This and that

We woke up today to the news of another earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6. It struck eastern Turkey in the pre-dawn hours killing at least 51 people.
News from Israel, where American vice-president Joe Biden has just arrived for a visit, indicated that despite a 10 month partial curb, the Israeli defense ministry has authorized further construction in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank. It would appear that 112 new apartments will be built in an ultra-Orthodox settlement near Bethlehem.
Yesterday, Pakistani officials claimed they had arrested Adam Gadahn, the California al-Qaeda leader that had been for a longtime on Washington’s most wanted list. Us officials are cautious and had said they could not verify the report.
As we wrote last week the Swiss were ready to vote in a referendum about animals rights. Switzerland already has among the strongest rules in what concerns the care of pets and farm animals. For instance, animals which are considered social ;-such as pigs and goldfish, cannot be kept alone; horses and cows must have regular exercise, etc. So this referendum which took place yesterday was not so strange. But 70.5% of the Swiss voters rejected the plan to appoint lawyers for animals that are abused by humans, a system that has been in place in Zurich since 1992.