Series of powerful earthquakes kill 4 people in Indonesia

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A series of powerful earthquakes at dawn Sunday killed at least four people and injured dozens more in remote eastern Indonesia, cutting power lines and destroying buildings. One of the quakes, a 7.3-magnitude tremor, sent small tsunamis into Japan's southeastern coast, but there were no reports of damage there and no tsunami in Indonesia's impoverished Papua area. The first 7.6-magnitude quake struck at 4:43 a.m. local time on land about 135 kilometers from Manokwari, Papua, at a depth of 35 kilometers, the US Geological Agency said. It was followed by 10 aftershocks. At least four people died in Papua, and the airport runway nearest the epicenter was cracked, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told reporters. Commercial flights to the area were canceled.