VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Pakistani police on Sunday served arrest warrants to former prime minister Imran Khan to ensure his appearance in court on charges of misusing his office to sell state gifts, authorities said, after Khan's supporters tried to prevent police entry into his home.

The election commission of Pakistan had in October found the 70-year-old cricket-hero-turned politician guilty of unlawfully selling gifts from foreign dignitaries.

The Federal Investigation Agency then filed charges against him in an anti-graft court, which last week issued the arrest warrants after Khan failed to appear in court despite repeated summons.

Khan has been demanding a snap election since his ouster from office in a parliamentary vote early last year, a demand that was rejected by his successor Shehbaz Sharif, who has said the vote would be held as scheduled later this year.

He led countrywide protest campaigns to press for an early vote last year and was shot at and wounded at one of the rallies.

Referring to his absence from court and the shooting incident, Khan said on Sunday: "They (the police) know there is a threat against my life," adding that the courts did not provide adequate security.

Khan's aide Fawad Chaudhry said he couldn't be arrested because he had secured a protective bail from a high court.

Chaudhry said the government wanted to sow political chaos and avoid an early election by arresting the former premier, who was still popular among the country's youth and urban voters.

Islamabad police said in a statement that when Khan wasn't found at his residence in Lahore, they served the arrest warrants.

Khan is required to appear in court on March 7. If he fails to do so, police will be required to arrest him and present him to court, according to Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah. (Reuters)

New Zealander Georgina Beyer, the world's first openly transgender member of parliament and tireless advocate for LGBTQ rights, has died at the age of 65.

She had long battled kidney disease but statements about her death did not mention the cause.

A former sex worker, actor and drag queen, Beyer was elected to national parliament in 1999 after several years as mayor of Carterton, a rural town on the country's North Island. She served as a Labour MP until 2007.

Made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit by Queen Elizabeth II in 2020 for services to the rainbow community, she was known for her work in the legalisation of civil unions and gay marriage as well as the decriminalisation of prostitution.

Speaking before parliament on the issue of prostitution reform in 2003, she said: "I support this bill for all the prostitutes I have ever known who have died before the age of 20 because of the inhumanity and hypocrisy of a society that would not ever give them the chance to redeem whatever circumstances made them arrive in that industry."

Of Maori descent, she ran again for parliament for the former Mana Party in 2014 but was unsuccessful.

Beyer received a kidney transplant in 2017 after four years of end-stage renal failure that required daily dialysis.

She died in hospice care on Monday, according to a Facebook post by Scotty Kennedy, a friend.

"Georgie was surrounded by her nearest and dearest 24/7 over the past week, she accepted what was happening, was cracking jokes and had a twinkle in her eye, right until the final moment," Kennedy wrote.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said Beyer made a lasting impression on parliament.

"I certainly think that Georgina blazed a trail that has made it much easier for others to follow." (Reuters)

China's state planner underlined a greater role for coal in its power supply on Sunday, saying the fossil fuel would be used to improve the reliability and security of its energy system.

Soaring global energy prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and domestic supply disruption have prompted Beijing to step up its focus on energy security in recent years.

The world's second-biggest economy relied on coal to generate 56.2% of its electricity last year, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, but has significantly boosted its use of natural gas and renewable energy in recent years to lower carbon emissions.

Fluctuating output from renewable plants, however, has led policymakers to lean on reliable and easily dispatchable coal power to shore up the country's baseload supply. Last year, scorching summer temperatures and a drought in China's southwest caused hydropower output to dwindle, leading to power outages.

"We will strengthen the basic supporting role of coal (and) take orderly steps to increase advanced coal production while ensuring safety," said the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) in a report to the annual gathering of parliament.

China approved the construction of another 106 gigawatts of coal-fired power capacity last year, four times higher than a year earlier and the highest since 2015, driven by energy security considerations, research showed last week.

About 50GW of that went into construction.

"The energy security narrative is still going strong," said Greenpeace China policy advisor Li Shuo.

"This has given impetus to China's coal sector as seen in the rapid approval of coal plants across the country," he said.

The NDRC also stressed the importance of ramping up domestic oil and gas supply.

"We will intensify the exploration and development of petroleum and natural gas at home to discover more untapped reserves and increase production," it said.

Despite a strategy to boost use of natural gas as a bridge fuel to achieve its 2060 carbon neutrality, China is slowing an aggressive campaign started in 2017 to replace coal with gas.

Concerned about supply shortages amid high global prices, the planner pledged to "strictly control the expansion of projects to replace coal with natural gas".

The state planner also reiterated its efforts to further reform the oil and gas sector, with a focus on improving the pricing mechanism for natural gas to better reflect the cost of production and procurement.

China imports about 40% of its gas consumption.

"(We shall) develop sound mechanisms to adjust urban end-user prices of natural gas in step with procurement costs," the report said.

China will also push ahead with construction of a second batch of major wind and solar plants, they added.

The reliance on coal was described as temporary by some to cover supply shortfalls as the country develops renewables.

"New renewables generation has not been able to cover all the demand growth in any specific year, which means some additional coal generation is still needed each year," said David Fishman, senior manager of China-based energy consultancy the Lantau Group.

"In 2023 or 2024 we might see the first year where renewable generation totally covers new demand growth ... after this coal consumption should start to decrease year-on-year," he said.

China has pledged to reach peak carbon emissions by 2030 and carbon-neutrality by 2060.

Beijing is targeting reducing energy consumption per unit of GDP by around 2% in 2023, said the NDRC report. (Reuters)

Taiwan Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng warned on Monday the island has to be on alert this year for a "sudden entry" by the Chinese military into areas close to its territory amid rising military tensions across the Taiwan Strait.

China has stepped up its military activities around Taiwan in recent years, including almost daily air force incursions into the island's air defence identification zone.

However, Taiwan has not reported any incident of Chinese forces entering its contiguous zone, which is 24 nautical miles (44.4 km) from its coast. But it has shot down a civilian drone that entered its airspace near an islet off the Chinese coast last year.

Answering questions from lawmakers in parliament, Chiu said the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) might find excuses to enter areas close to Taiwan's territorial air and sea space as the island steps up its military exchanges with the United States, to Beijing's ire.

He said the PLA might make a "sudden entry" into Taiwan's contiguous zone and get close to its territorial space, which the island defines as 12 nautical miles from its coast.

"(I) specifically make these comments this year, meaning they are making such preparations," Chiu said. "Looking forward, they would use force if they really have to."

In response, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily briefing that Beijing "will take firm measures to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity."

Taiwan has vowed to exercise its right to self-defence and counter-attack if Chinese armed forces entered its territory.

China last year staged unprecedented military exercises around Taiwan in reaction to a visit to the island by then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Chiu said China was looking to "make trouble under a certain pretext", adding that might include visits to the island made by senior foreign government officials or Taiwan's frequent military contacts with other countries.

Asked by a lawmaker if the United States was planning to store some of its military equipment in Taiwan, Chiu said such discussions were ongoing but declined to elaborate.

The United States is Taiwan's most important international arms supplier and increasing U.S. support for the democratic island has added to tension in already strained U.S.-Sino relations.

Chiu said the PLA sends about 10 planes or ships to areas near Taiwan a day. Some cross the median line of the Taiwan Strait, which has traditionally served as an unofficial buffer, on an almost daily basis, he said.

Chiu said since China has abandoned a tacit agreement on military movements in the Strait, Taiwan has made preparations to "fire the first shot" if Chinese entities, including drones or balloons, enter its territorial space.

China claims self-governed Taiwan as its own and has not renounced the use of force to bring it under Chinese control, if needed. Taiwan strongly rejects China's sovereignty claims and says only its people can decide their future. (Reuters)