Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/879686
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 27 SEPTEMBER 2017 8 World News WARNINGS from a dis- aster agency on the In- donesian tourist island of Bali sparked an exo- dus of thousands f leeing for safety. Authorities have or- dered the evacuation of villagers living within a high danger zone that in places extends 12 kilometers from Mount Agung's crater. People who live fur- ther away are also leav- ing, said National Dis- aster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Pur- wo Nugroho. The region is being shaken daily by hun- dreds of tremors from the mountain, which volcanologists say indi- cates a high chance of an eruption. Evacuees are taking shelter at more than 370 sites across the island that include temporary camps, sport centres, vil- lage halls and the houses of friends and relatives. Villager Wayan Merta said he was among the first to evacuate last week because his village is just six kilometers from the summit. "We have already sold our cattle, because we thought it was better than leaving them there for nothing," he said. "My feeling is the mountain will erupt," he said. "But no one knows, we just pray." Sutopo said it was 'nat- ural' that people outside the immediate danger zone are leaving. More than 500,000 people evacuated when Mount Merapi in cen- tral Java erupted in 2010, more than double the population in the exclu- sion zone around that volcano, he said. Bali: 75,000 flee their homes as Mount Agung threatens to erupt Evacuee children get onto a truck as they head off to a temporary school in Karangasem, Bali AN Italian mayor who had vowed to combat the mafia "with facts" was arrested as part of a major anti-ma- fia operation in the region of Lom- bardy yesterday. Edoardo Mazza, the mayor of Seregno, was placed under house ar- rest after being accused of corrup- tion. Mazza, a member of Silvio Ber- lusconi's party Forza Italia, is ac- cused of awarding construction con- tracts to a man linked with the mafia in exchange for votes, Rai News re- ported. Investigators said the role of the en- trepreneur – who sought local politi- cians' approval to construct a shop- ping centre in the province of Monza – was "significant" in Mazza's 2015 election. At least 24 people were arrested – of whom three are under house ar- rest – as part of an ongoing probe in- to the infiltration of the 'Ndrangheta crime syndicate in the business and political spheres in northern Italy. Three other people are currently be- ing investigated. Charges include extortion, corrup- tion, bribery, drug trafficking, fire- arms possession and abuse of office, and they are all aggravated due to the connection with the underworld. The investigation, conducted by Milan's anti-mafia authority (DDA) and prosecutors in Monza, began in 2015 and resulted in several arrests across the peninsula, including the region of Calabria, 'Ndrangheta's stronghold. Mazza has often spoken against criminal organisations in the coun- try. During a commemoration to pay homage to Paolo Borsellino and Gio- vanni Falcone – two Sicilian judges killed by the Sicilian Mafia in 1992 – Mazza said: "In our daily life, we don't have to be afraid of telling the truth, we don't have to be afraid of justice and of rules." The 'Ndrangheta is widely regarded as the group that has filled the void left by Sicilian mafia Cosa Nostra on the international drug trafficking stage, gaining the crown of Europe's biggest drug cartel. Besides drug trafficking, 'Ndrang- heta gangs are involved in several other illicit activities, except for prostitution, according to Enzo Ci- conte, a professor of organised crime history at Rome University. Italian mayor who vowed to fight mafia arrested for alleged links with mob Eduardo Mazza Japan has completed its whaling season in the north- west Pacific Ocean having killed 177 whales. Three ships, which left port in June, caught 43 minke whales and 134 sei whales. Japan's fisheries agency said it would collect data on the whales' stomach contents and report its findings to the Interna- tional Whaling Commission. Japan's fisheries agency sub- mitted a plan to the IWC to capture 304 whales per year in the northwestern Pacific between the 2017 and 2028 fiscal years. A dead minke whale is unloaded in Kushiro on the Japanese island of Hokkaido Japan kills 177 whales during annual hunt in Pacific Ocean