PALU, Indonesia: Rescuers picking through the grim aftermath of Indonesia’s quake-tsunami issued a fresh public health warning Saturday as more decaying corpses were unearthed from beneath the ruined city of Palu.
More than a thousand people may still be missing in the seaside city on Sulawesi island, officials said, after the region was hit by a powerful quake and a wall of water, with the official death toll now at 1,571.
Hopes of finding anyone alive a full eight days since the disaster have all but faded, though Indonesian authorities have not officially called off the search for survivors.
There are fears that vast numbers of decomposing bodies could be buried beneath Petobo and Balaroa — two areas virtually wiped off the map — and authorities have warned survivors to steer clear as they brace for more macabre discoveries.
“Most of the bodies we have found are not intact, and that poses a danger for the rescuers. We have to be very careful to avoid contamination,” Yusuf Latif, a spokesman for Indonesia’s search and rescue effort, told AFP from Palu.
“We have vaccinated our teams, but we need to be extra cautious as they are exposed to health hazards. This is also a health concern for the public. It is very hard to control the crowd... People might be exposed to danger.”
At a massive government housing complex at Balaroa, where the sheer force of the quake turned the earth temporarily to mush, soldiers in face masks clambered over the giant mounds of mud, brick and cement.
The troops peeking under collapsed walls and peeling back corrugated sheets do not have to look hard.
Sergeant Syafaruddin, from an army unit in Makassar south of Palu, asks for a body bag to be brought across to a spot near where the remnants of an Islamic school now stands.
Two of his soldiers emerge from the ditch with the body bag sagging in the middle but looking too light to be a corpse — they say they found the heads of two adults and one child.
“There are no survivors here. We just find bodies, every day,” says Syafaruddin, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.
At another spot, a digger is called to turn over the devastated remains of a home. With almost no effort he unearths the body of a long haired lady buried in mud.
At the flattened Hotel Roa-Roa — where early optimism that survivors might be found faded as the days wore on and tropical heat intensified — search teams also prepared body bags.
Rescuers reviewed CCTV footage Saturday to get a sense of where the doomed guests could be buried beneath the impenetrable mountain of twisted rubble.
Survivors have ransacked shops and supply trucks in the hunt for basic necessities, prompting security forces to round up dozens of suspected looters and warn that they will open fire on thieves.
Hundreds of people Saturday rushed a truck carrying gas cylinders for cooking, with long and desperate queues quickly forming.
One supermarket that opened its doors refused to allow people inside, instead passing goods through the door as armed troops stood watch.
“We have not raised prices at all. However, we are not letting customers inside for safety reasons. The building survived the earthquake, but we don’t know how safe it is,” said Satria Hamid, a spokesman for the Transmart Carrefour supermarket.
Thousands of survivors continued to stream out of Palu to nearby cities in the aftermath of the disaster.
Hospitals remain overstretched and short on staff and supplies.
Project HOPE, a medical NGO, said only two of its 82 staff in Palu had reported for duty since the quake.
“We still don’t know the fate of the clinic doctors, nurses and technicians who usually staff the clinic,” the organization said in a statement.
A floating hospital run by the Indonesian navy and docked in Palu port has already assisted with the delivery of a baby, local media reported.
The United Nations said Friday it was seeking $50.5 million “for immediate relief” to help victims of the devastating quake and tsunami in Indonesia.
After days of delays, international aid is slowly making its way to the disaster zone, where the UN says almost 200,000 people need humanitarian assistance.
Indonesia had been reluctant to accept outside help at first but as the scale of the disaster became clear the government agreed to allow in foreign aid.
Getting vital supplies to the affected areas has proved hugely challenging, with the number of flights able to land at Palu’s small airport still limited, leaving aid workers facing gruelling overland journeys.
Oxfam had sent water treatment units and purification kits to Palu and Swiss aid teams on the ground were providing drinking water and emergency shelter, both said in statements Saturday.
Indonesia sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” the world’s most tectonically active region, and its 260 million people are vulnerable to earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.
Disease fears as more bodies found in Indonesia disaster
Disease fears as more bodies found in Indonesia disaster
Trump celebrates 100 days in office with campaign-style rally
- Polls show that the honeymoon period that Americans historically accord presidents at the start of their terms has evaporated for Trump, who has angrily dismissed the results, but has tacitly acknowledged that he must moderate some policies as stock marke
WARREN, United States: Donald Trump promised Tuesday that he is just getting started as he marked the radical and vengeful beginning of a presidency that has shaken the world and destabilized the United States.
Basking in the adulation of cheering supporters in Michigan, the 78-year-old touted the “most successful first 100 days of any administration in the history of our country,” even as polls show Americans becoming disenchanted with the economic and political tumult.
Trump said he missed the campaign trail, and launched with visible relish into a speech that often sounded more like that of a candidate than a head of state.
Joe Biden is “sleepy,” the media is “fake,” judges who oppose him are “communist,” Democratic opponents are “radical left,” and friendly countries have “abused us more so than foe on trade,” Trump said, listing targets of his ire.
The president promised to conclude deals on trade, but provided little in the way of details.
And — to chants of “USA! USA!” — he showed a video of migrants in handcuffs and shackles being taken from a plane, transported by bus and filmed on their knees as their heads were shaved, illustrating his controversial deportation policy.
Trump has shaken up the United States like few presidents before him.
His billionaire backer Elon Musk has led dramatic cutbacks of the federal workforce, and the president himself has reshaped relations with the world by unveiling sweeping tariffs, berating allies and eliminating much foreign aid.
Polls show that the honeymoon period that Americans historically accord presidents at the start of their terms has evaporated for Trump, who has angrily dismissed the results, but has tacitly acknowledged that he must moderate some policies as stock market turmoil takes a toll.
Wall Street, down more than six percent since Trump took office, ticked up Tuesday on news he would soften some of the sweeping tariffs impacting automakers.
He also recently backtracked on threats to fire Jerome Powell — who has warned that Trump’s tariffs would likely reignite inflation — but still criticized the Federal Reserve chairman Tuesday as “not really doing a good job.”
After a 2017-2021 term in which some aides sought to rein him in, Trump has surrounded himself this time with unabashed loyalists — and told reporters he was on track to accomplish all of his second-term goals.
“I think either we’ve done everything, or it’s in the process of being done,” Trump said before heading to his rally.
In the grand entrance hallway of the White House, Trump has removed a portrait of Barack Obama, the United States’ first Black president, to make way for a painting of himself surviving an assassination attempt.
He has used threats of cutting off government access and contracts to pressure law firms whose partners once were involved in cases against him, and he has frozen billions of dollars in funding for universities — hotbeds of criticism against the administration.
Unlike most presidents, Trump has focused more on energizing his base than broadening his appeal — and many supporters are still with him.
“He’s amazing. Everybody’s worried about tariffs. We don’t care — look at everything else that’s coming together too,” said Donna Fitzsimons, a 65-year-old merchandise seller at the Michigan rally venue ahead of Trump’s appearance.
“People don’t realize it takes time to get where you need to go.”
The rival Democratic Party has seized on economic anxieties although it has also struggled in polling.
“Trump is to blame for the fact that life is more expensive, it’s harder to retire, and a ‘Trump recession’ is at our doorstep,” the Democratic National Committee said, calling the 100 days a “colossal failure.”
Even with Congress narrowly in Republican hands, Trump has tested the limits of presidential power by signing more than 140 executive orders, many of which have faced court scrutiny.
He has sought to end birthright citizenship — which is guaranteed by the US Constitution — and Musk has summarily axed billions of dollars appropriated by Congress.
Trump has shown signs of impatience. He promised on the campaign trail to end the Ukraine war within 24 hours, but Russia has rebuffed a broad ceasefire offer.
The former reality TV star has claimed the pledge was made “in jest,” although CNN reported that he made it more than 50 times before taking office, and was even at pains to point out that he was being serious.
Pakistan’s minister Tarar warns of possible Indian military strike within 24-36 hours
- “Pakistan has credible intelligence that India intends to launch a military strike within the next 24 to 36 hours using the Pahalgam incident as a false pretext,” Tarar said in a post on social media platform X
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s information minister Attaullah Tarar said on Wednesday that the country has credible intelligence that India intends to launch a military strike within the next 24 to 36 hours.
This comes as tensions rise between the two nuclear-armed nations rise as India has said there were Pakistani elements to the attack that killed 26 men at a tourist spot in Indian Kashmir last week.
Islamabad has denied any role and called for a neutral investigation.
Since the attack, the nuclear-armed nations have unleashed a raft of measures against each other, with India putting the critical Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance and Pakistan closing its airspace to Indian airlines.
“Pakistan has credible intelligence that India intends to launch a military strike within the next 24 to 36 hours using the Pahalgam incident as a false pretext,” Tarar said in a post on social media platform X.
“Any act of aggression will be met with a decisive response. India will be fully responsible for any serious consequences in the region,” he added.
India’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ request for comment.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed to pursue and punish the attackers.
Muslim-majority Kashmir is claimed in full by both Hindu-majority India and Islamic Pakistan. Each controls only part of it and have fought wars over the Himalayan region.
Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told Reuters that a military incursion by India was imminent.
Pakistan was on high alert but would only use its nuclear weapons if “there is a direct threat to our existence,” Asif said in an interview at his office in Islamabad.
US threatens to quit Russia-Ukraine effort unless ‘concrete proposals’
- It remains unclear if Rubio is actually ready to turn the page or is seeking to pressure the two countries — especially Russia
WASHINGTON: Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Tuesday that the United States would end mediation unless Russia and Ukraine put forward “concrete proposals,” as US patience wanes on an early priority for Donald Trump.
The US president had vowed to end the war in his first 24 hours back in the White House but, as Trump celebrates 100 days in office, Rubio has suggested the administration could soon turn attention to other issues.
“We are now at a time where concrete proposals need to be delivered by the two parties on how to end this conflict,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters, in what she said was a message from Rubio.
“If there is not progress, we will step back as mediators in this process.”
She said it would ultimately be up to Trump to decide whether to move ahead on diplomacy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin recently proposed a three-day ceasefire around Moscow’s commemorations next week for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
But Putin has rebuffed a Ukrainian-backed US call for a 30-day ceasefire.
The United States wants “not a three-day moment so you can celebrate something else — a complete, durable ceasefire and an end to the conflict,” Bruce said.
It remains unclear if Rubio is actually ready to turn the page or is seeking to pressure the two countries — especially Russia, which believes it has an upper hand on the battlefield and in diplomacy since Trump’s outreach.
US diplomat James Kelley, addressing a UN Security Council session, said both sides would benefit from working off the “framework proposal” outlined by Washington.
Condemning Russian strikes on Ukraine, he said: “Right now, Russia has a great opportunity to achieve a durable peace.”
Trump, criticizing his predecessor Joe Biden’s support for Ukraine, reached out to Putin after taking office, easing him from the international isolation he has been in since he ordered the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Putin again last week met with Trump’s business friend Steve Witkoff, who has taken on the role of a globe-trotting envoy.
Trump in turn berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a February 28 White House meeting, with Trump and Vice President JD Vance accusing the wartime leader of ingratitude for US weapons.
Ukraine quickly tried to make amends by backing US diplomatic efforts and pursuing a deal in which the United States would control much of the country’s mineral wealth.
But Zelensky has held firm against one part of the US framework — formal international recognition of Russia’s 2014 takeover of Crimea.
Trump has insisted that Ukraine has lost Crimea and Zelensky should give it up.
Speaking by videoconference to an event in Poland on Tuesday, Zelensky said: “We all want this war to end in a fair way — with no rewards for Putin, especially no land.”
US Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Tuesday that recognizing “Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea would invite additional aggression from Moscow and Beijing.”
“I have endeavored to give President Trump the space to negotiate a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, which is a goal we both share,” she said.
“However, President Trump and his team have fatally mismanaged these negotiations — offering concession after concession to Russia, throwing away our leverage and fracturing the united front with our allies that is critical to ending this war,” she said.
Ukraine on Tuesday ordered the evacuation of seven villages in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region which used to be remote from the frontlines but are now under threat as Russian forces close in.
Russia has been trying to break into the region from the neighboring Donetsk but has not succeeded, even after more than three years of grinding battles.
Last week a ballistic missile ripped into a residential area of Kyiv in one of the deadliest attacks on the capital since the invasion.
Trump, who has boasted of his rapport with Putin, wrote, “Vladimir, STOP,” on social media after the attack.
Harvard pledges reforms following internal reports on antisemitism and anti-Arab bias
- In a list of “actions and commitments,” Harvard said it will review admissions processes to make sure applicants are evaluated based on their ability to “engage constructively with different perspectives, show empathy and participate in civil discourse”
WASHINGTON: Harvard University is promising to review its academic offerings and admissions policies in response to a pair of internal reports on antisemitism and anti-Arab prejudice at the Ivy League campus commissioned in the aftermath of last spring’s pro-Palestinian protests.
Harvard released the reports on Tuesday while the university simultaneously battles the Trump administration over demands to limit campus activism — reforms the government says are necessary to root out campus antisemitism. The administration has frozen $2.2 billion in federal funding and Harvard responded with a lawsuit in a clash that is being watched closely across higher education.
In a campus message, Harvard President Alan Garber said Harvard has made “necessary changes and essential progress” over the last year but promised further action.
“We will redouble our efforts to ensure that the University is a place where ideas are welcomed, entertained and contested in the spirit of seeking truth,” Garber wrote.
Garber convened two panels to study campus antisemitism and anti-Muslim bias last year, with an initial round of recommendations released last June. The final reports total more than 500 pages and include dozens of recommended changes.
Harvard said it will begin implementing at least some of the recommendations, with potential updates to admissions, hiring and discipline systems.
In a list of “actions and commitments,” Harvard said it will review admissions processes to make sure applicants are evaluated based on their ability to “engage constructively with different perspectives, show empathy and participate in civil discourse.”
It pointed to a recently added application question asking students about a time they strongly disagreed with someone. The antisemitism task force called for that kind of questioning, saying Harvard should reject anyone with a history of bias and look unfavorably on “exhibitions of hostility, derision or dismissiveness.”
Still, it appears to fall short of the Trump administration’s demands around admissions, which called on Harvard to end all preferences “based on race, color, national origin, or proxies thereof” and implement “merit-based” policies by August. The Supreme Court has rejected the use of race in college admissions, but many colleges look at factors including students’ family income and geography to bring a diverse class to campus.
Responding to complaints that Harvard’s instruction had become too politicized and anti-Israel, the university said it will work to hold professors to new standards of “excellence.” Deans will make sure faculty promote intellectual openness and refrain from endorsing political positions “that may cause students to feel pressure to demonstrate allegiance,” the university said.
Courses and curriculum will also be reviewed to reflect those standards.
Other changes include required antisemitism training for students and staff, along with expanded academic offerings on Hebrew, Judaic, Arab and Islamic studies. Harvard will put money toward a research project on antisemitism along with a historical overview on Muslims, Arabs and Palestinians at the university.
In his message, Garber said Harvard will accelerate a campus-wide effort to promote viewpoint diversity, though he didn’t elaborate. Viewpoint diversity is among the top concerns of the White House, which demanded that Harvard hire an external auditor to make sure the student body and every academic department represent diverse views.
Harvard is the first university to openly defy the Trump administration as it uses its hold on colleges’ federal funding to press its political agenda.
The administration has argued that universities did not do enough to check antisemitism at campus protests last year. Garber has said Harvard will not bend to the demands, calling it a threat to academic freedom and the autonomy of all universities.
India gives army ‘operational freedom’ to respond to Kashmir attack
- India said the “Pakistan Army resorted to unprovoked small arms firing across the Line of Control” overnight Monday to Tuesday, the fifth night in a row that fire was exchanged there
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given India’s military “operational freedom” to respond to a deadly attack in Kashmir last week, a senior government source told AFP Tuesday, after New Delhi blamed it on arch-rival Pakistan.
A week after the deadliest attack on civilians in the contested region in years, Modi on Tuesday held a closed-door meeting with army and security chiefs, during which he told the armed forces that they had the “complete operational freedom to decide on the mode, targets and timing of our response to the terror attack,” said the government source, who was not authorized to speak to the media.
The government released video images of a stern-faced Modi meeting with army chiefs, as well as Defense Minister Rajnath Singh.
Also on Tuesday, India’s army said it had repeatedly traded gunfire with Pakistani troops across the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto Kashmir border, a heavily fortified zone of high-altitude Himalayan outposts.
Pakistan’s military did not confirm the shooting, but state radio in Islamabad reported on Tuesday it had shot down an Indian drone, calling it a violation of its airspace.
It did not say when the incident happened, and there was no comment from New Delhi.
India said the “Pakistan Army resorted to unprovoked small arms firing across the Line of Control” overnight Monday to Tuesday, the fifth night in a row that fire was exchanged there.
The Indian army said its troops had “responded in a measured and effective manner to the provocation.” There were no reports of casualties.
Relations between the nuclear-armed neighbors have plummeted after India accused Pakistan of backing an attack in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22 in which 26 men were killed.
Islamabad has rejected the charge and both countries have since exchanged gunfire in Kashmir and diplomatic barbs, as well as expelled citizens and ordered the main land border crossing shut.
Last week, Modi vowed to pursue those who carried out the attack in the tourist hotspot of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir, and those who had supported it.
“I say to the whole world: India will identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backer,” he said on Thursday.
“We will pursue them to the ends of the Earth.”
The bellicose statements have prompted worries of a rapid spiral into military action, with several nations, including neighboring China, calling for restraint and dialogue.
UN chief Antonio Guterres held calls Tuesday with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in which he “offered his Good Offices to support de-escalation,” his spokesman said.
Sharif’s office later said he had urged Guterres to “counsel India” to exercise restraint, while pledging to defend Pakistan’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity with full force in case of any misadventure by India.”
Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947. Both claim the territory in full.
Rebels in the Indian-run area have waged an insurgency since 1989, seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan.
Indian police have issued wanted posters for three men accused of carrying out the Kashmir attack — two Pakistanis and an Indian — who they say are members of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group, a UN-designated terrorist organization.
They have announced a two million rupee ($23,500) bounty for information leading to each man’s arrest and carried out sweeping detentions seeking anyone suspected of links to the alleged killers.
The worst attack in recent years in Indian-run Kashmir was at Pulwama in 2019, when an insurgent rammed a car packed with explosives into a security forces convoy, killing 40 and wounding 35.
Indian fighter jets carried out air strikes on Pakistani territory 12 days later.
Iran has already offered to mediate and Saudi Arabia has said Riyadh was trying to “prevent an escalation.”
US President Donald Trump downplayed tensions, saying on Friday the dispute will get “figured out, one way or another.”
