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JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- The U.S. Geological Survey says a powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.3 has hit Indonesia, near the capital of Jakarta.

Excerpt - Japan: Report: Group Of Foreigners, Including American, Japanese, Italian, Go Missing In Indonesia TOKYO, JAPAN: The Japanese government declined to comment Wednesday (July 25th) on a report that a group of foreigners, including an American, Japanese and Italian, have gone missing in Indonesia, saying human lives may be at stake. Japan's Kyodo News agency reported Wednesday that a Japanese man and people from the United States, Singapore and Italy had gone missing on the island of Java. It cited unidentified government officials as saying they were investigating whether it was a possible abduction. ~ snip ~

Google's security team has discovered vulnerabilities in the Sun Java Runtime Environment that threaten the security of all platforms, browsers and even mobile devices. "This is as bad as it gets," said Chris Gatford, a security expert from penetration testing firm Pure Hacking. "It's a pretty significant weakness, which will have a considerable impact if the exploit codes come to fruition quickly. It could affect a lot of organizations and users," Gatford told ZDNet Australia. Australia's Computer Emergency Response Team analyst, Robert Lowe, warned that anyone using the Java Runtime Environment or Java Development Kit is at risk. "Delivery of...

INDONESIAN militant Abu Dujana will sue the police, saying he was shot in the thigh by members of an elite anti-terrorist unit after surrendering, one of his lawyers said today. Dujana, who is believed to head a military wing of the South-East Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI), was captured on June 9 during a police raid in central Java. Lawyer Achmad Michdan said the country's anti-terrorism unit, Detachment 88, had violated the suspect's rights by shooting him after he had surrendered. "We will sue the Indonesian police and Detachment 88 and we will ask the court to examine the...

I am a newbie in owning a cell phone, and am still getting my feet wet in all the tricks and tragedies of owning a cell phone. (Proud owner of a RAZER.) I have a software package that will let you move files around on my cell like a thumbdrive, and I think I know where the Java files would go. I know you can pay for games that run in Java on a cell phone.

When it comes to open sourcing Solaris and Java, patents and politics are leading Sun toward a change of heart. The question is which open source licence should govern the building of projects out of the company's technology crown jewels. The open source Solaris project began with a Community Development and Distribution License (CDDL), and open source Java employs version 2 of the General Public License (GPL). Now, though, Sun likes the idea of governing both projects with the upcoming GPL version 3, chief executive Jonathan Schwartz said in a speech and an interview at the company's analyst summit in...

JAKARTA, Indonesia - An ship carrying around 850 passengers sank in a storm off Central Java, an Indonesian commander said Saturday, adding that he feared many people had died. Navy Commander Col. Yan Simamora said the "Senopati" went down at around midnight Friday while en route from Sumarang on Central Java to the port of Kumai on Central Kalimantan province. Rescue workers had found only nine survivors. "So far, the rescue team, using helicopters and ships has been searching for other passengers, but limited visability and bad weather is hampering the rescue," he told El-shinta radio. "Because of the high...

From Slashdot "You can now get GPLed JVM sources from Sun. Everyone seemed to be expecting the desktop version (J2SE) but J2ME has been released first. It looks to be buildable for Linux x86, MIPS, and ARM platforms. Sun now calls it 'phoneME.' Enjoy." From Sun (https://phoneme.dev.java.net/downloads_page.html) "The phoneME project code is released under the GNU General Public License Version 2 (GPLv2). Before downloading phoneME software, you should become familiar with the GNU General Public License Version 2 (GPLv2). Please note: phoneME software may contain crypto binaries/source. Certain countries restrict the redistribution of high key-strength crypto. If you live in...

Excerpt - SUN MICROSYSTEMS will announce today that its Java language, contrary to the prediction of many pundits, will be offered as pure "Free Software" -as Richard Stallman would say "free as in freedom"- under a GPL version two licence. Ponytailed CEO Jonathan Schwartz will announce the ground-breaking move in a webcast to be held later at 9:30am Pacific Time. Both Java SE -used on desktops - and Java ME - used on mobile phones and PDAs- will be included. The server-side Java, or Java EE will be available both under the GPL version two licence and the same Common...

First came the 2004 tsunami. Then Indonesia was afflicted by the Merapi volcano and a major earthquake in Yogyakarta. Now, a heavily populated region of East Java has been consumed by an unstoppable "mud volcano" that may have been caused by a gas- and oil-drilling project.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The owner of a small coffee company sued Starbucks Corp. (SBUX.O: Quote, Profile, Research) on Monday, claiming the coffee shop's anti-competitive business practices put her store out of business. The suit, which seeks class action status, was filed in Seattle federal court by Penny Stafford, the owner of Belvi Coffee and Tea Exchange Inc. According to court papers, Starbucks violated federal antitrust laws by leasing prime commercial real estate at above-market prices in return for the exclusive right to sell espresso drinks or specialty coffee in those locations. A Starbucks spokeswoman said the Seattle-based company was...

When Christine Drake worked as a Starbucks barista, the Seattle woman with psychiatric disabilities said it was the first time in her life that she "felt a sense of accomplishment." But after two years on the job, a new manager at the Starbucks store at 425 Queen Anne Ave. N. in Seattle allegedly discriminated against Drake, decreased her hours and berated her in front of customers, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Lisa Cox, an EEOC lawyer, said the world's largest coffee retailer ignored Drake's requests for help and violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by not accommodating...

Java tsunami death toll over 300 12:25 18 July 2006 NewScientist.com news service Damian Carrington The tsunami that struck the south coast of Java in Indonesia on Monday is now reported to have killed at least 300 people, with another 140 missing and over 50,000 displaced. The earthquake that generated the wave struck at 1519 local time (0819 GMT), 245 kilometres south of Java's coast. As more seismological data has been collated, its magnitude has been upgraded from 7.2 to 7.7. The logarithmic scale used means this signifies a fivefold increase in energy from the previous estimate. The earthquake's depth...

Scores dead as huge tsunami slams into Java By Marianne Kearney in Jakarta and Sebastien Berger (Filed: 18/07/2006) An undersea earthquake sent a tsunami crashing into the Indonesian island of Java yesterday, killing at least 86 people and flattening homes and beach huts in resorts and villages along its south coast. An Indonesian survivor searches for his relatives among 41 bodies at Pangandaran health centre in West Java Scores more people were missing last night and the toll was expected to rise after areas of the densely-populated shore were destroyed by waves several yards high. Thousands fled to higher ground...

Magnitude 7.2 (Major) # Date-Time Monday, July 17, 2006 at 08:19:30 (UTC)= Coordinated Universal Time # Monday, July 17, 2006 at 3:19:30 PM = local time at epicenter Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones Location 9.295°S, 107.347°E Depth 48.6 km (30.2 miles) set by location program Region SOUTH OF JAVA, INDONESIA Distances 225 km (140 miles) NE of Christmas Island 240 km (150 miles) SSW of Tasikmalaya, Java, Indonesia 260 km (160 miles) S of Bandung, Java, Indonesia 355 km (220 miles) S of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 12.9 km (8.0 miles); depth fixed by location...

Krakatoa -- Volcano of Destruction premieres 9 PM ET/PT on the Discovery Channel!! If you click this link: Beyond: Volcanoes a player will load with links to four videos; the first will play automatically. The 2nd, "Lava Junkies", is pretty good. The 4th, "Ultimate Guide to Volcanoes: Montserrat" is amazing. It's four minutes long; the final minute has an astonishing sequence in it. Sorry that I don't know a way to skip the commercial preceding it.

Hot clouds again billowed down the slope of Mount Merapi Thursday morning over a distance of five kilometers in the direction of the upper reach of Gendol River, thus burning down northern part of Kaliadem forest area in the district of Sleman, Yogyakarta. The volcano erupted more than 10 times from 06:00 to 09:00 Thursday morning. Eruption of hot air had lasted for 25 minutes since 07:20 (0020 GMT). Such a long distance of hot clouds moving down from the mount's crater burning some forest areas in Kaliadem, but no casualty was reported in the disaster, official news agency Antara...

The powerful earthquake that hit Indonesia was just the latest display of violent seismic activity on the archipelago, which stretches across one of the most unstable parts of the Earth's surface. The country's position on the planet's crust means it will continue to experience such catastrophes, just as it has done for the past 50 million years or so, according to seismologists. "The problem with Indonesia is that you have an area of intense seismic activity coinciding with a very densely populated part of the world," said Gary Gibson, professor of seismology at the RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. "It...

Strong earthquake hits Indonesia

Since Merapi is in the news, here's a few more pictures. The Washington Post had an amazing shot of the pyroclastic flows that came down the mountain yesterday, but I can't link to it. If you want to see it, go to the Washington Post home page, search on "Merapi", and look for the photo entitled "Mount Merapi Erupts with Clouds of Gas : May 15: Smoke billows from Mount Merapi volcano in Central Java, Indonesia". The photo below (which is from Shanghai Daily, so I'm not sure if it will always show up) is similar: The image below is...