Two die, 25 wounded in Purwokerto collision

Mon, 05/26/2008 10:19 AM | The Archipelago

PURWOKERTO, Central Java: Two people died and 25 others were seriously injured early on Saturday in a head-on collision between a bus and a cargo truck on Jalan Raya Sokaraja in Purwokerto, Central Java.

The drivers of the Maju Jaya bus and the truck died on impact while the injured victims, all bus passengers, were rushed to Margonosukarjo General hospital in Purwokerto.

Eyewitness Purwanto, 30, said the collision occurred when the passenger bus, traveling at high speed on the right-hand side of the road approaching Purwokerto bus station, collided with a truck traveling at high speed in the opposite direction.

The badly damaged truck had rolled into a field.

"Villagers had difficulty trying to remove the truck driver," Purwanto said.

The local police were still investigating the cause of the collision. --JP

;JP;FADLI; ANPAn..r.. Fake document syndicate raised JP/8/8Focus

Fake documents ring busted in Batam

BATAM, Riau Islands: The police have arrested members of a syndicate in Batam, which produced false identification documents including birth certificates, school titles and working passports.

Head of the detectives directorate at the provincial police headquarters, Sr. Comr. Muhammad Jufri, said here over the weekend that the members were arrested in a police raid on a house used by Desman Tarigan and Heru to make the documents.

Police also confiscated several electronic devices, stamps of numerous regional administrations and hundreds of fake documents made with orders from people on the island.

"We're still checking on the alleged involvement of unauthorized civil servants inside the syndicate, and pursuing their accomplices," Jufri said.

According to preliminary investigations, the two have been in the illegal business since 2006, and have made thousands of fake documents for the local community.

A fake working passport costs up to Rp 1 million. --JP

;JP;RMS;ANTARA; ANPAn..r.. Focus-cash aid-mudflow Mudflow victims to receive cash aid JP/8/8Focus

Problems delivering aid to Sidoarjo victims

SIDOARJO, East Java: Thousands of displaced mudflow victims in the East Java regency of Sidoarjo were reportedly entitled to cash aid, but finding these recipients has been difficult, the state postal service says.

Many families have moved and changed address since their villages were completely submerged in the mud, a spokesman for state postal company PT Pos Indonesia's Sidoarjo branch, M Toha Solahuddin, said here on Friday.

Solahuddin said Pos Indonesia would collect data on the mudflow victims of four villages inundated by the Lapindo mudflow.

The cash assistance disbursements were to be compensation for fuel price increases and were due to be disbursed to 2,920 families in the Porong subdistrict, 2,458 families in Tanggulangin subdistrict and 585 families in Jabon subdistrict, he said.

Pos Indonesia has also collected data on eligible cash assistance recipients of four villages.

These would include 219 families in Renokenongo, 75 in Siring, 95 in Jatirejo, 273 in Kedungbendo, 180 in Besuki, 73 in Pejarakan and 154 in Kedungcangkring.

Solahuddin also said PT Pos Indonesia would distribute the cash assistance to poor families in remote areas including Keptingan village. --Antara

;AFP; ANPAc..u.. Indonesia-quake Strong quake shakes Maluku JP/8/8Focus

Strong quake shakes Maluku

JAKARTA: A 6.7-magnitude earthquake shook the eastern Indonesian province of Maluku on Saturday, the meteorology office here said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The quake struck at 5:50 am (2250 GMT) at a depth of 72 kilometers, some 194 kilometers northwest of Saumlaki in Maluku province, the office said in a statement.

The quake was followed by an aftershock of magnitude 6.0, Andi Zulfikar from the geophysics headquarters here told AFP.

Indonesia was the nation worst hit by the quake-triggered Asian tsunami in December 2004, which killed 168,000 people in the country's Aceh province alone.

The Indonesian archipelago sits on the so-called Pacific 'Ring of Fire' where continental plates meet and cause frequent seismic and volcanic activity. --AFP

;JP;AFP; ANPAc..u.. Indonesia-court-politics Separatist gets 10 years' jail for separatism: report JP/8/8Focus

Separatist gets 10 years in Ambon

JAKARTA: A pro-independence activist in Indonesia's eastern province of Maluku has been given a 10-year prison sentence for subversion, a report said Thursday.

Sony Bonsera was convcted of "plotting against the state" and attending a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the outlawed South Maluku Republic (RMS) near Ambon on April 25, 2006, the Detikcom online news service said.

Bonsera told the court in Ambon on Wednesday that during the ceremony, the RMS flag was raised in Gunung Nona village, a separatist hymn was sung and the text of the independence proclamation was read out.

"I regret having taken part in that RMS ceremony .... I will not do it again," he reportedly told the court after the verdict was read.

Prosecutors in two related trials at the same court recommended 10-year jail sentences for two other people also present at the ceremony.

Indonesia has fought numerous separatist insurgencies across the archipelago and remains sensitive to breakaway movements.

Jakarta crushed the RMS shortly after its declaration of independence in 1950, but the movement was revived following the fall of authoritarian president Soeharto in 1998.

Government-sponsored peace talks in 2002 failed to end the violence, and sporadic clashes and tensions persist. --AFP

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