Indonesian authorities say wreck could be jet that went missing with 45 aboard
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Indonesian officials say a Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 that was on a demonstration flight but disappeared from radars has been spotted by a helicopter. The plane lost contact at 14:50 Wednesday 9 May, local time, with 45 people aboard. The plane went down near a 2,200m peak, Salak, says Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and rescue operations to check for survivors are underway but Russian media say teams have not yet reached the site. Strong winds followed by fog early Thursday slowed down the search.
The plane is the first commercial airliner made by Russian military plane company Sukhoi in a joint venture with several other Russian and international companies, including Italy’s Finmeccanica, according to the BBC. Sukhoi is reported by Reuters to have been hoping to sell 45 of the planes to Indonesia, where air travel is growing rapidly thanks to an expanding middle class
Ria Novosti reports that “The Sukhoi Superjet is Russia’s only civil airliner in production in significant numbers, and is regarded by many aviation industry analysts as Russia’s last hope of remaining as a player in civil aerospace.”
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The ILO’s (International Labour Organization) adoption of a set of international standards to improve the conditions of domestic workers has had an initial negative impact on Indonesian women. Jakarta announced last week that it would not allow its citizens to travel to Saudi Arabia unless human rights conditions there improved. An Indonesian maid was beheaded in Saudi Arabia in June.
Saturday July 2 Saudi Arabia announced that it will not allow Indonesian women to work as maids, stranding thousands of workers, most of whom come from poor families in Indonesia, and stalling talks between the two governments.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Seven people from seven countries, a collection of bloggers and journalists, all of them human rights activists in their countries, were presented Thursday 9 June in Geneva, and given an opportunity to tell their stories at a conference, “The Human Voice of Freedom, the Internet and Human Rights”.
The seven are:
- Egypt – Wael Abbas
- Burma – Aung San Thar
- Uganda – Rosebell Kagumire
- Indonesia – Andreas Harsono
- Tunisia – Henda Chennaoui
- China – Wen Yunchao (Bei Fung)
- Korea – Kwon Eun Kyoung
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Australia’s minister for agriculture, Joe Ludwig, has suspended shipments of live cattle to 11 abattoirs in Indonesia after disturbing film footage surfaced showing severe mistreatment of the animals. He has also opened an investigation into the supply chain, from shipment to slaughter and demanded an immediate end to the use of Indonesia is Australia’s biggest market for shipping live animals.
Austrlia’s public reaction was swift, reports the Sydney Morning Herald, with web sites for two animal protection agencies crashing due to an overload of traffic, and 35,000 signatures gathered in just five hours for a total ban on the trade. Indonesia is Australia’s largest market for live cattle shipments. The value of the trade, according to the Jakarta Globe, is A$320 million ($342 million).
Indonesia’ vice-minister of agriculture, Bayu Krisnamurthi, asked “Please respond to the video proportionally”, reminding Australians that the two countries are not at the same level of development. He “stopped short of calling for the immediate punishment of any abattoirs found guilty of mistreatment of cattle, reportedly saying the first step would be to provide them with guidance”, reports the Australian newspaper.
Links to other sites: ABC Australia programme on cattle shipments (alert: disturbing graphic images), BBC, Jakarta Globe, Sydney Morning Herald
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Gland-based WWF‘s Indonesian arm announced Monday that an “almost extinct species” has been caught on camera. The Javan rhinos “are breeding in Ujung Kulon,” says Eric Dinerstein, chief scientist at WWF in the US.
The video was released 28 February by WWF-Indonesia and Indonesia’s National Park Authority.
The footage was taken by a motion-activated video camera at the Ujung Kulon National Park.
It is “a huge boost to efforts to save this almost extinct species that is threatened by poaching, disease, and the possibility of a tsunami or volcanic eruption,” WWF-Indonesia notes in a written statement.
The Javan rhino may be one of the rarest mammals on the planet according to the WWF, with as few as 40 left. Once numerous throughout Southeast Asia, its population is now likely isolated to Ujung Kulon National Park in Indonesia.
Video of two families of Javan rhinos
To donate to their cause you can visit: www.javanrhinohope.org
US President Barack Obama is touching down in Jakarta, Indonesia Tuesday 9 November for a 24-hour visit to a country he once called home. He has had to cancel two previous trips this year. He will meet Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, tour the country’s largest mosque and make a speech in which he is expected to reach out again to Muslims in this, the world’s most populous Muslim nation.
His hosts have their hands full: Indonesia is struggling with an ongoing volcanic eruption on the island of Java and the aftermath of a tsunami in western Sumatra. Indonesian farmers have been accused of burning vast swaths of jungle to clear it for crops, causing widespread air pollution in SE Asia.
Links to other sites: AP, Jakarta Post, Reuters Africa, Washington Post
Indonesia’s Mount Merapi has belched ash and rocks in two eruptions Thursday, 4 November, its largest eruptions to date, with ash settling as far as 130km away. Temporary camps are sheltering some 71,000 residents who have been forced to move, but many have been returning home frequently to check on their belongings and animals. Forty people have lost their lives since the eruptions began two weeks ago.
Authorities say they are not sure if the volcano is increasing its internal pressure and are unable to say whether a more powerful eruption is yet to come.
Links to other sites: CNN, Jakarta Post, Sydney Morning Herald
Source: AP
Burma/Myanmar’s jailed pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, may be released from house arrest when the term of her sentence is completed, sources at the ASEAN conference in Hanoi, Vietnam have said. Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told Reuters 28 October that his Burmese counterpart had told him: “Once the prison term of her sentence expires, and she has served her sentence, and that notion was not disputed.” He hinted that her release was a possibility after the 7 November elections. Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for 15 of the past 21 years. Her present sentence expires 13 November.
Links to other sites: Philippine Inquirer, Reuters, Romandie News
Indonesia’s Mount Merapi finally erupted 26 October after days of threatening to and has killed at least at least 25 people, a day after a tsunami struck the islands of Pagai and swept away hundreds of people. More than 150 people are confirmed dead in the tsunami strike and 400 are missing.
Merami erupted 26 October and covered the surrounding area with ash. Civil protection authorities had evacuated 10,000 people, but many had refused to move, because they were reluctant to leave their homes and livestock.
Authorities were making slow progress reaching villagers on the islands of North and South Pagai because of the heavy rains and rough seas, two days after a 7.7-scale earthquake struck off the western coast of Sumatra.
Links to other sites: BBC, CNN, Washington Post
Indonesian civil protection officials are encouraging thousands of residents from the slopes of Mount Merapi in central Java to evacuate their villages, fearing an imminent eruption of Merapi, Indonesia’s most active volcano. The area has been put on top alert by the country’s Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Center whose scientists say the number of earthquakes has doubled since 21 October and plumes of ash up to 50m high are venting from the crater. Their greatest concern is the pressure building up behind a massive lava dome near the top of the crater.
Merapi last erupted in 2006 when a sheet of super-hot gases and rock raced down the mountain-side, killing two people. An estimated 14m cubic metres of material was thrown up in that eruption. In 1994, 60 people were killed in an eruption.
Links to other sites: Al-Jazeera, Jakarta Post
A series of floods and landslides in Asia have taken the lives of at least 100 people (figure updated Wednesday 6 October).
Most of the deaths occurred in Indonesia, where villages were struck by landslides resulting from days of torrential rains.
There have also been deaths reported in Vietnam, the Chinese island of Hainan where over 60,000 people had to be evacuated, and in West Papua where several provinces are isolated.
Additional details on: Yahoo news,
A two year-old Indonesian toddler hooked on ciggarrettes has reportedly kicked the habit.
The child became known worldwide when his mother, who said she was powerless to deny him his habit, sought help for her baby.
The AFP reports that the secretary-general of the Indonesian national commission for child protection said the child “received psychosocial therapy for one month, during which therapists kept him busy with activities and encouraged him to play with kids of the same age.”
“We diverted his addiction from cigarettes to playing,” the Secretary added.
Video of the child in early May
Smoking Baby Hooked on Cigarettes – Watch more Funny Videos
Indonesia is the only country in Asia not to have signed the World Health Organization’s framework on tobacco control. CNN has highlighted the extent to which children are affected by smoking with a story about two-year-old Aldi, a new media darling in the country who can’t give up smoking. His parents want him to stop, but not, according to health authorities because they recognize it’s bad for the child but because of the cost.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono confirmed Wednesday 10 March that Dulmatin, long sought as one of the main suspected planners behind a 2002 Bali bombing, died in a raid on militants Tuesday. The Bali blasts killed 202 people, about half of them Australian. The raid was one of a series in Aceh province, which have netted several arrests.
Links to other sites: The Age, Australia, BBC, Sydney Morning Herald
(AP video) A ferry with more than 242 people aboard sank in heavy seas off the island of Sumatra Sunday. A dramatic rescue operation brought some 240 people to safety, but at least 29 people died, and it was clear that the ferry’s manifest did not list all the people aboard, not uncommon in a region where ferries are often over-crowded. A second ferry ran aground nearby, but its passengers are safe.
Links to other sites: AP/Yahoo, Reuters
Oil-covered protesters demonstrated outside the offices of a Bangkok-based well operator in Perth Thursday 29 October to protest a leaking oil well in the Timor Sea, off the northwest coast of Australia. The well, 2.6km below the ocean floor, has been leaking oil and gas into the sea since 21 August. Concerns are being voiced about responsibility as the slick heads towards the Indonesian coast.
The company, Thai-based PTTEP, has tried three times to plug the leak with heavy mud. A fourth attempt has been delayed because of equipment failure. The cost of plugging the leak is estimated at $160 million. No cost estimates have been made public for the clean up.
The Australian upper house voted 29 October to make public by 16 November a government investigation into the environmental impacts of the spill. The government has come under criticism in recent for several of its environmental policy decisions. ABC, Bloomberg, Sydney Morning Herald
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Eight countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus and five in Southeast Asia are implementing early warning systems to protect against weather-related events, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Today 14 October is International Day for Disaster Reduction, and the agency is highlighting how early warning and disaster risk reduction can save many lives when extreme weather strikes. Similar projects were introduced in seven southeast European countries in 2007.
These national and regional cooperation projects are part of a concerted programme that relies on technical expertise and funding provided by the WMO, the World Bank, UNDP and the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR).
“Natural hazards are a part of life. But natural hazards only become disasters when people’s lives and livlihoods are swept away…” (Kofi Annan, World Disaster Reduction Day, 2003)
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Sales of micro-insurance policies to the world’s poor has increased 50 percent since 2008, according to Zurich Financial’s micro-insurance unit. Small policies that cover health events, household contents, life insurance, and fire and flood protection for low-income people are increasing because of innovative ways of distributing insurance products, which the company says are themselves innovative.
Distribution channels include pharmacies in Bolivia that sell scratch cards for personal accident insurance, and post offices in India that offer life insurance. Low-income households in Indonesia can buy flood coverage for about $10 per year through cooperatives.
A second earthquake in under 24 hours, measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale, shook southern Sumatra in Indonesia Thursday morning 1 October. Sumatrans were still recovering from the earlier, stronger earthquake in the port of Padang which has left at least 400 dead and many people trapped under collapsed buildings. The death toll could climb into the thousands, officials fear.
The earthquakes come days after a strong tremor shook the Pacific islands of Samoa, leaving many villages flattened and over 100 people dead. Experts say that the earthquakes are all on the edge of the Australian tectonic plate where it comes into contact with the Eurasian plate, in the case of the Sumatra earthquakes, and where it bumps up against the Pacific plate in the case of the Samoa earthquake. BBC, CNN, Reuters
Cyclones, floods, tsunamis in Asia, and late today it’s an earthquake in Indonesia that may have killed hundreds of people, the government there says of the most recent disaster to strike. Sumatra was hit by a 7.6 earthquake centred 50 km off its coast, and 75 people are known to have died but hundreds are trapped under rubble. Flights to Padang have been canceled and the electricity and most telecommunications are out in the area, increasing the difficulty of rescue work. BBC, Guardian, UK, Jakarta Post
Indonesian anti-terror units killed four people and arrested a woman in a raid on a house in Solo City, central Java in Indonesia early 17 September, after a nine-hour siege. Police indicated that they were “90 percent sure” that one of the dead was Noordin Mohammed Top, Indonesia’s most wanted terrorist, believed responsible for suicide attacks on two hotels in the capital Jakarta in July. Noordin leads a radical splinter group called al Qaeda in the Malay Archipelago, an offshoot of Islamist group Jemaah Islamiyah. He was earlier believed to have been killed in a shoot-out with police in August, but police later identified the dead person as a florist who was giving the group information. AFP, CNN
India’s consumers have the world’s biggest sweet tooth, and are struggling with rising prices for sugar and a dramatic drop in domestic production. For 60 million Indians, sugary milky tea is the main source of carbohydrates. Poor rains in June in India and excess rains in Brazil contributed to the world sugar shortfall, estimated at nine million tonnes, in 2009. It is the second year running that demand outstrips supply. Domestic production in India dropped 43 percent to 15 million tonnes, reports Bloomberg.
The price of refined, white sugar increased four percent in trading 10 September on speculation that India, Indonesia and Pakistan were to import more sugar. The world price of sugar almost doubled in 2009. BBC, Bloomberg, Economic Times, India
Minister Doris Leuthard samples chocolates in Broc
Nestle master chocolate maker at work in Broc
Vevey/Broc, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Nestlé Monday 7 September opened its CHF25 million Chocolate Centre of Excellence in Broc, in the hills above the company’s home office in Vevey. A slew of dignitaries, including Switzerland’s minister for economic affairs, Doris Leuthard, and top company officials were present to underscore the unit’s importance.
The new centre is a research and production operation for Nestlé’s premium and luxury chocolate segment, but it “will influence the company’s entire chocolate range,” the company noted in its press release for the event.
Nestlé says that of its CHF9.8 billion in chocolate sales in 2008, some 70 percent came from local sales rather than the global brands for which it is well-known, which had sales of CHF1 billion.
Forty-six people are dead but the death toll is expected to rise as survivors desperately try to reach people trapped under buildings, following a 7.0 earthquake that struck West Java in Indonesia Wednesday. The strong quake shook buildings in the capital, Jakarta, sending people into the streets. Reuters, Sydney Morning Herald
Two powerful bombs exploded Friday morning 17 July in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta at luxury hotels, killing at least nine people and injuring more than 45, according to early reports. No group has claimed responsibility. The bombs tore the front off of the Ritz-Carlton and it appears police may have found a third bomb. Foreigners were among the dead and injured: Reuters reports that Tim Mackay, president of PT Holcim Indonesia, a New Zealand citizen was killed. Holcim is a Swiss multinational. The Manchester United team, who were scheduled to stay at the Ritz-Carlton this weekend, have canceled their trip. BBC, Sky News, Jakarta Post
Polls opened Wednesday 8 July as 176 million Indonesians began to vote to choose their president directly for only the second time in the nation’s history. Front-runner is incumbent president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is widely respected for his handling of the economy. He faces current vice-president, Jusuf Kalla, and former president, Megawati Sukarnoputri. If he wins more than 50 percent of the vote he will avoid a run-off election in September. BBC, Sydney Morning Herald
The provincial government on the eastern side of the Indonesian island of Borneo has opened a dozen “honesty cafes” without cash registers in schools and governments in the past month, reports the New York Times/IHT, where users are expected to be honest. The goal is to “nip in the bud corruption,” as part of a larger and long-term anti-corruption campaign in a country described by the newspaper as “not known for its transparent practices in business, politics and many other areas.” The government in the region is planning to have more than 1,000 such cafes in operation by 2010, including some private ones, says the IHT in a long feature.
