VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi during an online seminar on women's role in UN peace missions on Thursday. (ANTARA/HO-Kemlu RI) - 

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi highlighted Indonesian women's increased participation in various United Nations peace missions during an online seminar on Thursday (July 8, 2021).

"The fact that a total of 183 (Indonesian) female soldiers are joining various UN peace missions shows Indonesian commitment to increase their number and support the creation of a conducive environment for female soldiers in the UN mission," she said in the written statement of the Indonesian Foreign Ministry on Friday.

Breaking barriers for women in peacekeeping is indispensable to ensuring the full participation of women in peace missions, the minister said at the seminar on Action for Peacekeeping (A4P) Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Champions: Practical Recommendations for Breaking Barriers for Women in Peacekeeping.

"This recommendation (I) conveyed today can hopefully become an input for the UN to formulate policies which will serve as a catalyst to promote women's role in UN missions," she added.

She made three recommendations for promoting Indonesian women's role in UN peace missions. 

The first recommendation concerns the importance of designing infrastructure sensitive to gender in peace missions, Marsudi said. Ensuring a secure environment for female UN peacekeepers is the top priority of Indonesia as one of the biggest contributors of soldiers to the UN mission, she added.

"The second thing which is of equal importance is identifying barriers at the national level," she pointed out.

The identification of barriers must be adjusted to the local culture and situation of each country to achieve maximum results, she said.

Lastly, she stressed Indonesia's support for female peacekeeper networking. "This networking will give additional support to increase the number of female soldiers in UN missions," she explained.

She said full, effective, and meaningful participation of women in UN missions is a common responsibility.

"Indonesia will always commit to be part of this," she said.

The A4P WPS meeting was part of a series of online expert-level seminars jointly organized by Indonesia, Ireland, Germany, Bangladesh, South Africa, Kenya, and Namibia//ANT

A family wears protective masks as they ride a motorbike in the street amid the COVID-19 outbreak in Hanoi, Vietnam, Jan 29, 2021. (File photo: REUTERS/Thanh Hue) - 

Vietnam has received the first shipment of 2 million doses of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine donated by the US government, the American embassy in Hanoi said on Saturday (Jul 10), as the country battles its worst outbreak.

The shipment, delivered via the COVAX sharing facility, is part of the 80 million vaccine doses President Joe Biden committed from US vaccine supplies to support global needs, the embassy said in an emailed statement.

The health ministry reported 1,625 new infections on Friday, the fifth straight day of more than 1,000 cases. Vietnam has recorded 26,600 infections overall and 110 deaths, which is still relatively low compared with European nations, India and the United States.

Most of Vietnam's new cases are in epicentre Ho Chi Minh City, which on Friday - along with some other cities - began 15 days of broad movement restrictions.

State media reports said on Saturday that half of the Moderna doses would be funnelled to Ho Chi Minh City's 9 million people.

Vietnam has so far received around 8 million vaccine doses, mostly under the international COVAX sharing facility.

More than 4 million doses have been administered, but only about 258,000 people have been fully vaccinated out of its total population of 98 million//CNA

Police stand guard near the private residence of Haiti's President Jovenel Moise after he was shot dead by gunmen with assault rifles, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti Jul 7, 2021. (Photo: REUTERS/Estailove St-Val) - 

Haiti has asked Washington and the United Nations to send troops to help it secure its ports, airport and other strategic sites after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, a government minister said on Friday (Jul 9).

The United States has already said it will send the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other agents to Port-au-Prince, two days after Moise was brutally killed by gunmen in his home, opening up a power vacuum in the impoverished and crisis-hit Caribbean nation.

In the wake of the slaying, "we thought that the mercenaries could destroy some infrastructure to create chaos in the country. During a conversation with the US Secretary of State and the UN we made this request", elections minister Mathias Pierre told AFP.

The US State Department and Pentagon both confirmed receiving a request for "security and investigative assistance" and said officials remain in contact with Port-au-Prince, but did not specify whether military troops would be deployed.

The UN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Washington had signalled its willingness to help the Haitian investigation, and White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki added on Friday that senior FBI and other officials would be heading to the Caribbean as soon as possible.

Pierre confirmed that the request had been made as questions swirled on Friday about who could have masterminded the audacious assassination, with most members of a hit squad of Colombians and Americans either dead or in custody, and no clear motive made public.

Amid the uncertainty, two men are now vying to lead the country of 11 million people, more than half of whom are under age 20. There is no working parliament.

After days of paralysis in the capital, Port-au-Prince saw the timid return of people to the streets, shops opening and the resumption of public transport on Friday morning - but under a pall of apprehension.

People scrambled to stock up on basic necessities at supermarkets and lined up at gas stations to buy propane used for cooking in anticipation of more instability.

"I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow or the day after in the country, so I am preparing for bad days ahead," Port-au-Prince resident Marjory told AFP, as she and her husband stocked up on supplies at a store.

"I'm prioritising everything that can last for many days."

Gang violence, rife in the Caribbean nation, also picked up again on Friday, with clashes between groups paralysing traffic on a major highway.

The city's airport, shuttered in the wake of the attack, appeared to have reopened, according to Flightradar data//CNA

A man walks under a public health message about social distancing displayed at a shopping plaza in the city centre in Sydney, Australia, Jul 6, 2021. (Photo: REUTERS/Loren Elliott) - 

Australia's New South Wales state reported its biggest daily rise in locally acquired coronavirus infections this year on Saturday (Jul 10), with authorities warning that worse may yet to come for Sydney, which is in a three-week hard lockdown.

There were 50 new cases of community transmission in the country's most populous state, up from 44 a day earlier, the previous record high for the year. This brings the outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant to 489 cases.

"When you know that there are 26 cases infectious in the community, the only conclusion we can draw is that things are going to get worse before they get better," state Premier Gladys Berejiklian told a televised briefing.

"I think it is pretty clear that unless we reduce that level of people in the community that are infectious, we won't be able to turn things around as quickly as we can or as quickly as we should."

Vaccinations are available in Australia for now only to people above the age of 40 and those in risk groups either due to their health or work.

The country has fared much better than many other developed countries in keeping its COVID-19 numbers relatively low, but its vaccination roll-out has been among the slowest due to supply constraints and changing medical advice for its mainstay AstraZeneca shots//CNA