6.6 magnitude earthquake hits Indonesia

 The quake struck at 12:55 am (1755 GMT on Monday) at a depth of 110 kilometres (70 miles), USGS said, with its epicentre around 400 kilometres (250 miles) southeast of Banda Aceh.

The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the quake was too far inland to generate a tsunami.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where the collision of continental plates causes high seismic activity, and Sumatra is particularly prone to earthquakes.

Aceh was devastated when a 9.1-magnitude quake off Sumatra in December 2004 triggered a huge tsunami which killed more than 220,000 people around the Indian Ocean.

US Geological Survey initially gave a magnitude of 6.5 for Tuesday s quake.

Seven dead as ferry sinks in Indonesia

MAKASSAR: Seven people were killed and several others were believed to be missing after a ferry sank in Indonesia on Saturday, an official said.

The ferry sank 15 miles (24 kilometres) from Kolaka in Southeast Sulawesi province, port chief Zainuddin said, adding that 93 people had been rescued.

“We have found 61 adults, 13 children and 19 crew members who are still alive,” Zainuddin said.

He said a nine-month old baby boy was among the dead.

“The rescue team is still searching for several more people. We suspect some people are still missing as the passenger list of the ferry is inaccurate,” he said.

Zainuddin said the ferry came from a port in South Sulawesi province and sank as it approached Kolaka, but he did not elaborate on the cause of the accident.

Sea accidents are common in the archipelago and safety standards are often overlooked. AGENCIES

Pakistan to extradite Bali bomb suspect this month

A top anti-terrorism official says Pakistan will extradite a key suspect in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people to Indonesia by the end of the month.

Indonesian national Umar Patek had a $1 million bounty on his head when he was captured in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad in January 25, four months before Osama bin Laden was killed there in a US commando attack.

The 41-year-old Patek allegedly built the bombs used in the suicide attacks on Bali nightclubs packed with foreign tourists. Many of the victims were Australians.

Anti-Terrorism Agency chief Ansyaad Mbai told the media on Wednesday that Patek would be returned to Indonesia before Aug. 30 to stand trial.

Massive quake unleashes tsunami on Japan

TOKYO: One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded hit Japan Friday, unleashing a 10-metre high tsunami that tossed ships inland and sparked fears that destructive waves could hit across the Pacific Ocean.

The devastating 8.9-magnitude quake left many people injured in coastal areas of the main Honshu island and Tokyo, police said, while TV footage showed widespread flooding in the area. 26 people were reported dead.

A monster 10-metre (33 feet) wall of water was reported in Sendai city in northeastern Miyagi prefecture, media said after a four-metre wave hit the coast earlier. The government said the quake had caused “tremendous damage”.

Helicopter footage showed massive inundation in northern coastal towns, where floods of black water sent shipping containers, cars and debris crashing through streets. An oil refinery was ablaze near Tokyo.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued a widespread warning for territories as far away as South America, New Zealand and Hawaii, where evacuations were ordered.

“An earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines near the epicentre within minutes and more
distant coastlines within hours,” the centre said in a statement.

Swells of up to one metre were reported hitting Russia”s far east, with bigger waves expected later.

Television footage showed a wide, muddy stream moving rapidly across a residential area near the Natori River in Sendai, levelling all in its path.

The tsunami also reached Sendai airport, submerging the runway while a process known as liquefaction, caused by the intense shaking of the tremor, turned parts of the ground to liquid.

Public broadcaster NHK said several dozen houses had been washed away in Miyagi Prefecture.

In the capital, where millions evacuated strongly swaying buildings, multiple injuries were reported when the roof of a hall collapsed during a graduation ceremony, police said.

Plumes of smoke rose from at least 10 locations in the city, where four million homes suffered power outages.

The first quake struck just under 400 kilometres (250 miles) northeast of Tokyo, the US trendpk.comlogical Survey said. It was followed by more than a dozen aftershocks, one as strong as 7.1.

The quake was the largest ever in Japan, the fifth strongest tremor worldwide since 1900 and the seventh strongest in history, according to the US trendpk.comlogical Survey and Japanese seismologists.

“We were shaken so strongly for a while that we needed to hold on to something in order not to fall,” said an official at the local government of the hardest-hit city of Kurihara in Miyagi prefecture.

“We couldn”t escape the building immediately because the tremors continued… City officials are now outside, collecting information on damage,” she said by telephone.

A major blackout occurred across a wide area of northeastern Japan.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan quickly assembled his cabinet after the quake hit, and the government dispatched naval vessels from near Tokyo to Miyagi.

The quake affected the nation’s key transportation systems, including Narita airport, which shut its runways for safety checks.

The quake, which hit at 14:46 pm (0546 GMT) and lasted about two minutes, rattled buildings in greater Tokyo, the world”s largest urban area and home to some 30 million people.

In Tokyo, where the subway system stopped, sirens wailed and people streamed out of buildings. The government moved to reassure people that there had been no radiation leak from the country”s network of nuclear power plants.

Japan sits on the “Pacific Ring of Fire”, which is dotted with volcanoes, and Tokyo is situated in one of its most dangerous areas.

The quake sent the Nikkei share index plunging at the close while the yen fell sharply against the US dollar before recovering.

The mega-city of Tokyo sits on the intersection of three continental plates — the Eurasian, Pacific and Philippine Sea plates — which are slowly grinding against each other, building up enormous seismic pressure.

The government’s Earthquake Research Committee has warned of a 70 percent chance that a great, magnitude-eight quake will strike within the next 30 years in the Kanto plains, home to Tokyo”s vast urban sprawl.

The last time a “Big One” hit Tokyo was in 1923, when the Great Kanto Earthquake claimed more than 140,000 lives, many of them in fires. In 1855, the Ansei Edo quake also devastated the city.

In 1995 Kobe earthquake killed more than 6,400 people.

More than 220,000 people were killed when a 9.1-magnitude quake hit off Indonesia in 2004, unleashing a massive tsunami that devastated coastlines in countries around the Indian Ocean as far away as Africa.

Small quakes are felt every day somewhere in Japan and people take part in regular drills at schools and workplaces to prepare for a calamity.

Nuclear power plants and bullet trains are designed to automatically shut down when the earth rumbles and many buildings have been quake-proofed with steel and ferro-concrete at great cost in recent decades.

Suspected Islamic militant moved from police station

JAKARTA: Police in Indonesia on Tuesday transferred one of the country’s most wanted militants from the city of Solo in Central Java to the police detention centre in the capital, Jakarta.

Abu Tholut was arrested on Friday and is accused of plotting high-profile assassinations and bloody attacks on foreigners at luxury hotels in Jakarta.

He was captured without a fight during a pre-dawn raid on a home in Central Java province, a police spokesman said, adding that a handgun and several rounds of ammunition were also seized.

Four other men who police allege were part of the same militant group were transferred to Jakarta alongside Tholut.

Indonesia, a predominantly Muslim nation of 240 (m) million, has battled extremists since 2002, when members of the al-Qaida-linked network Jemaah Islamiyah bombed two nightclubs on the resort island of Bali, killing

China eye Asiad badminton gold; India- Pakistan face-off in f.hockey

GUANGZHOU: Arch-rivals India and Pakistan face off in a combustible field hockey clash as Chinese women’s world number one Wang Xin guns for Asian Games badminton gold.

On Saturday, Day 8 of the multi-sport showpiece, hosts China have an unassailable lead at the top of the medals table with 127 gold to South Korea’s 43 and Japan’s 24.

Iran has jumped to eight after recent success in weightlifting and taekwondo, while Indonesia picked up its third gold Saturday in the 250m men’s dragon boat.

So far, 28 of the 45 nations and territories in Guangzhou have got themselves on the podium, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Laos.

Another 30 titles are up for grabs on Saturday, in synchronized swimming, badminton, billiard sports, road cycling, dragon boat, equestrian, fencing, golf, sailing, sepaktakraw, table tennis, and taekwondo

China is

Obama seeks better ties with sceptical Muslim world

JAKARTA: President Barack Obama held up his boyhood home of Indonesia as an example to the Muslim world in a speech on Wednesday in which he said America was not at war with Islam but acknowledged it was hard to eradicate “years of mistrust”.

“Relations between the United States and Muslim communities have frayed over many years … I have made it a priority to begin to repair these relations,” he told a crowd of thousands in Jakarta, capital of the world’s most populous Muslim nation.

“I have made it clear that America is not, and never will be, at war with Islam. Instead, all of us must defeat al Qaeda and its affiliates, who have no claim to be leaders of any religion — certainly not a great, world religion like Islam.”

Obama said Indonesia served as a powerful example as an emerging democracy working to develop its economy and a Muslim

nation

Obama: more effort needed to improve Muslim ties

JAKARTA: President Barack Obama said on Wednesday much more needs to be done to repair frayed U.S. relations with the Muslim world in an acknowledgement of the difficulties in eradicating “years of mistrust.”

In a speech highlighting a nostalgic visit to Indonesia, where he spent four years as a young boy, Obama spoke fondly of his formative years in the world’s most populous Muslim country.

“Indonesia is a part of me,” said Obama, who left around 10:45 a.m. (10:45 p.m. EDT) for the G20 summit in South Korea, the next stop on a 10-day Asia tour.

His speech was an update to a major address he gave 17 months ago in Cairo where he declared a “new beginning” in U.S.-Muslim relations after the tensions over the September 11, 2001, attacks and the Bush government’s response to them.

Since his Cairo address, irritants remain on both sides. Al Qaeda still

Obama: more effort needed to improve Muslim ties

JAKARTA: President Barack Obama said on Wednesday much more needs to be done to repair frayed U.S. relations with the Muslim world in an acknowledgement of the difficulties in eradicating “years of mistrust.”

In a speech highlighting a nostalgic visit to Indonesia, where he spent four years as a young boy, Obama spoke fondly of his formative years in the world’s most populous Muslim country.

“Indonesia is a part of me,” said Obama, who left around 10:45 a.m. (10:45 p.m. EDT) for the G20 summit in South Korea, the next stop on a 10-day Asia tour.

His speech was an update to a major address he gave 17 months ago in Cairo where he declared a “new beginning” in U.S.-Muslim relations after the tensions over the September 11, 2001, attacks and the Bush government’s response to them.

Since his Cairo address, irritants remain on both sides. Al Qaeda still

Obama: New Israel settlements no help to peace process

JAKARTA: U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that renewed Israeli settlement activity does not help peace negotiations with the Palestinians and that neither side is making the extra effort needed for a breakthrough.

Israel said on Monday it would push ahead with plans for 1,300 new apartments for Jewish families in Arab East Jerusalem, despite fierce opposition from Palestinians.

The timing of the announcement could prove an embarrassment for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is in the United States looking for ways to revive Middle East peace talks that have stalled over the Jewish settlement-building.

“This kind of activity is never helpful when it comes to peace negotiations,” Obama told a news conference in Jakarta, where he was due to make a speech reaching out to the Muslim world before leaving Indonesia on Wednesday.

“And

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