5 killed in new Indonesia quakes
Jakarta, Aug 20 : At least five people were killed and 40 others injured as two quakes measuring 6.5 and 6.9 on the Richter scale jolted Indonesia's Lombok Island where several previous tremors have already claimed over 400 lives since July, an official said on Monday.
The jolts on Sunday morning and night amplified damages resulted from the 6.4 and 7.0 magnitude quakes hitting the island earlier on July 27 and August 5, head of emergency unit of disaster management agency Agung Pramudja said.
The latest figure put the total death toll from the quakes since July 27 to at least 465. The official said that a preliminary report indicated that at least 200 houses were seriously destroyed by the temblor.
"The shakes incited significant damages and many residents have fled home and taken shelters in makeshift encampment," he told Xinhua.
The official said that the assessment of the further risks of the jolts is being undertaken. No tsunami alert was issued.
The first quake struck the island at 11.10 a.m. with epicentre at 32 km East Lombok of West Nusa Tenggara province in western parts of the island and a depth of 10 km, the agency said.
The second one took place at 9.56 p.m. with an epicentre at 30 km northeast East Lombok district of West Nusa Tenggara province and a depth of 10 km, it said.
Indonesia is prone to quake as it lies on a vulnerable quake-hit zone of "the Pacific Ring of Fire".
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Maharashtra Congress chief Patole meets Kharge, dismisses resignation talk as 'rumours'
New Delhi, Nov 25: Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole on Monday dismissed as "rumours" talk of his resignation following the assembly polls debacle and stressed on "collective accountability" for the defeat.
Patole made the remarks after meeting Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge during which he conveyed that the result had not reflected the sentiments of the people of Maharashtra.
"Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and other national and state leaders were leading Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) from the forefront during the assembly polls. So, we were sure that the trends were in favour of Maha Vikas Aghadi, even the citizens believed that," the Maharashtra Congress chief said.
"If I talk about Nanded, the Lok Sabha bypolls and assembly elections were held on the same day. In Lok Sabha bypolls, our candidate was winning in six assembly seats, whereas, in the assembly elections, we are not winning even a single seat," he said, adding that there cannot be such a "huge difference".
This is the sentiment among the people also and they have stated that this government in Maharashtra was not being formed on their votes, he claimed.
"So, I spoke to Mallikarjun Kharge on this," he added.
Asked whether he had offered to resign or the party had asked for his resignation after the Maharashtra assembly polls defeat, Patole said, "These are all rumours and there is no truth in them. There is collective accountability."
Patole also said he will meet Rahul Gandhi in a day or two and discuss all issues.
"Democracy is being finished. We have discussed that... there was no talk of resignation," he said.
The MVA alliance, comprising the Congress, NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) and Shiv Sena (UBT), was restrained to 46 seats by the Mahayuti that reaped a rich harvest of 230 seats in the 288-member House.
