VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Cows too weak to stand, with sores on their hides from lying on the ground and ribcages protruding from their sides -- such is the painful sight faced by Kenya's Maasai herders as they struggle to keep their cattle alive in a severe drought.

Livestock are central to the traditional Maasai way of life, not only as the main source of food and income but also as a marker of social status and constant presence, with cows living alongside people inside circular enclosures called kraals.

Kenya, along with neighbouring Ethiopia and Somalia, is experiencing its worst drought in 40 years, with four consecutive rainy seasons having failed to materialise, wiping out livestock and crops in some regions and deepening a hunger crisis.

"This is the kind of situation we have all found ourselves in, with emaciated cattle," said Maasai pastoralist Jackson Sane, speaking at a cattle market in the town of Ilbisil, south of Nairobi.

"The brownish ones lying beside me would fetch up to around 60,000 or 65,000 shillings ($500-$530). Now they are selling for only 1,500 Kenyan shillings ($12)," he said.

The animals at the market were so weak from lack of food that men were having to lift them in and out of vehicles like unwieldy parcels.

"Maize meal prices have shot up, petrol too, while livestock prices have seriously depreciated," said cattle trader Joshua Kedoya. "We just come to the market because we are desperate and there is nothing else to do."

At his kraal, herder Ntyuyoto Sepeina gestured towards cows feeding on hay, purchased from merchants at barely affordable rates.

"Most of these cows you see here have lost all their calves to the drought. We sometimes manage to save a few, especially when we feed them like this but a majority of them end up dying." (Reuters)

North Korea fired 100 more artillery shells off its west coast on Wednesday, South Korea's military said, just hours after it launched hundreds of shells into the sea off its east and west coasts in what it called a grave warning to South Korea.

North Korea has been carrying out weapons tests at an unprecedented pace this year, firing a short-range ballistic missile and hundreds of artillery rounds near the heavily armed inter-Korean border on Friday.

On Monday, South Korean troops kicked off their annual Hoguk defence drills designed to boost their ability to respond to North Korea's nuclear and missile threats.

Pyongyang has angrily reacted to the South Korean and joint military activities, calling them provocations and threatening countermeasures. Seoul says its exercises are regular and defence-oriented.

North Korea fired the latest shots at around 12:30 p.m. (0330 GMT), the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, urging Pyongyang to halt acts threatening peace and security in the region.

A spokesman for the General Staff of the North's Korean People's Army (KPA) said the latest move was in response to South Korea's firing of over 10 shells of multiple rocket launchers near the frontline between 8:27 a.m. and 9:40 a.m.

"Our Army strongly warns the enemy forces to immediately stop the highly irritating provocative act in the frontline areas," the KPA official said.

Wednesday's exchange of firings comes shortly after the North fired some 100 shells into the sea off its west coast and shot a further 150 rounds off its east coast on Tuesday night.

North Korea said later the shots were designed to send a "serious warning" and "powerful military countermeasure" to South Korea. (Reuters)

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will visit Perth from Oct. 21-23 and will meet counterpart Anthony Albanese during his trip, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said on Wednesday.

Japan aims to further develop ties between the two nations over security, defence and the economy, including cooperation over a free and open Indo-Pacific, Matsuno said. (Reuters)

New Zealand's parliament on Wednesday proposed changes to the country's counter-terrorism laws to provide more restrictions on people thought likely to be planning an attack.

The changes to the Control Orders Act and the Terrorism Suppression Act follow the introduction of the Counter-Terrorism Legislation bill in 2021 in the wake of a knife attack on several people at an Auckland supermarket by a man with known extremist views.

"While no law can ever stop a motivated terrorist from undertaking an attack these changes will go a long way in preventing, disrupting and limiting their ability to do so," Justice Minister Kiri Allen said in a statement.

The changes include expanding the criteria for who can have restrictions placed on them in the community, increasing flexibility on whether someone under a control order has their identity suppressed, and making it more difficult for those categorised to have the designation of "terrorist" removed.

After the mall knife attack in 2021 the government sought a review on how to improve laws to prevent a similar attack happening. The man, who was shot dead by police, was inspired by the Islamic state militant group and was being monitored constantly by security personnel after his earlier release from prison.

It was the second extremist attack in the country in a little over two years after the massacre by a white supremacist at two mosques in Christchurch in March 2019 that killed 51 people and injured dozens more.

The changes to the Acts now have to make their way through parliament and are unlikely to be finalised before March 2023. (Reuters)