Aceh

BANTUL, Indonesia -- At least 3,700 people were killed and thousands more were injured yesterday in a powerful earthquake that struck densely populated central Java island and reduced thousands of homes to rubble. When the earth began trembling at dawn, panicked Indonesians scrambled from their beds "like being chased by thunder." The magnitude-6.3 offshore quake flattened buildings, damaged bridges and roads, and knocked out electricity for miles inland. Rescuers searched for survivors and hospitals overflowed with the injured.

ACCORDING TO experts, "the earth is still ringing like a bell" from the devastating post-Christmas Indian Ocean earthquake - now believed to have had a magnitude of 9.15 on the Richter scale - and tsunami. Aftershocks and tremors still rattle the region. The tsunami killed more than 225,000 people across 12 Indian Ocean countries, making it the most deadly in recorded history. Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand suffered the greatest human losses. In addition, 2,500 foreign tourists from more than 40 countries perished, including 33 Americans.

HONG KONG - The tragic loss of so much life along the coasts of the Indian Ocean need not be wholly in vain. While the relief effort gets under way and the priority is correctly placed on maintaining public health so that no more lives are lost, politicians could also start thinking about ways to forge a new era of peace and security out of the devastation left by the tsunamis. As fate would have it, the sea surges struck several areas that have been racked by protracted conflict. Near the epicenter of the giant earthquake that triggered the waves in northwest Sumatra, the people of Aceh have been caught in a long-running conflict between separatists and the central government in Jakarta that, by some estimates, has cost 10,000 lives since the mid-1970s.

JAKARTA, Indonesia - The United Nations' role in the massive Asian tsunami relief effort was broadened yesterday at an international conference where world leaders also announced a new round of aid pledges. Early today, the death toll from the devastating earthquake and tsunamis that hit Asia and Africa soared to about 160,000 after Indonesia announced almost 20,000 new deaths. Health officials have warned that the death toll could jump even higher without a continual supply of aid, and world leaders struggled yesterday to figure out the best way to help victims - and to prevent such a catastrophe from happening again.

Some evangelical groups are mixing Christian missionary work with humanitarian aid in countries ravaged by the tsunamis and earthquake, a provocative approach shunned by the majority of faith-based relief organizations. Spreading faith this way can antagonize the people they're trying to help, and there's evidence of concern among Muslims, Hindus and others. But evangelical leaders say they define humanitarian aid as having a spiritual component. Aid should "share the love of Christ," said the Rev. Franklin Graham, son of the Rev. Billy Graham and the outspoken leader of Samaritan's Purse, which is shipping shelter materials and other emergency donations to Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

A 21-year-old Navy photographer from Ellicott City survived the crash of a helicopter ferrying help for tsunami victims from the USS Abraham Lincoln to the Banda Aceh airport in Indonesia yesterday without serious injury. Petty Officer 3rd Class Jacob J. Kirk, whose photography and compassion for tsunami victims were featured in an article in The Sun yesterday, called his father early yesterday after the accident on Sumatra that injured two servicemen. "He just feels really banged up. He said he just feels like Mean Joe Greene got hold of him," John Kirk said, referring to the former Pittsburgh Steelers lineman known for his ferocity.

RUKOH, Indonesia - For the first time in his life, Hamdani, the leader of this village in northern Sumatra, cannot stand to be alone. The 45-year-old shopkeeper who once relished his solitude is terrified of sitting in a room by himself. Shutting the door to bathe each evening fills him with dread. It's difficult to fall asleep. His eyes are rheumy, his face is drawn and his hands rub his forehead nervously, as if trying to erase the thoughts inside. Left alone, his thoughts inevitably turn to the dead, he says.

THE ONCE-in-a-lifetime tsunami that swept away the lives, homes or livelihoods of millions from Southeast Asia to Africa now offers unprecedented opportunities for reconciliation in several embittered regions racked by years, even decades, of bloody strife. It may be naively optimistic to hope that - after the world's aid pours in and the rebuilding begins - the greater need for unity will lessen the hatred festering behind the long-running civil wars in Sri Lanka and Indonesia and rising government frictions with Thai Muslims.

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Former President Suharto, an army general who rose to power in Indonesia with the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people and ruled for 32 years during an era of rapid economic growth and extraordinary graft, died yesterday in Indonesia. He was 86. Suharto's unyielding opposition to communism won him the backing of the United States during the height of the Cold War, although he was one of the most brutal and corrupt rulers of that era. He governed the world's fourth-most-populous nation with a combination of paternalism and ruthlessness from 1965 until he was ousted in spring 1998.