Indonesia earthquake death toll reaches 105
Tanjung (Indonesia), Aug 7: The death toll in the 6.9 magnitude Indonesia earthquake climbed to 105 on Tuesday while rescue teams continued to search for survivors under the rubble.
The earthquake shook Lombok Island over the weekend. Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said that among the dead, 78 were from the northern Lombok regency, 15 from western Lombok, four from Mataram, three from eastern Lombok, two from central Lombok and two from Bali's capital Denpasar.
About 236 people were reported to be injured and 20,000 people displaced by the disaster. Thousands of houses were damaged, CNN reported.
All the 105 people killed were Indonesians, while the injured included seven foreigners -- one each from Denmark, the US, the UK, France, Belgium, Czech Republic and South Korea, according to Efe news.
Sutopo said that the death toll was expected to rise as the search operations continued, mainly in the most affected regions of northern and eastern Lombok.
Thousands of tourists were being gradually evacuated from Lombok on boats or delayed flights taking off from Mataram's international airport where many foreigners spent the night in the terminal and in corridors.
Some 7,000 tourists were evacuated from the popular Gili archipelago -- which includes the islands Air, Meno and Trawangan -- off the coast of northeast Lombok, near the epicentre of the earthquake, which was followed by 250 aftershocks.
Faik Fahmi, director of Angkasa Pura, the company that operates the airport on Lombok, said there were about 1,000 people staying overnight at the airport and that they were going to increase traffic so travellers can reach their destinations, including Bali and Jakarta.
On Monday, many flights to and from the island were cancelled and others delayed. Lombok, dominated by the Rinjani volcano, is located east of Bali, Indonesia's main tourist destination.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of intense seismic and volcanic activity that experiences about 7,000 tremors a year, mostly moderate.
The devastation came exactly a week after the region was hit by a 6.4 magnitude quake that left at least 15 people dead and 162 injured.
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Indian-origin Catholic priest shot dead in Kansas
Seneca (US), Apr 4 (AP): An Indian-origin Catholic priest was shot and killed by a man who approached him at his parish rectory in the town of Seneca, Kansas, church officials said.
An Oklahoma man is being held on suspicion of the killing.
Officers called to the Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Seneca on Thursday afternoon found Arul Carasala with gunshot wounds outside the rectory, the Nemaha County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post. The 57-year-old priest was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he died.
“I am heartbroken to share the tragic news of the death of Fr. Arul Carasala, who was fatally shot earlier today," Archbishop Joseph Naumann of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas said in a Facebook post on Thursday.
"This senseless act of violence has left us grieving the loss of a beloved priest, leader, and friend.”
Carasala had been the pastor at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Seneca since 2011, according to his profile on the parish website.
Sheriff's deputies and officers with the Seneca Police Department later arrested Gary Hermesch of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Authorities say Hermesch, 66, is being held in the Nemaha County Jail on suspicion of first-degree murder.
The Associated Press left a phone message with county prosecutor Brad Lippert seeking additional information.
Authorities have not released a possible motive for the shooting or said whether the suspect and the priest knew each other.
Kris Anderson, the parish's director of religious education, told the AP on Thursday through tears that she knew few details.
“From what we know, an older man walked up to him (Carasala) and shot him three times,” she said.
The priest's death left people in shock in Seneca, a city of about 2,100 where Carasala had been the pastor at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church since 2011, according to his profile on the parish website. He was ordained as a priest in 1994 in his native India and had served in Kansas since 2004. He became a US citizen in 2011.
Archbishop Joseph Naumann of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas said in a Facebook post that there was no ongoing threat to the community, but that he recognised the “pain and shock” the priest's death had brought to the community.
“Fr. Carasala was a devoted and zealous pastor who faithfully served our Archdiocese for over twenty years, including as dean of the Nemaha-Marshall region,” he wrote.
“His love for Christ and His Church was evident in how he ministered to his people with great generosity and care. His parishioners, friends, and brother priests will deeply miss him.”
Seneca is about 60 miles (97 kilometres) north of Topeka, about 90 miles (145 kilometres) northwest of Kansas City and about 300 miles (480 kilometres) north of Tulsa.
