Page 36 - 021718

Groton Daily Independent
Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 218 ~ 36 of 39
still jittery after a deadly quake ve months ago.
Crowds gathered on Mexico City’s central Reforma Avenue as well as on streets in Oaxaca state’s capital,
nearer the quake’s epicenter, which was in a rural area close to Mexico’s Paci c coast and the border with Guerrero state. There were no immediate reports of deaths.
“It was awful,” said Mercedes Rojas Huerta, 57, who was sitting on a bench outside her home in Mexico City’s trendy Condesa district, too frightened to go back inside. “It started to shake; the cars were going here and there. What do I do?”
She said she was still scared thinking of the Sept. 19 earthquake that caused 228 deaths in the capital and 141 more in nearby states. Many buildings in Mexico City are still damaged from that quake.
The U.S. Geological Survey originally put the magnitude of Friday’s quake at 7.5 but later lowered it to 7.2. It said the epicenter was 33 miles (53 kilometers) northeast of Pinotepa in southern Oaxaca state. It had a depth of 15 miles (24 kilometers).
Mexican Civil Protection chief Luis Felipe Puente tweeted that there were no immediate reports of damages from the quake. The Oaxaca state government said via Twitter that only material damages were reported near Pinotepa and Santiago Jamiltepec, but that shelters were opened for those eeing damaged homes.
The Mexico City Red Cross said via Twitter that the facade of a building collapsed in Mexico City’s Condesa neighborhood, which was hit hard on Sept. 19. A video showed people walking through a dust cloud. But reporters at the scene later found no evidence of a collapse at the location given.
About an hour after the quake, a magnitude 5.8 aftershock also centered in Oaxaca caused tall buildings in Mexico City to brie y sway again.
USGS seismologist Paul Earle said Friday’s earthquake appeared to be a separate temblor, rather than an aftershock of a Sept. 7 earthquake also centered in Oaxaca, which registered a magnitude of 8.2. The Sept. 19 earthquake struck closer to Mexico City.
The Sept. 7 quake killed nearly 100 people in Oaxaca and neighboring Chiapas, but was centered about 273 miles (440 kilometers) southwest of Friday’s earthquake, Earle said.
In Mexico’s capital, frightened residents ooded into the streets in Condesa, including one unidenti ed woman wrapped in just a towel, but there were no immediate signs of damage.
“I’m scared,” said Rojas Huerta, recalling ve months ago when buildings fell as she ran barefoot into the street. “The house is old.”
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AP science writer Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report.
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This story has been corrected to say that earlier Oaxaca earthquake was on Sept. 7 not 8.
Russians charged with meddling in 2016 presidential race By ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — In an extraordinary indictment, the U.S. special counsel accused 13 Russians Fri- day of an elaborate plot to disrupt the 2016 presidential election, charging them with running a huge but hidden social media trolling campaign aimed in part at helping Republican Donald Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.
The federal indictment, brought by special counsel Robert Mueller, represents the most detailed allega- tions to date of illegal Russian meddling during the campaign that sent Trump to the White House. It also marks the rst criminal charges against Russians believed to have secretly worked to in uence the outcome.
The Russian organization was funded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the indictment says. He is a wealthy St. Petersburg businessman with ties to the Russian government and President Vladimir Putin.
Trump quickly claimed vindication Friday, noting in a tweet that the alleged interference efforts began in 2014 — “long before I announced that I would run for President.”
“The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong — no collusion!” he tweeted.