VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Hundreds of people fell into a river when a suspension bridge in India's western Gujarat state collapsed on Sunday and a number of them have been hurt, officials said.

More than 400 people were on the bridge in the town of Morbi at the time and were plunged into the Machchu River, local TV channel Zee News said.

"People fell in the river and there are casualties. We don’t have the numbers yet. The rescue operations are going on," Rahul Tripathi, a senior police official at the scene, told Reuters.

Footage broadcast by the TV channel showed dozens of people clinging onto the cables of the collapsed bridge as emergency teams sought to rescue them.

The 230-metre historic bridge was built during British rule in the 19th century. It had been closed for renovation for six months and was reopened for the public last week.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is in his home state Gujarat for a three-day visit, said he has directed the state chief minister to mobilise teams urgently for the rescue operation. (Reuters)

The United States said on Friday its policy towards North Korea had not changed after a senior U.S. official responsible for nuclear policy raised some eyebrows by saying Washington would be willing to engage in arms-control talks with Pyongyang.

Some experts argue that recognizing North Korea as a nuclear-armed state, something Pyongyang seeks, is a prerequisite for such talks. But Washington has long argued that the North Korean nuclear program is illegal and subject to United Nations sanctions.

Bonnie Jenkins, State Department under secretary for arms control, was asked at a Washington nuclear conference on Thursday at which point North Korea should be treated as an arms-control problem.

"If they would have a conversation with us ... arms control can always be an option if you have two willing countries willing to sit down at the table and talk," she replied.

"And not just arms control, but risk reduction - everything that leads up to a traditional arms-control treaty and all the different aspects of arms control that we can have with them. We’ve made it very clear to the DPRK ... that we’re ready to talk to them - we have no pre-conditions," she said, referring to North Korea by the initials of its official name.

Referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, she added: "If he picked up the phone and said, 'I want to talk about arms control,' we're not going to say no. I think, if anything, we would want to explore what that means."

The United States and its allies are concerned that North Korea may be about to resume nuclear bomb testing for the first time since 2017, something that would be highly unwelcome to the Biden administration ahead of mid-term elections early next month. North Korea has rejected U.S. calls to return to talks.

Asked about Jenkins' comment, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said: "I want to be very clear about this. There has been no change to U.S. policy."

Price said U.S. policy remained "the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," while adding, "we continue to be open to diplomacy with the DPRK, we continue to reach out to the DPRK, we're committed to pursuing a diplomatic approach. We're prepared to meet without preconditions and we call on the DPRK to engage in serious and sustained diplomacy."

'KIM JONG UN'S TRAP'

Speaking on Friday at the same nuclear policy conference Jenkins addressed, Alexandra Bell, another senior State Department arms-control official, also stressed there was no change in U.S. policy.

Asked if it was time to accept North Korea as a nuclear state, she replied: "Wording aside, we are committed to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. We do not accept North Korea with that status. But we are interested in having a conversation with the North Koreans."

Daniel Russel, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia under then-President Barack Obama and now with the Asia Society, told Reuters Jenkins had "fallen straight into Kim Jong Un's trap" with her remarks.

"Suggesting that North Korea only has to agree to have a conversation with the U.S. about arms control and risk reduction is a terrible mistake, because it moves the issue from North Korea’s right to possess nuclear weapons to the question of how many it should have and how they are used," he said.

"Kim would love nothing better than to push his risk reduction agenda — the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Korea."

Other experts played down Jenkins' remarks.

Daryl Kimball, executive director of the U.S.-based Arms Control Association, said she was not making a statement recognizing North Korea as a nuclear weapons state under the international Non-Proliferation Treaty.

"She was acknowledging, as other officials in other administrations have, that North Korea does have nuclear weapons, but in violation of its commitments under the NPT not to pursue nuclear weapons," he told Reuters.

Kimball and Toby Dalton, a nuclear expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which hosted the nuclear conference, said they did not see formal recognition as a nuclear-armed state as a prerequisite for arms-control talks. Dalton said Jenkins appeared essentially to be restating the U.S. position that it was willing to talk to Pyongyang without preconditions. (Reuters)

Japan will set up a new joint command to manage the operations of its land, sea and air forces, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Saturday, as part of a major defence overhaul in the face of China's increasing assertiveness over Taiwan.

The government aims to have the joint command functioning by 2024. It will be tasked with coordinating strategies and boosting Japan's defence cooperation with the U.S. military, Nikkei reported.

The defence ministry could not be reached for comment outside regular business hours.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's government is boosting its military spending in response to China's growing might and geopolitical uncertainty over Taiwan and North Korea's missile developments.

The new arrangements will be included in the defence overhaul that the government will unveil by the year-end, Nikkei said.

The joint command will be overseen by a joint commander, a newly created position that will report directly to Japan's defence minister, it added. (Reuters)

With "Hooker Hill" and snaking alleyways of bars with signs like "BADASS" around the local landmark Hamilton Hotel, Seoul's Itaewon district was a symbol of freewheeling nightlife in the South Korean capital for decades, before tragedy struck.

The crush of partygoers on Saturday night that killed 153 mostly young people could hamper the revival of an area that was just starting to thrive after more than two years of COVID-19 restrictions, as trendy restaurants and shops replaced seedy establishments.

Lee Sang-yoon, who runs a pub in the alley next to the Hamilton where the disaster took place, said it may prove a devastating blow for even those who adapted to change.

"This happened right at the moment when we were about to rebound after being hammered by the pandemic," said Lee, who has operated Itaewon businesses for three decades. "We could survive the pandemic because we owned this place, but most of our neighbours who had been paying rent here had closed their businesses and left."

A short walk from the Yongsan U.S. army garrison, Itaewon sprang up after the 1950-53 Korean War as a hangout for American soldiers, with bars, brothels and fashion shops lining both sides of the main stretch running through it.

Itaewon went through decades of rises and falls.

A mysterious killing called the "Itaewon Murder" and other crimes in the late 1990s painted a dark image of the area. But early in this century it became a gourmet spot and place to experience world cultures without a passport.

The district has been a recurrent theme in popular culture, with a recent hit drama "Itaewon Class" and K-pop song "Itaewon Freedom".

Restrictions placed on U.S. troops after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States prompted a shift to a local clientele, a change accelerated by celebrities opening restaurants that became popular with young South Koreans.

Before 9/11, "Itaewon was full of Americans," reminisced a 40-year resident who sells flowers on the street. Streets were just getting packed again for the first time since the pandemic, said the woman, who asked not to be named.

"Before COVID, more foreigners than locals, and now lots of local people come from rural areas," she said. "I can't believe this tragedy really happened. Holiday or, what's it called, Halloween?

Early in the coronavirus pandemic, some of Itaewon's gay bars and transgender clubs become a lighting rod for controversies, with dozens of cases traced to people who were faulted for not disclosing to health authorities that they had spent time there.

Park Geun-ho, owner of the Havana Lounge & Pub, worried the disaster may prove to be greater challenge than anything the area has seen.

"After all this, would people come to Itaewon now? They won't," said Park, who has run businesses in the district for nearly 30 years.

Before disaster struck, Halloween festivities had been the leading attraction for years, drawing local people and foreigners to the foothills of the Namsan mountain, just steps from luxury villas occupied by foreign diplomats and heads of chaebol business syndicates, including the late chairman of Samsung Group.

But questions have grown in recent years about the safety of hosting an event that draws up to 100,000 to the cramped and hilly streets, especially without shutting down the main street to traffic to accommodate pop-up stores and kiosks.

"This month should've been a good one with the Global Village Festival, Halloween and so forth, but then this accident happened," said Kim Kyung-mo who works at a convenience store near the alley where the crush happened.

"I bumped into my boss earlier today and chatted briefly, and he obviously didn't look really good." (reuters)