake hit off the eastern coast of the Philippines, disaster officials said Friday. Though officials initially attributed her death to a landslide, later media reports quoted officials saying a house had collapsed.

A 5-year-old boy was also injured.

The death, the only fatality to be reported so far from the quake, happened in Cagayan de Oro City, the same area where five homes were damaged in flash floods, forcing families to evacuate. Power was reportedly out in several towns across central and southern areas of the country.

Government officials in the Philippines urged people in threatened coastal areas to evacuate to higher ground and advised boats at sea to stay in the deeper parts of the ocean until the threat passed. As it grew late, disaster response chief Benito Ramos urged people to stay awake.

“Don't sleep, especially those in the eastern seaboard … because there might be aftershocks,” Ramos said in a nationally broadcast advisory, according to Associated Press.

As of late Friday evening in the Philippines, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center had canceled the tsunami warning it had earlier issued across Indonesia and much of the Pacific.

The quake did generate a tsunami, the center said, which may have been destructive along coasts near its epicenter. Boats and coastal structures might still be in danger for several hours due to rapid currents, it added, urging local authorities to make their own determinations.

Filipinos, who have come to rely on the Web and social media during disasters such as rampant flooding earlier this summer, were frustrated that the website of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology was unavailable at some points after the quake. “It only works when you don’t need it,” one Twitter user complained.

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Photo: A resident sifts through the debris of a collapsed house in Cagayan De Oro city in the southern Philippines following a 7.6-magnitude earthquake that struck off its eastern coast late Friday. Credit: Froilan Gallardo / Associated Press 

Quake relief -- and criticism -- continues in Iran

TEHRAN -- As the relief effort continued Monday in the wake of twin earthquakes which devastated a northwest region of Iran, a leading politician criticized state media as providing too little coverage of the initial disaster.

More than 300 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured Saturday when the earthquakes struck the town of Ahar and surrounding villages. Several villages were flattened and thousands have been left homeless.

Speaker of parliament Ali Larijani, a longtime opponent of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, criticized state-run television and radio, saying they neglected coverage the earthquakes.

When the earthquake struck some TV stations were in the midst of commemorating the anniversary of the death of Ali, the first imam in Shiite Islam, and programming was not interrupted to show news of the earthquake. Instead, a ticker at the bottom relayed the news.

“Those who are in charge in the national radio and TV should be more careful and avoid upsetting people, the officials in national TV and radio should indicate to the people that there is widespread sympathy for them,” Larijani said, according to the Fars news agency.

Some worry that the slow national coverage could limit a mobilization of help and relief.

“People desperately need makeshift bathrooms and detergent and soap to take care of personal sanitation,” said one witness in an affected town.

Iran earthquakes death toll rises to 300; relief efforts criticized

TEHRAN — The death toll from twin earthquakes rose to 300, officials said Sunday, as rescue efforts in northwest Iran continued and more bodies were expected to be found.

But some witnesses complained that the government was not aiding the efforts of residents and private agencies to rescue possible victims of Saturday's tremors.

"From the first minutes in the aftermath ... the survivors rushed to unearth the dead and alive and injured and that rescue goes on," said a witness in one of the affected towns. "But official rescues halted or seem to have stopped, as there is no hope of any alive to be unearthed and the number of Red Crescent rescue team is not big enough and few of them are trained enough."

Air-rescue operations were suspended hours after the earthquakes, one of them measuring a magnitude 6.2, struck as night fell and helicopters were unable to fly in the dark in the mountainous region.

Much of the efforts now are said to be about providing food and shelter for the survivors.

40 killed in earthquake in Iran's northwest, news agency reports

TEHRAN -- An estimated 40 people in Iran were killed Saturday when two strong earthquakes, one measuring a magnitude 6.2, struck the rural town of Ahar in the country's northwest, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported.

About 400 people have been injured in the earthquakes, and residents in the area were advised by a head of the natural disaster headquarters to sleep outdoors tonight because possible earthquake tremors were expected. 

"The jolt was strong. We rushed outdoors and into the streets in a panic," said one resident in the city of Tabriz, an hour south of Ahar. "It seems in Tabriz there are no casualties."

The area has experienced five tremors in the past week alone. The quake hit at 4:43 pm at a depth of six miles, according to Tehran University's Seismological Center.

Iran has a deadly history of earthquakes. In 2003, more than 25,000 people were killed when a 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck the southeast part of the country.

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