Saudi Arabia: Explosion topples building, burns cars ( video)

An explosion in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia killed 23 people, Thursday. Dozens more were injured in the blast. The fire has been contained, officials say.

By Angus McDowall,?Reuters / November 1, 2012

Saudi civil defence members extinguish a fire after an explosion which severely damaged an industrial building in eastern Riyadh. The explosion killed at least 23 people.

REUTERS/Mohammed Mashhor

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At least 23 people were killed when a fuel truck crashed into a flyover in the Saudi?capital?Riyadh?on Thursday, triggering an explosion that brought down an industrial building and set fire to nearby vehicles.

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'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // --> At least 22 people were killed and dozens injured when a fuel truck crashed into a flyover in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Thursday, triggering an explosion that brought down an industrial building, Saudi state television reported.

State-owned Ekhbariya television news channel reported on that the death toll had risen to 23 and emergency workers were still searching the collapsed building for more victims or survivors. Health ministry spokesman?Saad al-Qahtani?said 135 people were injured, mostly men and including some foreigners.

Although the incident took place near the headquarters of the?Saudi Arabian National Guard?and the Prince Nayef Arab University for Security Studies, officials speaking on state television said it was an accident.

Neither the guards' complex nor the security university appeared to be damaged in the blast, which flattened a showroom for tractors, bulldozers and other industrial vehicles as well as damaging a busy flyover.

U.S. ally Saudi Arabia?is seen as a prime target for the al Qaeda branch based in neighbouring?Yemen?but the last successful attack inside the conservative Islamic kingdom was in 2006.?Riyadh?has cracked down on Islamist militants over the past decade, detaining thousands of suspects.

The civil defence department said a gas tanker had hit the?Khureis Road flyover?in eastern?Riyadh, causing a gas leak and an explosion in the?Zahid Tractor?company's showroom and warehouse, according to the state news agency SPA.

"The truck driver was surprised by a road accident on its route, causing it to crash into one of the pillars of the bridge," spokesman Captain?Mohamed Hubail Hammadi?said.

Driver blamed

The civil defence chief,?Saed al-Tweijri, said the fire had been brought under control. He blamed the tanker driver for the accident.

The warehouse, several storeys high, was levelled by the blast, which also caused severe damage to neighbouring buildings. Rubble, twisted metal and shattered glass littered a wide stretch of the surrounding area.

"I was inside the building when the blast came. Then boom, the building collapsed. Furniture, chairs and cabinets blasted into the room I was in," said survivor?Kushnoo Akhtar, a 55-year-old Pakistani worker, who was covered in dirt and bleeding from multiple cuts on his face and hands.

"My brother is still inside under the rubble. There are lots of people in there," he said.

The blast at around 7:20 a.m. local time occurred on one of the capital's busiest roads but because Saudi?Arabia?is still observing the Eid al-Adha holiday, traffic was lighter than normal.

An hour after the explosion, fires still raged in cars and trucks nearby and a column of black smoke billowed over the area.

By Thursday evening state television was still showing a large emergency operation at the site as workers picked through the flattened building with the aid of digging machinery.

Dozens of burnt-out vehicles surrounded the scene of the blast, including a small bus and other cars on top of the flyover, which was left buckled by the explosion.

Television footage and pictures posted on social media showed a body lying beside smoking vehicles and at least two charred bodies seated in a car. Another blackened corpse was visible in the remains of a truck.

More than 100 emergency personnel were combing through the wreckage on the flyover and searching for victims in the rubble of the building, one of two?Riyadh?outlets listed on the website of?Zahid Tractor, a distributor of heavy machinery.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/xhYz45JlSi8/Saudi-Arabia-Explosion-topples-building-burns-cars-video

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Interactive slideshow: Before, after on Jersey shore

>> if you're from new jersey, it has proven best to be loud and proud about it because there have been just too many jokes over the years. then came the tv show that made all of us who are actually from the jersey shore have to defend the jersey shore all over again. sadly in the face of this oncoming storm, turned out there was nothing that could defend our beloved shoreline which has been staggered, badly shaken and just plain rearranged. if you've already started hearing comparisons to katrina, there's a reason for it. things are starting to look and feel like a deep, long-haul disaster. the grisly business of finding bodies, the daily realization that the face of the earth has changed, especially along the jersey shore . this is the new contour of the jersey shore . and right where we are is the borderline between two towns which have been in the news, bayhead to the north. six miles down is seaside heights , new jersey, almost impossible to see what's left of the ferris wheel and the amusement tower. from seaside heights , new jersey, this is what we found on the beach, one of the 57 chevy replicas that was part of the ride. the ocean gave this quite a ride. but just pause and think about the number of 4 and 5-year-olds who got their first thrill on a carnival ride at the beach right in this front seat with the safety bar down to protect them. there are two kinds of damage along the jersey shore . these are the first pictures taken from beach level of some of the fanciest sections. one of these houses was valued at $13 million the day before the storm arrived. and these were some of the nicest beachfront properties anywhere on the east coast . then there's the jersey shore we all experienced as kids, the boardwalk where everybody in this area went, starting where we were yesterday in point pleasant beach. i first walked these boards holding my dad's hands when i was a little kid. and now i bring my kids back on weekends in the summer and that's the way it is here.

>> it is, it is. it's a great location to go to. look at the beach. it's a huge beach. and the boards are actually wooden boards. you smell the wood of the boardwalk, the salt of the ocean. it's great.

>> reporter: and it will be great again.

>> it will, exactly.

>> reporter: american flags are big here. this is just one before-and-after view from one beachfront porch. the flags are all gone along with the earth. so if you still have your flag, it's a big deal as it was for bill mullins yesterday who we witnessed holding his own flag-raising ceremony.

>> they could i not before i go back north put the flag up.

>> reporter: good man.

>> jersey shore is still here. we'll be back, no doubt about it.

>> reporter: a brief moment of joy and strength in a state where so many people are hurting. and if you ever think that all governors do is veto spending bills and open new industrial parks, take a moment and listen to what yesterday was like for governor chris christie in just one flooded new jersey town.

>> i can't get anything done.

>> reporter: one piece at a time, all right?

>> thank you.

>> it's all ruined down there. every house, ruined!

>> reporter: this entire region is still in shock. when you start to think it's going to get better, you suddenly remember it's going to take a long time. and it's never going to be normal again. people and places are gone in a place that we trusted with a lot of our summertime memories. luckily we know some of them will be back. and on top of everything we've seen all day, this may be the saddest sight of all. that's because this is hoffman's. and every weekend all summer long, this is where you end up if you're from this part of the jersey shore . like everybody else , you've told yourself all day, even during dinner, you're going to be strong, tonight's the night you're not going to do it. but you end up here. this place is packed with families, saturday night, sunday night, all summer long. they go in, get a number, come out here and think about their ice cream order. that's why it's such a sad sight with no power, no lights, a curfew on the streets. and that is why perhaps the folks at hoffman's took it upon themselves to urge all the rest of us to stay strong. discussing

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49646622/ns/weather/

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Google pulls back the curtain on its new voice search, sums it up in this graph

Google pulls back the curtain on its new voice search

Google has revealed just how it harnesses your idle curiosity on every subject imaginable to supercharge its voice search. A database of 230 billion googled words was fed into a language model that can then work out the probability of what you're going to say next. Mountain View researcher Ciprian Chelba explained that one example of this is if you say "New York," you're statistically more likely to say "Pizza" than "Granola," regardless of any new year's resolutions. If you'd like to learn more, you can find the algebra-packed original paper down at the source link.

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Google pulls back the curtain on its new voice search, sums it up in this graph originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Nov 2012 15:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/BjERaAmCDzs/

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Some Muslim clerics say Sandy is God's punishment

CAIRO (AP) ? Some anti-American Muslim clerics have cast the deadly Superstorm Sandy as divine punishment for a film mocking the Prophet Muhammad or for other perceived ills of American society.

The remarks by some on the fringe brought a backlash from other Muslims who said it was wrong to relish the suffering of others.

In Egypt, one radical cleric described the hurricane as revenge from God for the crude, anti-Islam film made in the U.S. that sparked waves of protests in the Muslim world in September.

"Some people wonder about the hurricane in America and its causes," Egyptian hardline cleric Wagdi Ghoneim tweeted twice this week in the aftermath of the storm. "In my opinion, it is revenge from God for the beloved prophet," he added, alluding to the film.

Some praised the post, but others condemned it.

"God, shake the earth under their feet," read one comment, prompting the response: "We have brothers and friends in America ? I don't wish them any harm."

Another Twitter response to Ghoneim compared Sandy to a divine wind sent to destroy a sinful nation and strike at the seat of the United Nations in New York.

"We ask God to destroy the U.N. building for its injustice, corruption, tyranny ... with Sandy."

But this was followed by a stream of outrage.

"This hashtag doesn't represent Muslims but represents a terrorist. We all ask God to help and save Americans," read one post.

In Saudi Arabia, prominent cleric Salman al-Audah said the storm, which killed more than 140 people, was a wake-up call for Americans to convert to Islam.

Reactions to the hurricane in the kingdom prompted Grand Mufti Abdel Aziz Al Sheik to warn in an interview that rejoicing over plight of the suffering runs contrary to Islam, adding that Muslims were among the victims.

"It is not legitimate and it is not proper," he told pan-Arab Al-Hayat daily on Thursday.

In Iran, prominent clerics often avoid drawing parallels between natural disasters and divine intervention because their own country has faced devastating earthquakes, such as one in 2003 that killed 26,000 when it hit the ancient city of Bam.

On Wednesday, the Iranian Red Crescent said aid workers were ready to fly to New York to help with recovery efforts, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported. Mahmud Mozaffar, head of Red Crescent's rescue operations, said the Iranian groups had "ample experience" in dealing with natural catastrophes.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/muslim-clerics-sandy-gods-punishment-214043786.html

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Assassin's Creed III gets midnight launch - Video Games | Games ...

Assassin's Creed III was launched last night as a midnight extravaganza with much fanfare. We visited Federation of Gamers store in Delhi, the only store in North India to host the midnight launch, where we found the venue occupied by droves of fans of the franchise. We found that there were many women in the crowd too, something that the gaming scene is not really used to.

Once the shutters were raised to the store (about 10 minutes to midnight), fans were greeted by the Assassin Connor himself, or rather a store employee dressed quite impressively like Connor.

The midnight launch, though open to the general public, was especially geared to appease the fanboys who had pre-ordered their copies of the game for the Xbox 360 or the PS3. The perks of being an early bird involved not just the game itself, but also free DLC codes along with free merchandise like T-shirts, posters, flags and Tomahawks. The game was also offered at a discounted price.

While the people with their pre-orders were appeased with the ton of freebies and the impressive cosplay, the good people at Federation of Gamers has also setup several consoles to run Assassin's Creed III so that anyone and everyone could get a taste of the game, maybe in the hopes of luring in people who haven't taken to the game yet.

Assassin's Creed III is set between the 1753-1783 time period, which was before, during and after the American Civil War. The game sees historical characters like George Washington and Benajmin Franklin also make an appearance, while one of the DLCs especially focusses on what would have happened if George Washington had given into the temptation of infinite power.

The PS3 version of the game includes about 60 minutes of extra gameplay that is excluded from the Xbox 360 version. Both the versions can be purchased from stores now for Rs. 2,799.

Source: http://www.thinkdigit.com/Gaming/Assassins-Creed-III-gets-midnight-launch_11204.html

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'Voice of the Customer: Trick or Treat for Your Product Launch ...

?Voice of the Customer: Trick or Treat for Your Product Launch?? ? ?MarketingProfs? Blog

Tim Riesterer?s latest article on ?MarketingProfs? is titled ?Voice of the Customer: Trick or Treat for Your Product Launch??.

Riesterer?says, ?Have you heard of the phenomenon of ?declared preference? versus ?revealed preference?? If you haven?t, you may be in for a scary surprise this Halloween season if you are using voice of the customer (VOC) research to drive the positioning and messaging for your product launch.

I was recently invited to help a company that had suffered the indignity of a failed product launch. The folks there gave me pages upon pages of focus group results and customer interviews to help me get up to speed on its product?.

Voice of the Customer: Trick or Treat for Your Product Launch?

MarketingProfs

Source: http://www.imnewswatch.com/2012/10/29/voice-of-the-customer-trick-or-treat-for-your-product-launch-marketingprofs-blog/

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Video: Political Ads bring up the rape debate

A Second Take on Meeting the Press: From an up-close look at Rachel Maddow's sneakers to an in-depth look at Jon Krakauer's latest book ? it's all fair game in our "Meet the Press: Take Two" web extra. Log on Sundays to see David Gregory's post-show conversations with leading newsmakers, authors and roundtable guests. Videos are available on-demand by 12 p.m. ET on Sundays.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/vp/49587965#49587965

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