India has withdrawn the tsunami warning issued following a massive earthquake off the east coast of Indonesia. Earlier, the Earth sciences ministry and the National Disaster Management Authority issued a tsuanmi warning for Andaman and Nicobar Island and an alert to coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Later, in subsequent bulletions, the two organisations virtually ruled out tsunami in Andaman and Nicobar Islands and elsewhere in the country. "There is no specific threat. It was a watch and alert. There is no likelihood of any tsunami in the Indian Ocean region," NDMA Vice President Sashidhar Reddy told PTI. He said the earthquake that struck the Sumatra islands was not the kind of tremors that usually triggers tsunami tidal waves. "It is the kind of strike and slip earth quake which does not trigger tsunami. There was no vertical displacement of water under the sea," he said. "Tsunami possibility is virtually ruled out," he said, adding that the Andaman and Nicobar Islands administration and the Army stationed there had informed the NDMA that so far no waves have been noticed in the island. The initial projections issued by the Indian Tsunami Early Warning ...
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Jakarta, An earthquake of 8.7 magnitude struck off the coast of Indonesia on Wednesday, sending residents there and in India dashing out of their homes and offices in fear. A tsunami warning was issued for the whole Indian Ocean. The quake struck 308 miles (500 km) southwest of the city of Banda Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, at a depth of 20.5 miles (33 km), the US Geological survey said. The quake was felt as far away as the Thai capital, Bangkok, and in southern India, residents said. Hundreds of office workers in the Bangalore left their buildings, workers there said. The quake was in roughly in the same area as a Dec 26, 2004, quake of 9.1 magnitude, which sent huge tsunami waves crashing into Sumatra, where 170,000 people were killed, and across the Indian Ocean. In all, the 2004 tsunami killed about 230,000 people in 13 Indian Ocean countries, including Thailand, Sri Lanka and India. The 2004 quake was at a depth of 18 miles (30 km) along a fault line running under the Indian Ocean, off western Indonesia and up into the Bay of Bengal. The quake was also felt in Sri Lanka and the southern Thai holiday island of Phuket, both of which were ...
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Washington, Even as overall growth in the G20 slowed in the fourth quarter of 2011, growth increased strongly in India and Indonesia, modestly in the United States, but slowed somewhat in China, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The G20 Quarterly Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of +0.7 percent in the last three months of 2011 compared with +0.9 percent in the third quarter, according to provisional results from this first time release of the G20 GDP aggregate. In 2011 as a whole, G20 GDP rose by +2.8 percent, a marked deceleration compared with the +5.0 percent growth recorded in 2010. The G20 GDP aggregate masks diverging patterns among the world's largest economies, IMF said noting in India and Indonesia growth increased strongly from + 0.9 percent to + 1.8 percent and from + 1.4 percent to + 2.1 percent respectively. However in terms of annual percentage change and percentage change on the same quarter of the previous year India's growth rate fell from 7 percent in the third quarter to 6.5 percent in the fourth quarter. In the United States, GDP growth increased to +0.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, compared with +0.5 percent in ...
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JAKARTA, INDONESIA : A woman who drove her vehicle into a group of pedestrians in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta on Sunday morning has tested positive for drugs, officials said on Monday. The incident left nine people killed. Afriani Susanti, the driver of the vehicle, slammed into a group of pedestrians in the Tugu Tani area of Central Jakarta on late Sunday morning. As a result, nine people were killed, including a three-year-old boy, while three others were injured. Police immediately arrested Afriani and her three passengers after the accident. Jakarta Police spokesman Senior Commander Rikwanto told the Jakarta Globe on Monday that laboratory tests have lead police to believe that she had taken crystal methamphetamine. Afriani allegedly confessed to have taken ecstasy, a common drug associated with parties, while further reports indicate that she had also been drinking and driving without a license. In addition, the vehicle was not registered. The suspect remained in custody on Monday and is expected to face a number of charges. Funerals for four of the victims, all aged 16 and 17, also took place on ...
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JAKARTA : A powerful earthquake struck off the Indonesian island of Sumatra on early Wednesday morning, seismologists said, prompting a brief tsunami alert but causing no damage. The 7.1-magnitude earthquake at 12.37 a.m. local time (1837 GMT Tuesday) was centered about 423 kilometers (262 miles) southwest of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province on the northern tip of Sumatra. It struck about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) deep, making it a shallow earthquake, according to Indonesia's seismological agency (BMKG). The United States Geological Survey (USGS) measured the strength of the earthquake at 7.3 on the regional moment magnitude (Mw) scale with a depth of 29.1 kilometers (18.1 miles). BMKG initially measured the quake at 7.6 on the Richter scale but later revised it downwards. Tremors could be felt in Banda Aceh where residents fled from buildings and rushed to higher ground as BMKG issued a tsunami warning for local coastlines. The warning was canceled about two hours later when no unusual waves were observed. Provincial officials said there were no immediate reports of damage, and most people returned to their homes when the tsunami warning was canceled. The USGS ...
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Islamabad, Thirty-seven Pakistani youths were among those drowned in a boat accident off the Indonesian coast of Java about two weeks ago, the interior ministry said Tuesday. The vessel was heading to Christmas island of Australia with some 250 illegal migrants on board. It sank near the Prigi beach Dec 18. Six other Pakistanis were among some 40 people who survived. About 90 bodies, including that of the Pakistanis, were fished out of the water, while a search was on for the missing. Illegal immigrants from Afghanistan, Turkey and the Middle East were also on the boat. Islamabad was in touch with the Indonesian authorities to bring home the bodies, Xinhua quoted the ministry as saying. The Pakistani victims belonged to Balochistan province. Indonesia is a major transit point for illegal immigrants from the Middle East heading to ...
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Jakarta, The Indonesian army has allocated some 14 trillion rupiah (aboutUSD 1.5 billion) to purchase several military equipment, from producers in Europe and the US in near future, a senior army official said. Among the military equipment that have been listed by the army are European-made Leopard main battle tanks and US-made AH-64 Apache helicopters, Xinhua reported. Indonesian Army Chief of Staff General Pramono Edhie Wibowo said that besides those tanks and helicopters, the army also planned to purchase artillery equipment from France, the report added. "For the tanks and the helicopters, we planned to purchase 108 units respectively," Pramono said here. According to Pramono, the Leopard tank is priced at $280 million each, while the price of attack helicopter AH-64 Apache was set at $25 million each. The funds to purchase those military equipment would be retrieved from 2011 state budget, expected to improve the army's ...
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Jajarta, Indonesian central bank has asked commercial banks in the country to lower their interest rates as the country will rely much on its domestic consumption to boost economic growth, central bank governor Darmin Nasution has said here. Darmin made the call as the Indonesian government has been struggling to ease the risks of global economic uncertainty due to slowing US economic growth and Europe debt crisis, reported Xinhua. "This is clearly not a short-term issue, it's a medium-term problem. But we cannot be weary of reminding and fighting for (lower lending rates)," Darmin was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying Monday. The central bank has cut rate by 75 basis points in September and October after keeping it unchanged for more than two years, aiming at fighting inflation and spurring economic growth. The bank expected the move would be followed by commercial banks in the country. Darmin said that next year's lending growth would remain robust at up to 25 percent like this year despite global economic woes. The central bank started with the "prime lending rate" policy earlier this year, which requires banks to publicly announce the rates they charge their ...
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Jakarta, Mount Gamalama in Indonesia's North Maluku province erupted Sunday and started releasing volcanic ashes. There were no immediate reports of death or material loss due to the eruption. The volcano erupted at 11.00 p.m., Xinhua reported. People living around the foot of the volcano have taken refuge to safer places, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, head of the Centre of Data, Information and Public Relation at the National Agency of Disaster Management (BNPB), in a statement. Some of them, however, chose to stay at their houses. Some parts of the provincial capital city of Ternate were covered by ash rain and blackout was occurred at the foot of the volcano. People were requested to maintain calm. "Yes, it erupted but we asked people to stay calm," Surono, head of the Centre of Vulcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation (PVMBG) told the country's largest news portal detikcom. Gamalama is a near-conical stratovolcano that comprises the entire Ternate island in ...
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