Indonesia flights back on track after volcano cancellations

JAKARTA: U.S. President Barack Obama’s twice-postponed visit to Indonesia looked back on track on Monday after flights to the capital returned to normal following a weekend of disruptions caused by a deadly volcano.

Mount Merapi, on the outskirts of Yogyakarta city in central Java, began spewing lava, superheated gas and deadly clouds of ash two weeks ago and has so far killed over 130 people and forced the evacuation of nearly 300,000.

Dozens of flights to and from Jakarta, around 600 km (375 miles) from the volcano, were cancelled over the weekend after the volcano belched fresh clouds of volcanic ash 6,000 metres (19,000 ft) into the atmosphere.

Despite Indonesian authorities saying conditions were safe, scores of international flights were cancelled. By Monday, normal service had resumed.

“All have returned to normal,” said Andang Santoso, a

Indonesia: 25 killed in volcano eruption

At least 25 people have been killed after one of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes, Mount Merapi, spewed out clouds of deadly hot gas and ash.
Thousands fled their homes on Tuesday as Mount Merapi erupted three times as pressure built up behind a lava dome perched on the volcano’s crater.
The volcano emitted clouds of hot ash 1.5 km into the sky and sending hot debris down its southern slopes. Mount Merapi, which translates as Mountain of Fire in Indonesian, is close to the city of Yogyakarta and has erupted regularly since 1548.

US resumes ties with Indonesian special forces: Pentagon

JAKARTA: The United States announced Thursday it was resuming military ties with Indonesian special forces after a 12-year pause, during a visit by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates to Jakarta.

“We will begin a gradual, measured process of working with Kopassus,” a senior US defence official said, referring to the elite Indonesian military unit with which Washington suspended ties in 1998.

The decision was made “in light of the progress that Indonesia and its military has made in terms of reform and professionalisation since the fall of Suharto as well as recent pledges of reform,” he said.

Moderate quake hits India”s Andaman Islands: seismologists

NEW DELHI: A moderate 5.9-magnitude earthquake hit India”s Andaman Islands early Saturday, seismologists said, but no tsunami warning was immediately issued.

The USGS said the quake struck at a depth of 27 kilometres (17 miles), with the epicentre 180 kilometres (112 miles) from Port Blair on the Andaman Islands, in the Indian Ocean.

The Andamans were badly hit by the 2004 Asian tsunami, which was triggered by an earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra that sent giant waves crashing into countries around the Indian Ocean.

The Andaman Sea area witnesses frequent earthquakes caused by the meeting of the Indian plate with the Burmese microplate along an area known as the Andaman trench. The islands were hit by a strong 6.4-magnitude earthquake on June 1.

3 suspected militants arrested in Indonesian raid

JAKARTA: Indonesian counterterrorism police say they have arrested three militants in a raid in central Java.

National police spokesman Brig. Gen. Zainuri Lubis says the men arrested Thursday are suspected of being members of al-Qaida in Aceh, a new terrorist group whose training camp was raided in February.

“We suspect that they are linked to several bombings in Indonesia,”” Lubis said. The arrests in the town of Sukoharjo follow raids a day earlier that resulted in five suspected militants being killed in shootouts with police.

7.2-magnitude quake hits Indonesia: seismologists

JAKARTA: A strong 7.2-magnitude quake hit the Indonesian province of Aceh province on Sunday, the local Meteorological and Geophysics agency said, triggering a local tsunami alert.

Tsunami alerts lifted after major Indonesia quake

SINABANG: A major earthquake of 7.7 magnitude struck off the coast of Aceh on the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Wednesday triggering panic and power blackouts, although a tsunami alert was later lifted.

Neighbouring Thailand and Malaysia, lying east of Sumatra, also cancelled tsunami warnings.

A UK-based news agency photographer in Sinabang on Simeulue island, south of Aceh, said that electricity was cut in the area and that he saw four injured people, including a child with a head wound who had been hit by fallen masonry.

Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf said earlier there had not been reports of damage or casualties so far.

“I am on the coast now, some people had gone to take refuge on higher ground but now they have returned to their homes,” Yusuf told Metro TV.

The resource-rich island of Sumatra is an important supplier of commodities such as rubber, palm oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG), but there were no immediate reports of delays in shipments because of the quake.

The quake, which struck around 5:15 a.m. (2215 GMT), was centred 200 km (125 miles) west-northwest of the coastal town of Sibolga and was at a depth of 31 km, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The epicentre was around 215 km from Medan, the largest city on Sumatra.

There were at least three aftershocks after the initial major quake.

The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre initially warned the quake could generate a local tsunami, but later cancelled its tsunami watch, saying: “Sea level readings indicate that a significant tsunami was not generated.”

An official from Indonesia”s meteorology agency said a tiny tsunami of only 3 cm (1 inch) had been detected at Sinabang and lifted its own tsunami warning.

A Metro TV reporter in the Sibolga area of North Sumatra said that he fell off his motorbike when the quake struck and the force left electricity poles swaying for minutes afterwards.

Tremors from the quake were felt in Dumai, in Sumatra”s Riau province about 1,100 km from the epicentre, a local news agency reported.

Hamid Sarong, a resident of Aceh”s provincial capital Banda Aceh, which was devastated by a tsunami in 2004, said that the quake was felt while people in the staunchly Muslim province were at dawn prayers, although there was no panic.

Sumatra lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, one of the world”s most active seismic faultlines, and is frequently hit by earthquakes.

In December 2004, a magnitude 9.15 quake off Aceh triggered an Indian Ocean tsunami that killed about 226,000 people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and nine other countries.

A 7.6 magnitude quake struck last September off the city of Padang, southeast of Wednesday”s epicentre, killing more than 1,000 people.

Strong quake hits Indonesian waters, no damage

JAKARTA: A strong 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck northern Indonesian waters on Monday but there were no reports of damage and no tsunami warning was issued, geologists said.

The quake struck below the sea about 218 kilometres (135 miles) south of Manado, Sulawesi island, just after 5:00 pm (1000 GMT), according to the US Geological Survey website.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center did not issue a warning.

Gus Dur,Abdurrahman Wahid

TrendPK.com Gus Dur,Abdurrahman Wahid:Former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid, 69, more popularly known as Gus Dur, died at the Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital (RSCM) in Jakarta at about 6.45pm local time Wednesday.
Till now there has been no statement about the cause of his death but lately he had been treated in hospital several [...]

Asif Zardari Swiss Accounts,References Presented In SC

TrendPK.com Asif Zardari Swiss Accounts,References Presented In SC:National Accountability Bureau (NAB) presented the details of President Asif Ali Zardari’s Swiss accounts; while Sindh Advocate General presented the list of criminal cases abolished through National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) in Sindh. The court also raised questions over the safety of Swiss records.

TrendPK.com Asif Zardari Swiss Accounts,References Presented In SC:National Accountability Bureau (NAB) presented the details of President Asif Ali Zardari’s Swiss accounts; while Sindh Advocate General presented the list of criminal cases abolished through National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) in Sindh.
The court also raised questions over the safety of Swiss records.
A 17-judge larger bench [...]

Next Page »