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    Walk the talk? Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, left, walks with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono prior to their meeting at Merdeka Palace in Jakarta on Tuesday. AP/Dita Alangkara President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is scheduled to fly to Yogyakarta later today to meet people displaced by Mt. Merapi multiple eruptions in the past few days. The President is slated to fly to Yogyakarta at about 2 p.m. Tuesday, after meeting with visiting Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Tempointeraktif.com reported Tuesday. Yudhoyono earlier said that he had contacted governors of Yogyakarta and West Java, to make sure that people displaced by the eruption are taken care of. "I ordered (the two governors) to try their best to save the lives of our brothers and sisters around Mt. Merapi," he said. He also called on the people to improve their preparedness in the face of multiple disasters, considering that Indonesia is prone to natural...

    Anticipated: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ( left ) meets refugees of the erupted Mt. Merapi at a shelter in Purwobinangun, Sleman, Yogyakarta, on Wednesday. Yudhoyono asked the refugees to be patient and sensitive with Merapi activities. Antara/Regina Safri President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was welcomed by another eruption at Mount Merapi on Wednesday morning when he was about to visit a shelter site for refugees in Pakem, Sleman, Yogyakarta. An officer at the Mt. Merapi observation post, Agus, said that the eruption occurred at around 8:20 a.m. “It was a single eruption but quite big. The mountain spewed hot clouds which moved about five kilometers to west,” he added as quoted by Kompas.com. Mt. Merapi, where an eruption on last Tuesday has killed 39 people so far, is still on top alert status as it still continues to erupt and spew hot clouds of ashes.

    On fire: Mount Merapi spews volcanic smoke as seen from Deles early Monday. AP/Irwin Fedriansyah Indonesia's most dangerous volcano showed no sign of tiring Tuesday, belching clouds of black smoke as fiery lava lit up its cauldron. Scientists warned that the slow but deadly eruption could continue for weeks, like a "marathon, not a sprint." The activity was accompanied by rumbling at 21 other active volcanos in Indonesia, twice the number usually on the government's "watch" list, which raised questions about what's causing the uptick along some of the world's most volatile fault lines. No casualties were reported in Mount Merapi's latest blast, which came as Indonesia struggled to respond to an earthquake-generated tsunami that devastated a remote chain of islands. The two disasters unfolding in separate parts of the country have killed nearly 470 people and strained the government's emergency response network. In bo...

Mount Merapi forced international airlines to cancel flights to nearby airports for the first time Tuesday, as fiery lava lit the rumbling mountain's cauldron and plumes of smoke blackened the sky. Scientists warned, meanwhile, that the slow but deadly eruption could continue for weeks, like a "marathon, not a sprint." No casualties were reported in Mount Merapi's latest blasts, which came as Indonesia struggled to respond to an earthquake-generated tsunami that devastated a remote chain of islands. The two disasters unfolding in separate parts of the country have killed nearly 470 people and strained the government's emergency response network. Indonesia, a vast archipelago of 235 million people, is prone to earthquakes and volcanos because it sits along the Pacific "Ring of Fire," a horseshoe-shaped string of faults that lines the western and eastern Pacific. Merapi - one of 22 active earthquakes now on alert - has killed 38 people since springing ...

   Some catch: Officers from the Bali Police and Conservation Agency (BKSDA) carry a green turtle (Chelonia mydas) rescued in a raid of a warehouse in Denpasar on Wednesday. In the raid, the police arrested Jero Mangku Budha, who was allegedly storing 71 protected green turtles taken from Sulawesi and butchering them for meat. All of the turtles found at the warehouse are thought to be more than 70 years old. JP/Zul Trio Anggono Bali Police officers arrested Jero Mangku Budha, 50, for allegedly stocking 71 protected green turtles in a warehouse on Jl. Pulau Enggano in Pamogan village, Denpasar, Bali, on Wednesday afternoon. Bali police detective chief Sr. Comr. Andi Taqdir said the suspect had also been allegedly selling a traditional dish called nasi lawar in which he put turtle meat. “The suspect opened a nasi lawar stall in front of the warehouse. He said that he was using pork in the dish, but actually he was using turtle meat,” he said, adding that his...

  Too old for this: A police officer sprays dozens of turtles with water at the Bali Police Headquarters on Wednesday. The police confiscated 71 turtles – all believed to be more than seventy years old – from a suspected illegal trader who had transported the animals from Sulawesi. JP/Zul Trio Anggono

The Jakarta Post | Fri, 02/26/2010 2:51 PM | National Search workers have recovered a total of 23 bodies in a landslide that hit a tea plantation in Bandung regency, West Java, with more are believed to be buried under the ruble, an official said Friday. Priyadi Kardono, spokesman of the National Disaster Management Agency, told tempointeraktif.com that five more bodies have been foundhttp://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=3322379516905139805 on Thursday. More than 1,000 rescuers with sniffer dogs have been searching the plantation near the village of Ciwidey after Tuesday’s landslide crushed homes, offices and a processing plant. Some village houses and plantation buildings survived unscathed above where terraced rows of tea plants cleaved off the hillside and slid to a plain below. Scores of houses as well as the plantation office and warehouse were rolled and crushed as they slid down the hillside with a swath of top soil and mud hundreds...

Audrey McAvoy , The Associated Press , Honolulu, US | Tue, 08/04/2009 2:04 PM | Sci-Tech In this file photo from Feb. 6, 2009, the USS Port Royal, right, a Navy guided missile cruiser, sits grounded atop a reef about a half-mile south of the Honolulu airport's reef runway in Honolulu. Navy tugs tried early Friday to nudge the 9,600-ton warship away from the spot it hit but were unsuccessful. Wrecking coral will cost you in Hawaii. A Maui tour company is paying the state nearly $400,000 for damaging more than 1,200 coral colonies when one of its boats sank at Molokini, a pristine reef and popular diving spot. Another tour operator faces penalties for wrecking coral when it illegally dropped an anchor on a Maui reef. The state plans to sue the U.S. Navy to seek compensation for coral ruined when a guided missile cruiser the length of two football fields ran aground near Pearl Harbor in February. The fines began issuing fines two years ago as ...

Dian Kuswandini , The Jakarta Post , JAKARTA | Sat, 07/18/2009 1:13 PM | Lifestyle Wet terrarium (flickr.com) There is something about nature that brightens up our lives, and with a terrarium — a miniature garden in a glass — you can bring nature into your home or office. Aquariums have long been a feature in many homes, bringing a sense of serenity to go with the aesthetic pleasure. And what aquariums are to water, terrariums are to earth, now making their way into many homes as more and more people embrace the “go green” concept and seek to get a little closer to nature. Gardening is popular as a creative and relaxing pursuit — and a miniature garden is not different. If the weather isn’t right for gardening, or you simply have no space, a terrarium gives you the chance to indulge your green thumb and bring a touch of nature into your life. “If you love gardening but don’t have a lot of time or the space for an outdoor garden, a ter...

By VOA News 21 July 2009 The moon cast a shadow at the sun in a partial solar eclipse in Manila, Philippines on 26 Jan 2009 Millions of people in India and China will be looking to the skies Wednesday as the moon passes between the sun and Earth in what is being described as the longest solar eclipse of the 21st century. Astronomers say the sun will be completely obscured by the moon for about six minutes and 39 seconds at the peak of the eclipse, which will take place at 01:37 UTC. The Earth will not experience an eclipse this long again until the year 2132. Forecasters are predicting stormy weather in parts of China and India. Despite the forecast, people are lining up for special solar viewing glasses and staking claim to wide open spaces to view the event. The eclipse will pass over India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Burma, China, Japan, Indonesia and the Marshall islands. It begins at 00:25 UTC and ends at 03:03 UTC...

By David Gollust New Delhi 19 July 2009 U.S.-Indian differences about dealing with global warming were on display Sunday as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began talks with Indian officials in New Delhi. India's environment minister said his country cannot accept binding limits on carbon emissions under a proposed global climate change treaty. The two governments say they want to see an agreement come out of the global climate change conference in Copenhagen in December. But comments by senior U.S. and Indian officials, after an informal meeting on the subject Sunday in a New Delhi suburb, make clear a wide gap remains between industrialized powers and major developing countries like India on how to deal with the problem. The Obama administration supports absolute reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions by the industrialized nations, and wants emerging economies like India and China to slow the grow...

By VOA News 19 July 2009 A Pakistani homeless family fixes their damaged hut caused by heavy monsoon rainfall, at a slum in Hyderabad, Pakistan on Saturday, 18 July 2009 Heavy monsoon rains in Pakistan's south have killed at least 26 people and cut off electricity in the country's largest city, Karachi. The rainfall started Saturday and flooded areas of the port city. Officials say some of the victims died from drowning and electrocution. Others were killed by collapsing homes. The 15 centimeters of rainfall damaged hundreds of buildings and downed power lines across the city. Pakistani officials say they are working to restore electricity and control the situation. Despite the downpour, meteorologists are predicting almost a third less rainfall this year. Karachi suffers from outdated infrastructure and a poor drainage system that leaves parts of the city vulnerable to flooding. Some information for this r...

By Carol Pearson Washington 11 July 2009 The U.S. government has allocated $350 million to help the country prepare for the H1N1 flu virus as well as the seasonal flu. U.S. officials say a vaccine for the H1N1 flu could be available by October before the flu season starts in the northern hemisphere. The US government has allocated $350 million to help the country prepare for the H1N1 flu virus as well as the seasonal flu The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 400 people have died from the H1N1 flu virus out of some 90,000 confirmed cases. In June the WHO declared this outbreak to be the first pandemic in more than 40 years. Recently, WHO Director General Margaret Chan predicted the worldwide spread of H1N1 or the swine flu is certain. "Once a fully fit pandemic virus emerges, its further international spread is unstoppable," she said. Currently, countries in the southern hemisp...

By VOA News 09 July 2009 Chinese state media report that a strong earthquake has hit the southwestern part of the country Thursday, injuring more than 300 people. The official Xinhua news agency says the magnitude 6.0 quake hit Yunnan province and damaged thousands of homes late in the day. Xinhua says eight aftershocks followed. Xinhua says the provincial government is sending emergency tents, quilts and other relief materials. Some information for this report was provided by AP. Rate Me on BlogHop.com ! help?

By Sonja Pace L'Aquila, Italy 09 July 2009 U.S. President Barack Obama said the G8 and its partners have reached a historic consensus on climate change and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Thursday's announcement came at the end of two days of discussions at the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy. President Obama said G8 members and their partners from the world's major emerging economies made important strides in combating climate change. "Developing nations committed to reducing their emissions in absolute terms and for the first time, developing nations also acknowledged the significance of the two degree Celsius metric and agreed to take action to meaningfully lower their emissions relative to business as usual in the next decade or so," he said. Group of Eight (G8) leaders pose for a family photo at the summit in L'Aquila, central Italy, 08 Jul 2009 Meeting here in L'Aquila, all ...

By Phil Mercer Sydney 08 July 2009 Climatologists say an El Nino weather pattern is developing, increasing the chances of further more drought and forest fires in Australia and Indonesia. Australia's weather bureau reports that the weather pattern could be bad news for the nation's farmers as the drier conditions arrive during harvest times. An El Nino pattern takes place every two to seven years and is seen by scientists as part of a natural climate cycle. It occurs when waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean heat up. The movement of moist, warmer air away to the east leads to drier conditions in the western Pacific, affecting much of the Asia-Pacific region. In Australia, the eastern and most heavily populated parts of the continent are likely to see below average rainfall and increases in daytime temperatures, which would damage harvests. Australia is the world's fourth-largest wheat exporter. The...

By Jeff Swicord Washington 26 June 2009 As bee populations decline around the world, beekeeping is becoming the environmentally "in" thing to do, even in urban settings. VOA takes us to the grounds of the Franciscan monastery in Washington, D.C. for a crash course on the life of bees and their importance to the environment. Then, we visit the rooftop of D.C.'s posh Fairmont hotel, where chefs are keeping hives and harvesting the honey to use in everything from cheese plates to the French delicacy, foie gras. Joe Bozik tends one of the beehives he maintains at the Franciscan Monastery Joe Bozik has been keeping bees on the grounds of the Franciscan Monastery in Washington D.C. for about four years. Recently, honey bee populations in the U.S. and Europe have fallen victim to something called "Colony Collapse Disorder," where bees leave the hive but, for unknown reasons, never retur...

By DINA CAPPIELLO and H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writers Dina Cappiello And H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press Writers – 20 mins ago WASHINGTON – Sweeping legislation to curb the pollution linked to global warming and create a new energy-efficient economy is headed to an uncertain future in the Senate after squeaking through the House. The vote was a big win for President Barack Obama , who hailed House passage as a "historic action." "It's a bold and necessary step that holds the promise of creating new industries and millions of new jobs, decreasing our dangerous dependence on foreign oil and strictly limiting the release of pollutants that threaten the health of families and communities and the planet itself," Obama said in a statement. "Now it's up to the Senate to take the next step." House Democra...

AP – In a Thursday, April 30, 2009 file photo, a sample of suspected swine flu is displayed by a technician … By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer Mike Stobbe, Ap Medical Writer – 1 hr 38 mins ago ATLANTA – Swine flu has infected as many as 1 million Americans, U.S. health officials said Thursday, adding that 6 percent or more of some urban populations are infected. The estimate voiced by a government flu scientist Thursday was no surprise to the experts who have been closely watching the virus. "We knew diagnosed cases were just the tip of the iceberg," said Dr. William Scha...

AP – President Barack Obama comments in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Thursday, June 25, … By H. JOSEF H EBERT and DINA CAPPIELLO, Associated Press Writers H. Josef Hebert And Dina Cappiello, Associated Press Writers – 1 hr 34 mins ago WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama pushed urgently Thursday for passage of legislation to confront global warming , billing it as a job-creating machine rather than the costly "job killer" Republicans denounced. He telephoned wavering Democrats on the eve of what could be a historic House vote. Speaking in the Rose Garden at the White House, Obama said Washington must not miss the opportunity to work on cleaning the...