3rd strong quake rocks Indonesian isle
TANJUNG, Indonesia -- The Indonesian island of Lombok was shaken by a third big earthquake in little more than a week Thursday as the official death toll from the most powerful of the quakes topped 300.
The strong aftershock, measured at magnitude 5.9 by the U.S. Geological Survey, caused panic, damage to buildings, landslides and injuries. It was centered in the northwest of the island and didn't have the potential to cause a tsunami, Indonesia's geological agency said.
The aftershock caused more "trauma," said national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.
Wiranto, Indonesia's top security minister, told reporters the death toll from Sunday's magnitude 7.0 quake had risen to 319. The announcement came after an inter-agency meeting was called to resolve wildly different figures from various government offices.
Nugroho said in statement that the death toll will continue to rise because rescue workers are still finding victims in the ruins of collapsed buildings and some people who are already buried are not yet included in the official toll.
Nearly 68,000 homes were damaged or destroyed in Sunday's quake and 270,000 people are homeless or otherwise displaced, according to the Red Cross' latest update.
Monks hid sex abuse, U.K. report says
LONDON -- A British inquiry concluded Thursday that sexual abuse at two leading Roman Catholic schools in England was considerably higher than is reflected by conviction figures, with monks hiding allegations to protect the church's reputation.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse issued a scathing report saying that monks at Ampleforth in northern England and Downside in the southwest hid allegations of "appalling sexual abuse" against pupils as young as 7. Ten people linked to the schools have been cautioned over or convicted of sexual activity or pornography offenses involving a "large number of children."
"The true scale of the abuse however is likely to be considerably higher," said inquiry chairman Alexis Jay.
Ampleforth accepted responsibility for past failures and thanked Jay for her work.
"We would also like to once again offer our heartfelt apology to anyone who suffered abuse while in the care of our schools, parishes or other ministries," it said in a statement.
Downside offered a "sincere and unreserved apology to all victims and survivors of sexual abuse."
The schools, linked to the English Benedictine Congregation, were run at times by "secretive, evasive and suspicious" officials who avoided reporting misconduct, Jay said. Instead of informing authorities, church leaders confined suspected abusers to the abbey or sent them away to other locations where a history of predatory behavior wasn't always disclosed -- and children were abused as a consequence, the report said.
The church is one of 13 institutions being scrutinized by the inquiry for child-protection failings.
S. Sudan chief grants rival amnesty
JUBA, South Sudan -- South Sudan's president has granted amnesty to armed opposition leader Riek Machar and all rebel groups days after signing a power-sharing agreement in the latest effort to end a five-year civil war.
The South Sudan Broadcasting Corp. reported the announcement by President Salva Kiir.
The opposition under Machar, however, quickly took offense, saying Kiir was in no position to grant amnesty to anyone after overseeing the atrocities and multiple cease-fire violations committed by South Sudanese troops.
"Salva should instead seek for forgiveness from Dr. Machar in particular and South Sudanese in general," opposition spokesman Lam Paul Gabriel said.
The statement indicated that relations remained fragile between the rival sides despite the agreement that Kiir and Machar signed over the weekend in Sudan.
As part of the power-sharing deal, Kiir will remain president and Machar will return to the country as the first vice president, one of five vice presidents.
A similar agreement fell apart in July 2016 as fighting broke out and Machar fled the country.
Sweden pleads for imprisoned Ukrainian
COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Sweden is calling on Russia to release a Ukrainian filmmaker on hunger strike, saying it's worried about his "deteriorating health condition."
Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom wrote Thursday on Twitter that the detention of filmmaker Oleg Sentsov "violates international law and is based on a legal process that did not meet elementary standards of justice."
Sentsov has been refusing food. He is demanding that he and 64 other Ukrainians imprisoned in Russia whom he calls political prisoners be released.
His lawyer Dmitry Dinze visited him Tuesday and said Sentsov has a very low hemoglobin level, resulting in anemia and a slow heartbeat. He's serving his sentence in a prison on the Yamal Peninsula in Siberia, a region known for its harsh conditions.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
A Section on 08/10/2018