Author: Himalaya Post

MATARAM, Indonesia – A strong aftershock struck Indonesia’s Lombok on Thursday, causing panic among evacuees sheltering after a devastating earthquake killed more than 160 on the holiday island four days earlier. The 5.9-magnitude quake Thursday struck at a shallow depth in the northwest of the island, the US Geological Survey said, even as relief agencies raced to find survivors among wreckage from Sunday’s quake. “The quake was felt strongly. There have been 355 aftershocks since Sunday,” national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said. Evacuees at a shelter in northern Lombok’s Tanjung district ran out onto the road crying and screaming, an AFP reporter at the scene said. Motorcycles parked on the street toppled over and the walls of some nearby buildings collapsed. A woman wearing a motorbike helmet was seen crying with her two daughters in her arms. “We were stuck in the traffic while delivering aid, suddenly it felt like our car was hit from behind, it was so strong,” witness Sri Laksmi told AFP. “People in the street began to panic and got out of their cars, they ran in different directions in the middle of the traffic.” The aftershock comes after Sunday’s devastating 6.9-magnitude earthquake, which relief agencies said had wiped out entire villages in the worst-hit regions of northern and western Lombok. A total of 164 people have been confirmed killed in Sunday’s quake,...

BUENOS AIRES –  Argentine senators on Thursday voted against legalizing abortion in the homeland of Pope Francis, dashing the hopes of women’s rights groups after the bill was approved by the legislature’s lower house in June. According to an official tally, 38 senators voted against the measure to legalize the termination of a fetus during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy, 31 in favor, while two abstained. The vote was welcomed by fireworks and shouts of joy among anti-abortion activists gathered outside of Congress. At the other end of the square, tears were seen streaming down the faces of pro-abortion advocates, many wearing the green scarves that had come to symbolize their cause. A handful of demonstrators started fires and threw stones as they clashed with riot...

ISTANBUL – Nine people died on Thursday when a boat carrying migrants sank off Turkey’s Aegean coast, local media reported. The mishap occurred off Kusadasi district of Turkey’s southwestern province of Aydin, the state-run Anadolu Agency said. Hurriyet daily said the boat was carrying 13 illegal migrants on route to a Greek island and four were rescued. The Aegean Sea was once the main route for migrants being smuggled into Europe via Turkey. A deal signed between Turkey and the European Union in March 2016 has reduced the flow of illegal...

TANJUNG, Indonesia — The Indonesian island of Lombok was shaken by a third big earthquake in little more than a week Thursday as an official said the death toll from an earlier quake had topped 220. The strong aftershock, measured at magnitude 5.9 by the U.S. Geological Survey, caused panic and damage. It was centered in the northwest of the island and didn’t have the potential to cause a tsunami, Indonesia’s geological agency said. Videos showed rubble strewn across streets and clouds of dust enveloping buildings. In northern Lombok, some people leaped from their vehicles on traffic jammed roads while an elderly woman standing in the back of a pickup truck wailed “God is Great.” The aftershock had caused more “trauma,” said national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho. Nyoman Sidekarya, chief of the provincial search and rescue agency that covers Lombok, told The Associated Press that the death toll from Sunday’s magnitude 7.0 quake is now 227. Several agencies have been releasing higher death toll figures than the 131 announced on Wednesday by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, which has a coordinating role in disaster relief. The agency says it is has not verified these other figures but expects the toll to climb. Grieving relatives were burying their dead and medics tended to people whose broken limbs hadn’t yet been treated in the days since Sunday’s quake. The...