January 18, 2010

Caribbean at risk of more large quakes like Haiti mega tremblor

Filed under: Americas,Caribbean America — mungurk @ 10:03

Monday 18th January, 2010

ANI Monday 18th January, 2010

London, January 18 : Earthquake experts have warned that the devastating quake that struck Haiti on January 12 could be the first of several in the region, which means the region is at risk of more large tremblors.

According to a report in New Scientist, historical records suggest that not all the energy that has built up in the faults running through the Caribbean region was released in the Haiti quake.

Their fear is that enough energy remains in the fault system to trigger another earthquake of the same scale as the one on January 12.

The last time Haiti was struck by earthquakes of this scale was in 1751 and 1770, when three large earthquakes hit within the space of 20 years.

They ruptured the same fault segment as the one that slipped on Jan. 12, as well as segments lying further to the east, in Haiti and the neighbouring Dominican Republic.

“Last time round there was a sequence of earthquakes,” said Uri ten Brink, an expert on earthquakes in the region from the US Geological Survey in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

“I’m worried, as we might expect the eastern side of the fault to rupture next,” according to other geologists.

“Stress transfer along the fault is likely to trigger a chain of quakes,” said Bill McGuire from University College London.

Another, larger earthquake could affect surrounding nations as well.

The fault that was responsible for the Haiti quake extends west through Jamaica. Another runs parallel to it in the north, along the southern edge of Cuba and the northern side of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Historical records suggest that both these faults produce large and destructive earthquakes every few centuries.

“They are dangerous especially when large population centres like Port-au-Prince, Kingston in Jamaica or Santiago in the Dominican Republic are so close to them,” said Paul Mann from the University of Texas at Austin.

The region harbours a third fault to the east, which is a further cause for concern.

Measurements over several decades show that the sum of all earthquakes that strike on “splinter faults” on the Caribbean plate have accounted for around half of the energy associated with this movement, leaving the other half stored up in the system.

McGuire and his colleagues are concerned that much of the stress may be accumulating on the undersea thrust fault to the east.

If that stress were to be released on the submarine fault, it could trigger a catastrophic tsunami of the scale of the 26 December 2004 Indian Ocean disaster.

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January 8, 2010

Kenya deports Abdullah Ibrahim el-Faisal

Filed under: Africa,Caribbean America,Counterterrorism,Eastern Africa,Jamaica,Kenya,Terrorism — mungurk @ 08:22

source
Kenya deports Jamaican-born Muslim cleric

January 7, 2010 — Updated 0954 GMT (1754 HKT)

Nairobi, Kenya (CNN) — Kenya has deported a Jamaican-born Muslim cleric who was previously jailed in Britain for inciting racial hatred, the Kenyan immigration minister said Thursday.

Abdullah Ibrahim el-Faisal was deported to the West African country of Gambia, Kenyan Immigration Minister Otieno Kajwang told reporters in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

Kenyan anti-terror police picked up Abdullah Ibrahim el-Faisal days ago after he passed into the country unnoticed, police spokesman Eric Kiraithe told CNN on Tuesday.

Kenya’s immigration minister declared him an unwanted person in Kenya, Kiraithe said, adding that el-Faisal is a threat to Kenya’s security with “proven” terrorism links.

El-Faisal was sentenced in London to nine years in prison in March 2003 for inciting others to commit murder and for stirring racial hatred. He had been arrested a year earlier.

He was paroled in 2007 after serving half his sentence and deported to Jamaica, according to British news reports.

El-Faisal entered Kenya from Tanzania, Kiraithe said, but it was not clear when.

Kiraithe acknowledged there had been “lapses” between Kenya’s police and immigration that allowed the cleric to enter the country.

Kenyan Muslim groups have protested the moves to deport el-Faisal.

“He is being treated unfairly,” said Al-Amin Kimathi, the executive coordinator for the Muslim Forum of Human Rights, “He has committed no crimes in Jamaica and has not committed any crimes in Kenya. There is a double standard at work.”

Before his sentence in Britain, el-Faisal had spent much of the previous decade preaching in various mosques and selling audiotapes across the country.

In one of the tapes, he said, “How do you fight the Hindus? You have to bomb the Indian businesses. And as for the Jews, you kill them physically. Then you will overcome them in Kashmir and in Palestine.”

His lawyers in Britain had asked the judge in his case to consider the Muslim convert “misguided rather than malicious.”

The defense stressed that most of his preachings were benign interpretations of the Quran. They also said el-Faisal, a husband and father who had been living in the east London neighborhood of Stratford, had been a leader in his community.

CNN’s David McKenzie contributed to this report.