World

More than 1,000 may still be missing in Indonesia disaster

PALU (Indonesia): More than a thousand people could still be missing after Indonesia’s devastating quake-tsunami, officials said yesterday, drastically upping the number of people unaccounted for a week after the disaster. Palu city on Sulawesi island has been left in ruins after it was hit by a powerful quake and a wall of water which... Read More

World

October 6, 2018

South Korea ex-president Lee jailed for 15 years over corruption

SEOUL: Former South Korean president Lee Myung-bak was jailed for 15 years for corruption yesterday, becoming the latest of the country’s ex-leaders to be sent to prison. The 76-year-old CEO-turned-president, who served from 2008 to 2013, was found guilty on charges including bribery and embezzlement and ordered to pay a fine of 13 billion won... Read More

Headlines, World

October 3, 2018

35 held for looting in quake-tsunami zone

JAKARTA: Indonesian police on Tuesday said they have arrested dozens of people for looting on the quake and tsunami-struck island of Sulawesi, where survivors have raided shops for water, food and other goods. “On the first and second day clearly no shops were open. People were hungry. There were people in dire need. That’s not... Read More

World

October 3, 2018

Indonesia tsunami worsened by shape of Palu bay

PARIS: The tsunami that ravaged the Indonesian city of Palu was outsized compared to the earthquake that spawned it, but other factors — including a long, narrow bay — conspired to create monster waves, scientists say. At least 844 people are already known to have died in the disaster, and officials say that toll is... Read More

World

October 3, 2018

Reunited couple a rare ray of hope in quake zone

PALU, Indonesia: It was two agonising days of searches through makeshift morgues and hospitals before Azwan found his wife Dewi alive and well after she was swept away in the tsunami that crashed into the Indonesian city of Palu. Recounting the story beside her at a small roadside stall in the quake-hit city, the 38-year-old... Read More

World

October 2, 2018

Kiwi PM faces domestic woes as ‘Jacinda-mania’ goes global

WELLINGTON: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and baby daughter Neve charmed the world in New York during last week’s UN General Assembly, but pundits say her government’s lustre has started to fade back home after almost a year in power. “Jacinda-mania goes global” trumpeted Kiwi pop culture website The Spinoff, saying Ardern had been... Read More

World

October 2, 2018

Quake-hit Indonesia starts burying dead in mass grave

PALU (Indonesia): Indonesian volunteers began burying bodies in a mass grave with space for more than a thousand people yesterday, victims of a quake-tsunami that devastated swathes of Sulawesi and left authorities struggling to deal with the sheer scale of the disaster. Indonesia is no stranger to natural calamities and Jakarta had been keen to... Read More

World

October 2, 2018

Prison break: Convicts on the run after Indonesia disaster

JAKARTA: Some 1,200 Indonesian convicts are on the run from three different detention facilities in devastated Sulawesi after the region was rocked by a powerful earthquake and tsunami, a justice ministry official said Monday. One prison in tsunami-struck Palu city – built to hold just 120 people – saw most of its 581 inmates storm... Read More

World

September 29, 2018

Indonesia rocked by powerful quake, tsunami warning called off

JAKARTA: Indonesia was struck by a powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake yesterday, the US Geological Survey said, but there were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries. The country’s national disaster agency briefly issued a tsunami warning before cancelling it. The strong quake hit central Sulawesi island at a shallow depth of some 10 kilometres (six... Read More

World

September 29, 2018

New UN panel to prepare indictments over Myanmar atrocities

GENEVA: The UN Human Rights Council voted on Thursday to set up a panel to prepare criminal indictments over atrocities committed in Myanmar, amid allegations of genocide against the Rohingya minority. The top UN rights body voted to “establish an ongoing independent mechanism to collect, consolidate, preserve and analyse evidence of the most serious international... Read More

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