A powerful 7.3 earthquake struck 260 miles from the western coast of Indonesia on Wednesday morning, yet caused no injuries or significant damage on land. A tsunami warning was briefly issued, but has since been withdrawn.

The Associated Press reports residents in the Aceh province jammed roads as they fled to higher ground upon hearing the tsunami warning. This is a region of the world still gravely traumatized by the Boxing Day 2004 earthquake and tsunami.

The U.S. Geological Survey stated the quake was centered some 18 miles (30 kilometers) beneath the ocean floor.

One resident, named only as Fera, told the AP: “I’m afraid,” before escaping on a motorbike with her two children and her mother. In the town of Simelue, hospitals and schools were evacuated.

Mercifully, the only casualty of the quake was people’s nerves. Close to two hours after the earthquake had first rumbled, authorities lifted the tsunami warning, and relative calm was restored.

Indonesia is especially vulnerable to huge seismic upheaval, as it lies directly on the so-called ‘Ring of Fire,’ an area where large numbers of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean. Laid out in a 40,000 km horseshoe shape, it consists of a continuous series of oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs, and volcanic belts. Tectonic plate movements are common.

Indonesia took the brunt of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, a series of tsunamis triggered by the third largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph. Half of the 230,000 who lost their lives were from the Aceh province.

7.3 Quake Hits Indonesia, No Injuries Reported is a post from: The Inquisitr

A powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck the waters off the coast of western Indonesia early Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, prompting officials to issue a tsunami warning in the surrounding regions. However, there are no reports of any injuries or series damage, and the tsunami warning has since been lifted.

According to the USGS, the 7.3 quake struck 260 miles southwest off the coast of Banda Aceh at 12:37 a.m. local time on Wednesday (1:37 p.m. ET Tuesday) at a depth of 18.1 miles. Residents in Aceh reportedly fled their homes, and patients were evacuated from hospitals as a precaution.

“It was very strong,” said Darmili, district head in Seumele. “But so far we’re not hearing anything about injuries or real damage.”

CNN reports that hotel clerks on the coast of Indonesia experienced only mild shaking. One clerk told the network that no hotel guests were awakened, and only a few stepped outside when the quake hit.

A catastrophic 9.1 earthquake struck off the coast of northern Sumatra in December 2004, killing between 230,00 and 310,000 in over 14 countries, many of which were in Aceh.

Source: CNN

Magnitude 7.3 quake strikes off coast of Indonesia is a post from: The Inquisitr

Mount Gamalama, a volcano located Indonesia’s North Maluku province, erupted on Sunday at 23:00 local time, according to reports. The volcano’s eruption blanketed nearby villages with thick ash and forced the closure of a local airport.

Fortunately, there are currently no reports of any structural damages or fatalities as the result of Mount Gamalama’s eruption. According to state vulcanologist Surono, who only goes by one name, slow moving lava was visible at the volcano’s peak.

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho of Indonesia’s National Agency of Disaster Management said in a statement that people living in close proximity to the foot of the volcano have evacuated to higher ground, Xinhua reports.

Government officials urge citizens near the volcano to stay calm. “The Regional Agency of Disaster Mitigation (BPBD) of North Maluku province keeps coordinating with related institutions for emergency handling. It keeps monitoring and recording (the situation),” said Nugroho.

Mount Gamalama is one of Indonesia’s nearly 500 volcanoes, 128 of which are still active with 65 being listed as “dangerous”. The last recorded eruption of Mount Gamalama occurred in 2003.

via Associated Press

Volcanic eruption shuts down airport in Indonesia, blankets area in ash is a post from: The Inquisitr

Indonesia’s stumbling financial markets have been given a much-needed boost by foreign funding. Fresh hope that European leaders would intervene on Indonesia’s debt crisis resulted in a rush of buying, causing the local exchange’s main price index to rise.

On Tuesday, the benchmark stock index was boosted by 4.76 percent (almost 158 points) to 3,473.94. Foreign investors control more than half of the publicly traded stocks on the Indonesia Stock Exchange, and yesterday they made a whopping Rp 42 billion worth of net purchases.

Bambang Eko Joewono, head of the global-markets division at United Overseas Bank Indonesia, told Bloomberg:

“The appetite for risk is coming back because of the move by the European Central Bank. That creates positive sentiment for the rupiah.”

Indonesia’s currency felt the benefits also – by 4:45pm in Jakarta, the rupiah had appreciated 1.7 percent to Rp 8,905 against the US dollar. After September’s 4.2 percent loss, the rebound was welcome.

Previously, the economic slowdown in the US and European debt problems were causing investors across the globe to dump risky assets – including those with Indonesia.

In August, The Jakarta Composite Index had started strongly, but plummeted a huge 20 percent from its 4,193 peak, after international fund managers dropped more than Rp 13 trillion worth of Indonesian shares.

The rupiah felt the strain from this, upsetting the government’s and people’s purchasing power and the ability of companies to pay back borrowings from abroad.

Yesterday however, the yield on 10-year government debt fell 1.5 basis points to 7.20 percent.

Stock Prices Rebound in Indonesia is a post from: The Inquisitr

Survivors of the tsunami that followed the magnitude 7.7 earthquake earlier this week off the Indonesian island of Sumatra did not receive any notification of the coming wall of water, and officials say the tsunami warning system had been vandalized, rendering it useless.

Hundreds of people died and many more are missing after a 10ft high wave leveled the Mentawai islands, destroying several villages. The Indonesian Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology’s Ridwan Jamaluddin told the BBC that two coastal buoys near the Mentawai islands had been tampered with and were not working properly when the tsunami struck:

“We don’t say they are broken down but they were vandalised and the equipment is very expensive. It cost us five billion rupiah each (£353,000; $560,000).

A second official, speaking on behalf of the Indonesian Climatology Agency, said the buoys were instrumental in triggering the warning system to notify locals:

“To predict a tsunami, we need the data from the buoy and the tide gauge, which is located near the beach. The buoy is more important because it is on the sea, so it will record the wave much quicker that the tide gauge,” said the official, named Fauzi.

The early warning system has been in place for two years.

No warning came ahead of deadly Indonesian tsunami, system had been ‘vandalized’ is a post from: The Inquisitr

A tsunami warning has been issued after a strong earthquake hit off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

The USGS says the quake, the epicenter of which was 20 miles off the coast of the island, had a magnitude of 7.5. The location is the same place where a massive earthquake and tsunami struck in 2004. According to the Wall Street Journal, an ensuing tsunami isn’t likely to cause widespread devastation if it occurs:

A tsunami watch advised that waves were possible within a few hundred miles of the epicenter. However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said historical data suggest any wave it created wouldn’t be destructive.

The quake, which was felt in Bengkulu and West Sumatra, struck at approximately 9:42 local time. No casualties or significant damage has been reported due to the tremblor. The area is prone to seismic activity and volcanic activity due to its location “on the Pacific Ring of Fire.”

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Tsunami warning after 7.5 magnitude quake hits Indonesia is a post from: The Inquisitr

Thousands are missing, feared dead after an earthquake struck off the coast of the island of Sumatra, Indonesia Wednesday.

As we reported earlier, the 7.6 quake struck at 5:16pm local time and caused a tsunami alert for Indian ocean countries. There is no reports of a tsunami occurring, unlike the Somoan earthquake yesterday, however the size of the earthquake and its proximity to land has caused massive damage across Sumatra.

The town of Padang, West Sumatra, home to 900,000 people was closest to the quake epicenter, and reports from the scene note that there are widespread fires, and that possibly thousands of building have collapsed. Rescue efforts have been hampered by roads into the town being cut off by mudslides, and the airport in the city is closed to air traffic due to damage. There are also reports that at least some of the towns hospitals have been destroyed by the quake.

Indonesia’s health minister told local media that the death toll could end up being “higher than the Yogyakarta quake in 2006,” a quake that left over 5,000 people dead.

The official death toll stands at 75, although is expected to rapidly rise throughout the day.

Thousands missing, feared dead following Indonesian earthquake is a post from: The Inquisitr

Well, not really. (But isn’t the other baby’s face priceless?)

The baby, still awaiting a name, is pictured above next to a more average sized baby. The child’s unusual size is thought to be a result of common condition gestational diabetes. Luckily for mom Ani, 41, he was born via c-section, unlike his three home-born siblings. Even delivered surgically, the 19 lb baby posed a bit of a challenge for doctors to deliver safely:

“This heavy baby made the surgery really tough, especially the process of taking him out of his mum’s womb. His legs were so big,” said the gynecologist, Binsar Sitanggang.

Sitanggang said the boy eats like Pac-man, though:

“He’s got strong appetite, every minute, it’s almost non-stop feeding. This baby boy is extraordinary; the way he’s crying is not like a usual baby. It’s really loud,” he added.

The 19 pound baby broke the record for Indonesia’s heaviest baby, previously held by a wimpy 15.2 lb baby born in 2007.

19-lb Indonesian baby terrorizes nursery is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Indonesian State of Papua is preparing to pass a new law that will require some HIV/AIDS patients to be implanted with RFID chips.

Under the proposal, patients who had shown “actively sexual behavior” could be implanted with the RFID chip to monitor their activity.

Lawmaker John Manangsang told Reuters: “It’s a simple technology. A signal from the microchip will track their movements and this will be received by monitoring authorities.” If a patient with HIV/AIDS was found to have infected a healthy person, there would be a penalty.

The Jakarta Post newspaper the head of Papua’s National AIDS Commission as saying the plan violated human rights. The Indonesian Government claims that the number of HIV/AIDS cases in Papua is 20 times the national average.

I have to agree with Gizmodo on this: “I wonder if his plan B is just putting them in camps or shoot them straight away.”

Indonesian State wants to tag AIDS patients with RFID tags is a post from: The Inquisitr

Indonesia is a country that isn’t well understood in the West. After years of one party rule, Indonesia has emerged as the largest Muslim democracy in the world (234 million people) and a slow opening up of the local economy has seen an emergent middle class. Internet penetration in Indonesia is growing, but still only totals 20 million users, not helped in the least by Indonesia’s geography of 17,508 islands of which around 6,000 are inhabited.

Here’s some of the startups and 2.0 services making their presence felt in Indonesia.


Moodmill

What they say:

Moodmill is a social mood management website. It’s a personal mood management, a log, a quick ‘n easy website for managing and sharing your short logs with your contacts.

In use:
Moodmill is a Twitter hybrid that combineds short messaging with social networking style mood statements. A professional service that has come to the attention of sites such as ReadWriteWeb.

Layartancap

What they say:

“Layartcancap.com is a video streaming website located in IIX (Indonesia Internet eXchange) so can be faster access for Indonesia users.”

In use:
Layartcancap is Indonesia’s version of YouTube. The site may not be as well designed as American services, but it serves the local community well.

Kronologger

Not available in English, Kronologger states on its logo “Indonesia’s microblogging service.” Simply this is an Indonesian Twitter with a smart design and decent local user base.

Fupei

An Indonesian social network similar to MySpace, but localized.

There are probably more Indonesian startups, and if you know of any, please feel free to comment. The last word from the English language Jakarta Post:

These new developments indicate that Indonesian local content has grown rapidly. And since all content is placed with local hosting providers, of course it can save Internet bandwidth significantly.

Despite the fact that the Indonesia’s Web 2.0 services are mostly cloned off international service models, the potential exists to develop and explore them for the local market.

It’s not easy to create truly original services in this field, and the real competition lies in creating an appropriate business model and in attracting the community.

Focus On Asia: Indonesian Startups is a post from: The Inquisitr