TurkmenPost

Three strong earthquakes and several aftershocks jolted western Iran overnight, killing at least 66 people and injuring about 1,200 others, state television reported Friday.

The initial quake of magnitude 4.7 struck a mountainous region in western Iran late Thursday. It was followed by a quake of magnitude 5.1 that struck Boroujerd and Doroud, two industrial cities in western Iran, at 11:06 p.m. local time Thursday, state television said.

A third temblor of magnitude 6.0 hit Doroud and surrounding villages at 4:47 a.m. local time on Friday, the television reported.

A total of 66 bodies had been recovered from houses in destroyed in Silakhor, a region north of Doroud, the television reported.

200 villages damaged

The provincial head of the Unexpected Disaster Committee, Ali Barani, said no fewer than 200 villages were damaged, and some were flattened.

Most of the 1,200 people injured had been in bed when the quake struck, the television said.

The quake in the middle of the night caused panic, with citizens in Doroud running out of their homes. Many spent the night in open space, residents said.

"We are afraid to get back home. I spent the night with my family and guests in open space last night," Doroud resident Mahmoud Chaharmiri told The Associated Press by telephone.

Twelve aftershocks were registered after the first quake, said Nabi Bidhendi, the head of Tehran Tehran University’s Geophysics Institute.

The epicenter of Thursday night’s quake was in the mountains south of Boroujerd and north of Doroud.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported a 5.7-magnitude quake at 4:47 a.m., followed by a 4.7-magnitude 15 minutes later. Their epicenters were 210 miles southwest of Tehran.

The area had been hit by a 4.7-magnitude quake the day before, the USGS said.

via msnbc.

An all-American top four still leads the latest annual Forbes Global 2000 list of the world’s biggest companies.

Banking giant Citigroup topped the table for the third year in succession, followed by industrial group General Electric in second place.

In third place was Bank of America, while in fourth was insurance firm American International Group.

UK bank HSBC was the highest ranking non-American firm, picking up fifth place for the second year running.

HSBC was followed by three oil firms, US giant ExxonMobile, Anglo-Dutch firm Shell and UK business BP.

Making up the top 10 were American bank JP Morgan Chase and Swiss lender UBS.

The highest placed carmaker was Japan’s Toyota in 12th position.

Britain had three other firms in the top 30 - Royal Bank of Scotland (14), Barclays (20), and fellow banking group HBOS (24).

Financial magazine Forbes measures the companies’ size by a combination of sales, profits, assets and stock market value.

via bbc.

Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction premiered last night, and if the howling laughter was any indication, Sharon Stone will go back under her rock soon. According to Page Six spies, the premiere wasn’t the smashing success that Stone had in mind.

"At the premiere Monday night, audience members kept cracking up at inappropriate times, like when Stone intones, "Not even Oedipus saw his mother coming!" "The only thing worse than the dialogue were Sharon’s implants," shrieked one wag. During the full-frontal nude scene, Stone’s bosom seemed lopsided."

It’s no secret that the release of this film was delayed due to litigation because Sharon Stone basically wanted to make this movie a porn. While the filmmakers were cutting out reels of nudity and an orgy scene just to get an R rating, Stone was busy complaining she was performing her "duties" as an artist. I’d feel bad making fun of her if she was just an idiot, but she constantly rambles on about subjects in which she is sadly misinformed, and she truly believes she is blazing a trail for women’s rights every time she flashes her tits for the camera. Her entire career has been her standing on a soapbox with her legs spread while some guy points a flashlight at her vagina.

via idlyitw.

 A ferry carrying more than 130 people capsized Thursday night off the coast of Bahrain, and at least 48 people drowned, officials said. Sixty-three people were rescued, NBC News reported, citing officials at a news conference.

The official Bahrain News Agency said the ferry was on an evening cruise that was to last several hours. It overturned less than a mile off the coast, it said.

Officials said most of the ferry’s passengers were employees of a Bahrain-based company and were of several nationalities, including Bahraini, Egyptian, South African and British.

Television footage showed the ferry, al-Dana, capsized but did not sink, as earlier reports had said, with rescue workers walking on its brown hull.

Images showed emergency personnel taking bodies wrapped in white sheets off a small dinghy. Men carried the bodies away in blankets or on stretchers, while boats with flashing lights moved in and out of port.

There was no indication of what caused the ferry to capsize in what appeared to be perfect weather conditions in the area. The ferry’s owners, according to Bahrain television, said overloading could have caused the ferry to capsize.

Al-Katem, the coast guard chief, said an investigation was under way.

via msnbc.

The U.N. Security Council demanded Wednesday that Iran suspend uranium enrichment, the first time the powerful body has directly urged Tehran to clear up suspicions that it is seeking nuclear weapons.

Iran remained defiant, maintaining its right to nuclear power but insisting that it was committed to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and had no intention of seeking weapons of mass destruction.

"Pressure and threats do not work with Iran. Iran is a country that is allergic to pressure and to threats and intimidation," Iranian Ambassador Javad Zarif said. He later added that "Iran insists on its right to have access to nuclear technology for explicitly peaceful purposes. We will not abandon that claim to our legitimate right."

The 15-nation council unanimously approved a statement that will ask the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to report back in 30 days on Iran’s compliance with demands to stop enriching uranium.

Diplomats portrayed the statement, which is not legally binding, as a first, modest step toward compelling Iran to make clear that its program is for peaceful purposes. The Security Council could eventually impose economic sanctions, though Russia and China say they oppose such tough measures.

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