VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

President Joko Widodo highlighted the importance of maintaining the water supply for sustaining national food security amid the El Nino phenomenon, which is currently affecting multiple regions, during a meeting with ministries and agencies on Tuesday.

Minister of Environment and Forestry (LHK), Siti Nurbaya Bakar, conveyed this after attending a limited meeting on mitigating the impact of the El Nino phenomenon, which was chaired by President Widodo at Merdeka Palace, Jakarta.

"Essentially, there are three things that the President instructed: first, mapping the problem comprehensively; second, focusing on strategies for water availability; and third, continuously checking the food production center area for water adequacy," she informed.

Also, as part of the meeting agenda, several ministries and agencies submitted the latest report on mitigatory steps for facing the drought, she said adding, they included the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR), which informed that 60 to 80 percent of water supply in Indonesia is currently still safe.

"Earlier, the PUPR Minister reported that of approximately 114 lakes, 323 dams, and reservoirs, or around 60 and 80 percent are still effective. So, they can still be resolved," said Minister Bakar.

During the meeting, the President also directed ministries and relevant agencies to be cautious of the potential for crop failure due to the declining availability of irrigation water.

Another issue that needs to be mitigated, he said, is clean water supply for communities, which must be fulfilled.

Bakar informed that the President also asked ministries and agencies to maintain the availability of rice. He also directed them to anticipate and handle the issue of forest and land fires, including dealing with several existing complaints that need to be addressed, she added.

Additionally, Widodo asked the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) to relay weather forecasts clearly to the public.

"Later on, the President asked the BMKG to relay weather forecasts and future projections," Bakar added.

(Antara News)

Thailand's police arrested a teenage gunman suspected of killing a Chinese national and critically wounding five people on Tuesday in a shooting spree at a luxury Bangkok mall, the latest high-profile gun violence to rock the country in recent years.

Hundreds of people, including children, were seen screaming and racing into the streets after gunshots rang out at the Siam Paragon mall, a major shopping and entertainment venue popular with tourists in Bangkok's crowded commercial heart.

Emergency services said a woman had been killed and six others wounded, five of them critically, correcting an earlier statement that three people had died. Police said the deceased was a Chinese citizen.

National police chief Torsak Sukvimol said the suspected shooter was 14 years old and had been receiving psychiatric treatment, but had skipped his prescribed medicine on the day of the incident.

"We have spoken to his parents," Torsak told reporters.

"The suspect said that someone was telling him to shoot others."

Fleeing shoppers were ushered by security guards from the mall into torrential rain and towards a road with heavy traffic. Verified social media footage showed some rushing towards the exit of a ground-floor supermarket, screaming as a gunshot rang out.

"It happened in just a few minutes. We saw all the people run, run, run, we didn't understand what was happening," said 26-year-old Shir Yahav from Israel, who was at a designer store at the time of the shooting.

"We heard several shots, like six or seven shots."

Gun violence and gun ownership are not uncommon in Thailand and the incident comes a year after an ex-police officer killed 35 people, including 22 children at a nursery, during an hours-long gun-and-knife attack. He later shot himself dead at home.

In 2020, a soldier shot and killed at least 29 people and wounded 57 in a rampage that spanned four locations around the northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima.

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Emergency services shared an image of a police officer handcuffing an individual lying face down on the ground and another of an officer retrieving a handgun from the floor.

Authorities earlier posted a grainy image of the suspected gunman wearing glasses, khaki cargo pants and a baseball cap, clutching a dark object.

The incident comes as Thailand's new government seeks to stimulate its sluggish economy by boosting tourist arrivals in what is one of Asia's most popular travel hotspots, including by offering visa-free entry to Chinese nationals.

Named the world's most photographed place by Instagram in 2013, Siam Paragon is Thailand's most famous mall, drawing throngs of local and foreign shoppers daily to its high-end stores, aquarium, plush movie theatre and popular food court dining.

Susinee, a restaurant worker, said she and her colleagues bolted when they heard gunshots.

"We just ran out," she said, standing with half a dozen of her colleagues.

Police said that staff at the mall had received training in dealing with active shooters.

The mall said it had evacuated shoppers and staff immediately, stressing safety was of the utmost importance.

"Siam Paragon would like to express our deep apologies for the unexpected event," it said in a statement, adding the mall would open reopen on Wednesday.

(Reuters)

Pakistan on Tuesday ordered all illegal immigrants, including 1.73 million Afghan nationals, to leave the country or face expulsion after revealing that 14 of 24 suicide bombings in the country this year were carried out by Afghan nationals.

It was not immediately clear how Pakistani authorities could ensure the illegal immigrants leave, or how they could find them to expel them.

Islamabad's announcement marks a new low in its relations with Kabul that deteriorated after border clashes between the South Asian neighbours last month.

"We have given them a November 1 deadline," said Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti, adding that all illegal immigrants should leave voluntarily or face forcible expulsion after that date.

Bugti said some 1.73 million Afghan nationals in Pakistan had no legal documents to stay, adding a total of 4.4 million Afghan refugees lived in Pakistan.

"There are no two opinions that we are attacked from within Afghanistan and Afghan nationals are involved in attacks on us," he said. "We have evidence."

Islamabad has received the largest influx of Afghan refugees since the Soviet invasion of Kabul in 1979.

Bugti was speaking in Islamabad after civil and military leaders met the prime minister and army chief to discuss law and order after a recent spate of militant attacks.

The violence has seen an unusual uptick since local Taliban militants known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella group of hardline Sunni Islamist militants, revoked a ceasefire with the government late last year.

The TTP wants to overthrow the Pakistani government to replace it with its strict rule under Islamic law.

Two suicide bombings targeted religious gatherings in Pakistan last week, killing at least 57 people. The TTP denied involvement. Bugti said that one of the suicide bombers had been identified as an Afghan national.

Islamist State also operates in the Afghan border regions and has been involved in attacks in Pakistan.

The Pakistani military has conducted several offensives against Islamist militants, mainly in the rugged mountainous region along the Afghan border, which it says forced them to flee to Afghanistan.

Islamabad alleges that the militants use Afghan soil to train fighters and plan attacks inside Pakistan, a charge Kabul denies, saying Pakistani security is a domestic issue.

There was no immediate response from Kabul to Bugti's comments.

(Reuters)

A bipartisan U.S. Senate delegation will visit China, Japan and South Korea in October, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's office said on Tuesday.

The six-senator group will be co-led by Republican Mike Crapo, whose office said earlier the trip is planned for next week and that the senators hope to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Schumer has repeatedly urged the United States to take a harder line on China, and urged lawmakers earlier this year to begin new legislation aimed at addressing concerns about the world's second-biggest economy. The trip will follow visits by a series of Biden administration officials, including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in August.

Schumer's office said the trip's goal is to advance U.S. economic and national security interests in the region and will feature meetings with government leaders and business leaders from each country and from U.S. companies operating in each country.

Schumer "will focus on the need for reciprocity in China for U.S. businesses that will level the playing field for American workers, as well as on maintaining U.S. leadership in advanced technologies for national security," his office said.

Other senators on the trip include Republicans Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy and Democrats Maggie Hassan and Jon Ossoff. The Chinese Embassy declined to comment Monday on the planned trip.

Raimondo said in August that U.S.companies had complained to her that China has become "uninvestable," pointing to fines, raids and other actions that made it risky to do business in the country.

"For U.S. business in many cases, patience is running thin, and it's time for action," she said, adding that companies face "exorbitant fines without any explanation, revisions to the counterespionage law, which are unclear and sending shock waves through the U.S. community; raids on businesses – a whole new level of challenge and we need that to be addressed."

(Reuters)