More quakes rattle Oklahoma but state avoids tough measures
OKLAHOMA CITY — In Oklahoma, now the country’s earthquake capital, people are talking nervously about the big one as man-made quakes get stronger, more frequent and closer to major population centers. Next door in Kansas, they’re feeling on firmer ground though no one is ready yet to declare victory.
A year ago, the states had a common problem — earthquakes caused by the disposal of wastewater from oil and gas exploration. They chose different solutions. Kansas, following early scientific studies, decided to restrict how much and how fast the wastewater could be pumped back underground. Oklahoma instead initially concentrated on the depth of the wastewater injections.
Developments since then haven’t been reassuring in Oklahoma, where a quake knocked out power in parts of an Oklahoma City suburb several weeks ago and where fears are growing that the worst is yet to come. On Friday, about 200 unhappy residents packed a forum at the state capitol convened by critics of the state’s response. A governor’s task force is studying the problem but officials have so far avoided taking tougher measures.
The quakes, which have been mostly small to medium sized, have caused limited damage, and no one foresees anything like the massive damage and deaths in the famous quakes in California, seismologists say.
Still, “It’s a trend that’s unsettling,” said Cornell University geophysicist Katie Keranen, referring to the increasing number of quakes. Frequent small quakes can be a harbinger of bigger ones. “You have the ingredients you need to have a larger earthquake.”
Man-made heat put in oceans doubles since 1997
WASHINGTON — The amount of man-made heat energy absorbed by the seas has doubled since 1997, a study released Monday showed.
Scientists have long known that more than 90 percent of the heat energy from man-made global warming goes into the world’s oceans instead of the ground. And they’ve seen ocean heat content rise in recent years. But the new study, using ocean-observing data that goes back to the British research ship Challenger in the 1870s and including high-tech modern underwater monitors and computer models, tracked how much man-made heat has been buried in the oceans in the past 150 years.
To put that in perspective, since 1997, Earth’s oceans have absorbed man-made heat energy equivalent to a Hiroshima-style bomb being exploded every second for 75 straight years.
Jeff Severinghaus at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography praised the study, saying it “provides real, hard evidence that humans are dramatically heating the planet.”
Iran took SIM cards from detained US sailors’ phones
WASHINGTON — Iranian soldiers removed two SIM cards from two handheld satellite phones but otherwise returned all weapons, ammunition and equipment when they released 10 U.S. sailors and their two boats last week, the Pentagon said Monday.
The first public report from U.S. Central Command into the incident provided that and other new details but did not answer the key question of why the U.S. Navy crews deviated from their course in the Persian Gulf and entered Iranian waters.
The crew and the two boats were detained overnight by Iran’s military on Farsi Island and were released unharmed Wednesday morning after about 15 hours in custody.
Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East, said the two Navy crews departed Kuwait Tuesday shortly after noon local time en route to Bahrain, more than 300 miles away.
As Iowa looms, GOP wonders: does Trump have fans, or voters?
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — It’s the No. 1 question headed into the primary season: Does Donald Trump merely have fans, or does the national front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination have voters who will mobilize come caucus day?
The definitive answer won’t arrive until first-to-vote Iowa heads to the polls on Feb. 1, but interviews with dozens of voters, political operatives, party leaders and campaign volunteers in the past week paint a mixed picture of Trump’s efforts to make sure they do.
Even some of the billionaire real-estate mogul’s most ardent backers wonder whether the political novice has the kind of ground game needed to ensure supporters — especially those new to taking part in a caucus — can navigate a process that isn’t as easy as casting a ballot.
But many believe that even if Trump is falling short when it comes to building a get-out-the-vote effort, his supporters are so enthusiastic that it won’t much matter.
“I have a feeling we’re going to actually do better than the polls are saying because there’s a movement,” Trump told supporters in suburban Des Moines last week, dismissing suggestions the thousands who pack his rallies won’t make it out on caucus night.
Abduction of Americans in Iraq raises fears
BAGHDAD — The abduction of three Americans from a Baghdad apartment over the weekend is the latest in a series of brazen high-profile kidnappings undermining confidence in the Iraqi government’s ability to control state-sanctioned Shiite militias that have grown in strength as Iraqi security forces battle the Islamic State group.
Witnesses said men in uniform carried out the kidnapping in broad daylight Saturday, 100 yards from a police station.
“Gunmen in military uniforms came in five or six SUVs, they entered the building and then left almost immediately,” said Mohammad Jabar, 35, who runs a shop down the street from the three-story apartment building where the Americans had been invited by their Iraqi interpreter.
“A few hours later we heard that three foreigners had been kidnapped by these gunmen,” Jaber said.
The three were abducted in Dora, a mixed neighborhood that is home to both Shiites and Sunnis. However, they were then taken to Sadr City, a vast and densely populated Shiite district to the east, and there “all communication ceased,” an Iraqi intelligence official told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
UK lawmakers slam Trump, but most oppose banning him
LONDON — Donald Trump doesn’t have many fans in Britain’s Parliament.
But a debate among lawmakers on calls to ban Trump from the country revealed little appetite to close Britain’s doors to the provocative Republican U.S. presidential contender.
During a three-hour debate Monday, legislators from Britain’s main parties stood to call Trump an attention-seeker, a demagogue and a fool. Many, though, argued that he should not be stifled or banned.
“While I think this man is crazy, while I think this man has no valid points to make, I will not be the one to silence his voice,” said Conservative lawmaker Tom Tugendhat.
Parliament took up the topic after half a million people signed a petition calling for Trump to be excluded over his call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States in the wake of extremist violence. Trump has also claimed that some areas of Britain are so radicalized that police fear for their lives.
By wire sources.