VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

President Jair Bolsonaro ignored state Covid-19 safety regulations when he met with hundreds of supporters at an unscheduled visit to the city of Senador La Rocque in Maranhao state, Brazil on May 21, 2021 AFP/Isac NOBREGA - 

President Jair Bolsonaro must pay a fine for failing to adhere to state health safety regulations at a public event, the governor of Maranhao state said, as Brazil struggles to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

Health authorities filed the case against Bolsonaro "for the promotion in Maranhao of gatherings with no sanitary safeguards. The law applies to everyone," the governor of the northeastern state, leftist Flavio Dino, tweeted late Friday.

Dino reminded the public that gatherings of more than 100 people are banned in his state, and the use of face masks is mandatory.

Bolsonaro's office has 15 days to appeal, after which the amount of the fine will be set. The office did not answer requests for comment from AFP.

On Friday, Bolsonaro handed out rural property titles in Acailandia, some 500km from Sao Luis, capital of Maranhao state.

At the event the maskless Bolsonaro blasted Governor Dino as a "chubby dictator."

The far-right Brazilian president opposes coronavirus confinement rules, and has attacked state governors who impose local health restrictions as "dictators."

Brazil has the world's second highest coronavirus death toll, after the United States.

The first case in Brazil of the Indian COVID-19 variant was confirmed Thursday in Maranhao - one of the country's poorest states - among six crew members of a cargo ship registered in Hong Kong//CNA

A truck loaded with humanitarian aid passes through the Kerem Shalom crossing into Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. (Photo: AFP/SAID KHATIB) - 

The ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza was holding Saturday (May 22), as humanitarian aid began to enter the Israeli-blockaded enclave ravaged by 11 days of bloodshed.

As thousands of displaced Palestinians returned to their homes, and Israelis began to resume normal life on Friday, international focus turned to the reconstruction of the bomb-shattered Gaza Strip.

In Jerusalem, however, Israeli police cracked down on stone-throwing protesters at the highly sensitive Al-Aqsa mosque compound, in a sign of how volatile the situation remains, two weeks after similar clashes sparked the conflict's worst escalation in years.

Israeli forces beat an AFP photographer who was covering the unrest there.

Clashes also broke out in several other parts of Israeli-occupied east Jerusalem, and at the crossing point between Jerusalem and the West Bank, Israeli police said, adding that hundreds of officers and border guards had been mobilised.

US President Joe Biden said he had told the Israelis to stop "intercommunal fighting" in Jerusalem, and pledged to help organise efforts to rebuild Gaza.

He also stressed "we still need a two-state solution. It is the only answer, the only answer".

Convoys of lorries carrying aid began passing into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing after it was reopened by Israel, bringing much-needed medicine, food and fuel.

The UN's Central Emergency Response Fund said it had released US$18.5 million for humanitarian efforts.

In total, Israeli air strikes have killed 248 people including 66 children since May 10, and wounded 1,948 others, the health ministry has said. Fighters are also among those killed.

Large areas have been flattened and some 120,000 people have been displaced, according to Hamas//CNA

The North Maluku police continue to make contribution to Indonesia's COVID-19 prevention efforts by conducting antigen tests to 119 visitors of Jikomalamo and Sulamadaha Beaches in Ternate Island on May 23, 2021. (Abdul Fatah) - 

The North Maluku police continue to make contribution to Indonesia's COVID-19 prevention efforts by conducting antigen tests to 119 visitors of Jikomalamo and Sulamadaha Beaches in Ternate Island on Sunday.

The throat swab tests were carried out by members of the North Maluku police's medical team who randomly picked the visitors, North Maluku Police Spokesperson Senior Commissioner Adip Rojikan said.

The police's health workers confirmed that 81 visitors of Jikomalamo Beach and 38 visitors of Sulamadaha Beach who participated in this COVID-19 screening had negative antigen test results, he said.

In addition to the early detection of COVID-19 through the antigen test to make visitors of tourist spots in North Maluku comfortable and stay safe, they are still required to keep practicing the government's recommended health protocols, Rojikan added.'

The novel coronavirus disease outbreak initially struck the Chinese city of Wuhan in 2019 and thereafter spread to various parts of the world, including countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Indonesian government announced the country's first confirmed cases on March 2, 2020.

Since then, the central and regional governments have made persistent efforts to flatten the coronavirus curve by imposing healthcare protocols and social restrictions.

To break the chain of transmission of COVID-19, which has impacted the purchasing power of scores of families in Indonesia, the government also banned homebound travel, or "mudik," ahead of this year's Eid al-Fitr holiday season akin to last year.

As of Saturday, Indonesia's total number of COVID-19 cases was recorded at 1,769,940.

President Joko Widodo recently said the people at large have been struggling to deal with the wide-ranging impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on the public health and economy since March last year.

Indonesia has continually striven to win the fight against this global coronavirus disease pandemic that has acutely impacted its economy and public health.

The Indonesian government has begun a nationwide vaccination program to contain infections since January 13, 2021.

As of Saturday, the number of fully vaccinated Indonesians had reached 9,366,635, while the total count of those receiving their first COVID-19 jab was recorded at 14,099,754.

The Indonesian Health Ministry had pegged the vaccination of some 181.5 million people under the national program to take about 15 months//ANT

Legislator calls for good cyber security to protect citizens's data - 

Indonesia must have good cyber security as the alleged data leakage of 279 million Indonesians is a warning for the country's cyber resilience , according to Guspardi Gaus, member of Commission II of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR).

"The alleged leakage of personal data of the Indonesian people shows that the protection of personal data in Indonesia is still very weak. And in the end, the people are always the victims," he said here o Sunday.

He said that the Ministry of Home Affairs has confirmed that the data leakage did not originate from the ministry.

Based on an investigation by the Ministry of Communication and Informatics (Kominfo), the circulating data samples are identical to the data from BPJS Health public insurance.

"The Kominfo ministry should take steps by immediately blocking the Raidforums.com site so that access to the site cannot be done," he said.

He called on that of the DPR's Commission IX to immediately summon the BPJS Health directors to be questioned regarding the case.

The DPR member asked law enforcement officials and related institutions to act immediately to find out the cause the data breach and those responsible for the leak of data later traded on the Raidforums.com hacker forum.

All digital platform providers and personal data managers must improve their data security system to protect the personal data, he said.

"The government must to take preventive steps so that similar incidents will not happen again in the future and efforts to protect personal data can be guaranteed, because the confidentiality and security of population data is very important," he said.

He expressed his worry that the leakage of population data would be exploited by irresponsible parties//ANT