VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

A Canadian citizen was turned away at the northern border as a part of President Donald Trump's temporary ban on people who have visited China before their arrival in the United States, acting Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli said Monday.

In the wake of Trump's proclamation, the US has started denying entry to foreign nationals who visited China in the 14 days prior to their arrival to the US. It's not clear whether anyone else has been turned back as part of the restrictions that began at 5 p.m. ET Sunday.

"We're just beginning, today, to see results of implementation," said Cuccinelli, who serves on the President's coronavirus task force.

Airlines are responsible for stopping passengers who will be denied entry into the US before they get on planes, and DHS worked with the airlines throughout the weekend and collected feedback to make it "more operationally feasible for them," Cuccinelli said. "We recognize these are burdens on the airlines, as they are on other people as well. But we want to make it work as effectively as we can."

The President, Cuccinelli said, based his decision on task force advice to implement certain measures to restrict travel of non-Americans who are most likely to have come in contact with coronavirus.

"The President made very clear his top priority is the safety of the American people, but that doesn't mean a complete shutdown," he said.

As a practical matter, planes in the air at 5 p.m. ET were treated under pre-5 p.m. ET rules, Cuccinelli said, adding that they "didn't want to be rerouting planes" and they "wanted that all to work smoothly and above all safely without breaking the system."

US citizens and others who are allowed to travel to the US from China are being funneled to 11 airports where US authorities will conduct extra screening and transfer people for quarantine if needed.

All flights from China will go to those airports, and passengers who have been to China in the past 14 days and weren't already traveling to one of those airports will be required to rebook their flights.

The "vast majority" of flights coming from China already arrive at those airports, Cuccinelli said.

DHS has the statutory authority to limit the locations where all flights entering the US from abroad may land. And the Transportation Security Administration, under DHS, has required air carriers to enforce the President's proclamation that limits who is allowed to board commercial flights headed for the US.

When passengers arrive at the 11 airports, Customs and Border Protection officers make two key determinations: whether a traveler is admissible to the US and if someone needs extra screening or quarantine.

If Customs and Border Protection determines extra screening is needed, travelers are sent for a secondary screening. By the end of the week, Cuccinelli said, he expects medical professionals at the airport secondary screening to be entirely staffed from DHS contracts. Coast Guard personnel are also doing the work at some airports.

Cuccinelli said the "very small number of people who have either traveled to Hubei province or show symptoms" will go to a third screening. At that point, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would get involved to connect people with local authorities and possible quarantine.

"These are going to be extremely small numbers," he said. "We're just seeing fewer and fewer travelers from Hubei."

At sea, the Coast Guard is responsible for enforcing the travel restrictions, and it held a ship offshore in Puget Sound until passengers had exceeded the 14-day requirement and did not show symptoms.(CNN)

An art exhibition titled “Necklace of Equator” was officially opened on Monday (3 February 2020) by the Russian Ambassador to Indonesia Lyudmila Vorobieva and the Acting Director General for American and European Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia Teuku Faizasyah, at the National Gallery, Jakarta. The exhibition of the collection of paintings by Russian artists was made to commemorate the 70^th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Federation of Russia and the Republic of Indonesia. Ambassador Vorobieva said she had another name for the collection, calling it “Indonesia, My Love” for she believed that it truly represents what Russians feel about Indonesia.

“How successfully and dynamically the Russian Indonesian ties have been developing during those seven decades. How close our people have become. Mutual trust and sincere friendship are the basic principles that bring us together, help to promote our bilateral cooperation and interaction and regional and international structures. I would like to add that probably Of course, “Necklace of Equator” means that Indonesia is like the jewel, of a collection of jewels, expanding along the equator. I also like to give it another name to the collection, "Indonesia my love", because when you will see the paintings you will feel the very warm feelings of love. the friendship that these paintings translate. That's how Russian people feel about Indonesian with hopes that the feeling is mutual,” she said.

The collection consists of over 50 pieces painted by Russian masters over the past 20 years. The paintings represent images and scenes that these Russian artists witnessed throughout their tour of various Indonesian islands such as Java, Bali, Lombok, and Kalimantan. This collection was curated by the non-profit, “Bureau of Creative Expeditions”, that is led by Mr. Vladimir Nikolaevich Anisimov, a member of the Russian Academy of Arts. Besides paintings, visitors will also be able to see photographs and documents from the Historical Archives of the Indonesia-Russia’sDiplomatic Relations   which are the collections of the National Archives (ANRI) and the Department of History and Documentary from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. The exhibition will be open from the 3^rd of February to the 17^th of February 2020. (VOI/SAYEE SHREE L.R/AHM)

The tourism industry in Batam city, Riau Islands Province, remains vibrant amid global fear of China's novel coronavirus outbreak that has reportedly killed at least 362 people, a local government official revealed.

"Batam city's tourism industry still runs normally," Head of the Batam City Administration's Cultural and Tourism Office Ardiwinata said here on Monday.

Ardiwinata said he did not receive any information on foreign travelers wanting to postpone their visits to Batam following the new coronavirus outbreak that firstly struck the Chinese city of Wuhan several a few weeks ago.

The Chinese tourists' planned visits to Batam, Indonesia's waterfront city which shares a sea border with Singapore, had been cancelled following the Indonesian Government's temporary ban on those from mainland China for halting the spread of the deadly virus.

The number of Chinese tourists coming to Batam was not significant compared to those of Singapore and Malaysia. Therefore, this situation would not significantly affect the total number of foreign tourist arrivals in the city, he said.

The Batam City Administration has worked with related stakeholders of tourism industry to prepare a strategy for attracting more local tourists to substitute the Chinese tourists whose planned travels had been cancelled, he added.

On Sunday, President Joko Widodo held a limited meeting at the Halim Perdana Kusuma Air Force Base in East Jakarta with several cabinet members as well as national police and military chiefs following the evacuation of 238 Indonesians and five members of an advance team from China's Hubei Province.

Speaking to journalists following the meeting, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said the Indonesian Government would have placed a temporary ban on flights to and from mainland China since 00:00 a.m. local time on Wednesday.

All visitors, coming in from mainland China and been there for 14 days, were also temporarily banned from entering or making a transit in Indonesia, she noted.

In the interim, the government has also put a stop to the visa-free policy and issuance of visa on arrival for Chinese nationals residing in Mainland China. Indonesian nationals are advised to not travel to mainland China.

Garuda Indonesia has suspended its flights to and from China since Wednesday at 00:00 a.m. local time to support the Indonesian government's endeavors to halt the spread of coronavirus outbreak. (ANTARA)