5.8-magnitude Earthquake Jolts Indonesia's Java Island

A villager looks at damaged houses following a 5.6-magnitude earthquake that killed at least 162 people in West Java in November. — AFP/File
A villager looks at damaged houses following a 5.6-magnitude earthquake that killed at least 162 people in West Java in November. — AFP/File
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5.8-magnitude Earthquake Jolts Indonesia's Java Island

A villager looks at damaged houses following a 5.6-magnitude earthquake that killed at least 162 people in West Java in November. — AFP/File
A villager looks at damaged houses following a 5.6-magnitude earthquake that killed at least 162 people in West Java in November. — AFP/File

A 5.8-magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia's main island of Java on Thursday with no immediate reports of damage, less than a month after another quake in the same province killed more than 300 people.

The quake struck at 07:50 am local time (0050 GMT) around 15 kilometers from the town of Cianjur, epicenter of November's devastating tremor, the United States Geological Survey said.

It said there was a low likelihood of casualties or damage following the quake, which struck at a depth of 123 kilometers (76 miles), AFP reported.

No damage was immediately reported in Cianjur or Sukabumi, the city nearest the epicenter, local disaster mitigation agency officials said Thursday.

But schools were temporarily evacuated in Sukabumi, according to local TV.

"The epicenter of the earthquake is in Sukabumi, so it was only lightly felt in Cianjur. No reports of damage to houses or casualties," said Wawan Setawan, a disaster agency official in Cianjur told AFP.

"We have yet to receive reports of damage caused by the earthquake", Imran Wardhani, an official in Sukabumi, said soon after the tremor.

Last month, a shallow 5.6-magnitude earthquake hit Cianjur, triggering landslides and collapsing buildings, killing at least 334 people, injuring thousands and leaving tens of thousands more homeless.

Save the Children warned this week that evacuees faced a "ticking time bomb" of disease and infection due to poor living conditions. Thousands of cases of respiratory infections and hundreds of cases of diarrhea have been reported.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo is visiting the area on Thursday to distribute aid to affected residents.

The tremor that struck Cinajur on November 21 was the deadliest in the archipelago nation since a 2018 quake and resulting tsunami killed more than 4,000 people on the island of Sulawesi.

Indonesia experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", where tectonic plates collide.



Iran Wants Guarantees Trump Will Not Quit a New Nuclear Pact, Iranian Official Says

A paratrooper carries the Iranian flag during the National Army Day parade ceremony in Tehran, Iran, April 18, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via Reuters
A paratrooper carries the Iranian flag during the National Army Day parade ceremony in Tehran, Iran, April 18, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via Reuters
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Iran Wants Guarantees Trump Will Not Quit a New Nuclear Pact, Iranian Official Says

A paratrooper carries the Iranian flag during the National Army Day parade ceremony in Tehran, Iran, April 18, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via Reuters
A paratrooper carries the Iranian flag during the National Army Day parade ceremony in Tehran, Iran, April 18, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via Reuters

Iran told the United States in talks last week it was ready to accept some limits on its uranium enrichment but needed watertight guarantees President Donald Trump would not again ditch a nuclear pact, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Friday.

Iran and the United States are set to hold a second round of talks on Saturday in Rome, a week after a first round of negotiations in Oman which both sides described as positive.

Trump, who has restored a "maximum pressure" campaign on Tehran since February, ditched a 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and six world powers in 2018 during his first term and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran.

In the intervening years, Tehran has steadily overstepped the 2015 agreement's limits on its nuclear program, designed to make it harder to develop an atomic bomb.

Former US President Joe Biden, whose administration unsuccessfully tried to reinstate the 2015 pact, was not able to meet Tehran's demand for guarantees that no future US administration would renege on it.

Tehran has approached the talks warily, skeptical they could yield a deal and suspicious of Trump, who has repeatedly threatened to bomb Iran if it does not halt its accelerating uranium enrichment program, which Iran says is peaceful.

While both Tehran and Washington have said they are set on pursuing diplomacy, they remain far apart on a dispute that has rumbled on for more than two decades.

Tehran's red lines "mandated by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei" could not be compromised in the talks, the official told Reuters, describing Iran's negotiating position on condition of anonymity.

He said those red lines meant Iran would never agree to dismantle its centrifuges for enriching uranium, halt enrichment altogether, or reduce the amount of enriched uranium it stores to a level below the level it agreed in the 2015 deal that Trump abandoned.

It would also not negotiate over its missile program, which Tehran views as outside the scope of any nuclear deal.

"Iran understood in indirect talks in Oman that Washington doesn’t want Iran to stop all nuclear activities, and this can be a common ground for Iran and the US to start a fair negotiation," the source said.

Iran said on Friday reaching a deal with the United States was possible if "they demonstrate seriousness of intent and do not make unrealistic demands".

Top US negotiator Steve Witkoff, in a post on X on Tuesday, said Iran must "stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment" to reach a deal with Washington.

Tehran has said that it is ready to work with the UN nuclear agency, which it sees as "the only acceptable body in this process", to provide assurances that its nuclear work is peaceful, according to the source.

The source said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi had told the Americans that, in return for that cooperation, Washington should promptly lift sanctions on Iran's oil and financial sectors.