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Torrential rain causes flooding and landslides in Japan

Torrential rain causes flooding and landslides in Japan

0 Comment Weather, World , , , , ,

28 Photos

Two days of torrential rain caused flooding and landslides across much of Japan this week. The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said three people died, including a woman in her 60s who was found after a landslide hit houses in Kanuma city, and a woman in her 40s who was in a car that washed away in Kurihara city. A man in his 20s died after falling into a drainage ditch in Nikko city.

Some 190 miles north of Joso, another river overflowed into the city of Osaki on Friday morning, swamping homes and fields and stranding at least 60 people, according to media reports.

But the hardest-hit place appeared to be Joso, 30 miles northeast of Tokyo. The fast-rising waters in the city of 60,000 people led to a series of dramatic rescues by helicopters on Thursday.

Police and other emergency workers fanned out the next morning to search for the missing, while helicopters and boats brought in more of the stranded. More than 280 people have been airlifted out since the serious flooding began.

City officials said 22 people were missing after they had lost contact with them following requests for rescue. Three others were injured, one seriously. More than 3,500 people were staying in schools, community centers and other buildings converted to evacuation centers.

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Fishing in New Bedford: 3 centuries and still going strong

Fishing in New Bedford: 3 centuries and still going strong

0 Comment Nation , , ,

15 Photos

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) — For three centuries, fishing has been a way of life in New Bedford — and it’s still going strong.

In its heyday in the mid-1800s, the city was the undisputed hub of the global whaling industry. Scholars say more ships sailed out of New Bedford alone than every other American port combined.

Grand homes overlooking the harbor still stand as testimony to the fortunes amassed by the sea captains of yesteryear. Their rooftop widow’s walks underscore the dangers faced in earning that wealth.

Commercial fishing isn’t nearly as lucrative now as it was then, and whales certainly are no longer part of the equation. But it’s still a viable industry, and New Bedford’s piers are alive with the sights, sounds and smells of the trade.

When they’re not hauling in squid, red crabs, herring and halibut, fishermen tinker with the sputtering engines on their trawlers and mend their huge nets — just as their forerunners did.

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Then and now: New Orleans 10 years after Hurricane Katrina

Then and now: New Orleans 10 years after Hurricane Katrina

0 Comment Nation ,

20 Photos

When Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf Coast nearly 10 years ago, it left a mammoth trail of damage in its wake.

Storm surge and winds ripped the top off a church steeple in Mississippi, left a tangle of fishing boats sitting in the middle of a Louisiana highway, and ripped holes into the New Orleans Superdome’s roof.

Flooding caused by breached levees in New Orleans stranded tens of thousands of people in horrific conditions at the football stadium and convention center, flooded houses in Lakeview to the eaves and left a parking lot full of waterlogged school buses.

This is a collection of photos by Associated Press photographers of many of those locations showing how they looked in the days after the storm and how they look now.
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Egypt’s Banned Ultras Soccer Fans Take to Streets

Egypt’s Banned Ultras Soccer Fans Take to Streets

0 Comment Sports, World , , ,

22 Photos

CAIRO — Chanting slogans, carrying signs and waving flares, these eager young men who gather in Egypt could be mistaken for Arab Spring demonstrators.

And in this country, the recently-banned hardcore soccer fans known as ultras have played a political role.

Ultras, whose name comes from the Latin word for “beyond,” started in Latin America and Europe in the 1950s before coming to Arab countries. The first to form in Egypt, Ultras White Knights, emerged in 2007 to support the Zamalek team. Groups backing archrival al-Ahly and others followed.

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From the Vault: Japan publicly surrenders, ending WWII

From the Vault: Japan publicly surrenders, ending WWII

0 Comment The Baltimore Sun , ,

11 Photos

We interrupt this broadcast for a special bulletin …”

This was what a war-weary world had been waiting for ever since Japanese aircraft appeared over Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, launching the attack that brought the nation into World War II.

In the wake of the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August, Japan’s military leaders vowed to continue fighting on while the country’s six-member Supreme Council debated surrendering.

It was Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki who finally took the surrender issue to Emperor Hirohito, who declared that “continuing the war means destruction for the nation and a prolongation of bloodshed and cruelty in the world. …. We must bear the unbearable. I swallow my tears and give my sanction to the proposal to accept the Allied proclamation.”

The Japanese emperor announced on radio on Aug. 14, 1945, that his country would accept the surrender terms.

Excerpt from Baltimore Sun article published on August 13, 2005 by Fred Rasmussen

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Nationwide remembrances of Ferguson, one year later

Nationwide remembrances of Ferguson, one year later

0 Comment Nation , ,

35 Photos

A year ago, Ferguson, Missouri, was a mostly quiet working-class suburban town. The uneasy relationship between its growing black population and its mostly white police force barely registered in local headlines.

Everything changed on Aug. 9, 2014, when a white police officer named Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old. The street confrontation on that sultry day launched the “Black Lives Matter” movement.

A year later, communities around the country remember Michael Brown and call for reform. Read more about how Ferguson has changed.
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Taiwan braces for the arrival of Typhoon Soudelor

Taiwan braces for the arrival of Typhoon Soudelor

0 Comment Weather, World , ,

16 Photos

Taiwanese businesses and schools were closing early Friday as Typhoon Soudelor moved slowly westward toward the island, bringing heavy rain and winds.

As of 1:15 p.m. local time, the storm – among the strongest to form in the Pacific so far this year – was situated due east of the island and was moving about 13 miles per hour, Taiwan’s central weather bureau said. It was expected to make landfall early Saturday local time, sweep across the island, and then continue on toward mainland China.

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