Quakes disrupt Asia communications

SINGAPORE (Reuters) -- Telecommunications around Asia were severely disrupted on Wednesday after earthquakes off Taiwan damaged undersea cables, slowing Internet services and hindering financial transactions, particularly in the currency market.

Banks and businesses across the region reported problems with communications, with some telephone lines cut and Internet access slowing to a crawl.

South Korea's top fixed-line and broadband service provider, KT Corp, said in a statement that six submarine cables were knocked out by Tuesday night's earthquakes.

"Twenty-seven of our customers were hit, including banks and churches," a KT spokesman said. "It is not known yet when we can fully restore the services."

Banks in Seoul said foreign exchange trading had been affected.

"Trading of the Korean won has mostly halted due to the communication problem," said a dealer at one domestic bank.

Some disruption was also reported in the important Tokyo currency market but the EBS system that handles much dollar/yen trading appeared to be working.

Global information company Reuters Group Plc said all users of its services in Japan and South Korea had been affected.

One Tokyo foreign exchange trader said: "There are many currencies in which market-making is being conducted via Reuters and such currencies such as the Australian dollar and the British pound are in a very tenuous situation now."

State secret
In China, trading in currencies and copper appeared to be normal and both the Shanghai stock market and money market were working.

But China Telecommunications Group, the country's biggest fixed-line telephone operator and parent of China Telecom Corp., said the earthquakes had affected lines "from the Chinese mainland to places including the Taiwan area, the United States and Europe, and many have been cut".

"Internet connections have been seriously affected, and phone links and dedicated business lines have also been affected to some degree," it said.

Officials declined to give further details. "Undersea communications cables fall in the area of state secrets," said a ministry of communications official in Beijing.

The main quake, measured by Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau at magnitude 6.7 and at magnitude 7.1 by the U.S. Geological Survey, struck off Taiwan's southern coast at 1226 GMT on Tuesday. Two people were killed.

Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom said two of four major undersea cables out of Taiwan had been affected. Voice circuits had been reduced to 40 per cent of capacity to the United States and just 2 per cent to most parts of Southeast Asia.

KDDI Corp., Japan's second-largest telecoms company, said communications along submarine cables out of Japan went through Taiwan before reaching Southeast Asian countries, which was leading to disruption.

But it said communications were unlikely to break down completely since there were alternative lines.

PCCW, Hong Kong's main fixed-line telecoms provider, said several undersea cables it part-owned had been damaged. "Data transfer is down by half," a spokeswoman said.

Both Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel), Southeast Asia's top phone company, and local rival StarHub Ltd., said customers were suffering slow access to Internet pages.

But SingTel said traffic was being diverted and repair work was in progress, adding: "Our submarine cables linking to Europe and the U.S. are not affected."

Indonesia air drops aid, sends in teams after flooding

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (Dec 27) Reuters - Authorities in north-western Indonesia struggled on Wednesday to feed and shelter more than 200,000 people forced from their homes by floods and subsequent landslides that killed around 100.

Officials used military helicopters to reach remote areas in Aceh province, while more than two dozen lorries shuttled relief supplies. Health authorities began treating well water with chlorine to stem the outbreak of disease.

"Aid is being distributed but there are some areas that are still isolated, so we have air dropped the aid to those areas. We are going to do it again today if the weather permits," said a spokesman for the Aceh disaster coordination agency.

He said at least 69 people had died in Aceh, with around 170 people listed as missing. Estimates of those displaced ranged from 200,000 to a high of 360,000.

In the province's Gayo Luwes district around 5,000 people remained cut off by landslides, Nurdin F. Jos, spokesman for the Ace governor's office, told Reuters.

In neighbouring North Sumatra province, authorities said at least 39 people had been killed by flooding and by a landslide triggered by the heavy rains.

Edy Sofyan, a provincial spokesman, said that number of dead could go higher. "We keep on searching for victims."

He said medical teams had visited the worst-hit areas and that residents were beginning to return to their villages as the floodwaters receded. But he said the fear of fresh landslide had meant some areas remained unsafe.

The flooding comes two years after a giant tsunami left about 170,000 dead or missing in Aceh, an impoverished province on the northern tip of Sumatra island.

Authorities have blamed heavy rains and the effects of deforestation for the latest destruction. Lack of adequate forest cover leaves the ground less able to absorb excess water.