6.4-magnitude quake hits Southern California: USGS
Los Angeles: A 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit Southern California on Thursday at 10:33 am (17:33 GMT) near the Searles Valley in San Bernardino County, the United States Geological Survey said.
The shallow quake struck at a depth of 5.4 miles (8.7 kilometers) in the vast desert region, lasting multiple seconds with residents as far away as Los Angeles saying they felt the tremor.
It is not yet clear if the earthquake caused major damage, but USGS seismologist Rob Graves said that "this earthquake is large enough that the shaking could have caused damage."
The San Bernardino County Fire Department reported no injuries on Twitter, but stated that "buildings and roads have sustained varying degrees of damage."
It added that there were multiple "buildings with minor cracks; broken water mains; power lines down; rock slides on certain roads. No injuries/fires."
"We will continue having a lot of aftershocks," CalTech seismologist Lucy Jones told a press conference, adding that dozens had already occurred and that some may be as strong as magnitude five.
Los Angeles International Airport said that runways were unharmed, with operations continuing as normal.
The city's police reported on Twitter that they had not "received any reports of damage or calls for service within the City of Los Angeles related to the #earthquake."
While California is the most-populous state in the US, the quake was located in a sparsely populated portion of the Mojave Desert.
Jones added that there is a small possibility that this quake was the prelude for a larger tremor.
"There is about a one-in-20 chance that this location will be having an even bigger earthquake within the next few days, that we have not yet seen the biggest earthquake of the sequence," she said.
Celebrities in Los Angeles were quick to react to the trembling.
"Been living in Los Angeles all my life," filmmaker Ava DuVernay wrote on Twitter. "That was the longest earthquake I've ever experienced. Not jerky. Smooth and rolling. But it was loooong.
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Broken relationships don't automatically amount to abetment of suicide: SC
New Delhi (PTI): Broken relationships, while emotionally distressing, do not automatically amount to abetment of suicide in the absence of intention leading to the criminal offence, the Supreme Court on Friday said.
The observations came from a bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and Ujjal Bhuyan in a judgement, which overturned the conviction of one Kamaruddin Dastagir Sanadi by the Karnataka High Court for the offences of cheating and abetment of suicide under the IPC.
"This is a case of a broken relationship, not criminal conduct," the judgment said.
Sanadi was initially charged under Sections 417 (cheating), 306 (abetment of suicide), and 376 (rape) of the IPC.
While the trial court acquitted him of all the charges, the Karnataka High Court, on the state's appeal, convicted him of cheating and abetment of suicide, sentencing him to five years imprisonment and imposing Rs 25,000 in fine.
According to the FIR registered at the mother's instance, her 21-year-old daughter was in love with the accused for the past eight years and died by suicide in August, 2007, after he refused to keep his promise to marry.
Writing a 17-page judgement, Justice Mithal analysed the two dying declarations of the woman and noted that neither was there any allegation of a physical relationship between the couple nor there was any intentional act leading to the suicide.
The judgement therefore underlined broken relationships were emotionally distressing, but did not automatically amount to criminal offences.
"Even in cases where the victim dies by suicide, which may be as a result of cruelty meted out to her, the courts have always held that discord and differences in domestic life are quite common in society and that the commission of such an offence largely depends upon the mental state of the victim," said the apex court.
The court further said, "Surely, until and unless some guilty intention on the part of the accused is established, it is ordinarily not possible to convict him for an offence under Section 306 IPC.”
The judgement said there was no evidence to suggest that the man instigated or provoked the woman to die by suicide and underscored a mere refusal to marry, even after a long relationship, did not constitute abetment.
