More than 100 dead as powerful quake rocks Afghanistan, Pakistan, India

More than 100 people were reported killed Monday when a powerful earthquake centered in northeast Afghanistan triggered landslides, building collapses, stampedes and panic from Central Asia to India.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported the earthquake had a magnitude of 7.5 and was centered in the Hindu Kush mountains, 158 miles north-northeast of Kabul.

The epicenter was near the Jarm district in the remote northeastern province of Badakhshan, one of Afghanistan’s most inaccessible regions, where a massive landslide last May killed hundreds of people.

The Pakistani military said 123 people were killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and nearly 1,000 injured. Landslides blocked the high-altitude Karakoram Highway, which connects China and Pakistan, in several places and military teams were busy trying to open the road, said Maj. Gen. Asim Bajwa, the Pakistani army spokesman.

Pakistani quick-reaction units had reached some of the hardest hit districts in the province and begun rescue operations, Bajwa said. The army chief of staff, Gen. Raheel Sharif, ordered “all resources” to be sent to the affected areas.

In the northern Afghan province of Takhar, west of Badakhshan, 11 students at a girls school were killed trying to escape their school building when the quake struck, officials said. The Associated Press, citing a spokesman for the provincial governor, said 30 other girls were taken to the hospital in the provincial capital of Taluqan.

Fifteen people were killed and about 100 injured in the eastern province of Nangarhar, along the Pakistani border, according to the provincial natural disasters directorate. At least 30 houses in the provincial capital, Jalalabad, were destroyed.

The afternoon quake sent people rushing out of swaying buildings and evoked memories of previous major temblors in the region, including one in northern Pakistan in 2005 that killed tens of thousands of people, and in Nepal in 2014, in which more than 8,000 died.

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The toll of the previous quakes was exacerbated by a lack of adequate emergency response teams and equipment across a rugged, largely mountainous region, and officials said they were worried that casualty figures from Monday’s temblor would rise as the extent of the damage became clear.

About 40 minutes after the first earthquake, a magnitude 4.8 aftershock was reported in the vicinity.

A spokesman for the provincial government in Khyber Pakhtukhwa, Mushtaq Ghani, said hundreds of people had lost their homes and that authorities were racing to mount rescue and relief operations in the worst-hit districts.

“The provincial disaster management authority has yet to receive detailed reports about damage, and it will take time,” Ghani said. He said the number of affected people could be in the thousands.

Chitral, a scenic district in the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains about 250 miles north of Peshawar, was one of the hardest hit districts in the province, officials said. A police official said 20 bodies had been brought to the district headquarters hospital, while 82 people had suffered injuries.

The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly, said the earthquake also caused landslides, blocking roads in the mountainous district. Telecommunications systems were also disrupted, and huge cracks appeared in the sides of buildings.

Officials in Punjab province said four people there were killed and 61 injured. Deeba Shahnaz, a rescue official, said the “overwhelming majority” of casualties were linked to building and wall collapses.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif set up a crisis management cell in Islamabad while the army chief flew to Peshawar to head up the relief operation.

Afghanistan’s chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah, called an emergency meeting of the national disaster relief agency and directed aid agencies to send help to the affected areas.

There were reports of damage to buildings near the Afghan presidential palace. Shopkeepers and residents raced into the streets as the temblor struck.

“I've lived 57 years and have never seen an earthquake like this,” said a carpenter in Kabul named Farid. “I couldn't believe how strong it was. Luckily nothing in our shop was broken, but I had to run outside with everyone else.”

In the Indian capital, New Delhi, office workers streamed out of buildings and residents reported minor structural damage to multi-story apartment buildings.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he had requested “an urgent assessment” of the situation.

“We stand ready for assistance where required, including Afghanistan and Pakistan,” Modi tweeted.

Response:
This article was very informative but personally I do not think that it was very well written. This earthquake affected more than one country, which the article mentioned; but if you do not know which major cities belong to which specific country then you may encounter troubles in following this article. However, the author did a good job in staying objective while writing. There was no obvious bias, although I think that the author was trying to target officials of countries affected. 

Source:
Naveed, Anjum. "More than 100 Dead as Powerful Quake Rocks Afghanistan, Pakistan, India." Latimes. Associated Press, 26 Oct. 2015. Web. 26 Oct. 2015.

Refugees Rush Across As Croatia Opens Border

Thousands of refugees stuck in the cold in "knee-deep mud" have crossed into Croatia after it gave in and opened its border with Serbia.

"Without any announcement, the borders opened. When the borders opened, everybody rushed," said UNHCR spokeswoman Melita Sunjic.

"The last person to go was a young boy without a leg, and we helped him cross in a wheelchair."

Thousands have been stuck in the cold and rain in Serbia for nearly two days, according to the UNHCR - the UN's refugee agency.

With bad weather hitting the area, some children are said to be suffering from hypothermia as supplies of blankets and rain coats run out.

Video: Children Suffering On Serbia Border

There is also a lack of food and medicine, with the UNHCR describing conditions as "awful and hellish".

Croatia had been restricting the flow of migrants heading north, with Slovenia - the migrants' next destination - also limiting numbers and creating a backlog.

Aid workers said people fought on Monday and chanted "open the gate" at Croatian police after a night spent lashed by wind and rain.

About 2,000 to 3,000 migrants were at the border when Croatia finally relented, according to the UNHCR.

Croatia's Prime Minister said he had had a change of heart and that barring the migrants was "no solution".

"Yesterday we kept 5,000 to 6,000 people [from coming in] on the other side, in Serbia," said Zoran Milanovic.

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"It's apparent that this is no solution, so we will let them through, we will send them towards Slovenia."

Mr Milanovic said his country had no plans to build fences, unlike Hungary which has erected metal fences and razor wire to block migrants.

Most people say they are heading north to Germany to claim asylum.

Meanwhile, a train carrying 1,300 migrants has also reached the Croatia-Slovenia border - just hours after another arrived with 1,800 on board.

Tension is building between the two countries.

Slovenia has criticised its neighbour for sending large groups to its border, with its interior minister calling it "completely unacceptable"

Video: Migration Crisis In Numbers

The small Alpine country says it can only process 2,500 people each day.

But Croatia itself is struggling with huge numbers - police there say nearly 200,000 have arrived since in the last five weeks.

It became the main route through Europe after Hungary closed its border with Serbia on 15 September. 

The EU has agreed a plan, resisted by Hungary and several other ex-Communist members, to share out 120,000 refugees.

This is a small proportion of the 700,000 migrants the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) expects will reach Europe's borders from the Middle East, Africa and Asia this year.

Response:
I found this article very informing but it also provided hope to the Syrian refugee crisis.
The target audience of this article may be people who have been keenly observing the progress of the ongoing refugee crisis. That is a wide variety of people because it could range from average citizens to non profit organizations. However, even though I believe it may be both the article seems to be leaning more towards non profit organizations or political groups that are affected by the crisis. This article mentions a good number of countries that are directly affected by the refugees and the immediate effects. For example, it mentioned how there is tension between Croatia and Slovenia directly because of conflicting ideas of the solution. Therefore, the goal of this article may be to firstly show citizens what unfortuante conditions the refugees are going through. Secondly, to show other countries that Croatia has opened the border so they can follow that example as well.
This article was written quite objectively for the most part, however there is somewhat of a bias with the pictures and videos integrated within the news story. The visual aids cause the audience to have sympathy for the refugees by showing crying,cold, and hungry children. Who is inhumane enough not to feel bad for a child? With that said, the readers also may have a bias due to the persuading tactics of this article and the title. Readers may have been pricked with the slightest bit of hope when reading the title, resulting in reading the full article to see the fate of the refugees. 

MLA Source: "Refugees Rush Across As Croatia Opens Border." Sky News. SkyUk, 19 Oct. 2015. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.

Prosecutors Say This 66-Year-Old Chinese Woman is One of Africa's Most Notorious Smugglers

Nairobi:  They call her the Queen of Ivory - a 66-year-old Chinese woman who became famous for her role in Africa's illegal wildlife trade. Over 15 years, she helped smuggle more than 700 elephant tusks out of Africa, officials said Thursday. But as authorities closed in, Yang Feng Glan managed to evade arrest.

Until now.

Yang was detained in the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam after a high-speed chase and is apparently the most prominent Chinese national charged with wildlife trafficking in Africa. The short, bespectacled owner of a well-known Chinese restaurant doesn't fit the image of a poaching kingpin, but that's exactly what she is, according to Tanzanian officials.

Yang was behind an illicit trade worth millions of dollars, using her ties to the Chinese and Tanzanian elite to move ivory across the world, officials said. Ivory trafficking has resulted in immense damage to wildlife across Africa, but particularly in Tanzania. Between 2009 and 2014, the country's elephant population plummeted from 109,051 to 43,330.

"She was at the center of that killing," said Andrea Crosta, the executive director of Elephant Action League, a U.S.-based environmental watchdog group.

China's role in Africa's poaching crisis is no secret. The country consumes tons of ivory every year, much of it mixed into holistic medicine with no proven value. That demand has driven low-level poachers across the continent to massacre elephant and rhino populations. But the role played by Chinese business people based in Africa has been hazy.

The story of Yang, who will now be tried in a Tanzania court, might change the way people think about the global ivory trade. If she is convicted, it will turn out that one of Africa's wildlife-trafficking kingpins was also one of its most prominent Chinese interlocutors.

According to investigators, Yang came to Africa in the 1970s, just as China was beginning construction on a railway in Tanzania. She was a translator back then, one of her country's first trained Swahili speakers.

Yang moved around eastern Africa, becoming a well-known businesswoman, founding a company called Beijing Great Wall Investment and an eatery called Beijing Restaurant. By 2012, she was the secretary-general of the Tanzania China-Africa Business Council. She named her daughter Fei, the first character of the word for Africa in Mandarin.

All the while, Tanzanian investigators said Thursday, she was smuggling millions of dollars in ivory to her contacts in China, even financing poachers who targeted animals in protected areas.

"She played a tremendous role in the killing of animals," said a senior Tanzanian official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly. "She helped buy the poachers guns and ammunition. She was the connection between the local brokers and the international market."

Tanzania's National and Transnational Serious Crimes Investigation Unit (NTSCIU) identified Yang more than a year ago and followed her role in the smuggling network, authorities said. They found that she was using her restaurant in downtown Dar es Salaam as a cover, sneaking ivory from outside of the city into food shipments that went to the kitchen, they said.

It was the same restaurant Yang had spoken proudly about in the Chinese press.

"Now I do not count on the restaurant to make money," she told the China Daily newspaper last year. "Instead, I see it as a place where people from China and Tanzania can communicate, get to know more friends and conduct information exchanges."

As China's investment in Africa boomed in recent years, rumors swirled about the relationship between the country's development projects on the continent and the illegal ivory trade. But Chinese smugglers were rarely arrested. They were too well-connected to the government, many suspected. Many said they believe that's how Yang managed to operate with impunity for so many years.

"When we think of a kingpin, we think of someone like Al Capone," Crosta said. "But this was someone who mingled with the country's elite, who blended in."

Tanzanian officials sent to arrest Yang last week surrounded her house for seven hours. She managed to sneak out a side door and jump into her car. She then led authorities on a car chase through part of the city.

"Eventually we cornered her," the senior Tanzanian official said. "She put her hands up."

Then Tanzanian law enforcement agents got their first up-close look at the woman they referred to as the Queen of Ivory. She was out of breath after running from them.

"That is the shark we were chasing," the Tanzanian official said.
Response:
 I really enjoyed this article to the point of faithfully reading it to the end. Personally when I think of ivory smugglers little, old, Chinese women do not immediately come to mind. Thus, I was shocked to say the least when this article informed me on how notorious this lady was. This article seemed well written in my opinion, because they included different perspectives on this issue from various countries.
The audience that this article may have been trying to target is African law enforcement agencies (mainly Tanzanian), specifically ones that deal mainly with wildlife issues. Another targeted audience may have been African and Chinese citizens to shed light on this poaching issue, and inspire them to take action against poaching.
I do not think this article was very objective. As you read the article, you can easily pick up a bias against any poacher. The article tried to stay objective by describing a portion of Yang's personal life and even mentioning the fact that she named her daughter Africa in Mandarin. However, the next sentence returns to that bias, "All the while, Tanzanian investigators said Thursday, she was smuggling millions of dollars in ivory to her contacts in China, even financing poachers who targeted animals in protected areas." I believe the publisher holds the same bias as the writer of the article. I also think the readers may hold some bias for a few reasons. Firstly, they may have been already swayed by the title of this article. Words like 'most notorious' makes this lady already seem like she has committed a terrible crime, thus as readers read this article they have that thought in the back of their heads. Also, the title of this article attracts people who currently hold negative views on poaching which would lead to a bias while reading this article.

MLA source: Sieff, Kevin. "Prosecutors Say This 66-Year-Old Chinese Woman Is One of Africa's Most Notorious Smugglers." NDTV. The Washington Post, Sept.-Oct. 2015. Web. 13 Oct. 2015.