MATARAM, Indonesia: More than 500 hikers and their guides have been successfully evacuated from an Indonesian volcano after a deadly earthquake triggered landslides that trapped them on the mountain, officials said Tuesday.
Tons of rock and mud were dislodged on Mount Rinjani in the 6.4-magnitude quake, which struck early Sunday and was followed by scores of aftershocks, blocking the hiking routes that crisscross the mountain.
Some 560 trekkers were originally thought to have been stranded, including citizens from the United States, France, the Netherlands, Thailand and Germany, as well as many other countries, according to search and rescue officials.
“543 hikers have been evacuated — they arrived last night,” national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.
“There are now six people left ... They are all healthy and safe.”
Hikers were able to start climbing down on Monday after guides discovered an alternate route that was unaffected by the landslides.
Most of the trekkers reached the base of the mountain by late Monday evening, according to I Gusti Lanang Wiswananda, a spokesman for Mataram search and rescue agency.
“They were all tired, but in good condition and were checked by our medical teams on the ground upon arrival,” he said.
Wiswananda said one Indonesian hiker died on the mountain and a 30-person rescue team was escorting the six remaining trekkers down from Lake Segara Anak, near Rinjani’s summit.
Hundreds of other hikers managed to get off the mountain on Sunday, according to officials.
At least 16 people were killed in the earthquake across affected areas of Lombok, while hundreds of buildings were destroyed including a health clinic.
The quake created panic on the holiday island and sent locals and tourists running outside their homes and hotels.
Helicopters and search teams were deployed to scour the volcano’s slopes and drop food supplies for those stranded on the mountain.
Some 189 foreign tourists, 173 domestic tourists and 181 porters and guides reached the base of the mountain last night, Sutopo said.
Rising some 3,726 meters (12,224 feet) above sea level, Rinjani is the second-tallest volcano in Indonesia and a favorite among sightseers keen to take in its expansive views.
Hiking trails on the mountain were closed following the quake due to fear of further landslides.
The epicenter of the earthquake was 50 km (30 miles) northeast of Lombok’s main city Mataram, the United States Geological Survey said, far from the main tourist spots on the south and west of the island.
The initial tremor was followed by two strong secondary quakes and more than 100 aftershocks.
More than 220 people suffered serious injuries in the quake, Sutopo said.
A Malaysian was among the dead, with another six citizens injured, the foreign ministry in Kuala Lumpur said.
A total of 5,141 people are staying in temporary shelters and in need of clean water, according to officials.
More than 500 hikers evacuated from Indonesian volcano
More than 500 hikers evacuated from Indonesian volcano
- Hikers were able to start climbing down on Monday after guides discovered an alternate route that was unaffected by the landslides
- Helicopters and search teams were deployed to scour the volcano’s slopes and drop food supplies for those stranded on the mountain
Bangladesh extends armed forces judicial powers
- Order extends for two more months the powers of the armed forces to engage in day-to-day enforcement activities like the police, including making arrests
The government order, issued November 15, extends for two more months the powers of the armed forces to engage in day-to-day enforcement activities like the police, including making arrests.
“The armed forces will carry out the orders assigned to us by the government,” army spokesman Sami-Ud-Daula Chowdhury said Sunday.
Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, 77, had ordered police to crush student-led protests — a deadly crackdown that left at least 700 people dead — before she fled by helicopter to India on August 5.
Her 15-year regime was marred by incidents of preventing the opposition from exercising their democratic rights.
Since then, a caretaker government, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, has been tasked with implementing democratic reforms and holding elections.
The army was brought in to restore security with many people having lost confidence in the police.
Only officers with the rank of captain or above are authorized to make an arrest, high court lawyer Imam Hasan Tareq said Sunday.
The powers have been extended to include the coast guard and border security units.
Super Typhoon Man-yi topples trees, power lines in the Philippines
- Man-yi still packing maximum sustained winds of 185 kilometers per hour after making landfall late Saturday
- Man-yi is expected to ‘slightly weaken’ to a typhoon before hitting main island of Luzon
MANILA: Super Typhoon Man-yi uprooted trees, brought down power lines and ripped off corrugated iron roofing as it swept across the storm-weary Philippines on Sunday, following an unusual streak of violent weather.
Man-yi was still packing maximum sustained winds of 185 kilometers per hour after making landfall on lightly populated Catanduanes island late Saturday.
More than 650,000 people fled their homes ahead of Man-yi as the national weather service warned of a “potentially catastrophic and life-threatening” impact from the storm.
“There have been no reported casualties, perhaps because people followed the evacuation orders,” Catanduanes provincial disaster operations chief Roberto Monterola said on Sunday, as clean-up efforts on the island got underway.
“All the towns sustained damage, but we expect those in the north to have more problems,” Monterola said.
“It’s just a breeze and a drizzle now.”
Man-yi is expected to “slightly weaken” to a typhoon before hitting Luzon — the country’s most populous island and economic engine — on Sunday afternoon, forecasters said.
Severe flooding and landslides were expected as Man-yi dumped “intense to torrential” rain over provinces in its path, with more than 200 millimeters (nearly eight inches) forecast in the next 24 hours, the weather service said.
Panganiban municipality in the northeast of Catanduanes took a direct hit from Man-yi.
Photos shared on the Facebook page of Mayor Cesar Robles showed toppled power lines, damaged houses, and trees and corrugated iron sheets strewn on the roads.
“Pepito was so strong, I have never experienced a typhoon this strong,” Robles said in a post, using the local name for Man-yi.
“It is still a bit unsafe there are still bursts of wind and there are many debris.”
Marissa Cueva Alejandro, 36, who grew up in Catanduanes, said typhoons were getting stronger.
“Before, we would only experience (typhoon) signal number three to four, but now typhoons are getting as strong as signal number five,” she said, referring to the weather service’s five-tiered wind warning system.
Man-yi is the sixth storm in the past month to batter the archipelago nation. At least 163 people died in the previous storms, that also left thousands homeless and wiped out crops and livestock.
Climate change is increasing the intensity of storms, leading to heavier rains, flash floods and stronger gusts.
About 20 big storms and typhoons hit the Southeast Asian nation or its surrounding waters each year, killing scores of people, but it is rare for multiple such weather events to take place in a small window.
Robert Tancino, a government ambulance driver in Tiwi municipality in Albay province, which faces Catanduanes, said his area appeared to be largely unscathed.
“Not too many trees fell and the roads are otherwise clear. I did not see any damage among the houses here,” Tancino said.
The weather forecaster has hoisted its second-highest typhoon signal over several provinces along Luzon island’s east coast where Man-yi is expected to make its second landfall.
Around 2,000 people were in emergency evacuation shelters in Dipaculao municipality in Aurora province.
Others have stayed home to protect their property and livestock, or because they were skeptical of the warnings, said Geofry Parrocha, communications officer of Dipaculao disaster agency.
“Some of our countrymen are really hard-headed. They do not believe us until the typhoon arrives,” Parrocha said.
Tourists emptied out of coastal resorts ahead of the typhoon.
“Our facilities are deserted,” said Irene Padeo, reservation officer of the L’Sirene Boutique Resort in Baler town in Aurora, shortly before Man-yi was due to make landfall in neighboring San Luis.
“Our outdoor items have all been packed and taken indoors. We tied down all the rest.”
On its current trajectory, Man-yi will cross north of Manila and sweep over the South China Sea on Monday.
Man-yi hit the Philippines late in the typhoon season — most cyclones develop between July and October.
Earlier this month, four storms were clustered simultaneously in the Pacific basin, which the Japan Meteorological Agency said was the first time such an occurrence had been observed in November since its records began in 1951.
China’s president vows to work with Trump team as he meets Biden in Peru
- “China’s goal of a stable, healthy and sustainable China-US relationship remains unchanged,” Xi said
- Trump has vowed to adopt blanket 60 percent tariffs on US imports of Chinese goods as part of a package of “America First” trade measures
LIMA, Peru: Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday vowed to work with the incoming US administration of President-elect Donald Trump as he held his final talks with outgoing President Joe Biden on key conflicts from cybercrime to trade, Taiwan and Russia.
Biden met Xi at a hotel where the Chinese leader was staying, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Lima, Peru, for their first talks in seven months.
“China’s goal of a stable, healthy and sustainable China-US relationship remains unchanged,” following the election, Xi said, acknowledging “ups and downs” between the countries.
“China is ready to work with the new US administration to maintain communication, expand cooperation and manage differences,” he added.
Biden told Xi that the two leaders haven’t always agreed but their discussions have been “frank” and “candid.”
The talks come two months before Trump assumes office. He has vowed to adopt blanket 60 percent tariffs on US imports of Chinese goods as part of a package of “America First” trade measures. Beijing opposes those steps. The Republican president-elect also plans to hire several hawkish voices on China in senior roles, including US Senator Marco Rubio as secretary of state and Representative Mike Waltz as national security adviser.
Biden has aimed to lower tensions with China, but Washington is incensed by a recent China-linked hack of the telephone communications of US government and presidential campaign officials, and it is anxious about increasing pressure by Beijing on Taiwan and Chinese support for Russia.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te is planning to stop in the US state of Hawaii and maybe Guam on a sensitive visit that is sure to anger Beijing in the coming weeks, Reuters reported on Friday. Meanwhile, Taiwan’s former economy minister Lin Hsin-i met Biden at the summit on Friday and invited him to visit Taiwan in the near future.
China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory. The US is Taiwan’s most important international backer and arms supplier, despite the lack of formal diplomatic recognition.
Biden also wants China’s help with North Korea, whose deepening ties with Russia and deployment of troops in the war with Ukraine has worried Washington.
China’s economic hit
At the same time, Beijing’s economy is taking a stiff hit from Biden’s steps on trade, including a plan to restrict US investment in Chinese artificial intelligence, quantum computing and semiconductors and export restrictions on high-end computer chips. All of those topics are expected to figure into the talks, US officials said.
China routinely denies US hacking allegations, regards Taiwan as internal matter and has protested American statements on Sino-Russian trade. A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington declined to comment.
“When the two countries treat each other as partner and friend, seek common ground while shelving differences and help each other succeed, our relationship would make considerable progress,” Xi said as he met with Biden, according to a simultaneous translation.
“But if we take each other as rivals or adversary, pursue vicious competition, and seek to hurt each other, we would roil the relationship or even set it back.”
On Wednesday, Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan described the transition as “a time when competitors and adversaries can see possibly opportunity.” Biden is stressing with Xi the “need to maintain stability, clarity, predictability through this transition between the United States and China.”
Shen Dingli, a Shanghai-based international relations scholar, said China wants the meeting to ease tensions during the transition period. “China definitely does not want relations with the United States to be thrown into turmoil before Trump formally takes office,” said Shen.
Pacific Rim leaders gathered at the APEC summit are assessing the implications of Trump’s return to power as US president on Jan. 20. The South American summit offers new signs of the challenges to the United States’ power in its own backyard, where China is on a charm offensive.
Xi, who arrived in Lima on Thursday, plans a week-long diplomatic blitz in Latin America that includes a refurbished free-trade agreement with Peru, inaugurating the massive Chancay deep-water port there and being welcomed in Brazil’s capital next week for a state visit. China also announced plans to host the APEC summit in 2026.
China is seeking Latin America’s metal ores, soybeans, and other commodities, but US officials worry they may also be looking for new US-adjacent military and intelligence outposts. Chinese state-backed media has called those accusations a smear.
A US official said Washington’s commitment to the region was strong and that Chinese infrastructure investment overseas has declined in recent years due to domestic challenges and problems with the projects.
But Ryan Berg, director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, said Xi would meet with a good reception in the region.
“Biden’s trip will be overshadowed very clearly by all of the things that Xi Jinping will be up to when he visits APEC,” he said. “When Xi meets with Biden part of his audience is not – it’s not solely the White House or the US government. It’s about American CEOs and continued US investment or trying to renew US investment in China and get rid of the perception that there’s a hostile business environment in China.”
Thousands march in Germany to demand release of Kurd leader
- The protest followed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statements in late October that he wanted to “reach out to our Kurdish brothers”
FRANKFUR, Germany: Thousands of protesters marched in the western German city of Cologne on Saturday to demand the release of Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdish PKK militant group who was arrested 25 years ago.
Amid signs of easing tensions between the Turkish government and the PKK, the demonstrators carried banners bearing the image of the PKK’s founder and historic leader, who has been detained in an island prison off the coast of Istanbul since 1999.
The protest followed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statements in late October that he wanted to “reach out to our Kurdish brothers.”
The head of Turkish nationalist party MHP, Erdogan’s main coalition ally, has invited Ocalan, who is serving a life sentence, to speak before parliament to announce the dissolution of the PKK, raising the possibility of his release.
Cologne police reported no incidents during the march, though they did intervene twice to remove “symbols that could have a link to the PKK.”
The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by Turkiye and its Western allies, and showing its symbols is illegal in Germany.
The conflict between the PKK and the Turkish state has caused more than 40,000 deaths since 1984.
Turkiye is the third largest country of origin for asylum seekers in Germany this year, after Syria and Afghanistan, according to the Interior Ministry.
Most of the applicants claim to be ethnic Kurds, according to the German daily FAZ.
Trump defense nominee’s thin CV, tattoos under scrutiny
- Hegseth boasts degrees from elite US universities, including an undergraduate from Princeton and a master’s from Harvard
WASHINGTON: Facing questions about an alleged sexual assault and medieval-themed tattoos linked to extremist groups, Donald Trump’s defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth would struggle to be confirmed for the job under normal circumstances.
But these are not normal times in Washington.
Hegseth, a Fox News host, was picked by Trump on Tuesday in one of several nominations that wrong-footed even some in his remodeled Republican Party and threw down a challenge to the Senate.
To take up the position as head of the Pentagon to oversee 3.4 million employees, Hegseth will require confirmation from the upper house — and Trump is publicly pressuring lawmakers to show loyalty to his agenda.
Revelations in recent days about the 44-year-old have made his path to power more difficult, including that the thrice-married former soldier was investigated for sexual assault in California in 2017.
No charges were filed over an encounter in a Monterey hotel that saw an unnamed accuser lodge a police report, but the claim has led to questions about the vetting process for the former soldier.
“He was cleared,” his lawyer Timothy Parlatore told NBC News on Friday. “There’s not much more that I can say. It didn’t happen.”
His tattoos have also raised questions, leading to him being stood down by his Army National Guard unit when it was called up for the inauguration of President Joe Biden in 2020.
Speaking on a podcast with fellow veteran Shawn Ryan earlier this month, he revealed that one of his fellow soldiers had flagged him as a possible white nationalist because of his body art.
He claimed it was because of the medieval Jerusalem Cross on his chest, but he also has the words “Deus Vult” on his bicep — a phrase meaning “God wills it” that was used by anti-Muslim crusaders in the Middle Ages.
European medieval imagery and slogans have been widely adopted by white supremacists and neo-Nazis in recent years, but Hegseth says his tattoos simply reflect his faith.
“It’s a Christian symbol,” the author of a 2020 book entitled “American Crusade” said of the Jerusalem Cross.
His handling of medieval weaponry has gone viral in recent days after a video re-emerged of him taking part in a televised axe-throwing contest which saw him miss the target and strike a bystander, who narrowly escaped serious injury.
His CV includes combat experience in Afghanistan and Iraq and he rose to the rank of major in the National Guard — a lowly status compared to the generals and admirals he would oversee at the Pentagon.
Hegseth boasts degrees from elite US universities, including an undergraduate from Princeton and a master’s from Harvard.
Square-jawed and outspoken, he came to Trump’s attention on the “Fox & Friends Weekend” show that he co-hosts.
“You know the military better than anyone,” Trump told him during an appearance in early June, adding that he often thought about putting him in charge of the Pentagon.
A former Republican operative who vetted Hegseth when Trump was considering him for the more junior veterans affairs secretary in 2016 wrote this week that he remained unqualified and an “empty vessel.”
Lacking major experience in foreign affairs or congressional politics, his only civilian management credential included being CEO of a small non-profit, Justin Higgins, who has since switched to the Democrats, wrote for MSNBC.
“It’s not hard to imagine that he would do and say whatever Trump wants,” he added.
Hegseth’s main policy focus in his books and media appearances is tackling what he calls “woke shit” in the armed forces — and he has expressed support for purging the top brass.
He told Ryan on his podcast that his experiences taught him that “the bigotry we saw on the outside (of the army) should not be tolerated inside the military” but that progressive efforts to tackle racism and sexism had gone too far.
“The army that I enlisted in, that I swore an oath to in 2001 and was commissioned in in 2003 looks a lot different than the army of today because we’re focused on a lot of the wrong things,” he said.
