Skip to main content

Magnitude-6.4 quake rattles Jakarta

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Fri, 10/16/2009 5:42 PM | National

Aftershock: Workers gather at the open space outside a high rise building on Jl. Thamrin, Central Jakarta, on Friday after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake jolted the western tip of Java. Antara/Andika Wahyu

Aftershock: Workers gather at the open space outside a high rise building on Jl. Thamrin, Central Jakarta, on Friday after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake jolted the western tip of Java. Antara/Andika Wahyu







An earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale was felt in Jakarta at about 5 p.m. on Friday. This was the second strong temblor in as many months to be felt in the capital.

According to data from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency, the epicenter of the quake was in the Sunda Strait, about 42 kilometers northwest of Ujung Kulon in Banten province, around 185 kilometers southwest of Jakarta, at a depth of 55 kilometers beneath the ocean floor.

The tremor was also felt in Tanjung Karang in Lampung, and in Bandung.

No immediate tsunami warnings were issued following the quake.

The earthquake stirred a panic among people working in Jakarta’s high-rise buildings, who scrambled for fire stairs seeking safety.

Jakarta was also shaken by a magnitude-7.3 quake on Sept. 2, which devastated areas on West Java’s southern coast.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Iranian Clerics Protest Election Results

By VOA News 05 July 2009 A group of leading Iranian clerics has criticized the results of the country's disputed presidential election. In a statement released Sunday, clerics from the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qom said Iran's official electoral watchdog, the Guardian Council, failed to adequately investigate claims of vote rigging by the opposition. The pro-reform group questioned whether the Council's validation is enough to legitimize the vote. Last week, the 12-member Council upheld the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I ranian reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi during a press conference after polls closed in Tehran, 12 June 2009 Defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi has criticized the outcome. In a 24-page report posted to his Web site Saturday, Mr. Mousavi accuses supporters of Mr. Ahmadinejad of handing out cash to voters in the run-up to...

Military chief promotes 35 generals

Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Djoko Santoso has promoted 35 generals, consisting of 16 army generals, 11 navy admirals and 8 air force marshals. “It is expected that this time promotion will further enhance and improve the military performance so that we could give out the best output,” he said on Friday. Among those generals who receive the promotion is Rear Adm. Gunadi who is now posted as inspector general at the Defense Ministry, Maj. Gen. Langgeng Sulistyono, who is now posted as Diponegoro Military Commander and Rear Marshal Agus Dwi Putranto, who is installed as Abdulrahman Saleh Air Force Base Commander.

Chinese

Identifying someone in Indonesia as a member of the Chinese ( orang Tionghoa ) ethnic group is not an easy matter, because physical characteristics, language, name, geographical location, and life-style of Chinese Indonesians are not always distinct from those of the rest of the population. Census figures do not record Chinese as a special group, and there are no simple racial criteria for membership in this group. There are some people who are considered Chinese by themselves and others, despite generations of intermarriage with the local population, resulting in offspring who are less than one-quarter Chinese in ancestry. On the other hand, there are some people who by ancestry could be considered halfChinese or more, but who regard themselves as fully Indonesian. Furthermore, many people who identify themselves as Chinese Indonesians cannot read or write the Chinese language. Alth...