Free Republic

NEW DELHI, OCT.29, 2015: The Indian Air Force (IAF) is staging its biggest exercise, codenamed 'Live Wire', to test its preparedness to fight a two-front war in case of a simultaneous armed conflict with China and Pakistan. This exercise, which begins on Oct 31, involves the simultaneous activation of all airbases across the country from Leh in Jammu and Kashmir to Car Nicobar in Andaman and Nicobar Islands for about 15 days. "The most important part of Exercise Live Wire is to rehearse quick movement of air assets from one theatre to another," a top IAF officer explained to Arming...

PUNE: Could the colossal death and destruction caused by Sunday's tsunami in the Andamans have been reduced by heeding the repeated warnings issued to the Andaman and Nicobar administration by a Pune-based seismologist as early as August 2004? Following five earthquakes that shook the Andaman and Nicobar islands on July 29, ranging in magnitude from 5.0 to 5.9 on the Richter scale, Pune-based seismologist Arun Bapat had written to the Lt. Governor of the islands stressing the necessity of "seismic surveillance and earthquake awareness in the Andamans". In his email of August 2, 2004, to Lt. Governor Ram Kapse,...

INDIA's last active volcano, in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, has erupted in the aftermath of the earthquake that set off tsunamis killing thousands of people, official sources said today. People have been evacuated from Barren Island since the eruption began on Tuesday night and there are no reports of injury. Lava was flowing out of the rim of the crater, which towers above the Indian Ocean, the sources said. Tourists used to visit by boat and the island has a police station. The volcano, known as Barren 1, is located 135km north-east of the capital Port Blair and last...

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has issued a Tsunami warning for all areas of the Indian Ocean after a 7.7 earthquake struck Nicobar Islands India Region. A Tsunami Watch is in effect for India / Indonesia / Sri Lanka / Myanmar / Thailand / Malaysia. Officials say earthquakes of this size have the potential to generate a destructive local tsunami and sometimes a destructive regional tsunami along coasts located usually no more than a thousand kilometers from the earthquake epicenter. It says areas further from the epicenter could experience small sea level changes and strong or unusual coastal currents. It...

Stone Age tribe kills fishermen who strayed on to island By Peter Foster in New Delhi (Filed: 08/02/2006) One of the world's last Stone Age tribes has murdered two fishermen whose boat drifted on to a desert island in the Indian Ocean. The Sentinelese, thought to number between 50 and 200, have rebuffed all contact with the modern world, firing a shower of arrows at anyone who comes within range. Sentinelese tribesmen prepare to fire arrows at the coastguard helicopter after the fishermen's murder They are believed to be the last pre-Neolithic tribe in the world to remain isolated and...

Relief workers are racing against time to build waterproof homes for more than 40,000 homeless tsunami survivors in the Andaman and Nicobar islands before the annual monsoon hits in April. However, they say they still have no final plan on how to do this. No building material is available even to start construction. The refugees, more than 10 percent of the 350,000 residents of the tropical island chain, are living in flimsy bamboo and plastic tents in relief camps across the remote isles. "There is some reason for scepticism. Time is a constraint but we have to try," an official,...

Tourists run for their lives as the first of six tsunamis starts to roll towards Hat Rai Lay Beach, near Krabi in southern Thailand. One woman runs towards the waves. Photo: AFP The woman continues to run as the wave advances.Photo: AFP With the waves engulfing boats, the woman makes contact with her group. It is not known if they survived.Photo: AFP

A woman who gave birth prematurely in the forests of a remote Indian island sheltering from killer tidal waves has agreed to name the girl Tsunami, the proud parents told AFP on Saturday. "Tsunami" has touched the hearts of hundreds of people who survived last Sunday's earthquake and towering waves, but the mother is inconsolable. Her older son went missing in the chaos as thousands fled for high ground on remote Hut Bay, part of the Andaman and Nicobar islands. Laxminarayan Rai and his 26-year-old wife Namita were rescued by a naval ship on Tuesday a day after a pre-dawn...

We are suffering. We have many friends among the dead and missing. Pray for the dead, the dying, and the living.

Taiwan's national space programme offered Wednesday its satellite images of the damage caused by powerful tsunamis that ravaged Asia at the weekend to affected countries and aid groups for free. The National Space Programme Office (NSPO) normally charges 3,000 euros (4,080 dollars) for each photograph covering an area of 600 square kilometres (240 square miles), the office said. The images would be provided free of charge to affected countries and had been posted on NSPO's website, programme head Lance Wu said. Its images of badly hit Puhket island in Thailand and Indonesia's Banda Aceh were probably among the first taken...

As sad as it is, the SE Asia earthquake is not the worst natural disaster ever. In 1991, Bangladesh suffered from Typhoon that killed about 140,000 people. Before that, in 1970, the country also lost 300,000 people from natural disaster. The SE Asia disaster, however, seems to be a significant one because there are many Westerners, including 'celebrities', died in this unfortunate event. Please look at the website that list of the worst 100 natural disaster in the 20th century. They also include famine and epidemic, though.

30 November 2004: Two Chinese ships have been seized in and around the Andamans last week. More than forty Chinese sailors with suspicious identities were carrying navigation equipment on board the ships. They were also conducting a survey of the magnetic resonance of the seabed in the vicinity of the islands on which India plans to station a part of its strategic forces. So far, the arrested sailors have said they are fishermen, who mistakenly entered into Indian territorial waters. Officials said that the ships came from either the East China Sea or the South China Sea, a distance of...