Magnitude 6.6 Quake Strikes off Indonesia’s Java Island, No Tsunami Risk

A family walks through Timbulsloko, Central Java, Indonesia, on July 31, 2022. (AP)
A family walks through Timbulsloko, Central Java, Indonesia, on July 31, 2022. (AP)
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Magnitude 6.6 Quake Strikes off Indonesia’s Java Island, No Tsunami Risk

A family walks through Timbulsloko, Central Java, Indonesia, on July 31, 2022. (AP)
A family walks through Timbulsloko, Central Java, Indonesia, on July 31, 2022. (AP)

A magnitude 6.6 earthquake struck off Indonesia's Java island on Friday but there was no risk of tsunami, the country's geophysics agency said.

The quake was strongly felt in Surabaya, Tuban, Denpasar, and Semarang, Abdul Muhari, spokesperson for Indonesia's Disaster Agency, said by phone.

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC) put the magnitude at 6.5 with a depth of 592 km (368 miles).

"There is no damage reported so far because the quake is very deep," Muhari said. "I don't think there will damages but we are still monitoring."

Indonesia straddles the so-called "Pacific Ring of Fire", a highly active seismic zone, where different plates on the Earth's crust meet and create a large number of earthquakes and volcanoes.



Germany Arrests Five Suspected of War Crimes in Syria

German police secure the main train station in Munich, Germany, January 1, 2016. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle
German police secure the main train station in Munich, Germany, January 1, 2016. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle
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Germany Arrests Five Suspected of War Crimes in Syria

German police secure the main train station in Munich, Germany, January 1, 2016. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle
German police secure the main train station in Munich, Germany, January 1, 2016. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle

German police arrested four stateless Syrian Palestinians and one Syrian national suspected of committing crimes against humanity and war crimes in Syria some 10 years ago, prosecutors said.
The men, identified in line with German privacy laws only as Jihad A., Mahmoud A., Sameer S. and Wael S. are suspected to have been affiliated with the Free Palestine Movement in Syria. Mazhar J. is suspected to have been a Syrian Intelligence Officer, said prosecutors in a statement on Wednesday.
"The individuals ... are strongly suspected of killing and attempting to kill civilians (which) qualified as crimes against humanity and war crimes," the statement said.
Jihad A., Mazhar J. and Sameer S. were arrested in Berlin, Mahmoud A. in Frankenthal in the south-western state of Rhineland-Palatinate and Wael S. in the north-eastern state of Mecklenburg Vorpommern, said prosecutors.
The individuals are suspected of participating in a violent crackdown on a peaceful anti-government protest in Al Yarmouk in July 2012, in which civilian protesters were targeted and shot at. Six individuals died and others were seriously injured, Reuters quoted prosecutors as saying.
The suspected militia members are also accused of punching and kicking civilians between 2012 and 2014 at checkpoints and beating them with rifle butts, according to prosecutors.
One individual was handed over to the Syrian Military Intelligence Service to be imprisoned and tortured, they said. In addition, one of the suspects is suspected of having turned in to authorities three people killed in a mass execution of 41 civilians in April 2013.
The arrests were made thanks to Germany's universal jurisdiction laws, which allow courts to prosecute crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the world. Authorities coordinated with Sweden in a joint investigation.
The Swedish Prosecution Authority said in a separate statement it had arrested three people in Sweden for crimes against international law committed in Syria in 2012.