Small earthquake shakes South Korea agricultural region
Seoul (AP): A 4.1-magnitude earthquake shook a small agricultural county in South Korea's central region on Saturday, but officials said there were no immediate reports of damage.
South Korea's weather agency said the small earthquake in the town of Goesan was still the strongest of the 61 quakes that have occurred in the country this year and would have been powerful enough to topple objects or break windows.
Emergency officials have received more than 140 calls from residents saying they felt the ground shaking. The calls were mostly from the central North Chungcheong province but also from Gyeonggi province surrounding the capital, Seoul, and the southern North and South Gyeongsang provinces, according to the weather agency and government officials.
Central government and North Chungcheong provincial officials said they weren't aware of any damage.
Kim Dong-wook, a resident in the central city of Chungju, told news channel YTN that he heard rumblings in the ground and that windows rattled like during a typhoon. He said he saw plates and bowls scattered across the floor of a restaurant in the building where he lives but he didn't know of anyone being hurt.
The office of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said he instructed officials to also review the safety of electricity and telecommunication systems, although there were no immediate reports of problems.
South Korea's Nuclear Safety and Security Commission said the earthquake didn't pose a threat to the safety of nuclear power reactors in the country's southeastern regions. It also said the earthquake didn't affect a research reactor in the central city of Daejeon, which is about 70 kilometers (43 miles) from where the quake occurred.
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Don't give special treatment, biryani to Rana: Tea seller who helped 26/11 victims
Mumbai (PTI): A tea seller who helped many people escape the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks has said accused Tahawwur Rana should not be given any special treatment, like biryani or a separate cell, and demanded that he be hanged to death.
Talking to PTI, Mohammed Taufiq, also known as 'Chotu Chai Wala', also demanded stricter laws in the country to deal with terrorists.
Taufiq was operating his tea stall at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) in south Mumbai when it came under attack from terrorists in November 2008. He recounted seeing people dying in front of his eyes during the assault.
He had then alerted a large number of people, guided them towards a safe direction at the station to escape from the attack and rushed many of the injured persons to hospital.
"There is no need to provide a separate cell, or biryani and other facilities to Tahawwur Rana, like those given to Ajmal Kasab (the lone terrorist from the Pakistani group captured alive)," Taufiq said.
Notably, Kasab's demand for mutton biryani in jail was just a myth and was "concocted" to stop an "emotional wave" which was being created in favour of the militant, Ujjwal Nikam, public prosecutor in the case, said in 2015.
"Kasab never demanded biryani and was never served by the government. I concocted it just to break an emotional atmosphere which was taking shape in favour of Kasab during the trial of the case," Nikam had said.
Tahawwur Rana, 64, is being brought to India after his last-ditch attempt to evade extradition failed as the US Supreme Court justices rejected his application. He is expected to reach New Delhi on Thursday.
He is likely to be lodged in a high-security ward in Tihar jail in New Delhi when he reaches India.
Taufiq expressed gratitude to the US government and President Donald Trump for extraditing Rana to India.
"There should be a strict law in India also for terrorists. Rana being brought to India is a good news for us, but he should be hanged publicly within 15 days or in two-three months," the tea seller said.
"There is no need to give any special treatment to such people and spend crores of rupees on them like we did on Kasab. I will celebrate once Rana is given death penalty. He should be hanged to death before anyone tries to save him," Taufiq said.
The government has provided help to the victims but money cannot bring back anyone's life, he added.
On November 26, 2008, a group of 10 Pakistani terrorists went on a rampage, carrying out a coordinated attack on the CSMT, two luxury hotels and a Jewish centre, after they sneaked into India's financial capital using the sea route in the Arabian Sea.
As many as 166 persons were killed in the nearly 60-hour terror assault.
Rana is a Pakistan-born Canadian national and close associate of one of the main conspirators of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks David Coleman Headley alias Daood Gilani, a US citizen.
Kasab was hanged to death in Pune's Yerawada Jail in 2012.
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