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/ 26 December 2007

Asia marks tsunami, three years on

Survivors prayed at mass graves and mosques on Wednesday to mark the third anniversary of the Asian tsunami, while warning sirens sent hundreds fleeing beaches during a drill to test an alert network established since the disaster. The waves on December 26 2004 killed about 230 000 people in 12 Indian Ocean nations.

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/ 16 December 2007

Bali climate deal: Now comes the hard part

A ”historic” Bali deal. A ”Berlin Wall” dividing rich and poor nations on global warming policy falls. And now comes the hard part. After the praise for the agreement hammered out at the Bali meeting to work out a climate treaty involving all nations by late 2009, governments will have to work out the details.

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/ 15 December 2007

Bali breakthrough launches climate talks

Nearly 200 nations agreed at United Nations-led talks in Bali on Saturday to launch negotiations on a new pact to fight global warming after a reversal by the United States allowed a breakthrough. Washington said the agreement marked a new chapter in climate diplomacy after six years of disputes with major allies since President George Bush pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol

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/ 15 December 2007

India, China object to Bali climate draft

India and China objected on Saturday to a draft deal at United Nations talks meant to launch negotiations to fight climate change, saying rich nations should do more to lead the way. ”The need of the hour is for enhanced commitments and instead we see a huge watering down,” said Indian delegate Chandrasekhar Dasgupta.

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/ 14 December 2007

Bali climate draft drops 2020 emissions goals

Negotiators at climate talks in Bali on Friday struggled to break a deadlock over United States objections to goals for cutting emissions by dropping a reference to a non-binding 2020 target in draft text. But the European Union insisted the two-week talks, due to end on Friday, should set stiff 2020 guidelines for rich nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

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/ 13 December 2007

High noon for tense climate talks

The European Union and United States sparred on Thursday as negotiators raced against the clock to come up with framework deal to fight global warming after 2012. As exhausted negotiators fought over draft text behind closed doors, the 11-day-old conference received a jolt of star power as Nobel laureate Al Gore arrived.

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/ 12 December 2007

Ban urges 2009 deadline for climate deal

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged the world on Wednesday to agree a sweeping treaty to fight climate change by 2009, telling UN-led talks in Bali to act now on ”the moral challenge of our generation”. Ban said that the threat of global warming had a ”silver lining” because creative solutions could create jobs and ease poverty in developing nations.

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/ 11 December 2007

Tourism under spotlight as Bali faces water woes

Every year since 2000, the water level of Bali’s Lake Buyan has been falling, leaving many locals puzzled. Some believe deforestation in the surrounding mountains is to blame, while green groups suspect the shrinking lake is emblematic of looming water shortages the Indonesian island is likely to face as more and more tourists visit.

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/ 10 December 2007

UN climate summit enters final stretch

Rich and poor nations wrangled over the need for mandatory caps on greenhouse gases and ways to help the most vulnerable adapt to rising temperatures as a United Nations climate conference entered its crucial final week. Delegates and environmentalists said on Monday they were satisfied so far with the progress.

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/ 7 December 2007

Battle of the batiks breaks out in Bali

In the interests of the planet, delegates at a climate summit in balmy Bali have cast aside their collars and ties and donned airy clothing, prompting an explosion of batik shirts. Indonesia’s traditional wax-and-dye attire can be spied on every corner at the key United Nations meeting in Bali, a sultry holiday island near the equator.

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/ 4 December 2007

Bali climate talks advance despite squabbling

A 190-nation climate meeting in Bali took small steps towards a new global deal to fight global warming by 2009 on Tuesday amid disputes about how far China and India should curb rising greenhouse-gas emissions. Yvo de Boer, the United Nations’s top climate official, praised the December 3 to 14 meeting of 10 000 participants for progress.

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/ 4 December 2007

Bali climate talks skirmish over China, India

A 190-nation climate meeting in Bali began a hunt for a new global deal to fight global warming by 2009 on Tuesday with skirmishing about how far China and India should curb surging greenhouse gas emissions. ”The conference got off to a very encouraging start,” said Yvo de Boer, head of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat.

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/ 3 December 2007

Bali talks seek new climate pact

About 190 nations met in Bali on Monday seeking a breakthrough to a new global pact to fight climate change by 2009 to avert droughts, heatwaves and rising seas that will hit the poor hardest. A new treaty is meant to widen the Kyoto Protocol, which binds 36 industrial countries to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 5% below 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012.

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/ 26 November 2007

Quakes kill at least three on Indonesian island

At least three people were killed and 45 injured when powerful earthquakes struck off the coast of Sumbawa island in central Indonesia, a health ministry official said on Monday. Several buildings, including a health clinic, collapsed in the island’s Bima district, said Rustam Pakaya, the head of the health ministry’s crisis centre.

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/ 5 November 2007

Indonesian volcano builds up energy

Indonesia’s deadly Mount Kelud billowed thick smoke on Monday amid signs of a major eruption, while another volcano nearby sent clouds of ash raining down on towns and villages. At least one other of Indonesia’s approximately 100 active volcanoes was also smoking as well as firing out red-hot stones and lava.

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/ 2 November 2007

Indonesian volcano critical, may erupt

Indonesia’s Mount Kelud volcano in East Java is in a critical phase and could erupt any time a day after being shaken by hundreds of tremors, the country’s top volcanic expert said on Friday. Authorities raised the alert at Mount Kelud, one of Indonesia’s deadliest volcanoes, to maximum two weeks ago.

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/ 25 October 2007

Huge ash cloud as Mount Soputan erupts

Mount Soputan volcano on the northern tip of Indonesia’s Sulawesi island has erupted, throwing columns of ash 1 000m into the air. Saut Simatupang, of Indonesia’s Centre for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation, said that the eruption did not appear to pose an immediate threat to residents, although ash had reached the nearest town.

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/ 19 October 2007

At least 31 dead as Indonesian ferry sinks

At least 31 people were killed and 125 rescued after a ferry sank off Indonesia’s Sulawesi island in the latest of a series of transport accidents to hit the archipelago nation, officials said on Friday. Residents near the town of Bau Bau on south-east Sulawesi heard survivors screaming and pleading for help after the Acita 03 capsized.

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/ 17 October 2007

Indonesia on top alert for volcanic eruption

Fears of an imminent eruption prompted the evacuation of thousands of residents near Indonesia’s Mount Kelud on Wednesday, but many flouted the order and stayed at their homes around the rumbling Javanese volcano. The alert on the volcano, one of Indonesia’s deadliest and located 90km south-west of its second-largest city, Surabaya, was raised to maximum late on Tuesday.

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/ 4 October 2007

Indonesia hit by strong quakes, no tsunamis

Two undersea earthquakes over 2 500km apart and measuring up to 6,3 on the Richter scale struck Indonesia on Thursday, but no tsunami warnings were triggered, seismologists said. The first quake in the northern Aceh province was rated by the national meteorological agency at a magnitude of 6,3 on the Richter scale.

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/ 15 September 2007

Indonesia quake death toll rises

The toll from an earthquake on Indonesia’s Sumatra island this week has risen to 21 dead and 88 injured, while more than 13 000 homes were destroyed or damaged, officials said on Saturday. The 8,4-magnitude quake, which struck off the coast of western Sumatra on Wednesday evening, has been followed by at least 40 big aftershocks.

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/ 14 September 2007

Indonesians huddle in tents in quake-hit Sumatra

Frightened residents on Indonesia’s Sumatra island huddled in tents outside their damaged homes on Friday, traumatised by the latest of nearly 40 aftershocks since a huge earthquake struck two days ago. Indonesia’s meteorology agency issued the latest in a series of tsunami warnings late on Thursday after another strong quake struck Sumatra.

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/ 13 September 2007

World’s Muslims celebrate start of holy month

Most of the world’s 1,2-billion Muslims celebrated the start of the holy month of Ramadan on Thursday as Indonesians prayed for the victims of a massive earthquake that rocked Sumatra island a day earlier. The start of Ramadan, the holiest month of the Muslim calendar, is traditionally determined by the sighting of a new crescent moon.

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/ 13 September 2007

Sumatra pounded by quake, aftershocks

Indonesia’s Sumatra island was pounded by aftershocks on Thursday after a massive earthquake killed at least eight people and buried many others under collapsed buildings. Tsunami warnings were repeatedly issued and lifted for Indian Ocean countries after the magnitude 8,4 earthquake, the biggest this year.