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Volcano Prompts Airlines To Stop Flights To Indonesia's Capital Days Ahead Of Obama Visit

Paresh Dave |
November 6, 2010 | 11:39 a.m. PDT

Executive Producer

The Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia where Obama will speak from Tuesday.
The Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia where Obama will speak from Tuesday.
Indonesia's Mount Merapi continues to spew hot ash from its volcanic belly, producing its most violent eruption on Friday.

Ninety people died Friday, bring the death toll from the natural disaster that has spanned two weeks to nearly 150. Hundreds of thousands of residents of the Java Island are crammed in shelters.

In response to the latest eruptions, several airlines, including Lufthansa and Singapore, suspended flights to Jakarta, Indonesia's capital. The airlines feared that the the ash could be damaging to their planes.

President Barack Obama is scheduled to arrive in Jakarta on Tuesday as part of 10-day tour of four Asian countries. He is in India this weekend.

Obama will visit the Istiqlal Mosque--one of the largest in the world--and make a second outdoor speech in the homeland of his step-mother.

Obama's trip to Indonesia has been delayed twice this year because of more pressing matters in the U.S., including a push to get the health care law passed.

The president plans on annoucing relaxed economnic policies and stronger security ties with Indonesia.

Reach executive producer Paresh Dave here. Follow him on Twitter: @peard33.



 

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