Indonesia issued a red alert Friday after Mount Karangetang on the island of Sulawesi erupted, sending lava and searing gas clouds down its slopes, a volcanologist said. “We raised the volcano’s status to the highest red alert level today at 5:45 pm (1045GMT) and ordered an evacuation in three villages on the slopes,” government volcanologist Surono told AFP.
He said that the 1,784-metre (5,850-foot) mountain on the sparsely-populated island off North Sulawesi oozed lava, heat clouds and debris reaching as far as 3,800 metres away down its slopes.
“The eruption is still going on and its current activity remains high,” he said.
“The main threat is heat clouds that will be fatal for people living in villages on the slope.” The volcano killed four people during an eruption in August 2010.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” where continental plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity. The archipelago nation is home to 129 active volcanoes, including 21 on Java.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Obama to Gadhafi: Stop or Face Military Action
President Barack Obama makes a statement on Libya, Friday, March 18, 2011, in the East Room of the White House in Washington.President Barack Obama demanded Friday that Moammar Gadhafi halt all military attacks on civilians and said that if the Libyan leader did not stand down the United States would join other nations in launching military action against him.
But the president also stressed the United States "is not going to deploy ground troops into Libya."
In a brief appearance at the White House, Obama said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton would travel to Paris on Saturday to join allies in discussing next steps in Libya, where Gadhafi has pressed a brutal crackdown against rebels trying to end his 42-year reign.
Stressing that the United States was acting in concert with European allies and Arab nations, the president said, "Our goal is focused, our cause is just and our coalition is strong."
Obama's remarks came less than 24 hours after the United Nations Security Council voted to authorize military action — including a "no-fly zone" over Libya — to prevent the killing of civilians by Gadhafi's forces.
The president spoke with congressional leaders before his public statement, but an official said no request was made for formal congressional action.
Obama drew quick support from House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, a longtime critic of the war in Iraq.
"I commend the president for his leadership and prudence on how our nation will proceed in regards to Libya and work in concert with European and Arab allies to address the crisis," she said in a written statement.
At the White House, Obama said there should be no doubt about Gadhafi's intentions "because he has made them clear. Just yesterday, speaking of the city of Benghazi, a city of roughly 700,000, he threatened `we will have no mercy and no pity.' No mercy on his own citizens."
The president has been criticized by some U.S. lawmakers and others for not moving more forcefully while Gadhafi has regrouped in recent days and taken the offensive against the rebels. Obama said the United States and other nations have imposed sanctions on Libya, frozen assets of the leader and delivered humanitarian supplies to bordering countries to help ease the plight of thousands fleeing the fighting.
"Now, once more, Moammar Gadhafi has a choice," Obama said, listing what he said were non-negotiable conditions laid out by the U.N. Security Council.
"If Gadhafi does not comply, the international community will impose consequences, and the resolution will be enforced through military action," Obama said.
He did not specify what responsibilities would fall to the United States if military action is carried out against Gadhafi, but officials have said previously that American forces would help enforce a no-fly zone to prevent the Libyan leader from using his air force to bomb civilians.
The president made no reference to a Libya's declaration of an immediate cease-fire on Friday — a statement that a rebel spokesman said was fiction.
Instead, Obama listed a series of demands for Gadhafi, including the halting of all attacks against civilians, a stop to military action against Benghazi and other cities and permission for humanitarian supplies to reach the civilian population of the country.
"Let me be clear, these terms are not negotiable," he said.
"Our goal is focused, our cause is just, and our coalition is strong," the president said.
He emphasized that the United States was not acting alone but in concert with Britain, France and Arab countries he did not name.
"Change in the region will not and cannot be imposed by the United States or any foreign power. Ultimately, it will be driven by the people of the Arab world," he said.
The uprising against Gadhafi is only one of many struggles being played out in the region as long-time autocratic regimes come under pressure. Protests in Tunisia and Egypt have led to the ouster of long-time rulers, and there have been demonstrations in Yemen, Jordan and Bahrain. Protests erupted in at least three parts of Syria during the day Friday, according to state television and other source
Earlier, Clinton told reporters that Gadhafi must make "a very clear set of decisions" to halt violence against anti-government rebels.
Clinton said the U.S. had seen the reports of a cease-fire by the Libyan government, but she added that the American government was not going to be "impressed by words." She said the immediate objective of any intervention was to halt the violence against civilians, but insisted that the "final result of any negotiation would have to be the decision by Col. Gadhafi to leave."
The U.S. has ships and warplanes within striking distance of Libya, including submarines and surface ships armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles. If military action were to proceed, a first step likely would involve attacks on Libyan air defenses, including radar and surface-to-air missile sites along its Mediterranean coastline. That would allow aircraft enforcing a no-fly zone to maneuver with impunity.
The nearest U.S. aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise, was far to the east, in the Arabian Sea supporting air operations in Afghanistan. The Pentagon gave no indication that substantial additional firepower was being moved toward Libya, even as it focused on providing humanitarian relief in stricken northern Japan.
Britain, France and NATO were holding emergency meetings Friday on using military force to enforce a no-fly zone. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the alliance was "completing its planning to be ready to take appropriate action in support of the U.N. resolution as part of the broad international effort."
Officials announced that the leaders of Britain, France and Germany and the chiefs of the United Nations and Arab League would join other world leaders for an emergency summit on Libya in Paris on Saturday.
Saturn's UFO Moons
UFO Pan is Saturns most inner moon, as seen in this illustration. It orbits within the Encke Gap in the planets A ringThey look more like flying-saucers than icy moons, but Pan and Atlas are two of Saturn's strangest satellites. Scientists have long been puzzled by how the oddly-shaped moons, which are only 20miles across, came to be.
Researchers based at the European Space Agency now think they have some answers after studying several years worth of cosmic images. They realised that 14 of Saturn's small moons had a very low density - about half that of water ice - and shapes that suggested they had grown out of the rings themselves.
However, they would have needed a jump start as it is not gravitationally possible for small particles to fuse together within the rings. Therefore, each moon would have started with a massive core that was a leftover from the original collisions that caused the rings.
Carolyn Porco from ESA, said: 'We think the only way these moons could have reached the sizes they are now, in the ring environment as we now know it to be, was to start off with a massive core to which the smaller, more porous ring particles could easily become bound.'
By this process, a moon will grow even if it is relatively close to Saturn. The result is a ring-region moon about two to three times the size of its dense ice core, covered with a thick shell of porous, icy ring material.
Simulations performed at Southwest Research Institute in 2010 suggest that Saturn originally had several large Titan-sized moons, which spiraled into the planet during its early history. As the final lost satellite neared Saturn, heating caused by the flexing of its shape and the planet's gravity would cause its ice to melt and rock sink to its centre.
Planetary tidal forces as it crossed the region of the current B ring would then have stripped material from its outer layers, creating the initial ice ring. Dr Robin Canup from the SwRI Planetary Science Directorate in Boulder, who led the study, said: 'The new model proposes that the rings are primordial, formed from the same events that left Titan as Saturn's sole large satellite,.
'The implication is that the rings and the Saturnian moons interior to and including Tethys share a coupled origin, and are the last remnants of a lost companion satellite to Titan.'
But how then to explain the strange ridges that give Pan and Atlas their unique shapes?
The answer, scientists suspect, lies in accretion discs, that are seen at all scales in the universe from planetary rings to galaxies. Essentially as the disc spins, forces cause the edges of the structure to flatten out and a bulge to form towards the centre.
'Our computer simulations show that the ridges must have accreted rapidly when Saturn's rings were thin, forming small accretion disks around the equators of Pan and Atlas,' said Sebastien Charnoz, from the University Paris-Diderot in France.
Indonesian Navy Catches Philippine Fishing Boat
The Indonesian Navy (TNI AL) has caught a Philippine-flagged fishing boat for allegedly poaching fish in the Halmahera waters.
"Indonesian warship KRI Teluk Jakarta-541 nabbed the Philippine-flagged fishing boat of Pum Boat Liza Marie-8 type in the Halmahera waters," spokesman for the Indonesian Navy Commodore Tri Prasojo said here on Friday.
"When the TNI personnel aboard the KRI Teluk Jakarta checked their documents the crew members of the fishing boat could not produce required documents," he said.
The boat skippered by Felipe Villa Ver Lokoy had 13 crew members, all of them Filipinos, he said. The Indonesian warship later escorted all the crew members aboard the fishing boat to the Sorong naval base for questioning, he said.
At least 185 foreign ships were caught for illegally fishing in Indonesian waters in 2007 and 242 in 2008. Indonesia is estimated to lose Rp30 trillion per year because of fish poaching.
Prasojo further said the Indonesian Navy would continue to deploy its personnel in the sea and conduct air maritime patrols to provide a sense of security to any user of the Indonesian waters as well as to anticipate various external threats.
"Indonesian warship KRI Teluk Jakarta-541 nabbed the Philippine-flagged fishing boat of Pum Boat Liza Marie-8 type in the Halmahera waters," spokesman for the Indonesian Navy Commodore Tri Prasojo said here on Friday.
"When the TNI personnel aboard the KRI Teluk Jakarta checked their documents the crew members of the fishing boat could not produce required documents," he said.
The boat skippered by Felipe Villa Ver Lokoy had 13 crew members, all of them Filipinos, he said. The Indonesian warship later escorted all the crew members aboard the fishing boat to the Sorong naval base for questioning, he said.
At least 185 foreign ships were caught for illegally fishing in Indonesian waters in 2007 and 242 in 2008. Indonesia is estimated to lose Rp30 trillion per year because of fish poaching.
Prasojo further said the Indonesian Navy would continue to deploy its personnel in the sea and conduct air maritime patrols to provide a sense of security to any user of the Indonesian waters as well as to anticipate various external threats.
Xanana to Make Visit to Jakarta
East Timor Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao
Prime Minister of Timor Leste Democratic Republic (RDTL) Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao is preparing an official visit to Jakarta from March 20 to 26, along with an entourage of 50 people.
"Xanana is scheduled to meet President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the ASEAN Secretary General," Antonio Ramos da Silva, Xanana Gusmao’s spokesman said in his an electric message to ANTARA Friday.
Xanana and his entourage will be leaving Dili on March 20 with an overnight transit in Denpasar, Bali, and proceed to Jakarta the following day. In the company of their foreign ministers, both Xanana and President Yudhoyono will on Thursday be discussing bilateral cooperation, and sign a memorandum of understanding on several agreements of mutual interest.
On the same day, Xanana will be meeting ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan for the discussion of a number of things, especially in relation to the RDTL’s plans to become permanent member of the regional association. Xanana on Tuesday afternoon was also scheduled to deliver a general lecture at the University of Indonesia (UI), and address an international defense dialogue at the Jakarta Convention Center on March 23.
"Xanana will be returning to Dili on March 26 also following a transit in Denpasar. This time his formal visit will bring along a very strategic mission for both his country and Indonesia, as well as for ASEAN," Antonio Ramos said.
Indonesia Sets 12 Models of Economic Cooperation
Indonesia has so far signed 12 comprehensive economic cooperation agreements with other countries aimed at increasing its foreign trade, a Trade Ministry official said.
The model of the 12 economic cooperation agreements was different from one another, Director of Bilateral Cooperation of the Directorate General of International Trade at the Trade Ministry Pradnyawati said here on Friday.
The economic cooperation agreements were signed with a number of countries including Japan, Australia, India, Pakistan, Iran, Chile, Turkey, Egypt and South Korea, as well as with European Union and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), she said.
"One of the 12 cooperation agreements comes in the form of Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Japan which began to take effect in July 2008," she said.
Two of the cooperation agreements were in the form of Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), and two others Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), she said. The others came in the form of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA).
"Only one of the cooperation agreements has not been signed, namely (comprehensive economic cooperation agreement) between Indonesia and European Union which is now under joint study group (JSG) status," she said.
She stated the increasingly fiercer competition had prompted countries in the world to adopt more strategic steps in establishing economic cooperation including signing comprehensive economic cooperation agreements.
The model of the 12 economic cooperation agreements was different from one another, Director of Bilateral Cooperation of the Directorate General of International Trade at the Trade Ministry Pradnyawati said here on Friday.
The economic cooperation agreements were signed with a number of countries including Japan, Australia, India, Pakistan, Iran, Chile, Turkey, Egypt and South Korea, as well as with European Union and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), she said.
"One of the 12 cooperation agreements comes in the form of Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Japan which began to take effect in July 2008," she said.
Two of the cooperation agreements were in the form of Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), and two others Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), she said. The others came in the form of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA).
"Only one of the cooperation agreements has not been signed, namely (comprehensive economic cooperation agreement) between Indonesia and European Union which is now under joint study group (JSG) status," she said.
She stated the increasingly fiercer competition had prompted countries in the world to adopt more strategic steps in establishing economic cooperation including signing comprehensive economic cooperation agreements.