Newswriting Assignment

EARTHQUAKE STORY
Alaska-A strong earthquake shoot three Aleutian Island finishing villages, Nikolski, Dutch Harbor and Unalaska for three minutes during 7:01 p.m. PST, Sunday night. Alaska Tsunami Warning Center reported it measured 6.6 on Richter scale. Earthquake of 6.6 magnitudes can cause severe damage if it hits populated areas. Richter scale in epicentre in the North Pacific about 40 miles east of the village of Nikolski and 850 miles southwest of Anchorage.

According to George Carts, the quake was felt strongly in the towns of Unalaska, Dutch Harbor and Nikolski. These three fishing villages are located on western islands in the Aleutian chain. Besides that, the officials said that Aleutians are sparsely settled by 20 aftershocks; one measured 5.0 on the scale. None was powerful enough to cause a tsunami.

Richter scale measures ground motion and is recorded on seismographs; each increase of one number means a tenfold increase in magnitude; example, 7.5 is 10 times greater than 6.5 because 3.5 can cause slight damage; 4, moderate damage; 5, considerable damage; 6, severe damage; 7, major earthquake, can cause widespread heavy damage; 8, great quake. Thus, no reports of injuries or major damage.

MALAYSIA GREEN FORUM 2010

Putrajaya- A speech about ‘‘Malaysia Green Forum’’ given by Prime Minister, Dato Sri Mohd Najib Bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak at Conference Hall on April 26, 2010.

According to Dato Sri Mohd Najib’s speech, today is an opportunity to reiterate its resounding commitment towards environmental sustainability and the Chairman of Malaysia for advancing environmental and landscape issues in the country. The aim of the forum to establish an action-oriented network that deal with environmental issues in a holistic manner. Malaysia is one of the countries with the richest biodiversity in the world, prized with 16 million hectares of tropical forest area, which covers 60 per cent of the countries land area. Yet, preservation of this asset is key to sustainability and he is proud because of the fact that over 73 per cent of the total forest are in this country.

Indeed, the government has consistently affirmed its commitment such as government take cognizance of the growing need and urgency of green technology towards sustainable development. Hence, the National Green Technology Policy was launched last year and just spent 160 days to set up, ministry said. A technical arm called the Nation Green Technology Center came to being through a restructuring exercise of the Malaysia Energy Centre.

Before end the talk, he would like to praise the organizers of Malaysia Green Forum 2010 for taking the initiative to organize this noble conference. He is happy to see MGF2010 has united leaders and experts from very diverse backgrounds on a platform where environmental issues can be dealt with more holistically. He strongly believes that is our generational responsibility to ensure that we bequeath to our children that Malaysia as pristine as inherit from forefathers.