Anxiety in Alaska as endless aftershocks rattle residents

Anxiety in Alaska as endless aftershocks rattle residents

ANCHORAGE, Alaska

Seven weeks after a massive earthquake struck Alaska, the seemingly endless aftershocks are keeping many residents filled with anxiety.

There have been more than 7,800 aftershocks since the main earthquake struck Nov. 30 just north of Anchorage.

Most were too small to feel, but 20 have had magnitudes of 4.5 or greater – including a magnitude 5.0 jolt Jan. 13.

Seismologists expect the temblors to continue for months, although the frequency has lessened.

Mental health providers say they still treat clients rattled by the aftershocks, which strike without warning or any apparent pattern.

Deborah Gonzales, a licensed clinical social worker in Anchorage, says the temblors can be overwhelming for people, making them feel emotionally out of control.

Fireball at illegal Mexico pipeline tap kills at least 66

TLAHUELILPAN, Mexico

Forensic experts attempted to separate and count charred heaps of corpses in central Mexico on Saturday after a massive fireball erupted at an illegal pipeline tap, killing at least 66 people.

More than 85 other people Saturday were listed as missing as relatives of the deceased and onlookers gathered around the scene of carnage.

Just a few feet from where the pipeline passed through an alfalfa field, the dead seem to have fallen in heaps, perhaps as they stumbled over each other or tried to help one another in the moments after a geyser of gasoline shot into the air Friday.

The leak was caused by an illegal pipeline tap in the small town of Tlahuelilpan, about 62 miles north of Mexico City, according to state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex.

Video footage showed dozens of people in an almost festive atmosphere gathered in a field where a duct had been breached by fuel thieves. Footage then showed flames shooting high into the air against a night sky and the pipeline ablaze. Screaming people ran from the explosion, some themselves burning and waving their arms.

A scaled-down, but still angry, Women’s March returns

WASHINGTON

Amid internal controversies and a capital city deeply distracted by the partial government shutdown, the third Women’s March returned to Washington on Saturday with an enduring message of anger and defiance aimed directly at President Donald Trump’s White House.

The original march in 2017, the day after Trump’s inauguration, flooded the city with pink-hatted protesters. The exact size of the turnout remains subject to a politically charged debate, but it’s generally regarded as the largest Washington protest since the Vietnam era.

This year was a more modest affair for multiple reasons. An estimated 100,000 protesters packed several blocks around Freedom Plaza, just east of the White House, holding a daylong rally.

Preparations for this year’s march were roiled by an intense ideological debate among the movement’s senior leadership. In November, Teresa Shook, one of the movement’s founders, accused the four main leaders of the national march organization of anti-Semitism.

Despite pleas for unity, the internal tensions were most keenly felt in New York. An alternate women’s march organization held a parallel rally a few miles away from the official New York Women’s March protest, and one activist actually disrupted the main protest.

Call for political action after Laquan McDonald cases

CHICAGO

Activists and others who were disappointed by the outcome of two historic cases involving the killing of black teenager Laquan McDonald by a white Chicago police officer see a way forward – by turning tragedy into political power.

A judge Friday sentenced former Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke to less than seven years in prison for McDonald’s 2014 death.

Video of Van Dyke firing 16 shots at McDonald as he walked away from the officer prompted protests, a U.S. Justice Department investigation of the Chicago Police Department and the firing of the police superintendent, among other changes. It also was a key piece of evidence in Van Dyke’s trial, when a jury last year found him guilty of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery.

The judge’s sentence of six years and nine months – less than half of the penalty sought by prosecutors – means the 40-year-old could be released in just over three years. It came a day after a different judge acquitted three other Chicago police officers accused of lying about the shooting to protect Van Dyke.

Archbishop calls for unity at slain Polish mayor’s funeral

WARSAW, Poland

A Catholic archbishop and other speakers at the funeral Saturday of slain Gdansk Mayor Pawel Adamowicz urged an end to the political and social divisions in Poland, targeting some of their comments at the country’s ruling right-wing party.

Top Polish and European officials and thousands of citizens joined Adamowicz’s widow, two daughters and other family members at the Mass held at Gdansk’s vast Gothic St. Mary’s Basilica.

Adamowicz, 53, died Monday after being stabbed the night before at a charity event in the northern Polish city. The arrested suspect is an ex-convict who publicly voiced a grudge against an opposition party, Civic Platform, that Adamowicz once belonged to.

The slaying, which came as Poland faces a deep political divide over actions by the conservative ruling Law and Justice party, was a shock to the nation. It has drawn calls for greater national unity and condemnation of hate speech that has intensified in public amid political rivalries.

Diocese apologizes for students’ actions

COVINGTON, Ky.

A Catholic diocese in Kentucky is condemning the actions of some students from its all-male high school mocking a Native American man after a rally in Washington.

In a joint statement to the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington and Covington Catholic High School apologized to Nathan Phillips, an Omaha elder and Vietnam veteran who attended the Indigenous Peoples March in Washington on Friday. The march coincided with the annual March for Life, an anti-abortion rally attended by some students at Covington Catholic High School in northern Kentucky.

Officials say the students’ behavior is opposed to the church’s teachings on the dignity and respect of the human person. Church officials say they are investigating and will take appropriate action, up to and including expulsion.

Associated Press