Indonesian volcano unleashes new powerful eruption

By SLAMET RIYADI, Associated Press

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia – Indonesia's most volatile volcano — one of 22 being closely watched following an increase in activity — unleashed its most powerful eruption in a deadly week Monday, spewing searing clouds of gas and debris thousands of feet (meters) into the air. There were no immediate reports of new casualties.

Hundreds of miles (kilometers) to the west, a break in weather was helping rescuers get aid to victims of an 18-foot (six meter) -high tsunami that slammed into several remote islands, sweeping entire villages to sea.

The twin disasters, occurring simultaneously on opposite ends of the seismically charged country, have killed nearly 500 people in the last week, while severely testing the government's emergency response network.

In both cases, the military has been called in to help.

Almost all villagers living along Mount Merapi's rumbling slopes have been evacuated, some forcibly by camouflaged troops, though many have insisted on returning to their homes during the day to check on livestock and crops.

The latest eruption was accompanied by several deafening explosions.

As massive clouds spilled from the glowing cauldron and billowed into the air — with no sign of slowing nearly two hours after the blast — debris and ash cascaded nearly two miles (six kilometers) down the northeastern slopes, said Subrandrio, who is monitoring activity at the mountain that has already killed 38 people.

More than 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) to the west, boats and helicopters were ferrying aid to the most distant corners of the Mentawai Islands, where last week's tsunami destroyed hundreds of homes, schools, churches and mosques.

A military helicopter evacuated badly injured survivors who had languished in an overwhelmed hospital with only paracetamol to ease their pain, said Ade Edward, a disaster management official. Among those evacuated was a baby girl born in a shelter after the tsunami and a 12-year-old girl with a life-threatening chest wound.

A C-130 transport plane, six helicopters and four motorized longboats were ferrying food and emergency supplies.

Relief efforts were brought to a halt Saturday by stormy weather and rough seas but picked up on Sunday and Monday.

"We're really glad to finally see the relief workers, doctors and rescue teams able to reach devastated areas," Edward said, adding that two navy ships arrived with many more police and soldiers deployed to speed up relief efforts.

The tsunami death toll had reached 450 by Monday, said Nelis Zuliastri from the National Disaster Management Agency.

Indonesia, a vast island nation of 235 million people, straddles a series of fault lines and volcanoes known as the Pacific "Ring of Fire" and is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

The fault that ruptured one week ago, running the length of the west coast of Sumatra island, also caused the 9.1-magnitude quake that unleashed a monster tsunami around the Indian Ocean in 2004, killing 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

Twenty-two of the country's 190 volcanoes were rumbling and spewing out clouds of ash Monday — all after being raised to the second- and third- highest alert levels, mostly within the last week — although it was not clear whether that was in any way linked to the recent quake or Merapi's eruption.

"Given the region and all the seismic activity, this isn't especially unusual," said Syamsul Rizal, a government volcanologist. But with temperatures constantly fluctuating, lava domes building up and collapsing, "it's as always, something to watch."

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Associated Press writers Achmad Ibrahim in the Mentawai islands and Niniek Karmini, Irwan Firdaus and Ali Kotarumalos in Jakarta contributed to this report.

Sudan urged to protect citizenship if south secedes

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's leaders must make clear they will safeguard the rights of southerners in the north and northerners in the south, whatever the outcome of a vote on southern independence, the Carter Center said on Saturday.

The US-based Center, the first observer mission to begin work on the plebiscite, said both sides must stop inflammatory rhetoric that has spread fear that millions of people could end up stateless if the south votes to secede.

Southerners are widely expected to vote for independence in the referendum, scheduled for January 9. The vote is part of a 2005 peace deal which ended Africa's longest civil war, in which some two million people died, mostly from famine or disease.

The citizenship status of millions of southerners living in the north in the event of secession has not been made clear, nor has that of northern nomads who bring cattle into the south.

Khartoum's northern information minister said this month that southerners could lose their citizenship rights if the south secedes, sparking fear and confusion among southerners living in the north. The Carter Center said such comments could jeopardize the referendum itself.

"As Sudanese citizens, irrespective of the outcome of the referendum, they deserve the protection of the state, assurances of their citizenship, and unequivocal commitments that they will not be expelled in the wake of the referendum," it said in a statement released late on Friday.

"A lack of adequate accurate information in the public sphere could result in the spread of rumors and misinformation, creating anxiety or even endangering the process," it said.

The statement also said donors must quickly provide cash so that the commission planning the vote could keep to its ambitious timetable. Delays from donors and the Sudanese government in releasing cash had already disrupted the process.

"Any further delays in funding will severely impact the hiring, training and deployment of key staff and equipment. Any such setbacks could jeopardize a timely, credible referendum."

31 October 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/?news=31411.

China launches national census

This once-a-decade process is being undertaken for the sixth time in the world's most populous country.

01 Nov 2010

China has kicked off its once-a-decade census that will see six million census takers go door-to-door to document the massive demographic changes taking place in the world's most populous country.

The census takers began their whirlwind head count on Monday and will conclude on November 10, with the the main data to be released at the end of April.

A 2000 tally put China's official population at 1.295 billion people.

In the 10 years since, there has been an extensive shift in the population base as millions of migrant workers have poured into urban areas from the countryside.

It is the sixth time China has carried out a national census but the first time it will count people where they live and not where their resident certificate, or hukou, is legally registered.

The change will better track the demographic changes and will find the true size of China's giant cities, the populations of which have up to now only been estimates.

Citizens' privacy concerns could be one of the biggest challenges for the census takers.

After years of reforms that have reduced the government's once-pervasive involvement in most people's lives, some Chinese may be reluctant to divulge personal information, harboring suspicions about what the government plans to do with their details.

Another complicating issue are children born in violation of the country's one-child policy, many of whom are unregistered and therefore have no legal identity. They could number in the millions.

The government has said it would lower or waive the hefty penalty fees required for those children to obtain identity cards, though so far it appears there has not been much response to the limited amnesty.

Source: Al-Jazeera.
Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/11/201011141133201886.html.

Political change will come in Egypt - Baradei

VIENNA (AFP) - Former UN nuclear chief Mohammad Al Baradei blasted Egypt's "authoritarian" government and insisted political change was coming, in an interview Saturday with the Austrian daily Kurier.

"The more unpopular this regime becomes, the more it realizes how much it is hated, the most authoritarian it becomes," Baradei told the newspaper, according to a German transcription of the interview published on Saturday.

"That's untenable in the long term, change will come," the Nobel Peace Prize winner promised.

"The timing only depends on when people will be able to throw off this culture of fear that the regime has created."

Baradei, now an opposition figure who has campaigned for constitutional reform’s at home, said: "Egyptians have lived for so long in an authoritarian system, which tells them what they should or should not do, that they don't even know what democracy really means, what it would change."

But he saw hope in the younger generation.

"They haven't made arrangements with the system yet, they have their future before them. The so-called elite let itself be corrupted by the system a long time ago. It doesn't want any change."

Baradei also voiced regret that the Arab world had distanced itself from democracy.

"Democracy is not like soluble coffee, where you stir it and it's done. You have to educate people and we weren't raised for democracy," he added.

Baradei, who stepped down as director general of the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA in February, has called for constitutional amendments to allow independent candidates not affiliated to an existing party - such as himself - to run in Egyptian presidential elections next year.

He has also called for a boycott of next month's parliamentary polls.

31 October 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/?news=31415.

Iranian opposition party allowed to resume activity

Sun, 31 Oct 2010

Tehran - The Iranian opposition party Etemad Melli (National Trust) has been allowed to reopen and resume its political activity, the party's deputy head said Sunday.

"The main office has been unsealed (by the judiciary) and we were told that we can resume our activity," Rassoul Montajabnia told ISNA news agency.

Etemad Melli is led by Mehdi Karroubi, a former parliament speaker and since last year one of the most vehement critics of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Karroubi and former prime minister Mir-Hossein Moussavi last year lost to Ahmadinejad in the presidential election but accused him and his government of fraud, refusing to acknowledge his re-election.

The two have since formed the main local opposition with Karroubi having made an informal coalition with Moussavi's Green Movement, considered as the main opposition bloc.

Etemad Melli's main office in Tehran and its branches in the provinces had been closed after the widespread political protests and unrest which follow last June's election.

The party's newspaper was also closed and the website filtered due to alleged propaganda against the establishment.

"Even if re-opened, we still have to evaluate what form of political activity we can at all pursue in the current situation," Montajabnia said, referring to the suppressive methods used against the local opposition following the political unrest.

Due to Karroubi's harsh criticism of Ahmadinejad and his government, including allegations that male and female post-election prisoners were raped in jail, resuming the party's activity as it was before the election seemed unrealistic.

Both Karroubi and Moussavi have stressed that the government must release all post-election prisoners, including more than hundred opposition activists, former reformist officials, journalists and students, who have been sentenced to lengthy jail terms.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351250,party-allowed-resume-activity.html.

Rousseff elected Brazil's first female president - 2nd Update

Sun, 31 Oct 2010

Rio de Janeiro - Ruling-party candidate Dilma Rousseff won Sunday's presidential runoff in Brazil and is to become the country's first-ever female president, according to official results.

With close to 95 per cent of the votes counted, Rousseff had over 55 per cent of the valid ballots, compared to 44 per cent of her rival, social democrat Jose Serra.

Her election means a continuation of the policies of popular President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who nominated his one-time chief of staff as the candidate of his Workers' Party (PT).

Earlier, an exit poll made by the private Brazilian Institute of Public Opinion and Statistics (IBOPE) estimated that Rousseff would get 58 per cent of the valid votes to Serra's 42 per cent.

If the results are eventually confirmed, Rousseff, 62, would be inaugurated on January 1 with a four year mandate.

Rousseff already comfortably won the first round of the presidential election on October 3 with 47 per cent of the votes, but fell short of the more-than-half of all votes requirement to avoid a runoff.

An economist by training, she once also trained as a guerrilla fighter during Brazil's military dictatorship, and later made her mark as Brazil's energy minister and government chief of staff under Lula.

The hugely popular Lula, 65, is barred from serving more than two consecutive terms. He however pulled his weight behind Rousseff, who has vowed to build on her mentor's legacy.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351263,president-2nd-update.html.

PROFILE: Economist and former militant Rousseff will lead Brazil

Sun, 31 Oct 2010

Rio de Janeiro - Dilma Rousseff, 62, a long-time left-wing activist who trained as a guerrilla in her youth, is to become Brazil's first-ever woman president on January 1.

The center-left Rousseff won Sunday's runoff with 56 per cent of the votes, to the 44 per cent of challenger Jose Serra, a social democrat.

She had been billed as the clear favorite after claiming strong backing from popular outgoing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and being the top vote-getter in the first voting round.

The candidate of Lula's Workers' Party (PT), Rousseff is a veteran of politics even if this presidential election marked the first time she stood for office.

Lula, barred from serving more than two consecutive terms, actively campaigned for his one-time chief of staff - a decision which was not universally greeted. Critics denounced her for lack of political experience and history in the party itself.

Few expect her to deviate from Lula's path, which has brought Brazil onto the world stage and into a thriving economy.

"My proposal is to continue the policies of the Lula government and to build on them," Rousseff says.

During a tough campaign, Serra accused Rousseff of being a mere puppet and having "no ideas."

The daughter of a Bulgarian-born poet-businessman and a Brazilian schoolteacher, Rousseff left her strict Catholic schooling behind when she joined a Marxist group at 17, during the heavy years of the Brazilian military dictatorship (1964-1985).

Radical guerrilla training followed with the Command of National Liberation, attracting the attention of the political police. She went underground in 1969, was captured, tortured and held prisoner for two years.

She was resilient when released, pursuing her economics degree in 1977 from Rio Grande do Sul Federal University and re-entering the world of politics - this time with the Democratic Workers' Party (PDT).

Using her political and managerial skills, she rose to serve several offices as provincial minister in the fields of finance, energy, mining and communications in Rio Grande do Sul in the '80s and '90s.

Soon after joining the PT in 2001, she met Lula at a meeting with energy sector experts and was named his energy minister when he took office in 2003, putting her in charge of one of the most vital economic sectors of the South American country, which is energy self- sufficient through the combined use of biofuels and fossil fuels.

Rousseff is tough - she survived lymphatic cancer last year - and she is set to govern with a ruling-coalition majority in both houses of the Brazilian Congress.

However, she will face the challenge of a likely power struggle among PT factions and between the party and its allies, including the powerful centrist Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement.

She has one child, Paula, born to fellow activist and lawyer Carlos Araujo.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351264,militant-rousseff-lead-brazil.html.