A strong earthquake rattled Indonesia's resort island of Bali on
Friday, where thousands of people were gathering for a UN climate
change conference. It did not trigger a tsunami warning and there
were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
The underwater tremor had a preliminary magnitude of 5.9 and was
centered 250 kilometers (155 miles) southwest of Jember, in East
Java province, Indonesia's Meteorological and Geophysics Agency
said.
It could be felt in nearby Bali, where more than 10,000 people
were attending a two-week conference to discuss rising global
temperatures, which scientists say could lead to severe droughts
and flooding, melting ice caps and rising seas, and the extinction
of animals.
Delegates from nearly 190 nations were represented.
Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic
upheavals due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of
Fire," an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific
Basin.
In December 2004, a massive earthquake struck off Sumatra
island, triggering a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people
in a dozen countries, including 160,000 people in Indonesia's
westernmost province of Aceh.
(China Daily via Agencies December 8, 2007)
