Cyclone, hurricane, typhoon: different names, same phenomenon — TalkVietnam

They may have different names according to the region they hit, but typhoons, hurricanes and cyclones are all violent tropical storms that can generate 10 times as much energy as the Hiroshima atomic bomb.

The typhoon that devastated the Philippines, wiping out entire towns with a death toll that could soar well over 10,000, is the Asian term for a low-pressure system that is called a hurricane in the Atlantic and northeast Pacific and a cyclone in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean.
But meteorologists use the term “tropical cyclone” when talking generally about these immensely powerful natural phenomena, which are divided into five categories according to the maximum sustained wind force and the scale of the potential damage they can inflict.
Super Typhoon Haiyan, which is now heading towards Vietnam, was a category 5 typhoon – the highest level – when it hit the Philippines, with maximum sustained winds estimated at 315 kilometres (196 miles) an hour, and gusts reaching 380 kilometres an hour, according to Japan’s meteorological agency.
The winds are reported to be the strongest ever measured, and Haiyan could wrest the title of most powerful cyclone on record from Super Typhoon Tip, which ravaged Japan in 1979.
The Philippines endures a seemingly never-ending onslaught of deadly typhoons, earthquakes, volcano eruptions and other natural disasters.
Every year, some 20 super storms or typhoons hit the country, of the 80 or so that develop above tropical waters annually.
Cyclones are formed from simple thunderstorms at certain times of the year when the sea temperature is more than 26 degrees Celsius (79 Fahrenheit) down to a depth of 60 metres (200 feet).
Sucking up vast quantities of water, they often produce torrential rains and flooding resulting in major loss of life and property damage.
They also trigger large swells that move faster than the cyclone and are sometimes spotted up to 1,000 kilometres ahead of the powerful storm. The sea level can rise several metres.
These powerful weather formations can measure between 500 and 1,000 kilometres in diameter and have a relatively calm “eye” at the centre.
They weaken rapidly when they travel over land or colder ocean waters.
Cyclones are closely monitored by satellites, and specialised centres around the world – in Miami, Tokyo, Honolulu and New Delhi – track the super storms’ trajectories under the coordination of the World Meteorological Organisation.




Cyclone, hurricane, typhoon: different names, same phenomenon — TalkVietnam

Another Indonesian maid falls to her death in S'pore, 8th case this year | The Jakarta Post

Another Indonesian maid falls to her death in S'pore, 8th case this year

Cherie Thio, Asia News Network (The Straits Times), Singapore | Sat, 04/28/2012 2:44 PM

A | A | A |

Sudden death: An Indonesian maid's body lies at the foot of a Woodlands apartment building in Singapore on Thursday. She fell from the ninth floor. (The Straits Times/Shin Min/Asia News Network)An Indonesian maid fell to her death from the ninth floor of a Woodlands flat on Thursday, apparently while cleaning windows.
This is the eighth incident of a maid meeting such a fate this year. Last year, four maids died this way.
The latest incident happened at about 6:20 p.m. at Block 801 Woodlands Street 81. A stool and cleaning materials were believed to have been found next to the window that the 25-year-old fell from.
A first-floor resident, who said he heard a loud thump, looked out of the window and saw the victim lying on a grass patch. "She hit the roof of the small balcony attached to my flat first before falling onto the grass," said the 18-year-old, who did not want to be named.
"The sound was so loud, I thought a car accident had happened," added the student.
According to him, the two children of the maid's employers were also at the scene and looked very shocked.
Neighbors said the maid had been working for four to five months for a family of four. The couple have a son in secondary school and a daughter in primary school. Neighbors described the victim as small-built and quiet.
According to Chinese-language newspaper Shin Min Daily, only the children were at home when the incident happened.
On Friday, the parents declined to be interviewed when The Straits Times visited their flat.
In the past five years, 24 maids have fallen to their deaths while working. Some 14 employers have been fined for putting their maids in the way of danger.
Contacted on Friday, Halimah Yacob, Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports, emphasized that safety precautions have to be taken. “Employers should look at alternative ways to hang the clothes or clean the windows if it's too dangerous,” said Halimah, who has spoken out several times before about the welfare of maids.
On Tuesday, The Straits Times reported that migrant worker group Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics had started a petition to ban maids from cleaning the outside of windows.
When contacted, the Manpower Ministry said it is “gravely concerned” about the recent spate of accidents involving maids. “We will also continue to explore what more can be done with our relevant stakeholders to prevent such unnecessary deaths,” said a spokesman.
Police are investigating Thursday's incident as an unnatural death.

Vietnam’s most famous female DJ passes away at 30 | Look At Vietnam

Vietnam’s most famous female DJ passes away at 30

March 27, 2012

LookAtVietnam – DJ Bo, the beautiful “magician of sound”, died at 7am, March 25. She was only 30.

DJ Bo’s real name is My Quyen. She is among the most famous females in Vietnam at present.
According to DJ Phat, who taught My Quyen for seven years, My Quyen had a serious cough but she did not see doctor. She went to the northern port city of Hai Phong to perform, without taking warm clothes with her. Her cough got more seriously and she had to take tranquillizers to be able to sleep.

My Quyen was in a coma when she was hospitalized at a clinic in Hai Phong. Doctors said that she got acute pneumonia. As the disease developed rapidly, doctor could not quickly send her to Hanoi for treatment. The DJ passed away at 7am, March 25. Her body was transported to HCM City on March 26. She will be incinerated on March 27.
My Quyen worked as a DJ for 12 years. She won the first prize at the Seeking Vietnam’s Talented DJs and the second award at the Seeking Asian Talented DJs. She was praised as a DJ who performed fresh, creative music which could connect the crowd.

My Quyen and her daughter.

My Quyen was not only complimented for her talent but also for her beauty, her transparent eyes and sweet voice.
She has a 3-year-old daughter named Yuna with DJ Hoang Anh, who used to be the top DJ of Vietnam. They are separated for a period of time and Yuna now lives with her father.
My Quyen’s parents are in the US so her funeral will be organized by her friends.

Thu Hang

Execution-Shooting or Poison

Death sentences to be executed by poison

June 14, 2011 about Community, News

LookAtVietnam - The Law on Execution of Criminal Sentences will take effect as of July 1, 2011, under which death sentences will be executed by poison, instead of shooting.
The law was approved by the 12th National Assembly. One of the most notable points in the new law is changing the form of execution of death sentences. Instead of shooting, death-sentence criminals will be executed by poison injection.
This form of death sentence execution is said to be more advantageous than shooting because families of death-sentence criminals can take the bodies.
The new law is also praised to have specific regulations on rewards and punishments for prisoners who perform well or violate regulations at prisons.
The Ministry of Public Security has organized training courses on the implementation of the Law on Execution of Criminal Sentences.

PV

Vietnam typhoon claims livelihoods as well as lives

HANOI, Vietnam (AFP) – Flooded rice fields, dead cattle and smashed fishing boats will mean economic hardship for Vietnam's typhoon survivors long after they clean the mud from their houses, aid workers say.

Typhoon Ketsana, one of the worst disasters to strike Vietnam in years, claimed the lives of 162 people and has also taken away the livelihoods of many more.

"The harvest for this season is probably lost," said Ugo Blanco, who is coordinating disaster response for the United Nations.

Less than one week after the typhoon affected 14 provinces last Tuesday, aid agencies are still in the emergency phase where the priority is distributing fresh water, food, and basic household supplies including blankets and mosquito nets. Related article: Asian armies to the rescue

But Blanco says there is also a need to start thinking about the medium and longer-term impact of the disaster and how to help people in this largely rural country get back to work.

Ketsana caused devastation across Southeast Asia, killing at least 293 people in the Philippines before striking Vietnam. It also claimed 17 lives in Cambodia and 24 in Laos.

Vietnam is the world's second-largest rice exporter but initial government estimates say more than 30,000 hectares (74,000 acres) of paddy have been flooded or damaged. About half of that loss came in one province, Binh Dinh.

Almost 60,000 hectares of other crops were also damaged.

Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue provinces suffered the heaviest livestock losses, of almost 150,000 poultry, about 1,600 cows and buffalo, and 2,800 pigs, the government report said.

The storm also damaged more than 500 boats and ships, mostly in the fishing province of Quang Ngai, it said.

About 2,300 hectares of aquaculture areas were inundated, but for Pham Chau and other seafood producers the extent of the losses is still unclear.

"We will only know really how much we lost in terms of fish and shrimp in the next few days," said Chau, 47, of Tong Chanh village in Thua Thien-Hue.

For the moment, he knows that big waves during the storm damaged about half the enclosure where he raises the sea creatures.

Chau was busy trying to fix a damaged net. Others had been swept away and he expects "considerable" losses.

His wife usually sells the fish he produces at the market but since the storm damaged his enclosure they have not sold anything, forcing them to live off their savings, he said.

"I don't have much in my savings now," said Chau, who invested 50 million dong (2,800 dollars) in his business, partly through a bank loan that is not paid off and prevents his getting more help from the bank.

He said he might have to turn to loan sharks to rebuild his business.

For the most vulnerable, the Red Cross aims to help 21,000 obtain a viable source of income by early next year.

That initiative is among the aims of an international appeal for 4.75 million dollars launched by the Red Cross on Friday.

It could include the supply of fertiliser to two or three provinces, said Doan Van Thai, secretary general of the Vietnam Red Cross Society.

State-run Vietnam News on Saturday said the government planned to give 460 billion dong -- about 25.6 million dollars -- to affected areas, partly to buy seedlings to restart production but also for rebuilding, disease control and other measures.

Local governments in the typhoon-hit central region have asked Hanoi for far more. They want close to 40 million dollars as well as 600 tonnes of rice seed, 20 tonnes of vegetable seed and 30 tonnes of maize seed.

Blanco said the UN had sent people to the disaster zone to try to assess the need for livelihood recovery assistance.

"Probably this will be one of the main sectors which the international community will try to support," he said.
Related Searches:

* rice fields
* binh dinh
* vietnam

Death Toll Rises in Pacific Islands, Families Cope with Losses from Tsunami

Filifaiesea Vailolo carries suitcase through debris left in wake of the tsunami in the town of Pago Pago in American Samoa, 02 Oct 2009
Filifaiesea Vailolo carries suitcase through debris left in wake of the tsunami in the town of Pago Pago in American Samoa, 02 Oct 2009
Relief efforts are continuing in the Pacific islands of Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga, where the death toll is approaching 200 from Tuesday's earthquake and tsunami. Seaside communities are burying their dead and coming to grips with their losses.

The people of American Samoa are starting to clean up as they cope with their vivid memories. Mormon Church official Stu Uiagalelei was teaching a children's class when the earthquake struck.

"It was one of the mornings I'll never forget," he said.

Uiagalelei and his students fled to higher ground as the tsunami overturned cars and buses and sent a yacht skimming over a football field. A yacht lies wedged in front of his church. He says he watched people die, and rescued a Korean immigrant, but later discovered that bodies had washed up behind his church.

"As soon as we got up there, that's when the tsunami came. I was out there watching the whole thing passing by my eyes," he recalled.

In some hard-hit coastal regions, whole families were killed by the crushing tsunami. Juliette Foster knew one family - a shopkeeper, his wife and children. All of them, she thinks, were killed in the tsunami.

She says every family has a story.

"I lost my aunt down on the other end of the island. They found her the same day, but we're still looking for my 12-year-old niece. We haven't found her yet, and I'm hoping we will soon," she said.

Sales clerk Tamuli Farami escaped with her eight children, but says the losses in these islands touch everyone.

"Some are relatives. Some are friends and neighbors. Some people they found in the road, and also in the streams, some on the side of the stores, so I feel sorry for those people," said Farami.

Rescue and recovery workers have come from around the world, and in American Samoa, people like Ben Raju of the U.S. Small Business Administration are preparing to make low-interest loans to homeowners, renters and business people.

"When the long-term recovery aspect of it is reached, that's when individuals will be focusing on long-term recovery such as rebuilding and re-establishing themselves to the way that they were prior to the disaster," he said.

Juliette Foster assesses the damage to her truck and home, as she tries to comfort her children.

""They're always asking me every night, mommy, are we going to die? Is it going to come again? Is this the end of the world?" she asked.

Commerce and everyday life are slowly getting back to normal on these peaceful Pacific islands, but people say the wounds will take time to heal.

Hundred die in Indonesia quake

Hundred die in Indonesia quake

A POWERFUL earthquake has rocked western Indonesia, killing 100-200 people and trapping thousands under collapsed buildings – including two hospitals – and triggering landslides.
The death toll is expected to climb sharply after the magnitude 7.6 quake struck at 5:15pm local time yesterday, just off the coast of Padang city on the island of Sumatra.

When the quake struck, the ground was shaking so hard that people had to sit down in the streets to avoid falling over. Children screamed as residents tried to put out fires started in the quake. Thousands fled the coast, fearing a tsunami.

It came a day after a quake in the South Pacific hurled a massive tsunami at the shores of Samoa and American Samoa.

The epicentre of the earthquake off Indonesia was several thousand miles to the west. A tsunami warning for countries around the Indian Ocean was issued, and panicked residents fled to higher ground fearing giant waves. The warning was lifted about an hour later.

Initial reports said 75 people died, but the real number is "definitely higher than that", vice-president Jusuf Kalla said in the capital, Jakarta. "It's hard to tell because there is heavy rain and a blackout." The figure soon hit at least 100 confirmed dead.

Rustam Pakaya, head of the health ministry's crisis centre, said: "Thousands of people are trapped under the collapsed houses." A field hospital was being readied and medical teams were on their way from neighbouring provinces. An official at the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency in Jakarta said: "Many buildings are badly damaged, including hotels and mosques."

Footage from Padang showed flattened buildings, one with a foot sticking out from beneath the debris.

"The earthquake was very strong," said Kasmiati, who lives on the coast near to the epicentre. "People ran to high ground. Houses and buildings were badly damaged. I was outside, so I am safe, but my children at home were injured…" At that point, her mobile phone went dead. Reports said landslides had cut all roads to Padang. Power was also hit.

"I want to know what happened to my sister and her husband," said Fitra Jaya, who owns a house in Padang and was in Jakarta when the quake struck. "I tried to call my family there, but I could not reach anyone at all."

• A 6.3 quake struck in southeastern Peru last night, near Bolivia's capital of La Paz, the US Geological Survey reported. It said the quake, fairly deep at 160.3 miles, occurred about 100 miles north-west of La Paz. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

ECHOES OF BOXING DAY 2004

YESTERDAY'S earthquake was along the same fault line that produced the massive 2004 Asian tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

Here, the India plate, which is drifting northwards at a rate of 6cm per year, slides under the Burma plate, creating a fault line where compressed energy builds up.

On 26 December 2004, the sudden release of this energy ripped open the ocean floor for 1,600km northwards from near Aceh, the northernmost province of Sumatra.

The ensuing earthquake, reaching a magnitude of 9.1 to 9.3 and lasting for eight to ten minutes, was one of the largest ever recorded.

Indonesia's health minister, Siti Fadilah Supari, told MetroTV that yesterday's earthquake caused a mall and two hospitals to collapse in Padang, a low-lying city in Western Sumatra with a population of about 900,000. Geologists had earlier warned that the city was vulnerable.

"This is a high-scale disaster, more powerful than the earthquake in Yogyakarta in 2006 when more than 3,000 died," the minister said, referring to a major city on the main island of Java.

Padang has been badly hit before, by an 8.4 magnitude quake in September 2007, when dozens of people died and several large buildings collapsed.


The full article contains 657 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.

Gone Too Soon Michael Jackson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=101iXwPTNE0

Vietnam to execute two Taiwanese heroin traffickers

Hanoi (dpa) - A court in southern Vietnam sentenced two Taiwanese men to death for their involvement in an international heroin trafficking ring, local media reported Friday.
The People's Court of An Giang province, 190 kilometres south-west of Ho Chi Minh City, handed death sentences to Wei Chun Lung and Lee Chih Wen at a two-day trial that ended Thursday, the People's Police newspaper said.
The court also sentenced two Vietnamese accomplices, Phan Thi Cam Tu and Huynh Thi Anh, to 20 and 18 years in prison.
According to the court's indictment, the ring was uncovered on May 20, 2007 when Anh was arrested en route from Cambodia to Ho Chi Minh City with 1.2 kilograms of heroin in her luggage.
The province's anti-narcotics force later arrested other members and found more heroin at the Ho Chi Minh City hotel room of ring leader Lee, People's Police said.
The group confessed to having brought 2.5 kilograms of heroin from Cambodia into Vietnam. They said the heroin was then illegally transported to Taiwan.
Trafficking or transporting 600 grams or more of heroin is punishable by death in Vietnam.
The communist country has sentenced at least 27 people to death this year, including 13 death sentences for drug crimes. Three of the death sentences were handed to foreigners.
In March, a court in Ho Chi Minh City sentenced an Australian woman of Vietnamese origin to death for smuggling heroin. Jasmine Luong, 34, was arrested in February last year when she was trying to bring 1.4 kilograms of heroin to Sydney.

A disaster in the making

Once again we find ourselves living in the shadow of calamity. In 2004 it was the tsunami; in 2008 a devastating cyclone in Burma and horrific earthquake in China. This time many thousands of people have died but our country has been spared. Besides making every effort to help the survivors, this is an opportune time to ask ourselves how we would have fared in similar circumstances. Just how prepared are we?
The answer is not reassuring. While fate dictates the nature of the threat, we can only judge ourselves by our preparation and response. That is where the sizable investment made in creating the National Disaster Warning Centre in the wake of the tsunami and putting one of our best and most experienced minds in charge of it should have paid off. Post-tsunami strategy dictated that this Centre should always be at a high state of readiness and constantly monitoring our alert status.
Shamefully, this has not happened. Instead, the Centre has itself become a disaster area, falling victim to shifting political winds. According to prime ministerial adviser Plodprasop Suraswadi, it has been stripped of budgetary funding and left with no decision-makers or manpower. Even the buoy deployed in the Indian Ocean amid great fanfare as a key part of the early warning system no longer works, and what remains of the National Disaster Warning Centre apparently has no authority to get it fixed.
This wretched state of affairs is why the country's foremost expert on disaster preparedness, Smith Dharmasarojana, who foresaw the 2004 tsunami and was ignored and later rehabilitated, tendered his resignation as the Centre's director. He detected a waning of interest as memories of the tsunami faded and businesses and tourist facilities along the southern coast lost interest in joining a network warning system to which they might actually have to contribute money.
Beyond that, Mr Smith felt that without a proper nationwide 24/7 warning system, many provinces would suffer an unacceptably high number of human casualties from any natural disaster - unacceptable because they could be minimised or avoided altogether. He was also dispirited by the lack of government funding and negligible support which followed the decision by the Surayud Chulanont administration to downgrade the Centre and place it under the Meteorological Department. This loss of independence has jeopardised the installation of warning devices in disaster-prone areas.
Disaster planning can save countless lives but this means having a well thought-out action plan and equipment ready in place at all times. It cannot be an afterthought. A bid to sort this mess out has reached Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej's in-tray and should now be put on the cabinet agenda.
The tragedies which have befallen Burma and China have begun to serve as a catalyst to get our emergency preparedness operations back on track. Bangkok Governor Apirak Kosayodhin has summoned more than 3,000 owners of high-rise buildings to a meeting on measures to prepare for earthquakes. Inspections will follow, although few of Bangkok's buildings were constructed to withstand the intensity of the Sichuan quake.
We have a national trait of rising quickly to the occasion when disaster strikes. Not for us the malign neglect that characterised Burma's response to Cyclone Nargis. Clearly, though, our rescue services need all the help they can get and that means as much advance warning as possible. We cannot ditch the warning centre as an economy measure or because of squabbles over political turf. Too many lives are at stake.