Strong, shallow earthquake shakes Papua New Guinea

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (AP) — A powerful earthquake shook Papua New Guinea's northern coast Wednesday morning, but there was no threat of a widespread tsunami in the Pacific.

The shallow magnitude-6.8 earthquake struck about 19 kilometers (11 miles) east of the small town of Aitape, where disaster authorities have not been able to contact people yet.

It's possible that residents headed to higher ground as soon as they felt the earthquake and were not immediately reachable, said Chris McKee, the assistant director of the Geophysical Observatory in the capital, Port Moresby.

He said there were no reports or indications of a tsunami.

He said people in the town of Vanimo, about 145 kilometers (89 miles) from the epicenter reported they had felt the quake strongly. There were no initial reports of damage or injuries.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said, based on historical data, a quake of this strength has the potential to generate localized tsunamis within 100 kilometers (62 miles) of the epicenter.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was at a depth of 13 kilometers (8 miles), which is relatively shallow. Shallow quakes can potentially cause more damage at the surface.

Papua New Guinea is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

View the original article here

Gunmen attack Indonesian military chopper in Papua

JAYAPURA, Indonesia (AP) — Unidentified gunmen shot at an Indonesian military helicopter in the restive province of Papua on Friday as the crew was trying to evacuate the bodies of eight soldiers killed in attacks the day before.

Three crew members were wounded in Friday's attack on the Super Puma helicopter, which was forced to abort its mission and rush the injured to a hospital, said Lt. Col. Jansen Simanjuntak, an army spokesman.

Eight soldiers were killed in two separate attacks in the area on Thursday. The area is a stronghold of separatists who have battled Indonesian rule in the impoverished region for more than 40 years.

In the deadliest attack Thursday, about 20 assailants armed with guns and machetes attacked a group of soldiers walking to Ilaga Airport in Puncak district to collect communication equipment, killing seven, Simanjuntak said.

Two civilians also were shot in the attack, but their fate was unclear, he said. He said earlier that the two had been killed.

About an hour before that attack, gunmen stormed an army post in Tinggi Nambut, a village in neighboring Puncak Jaya district, and fatally shot one soldier and injured another before fleeing into the jungle, Simanjuntak said.

Indonesian military spokesman Rear Adm. Iskandar Sitompul said the same group was responsible for both attacks.

"They are believed to be old players who always try to disturb the situation there," Sitompul said in Jakarta, the capital.

Simanjuntak identified the assailants as members of a local separatist group led by Goliat Tabuni.

Senior Security Minister Djoko Suyanto said the incidents were "very irresponsible acts by the armed groups in Papua," adding that "the government very strongly condemns such brutal incidents." He said the perpetrators would be captured and prosecuted.

The former Dutch colony of Papua in the western part of New Guinea was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 following a U.N.-sponsored ballot of tribal leaders that has since been dismissed as a sham. A small, poorly armed separatist organization known as the Free Papua Movement has battled for independence since then.

View the original article here