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May
VOInews, Jakarta: US top diplomat Antony Blinken urged Hamas on Wednesday to accept a Gaza truce plan despite an Israeli warning that the army will keep fighting the Palestinian militant group after any ceasefire.
"Hamas needs to say yes and needs to get this done," said Blinken, who was in Israel on his seventh Middle East crisis tour since the war broke out in October.
He later added: "If Hamas actually purports to care about the Palestinian people and wants to see an immediate alleviation of their suffering, it should take this deal."
Blinken spoke after visiting the Nir Oz kibbutz, which Hamas attacked on October 7, as well as Israel's Kerem Shalom border crossing with Gaza and Ashdod port, which Israel says will be used for aid shipments.
A Hamas official said the Islamist group would respond "within a very short period" to a plan proposed by mediators to halt the fighting for 40 days and to exchange dozens of hostages for many more Palestinian prisoners.
But the group's aim remains an "end to this war", senior Hamas official Suhail al-Hindi told AFP -- a goal at odds with the stated position of Israel's hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The premier on Tuesday repeated his vow to send Israeli ground forces into Gaza's far-southern city of Rafah, despite major concerns over the fate of some 1.5 million civilians sheltering there.
"We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate the Hamas battalions there with or without a deal," Netanyahu told a group representing families of remaining hostages in Gaza.
UN chief Antonio Guterres warned that an Israeli assault on Rafah would "be an unbearable escalation, killing thousands more civilians and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee".
Netanyahu made his threat shortly before the arrival of Blinken and at a time of tensions between the traditional allies as the Gaza war has sparked global anger and weeks of pro-Palestinian demonstrations on US university campuses.
Blinken said Wednesday that he again made clear to Israeli leaders Washington's opposition to a major attack on Rafah.
"There are other ways -- and in our judgement, better ways -- of dealing with the real ongoing challenge of Hamas that does not require a major military operation" in Rafah, Blinken told reporters.
Source: AFP
April
New York returns 30 pillaged relics to Cambodia, Indonesia
Written by nuke
The 30 antiquities were looted, sold or illegally transferred by networks of American dealers and traffickers. (File photo: X/HSI New York) -
VOInews, New York : New York prosecutors said on Friday (Apr 26) they had returned to Cambodia and Indonesia 30 antiquities that were looted, sold or illegally transferred by networks of American dealers and traffickers.
The antiquities were valued at a total of US$3 million, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said.
Bragg said in a statement that he had returned 27 pieces to Phnom Penh and three to Jakarta in two recent repatriation ceremonies, including a bronze of the Hindu deity Shiva ("Shiva Triad") looted from Cambodia and a stone bas-relief of two royal figures from the Majapahit empire (13th-16th century) stolen from Indonesia.
Bragg accused art dealers Subhash Kapoor, an Indian-American, and American Nancy Wiener in the illegal trafficking of the antiquities.
Kapoor, accused of running a network trafficking in items stolen in Southeast Asia for sale in his Manhattan gallery, has been the target of a US justice investigation dubbed "Hidden Idol" for more than a decade.
Arrested in 2011 in Germany, Kapoor was sent back to India where he was tried and sentenced in November 2022 to 13 years in prison.
Responding to a US indictment for conspiracy to traffic in stolen works of art, Kapoor denied the charges.
"We are continuing to investigate the wide-ranging trafficking networks that ... target Southeast Asian antiquities," Bragg said in the statement.
"There is clearly still much more work to do."
Wiener, sentenced in 2021 for trafficking in stolen works of art, sought to sell the bronze Shiva but eventually donated the piece to the Denver (Colorado) Museum of Art in 2007.
The antiquity was seized by the New York courts in 2023.
During Bragg's tenure, the Antiquities Trafficking Unit has recovered nearly 1,200 items stolen from more than 25 countries and valued at more than US$250 million.
New York is a major trafficking hub, and several works have been seized in recent years from museums, including the prestigious Metropolitan Museum of Art, and from collectors//CNA-VOI
April
Bandung and Melbourne Sign Memorandum of Understanding on Intercity Cooperation
Written by Daniel
The governments of Bandung City and Melbourne City, represented by officials from each city signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MSP) at Melbourne Town Hall, Melbourne City, last Monday (22/4). The MSP was signed by the Mayor of Melbourne, Sally Capp AO. The person in charge (PJ) of the Mayor of Bandung, Bambang Tirtoyuliono has signed the document separately in Bandung. The signing activity was also witnessed by the Indonesian Consul General for Victoria and Tasmania, Kuncoro Giri Waseso, Assistant for Economic and Development of Bandung City, Eric Mohamad Atthauriq, and a group of Bandung City Government delegates.
In a statement from the Indonesian Consulate General in Melbourne received on Wednesday (24/4/2024), it was stated that the MSP was intended to form cooperation and develop effective and mutually beneficial friendly relations. "There are five areas of cooperation agreed upon, namely Smart Cities; Economy and Trade; Higher Education, Training and Capacity Building; Livable Cities and City Resilience," the Consulate wrote.
After the signing of the MSP, the Bandung and Melbourne governments held a meeting to discuss education cooperation, the development of innovation and pioneering companies, the existence of multicultural communities, and the use of technology in city management. "Both parties also agreed that the newly signed MSP should be able to strengthen the cooperation that has existed so far," wrote the Indonesian Consulate General in Melbourne.
Before the MSP was signed, the two cities already implement active cooperation, including through the Bandung-Melbourne Innovation Event Social Impact in 2022; Participation of the Bandung City Government in the Victoria Cleantech Expo 2021; Collaboration of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the State Government of Victoria, and the City Government of Melbourne in organizing E-Commerce and Cybersecurity Training for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) which was attended by 25 SMEs and MSMEs in Bandung in 2020; Webinar on Respective Responses to the COVID-19 Situation in West Java and Melbourne in 2020; Signing of the 2019 City to City Cooperation Letter of Intent (LoI); and, Sending the winner of the 2019 Bandung-Melbourne Datathon to Melbourne for incubation in 2019. As an implementation of the MSP, both Bandung and Melbourne will share experiences related to the organization of city day operations, pitch competitions, knowledge exchange, cultural arts cooperation, student exchange, and two-way trade and investment promotion.
Prior to the signing, the Indonesian Consulate General in Melbourne also facilitated a meeting between the Bandung City Government Delegation and the Indonesian Culinary Association of Victoria (ICAV), an association of Indonesian business people and gastronomists in Victoria. During the meeting, both parties discussed future collaborations, including the Bandung City Government's participation in gastronomy promotion activities in Victoria, exploring business opportunities such as the export of spices and handicrafts from Bandung, and the expansion of restaurants from Bandung. (Daniel).
April
Ambassador Armin Limo Calls Muslims to Focus More on Unity
Written by Daniel
VOInews, Jakarta: H.E. Armin Limo, the ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Indonesia, calls Muslims to focus on unity rather than exaggerating differences between schools and differences. H.E. Armin Limo shared his view about Islam in an interview with Syafiq Hasyim on IIIU's Guest program on Thursday (18/4/2024). Ambassador Armin Limo emphasized that Islam is religion of love, compassion, and forgiveness.
“I think we should focus more on unity because Islam is the one. I also don't like when somebody say moderate Islam or radical Islam, because IsIam is only one. IsIam is religion of love, compassion and forgiveness,” uttered Ambassador Armin Limo.
Misunderstandings about Islam, especially the impression of violence and intolerance, according to Ambassador Armin Limo, arise from unscrupulous parties who misuse Islam for their pragmatic interests.
“And there are only people unfortunately radical, extremists who misused Islam in their agenda which has got nothing to do with Islam in the end” said Ambassador Armin Limo.
To present Islam as a religion of love, Ambassador Armin Limo invited Muslims to focus more on unity and not magnify differences that could divide the ummah.
“So we should all follow our religion alhamdulillah which is unique in the world, and not too focus on our differences, or misinterpretation, or other things that only break the unity among us unfortunately," concluded Ambassador Armin Limo. (Daniel)
April
Stocks rebound, oil and gold retreat on tempered Mideast fears
Written by nuke
FILE PHOTO: A man walks under an electronic screen showing Japan's Nikkei share price index inside a conference hall 2022. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo -
VOInews, TOKYO/LONDON : World stocks recovered some losses on Monday and bonds, oil and gold dipped as investors reversed some of their more defensive positions taken going into the weekend on fears of a wider Middle East conflict.
The week ahead is packed with corporate earnings, with 158 companies in the S&P 500 and 173 companies in the STOXX 600 reporting first quarter results this week according to data from LSEG workspace.
These include several big European banks, as well as U.S. tech giants Microsoft and Alphabet, with the latter in particular focus after chip maker Nvidia's 10 per cent drop on Friday, its biggest percentage fall in four years.
Crucial U.S. PCE inflation data, the Federal Reserve's preferred gauge, due Friday, finishes off the week. After CPI data earlier this month, markets currently see the first Fed rate cut coming in September.
Ahead of all that, shares rose on Monday, with the STOXX 600 up 0.25 per cent and S&P 500 futures 0.36 per cent higher after MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.8 per cent. All fell on Friday.
London's commodities-heavy FTSE100 rose around 1 per cent the biggest gainer among large Europpean benchmarks, as tin and nickel rose to new muulti-month highs. [.L][MET/L]
It was outpaced by a 2.3 per cent gain for the Portugese index as oil company Galp Energia had a STOXX 600 topping 17 per cent jump after saying a field off Namibia could contain 10 bln barrels of oil. [.EU]
In a further reversal of Friday's "rise off" mood, gold eased back from near its peaks, U.S. Treasury yields ticked higher and crude oil prices declined as the potential for a major supply disruption waned.
In recent weeks, investors have taken cautious positions on Fridays fearing an escalation in the conflict in the Middle East over the weekend when markets are closed and they are unable to trade.
"It seems neither Israel nor Iran want an escalation in the crisis in the Middle East ... and with a subsequent strike from either side not looking like it's coming, investor concerns have eased somewhat," said Kazuo Kamitani, a strategist at Nomura Securities.
However, Kamitani said expectations of later Federal Reserve interest rate cuts and concerns about chip sector earnings will continue to keep investors on their toes.
Iran said on Friday that it had no plan to retaliate following an apparent Israeli drone attack within its borders, which in turn followed an Iranian missile and drone attack on Israel days before.
HAVEN OUTFLOWS
Bond yields - which climb when prices fall - rose back toward multi-month highs.
The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield was last up 3 basis points to 4.64 per cent, heading back toward the five-month peak of 4.696 per cent reached last week on the view that the Fed would be in no hurry to ease policy amid robust economic data and sticky inflation. [US/]
European yields also edged higher. [GVD/EUR]
The dollar index, which measures the currency against six major peers, eased 0.05 per cent to 106.05. It was also at a five-month top last week, at 106.51.
"As long as there is this uncertainty about the cutting cylce particularly in the U.S, its interesting for investors to be in dollar longs because of its dual status as a high yielding currency and also a defensive currency," said Yvan Berthoux FX strategist at UBS.
Gold slid 1.3 per cent to $2,358.75, retreating from near the all-time peak of $2,431.29 earlier in the month. [GOL/]
Crude oil fell as traders put the focus back on fundamentals with a rise in U.S. stockpiles as the backdrop
Brent futures fell 137 cents, or 1.56 per cent to $85.92 a barrel. [O/R]//Reuters, CNA-VOI
April
Solomon Islands election in the balance as voting continues
Written by nuke
FILE PHOTO: Members of the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) Joint Task Force assist in delivering ballot boxes by NH90 helicopter to remote areas of the Solomon Islands ahead of the upcoming election, Solomon Islands, in this handout image released on April 17, 2024. New Zealand Defence Force/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo -
VOInews, Solomon Island : The Solomon Islands election, watched by China and the US for its impact on regional security, is shaping up as a tight race with opposition parties gaining seats and independents holding the key to forming the next government.
Last week's national election was the first since Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare struck a security pact with China in 2022, drawing the Pacific Islands nation closer to Beijing. The move concerned the US and neighbouring Australia because of the potential impact on regional security.
Counting for several seats continued on Monday (Apr 22), as results showed the opposition CARE coalition drawing level with Sogavare's OUR party on 12 seats in a 50-seat parliament.
Independents and micro parties took 16 seats, and the major parties will seek to win independent support in negotiations this week in the race to form a government.
CARE includes Matthew Wale's Solomon Islands Democratic Party, U4C and the Democratic Alliance Party. Another prominent opposition party, Peter Kenilorea Jr's United, which said it would scrap the China security pact, won seven seats.
One source with direct knowledge told Reuters two independent candidates had joined CARE on Monday, and unofficial results showed it had won two more seats, which would take its numbers to 16.
High-profile former prime minister Gordon Darcy Lilo returns to parliament after a decade, as the only winning candidate for the Party for Rural Advancement.
Daniel Suidani, the former premier of Malaita province and a prominent critic of China, regained his seat in the provincial assembly in Malaita, and said on Monday his party, U4C, hoped to regain the premiership.
Provincial and national elections were held on the same day.
"It looks as though the CARE coalition - U4C, DAP and SIDP - are very shortly joining with some other independent candidates, so it is looking good," Suidani told Reuters in a telephone interview on Monday, adding the process could take a number of days.
Sogavare's office did not respond to a request for comment.
In excerpts of an interview with Solomon Islands' Tavuli News on Monday, Sogavare pledged there would be "a lot of reforms" if his government is returned.
Two women enter parliament for the first time as independents.
Police and defence forces from Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Fiji are assisting with election security.
The election process had been peaceful, although there were a few disturbances in Malaita by supporters of losing candidates, two officials in Malaita said//Reuters, CNA - VOI
April
VOInews, Jakarta: Six months after a deadly war engulfed Gaza, the Palestinian Olympic Committee is fighting against formidable odds to ensure its athletes take part in this summer's Paris Olympics. Palestinian Authority official Nader Jayousi was quoted by FRANCE 24 as saying that his country's delegation will bring a "message of peace" to the world and inspire Palestinian children "whose dreams have been crushed by bombs".
Palestinian athletes have taken part in every Summer Olympics since they were first admitted to the Atlanta Games in 1996. Each participation has had special significance for residents of the Palestinian Territories and the Palestinian diaspora, giving stateless people a place to compete on the world stage.
Participation in Paris will be all the more important in the context of a war that has devastated much of the Gaza Strip and killed at least 33,000 people, according to health officials in the Hamas-ruled enclave, including some of the athletes taking part in the events this summer.
"Among athletes, coaches and club staff, the Palestinian sports world has lost at least 170 people," said Jayousi, speaking from the Palestinian Olympic Committee headquarters near Jerusalem. The victims include Olympic football team coach Hani Al-Masdar and volleyball star Ibrahim Qusaya, both killed by Israeli bombs in Gaza.
"The tragedy is also compounded by the damage to infrastructure: the Yarmouk stadium, the Olympic Committee offices in Gaza, and several other stadiums," he added. "If the war ended today, at least 70% of Gaza's population would be homeless, let alone playing sports."
Jayousi says the war has forced the Palestinian committee to scale back its ambitions, and abruptly ended a pioneering programme aimed at increasing the number of athletes qualifying for the Olympics. Despite the major setback, Palestinian hopes received a major boost last month when Omar Ismail secured the first ticket to the Olympics for men's taekwondo - a feat that other athletes are expected to match in the coming weeks.
The Palestinian delegation fielded a record five athletes at the last Olympics in Tokyo. Jayousi said his goal is to "reach that number". He remains confident that the wild card (an opportunity or permission given to a non-regular athlete so that he can perform at a particular event, ed.) will help his country present its largest delegation in Olympic history. (Daniel).
Source: France24. Com
April
VOInews, Jakarta: The European space telescope Gaia, dedicated to mapping the Milky Way, has detected a black hole with 33 times the mass of the Sun, in an unprecedented discovery in the Milky Way galaxy, according to a study published on Tuesday (16/4/2024).
The object, named Gaia PH3, located two thousand light years from Earth in the constellation Scorpio, belongs to a family of stellar black holes that result from the collapse of massive stars at the end of their lives. It is much smaller than the supermassive black holes found at the centre of galaxies, whose formation scenarios are not yet known. Pasquale Panozzo, a researcher at the National Centre for Scientific Research at the Paris-BSL Observatory and lead author of the study published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics Letters, told AFP that the discovery of Gaia PH3 was a fluke.
Scientists from the Gaia Consortium, a group of scientific and technological organisations, were scanning the latest data provided by the probe, with the aim of publishing an updated catalogue in 2025, when they discovered a particular binary star system. "We see a star slightly smaller than the Sun (about 75 per cent of its mass) and brighter, orbiting around an unseen object," Panozzo said, which can be detected by the disturbances it experiences.
Space telescopes provide very precise positions of the stars in the sky, allowing astronomers to characterise the orbit and measure the mass of the unseen companion object. It is 33 times more massive than the Sun.
Additional observations from ground-based telescopes have confirmed that the object is a black hole with a mass much larger than that of any stellar black hole in the Milky Way, between 10 and 20 times the mass of the Sun. Similar supermassive holes have been detected in distant galaxies through gravitational waves. "But there has never been such a discovery in our galaxy," Panozzo said. (Daniel)
Source: AFP
April
NOAA: World Witnesses New Episode of Coral Bleaching
Written by Daniel
VOInews, Jakarta: For the second time in a decade, the world is experiencing a massive coral reef bleaching episode due to warming ocean temperatures, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) warned on Monday (15/4/2024). The phenomenon threatens the survival of coral reefs around the world, including the Great Barrier Reef near Australia.
"As the oceans continue to warm, coral bleaching is becoming more frequent and severe," NOAA Coral Reef Observatory coordinator Derek Manzello said. The process is linked to rising water temperatures, which result in discolouration, and can lead to the death of organisms if exposed to extreme and prolonged heat stress.
But reversing this phenomenon is possible. Affected corals may survive if temperatures drop and other stressors, such as overfishing or pollution, are minimised. The current bleaching episode is the fourth recorded by NOAA since 1985. Previous episodes were observed in 1998, 2010 and 2016.
"The scale and severity of mass coral bleaching is clear evidence of the devastating effects of current climate change," said Pepe Clark of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), a non-governmental organisation.
NOAA estimates that the Earth has already lost between 30 per cent and 50 per cent of its coral reefs, and they could disappear altogether by the end of the century if no major changes are made. Ocean temperatures, which play a key role in regulating the global climate, reached a new absolute record high in March of 21.07 degrees Celsius measured at the surface, excluding near-polar regions, according to the European Copernicus Observatory. (Daniel).
Source: AFP
April
Macron: confident of great Olympics opening ceremony on river Seine but has plan B
Written by nuke
French President Emmanuel Macron waits for the arrival of Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama (not seen) at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, April 12, 2024. REUTERS/Manon Cruz -
VOInews, Paris : French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday he was confident the Olympics' opening ceremony in July on the river Seine would be a success, but added authorities prepared 'Plan B' options should security assessment closer to the games require it.
"We can do it and we will do it," Macron told RMC Radio and BFM TV of the plan to hold the July 26 opening ceremony with huge crowds around the Seine, where some 160 boats would set off for a 6-kilometre journey.
But France, he added, is not naive.
"If we think there are security risks we'll have plan Bs, and even plan Cs," he said.
One option, he added, would be to restrict the ceremony to the central Paris Trocadero square facing the Eiffel Tower. Another would be to move the event indoors to the Stade de France stadium//CNA-VOI