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A6 WORLD NEWS
Monday 18 January 2021
Indonesian teams find more bodies from quake that killed 78

By MUHAMMAD RIFKI and debris from collapsed build-
YUSUF WAHIL ings. The governor’s office
Associated Press building was almost flat-
MAMUJU, Indonesia (AP) — tened by the quake and
Indonesian rescuers on Sun- a shopping mall was re-
day retrieved more bodies duced to a crumpled hulk.
from the rubble of homes The disaster agency said
and buildings toppled by a the army corps of engineers
strong earthquake, raising cleared the road connect-
the death toll to 78, while ing Mamuju and Majene
military engineers man- that had been blocked by
aged to reopen ruptured landslides. They also rebuilt
roads to clear access for a damaged bridge.
relief goods. The disaster agency’s chief,
More heavy equipment Doni Monardo, said author-
reached the hardest-hit ities were trying to separate
city of Mamuju and the high- and lower-risk groups
neighboring district of Ma- and provided tens of thou-
jene on Sulawesi island, sands of masks for refugees
where the magnitude 6.2 to prevent the spread of the
quake struck early Friday, coronavirus in the crowded
said Raditya Jati, the Na- camps. He said authorities
tional Disaster Mitigation would also set up health
Agency’s spokesperson. A police officer leads a sniffer dog during a search of victims at the ruin of a building flattened by posts at the camps to test
A total of 67 people died in an earthquake in Mamuju, West Sulawesi, Indonesia, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2021. Associated Press people for the virus.
Mamuju and 11 in Majene, People being housed in
said the director of pre- went to makeshift shelters karra hospital, which was people still inside. I could temporary shelters were
paredness for the National that have been lashed by flattened by the quake. He have died if I got out late,” seen standing close to-
Search and Rescue Agen- heavy monsoon down- and his family are among he said. gether, many of them with-
cy, Didi Hamzar. pours. Only a few were thousands of displaced Rescuers managed to re- out masks.
Power supplies and phone lucky to be protected by people who took shelter in trieve four survivors and “In this emergency situ-
communications have tarpaulin-covered tents. a hilly area. four bodies from the rubble ation ... it is difficult for us
begun to improve in the They said they were run- He said his bed was shaking of the flattened hospital, to observe health proto-
quake areas. ning low on food, blankets when he awoke and real- according to the Search cols,” said Fatimah Zahra,
Thousands of people were and other aid, as emergen- ized that it was an earth- and Rescue Agency. a Mamuju resident who
left homeless and more cy supplies were rushed to quake. He then removed a Jati said that at least 1,150 moved to a makeshift shel-
than 800 were injured, with the hard-hit region. drip from his hand and ran houses in Majene were ter.
more than half of them still “We are unable to return out. He had seen several damaged and that the West Sulawesi province has
receiving treatment for seri- to our destroyed homes,” nurses helping patients who agency was still collecting recorded more than 2,500
ous injuries, Jati said. said a father of three who were unable to move be- data on damaged houses cases of the coronavirus,
The disaster agency’s data identified himself only as fore the building collapsed. and buildings in Mamuju. including 58 deaths. Indo-
showed that nearly 27,850 Robert. He said he fled from “I cried when I saw the Mamuju, the provincial nesia has confirmed nearly
survivors were moved to his bed while being treated hospital where I was be- capital of nearly 300,000 908,000 cases and almost
shelters. Most of them at Mamuju’s Mitra Mana- ing treated collapse with people, was strewn with 26,000 fatalities. q

Israel OKs hundreds of settlement homes in last-minute push

The anti-settlement moni- of settlement units, Prime has been charged.
toring group Peace Now Minister Netanyahu is once The Palestinians claim all
said that over 90% of the again putting his personal of the West Bank, cap-
homes lay deep inside political interests over those tured by Israel in the 1967
the West Bank, which the of the country,” the group Mideast war, as part of a
Palestinians seek as the said. “Not only will this set- future independent state.
heartland of a future inde- tlement activity erode the They say the growing set-
pendent state, and over possibility for a conflict- tler population, approach-
200 homes were located in ending resolution with the ing some 500,000 people,
unauthorized outposts that Palestinians in the long- makes it increasingly diffi-
the government had de- term, but in the short-term cult to achieve their dream
cided to legalize. it needlessly sets Israel on of independence.
This Nov. 15, 2020 file photo, shows a general view of the Givat Israel has stepped up settle- a collision course with the Nabil Abu Rdeneh, spokes-
Hamatos Israeli settlement in east Jerusalem. ment construction during incoming Biden administra- man for Palestinian Presi-
Associated Press
President Donald Trump’s tion.” dent Mahmoud Abbas,
By JOSEF FEDERMAN administration leaves office term. According to Peace Netanyahu’s office said last said Sunday’s decision
Associated Press later this week. Now, Israel approved or week he would seek ap- marked a “preemptive at-
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli COGAT, the Israeli de- advanced construction provals for the latest con- tempt by the Israeli gov-
authorities on Sunday ad- fense body that authorizes of over 12,000 settlement struction projects. They in- ernment to undermine any
vanced plans to build settlement construction, homes in 2020, the high- clude 100 homes in Tal Me- effort that the U.S. Presi-
nearly 800 homes in West confirmed the approvals, est number in a single year nashe, a settlement where dent-elect Joe Biden’s ad-
Bank settlements, in a last- which drew swift condem- since it began recording an Israeli woman was killed ministration might make to
minute surge of approvals nations from the Palestin- statistics in 2012. last month in an attack for relaunch the stalled peace
before the friendly Trump ians. “By promoting hundreds which a Palestinian man process.”q