More than 60 people have been killed and another 160,000 forced to flee their homes in floods that have swept through parts of Indonesia and Malaysia in the past week, officials said yesterday.
In Indonesia, the death toll had risen to 60 and hundreds more remained missing after torrential rains battered the island of Sumatra. Some 70,000 people have been displaced in Aceh Province.
Officials in Malaysia said seven people had been killed and nearly 90,000 others were forced to evacuate their homes in the worst floods to hit the country in decades.
"We have evacuated 60 bodies from Aceh Tamiyang district," Ghufran Zainal Abidin, the local chairman of the Prosperous Justice Party, told reporters from Indonesia's Aceh Province, on the northern tip of Sumatra island.
"The Aceh Tamiyang area is trapped by water and the only way we can go around is by boat," said Abidin, who is helping to coordinate the flood relief effort.
Earlier, officials said hundreds of people had been reported missing in the district. The local capital Kuala Simpang is still cut off from rescue teams, Abidin said.
Heavy rains have unleashed floods across Sumatra, forcing thousands to flee their homes and take refuge in state-run camps.
The army and Indonesian Red Cross were rushing in aid supplies.
Authorities in Aceh feared the death toll could climb further, as rescue personnel had not yet been able to reach parts of Gayo Lues and East Aceh districts.
In other parts of northern Sumatra, water levels continued to rise as heavy rains showed no sign of letting up and a dam burst. The main roads connecting provinces of West Sumatra and Riau are cut off, Kompas daily reported yesterday.
Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla has pointed the finger at illegal logging as one of the causes of the deadly floods, and pledged that the government would intensify its efforts to replant the forests.
Yesterday, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi lashed out at looters who had taken advantage of the chaos sparked by the devastating floods, urging the public to make citizen's arrests if they witnessed any wrongdoing.
"Make a citizen's arrest. There is nothing wrong with that. You cannot just leave it to the police if you see something [wrong]," he was quoted as saying by the Sunday Star newspaper during a visit to flood-hit Johor state.
"Do not allow this to go on. Do not wait for the public to act, but all those [helping in the relief] should take action against the looters," he added.
Reports of looting have surfaced in Johor, Malacca, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang states in north and central Malaysia.
Police have thus far arrested five people in Kota Tinggi, one of the worst-affected areas of Johor state.
Tens of thousands of Malaysians were yesterday still living in government emergency shelters.
Rosleli Zahari, political chief of the ruling United Malays National Organisation in Kota Tinggi, estimated that losses could total millions of ringgit.
"Houses, cars, palm oil estates and fish farms are damaged," Zahari said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS