Indonesia floods, landslides kill 13

Jakarta, Feb 17 (AFP) At least 13 people were killed over the weekend in Indonesia after heavy rains triggered floods and landslides, officials said today. Flooding and landslides hit North Sulawesi province's capital city Manado early today, killing 10 people and prompting another 1,200 to be evacuated, national disaster management agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said. Yesterday, three people including two 14-year-old boys were killed after they were swept away by floodwaters in Jambi province on Sumatra island, local disaster official Dalmanto told AFP. "Several days of heavy rains caused a river to break its banks and flood smaller waterways. The boys were taken away by strong currents as they were bathing in a waterway," he said. "And today, we found the body of a man who went fishing in a canal." Indonesia has been repeatedly afflicted by deadly floods and landslides in recent years during its wet season which lasts around half the year. Environmentalists blame logging and a failure to reforest denuded land in the world's fourth-most populous country for the frequent flooding. Heavy rains caused flooding in the capital Jakarta in January that left 32 people dead and at its peak forced nearly 46,000 to flee their homes. (AFP) RBL 02171828 NNNN