VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Speaker of House of Representatives Puan Maharani. (ANTARA PHOTO/Galih Pradipta/foc/rst) - 

Speaker of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR) Puan Maharani lauded the Indonesian men's badminton team for winning the Thomas Cup after beating the team from China.

"Our badminton women's doubles won the first gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics. Now, we won the Thomas Cup. This year is a moment of revival for Indonesian badminton," Maharani noted in a statement here on Monday.

The House speaker expressed pride and extended her gratitude to all Indonesian athletes, coaches, and badminton officials for winning the Thomas Cup for the 14th time, since last having won in 2002.

Maharani was grateful despite the Indonesian flag not being hoisted during the trophy ceremony at the Thomas Cup since Indonesia was sanctioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

"When athletes, coaches, officials, and all Indonesian people join in singing the national anthem 'Indonesia Raya' with their right hands on their chests, that is when our flag is actually waving," she emphasized.

The House Speaker expressed happiness, as Indonesia was finally able to beat China's team, which almost in the course of the last two decades, had dominated as the Thomas Cup champions.

The hard work of the Thomas Indonesia team also succeeded in thwarting China from becoming the defending champion in the prestigious badminton tournament.

"Currently, Indonesia had exceeded China's championship titles in the Thomas Cup. Indonesia already has 14 championship titles, while China only has 10 titles. It is a matter of great pride because Indonesian badminton has risen precisely during the COVID-19 pandemic," he stated.

Maharani also expressed optimism that the government and related agencies would immediately resolve the issue with WADA, as Indonesia cannot host regional and world sports championships if the sanction is still imposed.

The issue with WADA will tarnish Indonesia's good name in sports, especially since the Indonesian team is not allowed to carry the name and fly the country's flag in regional, continental, and world championships, except for the Olympics, according to the speaker.

She called on the government to channel greater attention to badminton, in terms of the coaching and budget, since the sport has the potential to contribute several achievements to Indonesia.

Earlier, the Indonesian Badminton Team successfully won the Thomas Cup after beating China's team, with a score of 3-0, in the final match at Ceres Arena, Aarhus, Denmark, October 17.

This success was achieved after Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto, and Jonatan Christie defeated players of China's team in three games in a row//ANT

Major General Ori Gordin, chief of Israel's Home Front Command, speaks during an interview with AFP at the command's operational centre in the central town of Ramle, on Oct 12, 2021. (Photo: AFP/Jack Guez) - 

Israel does not want war with Lebanon's Hezbollah but is prepared to face about 2,000 rockets a day from the armed group if conflict breaks out, a senior Israeli military official told AFP.

In May this year, the Israeli army fought an 11-day war against Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip, who fired around 4,400 projectiles towards the Jewish state.

Israel says its Iron Dome defence system, which has been in use for around a decade, intercepted around 90 percent of the rockets headed for populated areas, while just under 300 hit inhabited districts.

The rate of fire surpassed that seen in Israel's 2006 war against Hezbollah, when a similar number of rockets were launched from Lebanon - but over the course of around a month - the Israeli army said.

In May, cities like Tel Aviv and Ashdod experienced the "highest number of fire towards them in the history of Israel", said Uri Gordin, chief of the army's Home Front Command.

"We saw a pace of more than 400 rockets fired towards Israel on a daily basis."

He said that in the case of "conflict or a war with Hezbollah, we expect more than five times the number of rockets fired every day from Lebanon to Israel".

"Basically we are looking between 1,500 and 2,500 rockets fired daily towards Israel," he told AFP.

Set up in 1992 after the first Gulf War, Gordin's Home Front Command is in charge of civil defence, meaning it is responsible for readying the country in case of threat, conflict or disaster.

The unit was criticised for its response to the 2006 war with Hezbollah, which killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 160 Israelis, the majority of them soldiers.

That war was a "wake-up call" for the Home Front Command, Gordin said, adding that it had since beefed up its liaison units, which are now active across 250 Israeli municipalities to provide assistance in case of any attack.

The Home Front Command uses computer projections to predict a rocket's trajectory after it has been launched, and advises the public, within a specific range, to head to bomb shelters.

During the Gaza conflict in May, this allowed emergency services to "go to every incident within less than five minutes", Gordin said from the control room of the unit's headquarters in Ramla, near Tel Aviv.

He said preparations had been made for any incidents on the border with Lebanon.

An Israeli security source said the Israel army hoped for "stability" in its northern neighbour, which is mired in a crippling economic crisis and on Thursday saw deadly sectarian clashes in the capital Beirut that left seven dead, including Hezbollah members.

Iran-backed Hezbollah was "the source of instability in Lebanon", the security source said, adding that the group "exploits the state's resources for Iranian interests".

Iran is "closer to creating fissile material for nuclear weapons than they ever were in the past" but would still need two years to obtain a bomb, the source said, echoing a timeframe cited by other Israeli officials.

Tehran insists its nuclear program is for civilian purposes.

"We are preparing for all options and scenarios, including military capabilities," the security source said.

Israel has been staunchly opposed to the revival of a nuclear deal agreed between Tehran and world powers in 2015.

The agreement has been on life support since then president Donald Trump withdrew the US in 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions.

But Israel could accommodate a new deal if it ensured Tehran would never obtain a nuclear bomb, some Israeli officials have suggested recently, as top Israeli ally the US seeks to push Iran back to the negotiating table after months of suspended talks.

However, US President Joe Biden's administration also hinted on Wednesday that it could resort to force if diplomacy fails, rallying more closely than ever behind Israel warnings on the possibility of military action//CNA

A demonstrator wearing a military uniform with signs reading "UN, rights" and "OAS, rights" takes part in a protest against actions by the government of El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele, as the use of bitcoin and legal reforms to extend his term, in San Salvador, El Salvador, on Oct 17, 2021. (Photo: REUTERS/Jose Cabezas) - 

Thousands of people in El Salvador took to the streets on Sunday (Oct 17) to air a range of complaints against President Nayib Bukele, from adopting bitcoin as legal tender to firing Supreme Court judges, viewed by critics as a power grab.

At least 4,000 people, according to estimates by local media, marched through capital San Salvador with banners and signs rejecting bitcoin, which officially became legal tender in the Central American country in September, the removal of Supreme Court judges and the potential for Bukele to seek a second consecutive term.

People in the streets chanted slogans including "What does El Salvador want? Get rid of the dictator!" Near the capital's main square, protesters set fire to a doll bearing the likeness of the 40-year-old president.

Bukele proclaimed himself "dictator" of the Central American country on his Twitter account last month, in an apparent joke amid concerns about his increasing concentration of power.

In May, a Congress dominated for the first time by Bukele's New Ideas party voted to fire the judges on the constitutional panel of the Supreme Court, among the most senior jurists in the country, as well as the then-attorney general. Replacements seen as friendly to Bukele were swiftly voted in to replace them, which generated harsh criticism from the United States as well as top international rights groups.

Bukele's administration then came under fire from the United States after the Supreme Court judges ruled that the president could seek a second consecutive term, which Washington saw as unconstitutional.

"We are totally losing rights because today they do not respect the laws. Here, what's done is the will of Nayib," said Rosa Granados, a labor union member who participated in the protests.

"If he raises his hand, all the deputies approve it and there is no law and no legal process that is respected," she added.

Bukele, a seasoned and often provocative user of social media, dismissed the protests as a "failure" on his Twitter account.

"The march is a failure and they know it ... Nobody believes them here anymore," he wrote//CNA

UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen gestures while speaking during a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Russia, on Jul 22, 2021. (Photo: Sergei Ilnitsky/Pool via REUTERS) - 

The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria said on Sunday (Oct 17) the government and opposition co-chairs of the Syrian Constitutional Committee had agreed to draft a new constitution.

The drafting committee, comprising 45 representatives of Syria’s government, opposition and civil society, has a mandate to draw up a new basic law leading to UN-supervised elections.

Special Envoy Geir Pedersen said its Syrian co-chairs, who he met together for the first time ahead of week-long talks, had agreed to "prepare and start drafting constitutional reform."

The talks, the sixth round in two years and the first since January for the drafting committee, will discuss "clear principles", he told reporters in Geneva, without elaborating.

Hadi Al-Bahra, the co-chair of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, said its opposition delegation was seeking reforms including equal rights for all Syrian citizens.

"Because we don't have separation of power in the current constitution, it created an imbalance which was utilised in the wrong ways," he told a separate news briefing on Sunday night.

Each side would put forward proposed texts on issues including sovereignty and rule of law, he said.

Syrian government delegates to the talks did not speak to the media.

Syria's decade-old war spiralled out of an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule.

After support from ally Russia, Assad has recovered most of Syria, but significant areas remain outside his control: Turkish forces are deployed in much of the north and northwest and US forces are stationed in the Kurdish-controlled east and northeast.

In January Pedersen, a veteran Norwegian diplomat, said Assad's representatives had rejected proposals by the Syrian opposition as well as the envoy’s own ideas for moving the constitutional process forward.

"Since then ... I have been ... trying to be able to establish a consensus on how we are going to move forward. And I am very pleased to say that we have reached such a consensus," he said on Sunday.

Western diplomats say Russia prodded Damascus in recent weeks to show flexibility in the talks, and Pedersen has made two trips to Moscow in recent months.

"The Syrian Constitutional Committee is an important contribution to the political process but the committee in itself will not be able to solve the political crisis," he said//CNA