Remembering the Ship of Dreams

Who could forget about the ship of dreams, we've all heard story's about her and how on April 14/15 1912 she collided with an iceberg during her maiden voyage and sank in the Atlantic ocean en route to New York City. But just in case lets give a little bit of biography here.

    The R.M.S Titanic was built between 1909-11 by the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, and operated by the White Star Line.
   During this time Titanic was the largest ship afloat and carried 2,223 people. Some of them were some of the wealthiest in the world, and others were emigrants from Great Britain and Ireland, Scandinavia and elsewhere seeking a new life in North America.
    The ship was designed to be the last word in comfort and luxury, with an on board gymnasium, swimming pool, libraries, high class restaurants and opulent cabins. She also had a powerful wireless telegraph provided for the convenience of passengers as well as for operational use.
    Though she had advanced safety features such as watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, she lacked enough lifeboats to accommodate all of those aboard. Due to outdated maritime safety regulations, she carried only enough lifeboats for 1,178 people – slightly more than half of the number travelling on the maiden voyage and one-third her total passenger and crew capacity. 

    On 14 April 1912, four days into the crossing and about 375 miles (600 km) south of Newfoundland, she hit an iceberg at 11:40 pm. The glancing collision caused Titanic's hull plates to buckle inwards in a number of locations on her starboard side and opened five of her sixteen watertight compartments to the sea. Over the next two and a half hours, the ship gradually filled with water and sank. Passengers and some crew members were evacuated in lifeboats, many of which were launched only partly filled. A disproportionate number of men – over 90% of those in Second Class – were left aboard due to a "women and children first" protocol followed by the officers loading the lifeboats. Just before 2:20 am Titanic broke up and sank bow-first with over a thousand people still on board. Those in the water died within minutes from hypothermia caused by immersion in the freezing ocean. The 710 survivors were taken aboard from the lifeboats by RMS Carpathia a few hours later. 
    The disaster was greeted with worldwide shock and outrage at the huge loss of life and the regulatory and operational failures that had led to it. Public inquiries in Britain and the United States led to major improvements in maritime safety. One of their most important legacies was the establishment in 1914 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), which still governs maritime safety today. Many of the survivors lost all of their money and possessions and were left destitute; many families, particularly those of crew members from Southampton, lost their primary bread-winners. They were helped by an outpouring of public sympathy and charitable donations. Some of the male survivors, notably the White Star Line's chairman, J. Bruce Ismay, were accused of cowardice for leaving the ship while people were still on board, and they faced social ostracism.

    The wreck of Titanic remains on the seabed, gradually disintegrating at a depth of 12,415 feet. Since its rediscovery in 1985, thousands of artefacts have been recovered from the sea bed and put on display at museums around the world. Titanic has become one of the most famous ships in history, her memory kept alive by numerous books, folk songs, films, exhibits and memorials.  

North Korean leader Kim Jong IL died

The North Korean leader since July 8 1994, Kim Jong IL died on saturday of a massive heart attack, he was 69 years of age. His son Kim Jong UN has succeeded him in leadership. South Koreas military has declared an emergency alert following this event and Japan has expressed its condolences.
Military activites have been reported on the North Korean border. The White House has been in touch with both South Korea and Japan and will remain in touch with them until furthur notice.
The funeral will be held on December 28th and the mourning period will last until Dec 29th. Please check back for a full follow up tomorrow morning.

Philippines Flood Kills More Than 400

MANILA, Philippines — Pounding rain from a tropical storm swelled rivers and sent walls of water crushing into two southern Philippine cities in the thick of night, killing at least 436 people, many caught in their beds, officials said Saturday.

    Philippine Red Cross Secretary General Gwen Pang told The Associated Press that the latest toll was based on a body count in funeral parlors. She said that 215 died in Cagayan de Oro and 144 in nearby Iligan, and the rest in several other southern and central provinces.
    Most of the dead were asleep Friday night when raging floodwaters tore through their homes from swollen rivers and cascaded from mountain slopes following 12 hours of pounding rain in the southern Mindanao region. The region is unaccustomed to the typhoons that are common elsewhere in the archipelago nation.
    Many of the bodies in parlors were unclaimed, indicating that entire families had perished, Pang said.
The number of missing was unclear Saturday night. Before the latest Red Cross figures, military spokesman Lt. Col. Randolph Cabangbang said about 250 people were still unaccounted for in Iligan.
    Thousands of soldiers backed up by hundreds of local police, reservists, coast guard officers and civilian volunteers were mobilized for rescue efforts and to clean up after the massive deluge that left the two coastal cities strewn with debris, trash, overturned vehicles and toppled trees.
    Many roads were cut off and there was no electricity, hampering relief efforts.
Some of the dead were swept out to sea from Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, which are intersected by rivers and flanked by mountains.
    Chief of the government's Civil Defense Office Benito Ramos attributed the high casualties in Mindanao "partly to the complacency of people because they are not in the usual path of storms" despite four days of warnings by officials that one was approaching.
    Ayi Hernandez, a former congressman, said he and his family were resting in their home late Friday when they heard a loud "swooshing sound" and water quickly rose ankle deep inside his home. He decided to evacuate to a neighbor's two-story house.

"It was a good thing because in less than an hour the water rose to about 11 feet (3.3 meters)," the height of the ceiling of his house, he said.
    A man in Cagayan de Oro said he heard a cry for help around 10 p.m. while the floodwaters were still low.
"Suddenly, there was a very strong rush of water," the man, who was not identified, told a local TV station.
The floodwaters were waist-high in some neighborhoods that do not usually experience flooding. Scores of residents escaped the floods by climbing onto the roofs of their homes, Iligan Mayor Lawrence Cruz said.
    Those missing included prominent radio broadcaster Enie Alsonado, who was swept away while trying to save his neighbors, Cruz said.
Rep. Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro said that about 20,000 residents of the city had been affected and that evacuees were packed in temporary shelters.
   Television footage showed muddy water rushing in the streets, sweeping away all sorts of debris. Thick layers of mud coated streets where the waters had subsided. One car was shown to have been carried over a concrete fence.
    Authorities recovered bodies from the mud after the water subsided. Parts of concrete walls and roofs, toppled vehicles and other debris littered the streets.
Rescuers in boats rushed offshore to save people swept out to sea. In Misamis Oriental province, 60 people were plucked from the ocean off El Salvador city, about 6 miles (10 kilometers) northwest of Cagayan de Oro, said disaster official Teddy Sabuga-a.
    About 120 more were rescued off Opol township, closer to the city, he added.
Cruz said the coast guard and other rescuers were scouring the waters off Iligan for survivors or bodies that may have been swept away.
    Tropical Storm Washi dumped on Mindanao more than a month of average rains in just 12 hours. It quickly cut across the region overnight and headed for Palawan province southwest of Manila on Saturday night.
Forecaster Leny Ruiz said that the records show that storms that follow Washi's track come only once in about 12 years.
   Lucilo Bayron, vice mayor of Puerto Princesa in Palawan, said he already mobilized emergency crews but local officials have not ordered an evacuation yet because the weather was still fine.

Another Deadly Earthquake Hits Turkey

Japanese aid worker Atsushi Miyazaki came to Turkey in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake last month, tasked with assessing damage and distributing relief supplies to survivors. Then he too became a victim of Turkey's treacherous fault lines on Thursday, fatally injured when a hotel, weakened by the earlier tremor, collapsed in a second quake that killed at least 11 others.

    Dozens of angry residents protested at the rubble of the downtown hotel where 41-year-old Miyazaki and others died, arguing that authorities should have closed it and another leveled hotel because they had been damaged by the first temblor.   Riot police used pepper spray to halt the protests.
The demonstration erupted as rescue workers with pickaxes and earth-movers searched for survivors of Wednesday night's magnitude-5.7 quake, which hit the same region slammed by a magnitude-7.2 temblor on Oct. 23 that left 600 people dead in the eastern province of Van.
   Some 28 people were pulled out of the rubble in the provincial capital, also called Van, as frantic rescue efforts began Wednesday evening and lasted through the night under high-powered lights. The fatalities occurred in the two collapsed hotels.
   Turkey's Anatolia agency said Miyazaki, of Japan's Association for Aid and Relief, Japan, died in a hospital after being dug out Thursday from the rubble of the five-story Bayram Hotel at the intersection of two main roads. Rescue workers performed CPR on him before taking him to the hospital.
    "We first heard a voice but could not determine whether it was that of a woman or a man. Then we opened a small hole in the concrete where we thought the voice came," a Turkish rescue worker told state-run TRT television. "When I checked inside with my hand, he suddenly grabbed my fingers. I will never forget that moment for the rest of my life."   TRT did not identify the rescue worker.
Miyazaki's 32-year-old female colleague, Miyuki Konnai, was rescued alive from the wreckage of the same hotel late Wednesday, and the aid group said she was in stable condition.
   "We spoke with her briefly, she is in a hospital," manager Ikuko Natori told The Associated Press by telephone from Tokyo. "She had a slight injury, but it is not life-threatening."

Yumeka Ota, a third worker who traveled to Turkey with Miyazaki and Konnai, had returned to Japan before the second quake.
    Some of those buried on Wednesday were Turkish journalists covering the aftermath of the first earthquake, which left thousands homeless as cold weather began to close in on the mountainous region.
The Japanese aid group that employed Miyazaki said his interest in international politics had led him to pursue a degree in conflict resolution studies in Britain. Prior to joining the group, he worked for a non-governmental organization that provides humanitarian aid in the Philippines.
    Turks paid tribute to Miyazaki on Twitter, calling him a benefactor and lamenting the fact that he died in a relatively weak earthquake compared to the massive one and tsunami that devastated Japan earlier this year.
Miyazaki had helped distribute meat this past week to quake survivors in Van province during Eid al-Adha, the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice, the daily Vatan newspaper said.
The Japanese workers had told locals that they were thankful for the Turkish support during the quake and tsunami disasters in Japan earlier this year, the paper said. Turkey had also sent aid workers to Japan.
   The Bayram Hotel survived the Oct. 23 quake with some cracks and a damaged elevator. But it toppled in the new, quake, trapping an undetermined number of people under tons of concrete and twisted metal.
The Aslan Hotel, a budget operation in Van, also collapsed.
    "How is it that these two buildings were not sealed off and were allowed to continue operating?" asked Osman Baydemir, a mayor for the southeastern city of Diyarbakir and a member of a pro-Kurdish opposition party. "The government must bring those responsible to account."
    Residents accused local authorities of not properly inspecting damaged buildings and called for the resignation of Gov. Munir Karaloglu, who arrived to tour the damage. Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay tried to talk to the protesters, but he angrily walked away as they booed the officials.
   Riot police then charged the crowd with batons, and some people fell in the melee. Police used pepper spray to disperse the protesters, but the gas also affected nearby rescue and health workers, the Hurriyet newspaper said on its website.
    Atalay said no one knows yet if officials had made a mistake by allowing the hotel to operate after the first quake, and urged patience until a full assessment is done. He said the latest quake knocked down 25 buildings in Van, but only two of those buildings, both hotels, were occupied.
    Tough safety codes were approved a decade ago after earthquakes in western Turkey killed 18,000 people and prompted an outcry over the poor quality of construction, but enforcement has remained lax. After last month's quake, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the negligence of municipalities, builders and supervisors over building codes amounted to murder.
   Two reporters from Turkey's Dogan news agency were still believed to be trapped in the hotel debris.
Recep Salci, a member of the search and rescue group Akut, said sniffer dogs had indicated that more survivors might be under the hotel rubble.
   Some trapped journalists had sent text messages to colleagues asking to be rescued, said Ozgur Gunes, a cameraman for Turkey's Cihan news agency. He had left the hotel before the quake, but rushed back to collect his camera after it struck, only to find that the building had collapsed.
    For the second time in a month, the government has dispatched hundreds of rescue workers to Van province. The October temblor destroyed at least 2,000 buildings in Van and in the worst-hit town of Ercis. About 1,400 aftershocks have rocked the region since then.
Many residents had been living in tents despite the cold, too afraid to return home.
   The latest earthquake measured 5.7 and its epicenter was 9 miles (16 kilometers) south of Van.
Dogan Kalafat of Istanbul's Kandilli observatory warned that more tremors could follow in the region, which is crisscrossed by many fault lines.

Asteroid To Narrrowly Miss Earth

An asteroid a quarter-mile-wide will, astronomically speaking, narrowly miss Earth next week And while it is the closest an asteroid this size has come to the home planet since 1976, there's no need to call Bruce Willis ... yet.

   "There is no chance that this object will collide with the Earth or moon," Don Yeomans, the manager of NASA's Near Earth Object Program office, told Reuters.
    But that doesn't mean the asteroid -- named 2005 YU55 -- won't be a threat to earth in the future.
Lance Benner, a research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a video from NASA that scientists haven't been able to reliably compute the asteroid's path beyond a couple of hundred years from now.
    At its closest point, the space rock will be about 201,700 miles (324,600 kilometers) away, which is 0.85 the distance between the moon and the Earth. NASA says that the asteroid will reach this point at 6:28 p.m. EST on Tuesday.
"In effect, it'll be moving straight at us from one direction, and then go whizzing by straight away from us in the other direction," Benner said.
    An asteroid this size -- which, according to Scientific American is larger than an aircraft carrier -- would cause widespread damage if it were to hit Earth, however. The Associated Press spoke to Jay Melosh, a professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Purdue University, who said that the asteroid would create a four-mile wide crater 1,700 feet deep. It could cause 70-foot tsunami waves and shake the ground like a magnitude-7 earthquake.
    Even though the asteroid will be inside the orbit of the moon, NASA said that the space rock's gravitational pull shouldn't have any "detectable effect" on Earth's tectonic plates or tides.
   Yeomans told HuffPost that the flyby will give astronomers a great view of 2005 YU55 and is an opportunity to do research into the asteroid's composition. He said that it's a C-Type asteroid, which means it contains carbon-based minerals which could potentially be used in future space exploration.
   "These objects are important for science ... they're potential resources for raw materials in space that we may wish to take advantage of some day," he said.
The New York Times reported last month on proposed fuel stations in space that one study says could put astronauts on an asteroid by 2024.

A Glimmer of Hope

ERCIS, Turkey -- After 48 hours, a miracle emerged from a narrow slit in rubble of a Turkish apartment building: a 2-week-old baby girl, half-naked but still breathing.

    Stoic rescue workers erupted in cheers and applause at her arrival - and later for her mother's and grandmother's rescues - happy news on otherwise grim day when the death toll from Sunday's earthquake climbed to at least 432 and desperate survivors fought over aid.

    The fact that three generations were saved in a dramatic operation was all the more remarkable because the infant, Azra Karaduman, was later declared healthy after being flown to a hospital in Ankara, the Turkish capital. "Bringing them out is such happiness. I wouldn't be happier if they gave me tons of money," said rescuer Oytun Gulpinar.
    Television footage showed rescuer Kadir Direk in an orange jumpsuit wriggling into a pile of concrete and metal – what was left from a five-story apartment block – and then wriggling out with the tiny Azra, clad only in a T-shirt.

    Praise be!" someone shouted. "Get out of the way!" another person yelled as the aid team and bystanders cleared a path to a waiting ambulance.

In a separate rescue later Tuesday, 10-year-old Serhat Gur was pulled from the rubble of another building after being trapped for 54 hours. He was wrapped in a blanket and taken to an ambulance on a stretcher, Turkish television showed.

     The pockets of jubilation were tempered by many more discoveries of bodies by thousands of aid workers in the worst-hit city of Ercis and other communities in eastern Turkey struck by the 7.2-magnitude earthquake. Some 2,000 buildings collapsed, but the fact that the tremor hit in daytime, when many people were out of their homes, averted an even worse disaster.

Close to 500 aftershocks have since rattled the area, according to Turkey's Kandilli seismology center, and one measuring 5.4-magnitude sent residents rushing into the streets in panic Tuesday.

    There was still no power or running water and aid distribution was disrupted as people stopped trucks even before they entered Ercis, grabbing tents and other supplies. Kanal D television showed people fighting over tents and blankets in some areas.

    Aid workers said they were able to find emergency housing for only about half the thousands of people who needed it. Most of the damage was in Ercis, but many buildings were also damaged in the provincial capital, Van, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) to the south.
    Authorities have warned survivors in the mainly Kurdish area not to enter damaged buildings and thousands were preparing to spend a third night outdoors, in cars or tents, in temperatures that were close to freezing.
    Some 1,300 people were injured in the quake. At least nine people were rescued on Tuesday, although many more bodies were discovered.
The rescued baby's mother, Semiha, and grandmother, Gulsaadet, were huddled together, with the baby clinging to her mother's shoulder when rescuers found them, Direk told The Associated Press.
    Hours after the infant was freed, the two others were pulled from the large, half-flattened building and rushed to ambulances as onlookers clapped and cheered. The mother had been semiconscious, but woke up when rescuers arrived, Direk said.
    Firefighters and rescuers ordered silence while they listened for noise from other possible survivors in the large 5-story apartment block, parts of which were being supported by a crane. Workers could not find the baby's father and there were no other signs of life, Direk said.
Direk, from the western city of Izmir, was chosen for the rescue because he was thinnest and was able to squeeze through the narrow corridor that workers had drilled, according to NTV television.
    He chatted with the mother while trying to get her out, at one point jokingly asking her to name the baby after his own son, Cagan.
"She replied that the baby was a girl, and that she wanted her named Azra," he said.
    The Hurriyet newspaper reported that the family live in Sivas in central Turkey but were visiting the girl's grandparents in Ercis.
Gerald Rockenshaub, disaster response manager at the World Health Organization, said the first 48 to 72 hours are crucial for rescues and the chances of finding survivors decreases significantly after that. He said people can survive without food for a week or so but having access to water was critical, especially for the elderly and infants.
    It was not clear if the mother was able to breast-fed Azra, but Rockenshaub said "if the mother was able to keep the baby warm by using her own body, that would be good enough."
    Earlier, 9-year-old Oguz Isler was rescued along with his sister and cousin, but he waited anxiously Tuesday at the same pile of debris that was his aunt's apartment block for news of his parents or other relatives buried inside.
Turkish rescue workers in bright orange overalls and Azerbaijani military rescuers in camouflage uniforms searched through the debris, using excavators, picks and shovels. Dogs sniffed for possible survivors in gaps that opened up as their work progressed.
    "They should send more people," Oguz said as an elder cousin comforted him.
Mehmet Ali Hekimoglu, a medic, said the dogs indicated that there were three or four people inside the building, but it was not known if they were alive.
Oguz, his sister and a cousin were trapped in the building's third-floor stairway as they tried to escape when the quake hit. A steel door fell over him.
    "I fell on the ground face down. When I tried to move my head, it hit the door," he said. "I tried to get out and was able to open a gap with my fists in the wall but could not move my body further. The wall crumbled quickly when I hit it."
"We started shouting: 'Help! We're here,'" he said.
    They were pulled out over eight hours later.
"They took me out last because I was in good shape and the door was protecting me. I was hearing stones falling on it," the boy said. "I still have a headache, but the doctor said I was fine."
Hundreds of rescue teams from throughout Turkey rushed to the area, while Turkish Red Crescent dispatched tents and blankets and set up soup kitchens. But residents said more help was needed.
    "The aid is coming in but we're not getting it. We need more police, soldiers," resident Baran Gungor said.
Tents were erected in two stadiums but many preferred to stay close to their homes for news of the missing or to ward off possible looters.
    Turkey lies in one of the world's most active seismic zones and is crossed by numerous fault lines. In 1999, two earthquakes with a magnitude of more than 7 struck northwestern Turkey, killing about 18,000 people.
Istanbul, the country's largest city with more than 12 million people, lies in northwestern Turkey near a major fault line, and experts say tens of thousands could be killed if a major quake struck there.

7.2 Quake In Turkey Near Ercis Causes Death, Damage

A 7.2 earthquake has struck Eastern Turkey, making it the most powerful earthquake to hit the country in ten years. The quake was felt in the provinces of Diyarbakir, Erzurum, Siirt, Mus and Agri.
    The USGS reports that a second earthquake of 6.0 magnitude, this time in Eastern Turkey.

ANKARA, Turkey — Cries of panic and horror filled the air as a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey, killing at least 88 people as buildings pancaked and crumpled into rubble. Tens of thousands fled into the streets running, screaming or trying to reach relatives on cell phones as apartment and office buildings cracked or collapsed. As the full extent of the damage became clear, survivors dug in with shovels or even their bare hands, desperately trying to rescue the trapped and the injured.

    "My wife and child are inside! My 4-month-old baby is inside!" CNN-Turk television showed one young man sobbing outside a collapsed building in Van, the provincial capital.

     The hardest hit area was Ercis, an eastern city of 75,000 close to the Iranian border, which lies on one of Turkey's most earthquake-prone zones. The bustling city of Van, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) to the south, also sustained substantial damage. Highways in the area caved in and Van's airport was damaged, forcing flights to be diverted.

    TRT television reported that 59 people were killed and 150 injured in Ercis, 25 others died in Van and four people, including a child, died in the nearby province of Bitlis. It said at least nine people were pulled out of debris alive.

    Up to 80 buildings collapsed in Ercis, including a dormitory, and 10 buildings collapsed in Van, the Turkish Red Crescent said. Some highways also caved in.

    Authorities advised people to stay away from any damaged homes, warning they could collapse in the aftershocks. U.S. scientists recorded over 100 aftershocks in eastern Turkey within ten hours of the quake, including one with a magnitude of 6.0. Residents in Van and Ercis lit camp fires, preparing to spend the night outdoors while the Red Crescent began setting up tents in a stadium. Others fled to seek shelter with relatives in nearby villages.

    Rescue efforts went deep into the night under generator-powered floodlights. Workers tied steel rods around large concrete slabs in Van, then lifted them with heavy machinery.

Residents sobbed outside the ruins of one flattened eight-story building, hoping that missing relatives would be found. Witnesses said eight people were pulled from the rubble, but frequent aftershocks hampered search efforts. By late evening, some joy emerged as a ninth, a teenage girl, was pulled out alive.

    Around 1,275 rescue teams from 38 provinces were being sent to the region, officials said, and troops were also assisting search-and-rescue efforts.

In Ercis, heavy machinery stopped working and people were ordered to keep silent as rescuers tried to listen for possible survivors inside a seven-story building housing 28 families, NTV reported.

   Some inmates escaped a prison in Van after one of its walls collapsed. TRT television said around 150 inmates had fled, but a prison official said the number was much smaller and many later returned.
    Many buildings also collapsed in the district of Celebibag, near Ercis, including student dormitories, hotels and gas stations.

   "There are many people under the rubble," Veysel Keser, the mayor of Celebibag, told NTV. "People are in agony, we can hear their screams for help."

  Nazmi Gur, a legislator from Van, said his nephew's funeral ceremony was cut short due to the quake and he rushed back to help.
   "We managed to rescue a few people, but I saw at least five bodies," Gur told The Associated Press."It was such a powerful temblor. It lasted for such a long time,"
  "But now we have no electricity, there is no heating, everyone is outside in the cold," he added.
    Authorities had no information yet on remote villages but the governor was touring the region by helicopter and the government sent in tents, field kitchens and blankets.
The earthquake also shook buildings in neighboring Armenia and Iran.

    In the Armenian capital of Yerevan, 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Ercis, people rushed into the streets in fear but no damage or injuries were reported. Armenia was the site of a devastating earthquake in 1988 that killed 25,000 people.

    Sunday's quake caused panic in several Iranian towns close to the Turkish border and caused cracks in buildings in the city of Chaldoran, Iranian state TV reported.
Leaders around the world conveyed their condolences and offered assistance.
    "We stand shoulder to shoulder with our Turkish ally in this difficult time, and are ready to assist," President Barack Obama said.
  Israeli President Shimon Peres telephoned Turkish President Abdullah Gul to offer assistance.
    "Israel shares in your sorrow," Peres said in a statement. "Israel is ready to render any assistance that may be required anywhere in Turkey, at any time."
    The offer came despite a rift in relations following an 2010 Israeli navy raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that left nine Turks dead. Greece, which has a deep dispute with Turkey over the divided island of Cyprus, also offered to send in a special earthquake rescue team.
    Turkey lies in one of the world's most active seismic zones and is crossed by numerous fault lines. In 1999, two earthquakes with a magnitude of more than 7 struck northwestern Turkey, killing about 18,000 people.
    More recently, a 6.0-magnitude quake in March 2010 killed 51 people in eastern Turkey, while in 2003, a 6.4-magnitude earthquake killed 177 people in the southeastern city of Bingol.
    Istanbul, the country's largest city with more than 12 million people, lies in northwestern Turkey near a major fault line. Experts have warned that overcrowding and shoddy construction in Istanbul could kill tens of thousands if a major earthquake struck.