July 22 tsunami, quake warning just a prank

By Emmanuelle Landais Staff Reporter
Published: June 28, 2009, 23:14

Dubai: Bathers and coastal residents need not worry about an e-mail that was circulated on the internet warning of a tsunami that would take place on July 22, 2009. It's a hoax.

Gulf News reader Fatima Lamya, received the e-mail forwarded to her by a cousin. "I was actually 99 per cent sure that this mail is fake. I was not scared. I got this mail from my cousin and I think he got this from his friend. Many fake news is spreading like this," she said.

The e-mail appears to come from someone sincere and caring.

"I just wanted to let you know that please stay away from the beaches all around in the month of July. There is a prediction that there will be another tsunami or earthquake hitting on 22 July 2009. It is also when there will be sun eclipse," reads the e-mail.

According to a forecaster at the Dubai Meteorological Office, predictions like this are totally unreliable as the weather cannot be forecast that far into the future.

"It sounds like a complete load of rubbish. You cannot predict so far ahead and tsunamis are not linked to sun eclipses," the forecaster said.

The e-mail states that Malaysia including Sabah and Sarawak, Singapore, Maldives, Australia, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines are going to be badly hit.

Several websites which serve to quash rumours and suppress urban legends have posted confirmations that the tsunami warning is a hoax.

Snopes.com concludes that scientists who have spent their whole lives studying earthquakes still cannot predict when and where one will hit. Snopes.com says the e-mail started circulating in April 2009 and has been taken from a blog.

Giant wave: Looking back

On December 26, 2004, an undersea earthquake with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia triggered a series of tsunami along the coast of most land masses bordering the Indian Ocean, killing more than 225,000 people in 11 countries.

The tremor, known as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, is the second largest earthquake ever recorded with a magnitude of between 9.1 and 9.3.

Michael Jackson's funeral to be open to the public.

Plans for Michael Jackson's funeral are slowly coming together. His father, Joe Jackson, announced that the memorial will be large and open to the public. No doubt the turnout for the ceremony will be extraordinary. If there's one thing Michael Jackson's death has proven, it's that his fans and all those who loved him have not gotten less loyal over the years.

Speaking at a press conference, Joe Jackson revealed that as of yet, there is no date for the funeral as the family is not planning to set a date until they know exactly how Michael died. A first autopsy proved inconclusive, and the family is now awaiting the results of a second one. Said Joe Jackson, "We aren't ready for [releasing information on the funeral.] We don't have the time frame yet because we want to see when the private autopsy comes out."

Addressing Michael Jackson's fans he said, "The family and I are very proud to see all of you come out here and help us with this whole situation because we know that we do have fans all over the world and we know that we're loved all over the world. But one thing that I wish could have happened - I wish that Michael could be here to see all of this. [We] had to wait until something happened like this before it could be realized. Michael was a superstar... he was loved all over the world."

Joe Jackson also addressed the criticism he's received for plugging his record label on Sunday night while being interviewed on the red carpet at the BET awards. In response to some people's criticisms that it was the wrong time and place for such a plug, Jackson said, "Now I was asked that question and I answered just like it was asked because they wanted to know what else I was doing." Because we do believe Joe Jackson is genuinely in mourning, we'll bite our tongues.

Bill Clinton

I like this guy.He makes love,not war!Probably the best US President in modern history.

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III, August 19, 1946) served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office. He became president at the end of the Cold War, and as he was born in the period after World War II, he is known as the first Baby Boomer president. His wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is currently the United States Secretary of State. She was previously a United States Senator from New York, and also candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008. Both are graduates of Yale Law School.

Clinton was described as a New Democrat and was largely known for the Third Way philosophy of governance that came to epitomize his two terms as president. His policies, on issues such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and welfare reform, have been described as centrist. Clinton presided over the longest period of peace-time economic expansion in American history, which included a balanced budget and a reported federal surplus. Based on Congressional accounting rules, at the end of his presidency Clinton reported a surplus of $559 billion. On the heels of a failed attempt at health care reform with a Democratic Congress,Republicans won control of the House of Representatives for the first time in forty years. Two years later, in 1996, Clinton was re-elected and became the first member of the Democratic Party since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second term as president. Later he was impeached for obstruction of justice, but was subsequently acquitted by the U.S. Senate.

Clinton left office with an approval rating at 66%, the highest end of office rating of any president since World War II. Since then, he has been involved in public speaking and humanitarian work. Clinton created the William J. Clinton Foundation to promote and address international causes such as treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS and global warming.

In 2004, he released his autobiography, My Life, and more recently has been involved in his wife Hillary's 2008 presidential campaignand in that of President Barack Obama. In 2009, he was named United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti.