World in brief: Quake triggers tsunami warning
A powerful earthquake off eastern Indonesia triggered a tsunami warning today and sent panicked residents fleeing from buildings, authorities and witnesses said.
The magnitude 7 quake struck under the Maluku Sea at a depth of 20 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site. Its epicenter was more than 130 miles north of Ternate city.
Indonesia’s geological agency issued a tsunami warning that was broadcast on national television.
Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
In December 2004, a massive earthquake struck off Sumatra island and triggered a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, including 160,000 people in Indonesia’s westernmost province of Aceh.
SAO PAULO, Brazil
Official fired over jetliner crash
Brazil’s president fired his defense minister Wednesday in response to a fatal jetliner crash that turned months of anger over breakdowns in the military-run national air system into a full-blown political crisis.
Defense Minister Waldir Pires was under withering criticism for not fixing the system even before the TAM Linhas Aereas SA jet crashed last week at Sao Paulo’s main Congonhas airport, killing 199 people.
His replacement, former Supreme Court President Nelson Jobim, now must make good on President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s promise of a thorough investigation, new safety measures and a third airport to serve Sao Paulo, a booming city of 18 million people.
“It’s no secret to any Brazilian that we have an aviation crisis,” Silva said at Jobim’s swearing-in, acknowledging anxiety about flying in general. “Everytime the airplane door closes, I deliver myself to God.”
CAIRO, Egypt
Gunmen target Darfur aid convoys
A dramatic increase in attacks on aid convoys in Darfur is hampering the world’s largest humanitarian operation, and some 170,000 people are now out of reach of food aid because of the violence, the United Nations’ World Food Programme said Wednesday.
Nine food convoys have been ambushed by gunmen across the war-torn region of western Sudan over the past two weeks alone, the WFP said in a statement.
The U.N. food agency condemned the escalation. It said the violence was endangering the WFP’s ability to deliver assistance to millions of hungry people.
Darfur rebel groups have been battling the Sudanese government since 2003, and the government blames the ongoing bloodshed on factions who refused to sign a peace treaty with the government last year. But the U.N. and other international observers say pro-government forces are also responsible for much of the violence.