Six nearly simultaneous explosions struck three churches and three hotels frequented by tourists on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka, according to a security official in Colombo, the capital of the island nation in the Indian Ocean.
At least six explosions rocked churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday. A hospital official said scores were injured and at least two dozen dead. BBC News reports from the scene in Colombo.
Astronomers tend to be patient people. When it comes to stars, much of what they examine happened millions of years ago, and when it comes to space probes, even pre-launch prep can take a decade or more.
But they are getting impatient about launching an infrared space telescope called NEOCam. It has a very specific mission: Spotting near-Earth objects—astronomical bodies, most commonly asteroids, whose orbits around the sun could pass close to Earth and potentially collide with our planet, some of which could damage or destroy civilization itself.
It’s not speculative; a major meteoric impact is inevitable, and we need to keep a better eye on the solar system.
Yellow vest protestors in Paris battled police during violent clashes Saturday–newly enraged at the billions of dollars that have been pledged to rebuild fire-damaged Notre Dame Cathedral, overshadowing their anti-wealth cause.
While some may not realize it, April 15 is actually a date that has played host to a number of horrific events throughout history. Looking back into the past, some of the most famous incidents have happened on this date — and it is a day that is beginning to suggest bad omens.
Three prominent mountain climbers are presumed to have died in an avalanche that hit Alberta’s Banff National Park this week.
American alpinist Jess Roskelley and Austrian climbers David Lama and Hansjörg Auer were missing after they tried to climb the east face of Howse Peak on the Icefields Parkway and “local search and rescue has assumed the worst,” outdoor apparel company The North Face said in a statement. The three were reported overdue on Wednesday, one day after the avalanche struck.
What experts say will need to happen to save Notre Dame
Officials began inspecting the damage of Notre Dame Tuesday. They declared the cathedral structurally sound while identifying “some vulnerabilities,” according to French Deputy Interior Minister Laurent Nunez. Specifically, the vault and gable of the north transept were of concern. Inspectors are also worried about structural damage that may be hidden.
Kirk Martini, who works for Archute, with a doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley in structural engineering, said the transept is probably the greatest vulnerability. To ensure the structure is stable, additional shoring may be necessary after the full extent of the damage is assessed.
LEGGETT, Calif. — Searchers looking for a family of four whose SUV plunged into a Northern California river have found the body of a woman believed to be from the vehicle, authorities said Friday. The woman had not been formally identified but Mendocino County Sheriff Thomas Allman earlier said the body was believed to have been one of the people in the car.
A search team found the body about 7 miles south of where the family’s SUV fell into the rain-swollen Eel River last week, Allman told a news conference in the community of Leggett.
Initially, Allman said the body was that of a child but the sheriff’s office later corrected that it was a woman’s.
Billionaire toy marketer Isaac Larian offered to save Toys “R” Us from liquidation with an almost $900 million bid for its stores in the U.S. and Canada that relies in part on crowdfunding.
Larian is offering $675 million for the U.S. stores and $215 million for the outlets in Canada, he said Friday in a statement. The funds will come from Larian himself, other investors and bank financing. A representative for Toys “R” Us didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Isaac Larian
Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
The would-be rescuer is the chief executive officer of MGA Entertainment Inc., which sells toys including Little Tikes, Bratz and L.O.L. Surprise! Larian previouslystarted a GoFundMecampaign to help keep Toys “R” Us open, with the page showing pledges of about $200 million.
Ohio authorities are investigating how a sixteen-year-old student was crushed to death in the back of a minivan at a school parking lot despite calling 911 two times with his exact location.
The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office is launching an investigation into the death of 16-year-old Kyle Plush, whose body was discovered by his father six hours after he called 911 begging for help and giving dispatchers the correct description of the minivan and his location.
According to audio recordings, Plush called 911 at least twice Tuesday afternoon while he was trapped in the 2002 Honda Odyssey minivan outside Seven Hills School. The third-row seat flipped and had him pinned inside.
“I’m going to die here,” the sophomore told the dispatcher during his first 911 call, which was placed shortly after 3 p.m. Tuesday. “I probably don’t have much time left. Tell my mom I love her if I die.”
A single tree plunged more than half of the island’s population into darkness. It was a humbling reminder for some that power restoration is not yet complete in more remote parts of the island.
One tree was all it took. Around 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, a wayward trunk tumbled over onto a major transmission line in Puerto Rico’s still-fragile electrical grid and cut power to roughly 840,000 customers, affecting more than half of the island’s population.
Officials from the island’s electric utility company – PREPA — said the accident occurred in the region of Cayey, where crews were working to restore power to people still waiting nearly seven months after Hurricane Maria. Increasingly, that work requires clearing away heavily forested mountainsides to gain access to the large utility poles that carry transmission lines from one mountain peak to the next.
TOKYO — A strong earthquake hit western Japan early Monday, cracking streets, cutting water and power to a number of homes and injuring five people. The Meteorological Agency said the magnitude 6.1 quake struck 7 miles underground near Ohda city, about 480 miles west of Tokyo.
Five people sustained injuries, but most of them were minor and not life-threatening, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.
The quake also rattled nearby Izumo, home to one of Japan’s most important Shinto shrines. No damage was reported at the shrine.
Firefighters helped to rescue a man who drove his vehicle off a South Greensburg road and traveled about 50 yards before getting stuck in the fast-moving Slate Run in Hempfield on Wednesday afternoon.
Midway-St. Clair Fire Chief Rich Kepple said they assisted the driver out of his vehicle, which had water about halfway-up the front door. The driver, who was not identified, was talking to firefighters while inside the vehicle. The accident was reported at about 4:25 p.m., a Westmoreland County Department of Public Safety supervisor said.
The driver was taken to Excela Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg for observation, Kepple said.
Trevor Nace , CONTRIBUTOROpinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck off the coast of southern California today, the strongest one to hit the area in several years. The United States Geological Survey puts the earthquake epicenter 17 miles southwest of Santa Cruz Island off southern California.
The earthquake struck today, on April 5th at 12:29 PM local time at a depth of 10 kilometers. Even though the earthquake struck off the coast of California, shaking was felt as far away as Bakersfield, Palmdale and the city of Orange over 100 miles away. The quake’s epicenter was 85 miles west of Los Angeles and 41 miles southwest of Ventura. Thankfully, the shaking subsided just as quickly as it came, lasting roughly 10 seconds.
LOWER BURRELL, Pa. – A Lower Burrell family says they experienced a true miracle after winds brought a massive tree down onto their house, narrowly missing one of the people who lives inside. They believe their house was spared from further problems.
Their roof is destroyed. Branches and parts of the tree are strewn across their house and front yard. A gutter is torn off and their chimney has moved out of place.
The Negleys say they are waiting on a tree removal service to take down what’s left of the tree. Insurance adjusters are set to come out Thursday to assess the damage, which the family says is in the thousands of dollars.
Ted Kennedy didn’t abandon Mary Jo Kopechne when his car plunged off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island.
We’ve been asked not to use the CIA person’s name, but he worked for the agency for decades. He says back in 1969, Kennedy was romantically involved with the wife of a very powerful politician, and if word got out about the affair Kennedy was afraid it would ruin his career.
The operative says the night of the accident Kennedy and some of his buddies were all drunk and drove to a party on the Island. They went there because the politician’s wife was at the party and Kennedy wanted to hook up with her. Mary Jo Kopechne was at the party … she and Kennedy were acquaintances but not romantically involved.
According to the operative, Mary Jo was drunk, said she had a headache, got up and said she was going into one of the bedrooms to lie down.
At some point later in the evening, Kennedy and the politician’s wife wanted “some alone time” and didn’t want to do anything in front of the group, so they got in the car and drove … eventually plunging off the bridge into the water. They both swam to shore safely. The operative says both were not injured.
The operative says unbeknownst to either Kennedy or the politician’s wife, Mary Jo apparently was unable to sleep in the house because of the noise, so she went into the back seat of the car where she fell asleep … which is where she died. At least one person at the party knew Mary Jo had gone into one of the cars and told authorities that after the accident.
At least two people were killed after a plane crashed Wednesday near the Daytona Beach International Airport.
The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported the aircraft belonged to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and had just lifted for takeoff from Daytona Beach International Airport during a training flight when it crashed.
A U.S. Marine Corps helicopter crashed Tuesday — killing its four crew members — during exercises along the U.S.-Mexico border near Plaster City, Calif., military officials said.
“We are currently still responding to what we have confirmed as a single helicopter incident,” said a Facebook post from the nearby Naval Air Facility El Centro.
The naval facility sent fire and security units as well as other helicopters to the scene of the crash, KYMA-TV reported.
LOS ANGELES — A 13-year-old boy who apparently fell into a drainage pipe at a park while spending Easter with his family has been rescued after a frantic search. CBS Los Angeles reports Jesse Hernandez was found just before 5:30 a.m. local time, nearly 13 hours after he was first reported missing. Investigators believe he was playing in the area with other children when he fell through the roof of a 20-foot concrete building into a drainage sewage system below.
“A tremendous team effort over the past 12 hours resulted in the best outcome, Jesse Hernandez was found alive this morning,” the Los Angeles Fire Department said in a statement.
More than 100 members of the Los Angeles Fire Department and personnel from several agencies assisted in the search.
“From start to finish, this was an unprecedented team effort,” the fire department said.
SCALP LEVEL BOROUGH, Pa.. – A 22-year-old Windber man died Friday in a bicycle accident.According to Coroner Jeff Lees, Matthew B. Thacker was riding his bike on Main Street in Scalp Level Borough when he went down a steep hill, lost control and struck a wall.
Thacker was not wearing a helmet, and died as a result of a head injury and the death was deemed accidental.
SANTA PAULA, Calif. (KABC) — Two people on board a homebuilt plane were killed Saturday afternoon when the aircraft crashed into a storage container in the Santa Paula area, according to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.The incident was reported at 2:11 p.m. on a property in a wooded area in the 17800 block of S. Mountain Road, just outside the city limits of Santa Paula, Ventura County fire officials said.Ian Gregor, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman, said the single-engine, homebuilt Vans RV6A crashed under unknown circumstances and caught fire after crashing.The deceased, two males, were not immediately identified. No one on the ground was injured, officials said.
Crews responding to Pennsylvania Adult & Teen Challenge
Firefighters were called early Wednesday morning to put out a fire at a UPS facility in Pittsburgh’s Chateau neighborhood.
“We’re all very happy … because we’re still finding survivors after several hours.”
A lightning strike in Moon Township caused a house fire Saturday night.
Six nearly simultaneous explosions struck three churches and three hotels frequented by tourists on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka, according to a security official in Colombo, the capital of the island nation in the Indian Ocean.
A mudslide has shut down a road in Fox Chapel.
Forget aliens. We’ve got to find the asteroids.
Yellow vest protestors in Paris battled police during violent clashes Saturday–newly enraged at the billions of dollars that have been pledged to rebuild fire-damaged Notre Dame Cathedral, overshadowing their anti-wealth cause.
The Duquesne Incline was stuck and 40 passangers were trapped on board for nearly two hours Thursday afternoon.
Crews responded to a house fire in West Deer Township Friday morning.
Three prominent mountain climbers are presumed to have died in an avalanche that hit Alberta’s Banff National Park this week.
What experts say will need to happen to save Notre Dame
Ohio authorities are investigating how a sixteen-year-old student was crushed to death in the back of a minivan at a school parking lot despite calling 911 two times with his exact location.
