China eView

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Three Years since the Sichuan Earthquake

10:41 AM

On May 12th 2008, a devastating 8.0M earthquake occurred in Wenchuan County of Sichuan Province and killed over 68,000 people. It was the most serious earthquake that hit China since 1949. Many towns in the affected areas were completely destroyed during the earthquake and several landslide dams were formed afterward. The Chinese government spent 1 trillion Yuan on the reconstruction of the earthquake zone including Wenchuan County and Beichuan County.

There has been an enormous change after three years since the Sichuan Earthquake. Most of the ruins in the affected areas are replaced with new buildings and all the damaged nature sites are restored to normal. The life of Wenchuan residents have returned to normal and many of them are now living in the newly constructed apartments.

Ruined location of the old Beichuan County has been abandoned after the earthquake but it is now reconstructed as a brand new city in a newer location. Several museums and earthquake memorials have also been built for people to remember that horrifying disaster. One of the examples would be the ruins of Xuankou Middle School, which collapsed during the earthquake, are kept and become the Monument of Sichuan 512 Earthquake.

The Wolong Nature Reserve has been restored, as a result, giant pandas have moved back to their homeland from their temporary rehabilitation centre. Additionally the landslide dam are transforming into a level AAAA National Park of China.

Friday, May 6, 2011

Osama Bin Laden is Dead

11:11 PM

Osama Bin Laden, the head of Al-Qaeda terrorist organization, was killed by U.S SEAL squad during a crossfire in northern Pakistan on May 1st 2011. His body was later examined and placed in the Arabian Sea.

Bin Laden was involved in many terrorist activities around the world. One of the most famous incident that was carried out by him was the attack on the World Trade Center in New York and Pentagon (Department of Defense) in Washington D.C by using hijacked commercial jets on September 11th 2001. Since then, the United States government led by George Bush launched the War on Terror and stationed a lot of U.S. forces in the Middle Easts. Bin Laden has also became the most wanted terrorist in the US and other countries.

The group Al-Qaeda (The Base) was formed by Osama Bin Laden during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the early 1980's with American's support. Osama's anti-Soviet spirit was greatly appreciated by the US government and he was a hero to the American people at that time. Bin Laden started to hate the Americans after the launch of the Gulf War in 1991, he believed that the Americans are devils to the Islamic and Arabic world and should be eliminated right away. As a result, Al-Qaeda started to commit terrorist activities all around the world. Until now, they have committed over a hundred terrorist attack on civilians such as the 911 incident in New York and the bombing of London Metro.

Soon after the killing of Osama Bin Laden. US President Barrack Obama announced the news to the world through the speech in White House. He also mentioned that the United States and other countries should stay at full alert due to the possible revenge from Al-Qaeda or other terrorist organizations.

Saturday, April 30, 2011

The Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate

10:55 AM

The Royal Wedding of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine Middleton took place on April 29th at the Westminster Abbey in London. Prince William first met Catherine in 2001 when both of them were studying at St. Andrews University. Their engagement was in October 2010 and announced during November. This wedding has brought a lot of media's attention and was broadcasted lively around the world with an audience of over two billion. Many people have compared and contrasted this event with the 1981 wedding of Prince William's parents, Prince Charles and Princess Diana (1961-1997).

After the cars of the royal families from the Buckingham Palace arrived at the Westminster Abbey at 11:00 AM the streets of London were filled with pomp and cheer, the ceremony started. Several speeches and choir singings were made during the ceremony; after the bishop's addressing, the couple exchanged their ring and kissed each other. A magnificent parade and air show took place after the ceremony as the bride and groom was carried back to the Buckingham Palace by a State Landau for an afterward public appearance on the balcony with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles.

The couple decided to postpone their honeymoon after the wedding and live on the Isle of Anglesey in North Wales to continue Prince William's career as an RAF Search & Rescue pilot.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Chernobyl Disaster - 25th Aniversary

11:26 AM

The Chernobyl Disaster was a nuclear incident that occurred on April 26th, 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in northern Ukraine. The explosion, which was caused by a sudden power output surge, released large amounts of radioactive contamination into the atmosphere and spread all the way to Norway in western Europe. It was considered as the worst nuclear incident in the history and the scale of this disaster had been raised to level 7, which is the highest level according to the International Nuclear Event Scale.

This disaster had caused 30 workers to die immediately during the explosion and over 500,000 workers had found nuclear contamination inside their body. Over 350,400 residents were evacuated from the affected areas in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, the place where 60% of fallout were landed according to the post-Soviet data. The Soviet Union had spent 18 billion rubles on this disaster which heavily crippled their economy.

Today, the area surrounding the power plant still contains radioactive contamination and the town of Pypiat, which is the closest town to the power plant, has been abandoned and became a "ghost city".

The Fukushima disaster that occurred in Japan during the earthquake is very similar to the Chernobyl Disaster. Both incidents have been classified as level 7 event on the international scale and affected much of the nation's soil and other countries. People are calling Fukushima the second Chernobyl and and the towns beside it will probably abandon by its residents due to high volume of radioactive contamination.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Military Intervention in Libya

7:31 PM

U.N. Security Council responded to the crisis in Libya by imposing a no-fly zone over the country and using force against Gaddafi‘s forces in order to protect the civilians. Several countries including Russia, China and Germany abstained from voting on this resolution, because Russia and China were concerned about outside powers interfering Libya's internal affairs while Germany feared that military actions would raise a new conflict.

The command of this military operation in Libya has been handed to NATO and the operation, named "Odyssey Dawn", is now led by Canada.

On March 19th, after the first wave of attack with 110 Tomahawk Cruise Missiles targeting Libyan air defenses in coastal regions, American, British and French air forces significantly destroyed a number of military targets at several inland areas.

American forces launched another air strike next day, which consisted of F-15 and F-16 fighters along with three B-2 Spirit bombers, consequently, the Libyan military airfields under the attack have been heavily damaged. No US aircraft was lost during the missions.

On March 23rd, an American F-15 fighter which took off from a NATO air base in Italy crashed in Libya due to mechanical problems. The two pilots were safely ejected and rescued by the US Navy. Unfortunately, six local civilians were injured by gunfire from the rescue team.

On March 24th, Royal Norwegian Air Force launched their first attack against Libyan ground troops with their F-16s.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Japanese Nuclear Crisis

6:20 PM

Three nuclear reactors in Fukushima exploded last week as a result of the tsunami attack caused by the devastating earthquakes in northern Japan. The incidents have released a series of radiation that were 800 times more intense than the recommended exposure in Japan, raising the risk of uncontrolled radiation over the Pacific regions.

The Japanese government has evacuated all the residents from the affected areas and applied cooling liquid to the reactors in order to prevent further explosion. Unfortunately, several people in these regions have been exposed to the radiation. Right now, reactor four, five and six may be at the risk of overheating. Therefore, the government has called for American assistance over this situation. Tokyo, which is located 180 miles south of the reactors, has reported their radiation was slightly above normal. As a result, the official has warned the residents to stay indoor. Moreover, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano flew to Japan from Austria on Wednesday to negotiate with the Japanese Premier Naoto Kan about the nuclear proliferation.

On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, the Canadian and American governments have confirmed that the radiation will eventually disappear into the atmosphere when it reaches the west coast of North America.

This incident has been the most dangerous nuclear radiation in the Japanese history after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

Friday, March 11, 2011

2011 Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

10:14 PM

On March 11th 2011, a devastating 8.9M earthquake occurred in the northeastern coast of Honshu, Japan, about 130 kilometers off the shore of Miyagi Prefecture. This earthquake was the most powerful earthquake recorded in the Japanese history and the most destructive quake after the 1995 Kobe Earthquake.

The shock created a large scale tsunami towards the Honshu Island and caused enormous damages to the northeast coast of Japan. According to the Asahi News, more than 1600 people have died and 1900 are missing in six different prefectures. Thousands of homes were destroyed as cities were flooded and burned, as the results, over ten thousands residents were trapped in the flooded zone and tons of vehicles were brushed onto the street. Four passenger trains containing an unknown number of people disappeared in the coastal region as well as a ship with several crew members. Major oil refineries in these regions were caught on fire and several nuclear power stations in Onagawa, Fukushima and Tōkai were automatically shut down due to the risk of nuclear explosion. Several aftershocks have occurred after the major quake and caused serious damage to Tokyo and its surrounding areas, therefore, train services have been terminated and all flights in Narita International Airport have been cancelled.

As a response to this disaster, the Japanese government sent the Self-Defense Forces to help the rescue operation in those earthquake zones and the United States government stated that they would send two aircraft carriers to Japan for this operation. Other countries also responded to this incident by sending relief supplies and donations.

A tsunami alert has been raised to all islands in Southeast Asia and Pacific Ocean as well as the west coasts of North & South America. In addition, a ten centimetres water rise has been reported in Hawaii and the west coast of Vancouver Island in BC, Canada.

Sendai Airport Flooded

Updates: Fukushima I Nuclear Power Station just exploded and Fukushima II is at high risk of explosion. The government has evacuated all the residents within the affected areas.

Updates: Fukushima II exploded and all of Pacific regions are under the threat of the nuclear radiation.