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PHL- 24th country with most COVID-19 cases in the world, based on Johns Hopkins University data (Eagle News) – The Philippines became a close second to Indonesia in terms of having the most COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia as the total confirmed virus infections in the country reached 115,980 on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020. The country came very close to Indonesia’s record of 116,865 as of late Wednesday afternoon, at 5:34 pm (PST) based […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesia’s economy contracted in the second quarter for the first time in more than two decades as it was slammed by coronavirus restrictions, with warnings that the recovery could be among the weakest in Southeast Asia. Output in the region’s biggest economy slumped 5.3 percent on-year in April-June, the statistics agency said. That marked Indonesia’s first contraction since the first quarter of 1999 during the Asian financial crisis nd puts it […]
by Imants LIEPINSH Agence France-Presse RIGA, Latvia (AFP) — After spending 140 days rowing across the ocean without seeing another human being, Latvian adventurer Karlis Bardelis has some valuable tips for those learning to cope with coronavirus lockdowns. Bardelis started his nearly two-year journey in Peru in July 2018, reaching French Polynesia after nearly five months and finishing in Malaysia in June of this year. Along the way, he was rammed by sharks off Papua […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesia confirmed its 100,000th coronavirus case on Monday as the Red Cross warned that the health crisis in the world’s fourth most populous country risked “spiralling out of control”. The vast archipelago — home to more than a quarter of a billion people — has been recording 1,000-plus new infections daily after relaxing movement restrictions this month in a bid to head off a collapse of Southeast Asia’s biggest economy. As […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesia on Monday jailed two top leaders of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) — an Al-Qaeda-linked extremist group behind the 2002 Bali bombings — on terror charges linked to sending militants to fight in Syria. JI leader Para Wijayanto and deputy Budi Trikaryanto were handed seven and six-and-a-half year sentences, respectively, at a Jakarta court hearing done by videoconference due to coronavirus concerns. “The defendants prepared cadres to go to Syria as well […]
MAKASAR, Indonesia (AFP) — The death toll from floods on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island has risen to at least 21, authorities said Wednesday as residents tried to salvage a few belongings from their inundated homes. The flash floods in North Luwu regency left hundreds of houses buried in mud after three rivers burst their banks due to torrential rains which started on Monday. Nearly 1,600 people were taking refuge in temporary shelters, the Search and Rescue […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — A 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia’s Java island early Tuesday, the United States Geological Survey said. The strong quake hit at a depth of more than 500 kilometers (300 miles), the USGS said, adding that there was “a low likelihood of casualties and damage”. The quake struck 100 kilometers off the city of Batang around sunrise (2254 GMT Monday). The Southeast Asian archipelago experiences frequent seismic and volcanic […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesia’s Lion Air Group is slashing 2,600 jobs as the coronavirus pandemic hammers Southeast Asia’s biggest carrier, a company spokesman said Monday. The layoffs — about nine percent of the airline’s 29,000 employees — would mainly affect contract workers, it said. The job cuts come after Lion earlier reduced management and staff salaries. “Lion Air Group is in a difficult and challenging period due to the effects of…Covid-19,” said Lion Air […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — An Indonesian province declared a state of emergency Wednesday as officials said they had pinpointed hundreds of spots at risk of erupting into smog-belching forest fires that plague the region every year. Central Kalimantan on Borneo island was ravaged last year by fires blamed for blanketing swathes of Southeast Asia in toxic haze. Last year’s blazes were the worst since 2015 due to dry weather, with around 1.6 million hectares (3.95 […]
LHOKSEUMAWE, Indonesia (AFP) — Nearly 100 Rohingya asylum seekers stranded off the coast of Indonesia were pulled to shore Thursday by locals angered at the refusal of authorities to give them shelter over coronavirus fears. Some 94 people from the persecuted Myanmar minority — including 30 children — were reportedly plucked from a rickety wooden boat by fishermen this week before being intercepted by maritime officials from Sumatra island who pulled them closer to shore. […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — A 5.9 magnitude earthquake jolted Indonesia’s Sulawesi island on Tuesday, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said, but there was no tsunami warning or immediate reports of damage. The strong offshore quake struck at a relatively deep 102 kilometres (63 miles). The epicentre was some 97.5 kilometres east south-east of Gorontalo city in North Sulawesi, according to USGS. Shallow quakes tend to cause more damage than deeper ones. The Southeast Asian […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesia’s Mount Merapi, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, erupted twice on Sunday, sending clouds of grey ash 6,000 metres into the sky, the country’s geological agency said. The two eruptions lasted around seven minutes, according to the agency, and prompted local authorities to order residents to stay outside a three-kilometer no-go zone around the rumbling crater near Indonesia’s cultural capital Yogyakarta. The agency did not raise the volcano’s alert […]
