Let's open it up and see what's inside:
"Indonesia completes inquiry into slaying of US woman" Associated Press December 09, 2014
BALI, Indonesia — Police said Monday that they have completed their investigation into a US couple accused of battering the woman’s mother to death and stuffing the body into a suitcase on the resort island of Bali.
State prosecutor Eddy Arta Wijaya said police formally handed over their investigation to prosecutors on Monday.
He said suspects Heather Mack, 19, and her boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, 21, both from Chicago, were transferred to the custody of prosecutors in line with Indonesian criminal procedure. Prosecutors have 20 days to decide whether to formally charge the couple and bring the case to court. If they believe it is too weak, they can ask police for more evidence.
The body of Sheila von Wiese-Mack, 62, was found inside the trunk of a taxi at the upscale St. Regis Bali Resort in August. Police say the couple had argued with her in the lobby of the hotel shortly before the killing, alleged to have taken place inside a room in the hotel.
Mack, who is six months’ pregnant, and Schaefer have been held in separate cells.
Bali police said officers had questioned 12 witnesses and their case included information from the FBI.
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Related: Indonesia Extracts Confession From American
That's a switch.
"US traveler released from East Timor jail" Associated Press December 26, 2014
PORTLAND, Ore. — A US traveler detained for months in East Timor has been released from prison.
Stacey Addison, 41, of Portland, was arrested in September after crossing the border into the Southeast Asia nation.
The veterinarian was sharing a taxi with a stranger who asked the driver to stop the car so he could pick up a package. Police stopped the vehicle, determined the package contained methamphetamine and took everybody to the station.
Addison was released from jail after a few days, but was ordered to remain in East Timor during the investigation. Then, in October, a prosecutor persuaded a court to rescind Addison’s conditional release and she was taken to a women’s prison despite not being charged with a crime.
Gitmo.
‘‘I am overjoyed to learn of Dr. Stacey Addison’s release from prison,’’ said US Senator Jeff Merkley, a Democrat of Oregon, who has been working to secure Addison’s release. ‘‘This is wonderful Christmas news.’’
Addison’s mother, Bernadette Kero of Klamath Falls, Ore., said by phone that she is tremendously relieved, and will be more so when her daughter gets her passport returned. For now, Addison is staying at the guest house of former president Jose Ramos-Horta.
Kero said she spoke with Addison twice on Christmas Eve, and her daughter, though obviously happy, was still in disbelief over the whole situation.
‘‘I anticipated it not being a very good Christmas,’’ Kero said. ‘‘And this is just the best Christmas present, other than her actually coming home.’’
Addison has been traveling the world since January 2013, starting in Antarctica. Kero said her daughter has always loved to travel, and saved her money and sold her home in preparation for the lengthy trip.
Merkley gave credit to the ambassadors from each nation.
A State Department spokeswoman said Thursday that Addison’s release is welcome news and embassy officials will continue to provide assistance.
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Another Xmas day gift:
"Tsunami survivors recall how mosques stood firm" by Andi Jatmiko, Associated Press December 25, 2014
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — When a powerful tsunami smashed into this Indonesian city 10 years ago, the only structures left standing in many neighborhoods were mosques. For the hundreds who found refuge within their walls, the buildings’ lifesaving role has not been forgotten — and for many, that experience strengthened their faith.
Architectural experts say the mosques in Banda Aceh survived because they were sturdily built and had stronger foundations than surrounding structures.
But many survivors believe the mosques were spared by divine intervention.
‘‘It’s because the mosque is the house of Allah, the creator of such a tsunami. It’s protected,’’ said Ahmad Junaidi, a survivor who fled to safety in the majestic Baiturrahman Grand Mosque, a major landmark in the city with its 115-foot minaret, white walls, and seven black domes.
The mosque, built by Dutch colonizers and completed in 1881, was virtually unscathed by the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami, which devastated the city and killed more than 230,000 people in more than a dozen nations around the Indian Ocean.
As an 18-year-old, Reza Nasir found refuge from the disaster by climbing onto one of the Grand Mosque’s black domes. From there, he saw the ocean flood into the city and over the mosque’s outside walls, leaving hundreds of bodies in the courtyard.
He had never seen so many corpses.
That was also when he started to pray five times a day, one of the five pillars of Islam.
Many residents of Aceh, the most dominantly Muslim province in all of Indonesia, viewed the disaster as punishment for their lack of devotion to God. The tsunami has actually made many more devout, said Faisal Ali, a prominent cleric.
‘‘It encouraged Acehnese to renew their dedication to their faith,’’ Ali said.
With the renewed religious fervor among many in Aceh, the region on the northern tip of Sumatra also has become the only one in Indonesia governed by Islamic shariah law — part of a peace agreement with the government to end a decades-long separatist war that granted the region some autonomy.
Mirza Irwansyah, an architectural expert from Banda Aceh’s state-run Syiah Kuala University, said that at least 27 mosques in the city survived the tsunami, often the only buildings in their neighborhoods to do so.
Photos of the structures standing amid the debris circulated on the Internet after the disaster, with many calling their survival a miracle, he said.
But they stood firm mostly because of their solid construction compared to surrounding buildings, he said. The Grand Mosque, he said, was built by Europeans with a sturdy foundation.
Irwansyah also said that in many cases mosques and churches were built by charities and are therefore less likely to be cheated by corrupt contractors who use lower quality materials in houses and ordinary buildings to cut costs.
Now 28, Nasir — who watched the tsunami rush in from the rooftop of the Grand Mosque — recently awoke before dawn to join dozens of others for prayers at the same spot. Together, they bowed their foreheads to the white stone floor that was once covered with bodies.
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Ten years later it is a wave of mud:
"Rescue teams in Indonesia were searching Saturday for dozens of victims of a landslide in Central Java province that has killed at least 17 people, the authorities said. More than 30 homes were buried or swept away Friday by the landslide, which was caused by heavy rains in Banjarnegara District, according to the National Board for Disaster Management (New York Times)."
"32 dead, 76 missing in central Indonesia mudslide" Associated Press December 15, 2014
BANJARNEGARA, Indonesia — Rescuers pulled more bodies from the debris Sunday after heavy rain in central Indonesia loosened soil and collapsed a hill, setting off a landslide that killed at least 32 villagers and left 76 others missing under piles of mud.
About 2,000 rescuers, including soldiers, police, and volunteers, were digging through the mud and the wreckage of crumpled homes, getting some relief from clear weather following days of heavy rain.
Residents of Jemblung village in Central Java province’s Banjarnegara district said they heard a roaring sound followed by the raining down of red soil that buried more than 100 houses late Friday.
‘‘The landslide looked like it was spinning down,’’ said one resident, Subroto, who like many Indonesians uses only one name. ‘‘I managed to rescue a pregnant woman, but could not save the other man.’’
He said one side of the hill collapsed, then another. ‘‘In five minutes, there were three [major landslides] and they swept away everything,’’ Subroto said.
By late afternoon Sunday, 32 bodies had been pulled from the debris, while hopes faded that the 76 people still missing would be found alive, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the spokesman for Indonesia’s Disaster Mitigation Agency.
Many roads and bridges were destroyed, hampering the rescue efforts, Nugroho said.
President Joko Widodo of Indonesia arrived at the scene Sunday. He pledged to relocate the hundreds of people left homeless by the disaster, and assured that the government would help provide aid for those who were injured. Eleven injured villagers were hospitalized.
Seasonal rains and high tides in recent days have caused dozens of landslides and widespread flooding across much of Indonesia.
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Related:
"More than 3,000 rescuers, including soldiers, police, and volunteers, were mobilized to dig through the mud and wreckage after the landslide."
Last I saw of it; must have to wait for the anniversary for more.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Ten years later, the horrors of tsunami linger" by Krishan Francis, Associated Press December 27, 2014
PERELIYA, Sri Lanka — A packed train in Sri Lanka that was swept off the tracks by waves as big as elephants. A boat patrolling off Thailand’s shore hurled more than a mile inland. Streets in Indonesia turned into roaring rivers that carried people to their deaths.
Vivid and terrifying memories such as these were recalled Friday at ceremonies marking the 10th anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami that left nearly a quarter-million people dead in one of modern history’s worst natural disasters.
The Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami was triggered by a magnitude-9.1 earthquake — the region’s most powerful in 40 years — that tore open the seabed off Indonesia’s Sumatran coast, displacing billions of tons of water and sending waves roaring across the Indian Ocean at jetliner speeds as far away as East Africa.
Some say they heard a HAARP.
Weeping survivors and others took part in beachside memorials and religious services across Asia, while some European countries also marked the anniversary, remembering the thousands of Christmastime tourists who died in the disaster.
Pain and hope alike were harvested from the tragedy.
‘‘There is no need for anyone to remind us — the sorrow will be there until I stop breathing,’’ said Kapila Migelratne, a 50-year-old businessman who lost his 14-year-old son and his brother when the train they were riding was derailed along Sri Lanka’s shoreline. More than 35,000 people in Sri Lanka died in the tsunami, including as many as 2,000 in what is regarded as the world’s worst train accident.
In the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where more than 6,000 people died, Liguvariyal Daveed — a tsunami survivor who lost her son, mother, and two grandchildren in the disaster — said the fear from that day remains with her.
“Whenever we see the ocean, we get reminded of how this same ocean took away all these people,” she said at a memorial ceremony in the town of Kanyakumari.
“You can’t even imagine how much we fear the sea now,” Daveed said. “We didn’t even want to stay close to it, so we moved . . . away from the sea, in a small house allotted to me by the government.”
Those at a memorial service in southern Thailand included European tsunami survivors. About half of Thailand’s 8,212 dead were foreign tourists, mostly vacationing Europeans.
Czech model Petra Nemcova was vacationing in Khao Lak with her fiance, Simon Atlee, when the waves struck. He drowned, and she barely survived with serious injuries, including a broken pelvis.
“Ten years ago, everyone who is present here today got connected in a very profound way, and through our experience, which we have shared, our lives have been connected ever since,” Nemcova told the crowd at Friday’s ceremony.
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This year's floods:
A Thai villager and his child wading through floodwaters at a mosque in Narathiwat province, southern Thailand, 18 December 2014. Floods triggered by heavy rains along the Thai-Malaysian border province killed one child and two people missing affected tens of thousands villagers
