Northern Argentina hit by 6.4 quake; some buildings evacuated, but no major damage or injuries

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — A magnitude-6.4 earthquake struck north-central Argentina Friday, shaking things up enough to cause evacuations in the capital and be felt in much of the country’s population centers. But people living near the epicenter didn’t even notice it.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit 80 miles (130 kilometers) southeast of Santiago del Estero, a provincial capital of 250,000 people and the 12th-largest city in Argentina. Magnitude-6 earthquakes can cause severe damage, but this one was centered nearly 400 miles (600 kilometers) below the surface — so far underground that its effects were minimized.

The shaking Friday prompted people to spill out of the San Isidro courts building in Buenos Aires province, nearly 500 miles (800 kilometers) from the epicenter, and people in tall buildings said they felt their furniture shake in the northeastern city of Rosario, but it was hardly noticed in Santiago del Estero.

“There hasn’t been any kind of damage or injuries here,” said the city’s civil defense chief, Daniel Pikaluk. “Maybe it was so deep that the aftershocks were felt more far away then close in. Here there were just a few people who said they felt a little dizzy, that’s all.”

The temblor also went unnoticed even closer to the epicenter.

“We didn’t hear or feel a thing,” said Daniel Ledesma, who owns the 32-room Hotel Avenida in Anatuya, a small town just 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the epicenter.

Source: The Associated Press

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Message from Anonymous to Buenos Aires People

Dear People from Buenos Aires, this is Anonymous. On Sunday you have the power to vote. You may terminate a government that illegally spied on you. The same happened with Murdoch should happen to Macri. You can do Justice with vote. Don´t let govern a person that hits poor (UCEP). Don´t let govern a person that does not govern for the people, but does so for economic power.

Macri is a U.S. lackey - Read about this Wikileaks leak proving this.

You have the power. USE IT WELL TOMORROW!

We are Anonymous.

We are Legion.

We do not forgive.

We do not forget.

Expect us Buenos Aires!

Source: AnonOps

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KFC to stop using palm oil

Fast food chain KFC is to stop frying chicken in palm oil.

The company says it is removing the vegetable oil from deep fat friers to gain a "double benefit" by reducing climate change and heart disease.

Used widely as a cooking oil, palm oil employs hundreds of thousands of people in developing countries but has a poor health and environmental record. Forests in Indonesia and Malaysia have been cut down to make way for plantations and the oil is high in artery-clogging saturated fat.

From this month KFC will use high oleic rapeseed oil at its 800 outlets in UK and Ireland, at an estimated cost of £1m a year.

The move will cut levels of saturated fat in its chicken by 25 per cent, according to the company.

Mark Bristow, head of KFC food assurance said: "Switching to high oleic rapeseed oil means not only can we offer our customers the benefit of reduced saturated fats, but the assurance we're doing everything we can to lessen our impact on the environment."

KFC added: "The global expansion of the palm oil industry has been a contributor to the destruction of tropical rainforests and peat lands to make way for palm oil plantations, which has inadvertently caused large amounts of greenhouse gases being pushed into the atmosphere."

KFC will still use palm oil in fries, buns, tortillas and hash browns, but said it had begun talks with suppliers aimed at getting them to switch to alternatives or source only sustainably-certified palm oil.

Since the The Independent disclosed palm oil's role in deforestation two years ago, many retailers and manufacturers have agreed to buy supplies certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.

Campaigners want the European Union to force food firms to list palm oil as an ingredient because it is often listed as ‘vegetable oil' on packs.

Click here to read about Call4.org's campaign to press for palm oil legislation

Source: The Independent (Original Post)

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