kodiak bull, Enjoy Midnight Mass! All of us whatever stripe/ color, political party need to sit down and figure out a rational energy policy for the next ten years in order to support the good thing we have going here....
All cards need to be on the table oil,gas, nuclear,coal, hydro, geothermal, wind, and solar, co-gen, d-gen, conservation and emerging technologies...
Otherwise our great, great,great grandchildren in Year 2100 will label us complete fools....Good evening ladies and gents.....And say a prayer for the Christians in Indonesia tonight. They are under relentless attack throughout the width and breadth of the archipeligo....And also thank God for freeing the East Timorese from the jackboot of Indonesian oppression. KB- May your Mass and celebration of the Birth of Jesus be less eventful....
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- A series of deadly bomb blasts rocked churches in Jakarta and five other Indonesian cities and towns on Christmas Eve.
The Associated Press reported at least 10 people were killed and dozens injured.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility. Religious tensions, however, have been rising throughout this predominantly Muslim country, due to ongoing violence between Christians and Muslims in the Maluku islands and a series of church bombings in North Sumatra.
Muslim vigilante groups have recently attacked restaurants and nightclubs in Jakarta, the capital.
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CNN's Atika Shubert reports the blasts that rocked the country on Christmas Eve
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INTERACTIVE MAP
Fragile Archipelago -- a look at conflict areas in Indonesia and environs
At least three bombs in Jakarta exploded between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m., coinciding with the end of Mass. One exploded outside the main Roman Catholic cathedral, and the others blew up outside a covenant and Catholic school.
The Associated Press reported that five Catholic and Protestant churches were targeted in Jakarta, where three people were killed, including a man who died in an explosion at a bus stop outside a church and adjacent Christian school.
The explosions set cars ablaze and damaged some churches.
'I heard a big bang'
"I heard a big bang. ... I heard a lot of people screaming," Augustino Rory, a witness, told CNN.
Rescue teams try Sunday to extinguish a burning car outside a Jakarta church
Police Senior Inspector Supono, who like many Indonesians used uses only one name, said: "This is an act of terror against Christians on Christmas Eve."
The Jakarta bombs exploded within an hour and a radius of about two kilometers (1.3 miles) of one another.
The bomb that exploded near the Roman Catholic Cathedral, which left worshippers shaken, was thought to have been planted in a parked car.
"I was in the cathedral with my wife and two children," said another witness, Winarno, who also goes by one name. "I heard the explosion. I am very worried that there will be religious fighting everywhere."
An unexploded bomb was also discovered near the cathedral, where hundreds of Christians were arriving ahead of midnight Mass, as thousands of Muslims were leaving the nearby mosque at the end of Islamic evening prayers. Other churches were evacuated after receiving threats.
Police on alert
"This is clearly the work of people who are determined to make trouble and to bring about clashes among people," Jakarta police spokesman Superintendent Anton Bahrulalam said. "We will be on full alert when people come to pray on Christmas Day."
There were four explosions outside one church in the exclusive Jakarta suburb of Menteng, police told The Associated Press.
Four of the dead Sunday were police officers who tried to disarm a bomb in Pekanbaru on Sumatra island, the official Antara news agency said. One civilian was also killed there.
Antara reported blasts outside of churches in Medan on Sumatra island. Police there later found nine unexploded bombs.
Two people were killed in a blast at a Christian-owned house in Bandung, on West Java, Indonesia's main island, police told The Associated Press.
Indonesian bystanders gather near twisted car wreckage on Christmas Eve
On Batam island, not far from neighboring Singapore, three blasts injured 22 people. Explosions rocked three churches in the town of Mojokerto in the east Java. Bombs also went off near three churches in Mataram on the tourist island of Lombok.
The Christmas celebrations coincide with the final days of Ramadan, Islam's month of fasting, which ends Tuesday.
Sunday's attacks follow a rise in Muslim extremism throughout the country.
The heaviest violence in the Maluku islands in Indonesia's east have left an estimated 5,000 people of both faiths dead during the past two years.
President advocates tolerance
President Abdurrahman Wahid, a Muslim scholar, has advocated religious tolerance. But Sunday's attacks add to a long list of crises and acts of violence that have worsened during his 14-month rule.
Wahid has been struggling to contain the violence on top of the country's economic and political turmoil.
Christians make up less than 5 percent of Indonesia's 210 million people. Many are from the ethnic Chinese minority, which has been targeted by Muslim groups during past civil unrest.
Sunday's bombings were the latest in a series to rock the capital. The worst this year came in September, when a car bomb and subsequent fire killed 15 people in a basement parking lot at Jakarta's Stock Exchange. In August, two people were killed when a car bomb blew up outside the Philippine ambassador's home.
Authorities made arrests after those attacks and several smaller explosions, but have filed no formal charges. Most of the suspects have been released |
