JAKARTA: At least seven international flights from Indonesia’s resort island Bali have been canceled, an airport official said Friday, after a volcano in the archipelago nation’s east erupted, shooting dark ash eight kilometers into the sky and forcing thousands to evacuate.
Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki, a 1,703-meter (5,587-foot) twin-peaked volcano on the tourist island of Flores, erupted for 11 minutes and nine seconds late Thursday, authorities said, raising the volcano’s alert status to the highest level.
As of 9:45 a.m. (0145 GMT) Friday, “seven international flights had been canceled, six of them are Jetstar flights bound to Australia and one Air Asia flight to Kuala Lumpur,” Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport spokesman, Andadina Dyah, said in a statement.
Several other flights — both domestic and international, including to Thailand, Singapore and Australia — have been delayed, it said.
The local government has declared a 14-day emergency and established a command post to coordinate response efforts, the country’s disaster agency spokesman (BNPB), Abdul Muhari, said in a statement on Friday.
Abdul added that more than 4,700 residents have been evacuated as of Friday and called on those remaining to find a safe location.
“The people are asked to remain in safe locations and follow directives from the regional government,” Abdul said.
The local airport in Maumere, on Flores, the closest to the volcano, has not been affected by the ash, according to the transportation ministry.
“The ash column was observed grey to black with thick intensity,” Indonesia’s volcanology agency said in a statement about the eruption, which began at around 11:00 p.m. on Thursday.
Volcanic ash from the eruption blanketed several nearby villages on Friday.
At least two people were injured, including a man whose roof collapsed under volcanic debris, a local official said.
The agency warned residents of the risk of volcanic mudflows due to heavy rainfall.
The long eruption prompted the country’s geological agency to raise the volcano’s alert level to the highest of the four-tiered system.
Authorities imposed an exclusion zone between seven and eight kilometers (four to five miles) around the volcano, the agency added.
In November, Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki erupted multiple times, killing nine people, canceling scores of international flights to the tourist island of Bali and forcing thousands to evacuate.
Laki-Laki, which means “man” in Indonesian, is twinned with a calmer volcano named after the Indonesian word for “woman.”
Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation, experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire.”
Flights canceled, thousands evacuated after Indonesia volcano eruption
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Flights canceled, thousands evacuated after Indonesia volcano eruption
- Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki, a 1,703-meter twin-peaked volcano on the tourist island of Flores, erupted for 11 minutes and nine seconds late Thursday
- Several other flights – both domestic and international, including to Thailand, Singapore and Australia – have been delayed
US visit puts ‘unacceptable pressure’ on Greenland: Danish PM
“This is clearly not a visit that is about what Greenland needs or wants”
COPENHAGEN: Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Tuesday criticized a planned US delegation visit to Greenland, a Danish territory coveted by President Donald Trump, as putting “unacceptable pressure” on both the territory and her country.
The White House has announced that Usha Vance, the wife of Vice President JD Vance, will visit Greenland from Thursday to Saturday to attend Greenland’s national dogsled race in El-Sisimiut, on the northwestern coast.
The race has been largely sponsored by the US consulate in Nuuk, Greenlandic media reported.
According to the Arctic island’s outgoing Prime Minister Mute Egede, US national security adviser Mike Waltz will also visit Greenland this week, while US media have reported that Energy Secretary Chris Wright will travel there as well.
The visits, presented as private, have angered Danish and Greenlandic politicians.
“You can’t organize a private visit with official representatives of another country,” Frederiksen told reporters.
The visit comes at a time of political flux in Greenland, where political parties are still negotiating to form a new coalition government following a March 11 general election.
“This is clearly not a visit that is about what Greenland needs or wants,” Frederiksen told broadcaster DR.
“That’s why I have to say that the pressure being put on Greenland and Denmark in this situation is unacceptable.
“And it’s pressure we will resist,” she added.
The outgoing Greenlandic government said in a post on Facebook it had not “sent out any invitations for visits, private or official.”
“The current government is a transitional government pending the formation of a new governing coalition, and we have asked all countries to respect this process,” it wrote.
Since returning to power in January, Trump has insisted he wants the United States to take over Greenland for national security purposes and has even refused to rule out the use of force to achieve that aim.
A self-governing Danish territory which is seeking to emancipate itself from Copenhagen, Greenland holds massive untapped mineral and oil reserves, although oil and uranium exploration are banned.
It is also strategically located between North America and Europe at a time of rising US, Chinese and Russian interest in the Arctic, where sea lanes have opened up due to climate change.
Greenland’s location also puts it on the shortest route for missiles between Russia and the US.
According to opinion polls, most Greenlanders support independence from Denmark but not annexation by Washington.
Greenland’s likely new prime minister — Jens-Frederik Nielsen of the center-right Democrats, who won the election — has criticized Trump’s moves on Greenland as “inappropriate.”
Aaja Chemnitz, a lawmaker representing Greenland in the Danish parliament, insisted the US delegation had not been invited.
“No one from the Greenlandic official system has invited the so-called tourists. They’re coming, using soft power diplomacy and also focusing on security issues and this is totally unacceptable,” Chemnitz told AFP.
Trump maintained the visit was at the invitation of Greenland.
“We’ve been invited,” Trump told reporters on Monday.
“We’re dealing with a lot of people from Greenland that would like to see something happen with respect to being properly protected and properly taken care of,” he said.
The Danish prime minister stressed Copenhagen and Nuuk were still open to cooperation with the US.
“We are allies, we have a defense agreement on Greenland that dates back to 1951,” Frederiksen said.
“There is nothing that indicates, neither in Denmark nor Greenland, that we don’t want to cooperate with the Americans.”
The US delegation will be met by a protest in El-Sisimiut, Greenland’s second-biggest town with 5,500 people, where locals have been encouraged to turn their backs on the US convoy, one of the organizers told daily Sermitsiaq.
“This is our way of showing that we don’t agree with their presence and their way of doing things,” Per Norgard said.
The delegation is also expected to visit a US air base in Pituffik, though no official program has been published.
In the current negotiations to form a new coalition government, only one of the five parties in parliament has quit the talks — the Naleraq party.
While all of the parties are in favor of eventual independence, Naleraq has campaigned for a quicker emancipation from Denmark.
Doctors warn US aid cuts leave rural Afghanistan without health care
- WHO says hundreds of health centers, clinics across country are set to close by June
- Afghan health sector relies on donors as govt covers only 3% of total expenditure
KABUL: Afghan doctors warn that new foreign funding cuts are depriving the country’s most vulnerable of health care, especially in rural areas, where aid-dependent NGOs are the sole providers.
The WHO announced last week that 206 health facilities across 28 provinces of Afghanistan were either suspended or closed due to a lack of financial support.
About 200 more clinics, health centers and mobile health and nutrition teams operating in remote areas of the country are set to close by June.
The UN health agency said that the funding shortfall, which comes amid massive US aid cuts since January, is leaving an additional 1.8 million Afghans without access to primary health care.
“The big hospitals in provincial capitals are primarily run by the government while most of the health centers in rural areas are operated by NGOs with funding from different donors,” Dr. Zobair Saljuqi, a doctor at Herat Regional Hospital, told Arab News.
Most of the rural population cannot afford to travel to provincial capitals or major cities for treatment. Health facilities in remote areas are also crucial for women, especially since their movement has been curtailed by the Taliban administration.
“If these health facilities don’t receive the needed financial aid, they cannot continue functioning even for a month because from staff salaries, through running costs, to medicines — all are provided by the donors,” Saljuqi said.
“Women will face severe challenges during pregnancies and children could die due to malnutrition or infectious diseases.”
The halt in US aid is another blow to Afghanistan’s humanitarian situation since the Taliban took over in 2021. Following the collapse of the country’s Western-backed regime, the US withdrew its troops and froze all projects overnight, after spending billions on two decades of military and development operations.
Afghanistan’s health sector relies on donor funds. UN estimates show that out-of-pocket expenses and external funding make up 97 percent of total health expenditure, while government contributions account for just 3 percent.
Dr. Ahmad Tariq, who works at a health center in Qarghayi district, Laghman province, said that almost everyone in his neighborhood depended on the facility.
“People here are very poor. They are all either farmers or daily laborers. They can’t afford to travel to the center of the province or buy medicine,” he told Arab News.
“Our small facility is helping tens of patients every day, men and women, children and elderly persons. They come for OPD consultations as well as vaccination and receive some medicine for free. If it wasn’t for this center most of the people would have been deprived of basic health services.”
According to Afghanistan’s Ministry of Health data, 72 percent of the rural population lacks access to primary and secondary health care services.
Of the country’s 400 districts, only 93 have operational hospitals, and almost 10 million people in more than 20,000 villages have limited or no access to basic health services.
Dr. Mohammad Nazar, a public health practitioner in Kabul, forecast that the sudden shortage of US-led funding would further devastate Afghanistan’s already fragile health system, which had endured decades of war and Soviet and American invasions.
“Almost all health centers across rural areas are supported by donors and humanitarian organizations,” he said.
“Tens of health facilities are already closing, which means more and more women, children, elderly persons, displaced persons ... will have no access to essential health services and mortality from preventable diseases would rise.”
UK reaffirms Middle East security partnership with US despite war plans leak
- The Trump administration accidentally leaked key military information about US airstrikes targeting Houthi positions in Yemen on March 15, just hours before the attack
LONDON: Britain will continue to work with the United States on regional security in the Middle East and will deepen relations with Washington on intelligence and defense matters, a spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Tuesday.
Asked about the mistaken disclosure to a journalist of a conversation about US military action against Houthi targets, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the government was confident any communication of British intelligence with the US would not be leaked.
In an article published on Monday, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief disclosed that officials from the Trump administration shared key military information with him about US airstrikes targeting Houthi positions in Yemen on March 15, just hours before the attack.
Jeffrey Goldberg, an experienced journalist, explained that US government officials mistakenly included him in a text channel where they were discussing the details of the strike.
“The US is our closest ally when it comes to matters of intelligence and defense,” the spokesperson told reporters, declining to comment directly on the specific story.
“We work with the United States incredibly closely on all matters in relation to defense and security ... We will continue to work with the US on regional security.”
Doctors warn US aid cuts leave rural Afghanistan without healthcare
- WHO says hundreds of health centers, clinics across country are set to close by June
- Afghan health sector relies on donors as govt covers only 3% of total expenditure
Kabul: Afghan doctors warn that new foreign funding cuts are depriving the country’s most vulnerable of healthcare, especially in rural areas, where aid-dependent NGOs are the sole providers.
The WHO announced last week that 206 health facilities across 28 provinces of Afghanistan were either suspended or closed due to a lack of financial support.
About 200 more clinics, health centers and mobile health and nutrition teams operating in remote areas of the country are set to close by June.
The UN health agency said that the funding shortfall, which comes amid massive US aid cuts since January, is leaving an additional 1.8 million Afghans without access to primary health care.
“The big hospitals in provincial capitals are primarily run by the government while most of the health centers in rural areas are operated by NGOs with funding from different donors,” Dr. Zobair Saljuqi, a doctor at Herat Regional Hospital, told Arab News.
Most of the rural population cannot afford to travel to provincial capitals or major cities for treatment. Health facilities in remote areas are also crucial for women, especially since their movement has been curtailed by the Taliban administration.
“If these health facilities don’t receive the needed financial aid, they cannot continue functioning even for a month because from staff salaries, through running costs, to medicines — all are provided by the donors,” Saljuqi said.
“Women will face severe challenges during pregnancies and children could die due to malnutrition or infectious diseases.”
The halt in US aid is another blow to Afghanistan’s humanitarian situation since the Taliban took over in 2021. Following the collapse of the country’s Western-backed regime, the US withdrew its troops and froze all projects overnight, after spending billions on two decades of military and development operations.
Afghanistan’s health sector relies on donor funds. UN estimates show that out-of-pocket expenses and external funding make up 97 percent of total health expenditure, while government contributions account for just 3 percent.
Dr. Ahmad Tariq, who works at a health center in Qarghayi district, Laghman province, said that almost everyone in his neighborhood depended on the facility.
“People here are very poor. They are all either farmers or daily laborers. They can’t afford to travel to the center of the province or buy medicine,” he told Arab News.
“Our small facility is helping tens of patients every day, men and women, children and elderly persons. They come for OPD consultations as well as vaccination and receive some medicine for free. If it wasn’t for this center most of the people would have been deprived of basic health services.”
According to Afghanistan’s Ministry of Health data, 72 percent of the rural population lacks access to primary and secondary healthcare services.
Of the country’s 400 districts, only 93 have operational hospitals, and almost 10 million people in more than 20,000 villages have limited or no access to basic health services.
Dr. Mohammad Nazar, a public health practitioner in Kabul, forecast that the sudden shortage of US-led funding would further devastate Afghanistan’s already fragile health system, which had endured decades of war and Soviet and American invasions.
“Almost all health centers across rural areas are supported by donors and humanitarian organizations,” he said.
“Tens of health facilities are already closing, which means more and more women, children, elderly persons, displaced persons ... will have no access to essential health services and mortality from preventable diseases would rise.”
Governor of Turkiye’s Ankara extends protest ban until April 1
ANKARA: The governor of Ankara on Tuesday said he was extending the ban on any form of protest in the Turkish capital until April 1.
The ban would be in place “until 23:59 on April 1,” the statement said.
Protest bans are also in place in Istanbul and the western city of Izmir, but they have been largely ignored with mass demonstrations taking place across the country since the March 19 arrest and subsequent jailing of the country’s main opposition figure.
