"14 die as Indonesian volcano erupts again; Blast surprises people allowed to return home" by Binsar Bakkara | Associated Press, February 02, 2014
MOUNT SINABUNG, Indonesia — An Indonesian volcano that has been rumbling for months unleased a major eruption Saturday, killing 14 people just a day after authorities allowed thousands of villagers who had been evacuated to return to its slopes, saying that activity was decreasing, officials said.
Related:
"Hot lava from an erupting volcano killed six people sleeping in a beach village on a small island in eastern Indonesia on Saturday, after ash and smoke from the volcano shot about a mile into the air, officials said. Mount Rokatenda in East Nusa Tenggara province erupted early Saturday morning, and nearly 3,000 people have been evacuated from the area on Palue island, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency. The volcano has been rumbling since last October."
Sorry, different volcano.
Also see:
"THREAT FROM THE SKY -- A mother held her child as Mount Sinabung spewed ash and lava during an eruption near Perteguhan village in Karo district, Indonesia's north Sumatra province, on Tuesday. Ash from the mountain covered the surrounding areas of north Sumatra, as Indonesian authorities prepared more temporary shelters for people being evacuated (Boston Globe September 18 2013 )."
"ON ALERT IN SUMATRA -- With Mount Sinabung spewing ash, an Indonesian family spoke to neighbors fleeing to a shelter in North Sumatra on Friday. Indonesia has ordered the evacuation of 15,000 residents near the volcano (Boston Globe November 30 2013 )."
"FRONT ROW FOR NATURE'S FIREWORKS -- Mount Sinabung spewed volcanic materials during an eruption on Friday in Tiga Kicat in North Sumatra, Indonesia. The 8,530-foot volcano has erupted sporadically since September. More than 19,000 people were evacuated earlier this week from villages in a danger zone 3 miles around the crater.(Boston Globe January 4 2014)."
Those were a series of photographs I saw in my printed Boston Globes, and thus you would not have seen them in the web version.
Among the dead on Mount Sinabung were a local television journalist and four high-school students and their teacher who were visiting the mountain to see the eruptions up close, said National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho. At least three other people were injured, and authorities feared the death toll would rise.
Sinabung in western Sumatra has been erupting for four months, sending lava and searing gas and rocks rolling down its southern slopes.
Authorities had removed more than 30,000 people, housing them in cramped tents, schools, and public buildings. Many have been desperate to return to check on homes and farms, presenting a dilemma for the government.
On Friday, authorities allowed nearly 14,000 people living outside a three-mile danger zone to return home after volcanic activity decreased. Others living close to the peak have been returning to their homes during the past four months despite the dangers.
On Saturday, a series of huge blasts and eruptions thundered from the 8,530-foot-high volcano, sending lava and pyroclastic flows up to 2.8 miles away, Nugroho said. Television footage showed villages, farms, and trees around the volcano covered in thick gray ash.
After the eruption, all those who had been allowed to return home Friday were ordered back into evacuation centers.
‘‘The death toll is likely to rise as many people are reported still missing and the darkness hampered our rescue efforts,’’ said Lieutenant Colonel Asep Sukarna, who led the operation to retrieve the charred corpses some two miles from the volcano’s peak.
Indonesia is prone to seismic activity because of its location on the Pacific ‘‘Ring of Fire,’’ an arc of volcanoes and fault lines of the Pacific Basin. Mount Sinabung is among about 130 active volcanoes in Indonesia and has sporadically erupted since September.
In 2010, 324 people were killed in two months when Indonesia’s most volatile volcano, Mount Merapi, roared to life.
Related: Indonesian Incidents, Earthquakes, and Eruptions
Also see: Obama and the Volcano
As now in Sinabung, authorities struggled to keep people away from the mountain. Scientists monitor Merapi, Sinabung, and other Indonesian volcanos nonstop, but predicting their activity with any accuracy is all but impossible.
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Who knows if it's a HAARP-induced eruption or not. That's for you to decide for yourself, readers.
Now back to Indonesia:
"US will sell Indonesia attack helicopters" Associated Press, August 27, 2013
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Monday that the Pentagon will sell eight Apache attack helicopters to Indonesia for $500 million.
Keep the price tag in mind for later on down.
The deal includes high-tech Longbow radars.
At a news conference in the Indonesian capital, Hagel also said Indonesia has agreed to discuss allowing US recovery teams to search for the remains of American troops lost on Indonesian soil or in its territorial waters during World War II. The work will be done by the Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command.
Hagel is in Jakarta to meet with top government officials before attending an Asian defense ministers meeting in Brunei.
The Pentagon is making a deliberate pivot toward Asia and the Pacific after more than a decade of wars in the greater Middle East.
While the shift in emphasis is part of a broader US effort to expand economic and social interactions with the region, Washington is also expanding military activity.
And I'm told it is the Chinese that are the threat!
After a meeting with Hagel last week, China’s defense chief, General Chang Wanquan, said Asia Pacific nations have noticed that the United States has “highlighted’’ the military component of its adjusted strategy in the region. He appeared to be alluding in part to new US Marine rotational deployments to Australia.
But, but, but.... my agenda-pushing, war-promoting jewspaper tells me it's the Chinese who are the aggressors, blah, blah, blah.
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Here is what they can use the helicopters for:
"Boat carrying refugees sinks off Indonesia; 21 die" Associated Press, September 28, 2013
JAKARTA, Indonesia — A boat carrying dozens of asylum seekers sank off the coast of Indonesia’s main island of Java on Friday, killing at least 21 people, an official said.
Twenty-five people were rescued and transported to the Sukabumi immigration office for identification, said Cianjur police chief Lieutenant Colonel Dedy Kusuma Bakti. The search for survivors was continuing.
Some survivors told officials that more than 100 asylum seekers from Lebanon, Pakistan, and Iraq were believed to be aboard the boat, but the exact number of passengers was not known, Bakti said. Survivors said the boat was headed for Australia’s Christmas Island.
This happens every day and all around the world thanks to the EUSraeli Empire and its expansion. It's usually a one or two day wonder, then gone.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency said 17 Lebanese drowned. Nine members of a single family were among the Lebanese victims, with a woman and her eight children dying and her husband surviving, the agency reported.
The tragedy came ahead of the first visit to Indonesia by Australia’s new prime minister, Tony Abbott, next week.
See: Australian Election
I don't think I've seen anything since.
UPDATE:
"Fisherman dies after shark attack
ADELAIDE — A man was killed by a shark on Saturday while spear fishing with friends off the south Australian coast. The 28-year-old was part of a group spear fishing off Yorke Peninsula, west of the South Australia state capital of Adelaide, when witnesses reported seeing a shark attack him at midday, police said. Rescuers searched the area near Goldsmith Beach with boats and helicopters, but found no trace of the man (AP)."
UPDATE:
"Fisherman dies after shark attack
ADELAIDE — A man was killed by a shark on Saturday while spear fishing with friends off the south Australian coast. The 28-year-old was part of a group spear fishing off Yorke Peninsula, west of the South Australia state capital of Adelaide, when witnesses reported seeing a shark attack him at midday, police said. Rescuers searched the area near Goldsmith Beach with boats and helicopters, but found no trace of the man (AP)."
Officials in Indonesia have said that the Australian navy’s plan to intercept and force back Indonesian fishing boats crowded with asylum seekers could breach Indonesian sovereignty.
That would mean war, wouldn't it?
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"Ocean is scoured for asylum seekers
JAKARTA — Rescuers battled strong currents and high waves Saturday while searching for dozens of people missing and feared dead one day after a boat carrying asylum seekers sank off the coast of Indonesia’s main island of Java on Friday, killing at least 21 people. Survivors said about 100 people were aboard. Twenty-eight people were rescued and taken to the Sukabumi immigration office for identification (AP)."
They should have taken a bus instead:
"At least 19 killed in Indonesia church bus crash" AP, August 22, 2013
JAKARTA, Indonesia — A car and a packed church bus returning from an outing collided and plunged into a river Wednesday in Indonesia’s West Java province, killing at least 19 people and injuring more than a dozen, officials said.
The bus, carrying about 60 people from a church in northern Jakarta, was returning from a trip to the hilly resort town of Puncak when its brakes apparently malfunctioned, said local traffic police Chief Captain Muhammad Chaniago....
Local television footage showed images of both vehicles upside down in the water. It was not immediately clear whether the driver of the car survived.
Most of the dead were killed instantly....
Road accidents are common in Indonesia due to poor safety standards and infrastructure.
But they have $500 million to shell out on attack helicopters for an invisible enemy!
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"Buddhist temple targeted by bombs" Associated Press, August 06, 2013
JAKARTA, Indonesia — A senior official said Monday that an attack on a Buddhist temple in Indonesia’s capital was apparently aimed at avenging violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
Oh, right, sorry. Forget about the worldwide Muslim terrorist threat narrative. Sorry.
The small explosion Sunday night near the front door of the Ekayana Grha Buddhist temple in West Jakarta injured one person and slightly damaged the structure while about 300 devotees were inside praying.
Another low-explosive bomb placed near the back door emitted only smoke, while a third device inside the temple failed to go off.
Minister of Religious Affairs Suryadharma Ali, who visited the scene Monday, said there was a written message on one device saying, ‘‘We respond to the screams of Rohingya.’’
Was it signed CIA-Duh?
The attack was aimed at pitting Muslims against Buddhists, Ali said, adding he believes people from both faiths will not be stirred by such an act. ‘‘We strongly condemn the attack. This is a damned and uncivilized action during the holy fasting month,’’ Ali said.
No, the world is starting to understand the Jewish narrative of religious sectarianism wherever it is found (or any other issue it can use to divide; race, sex, you name it), and we ain't falling for it no more.
Earlier Monday, Djoko Suyanto, coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, called for increased vigilance against any sign of terrorism.
‘‘Security authorities have been ordered to search and capture the perpetrators who have damaged the peaceful environment of the fasting month,’’ Suyanto said.
Indonesian Muslim militants angered over sectarian violence in Myanmar have threatened to attack Buddhists here. In May, two men were arrested for allegedly plotting to bomb the Myanmar Embassy in Jakarta.
I'm about ready to blow in rage at the unending stream of propaganda!
Detective Lieutenant General Sutarman, the chief of the national police, said the terrorists may have shifted their targets from Christian churches to Buddhist temples, possibly triggered by the sectarian conflict in Myanmar.
Looks like a destabilization campaign to me. What has Indonesia done wrong lately?
The head of the temple, Arya Maitri, who accompanied Ali during his visit, said surveillance cameras recorded a man wearing white, who ‘‘acted like a Buddhist’’ and placed a package near the main entrance.
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Related(?): Buddhist Nazis
You know what to do with them:
"Execution OK’d in Bali cocaine case" Associated Press, August 31, 2013
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia’s highest court has upheld the death sentence for a British woman convicted of smuggling $2.5 million worth of cocaine into the resort island of Bali, a court official said Friday.
Gee, considering the heroin, coke, and meth crisis over here maybe the Indonesians are on too something. That means putting a lot of CIA and government assets to death, though.
The three-judge panel unanimously rejected Lindsay Sandiford’s appeal on Thursday, said Supreme Court spokesman Ridwan Mansur.
Sandiford, 57, was arrested last year when 8.4 pounds of cocaine was found inside the lining of her luggage at Bali’s airport. At the trial, she said she was forced to carry the drugs by a gang that threatened to hurt her children.
She was found guilty in January by a district court and sentenced to face a firing squad. She lost an appeal three months later when the Bali High Court upheld the lower court’s ruling.
U.S. is looking to return to that method since the last execution of got lost in the mall, if you know what I mean (not a word about it since).
Do you really want GAS CHAMBERS back, America?
Oh, the horrible memories.
Prosecutors had initially sought 15 years in prison for Sandiford, but the court surprised many by issuing a death sentence. She still has the opportunity under Indonesian law to seek a judicial review of her case and also appeal for presidential clemency.
‘‘We are aware that Lindsay Sandiford’s appeal to the Indonesian Supreme Court has been denied,’’ Adam Rutland, spokesman for the British embassy in Jakarta, said in an e-mail. ‘‘In line with our strong opposition to the death penalty in all circumstances, we will consider how to support any application for judicial review or clemency that Lindsay Sandiford chooses to make.’’
Yeah, that's me. Killing begets killing, and state-sanctioned murder is the worst of all. Besides, no way to rectify a mistake.
Four other defendants in the case — three Britons and an Indian — were sentenced to jail terms ranging from one to six years.
Indonesia has strict antidrug laws.
Yeah, I guess.
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Someone is owed an apology:
"Indonesia gets apology for Dutch atrocities" by Niniek Karmini | Associated Press, September 13, 2013
JAKARTA, Indonesia — The Netherlands formally apologized Thursday for mass killings committed by the Dutch military more than six decades ago in Indonesia during its former colony’s fight for independence....
Hopefully setting a good example for today's current world leaders!
In his speech at the Dutch Embassy in Jakarta, which was meant as a more general apology for all war atrocities, Dutch Ambassador Tjeerd de Zwaan said the violence claimed many innocent victims on both sides and resulted in suffering that is still felt today....
Not really an apology, is it?
Indonesia declared its independence from Dutch colonial rule on Aug. 17, 1945, but the Netherlands refused to acknowledge it and fought unsuccessfully to maintain control of the lucrative Asian outpost. It finally recognized the country as an independent nation in 1949.
Indonesian authorities claim some 40,000 people were killed during the operation, while most Dutch historians estimate the dead at about 1,500.
That's quite a discrepancy. Maybe the Dutch are just telling drunken war stories.
A 1968 Dutch report acknowledged ‘‘violent excesses’’ in Indonesia but said that Dutch troops conducted a ‘‘police action’’ often incited by guerrilla warfare and terror attacks. The Dutch government has never prosecuted any soldiers for the killings despite a UN report condemning the attack as ‘‘deliberate and ruthless’’ as early as 1948.
Took 'em long enough to apologize, and then they say it was your own fault for wanting to be free of colonial rule and corporate exploitation!
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Related:
"In Indonesia, 1965-66, the US embassy and the CIA provided the Indonesian military with lists of the names of PKI militants, which were used by Suharto to crush the PKI regime. This resulted in “one of the worst episodes of mass murder of the twentieth century,” with estimates as high as one million deaths.
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No apology yet?
