Wikinews:Briefs/May 13, 2006

The time is 18:00 (UTC) on May 13th, 2006, and this is Audio Wikinews News Briefs.

Merapi roars, compulsory evacuation ordered
Indonesia

Indonesian authorities have ordered the compulsory evacuation of thousands of residents living on the slopes of the volcano Mount Merapi. The alert level has been raised to the highest level, warning of an imminent eruption of the volcano which has been rumbling for weeks and spewing lavas and black ash.

Full text of Ahmadinejad's letter to Bush made available online
France

The French daily Le Monde, which has a tradition of publishing full texts by politicians and intellectuals, was one of the first organisations to publish the full English text of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's letter to US president George W. Bush, on May 9, 2006. On the same day, the US daily the Wall Street Journal published a scan of the English text and the Iranian Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) published the full text. In the UK, the Guardian published the full text two days later.

Native Hawaiian sovereignty bill to be debated in U.S. Senate in June
United States

The U.S. Senate has scheduled debate and a vote in June on a bill that would initiate a process for Native Hawaiians to achieve the same level of self-governance and autonomy over their own affairs that many Native American tribes currently have. Senator Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), the main proponent of bill S. 147 (the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act) and a Native Hawaiian himself, had been giving daily speeches on the Senate floor in support of the bill since May 9 to raise awareness of the bill. So connected is Akaka to the bill that the bill has become known as the "Akaka Bill."

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