THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2012
PAGE 3
NEWS OF THE WORLD
Associated Press
ASIA
Earthquake kills estimated dozen
ASSOCIATED PRESS
YANGON, Myanmar — A strong earthquake of magnitude-6.8 struck northern Myanmar on Sunday, collapsing a bridge and a gold mine, damaging several old Buddhist pagodas and leaving as many as 12 people feared dead.
of Mandalay reported no casualties or major damage as the nearest major population center to the main quake Mandalay lies about 117 kilometers (72 miles) south of the quake's epicenter near the town of Shwebo.
A slow release of official information left the actual extent of the damage unclear after Sunday morning's strong quake. Mymanm has a poor official disaster response system, despite having lost upward of 140,000 people to a devastating cyclone in 2008.
Myanmar's second-biggest city
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Smaller towns closer to the main quake's epicenter were worse hit.
The area surrounding the epicenter is underdeveloped, and casualty reports were coming in piecemeal, mostly from local media.
Independently compiled tallies suggested a death toll of about a dozen.
A bridge under construction across the Irrawaddy River, east of Shwebo, Myanmar is seen collapsed after a strong earthquake. The magnitude-6.8 quake struck northern Myanmar yesterday.
MIDDLE EAST
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gaza Strip rocket launch kills one
A Palestinian stands in a factory hit by an Israeli tank shell in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, yesterday. Hostilities along the Gaza-Israel border escalated sharply over the weekend, with bombardments from Gaza causing rare Israeli casualties and Israeli strikes killing at least six Palestinians.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
JERUSALEM — Israeli forces struck targets in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing one Palestinian and wounding more than 30 others as militants launched dozens of rockets in some of the heaviest fighting the area has seen in months.
The flare-up increased pressure on the Israeli government to put an end to the violence, which escalated over the weekend and could turn into a major conflagration just two months before the country's general election.
Israeli leaders amped up their rhetoric, warning Gaza's Islamic
Hamas rulers they will pay a heavy price should they allow rocket fire toward Israel to continue.
"The world must understand that Israel will not sit idly in the face of attempts to attack us," said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "We are prepared to intensify the response."
Nearly four years ago, before the last national election, Israel carried out a broad military offensive in Gaza to stop years of rocket fire. Some 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the operation, including hundreds of civilians. Since then, sporadic rocket fire has continued, but Gaza's Hamas rulers have largely refrained from
maior rocket attacks.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak rejected the suggestion that Israel's upcoming Jan. 22 elections could affect the government's response to the current round of violence.
"I don't think the elections have to have any effect on our response," he said. "It shouldn't cause us to refrain from acting, it's not handcuffing us. But it shouldn't provoke us to take an opportunity to launch an operation."
The coastal strip is home to numerous militant groups, including murky al-Qaida-inspired organizations that do not answer to Hamas.
SOUTH AMERICA
Protesters fill capital streets
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BUENOS AIRES — Angry over inflation, crime and corruption, hundreds of thousands of Argentines of all ages flooded the capital's streets for nearly four hours to protest against President Cristina Fernandez in Argentina's biggest anti-government demonstration in years.
In a Thursday night march organized on social media, demonstrators filled the Plaza de Mayo in front of the pink presidential palace and also crowded around the city's iconic obelisk chanting: "We're not afraid."
Protesters stayed peaceful, and the outpouring had the air of a family affair. Toddlers in strollers and grandparents in wheelchairs joined in the masses that marched through downtown Buenos Aires until nearly midnight.
People banged on pots, whistled and waved the Argentine flag. They held banners that read: "Stop the wave of Argentines killed by crime, enough with corruption and say no to the constitutional reform."
Fernandez's critics are angry over the country's high inflation, violent crime and high-profile corruption, and many worry that the president will try to hold onto power by ending constitutional term limits.
Demonstrators held up signs accusing the president of arrogance. While some featured a lengthy list of demands, others simply said "basta" — enough.