VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Australia confirmed on Wednesday it would buy 40 Black Hawk military helicopters from the United States for an estimated A$2.8 billion ($1.96 billion), finalising a sale signed off by the U.S. State Department last August.

The Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) UH-60M Black Hawks will replace the Army's fleet of MRH-90 Taipan choppers, which have been plagued for years by maintenance issues. Delivery of the new helicopters will begin this year.

"We've just not got the flying hours out of the Taipan that we would need," Defence Minister Richard Marles told ABC news on Wednesday. "We're confident that we can get that from the Black Hawks. It's a platform we're familiar with."

Australia has been boosting its defense spending over the past few years as China looks to step up its presence in the Indo-Pacific region.

A 2021 decision to ditch French-made submarines for nuclear submarines to be built by the United States and Britain sparked a bitter diplomatic dispute with France.

Marles said he had spoken with his French counterpart several times and was confident the U.S. helicopter deal "won't interrupt" the renewed relationship with France. The Taipans are made by Airbus (AIR.PA), partly owned by France.

Australian industry will be involved in logistics, warehousing, engineering as well as the helicopter's global supply chain, said the Defence Department in a statement. (Reuters)

Officials in Nepal said on Wednesday there was no chance of finding any survivors of the country's deadliest plane crash in 30 years, but workers will continue to search for the remains of the last missing passenger.

Rescue teams used drones and rappelled down deep gorges on Tuesday to sift through the charred remains of the Yeti Airlines ATR 72 turboprop, which was carrying 72 people when it crashed near the tourist city of Pokhara on Sunday morning.

"There is no possibility of finding any survivor. We have collected 71 bodies so far. The search for the last one will continue," Tek Bahadur K.C., a top district official in Pokhara, said on Wednesday.

Identifying bodies and accounting for all 72 people has been difficult because of the state of the remains, said Ajay K.C, a police official at the rescue site.

"Until the hospital tests show all 72 bodies, we’ll continue to search for the last person," Ajay K.C said.

Search teams found 68 bodies on the day of the crash, and two more were recovered on Monday before the search was called off. One more body had been recovered as of late Tuesday afternoon, officials said.

Teams had diverted the flow of a nearby river to look for bodies, said Gurudutt Ghimire, another official who is part of search operations.

"There is nothing left there. But the search will continue," Ghimire said.

On Monday, searchers found the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the flight, both in good condition, a discovery that is likely to help investigators determine what caused the crash.

Because Nepal does not have facilities to read the so called black boxes, the devices will be sent wherever the manufacturer recommends. (Reuters)

Philippine Nobel laureate Maria Ressa and her news site Rappler were acquitted by a court of tax evasion charges on Wednesday, in a ruling that media watchdogs and human rights groups described as a win for press freedom and rule of law.

Ressa, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize alongside a Russian journalist in 2021, is head of Rappler, which earned a reputation for its in-depth reporting and tough scrutiny of former president Rodrigo Duterte and his deadly war on drugs.

"This acquittal is not just for Rappler it is for every Filipino who has ever been unjustly accused," Ressa said after the verdict, describing it as a win for justice and the truth.

"These charges... were politically motivated... A brazen abuse of power," she said, while fighting back tears.

The tax evasion case stemmed from accusations by the state revenue agency that Rappler had omitted from its tax returns the proceeds of a 2015 sale of depositary receipts to foreign investors, which later became the securities regulator's basis to revoke its licence.

The tax court said in its ruling it acquitted Ressa and Rappler because of the prosecution's failure to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

The Philippine's justice department said it respected the decision of the court.

Ressa, 59 is currently on bail as she appeals a six-year prison sentence handed down in 2020 for a libel conviction.

She has been fighting a string of government lawsuits since 2018 which she has described as part of a pattern of harassment.

Her plight has stoked international concern about media harassment in the Philippines, described as one of Asia's most dangerous places for journalists.

"Hope is what this provides," said Ressa when asked if she thought the tide was turning under the watch of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, whose office has said the leader respects press freedom.

Media watchdogs and human rights groups lauded the court's decision, which they said was a win for journalists and the rule of law.

"It is a victory for press freedom in the Philippines," Carlos Conde, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

The challenge for the Marcos administration is "to take stock of this and ensure that journalists did their jobs without fear", Conde said.

In October, a radio journalist was shot dead, among scores killed in the past decade.

The Philippines ranked 147 out of 180 countries in the 2022 World Press Freedom Index, and the Committee to Protect Journalists ranks the Philippines seventh in the world in its 2021 impunity index, which tracks deaths of media members whose killers go free. (Reuters)

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) believes that the ranks of regional governments understand what kind of interventions and policies need to be taken to achieve the target of eliminating extreme poverty by 2024.

He then asked the participants attending the “2023 National Coordination Meeting (Rakornas) of Regional Heads and the Regional Leadership Coordination Forum (Forkopimda)” at the Sentul International Convention Center, Bogor, West Java, on Tuesday to follow up on this matter.

"Everything is already listed in the data. Which means the target is already being prepared. I believe all local governments understand the interventions and policies needed to alleviate extreme poverty," he said in his opening remarks at the meeting, which was broadcast live on the official YouTube channel of the Presidential Secretariat.

The data related to extreme poverty should already exist in every village across Indonesia, he added. With this facility, he said he hoped local governments would focus on carrying out policies regarding this matter.

Nevertheless, the head of state reminded that the target of reducing extreme poverty to zero percent in 2024 will not be an easy one to achieve.

Moreover, there are currently 14 provinces where the extreme poverty rate is above the national rate.

"All regional heads please check this; there are 14 provinces that are still above the national rate. Even though our target in 2024 is zero extreme poverty, this is not an easy target. In 2022, there was still 2 percent extreme poverty and 14 provinces (whose poverty rate was) above the national average," he said.

Earlier, Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Muhadjir Effendy said that tackling extreme poverty and stunting will be a priority in 2023. According to him, the two problems overlap.

"The cause of stunting is motivated by extreme poverty, such as obstacles in accessing basic needs, access to clean water, sanitation facilities, and others," he noted.

Effendy said that a number of specific and sensitive interventions related to extreme poverty and stunting will require collaboration and synergy across ministries and agencies to carry out. (Antaranews)