Quake Triggers Tsunami in Indonesia (Washington Post)
JAKARTA, Indonesia, July 17 -- A strong underwater earthquake off Indonesia's southern coast Monday triggered a small tsunami, swamping several village seafronts and killing at least five people, officials said. Dozens more were reported missing.
Blogging from Word 2007
For the past few months I’ve been raising the issue of Microsoft Word integration with developers of my favorite CMS (content management system) Drupal. There were several reasons why this wasn’t happening, or likely to happen soon. A major one is that most developers view Microsoft as the Evil Empire (Google is king with their “don’t be evil” motto), and can’t imagine why anyone would use the vendor locked resources provided by Microsoft, when much better alternatives were available from open source (free) providers. In short, the kind of person that possesses the skills to create such integration between a website and Word is not the kind of person who would use Word in the first place.
Sudan suspends all U.N. mission work in Darfur
KHARTOUM, June 25 (Reuters) - Sudan has suspended the work of a U.N. mission in its violent Darfur region after accusing the world body of transporting a rebel leader who opposes a recent peace deal, a Sudanese official said on Sunday.
The United Nations coordinates one of the world's largest aid operations in Darfur and monitors the health, malnutrition and human rights situation in a region the size of France.
"The suspension applies for all of Darfur and this will continue until we get an explanation," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Jamal Ibrahim.
He said the ban was imposed because a U.N. helicopter had moved rebel leader Suleiman Adam Jamous, who rejects a peace deal signed on May 5 without consulting the government in Khartoum.
Liberian refugees face bleak future back home without aid - UN
BO WATERSIDE, Liberia (Reuters) - More must be done to help countries like Liberia avoid slipping back into chaos as they emerge from years of conflict, the head of the United Nations refugee agency warned on Tuesday.
UNCHR chief Antonio Guterres, marking World Refugee Day by welcoming back civilians who fled Liberia's civil war, said millions uprooted by unrest around the world still faced a bleak future even once they returned home.
"Our experience shows that during the five years after a conflict is solved, half of the countries go back into conflict again," Guterres told reporters near the border between Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Indonesia evacuating thousands from volcano area - Reuters
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia has evacuated about 2,000 people from areas at risk from a volcano spewing hot gas and lava, and expects to move thousands more amid signs of increased activity from Mount Merapi, officials said on Tuesday.
The volcano, on Indonesia's main island of Java and about 450 km (280 miles) east of the capital Jakarta, has been sporadically belching out toxic gases and lava for many weeks, with experts saying a major eruption might come at any time.
Sudan grants foreign press access to Darfur again
KHARTOUM, May 26 (Reuters) - Sudanese authorities have begun giving foreign journalists travel permits to Darfur after weeks of delay that hindered their ability to report on continuing violence in the remote western region.
During the height of the three-year-old conflict, Khartoum refused foreign press access to Darfur, forcing journalists to sneak across the border from Chad to report on what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Khartoum had since relaxed its stringent restrictions, but after a May 5 peace deal between rebels and the government, journalists found they were again being fobbed off by officials.
Timorese pray for peace as youth gangs rampage
DILI, May 28 (Reuters) - Frightened Timorese packed churches to pray for peace on Sunday, but gangs allied to feuding police or army units continued to rampage through the capital, evading foreign peackeeping troops and torching homes and vehicles.
This Reuters correspondent saw one gang of about 20 youths chase a man into a half-built house before bludgeoning him to death in the doorway with rocks and clubs.
"He was setting fires," said one of the ringleaders, seemingly the oldest at around 20.
Smoke billowed above several neighbourhoods in Dili as the gangs, which identify with army factions from either the east or west of this tiny nation, marked out their territories with makeshift barricades and roadblocks and took revenge on rivals.
Violence in E.Timor leaves one dead, 6 wounded
DILI, May 23 (Reuters) - A gunbattle between rebel military policemen and government troops killed one person and wounded six others in East Timor on Tuesday, officials said, the latest violence that has prompted concern in neighouring Australia.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said parts of East Timor appeared to be descending into violence and pledged to send military help if needed.
A group led by rebel Major Alfredo Reinaldo triggered the latest incident by opening fire on soldiers in the eastern Dili district of Becora, government spokesman Antoninho Bianco said.
"They shot first from a house and instantly wounded two members of the F-FDTL. The incident only occurred in Becora," he said, using the abbreviation of Timor's defence force.
Three killed in six blasts in Ethiopian capital
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - At least six explosions tore through the Ethiopian capital on Friday, killing three people and injuring at least 21 in the latest of a series of mysterious blasts to strike Addis Ababa this year.
There were unconfirmed reports of up to nine explosions, but police, scrambling to keep track of the apparently coordinated attacks, could only immediately confirm six. A police spokesman said the death toll might rise.
Almost 120 killed in Somalia fighting
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Fierce clashes between Somali gunmen killed at least 20 people overnight, including a pregnant woman and her three children, a militia leader said on Thursday, bringing the death toll in five days of fighting to almost 120.
The third round of Mogadishu street battles this year between gunmen allied to Islamic courts and militia from a self-styled anti-terrorist alliance of powerful warlords erupted on Sunday.
Hundreds of people have been wounded in the worst violence in more than a decade, with many more fleeing their homes in the capital of the failed Horn of Afri
