At least 31 people were killed and dozens feared missing after a ferry sank off Indonesia's Sulawesi island in the latest transport accident to hit the nation, officials said yesterday.
Residents near the town of Bau Bau on southeast Sulawesi heard survivors screaming for help after the Acita 03 capsized at about 9pm on Thursday, ElShinta radio reported.
The 22m-long boat sank several kilometers from shore when passengers clambered to the roof seeking a stronger cell signal to make mobile phone calls, transport ministry official Djoni Algamar said.
"The ship lost its balance and capsized," he said.
Though only 60 names had been on the ship's manifest, Indonesian ferries frequently carry far more passengers than the number officially registered.
ElShinta's reporter said 151 people were believed to be on board, while Bau Bau Mayor Amirul Tamim told the radio station that 188 people were on the ferry and several dozen thought to be missing.
Thirty bodies were in the morgue at Bau Bau general hospital and 19 survivors were being treated for shock, officials said.
One body remained stuck in the boat because the vessel's fuel drums had polluted the area, making it hard to get inside, said Kasman, head of the hospital's emergency department.
A hospitalized survivor, Safruddin, told ElShinta that he had been traveling from his home village to work on Sulawesi after the one-week holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
"I thought I would die. I managed to get out of the boat ... I held on to two pieces of foam and then I passed out. I woke up at the port and I threw up," he said, adding that he did not know how he got to port.
Safruddin said his two-year-old child and wife survived by clinging to wooden planks, and fishermen later rescued them.
Search and rescue team chief Roki Asikin told ElShinta that 125 people had been rescued. The search area has been widened and more ships mobilized to look for the missing, Algamar said.
A local policeman, Idwar said the vessel had been heading from Tomea island to Bau Bau on Buton island, around 1,500km northeast of Indonesia's capital, Jakarta.
Tomea belongs to the Wakatobi group of islands, which is home to some of Indonesia's top dive sites and is popular with international tourists.
Millions of people are returning home over the next few days across Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, after the end of Ramadan.
Sea links are crucial in Indonesia, an archipelago nation of some 17,500 islands, but safety standards are frequently low or not enforced.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique