A 6.6 magnitude earthquake hit southwestern China and left at least 65 dead

The quake of magnitude 6.6 struck Sichuan province in China at a depth of 6 miles. Local media reports that the impact led to breakage of telecommunication lines and triggered mountain landslides. These resulted to "serious damage." The quake left 65 people dead. Incidentally, last week the authorities had asked millions of people in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, to stay at home because of COVID rules. The epicentre of the quake was at Luding. This is a town located about 140 miles (226 Km) in a remote mountain region southwest of Chengdu. The China Earthquake Networks Centre has reported this. The city of Ya'an reports death of 17 people and neighboring prefecture of Ganzi reports 29 deaths. In addition, there were reports of another 16 people missing and 50 injured. The tremors shook buildings in Chengdu and the neighboring mega-city of Chongqing. There was blockage of roads and disruption of communication lines to hundreds of thousands of residents. China quake: Deadly tremor rocks Sichuan city in lockdown. The shocks led to the shut down of a number of power stations in the areas of Garze and Ya'an,

The authorities moved hundreds of rescue personnel to the epicenter and workers tried to remove the roadblocks caused by landslides. Residents of Chengdu saw people trying to vacate their high-rise apartments after receiving alerts of earthquake on their phones. Chengdu became the latest city to be locked down by Chinese authorities, in an attempt to stem the rise in COVID cases. This quake comes several months after a 6.1-magnitude earthquake tore through Sichuan in June. Sichuan lies along the eastern boundary of the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau and is an earthquake-prone area. The earthquake brings into memory an 8.0-magnitude quake, which hit Wenchuan County in northwest Sichuan in 2008. It had left 70,000 dead and led to large-scale destruction.

Explosion scare in White House - President Obama safe

#whitehouse #lockdown #selma #barackobama It came as another unexpected security lockdown at the White House that was triggered by a loud bang. President Barack Obama was, at the time, about to leave with his family for Selma, Alabama. The occasion was to commemorate the 50th anniversary of a civil rights march.
In view of the security lockdown, they left the White House by motorcade instead of helicopter an hour later and boarded Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 8 March 2015.
The security alert took place moments before Obama and his family was to board a helicopter from the presidential mansion's South Lawn for Andrews Air Force Base.
The scare was from an explosion in a souvenir truck that caught fire in a nearby street. This has been indicated by the Secret Service. In the words of Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary, the fire was brought under control and the vehicle was investigated and later cleared by a bomb-sniffing dog.
As per reports, the souvenir truck belonged to a Korean family from Virginia and they do not speak English. The truck was completely destroyed by the fire.
Consequent to the scare White House tours were temporarily interrupted but resumed after the vehicle identified by the dog team was cleared.