Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono urged better forest management across the country yesterday as he toured an area stricken by deadly landslides and floods this week.
"That would be a brilliant way to take care of the Earth," the state-run news agency Antara quoted him as saying, adding that it would help prevent further disasters in the world's fourth most populous country.
The landslides and floods have killed at least 65 people in heavily populated Central and East Java after torrential rains lashed the region.
PHOTO: AP
While activists blame such disasters on the disappearance of trees that stabilize soil and help absorb rain, local officials have insisted the unusually heavy downfalls have destabilized already vulnerable hilly areas.
"We don't need to blame the mistakes of the past. What we need now is better care for forests," Yudhoyono said during a visit to Central Java's Wonogiri district.
Local disaster management official Sri Mubadi said rescuers were still hunting for nine missing people in the district.
In neighboring Karanganyar district, the number of missing had fallen to seven after it was revealed that some people were found to have been out of town, district official Heru Aji Pratomo said.
He said that rescuers were continuing their search, which has been hindered by a lack of heavy equipment, amid rainfall.
"I hope all the bodies will be retrieved today as their families have been waiting too long for certainty," he said, adding that two of the missing were children.
In East Java, the bodies of two children were recovered on Friday after a bridge was swept away by swelling flood waters.
Police initially feared 50 people were missing.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was