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At least six people are dead and several seriously injured after a powerful 8.2 magnitude earthquake struck off Chile’s northern coast Tuesday night. In addition to the loss of life, the quake caused fires, landslides that blocked roads, and set off a small tsunami that forced an evacuation of coastal areas. U.S. Geological Survey reported that the earthquake struck 60 miles northwest of the Chilean city of Iquique at 8:46 p.m., hitting a region that has been rocked by numerous quakes over the past two weeks. The quake was so strong that the shaking experienced in Bolivia’s capital about 290 miles away was the equivalent of a 4.5-magnitude tremor. At least eight strong aftershocks hit Chile’s coastal cities in the first few hours following the main tremor, with one measuring at a 6.7 magnitude. The Chilean government has announced a declaration of disaster in the regions of Tarapaca, Arica and Parinacota aimed at "avoiding instances of looting and disorder.” This announcement comes after some 300 women inmates had escaped from a prison in Iquique. As of Wednesday morning only 26 have been recaptured. Chile is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries. The strongest earthquake ever recorded on Earth also happened in Chile — a magnitude-9.5 tremor in 1960 that killed more than 5,000 people. Hundreds of earthquakes have shaken Chile’s far-northern coast in the past two weeks, keeping people on edge as scientists said there was no way to tell if the unusual string of tremors was a harbinger of an impending disaster.
In Other News • President Obama announced Tuesday that 7.1 million Americans have signed up for health plans under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare and have met the government’s goal. The president said in this most recent announcement that “Obamacare is here to stay.” • NATO foreign ministers have agreed to suspend all practical civilian and military co-operation with Russia, agreeing that Russia's illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region was the gravest threat to European security for a generation. The only operations that will still contine between Russia and NATO is dialogue as necessary at the ambassadorial level concerning Crimea and the related crisis. NATO is also looking at options including situating permanent military bases in the Baltic states to reassure members in Eastern Europe. Russia's actions in Ukraine have caused concern in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which were part of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. • A 17-year-old Long Island student has applied to and was accepted at all eight Ivy League schools. Kwasi Enin, a senior at William Floyd High School applied to and was accepted to Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Yale and the University of Pennsylvania. He scored 2,250 out of 2,400 on the SAT. That places him in the 99th percentile for all students taking the exam. Kwasi has not officially decided which school he will be attending, but has stated he is looking more closely at Yale.
