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The toilet paper on your grocery store shelves may have a direct impact on the 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild. Not all tissue and paper towels are made from responsible sources. Tiger Habitat Urgently Threatened Sumatra's rain forests--and the tigers that live in them--are in danger. One threat? Toilet paper bound for U.S. stores. Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) is pulping rain forests and replacing them with pulp plantations to provide paper fiber for products like the fastest-growing brand of toilet paper in the United States today, Paseo. Since 1984, APP's forestry practices have cleared 5 million acres...

SUMATRA, Indonesia –Several earthquakes have struck near south Sumatra of the 5.0 and 5.1 magnitude range today- making a tense situation on the volcanically-dotted archipelago potentially even more volatile. The Anak Krakatau volcano is showing signs of increased seismic activity. Authorities fear the volcano is building towards an eruption that could dwarf the one which occurred in 2007. Indonesia’s Volcanology and Geological Disasters Mitigation Center reported the numbers of seismic tremors now registering from the volcano have exceeded 5,000 a day. There are also reports of a gaseous mist which has seeped from the volcano and have enshrouded it in...

An international team of geoscientists has discovered an unusual geological formation that helps explain how an undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra in December 2004 spawned the deadliest tsunami in recorded history. Instead of the usual weak, loose sediments typically found above the type of geologic fault that caused the earthquake, the team found a thick plateau of hard, compacted sediments. Once the fault snapped, the rupture was able to spread from tens of kilometers below the seafloor to just a few kilometers below the seafloor, much farther than weak sediments would have permitted. The extra distance allowed it...

VIVAnews - Mt Anak Krakatau, a volcano located on the Sunda Strait between Sumatra and Java, Indonesia, has seen escalating expulsion of toxic gas. The volcanic activities were triggered by 5.5 magnitude tremor hitting southwest of Krui, Lampung, earlier in November. In addition, the sea temperature around the volcano has been rising as well. According to Andi Arief, presidential advisor on Disaster Issues, revealed through a short message today, Nov 29, that the plumes of smoke sent off by the Anak Krakatau reached the height of between 200 and 800 meters into the air. The data gathered was an accumulation...

JAKARTA (Reuters) – Thousands of Indonesians were evacuated from the slopes of a volcano on Sunday after it erupted for the first time in more than 400 years, spewing out lava and sending smoke and dust 1,500 meters (5,000 feet) into the air. Mount Sinabung, in the north of the island of Sumatra, began erupting around midnight after rumbling for several days, prompting some villagers to panic before the mass evacuation got under way. Indonesia is on the so-called Pacific Rim of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and geological fault lines triggering frequent earthquakes around the Pacific Basin. The eruption...

SNIPPET: "This past Sunday, six terrorists were captured in Medan, North Sumatra province, by Indonesia's counter-terrorist unit, Special Detachment 88. All were thought to be linked to a paramilitary camp in Aceh that was raided in February and two of them, Pandu Wicaksono Widyan Putro and Bayu Sena, were said to be tied to the twin hotel bombings in Jakarta last July." SNIPPET: "Special Detachment 88 will likely continue its raids in and around Aceh to round up those camp members that have thus far evaded the police dragnet."

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama, who is due to visit Indonesia in June, was one of several suspected targets of Indonesian militants captured in police raids recently, an expert on militants said on Friday.

Latest Earthquakes M5.0+ in the World - Past 7 days Latest Earthquakes Magnitude 5.0 and Greater in the World - Last 7 days Versión en Español Magnitude 5 and greater earthquakes located by the USGS and contributing networks in the last week (168 hours). Magnitudes 6 and above are in red. (Some early events may be obscured by later ones on the maps.) The most recent earthquakes are at the top of the list. Times are in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Click on the word "map" to see a ten-degree tall map displaying the earthquake. Click on an event's "DATE"...

NEW QUAKE

7.8-Magnitude Earthquake Hits Sumatra, Indonesia

Indonesia: Churches Burned On Jan. 22, two church buildings under construction in North Sumatra, Indonesia, were burned by suspected Islamic extremists, according to Compass Direct News.

PALEMBANG, South Sumatra: A megalithic settlement has recently been unearthed at Skendal village, 10 kilometers from the town of Pagaralam in South Sumatra. Irfan Wintarto, an official at the Lahat Culture and Tourism Agency's Historical and Archeological Preservation Department, said local residents had discovered around 36 types of rocks on a 150-by-300-meter plot in the middle of a 2-hectare coffee plantation. The site is currently being investigated by the Archeological Region Conservation and Heritage Center (BPPP). "The findings are believed to date back to around 5,000 B.C.," Irfan said. "The types of rocks and megaliths found are quite diverse." Among...

The recent uptick of the Islamic “tolerance” of Christianity continues and this time the hate has arisen in Indonesia. Isn’t Indonesia supposed to be one of those so called “moderate” Islamic countries? 01/23/2010 INDONESIA North Sumatra, two Protestant churches burnt: “too many faithful and too many prayers” by Mathias Hariyadi At least 1,000 people set fire to the Pentecostal community places of worship.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new study provides "incontrovertible evidence" that the volcanic super-eruption of Toba on the island of Sumatra about 73,000 years ago deforested much of central India, some 3,000 miles from the epicenter, researchers report. The volcano ejected an estimated 800 cubic kilometers of ash into the atmosphere, leaving a crater (now the world's largest volcanic lake) that is 100 kilometers long and 35 kilometers wide. Ash from the event has been found in India, the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal and the South China Sea. The bright ash reflected sunlight off the landscape, and volcanic sulfur...

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- A powerful earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island Wednesday afternoon, killing at least 100 people and trapping thousands of people beneath flattened buildings. A complete death toll wasn't possible in the immediate aftermath but Indonesian officials indicated the toll could rise significantly. Podcast from the Indonesian capital of Jakarta. More Back-to-Back Temblors Were Unusual The earthquake had a magnitude of 7.6, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and hit offshore 30 miles from Padang, a city of about 750,000 on Sumatra's western coast. The quake was felt as far as Bangkok, about 1,000 miles...

The ancient giant carved stones of South Sumatra – home to the largest number of such megaliths after Egypt and Europe – are remarkable not only for their size and history, but also for the curious supernatural aura that surrounds them. For if you come to look at them, behave yourself, warns Edwin Malian, 35, a keeper in a megalith complex outside Lahat. He tells the cautionary tale of a young man who put a banana on a pig statue as a joke. It is said that before this statue was found 16 years ago, a local dreamed an old...

Indonesia Update In a South Jakarta courtroom this week, a Singaporean terror suspect admitted that he was part of a plot to hijack an Aeroflot aircraft from Bangkok and crash it into Singapore’s Changi International Airport. Mohammad Hasan bin Sayanudin, alias Fajar Taslim, was testifying against two other terrorist suspects. All three are charged with killing a Christian high school teacher in South Sumatra province during 2007. They are also charged with plotting to kill two Catholic priests in 2005 and to carry out a bombing of a café in West Sumatra. According to Sayanudin, those who were part of...

Indonesia issued a tsunami warning on Monday after a powerful quake struck off the western coast of Sumatra island. The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.2 and had the "potential to cause a tsunami," Indonesia's geophysics agency said in a statement.

A strong earthquake struck off Indonesia's Sumatra Island early Thursday morning, temporarily triggering a tsunami warning. The local meteorological agency lifted the warning later, according to Reuters news agency. Quoting the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, the Japanese agency said there is no threat of a destructive widespread tsunami. The Japanese agency said the quake at around 4:03 a.m. registered a preliminary 7.0 magnitude. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake marked a preliminary 7.1 and originated around 30 kilometers underground about 330 kilometers south of Padang, Sumatra.

Warning of tsunami greater than 2004 By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 6:01pm BST 05/09/2007 Tens of millions of people who live in the Bay of Bengal face the threat of a tsunami as massive as the one that devastated the Sumatran coast in 2004, a leading geologist warns today. Satellite images showing Banda Aceh before (top) and after (bottom) the 2004 tsunami While the Boxing Day 2004 disaster took the scientific community by surprise, killing around a quarter of a million people, one geologist who had sounded the alert about the dangers in the Indian Ocean now says...

Powerful Indonesian earthquake kills 70 By ZAKKI HAKIM, Associated Press Writer 20 minutes ago A powerful earthquake crumpled houses across a large swath of western Indonesia on Tuesday, killing at least 70 people and injuring hundreds, authorities said, predicting that the toll would rise. The magnitude 6.3 quake struck on Sumatra island and was felt as far away as neighboring Malaysia and Singapore, where some tall buildings were evacuated. It was followed by several strong aftershocks. "Women were crying out in terror. We all just fled as quickly as we could," said Alpion, a welder in the seaside town of...

JAKARTA, Indonesia (Reuters) -- An earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale shook Indonesia's Sumatra island on Tuesday, panicking residents in West Sumatra province and sending slight tremors to neighboring Singapore. The United States Geological Survey said the quake's magnitude was 6.3 and its epicentre was around 420 km (260 miles) from Singapore. The Indonesian national quake centre said the epicentre was 16 km (10 miles) west of the city of Batusangkar. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The devastating Tusnami was precursor to what is coming in 2012. Toba in Sumatra can explode 100 times more violently than what happened 74,000 years back. The last supervolcano to erupt was Toba 74,000 years ago in Sumatra. Ten thousand times bigger than Mt St Helens, it created a global catastrophe dramatically affecting life on Earth. Scientists now find through extrapolation cycle study that the 74,000 years back super volcano in Toba, Sumatra was the warm up for what may be coming in 2012. Around Toba, increasing harmonic tremors have started after the Tsunami two years back. It would devastate...

A powerful earthquake shook buildings and panicked residents across a large swath of western Indonesia on Friday, officials and witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 and was centered underneath northern Sumatra province, said Indonesia's Meteorological and Geophysical agency. The temblor was felt in several towns and cities in the region and lasted around 5 seconds, witnesses told local radio.

Washington D.C. Zoo Shows Off Three Sumatran Tiger Cubs Sunday, September 03, 2006 WASHINGTON — The introduced three to the public Saturday, more than three months after they were born.The cubs, two female and one male, had been kept inside since their May 24 birth to bond with their mother. In the last few days, the cubs were introduced to the outdoors to make sure that they could safely get around.<<<snip>>>  AP Sept. 3: Two of three Sumatran tiger cubs born at the National Zoo make their debut. AP Sept. 3: Maharani, one of three Sumatran tiger cubs born at the...

Krakatoa -- Volcano of Destruction premieres 9 PM ET/PT on the Discovery Channel!! If you click this link: Beyond: Volcanoes a player will load with links to four videos; the first will play automatically. The 2nd, "Lava Junkies", is pretty good. The 4th, "Ultimate Guide to Volcanoes: Montserrat" is amazing. It's four minutes long; the final minute has an astonishing sequence in it. Sorry that I don't know a way to skip the commercial preceding it.

The powerful earthquake that hit Indonesia was just the latest display of violent seismic activity on the archipelago, which stretches across one of the most unstable parts of the Earth's surface. The country's position on the planet's crust means it will continue to experience such catastrophes, just as it has done for the past 50 million years or so, according to seismologists. "The problem with Indonesia is that you have an area of intense seismic activity coinciding with a very densely populated part of the world," said Gary Gibson, professor of seismology at the RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. "It...

JAKARTA, Indonesia - The U.N. health agency described the deaths of six Indonesian family members from bird flu as the most important development in the spread of the virus since 2003, saying it is investigating whether the disease has spread from person to person. "We have a team down there, they are examining what is going on and they can't find an animal source of this infection," said Peter Cordingley, spokesman for the Western Pacific region of the World Health Organization. "This is the first time that we've been completely stumped" by a source for the infection, he said. Six...

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) An Indonesian jetliner has crashed in a residential neighborhood in Medan, the largest city on Sumatra island.

Sound from last December's huge tsunami-causing earthquake was picked up by underwater microphones designed to listen for nuclear explosions. Scientists this week released an audio file of the frighteningly long-lasting cracks and splits along the Sumatra-Andaman Fault in the Indian Ocean. The spine-tingling hiss and rumble is an eerie reminder of the devastation and death that is still being tallied in the largest natural disaster in modern times. At least 200,000 people are thought to have died as a result of the magnitude 9.3 earthquake, the tsunami, and the lack of food, drinkable water and medical supplies that followed. The...

JAKARTA, Indoneisa - A strong earthquake rocked a large swath of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island on Tuesday, shaking buildings and causing panic, witnesses and a meteorological official said. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. The U.S. Geological Survey issued a preliminary report saying the quake measured 6.8. It struck off the west coast of the island at 8:52 a.m. local time and was “strongly felt,” across west Sumatra and outlying islands, said Budi Waluyu, from the government’s geophysical and meteorological agency. Callers to el-Shinta radio station from Medan, a large city on Sumatra, said tall buildings shook and...

(CNN) -- Dramatic new data from the December 26, 2004, Sumatran-Andaman earthquake that generated deadly tsunamis show the event created the longest fault rupture and the longest duration of faulting ever observed, according to three reports by an international group of seismologists published Thursday in the journal "Science." "Normally, a small earthquake might last less than a second; a moderate sized earthquake might last a few seconds. This earthquake lasted between 500 and 600 seconds (at least 10 minutes)," said Charles Ammon, associate professor of geosciences at Penn State University. The quake released an amount

ALARM - Indonesia: Earthquake a magnitude of 6,9 in Sumatra JAKARTA - an earthquake a magnitude of 6,9 on the open scale of Richter shook the island indonésienne of Sumatra Saturday, indicated the local weather services.

Mega volcano threatens Sumatra islands 4/18/2005 10:53:00 PM GMT Indonesia's Mount Semeru volcano spews smoke in southeast of Surabaya, the capital of East Java Volcanic ashes forced thousands of people in Sumatra Islands flea the active volcanic region, currently experiencing harmonic tremor and other signs of an eminent mega volcano in that region soon. Recent series of volcanoes in the same area are alarming, and has made many geologists run to their computer model seeking clues and validation of facts. Toba in Sumatra experienced the massive volcano of VEI 8.0 – super volcano 74,000 years back. The deep Java trench...

Jakarta, Detikcom - On Wednesday, Indonesia's Vice President Jusuf Kalla asked people living in area near of mount of Anak Krakatau (Child of Krakatoa) and Tangkuban Perahu to prepare from being evacuated. The VP announcement released as the danger level has been raised to level III on both volcanoes. ''We asked them to get ready, to be aware, but please don't be panic,'' said Kalla in his office in Jakarta. He added that the government would ask or order them to evacuate when the situation has reached level IV (four). ''They have to be evacuated when the level has reach...

Thousands flee in panic as Indonesian volcano spews into life MOUNT TALANG, Indonesia (AFP) - A volcano spewed into life on Indonesia's disaster-blighted Sumatra island, spreading new panic after the recent tsunami and earthquakes and driving thousands from their homes. Mount Talang, 40 kilometres (25 miles) east of Sumatra's coastal Padang city began pumping out volcanic ash shortly before dawn, prompting scientists to urge people to move away from the fall-out zone. More than 20,000 people have been evacuated from the volcano's slope, the Antara news agency quoted local official Bustamar saying. It said the volcano's status had been raised...

An earthquake has struck near Indonesia's northern island of Sumatra, triggering fears of new tsunamis, but none were reported. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake, just before 5:30p.m. local time (1030 GMT) had a magnitude of 6.8. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it was a 6.7. It was centered 115 kilometers (70 miles) southwest of Padang, Sumatra, the USGS said.

HONG KONG (AP) -- A strong earthquake hit Sunday near the Indonesian island of Sumatra, Hong Kong seismologists said. The 6.8-magnitude tremor's epicenter was about 74 miles southwest of Padang, a city in western Sumatra, the Hong Kong Observatory said. The quake was recorded at 6:35 a.m. EDT, it said. Sumatra was devastated by the Dec. 26 tsunami and earthquake that killed nearly 183,000 people in 11 countries and left another 129,000 missing. Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, was the hardest hit, with at least 126,000 people killed and more than 500,000 left homeless, mostly in Aceh province...

"Super volcano" could dwarf Indonesia's earthquake catastrophes: expert Fri Apr 1,12:21 AM ET Science - AFP SYDNEY (AFP) - As Indonesians struggled to recover from the second deadly earthquake to strike them in three months, an Australian expert warned the country faced the prospect of a "super volcano" eruption that would dwarf all previous catastrophes. AFP/File Photo Professor Ray Cas of Monash University's School of Geosciences said the world's biggest super volcano was Lake Toba, on Indonesia's island of Sumatra, site of both the recent massive earthquakes. Cas told Australian media Friday that Toba sits on a faultline running down...

From a blogger: Yesterday's quake near Indonesia reminded me of my December 28, 2004 post in which I wondered aloud whether the quake of that week had really moved islands by as much as 20 meters (66 feet), as implied by headlines all over the Internet. I just conducted a Yahoo! search and found the following, which cites the work of two Danish scientists: "The Indonesian islands of Sumatra moved only 20 centimeters (7.9 inches) on average after last month's Asian earthquake and tsunami, and not dozens of meters as previously feared." As I predicted, GPS came to the rescue....

Eleven days ago, a team of earthquake experts published a scientific paper precisely describing how the titanic tsunami-generating earthquake off Sumatra on Dec. 26 greatly raised risks of a fresh offshore earthquake. The earthquake they described was almost exactly like the one that struck yesterday. The paper's authors and other experts had calculated how the December shock increased stress on the adjacent section of the Sunda Trench, a seam in the earth's crust where one plate dives beneath another. The pressure greatly increased the chance that the seam would fail, they said. The new earthquake was generated when the plates...

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Northwestern University seismologists have determined that the Dec. 26 Sumatra earthquake that set off a deadly tsunami throughout the Indian Ocean was three times larger than originally thought, making it the second largest earthquake ever instrumentally recorded and explaining why the tsunami was so destructive. By analyzing seismograms from the earthquake, Seth Stein and Emile Okal, both professors of geological sciences in Northwestern's Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, calculated that the earthquake's magnitude measured 9.3, not 9.0, and thus was three times larger. These results have implications for why Sri Lanka suffered such a great impact...

'It's just chaos. There's the black market and the government is stockpiling [goods]. It has made us pretty angry. This stuff is pouring in and warehouses are filling up and people are controlling it. Our mission is to get the supplies to the people who need it most. We're doing everything we can. We're just this little independent mission. Spirits are still high. Everyone has just been incredible. We're just a very, very happy ship, and we're doing great things.'

Tsunami-Battered Sumatra Ripe for More Disasters John Roach for National Geographic News January 7, 2005 The force of the magnitude 9 earthquake that struck northern Sumatra on December 26, 2004, may have caught much of the world by surprise. But scientists say the region has a violent geologic past and is ripe for more cataclysmic earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in the millennia to come. The Indonesian island sits in an area of the Indian Ocean where several large chunks of Earth's crust, known as tectonic plates, collide. Tectonic plates can slip past, beneath, and over the top of each other....

A memorial video re: Asian tsunami/compilation of most amateur footage.

Laksamana.Net - Sumatran tigers, on the brink of extinction due to poaching and rampant illegal logging, killed 18 people in and around a conservation forest in Riau province last year, an official said Monday (10/1/05). The attacks took place in the 150,000-acre Senepis Tiger Conservation Area and in outlying villages, said John Kenedie, head of Riau’s Nature Conservation Office. "In 2004 alone, 18 villagers were killed. Over the past five years, there have been 40 locals who had fallen prey of the Sumatran tigers," he was quoted as saying by state news agency Antara. He said the endangered tigers often...

Time is GMT + 8 hours Posted: 11 January 2005 2025 hrs Thousands of Acehnese flee to Medan, concerns mount of overcrowding By Channel NewsAsia's Sujadi Siswo in Medan MEDAN : The North Sumatran capital of Medan has once again become the city of refuge for thousands of fleeing Acehnese. For the past 30 years, villagers fleeing the political conflict in Aceh have fled to Medan. It is no different now, since the tsunami struck. When the tsunami struck, Madam Rosme and husband took refuge in the Banda Aceh central mosque. Their first plan was to fly to Medan, where...

SURVIVOR: Third high seas rescue of survivor KLANG, Jan 10:A bizarre variety of flotsam helped a 22-year-old Indonesian survive adrift for 15 days after the deadly tsunami struck the region on Dec 26. Ari Afrizal was finally rescued by the Liberian-registered container ship MV Al Yamamah about noon yesterday some 320km off the western coast of Sumatra, and arrived safely at Westport in Klang about 11.45pm. He had been found floating in a fishing raft about 10 metres long. It was his third "lifeboat". Ari, from Desa Kabong in Krueng, Sabee, Aceh Jaya, had been working on a house in...

But Indonesia failed to heed him; Utah isn't listening either, he says PROVO — Brigham Young University geology professor Ron Harris has had trouble sleeping since the earthquake he predicted seven years ago killed an estimated 150,000 people along the rim of the Indian Ocean on Dec. 26. Research by Harris indicated an earthquake with a magnitude of at least 8.0 was due in the ocean west of Sumatra and would cause a devastating tsunami. He published the research in an Indonesian journal and pleaded with the government there to prepare, but little was done. "It might not have made...

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — An extremist Islamic group with alleged Al Qaeda (search) links has set up a relief camp on Indonesia's tsunami-stricken Sumatra island, raising concerns it could stir up sentiment against U.S. and Australian troops helping distribute aid.