VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

In the midst of the hustle and bustle of a new peace plan initiated by President Donald Trump, said to be more promising peace in the Middle East, the Government of Israel gives the green light for its citizens to travel to the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. But the permit is only for Muslim Israelis travelling for pilgrimage or  to worship.
All this time, Israeli Muslims have been traveling for Umrah and Hajj pilgrimage using  the Jordanian state's temporary documents. According to the Israeli Minister of the Interior, Aryeh Deri, Sunday (1/26/2020), besides doing religious activities, Israeli Muslim citizens are also allowed to travel to Saudi Arabia for business activities, provided that there is an official invitation from the Saudi Arabian Agency. The  permits meanwhile, are   for approximately 90 days. As is known, Israel and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia do not have diplomatic relations so there are difficulties for Israelis traveling to Saudi Arabia.
But the news from the Israeli authorities was responded  by the government of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia that they still have not given permission to Isareli citizens  to enter the kingdom directly. As quoted by AFP, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan stressed that for now, royal policy still does not allow Israelis to enter Saudi Arabia because there is no diplomatic relations. But he did not deny however, that  the Israeli and Palestinian conflict resolution can be solved  peacefully,  and that all matters can be discussed and negotiated with the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
Indeed, Israel has not made an agreement with Saudi Arabia although  with Egypt and Jordan, it has. But that does not mean the two parties do not have relations. In fact, for several years now, since the reign of King Salman, drastic changes have taken place in Saudi Arabia. Various concessions have been made in the application of sharia or Islamic law, including in business. It seems that this has something to do with the weakening world oil price which is the main source of foreign exchange for Saudi Arabia. In addition, it is suspected that Saudi Arabia and Israel have been meeting and even cooperating in secret. The secret meeting was not only for business matters but also politics and peace. Especially at this time, Israel and Saudi Arabia are facing  the same enemy, Iran. Israel finds difficulties in confronting Iran, both with regard to the Palestinian issue with its Hezbollah forces, as well as other interests in the world. While Saudi Arabia is facing undermining the Shi'a problem at home.

Three representatives of Indonesian badminton athletes have succeeded in making Indonesia win the overall title at the Indonesia Masters 2020. They won the main podium from three sectors. The winners were men's doubles: Marcus Fernaldi Gideon / Kevin Sanjaya, women's doubles Greysia Polii / Apriyani Rahayu and men's singles Anthony Sinisuka Ginting.

The three representatives were able to defeat their opponents at the top of party of the Indonesia Masters 2020 at Istora Senayan, Sunday (1/18/2020). Meanwhile, the highest podium of the other two sectors is occupied by China (mixed doubles) and Thailand (women's singles). Marcus / Kevin became the first Red and White representative to rise on the main podium after the "civil war" in the final party against Mohammad Ahsan / Hendra Setiawan. The pair nicknamed The Minions won straightly two games with scores of 21-15, 21-16 in 32 minutes.

A total of 29 western regional athletes advance to the 2020 National E-sports Presidential Cup Final which will be held at ICE BSD Tangerang, Banten on February 1-2.

Chairperson of the Organizing Committee for the E-sports 2020 President Cup, Giring Ganesha said in Jakarta on Monday that the winners were ELVO GI (4 players) as winners of the Free Fire game, one winner of the e-Football Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) game, and 24 winners of the Mobile Premiere League game (MPL).

Before the Western Regional Qualification Final, the E-sports 2020 Presidential Cup resulted in 10 winners from the Eastern Regional Qualification Final. They consist of eight Mobile Premiere League (MPL) winners, one e-Football Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) winner, and one Free Fire winning team. The winners from these two regions will represent Indonesia competing against qualifying champions from Southeast Asian regional countries, namely Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Cambodia.

Indonesia's leading sprinter, Lalu Muhammad Zohri will fly to China to take part in an athletic championship as a trial match before competing at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in July. Indonesian short-distance trainer, Eni Nuraeni said in Jakarta on Monday (20/1) that Zohri will take part in at least two indoor athletics championships which take place in February and March.

The first championship that Zohri is certain to take part in is the 9th Asian Indoor Championships on February 12-13 in Hangzhou, and then, he will participate in the 2020 World Athletics Indoor Tour in Nanjing, China on March 13-15.

Eni, when met after training at the Bung Karno Madras Stadium, Jakarta, said that although Zohri had been confirmed to qualify for the 2020 Olympics that the athletes still need to take part in several championships as a practice match and improve and prepare themselves before the Olympics. Previously, at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix 2019 in Osaka, Japan, Zohri was able to finish in third place with a record time of 10.03 seconds. The results ensured Zohri's ticket to the 2020 Olympics because he successfully broke the 10.05-second passing limit in the 100-meter running category. For Zohri, the indoor athletics championship which will be a 60-meter race will be a challenge for him. At 60 meters, Zohri will finalize the start block.

Performing brilliantly at the 2019 SEA Games in the Philippines made the name of Indonesian women's cyclist Ayustina Delia Priatna become an great attraction for foreign teams and this time, the cyclist, nicknamed Ayu, was contracted by the Thai Women's Cycling Team (TWC) to compete in the international arena.

The contracting of the cyclist from West Java was justified by Head of Performance Improvement of the Executive Board of the Indonesian Cycling Association (PB ISSI), Budi Saputra in Jakarta on Monday (20/1/2020). At the 2019 SEA Games, Ayu appeared alone in the individual road race (IRR) number and had to deal with cyclists from other countries that dropped three cyclists. However, Ayu still appeared confident and was able to present a bronze medal for Indonesia.

Before performing brilliantly in the biennial championship, the 22-year-old racer was fairly consistent when she took part in the championship. This girl, who was born in Bandung, is also an Indonesian hero on the track for long numbers. At TWC, Ayu filled the slot of Thai rider, Jutatip Maneephan who is currently defending a European team, Alé BTC Ljubljana. She will work hand in hand with 5 other Thai riders.

The Asian continental team, according to Budi Saputra, is expected to be able to be a support and motivation for Ayu to penetrate European teams.

Indonesian Minister of Agriculture, Syahrul Yasin Limpo and Italian Minister of Agrigulture, Food and Forestry, Teresia Bellanova signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) about the strengthening of cooperation of both countries in the promotion of agricultural products. The signing of the MoU was conducted when the two Ministers met in Rome Italy on Monday (20/1/2020). The bilateral cooperation covers culture, agricultural mechanism, water resources management, education and training, research and capacity building of human resurces.

During the meeting, Indonesian and Italian Ministers Syahrul Yasin Limpo and Teresa Bellanova discussed a number of issues, particularly in increasing of trade and investment values in the field of agriculture between the two countries. Minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo mentioned about the superiority of Indonesian agricultural commodities such as palm oil, rubber, tropical fruits, tea and spices. He also explained that Indonesian products have met the European Union standards on health. Thereby, the products can be exported to the EU markets, including Italy. He also stressed that Indonesian agricultural sector has applied Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) method, and managed sustainably.Moreover, Minister Syahrul called for Italian investors to invest in the sector of agriculture and livestock in Indonesia.

In a special occassion, both Ministers discussed about Indonesian palm oil exports. As it is known that the commodity is used to managing food industry as well as bio-diesel material in Italy. Responding the case, Minister  Teresa Bellanova said that she understood the explanation about the role of palm oil plantation in providing employment and eradicating poverty in Indonesia.

Menawhile, Indonesian Ambassador to Italy, Esti Andayani evaluated that the signing of the MoU between Indonesia and Italy can intensively  strengthen the relationship of the both countries and encourage development  in agricultural sector in Indonesia.  Ambassador Esti Andayani said that the MoU will facilitate the implementation of exchange information of agriculture, training for capacity building and joint research of the two countries’ agriculture research centers.

Indonesia and Italy have good relations which have been established since 1959 and they just celebrated the 70th diplomatic relations in 2019. Italy is the 3rd biggest trade partner for Indonesia among the EU countries. During theJanuary-November 2019 period, the trade values of the two countries reached to US$3.17 billion dollars.

Singapore confirmed on Thursday (23/1/2020 that it had found a corona virus case that had killed 17 people so far in China. The Singapore Ministry of Health said that a 66-year-old man from Wuhan who entered Singapore on January 20, 2020 was infected with the corona virus. Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, China, is believed to be the main source of the epidemic of the corona virus which has the technical name '2019-nCoV'. Singapore is the latest country to declare an outbreak case of corona virus after China, the United States, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, South Korea and Macau. In addition to the male patient, Singapore also said, there was a 53-year-old woman from Wuhan who was detected positive of initial corona virus tests. This woman is now also in an area of isolation to prevent the spread. Singapore estimates that there will be more corona virus cases, considering that the country has many international passengers. Changi Airport in Singapore receives 430 traffic flights from China every week. Changi Airport authority has actually been monitoring flights from Wulan since the beginning of the year, but on Wednesday (1/22) all flights from China were tightened. China detained about 20 million people at the virus spread center in Wuhan on Thursday (1/23). However, the World Health Organization (WHO) said, the spread of this virus has not officially become a matter of health emergencies.

Singapore as a country that has just announced that there are citizens affected by the corona virus outbreak, is trying to anticipate the epidemic in many ways, especially at airports.

What is our common concern, of course, is that preventive measures must be taken immediately by the international community regarding the outbreak of this virus when the corona virus has increasingly spread globally. It is proper that there are joint step and commitment to prevent the outbreak of this corona virus.