Free Republic

Indonesian rescuers and firefighters on Saturday searched for more than a dozen people missing under the rubble of charred houses and buildings, after a large fire spread from a fuel storage depot in the capital and killed at least 18 people. The Plumpang fuel storage station, operated by state-run oil and gas company Pertamina, is near a densely populated area in the Tanah Merah neighborhood in North Jakarta. It supplies 25% of Indonesia’s fuel needs. A preliminary investigation showed the fire broke out when a pipeline ruptured during heavy rain, possibly triggered by a lightning strike, said Eko Kristiawan, Pertamina’s...

Three large explosions have rocked a fuel depot north of London, shooting flames hundreds of metres into the sky. Thirty-six people have been injured, four of them seriously. Police say that at this stage they are treating the blasts as an accident. The three explosions woke up residents dozens of kilometres away from the big fuel depot at Buncefield, near Luton airport north of London. Houses kilometres away have reported buckled front doors, cracked walls and blown-out windows. The area near the site has been evacuated, while police have advised residents living nearby to keep their windows and doors closed...

Iraqi police nabbed two persons Feb. 29 who were apparently preparing to launch a rocket-propelled-grenade attack on a local council meeting in Bajar, northern Iraq. The suspects, according to a Combined Joint Task Force 7 press release, were arrested and then turned over to coalition forces along with one RPG launcher and three RPG rounds. Also Feb. 29, U.S. 14th Cavalry Regiment soldiers detained three persons suspected of anti-coalition activities during an operation in Rabiyah in northern Iraq, and American 23rd Infantry Regiment troops in Mosul seized two persons suspected of stealing and selling weapons in northern Iraq. Meanwhile, in...