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Indonesia Declares Emergency; Toll 4,600
 Indonesia's government declared a state of emergency after a quake killed more than 4,600 people, and rescue workers raced against time today in the hope of finding survivors under the debris of razed homes. Some 35,000 buildings around the city of Yogyakarta were reduced to rubble when a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck at the crack of dawn on Saturday.After a Cabinet meeting late yesterday, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said the emergency period would last three months and the goverment aimed to complete "reconstruction and rehabilitation" within a year. "We will have an emergency period for three months, May till August. The objectives are providing food, health care and shelter," Kalla told reporters. "The funds needed are about 1 trillion rupiahs ($100 million) ... for repairing homes and facilitating people's needs. This figure can change. It comes from the state budget and international aid." Posted by: Fred 2006-05-29 |
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