7.2-magnitude quake jolts Indonesia
Jakarta, Nov 8: A massive earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale jolted Indonesia’s Maluku province on Wednesday, but did not trigger a tsunami, the country’s meteorology agency BMKG said. Having centered at the shallow seabed, the earthquake occurred at 11.52 a.m., Xinhua news agency quotd BMKG as saying. The location of the epicentre was 251 km northwest of Maluku Tenggara Barat (Tanimbar Islands) district, with a depth of 10 km under the sea floor, it said. The intensity of the quake was felt the strongest at IV to V of the MMI (Modified Mercalli Intensity) scale in Saumlaki town and the Banda Sea, and weaker in other parts of the province, the BMKG added. The meteorology agency did not issue a tsunami warning as the tremor did not have the potential to trigger giant waves. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damages. (IANS)
89 UN staff killed in Gaza
Geneva, Nov 8: Since the latest round of Hamas-Israel war broke out a month ago, 89 UN aid workers have been killed, which is the highest number of UN employees killed in a conflict in the history of the global organisation, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said. In its latest situation report, the UNRWA also added on Tuesday that nearly 1.5 million people have been displaced across the Gaza Strip since October 7, nearly 725,000 are sheltering in 149 UNRWA installations across all five governorates of Gaza, including in the north. In the last 24 hours, one UNRWA school in the north of Gaza was directly hit by strikes, resulting in one person killed and nine injured among the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) sheltering in the school, it said. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, overcrowding in UN facilities in Gaza now remains a major concern, Xinhua news agency reported. (IANS)
Anusha Shah to head UK Institute of Civil Engineers
London, Nov 8: The Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE), an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the UK representing 95,000 members, has elected the first Indian-origin president in its 205-year history in Professor Anusha Shah. As the institution’s 159th president, Shah took charge of her new role with a presidential address on the theme of nature-positive civil engineering at ICE’s London headquarters on Tuesday evening. Shah specialises in water and environmental engineering, with over 22 years’ experience in designing, managing and leading projects and programmes in the UK and internationally. “My presidential year will be about how we become a nature and people-positive profession at heart,” Shah stated in her speech. “We have failed to understand the interrelationship between infrastructure and nature. We are implementing nature-based and green solutions globally, but in pockets. It’s not the norm yet,” she said. In a film accompanying her speech, Shah said that it was time for civil engineers to better understand the inter-relationship between infrastructure and nature and do more. (PTI)