TANA TORAJA, Indonesia: A search and rescue team found 18 people killed by landslides on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island and are still looking for two missing, officials said Monday.
Rescuers found about 14 bodies in Makale village on Sunday afternoon and four in South Makale, said Mexianus Bekabel, the chief of Makassar Search and Rescue.
“We are still looking for two more victims, but fog and drizzle made the search difficult and officers in the field were overwhelmed,” Sulaiman Malia, chief of the Tana Toraja district Disaster Management Agency, said on Monday.
Loosened by torrential rain, mud poured from surrounding hills onto four houses just before midnight Saturday in the Tana Toraja district of South Sulawesi province, said local police chief Gunardi Mundu. He said a family gathering was being held in one of the houses when the landslide hit.
Dozens of soldiers, police and volunteers joined the search in the remote hillside villages of Makale and South Makale, Mundu said. Rescuers early Sunday managed to pull out two injured people, including an 8-year-old girl, and rushed them to a nearby hospital.
Downed communications lines, bad weather and unstable soil were hampering the rescue efforts, Muhari said.
Tana Toraja has many popular tourist attractions, including a traditional houses and wooden statues of bodies buried in caves, known as tau-tau.
Seasonal downpours cause frequent landslides and floods in Indonesia, a chain of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or fertile flood plains.
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Landslides hit Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, killing at least 18 people
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Landslides hit Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, killing at least 18 people
- Loosened by torrential rain, mud poured from surrounding hills onto four houses just before midnight Saturday in the Tana Toraja district of South Sulawesi province
Swiss interior minister open to social media ban for children
ZURICH: Switzerland must do more to shield children from social media risks, Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider was quoted as saying on Sunday, signalling she was open to a potential ban on the platforms for youngsters.
Following Australia’s recent ban on social media for under-16s, Baume-Schneider told SonntagsBlick newspaper that Switzerland should examine similar measures.
“The debate in Australia and the EU is important. It must also be conducted in Switzerland. I am open to a social media ban,” said the minister, a member of the center-left Social Democrats. “We must better protect our children.”
She said authorities needed to look at what should be restricted, listing options such as banning social media use by children, curbing harmful content, and addressing algorithms that prey on young people’s vulnerabilities.
Detailed discussions will begin in the new year, supported by a report on the issue, Baume-Schneider said, adding: “We mustn’t forget social media platforms themselves: they must take responsibility for what children and young people consume.”
Australia’s ban has won praise from many parents and groups advocating for the welfare of children, and drawn criticism from major technology companies and defenders of free speech.
Earlier this month, the parliament of the Swiss canton of Fribourg voted to prohibit children from using mobile phones at school until they are about 15, the latest step taken at a local level in Switzerland to curb their use in schools.
Following Australia’s recent ban on social media for under-16s, Baume-Schneider told SonntagsBlick newspaper that Switzerland should examine similar measures.
“The debate in Australia and the EU is important. It must also be conducted in Switzerland. I am open to a social media ban,” said the minister, a member of the center-left Social Democrats. “We must better protect our children.”
She said authorities needed to look at what should be restricted, listing options such as banning social media use by children, curbing harmful content, and addressing algorithms that prey on young people’s vulnerabilities.
Detailed discussions will begin in the new year, supported by a report on the issue, Baume-Schneider said, adding: “We mustn’t forget social media platforms themselves: they must take responsibility for what children and young people consume.”
Australia’s ban has won praise from many parents and groups advocating for the welfare of children, and drawn criticism from major technology companies and defenders of free speech.
Earlier this month, the parliament of the Swiss canton of Fribourg voted to prohibit children from using mobile phones at school until they are about 15, the latest step taken at a local level in Switzerland to curb their use in schools.
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