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But a decade-old civil war, a chronic economic crisis and a creative brain drain has deprived Syria of some of its best writers
A 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck off Indonesia's western island of Sumatra today, the US Geological Survey said, with local authorities issuing a tsunami warning.
The undersea quake struck at a depth of 10 kilometres southwest of Sumatra at about 6:50 pm (1820 IST), several hundred kilometres from the city of Padang, the USGS said.
The local BMKG quake-monitoring agency issued a tsunami alert for parts of Sumatra, including West Sumatra, North Sumatra and Aceh.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", where the meeting of continental plates causes strong seismic activity, and is frequently hit by earthquakes.
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