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Rescuers work against time as Turkey-Syria quake death toll passes 7,800

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 08, 2023

Rescuers worked against time in harsh winter conditions on Tuesday evening, trying to dig people out of the rubble of collapsed buildings as the death toll from Turkey and Syria’s devastating earthquake jumped to more than 7,900.

Turkish authorities say some 13.5 million people were affected in an area spanning roughly 450 km (280 miles) from Adana in the west to Diyarbakir in the east, and 300 km from Malatya in the north to Hatay in the south.

Syrian authorities have reported deaths as far south as Hama, some 250 km from the epicentre.

Monday’s (February 6) magnitude 7.8 quake, followed hours later by a second one almost as powerful, toppled thousands of buildings including hospitals, schools and apartment blocks, injured tens of thousands, and left countless people homeless in Turkey and northern Syria.

Rescue workers struggled to reach some of the worst-hit areas, held back by destroyed roads, poor weather and a lack of resources and heavy equipment. Some areas were without fuel and electricity.

As the scale of the disaster became ever more apparent, the death toll looked likely to rise considerably. One U.N. official said thousands of children may have died.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan declared a state of emergency in 10 provinces. But residents in several damaged Turkish cities voiced anger and despair at what they said was a slow and inadequate response from the authorities to the deadliest earthquake to hit Turkey since 1999.

Wringing their hands in stunned silence, Adana’s elderly were preparing to spend their second night on the wooden floors and worn sofas of a school-turned-shelter after the devastating earthquake that hit Turkey this week.

They fled on foot with almost nothing, helped by younger neighbours or relatives. Their children and teenage grandchildren dashed back into their now unstable homes for absolute essentials, mostly a few blankets and medicine packets.

In this city in southern Turkey, the elderly now sat in wool hats in a chilly school auditorium – where at least temperatures were warmer than for those camping out around bonfires or in their cars outside.

The tremor that struck in the early hours of Monday (February 6) has killed at least 6,300 people across Turkey and Syria.

Kemal, 86, and his 60-year-old daughter had clutched onto each other as they wobbled down the four storeys of their shaking building – with only his walker in tow so he could make it to the school on foot.

“I wasn’t afraid for myself, I was worried about my daughters,” recounted Kemal, his legs lifted onto a second chair and tucked under a blanket to stay warm.

He was surrounded by his three daughters and their children – several generations of displaced.

One daughter said she had clambered back into their apartment to get the medications to treat illnesses in his heart, back and blood. She told Reuters she kept thinking she was dying.

Koca Halil Budak – in his 80s – said he had survived an earthquake at age 8 and was lucky to have made it through his second, which struck when he was visiting his son in Adana.

“I tried to hold the cupboard, it was shaking… My son said ‘dad don’t be afraid,’ so we got dressed and went outside,” Budak said – also surrounded by his wife and their children.

Crowds chanted ‘God is great’ as White Helmet rescue workers pulled out earthquake survivors from the rubble in Idlib, Syria on Tuesday.

Aid officials voiced particular concern about the situation in Syria, already afflicted by a humanitarian crisis after nearly 12 years of civil war.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday the United States remained ‘focused’ on aid and relief efforts in Turkey following a deadly earthquake that killed thousands across a swathe of Turkey and neighbouring northwest Syria.

A day earlier, Blinken, the Biden administration’s top diplomat, spoke to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu by phone to aid in rescue and recovery operations.

Washington has deployed a Disaster Assistance Response Team and is in the process of deploying two urban search and rescue teams from Virginia and California that are expected to comprise 79 people each, the US Agency for International Development said.

USAID DART (Disaster Assistance Response Team) personnel boarded a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft headed for Turkey on Monday to help in the rescue efforts after a devastating earthquake hit Turkey and Syria.

Earlier Air Force members from the 436th Aerial Port Squadron helped to load bulks of supplies onto the US Air Force plane to aid operations after the worst earthquake to hit the region in almost a century.

USAID Administrator Samantha Power offered condolences to the people of Syria and Turkey and said the United States was “committed to supporting the recovery effort from this earthquake in an urgent manner.”

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Turkish leader declares emergency as Turkey-Syria quake death toll passes 6,300

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 08, 2023

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday declared a state of emergency in 10 provinces devastated by two earthquakes that killed more than 5,400 people and left a trail of destruction across a wide area of southern Turkey and neighbouring Syria.

A day after the quakes hit, rescuers working in harsh conditions struggled to dig people out of the rubble of collapsed buildings.

As the scale of the disaster became ever more apparent, the death toll looked likely to rise considerably. One United Nations official said it was feared thousands of children may have been killed.

And residents in several damaged Turkish cities voiced anger and despair at what they said was a slow and inadequate response from the authorities to the deadliest earthquake to hit Turkey since 1999.

“There is not even a single person here. We are under the snow, without a home, without anything,” said Murat Alinak, whose home in Malatya had collapsed and whose relatives are missing. “What shall I do, where can I go?”

Monday’s magnitude 7.8 quake, followed hours later by a second one almost as powerful, toppled thousands of buildings including hospitals, schools and apartment blocks.

Tens of thousands of people were injured or left homeless in cities in Turkey and northern Syria.

Winter weather has hampered rescue and relief efforts and made the plight of the homeless even more miserable. Some areas were without fuel and electricity.

Aid officials voiced particular concern about the situation in Syria, already afflicted by a humanitarian crisis after nearly 12 years of civil war.

Erdogan on Tuesday declared the 10 Turkish provinces affected as a disaster zone and imposed a state of emergency there for three months. This will permit the government to bypass parliament in enacting new laws and to limit or suspend rights and freedoms.

The government will open up hotels in the tourism hub of Antalya to temporarily house people impacted by the quakes, said Erdogan, who faces a national election in three months’ time.

The death toll in Turkey had risen to 4,544 people, Erdogan said. In Syria, the toll was at least 1,782, according to the government and a rescue service in the insurgent-held northwest of the country.

Turkish authorities say some 13.5 million people were affected in an area spanning roughly 450 km (280 miles) from Adana in the west to Diyarbakir in the east, and 300 km from Malatya in the north to Hatay in the south.

Syrian authorities have reported deaths as far south as Hama, some 250 km (155 miles) from the epicentre.

“It’s now a race against time,” World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva. “Every minute, every hour that passes, the chances of finding survivors alive diminishes.”

Across the region, rescuers toiled night and day as people waited in anguish by mounds of rubble clinging to the hope that friends, relatives and neighbours might be found alive

In Antakya, capital of Hatay province bordering Syria, rescue teams were thin on the ground and residents picked through debris themselves. People pleaded for helmets, hammers, iron rods and rope.

One woman, aged 54 and named Gulumser, was pulled alive from an eight-storey building 32 hours after the quake.

Another woman then shouted at the rescue workers: “My father was just behind that room she was in. Please save him.”

The workers explained they could not reach the room from the front and needed an excavator to remove the wall first.

Turkish authorities say more than 12,000 search and rescue personnel are working in the affected areas, along with 9,000 troops. Some 70 countries and sending personnel, equipment and aid.

But the sheer scale of the disaster is daunting.

“The area is enormous. I haven’t seen anything like this before,” said Johannes Gust, from Germany’s fire and rescue service, as he loaded equipment onto a truck at Turkey’s Adana airport.

Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said 5,775 buildings had been destroyed in the quake and that 20,426 people had been injured.

In Geneva, Unicef spokesperson James Elder said: “The earthquakes…may have killed thousands of children.”

Syrian refugees in northwest Syria and in Turkey were among the most vulnerable people affected, Elder said.

In the Syrian city of Hama, Abdallah al Dahan said funerals for several families were taking place on Tuesday.

“It’s a terrifying scene in every sense,” said Dahan, contacted by phone. “In my whole life I haven’t seen anything like this, despite everything that has happened to us.”

Mosques opened their doors to families whose homes were damaged.

Syrian state news agency SANA said at least 812 people were killed and 1,449 people injured in the government-held provinces of Aleppo, Latakia, Hama, Idlib and Tartous.

At least 900 people were killed in Syria’s opposition-held northwest and 2,300 injured with the toll expected to “rise dramatically”, the White Helmets rescue team said.

“There are lot of efforts by our teams, but they are unable to respond to the catastrophe and the large number of collapsed buildings,” group head Raed al-Saleh said.

Time was running out to save hundreds of families trapped under the rubble of buildings and urgent help is needed from international groups, he said.

A U.N. humanitarian official in Syria said fuel shortages and the harsh weather were creating obstacles.

“The infrastructure is damaged, the roads that we used to use for humanitarian work are damaged,” U.N. resident coordinator El-Mostafa Benlamlih told Reuters from Damascus.

At Turkey’s Iskenderun port, hundreds of shipping containers were ablaze, shutting down operations and forcing freight liners to divert vessels to other ports. The maritime authority said the fire was a result of earthquake damage.

In Turkey’s Malatya, where snow lay thick on the ground, people expressed their frustration at what they said was the lack of help as they searched for the missing.

With no specialist equipment or even gloves, they tried to pick through the wreckage of homes crumpled by the force of the earthquake.

“My in-laws’ grandchildren are there. We have been here for two days. We are devastated,” said Sabiha Alinak.

“Where is the state? We are begging them. Let us do it, we can rescue them. We can do it with our means.

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Japanese wearable beanbag lets you chill out anywhere, anytime

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 07, 2023

The Shinjuku Marui main department store in Tokyo has only just opened for the day, and there’s already a customer lying on the floor.

“It makes you a little heavy around the middle, but it’s good fun,” Japanese tea house designer, Ryuji Baba, says, patting the wearable beanbag he’s trying on at a pop-up booth inside the department store.

While the beanbag‘s onion-shaped goofy style made it a hit on Japanese social media earlier this month, the main goal was relaxation, according to Shogo Takikawa, a representative of the beanbag’s manufacturer, Takikou Sewing.

“This concept was born out of the idea of a cushion that would allow you to totally let go, any time, anywhere. You can put this on and chill out in your living room, or loads of other places, that’s why we created it,” Takikawa said.

The wearable beanbag comes in three sizes – one for children, a medium and a large, which sells for about 15,800 yen (120 USD).

While the Covid-19 pandemic drove many in Japan to spend more time at home, the company says the pandemic was not the spark behind the concept of a wearable beanbag. Instead, the idea came about almost by accident, after a prototype version became popular among staff at a company event.

“It wasn’t made specifically for this purpose, but of course, during the Covid pandemic there was this kind of nesting (behaviour), people spending a lot more time at home, and so we had the idea to make this time spent at home a little more fun and relaxing,” Takikawa said.

Yuu Matsuzaki, a product buyer for the Marui department store, said the wearable beanbag could prove a seasonal hit in Japan, where many homes typically lack central heating.

“It was lighter than I thought, but it’s warm,” she said while sitting on top of the beanbag. “I think in winter you’d feel pretty toasty after putting this on.”

Reuters

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Thailand ranked 10th most powerful nation in Asia despite falling score

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 07, 2023

Thailand remains the 10th most powerful nation in Asia, according to the 2023 Asia Power Index published by Australia’s Lowy Institute on Sunday.

The Land of Smiles retained its position in the index despite falling 0.4 points from last year.

“Thailand’s strongest measure is economic relationships, where it places seventh, the result of its integration into regional supply chains and strong investment relationships with Asia Power Index countries,” said the institute.

Thailand’s lowest rankings are for military capability and future resources, where it places 14th in both categories.

Lowy also said Thailand improved most in the future resources and diplomatic influence categories. However, in cultural influence, traditionally the country’s strongest category, Thailand dropped two places to eighth due to declining tourism during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The United States and China are still the most powerful nations on the Asian continent, scoring 80.7 and 72.5 out of 100, respectively, putting them in the superpowers category (70+).

Middle-power nations in Asia are led by Japan (37.2), followed by India, Russia, Australia, South Korea, and Singapore, which scored 25.1.

A score over 10 denotes middle powers, which also include Indonesia (19.4), Thailand (18.7), and Malaysia (18.0).

The Asia Power Index scores 26 countries’ comprehensive power using a weighted average across eight thematic measures: Economic capability, military capability, resilience, future resources, economic relationships, defence networks, diplomatic influence and cultural influence.

Source: https://power.lowyinstitute.org/

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Top HK court makes ruling protecting transgender rights

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 07, 2023

Hong Kong’s top court on Monday ruled that the policy of barring transgender people from changing their gender shown on ID cards unless they undergo full sex reassignment surgery violates their rights and is unconstitutional.

The Court of Final Appeal unanimously sided with appeals launched by transgender activists Henry Tse and another appellant identified as “Q” and quashed the Commissioner of Registration’s decision to refuse their applications to change their gender on their Hong Kong Identity Cards.

“The policy’s consequence is to place persons like the appellants in the dilemma of having to choose whether to suffer regular violations of their privacy rights or to undergo highly invasive and medically unnecessary surgery, infringing their right to bodily integrity,” the judges wrote in their judgment.

“Clearly this does not reflect a reasonable balance. The policy imposes an unacceptably harsh burden on the individuals concerned.”

Both Tse and Q underwent lengthy medical and surgical treatments, including hormonal treatment and removal of breasts, but the registrar still required them to conduct a full sex reassignment surgery, which the pair argued was unnecessary, unwanted and highly invasive.

Tse welcomed the judgment as it would solve the “burning issues” he encountered due to possessing a wrong ID and he called for a gender recognition law.

“Today’s result is delayed justice, a Pyrrhic victory. This very case should never have happened,” Tse said in a statement.

“I will continue to work hard to plant the seeds for the transgender rights movement with my partners at Transgender Equality Hong Kong. I believe that one day, we shall succeed and welcome the rainbow with open arms.”

China Daily

Asia News Network

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 07, 2023

Thailand set the record for world’s largest Muay Thai ceremony

A meeting of 3,660 boxers performed a mass Muay Thai ceremony in Prachuap Khiri Khan on Monday (February 6), beating the Guinness World Record for the largest ‘Wai Kru,’ a pre-fight dance showing respect to teachers, parents, and ancestors.

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Tokyo’s Railway Operators removing trash cans at stations

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 07, 2023

Trash cans have been disappearing from train stations as railway operators have grown weary of passengers’ bad manners such as disposing of household garbage at stations.

Railroad companies were often required to seal off or remove trash cans for security reasons such as counterterrorism measures in the past, but now dustbins are being removed for sanitary reasons such as used masks being thrown away at stations amid the pandemic.

Of the 11 major railway operators in the Tokyo metropolitan area, only East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) has trash cans at stations.

Seibu Railway Co. removed all trash cans from stations in March 2021. A sign on the platform at Seibu-Shinjuku Stations states: “Take your trash home with you.”

Beverage makers place recycling bins next to vending machines to collect plastic bottles, cans and glass bottles. However, there is nowhere to dispose of tissues and other trash.

From April to June 2020, following a state of emergency declaration due to the spread of the coronavirus, Seibu Railway temporarily sealed off trash cans to mitigate the spread of infection via garbage. After the declaration was lifted, the company made trash cans available again but began to often see cases in which used masks were discarded in dustbins.

Seibu Railway for a long time had trouble related to passengers’ bad manners regarding the use of trash cans, so the company decided to remove dustbins from all stations.

According to a Seibu Railway official, some complaints were initially made as to why only Seibu did not have trash cans at stations, but now there are almost none.

“We’ve gained a certain level of understanding,” the official said.

Customers’ reactions are divided.

“As long as safety measures are necessary and bad manners continue, it can’t be helped,” said a 48-year-old woman from Higashi-Murayama, Tokyo, who uses Seibu-Shinjuku Station.

A 78-year-old man from the same city said: “When I buy and eat food at the station, I can’t throw away the garbage. I want [them] to be installed again.”

Safety issue

Among the railway operators in the Tokyo area, Tokyu, Keikyu and Keio corporations were the first to have no dustbins at their stations.

After the 2004 Madrid train bombings terrorist attack, most Japanese railroad companies removed trash cans from stations as a safety measure. Many later reinstalled them due to requests from passengers, but some did not and continue to have none at stations.

The companies that had returned trash cans began to be bothered by bad manners, such as the disposing of garbage without sorting it as specified, which has become more common amid recent strict requirements for the sorting of household and other waste.

Some people threw out household garbage at stations, including food scraps and trash that is difficult to dispose of at home. There was even a case in which a hypodermic needle was found.

“It became a safety issue for cleaning contractors, too” said a Tobu Railway Co. official.

Against this backdrop, the coronavirus pandemic broke out, and seven railway companies began eliminating station trash cans from 2020 onward.

JR East still has garbage cans at stations because it has huge terminals such as Tokyo Station, where a variety of items, including boxed lunches and souvenirs, are sold to many long-distance travellers.

The company has removed some trash bins mainly on conventional-line platforms but is keeping them on platforms where Shinkansen bullet trains and limited express trains stop because many passengers throw out trash such as bento boxes there.

“Many stores operate at stations, so we don’t plan to remove all trash cans,” said an official at the JR East Metropolitan Area Headquarters.

However, JR East also suffers from passengers’ bad manners. Late last year, the company began a pilot program at Tokyo Station and two other stations to call the trash cans “recycling stations” and ask customers to sort their trash into five different types, up from three.

“By promoting recycling, we hope to raise customers’ awareness about waste,” said a JR East official.

The Japan Times

Asia News Network

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First virtual student ‘enrols’ at Tsinghua University

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 07, 2023

Hua Zhibing, China’s first virtual student enabled by the country’s largest pre-trained model, made its debut on Tuesday.

With the move, Hua officially became a student in the Department of Computer Science and Technology at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Hua, a “woman”, is able to compose poetry and music and has some ability in reasoning and emotional interaction.

The virtual student was co-developed by the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence, Zhipu AI and a company, Xiaoice. It is powered by the second generation of WuDao, a pre-trained model.

“Compared with other common pre-trained models like GPT-3, WuDao is a multimodal model, which can understand and generate pictures and other content formats,” said Tang Jie, deputy dean of academic affairs at the academy and a Tsinghua University professor.

GPT-3 is English-centered, while WuDao is multilingual, including in both English and Chinese. In the future, more languages will be added, Tang said.

“WuDao is also more open than GPT-3 and many other pre-trained models. The training data, programming codes and model APIs are all open to the public,” he added.

Tang pointed out that the potential of such models is huge, as many real scenarios can use the same model with more general large pre-trained models.

“The key significance of WuDao is that it lowers the application threshold of AI and reduces the cost of the training process of machine learning models, including labour costs and carbon emissions,” he said.

China Daily

Asia News Network

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No Thais reported killed in Turkey-Syria quakes as death toll soars over 4,300

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 07, 2023

So far, no Thais have been reported injured or killed in the huge earthquakes that hit central Turkey and northwest Syria on Monday, according to the Foreign Ministry.

The epicentre of the magnitude 7.8 quake early on Monday was Karamanmaras province near the Turkey-Syria border, about 600 kilometres east of the Turkish capital Ankara, said Ministry spokeswoman Kanchana Patarachoke on Monday evening.

The quake was also felt around the Mediterranean rim in Cyprus and Lebanon. It was followed in the early afternoon by another large, magnitude 7.7 earthquake centred on Turkey’s Gaziantep province, which was also felt in Diyarbakir in southeast Turkey.

The death toll surpassed 4,300 as of 9am Thai time on Tuesday, with Turkish authorities reporting 2,921 fatalities and Syria recording 1,444, bringing the total to 4,365. However, the toll is expected to rise significantly as search and rescue teams examine collapsed buildings.

Kanchana said the Foreign Ministry expressed its condolences to the government and people of Turkey. She added that the ministry is ready to assist Thais in Turkey via the Royal Thai Embassy in Ankara.

Kanchana said the earthquake’s epicentre is some distance from Thai communities living in Istanbul and Ankara. Only a small number of Thais live in Gaziantep where the second quake hit, she said.

Thais affected by the earthquake can reach the embassy in Ankara by phoning +90 (533) 641 5698, available 24/7. People can also visit the official embassy page at facebook.com/rteankara/ for updates on the incident.

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Ohio carries out controlled release of chemicals at train derailment site

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 07, 2023

Crews in eastern Ohio conducted operations on Monday to drain and burn off an “unstable” toxic chemical cargo from five rail cars of a freight train that derailed in a fiery wreck three days earlier, prompting mass evacuations, authorities said.

The “controlled release” of pressurized vinyl chloride, a highly flammable and carcinogenic gas, began with a scheduled explosion, followed by continuous burning of the substance, said Sandy Mackey, a spokesperson for the Ohio Emergency Management Agency.

No injuries were reported, Mackey added.

Live video footage shot by ABC affiliate WYTV showed a towering column of thick, black smoke rising from the accident site in East Palestine, Ohio, a town close to the Pennsylvania border northwest of Pittsburgh.

The train, operated by Norfolk Southern Railroad, derailed late on Friday (February 3), setting off a massive fire that forced the evacuation of homes in the immediate vicinity.

Public safety concerns deepened after the railroad said pressure-relief devices on some of the stricken cars were found on Sunday (February 5) to have stopped working, which the company said could “result in a catastrophic failure.”

Vinyl chloride is a colourless, industrially produced gas that burns easily and is used primarily in the manufacture of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe and other products, according to the National Cancer Institute. It also is a byproduct of cigarette smoke.

The precise means by which crews vented the toxic gas was not explained. But the railroad said its workers had prepared drainage pits and embankments, apparently to contain residue from the release. It said state environmental officials would monitor air quality.

The company said in a short statement nearly two hours after the operation began that the “controlled breach of several rail cars has been completed successfully.”

Reuters