Over 10,000 Evacuees in Guatemala due to Volcano Eruption
Guatemalan authorities evacuated more than 10,000 people living in villages near the Fuego volcano, in south central region, whose eruptive activity persists today, the National Coordinating Committee for Disaster Reduction (CONRAD) stated.
Municipal and departmental Command posts in Chimaltenango, Escuintla and Sacatepequez run many activities by orange alerts declared for the attention of local residents in communities near the Fuego volcano, where more than 10,000 people have been moved to shelters, CONRAD newsletter reported.
The eruption process of the volcano, which rises 3,763 meters above sea level, tends to decrease, and the emission of pyroclastic flows (pyroclastic material and gases at high temperatures) and the emission of ash columns, states a newsletter from the National Institute for Seismology, Volcanology, Meteorology and Hydrology (INSIVUMED).
According to the seismic recording and monitoring, we corroborated that sustained eruption column has dwindled from 2,000 meters high to an average of 700 over the crater with significant decreases to less than 400, the scientific body noted.
On Thursday, INSIVUMED stated that the mountain had a lava flow from 100 meters to 150 meters with constant to moderate avalanches.
White House Denies Prior Knowledge of Libyan Attack
On Friday the White House denied rumors circulated in the media that the Barack Obama administration had “actionable intelligence” of the recent attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya, which killed four American diplomats including the U.S. ambassador.
British newspaper The Independent has reported that the deaths of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other U.S. diplomatic staff were likely to have been the result of a serious and continuous security breach.
“There was no intelligence that in any way could have been acted on to prevent these attacks … The report suggested that there was intelligence available prior to this which would lead us to believe this facility would be attacked, and that is false,” White House Spokesman Jay Carney said.
He also said that the U.S. administration had no information to suggest that it was a pre-planned attack by terrorists.
“The unrest we have seen around the region has been in response to a video,” Carney said.
The posting on Tuesday of a short film titled “Innocence of Muslims” on a popular video-sharing service sparked protests in Muslim communities around the globe. The movie has been lambasted as offensive to Prophet Mohammed and immoral.
Angered by the anti-Islam film, protesters stormed the U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi in Libya on Tuesday, killing American Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
In the past two days, similar attacks on the U.S. diplomatic missions occurred in Egypt, Yemen, Sudan, and Tunisia where protests turned into violent clashes with the police.
Crowds also protested the U.S.-made film for the second day in Malaysia, India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Bangladesh and Iraq.
The “Innocence of Muslims” portrays Prophet Mohammed sleeping with women, talking about killing children and referring to a donkey as “the first Muslim animal.”
The film has been actively promoted by a Florida pastor, Terry Jones, who gained notoriety for threatening to burn and then burning a Koran, which set off riots in Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011.
Israeli PM denies interfering in U.S. elections
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday said his efforts to urge the United States to stop Iran’s nuclear program is not connected to the U.S. presidential elections.
“It has nothing to do with the American elections, because the Iranian nuclear program doesn’t care about the American political calendar,” Netanyahu said during an interview with The Jerusalem Post.
“For me this is a policy issue, a security issue, and not a political issue,” he added.
Israel, the United States and most western countries accuse Iran of clandestinely pursuing nuclear weapons, although the Islamic republic insists on the peaceful nature of its nuclear program.
Netanyahu has been actively trying to persuade Washington to draw “red lines” beyond which the Americans would act militarily to deter Iran.
However, U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration has insisted that there is still “time and space” to pursue a two- track approach of sanctions and diplomacy to pressure Iran to give up its uranium enrichment activities.
Via PL