Jakarta

Indonesia warned on Tuesday that one of its most deadly volcanoes was poised to erupt and ordered nearly 30 000 villagers on the mountain’s slopes to evacuate. Mount Kelud, which has been rumbling for weeks, was placed on the highest alert level, meaning scientists believe a major eruption is imminent.

More than 70 000 members of a hard-line Muslim group held a rally in Indonesia that heard calls for a caliphate — or Islamic rule — to govern the world. The supporters of the Hizbut Tahrir group filled up most of an 80 000-seat sports stadium in the capital, Jakarta, waving flags as they heard fiery speeches saying it was ”time for the caliphate to reign”.

Indonesian marines shot and killed at least three people on Wednesday during a protest over a land dispute on the main island of Java, a local official said. Marines started shooting after hundreds of residents from Pasuruan town in east Java gathered to try to stop redevelopment of land at the centre of a bitter court dispute with the navy, the official said.

Religious prayers and a series of activities marked the first anniversary of the Java earthquake that killed more than 5 800 people and caused massive destruction, local media reports said on Sunday. The May 27 2006 temblor caused more than -billion in damages.

Massive waves have hit coastlines across Indonesia, sending hundreds of panicky residents rushing from their homes and also destroying fishing boats and beachside shacks, officials and media reports said on Friday. Television footage showed high waves crashing into the tourist island of Bali.

A 15-year-old Indonesian girl has died of bird flu, a health ministry official said on Friday, taking the country’s human death toll from the virus to 73. Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, has had more deaths from the H5N1 strain of avian influenza than any other nation.

Government prosecutors on Tuesday demanded two years in jail for the editor of Playboy Indonesia magazine for violating anti-indecency laws by publishing ”porn” pictures in the magazine. Chief prosecutor Resni Muchtar told the court that the magazine editor Erwin Arnada ”damaged the nation’s morality”.

At least 70 people were killed on Tuesday when a strong earthquake hit the Indonesian island of Sumatra, toppling buildings and sparking panic in the streets of nearby Malaysia and Singapore. CNN reported that hundreds of buildings had collapsed on the island, and local officials said hospitals were quickly overwhelmed.

Indonesian rescuers searched on Sunday for 44 people missing after massive landslides killed at least 25 people on Flores island, an official said.
Heavy rains hampered rescue efforts in East Nusa Tenggara province where dozens of homes have been washed away and roads severely damaged.

Rescuers found the bodies on Tuesday of two people missing after an Indonesian ferry consumed by fire sank with investigators and journalists on board. The total number of confirmed dead following the fire and sinking stands at 53. Estimates put the number of missing at between 50 and 100.

A powerful earthquake in north-eastern Indonesia triggered a tsunami warning on Tuesday and caused panicked residents to flee shaking buildings, officials and media reports said. The tsunami warning was later cancelled. The United States Geological Survey initially put the temblor’s magnitude at 6,9, but later revised it to 6,5.

People camped out in shelters or with relatives in Indonesia’s flood-hit capital began returning to homes on Saturday to clear away mud and debris, as authorities took advantage of receding waters to remove piles of wet garbage from the streets. Much of the city remains inundated following the worst floods in memory.

At least seven people have been killed in severe flooding in the Indonesian capital and surrounding areas where nearly 190 000 people have been displaced following several days of torrential rain, officials said on Sunday. Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso declared ”highest alert” for the city at midnight on Saturday after heavy rains continued in the upper areas around the city of Bogor.

About 100 000 people camped out at roadsides and in emergency shelters as swathes of the Indonesian capital remained inundated on Saturday following a third night of torrential downpours with more rain forecast. Officials said they were struggling to cope with the scale of the disaster while hundreds of troops were deployed to help the worst-hit areas of Jakarta.

A United States navy ship has detected signals believed to be coming from the flight recorder of an Indonesian plane that went missing with 102 people aboard on New Year’s day, the US embassy in Jakarta said on Thursday. Wreckage from the missing Adam Air Boeing 737-400 started turning up in waters on the west coast of Sulawesi over recent weeks.

One person was killed and two others injured after a powerful undersea earthquake rocked northern Indonesia, officials said on Monday, as a series of serious aftershocks continued to rattle the area. The initial, 6,5-magnitude earthquake struck Sulawesi province at 7.27pm local time on Sunday.

Rescuers have found 24 bodies and 10 people are still missing after floods and landslides hit a small island off Indonesia’s Sulawesi, a report said on Sunday. The floods hit Tahuna, district capital of the Sangihe islands, about 250km north of the North Sulawesi provincial capital, Manado, on Friday.

A strong undersea earthquake of a magnitude 6,2 struck eastern Indonesia, about 70km south-west of the provincial capital of Ambon, an official at the country’s Meteorological and Geophysical agency said on Thursday. The official said by telephone the quake struck at 9.31pm local time and was at a depth of 57km.

An Indonesian navy ship, part of the search effort for a missing commercial airliner, on Monday detected a large object under the sea off the west coast of Sulawesi, but it has not been confirmed whether it is the plane. The 17-year-old Boeing 737-400 operated by Indonesian budget carrier Adam Air went missing in bad weather on January.