VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Workers complete work on a logo of Pertamina Mandalika International Street Circuit in Central Lombok district, West Nusa Tenggara province, on March 16, 2022. (ANTARA/Akhyar/aa/uyu) - 

The Pertamina Mandalika International Street Circuit in Central Lombok District, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) Province, which is currently hosting the Grand Prix of Indonesia for the first time, has passed the circuit homologation test with grade A.

“According to the track inspection held by the Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), Dorna Sports, and International Road-Racing Team Association (IRTA) on March 17, 2022, the circuit has successfully passed grade A homologation," President Director of state-run Indonesia Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) Abdulbar M. Mansoer said in a statement received here on Saturday.

Since grade A is the highest circuit grade, it means that Pertamina Mandalika International Street Circuit is cleared for hosting a MotoGP racing event, he explained.

The participants of the Pertamina Grand Prix of Indonesia have also found the 4.3-kilometer circuit to be safer compared to during the pre-season test from February 11–13, 2022.

During the pre-season test, racers had complained of the dirty, dusty, and peeling asphalt, saying they had to deal with bits of loosened asphalt sprayed from the tires of racers in front.

As it was a new circuit, which had only held the World Superbike (WSBK) event on November 19–21, 2021, before the implementation of the Pertamina Grand Prix of Indonesia from March 18–20, 2022, the track lacked a racing line.

The narrow racing line left MotoGP participants unable to ride their motorbikes optimally.

Hence, considering the results of the pre-season test, Dorna Sports and FIM asked ITDC’s subsidiary Mandalika Grand Prix Association (MGPA), as the circuit manager, to maintain the cleanliness of the track surface as well as re-pave about 17.5 percent of the total track length.

Following the re-pavement, racers reported an improvement in the track during a free practice session on March 18, 2022.

"It feels different. During the pre-season test, bits of asphalt stones were thrown. However, at this practice session, the debris is smaller. Thus, it is better," Yamaha Factory Racing’s rider Fabio Quartararo remarked.

He also said that the racing line at the practice session is much better since before the MotoGP bikes used the circuit for practicing, the track had been used by Asian Talent Cup, Moto3, and Moto2 bikes.

Team Suzuki Ecstar’s racer Joan Mir also said that the track is safe enough to be used after he completed the second practice session.

"The track is safe. I could still feel small stones thrown when I was behind the other riders. However, it is normal," he added.

Earlier, the circuit had received a grade B in the circuit homologation test amid the implementation of the 2021 WSBK.//ANT

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during a demonstration for peace, via videolink, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in front of the seat of the Swiss federal parliament Bundeshaus in Bern, Switzerland Mar 19, 2022. (Photo: REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann) - 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Saturday for comprehensive peace talks with Moscow and also urged Switzerland to do more to crack down on Russian oligarchs who he said were helping wage war on his country with their money.

British intelligence warned that Russia, frustrated by its failure to achieve its objectives since it launched the invasion on Feb 24, was now pursuing a strategy of attrition that could intensify the humanitarian crisis.

Russian forces have taken heavy losses and their advance has largely stalled since President Vladimir Putin launched the assault, with long columns of troops that bore down on Kyiv halted in the suburbs.

But they have laid siege to cities, blasting urban areas to rubble, and in recent days have intensified missile attacks on scattered targets in western Ukraine, away from the main battlefields.

Zelenskyy, who makes frequent impassioned appeals to foreign audiences for help for his country, told an anti-war protest in Bern that Swiss banks were where the "money of the people who unleashed this war" lay and their accounts should be frozen.

Ukrainian cities "are being destroyed on the orders of people who live in European, in beautiful Swiss towns, who enjoy property in your cities. It would really be good to strip them of this privilege," he said in an audio address.

Neutral Switzerland, which is not a member of the European Union, has fully adopted EU sanctions against Russian individuals and entities, including orders to freeze their wealth in Swiss banks.

The EU measures are part of a wider sanctions effort by Western nations, criticised by China, aimed at squeezing Russia's economy and starving its war machine.

In an address earlier on Saturday, Zelenskyy urged Moscow to hold peace talks now.

"I want everyone to hear me now, especially in Moscow. The time has come for a meeting, it is time to talk," he said in a video address. "The time has come to restore territorial integrity and justice for Ukraine. Otherwise, Russia's losses will be such that it will take you several generations to recover."

Britain's Defence Attaché to the United States said British intelligence believes Russia has been taken aback by the Ukrainian resistance to its assault and has so far failed to achieve its original objectives.

"Russia has been forced to change its operational approach and is now pursuing a strategy of attrition" likely to involve the "indiscriminate use of firepower resulting in increased civilian casualties", Air Vice-Marshal Mick Smeath said in a statement.

Putin, who calls the action a "special operation" aimed at demilitarising Ukraine and purging it of what he sees as dangerous nationalists, told a rally on Friday in Moscow that all the Kremlin's aims would be achieved.

On Saturday, Russia said its hypersonic missiles had destroyed a large underground depot for missiles and aircraft ammunition in the western Ivano-Frankivsk region. Hypersonic weapons can travel faster than five times the speed of sound and the Interfax agency said it was the first time Russia had used them in Ukraine.

A spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force Command confirmed the attack, but said the Ukrainian side had no information on the type of missiles used.

Even so, the Ukrainian defence ministry, in an update posted on Facebook, said "the operational situation has not changed significantly". Troops were concentrating their efforts around the strategically important cities of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Mariupol and Mykolayiv, it said, adding that "Russian troops continue to suffer heavy losses".The Ukrainian military command in charge of forces in two breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine said they had fought off 10 attacks on Saturday, destroying a total of 28 tanks, armoured personnel carriers and arnoured cars and killing more than 100 soldiers. Reuters was unable to independently corroborate the claim.

The UN human rights office said at least 847 civilians had been killed and 1,399 wounded in Ukraine as of Friday, with the real figure likely much higher. The Ukrainian prosecutor general's office said 112 children were among the dead. Russia says it is not targeting civilians.

Kyiv authorities said on Saturday that 228 people had been killed in the capital since Russia's invasion began, including four children.

A further 912 people have been wounded, the Kyiv city administration said in a statement.

Reuters has not been able to independently confirm casualty figures.

Ordinary Ukrainians have joined the effort to defend their country, such as at a training facility in Odessa, a picturesque, multicultural Black Sea port, where young urban professionals were learning about handling weapons and applying first aid.

"Every person should know how to fight, how to make medicine," said 26-year-old graphic designer Olga Moroz.

More than 3.3 million refugees have fled Ukraine through its western border, with around 2 more million displaced inside the country. Ukraine has evacuated 190,000 civilians from frontline areas via humanitarian corridors, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Saturday.

"I'll go (to Germany) for three weeks but I hope I can go home after that," said Olga Pavlovska, a 28-year-old refugee in the Polish town of Przemysl, hoping Zelenskyy's calls for comprehensive peace talks will end the invasion.

Hundreds of thousands have been trapped in the port city of Mariupol for more than two weeks with power, water and heat supplies cut off. Bodies amid the rubble are a common sight. Local officials say fighting has reached the city centre and heavy shelling kept humanitarian aid from getting in.

About 600 residential buildings in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv have been destroyed and are unfit for habitation since the start of the Russian invasion, Kharkiv's regional governor Oleh Synyehubov said.

Rescue workers were still searching for survivors in a Mariupol theatre that authorities say was flattened by Russian air strikes on Wednesday. Russia denies hitting the theatre.

Interfax quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying Moscow expected its operation in Ukraine to end with a signing of a comprehensive agreement on security issues, including Ukraine's neutral status.

Kyiv and Moscow reported some progress in talks this week towards a political formula that would guarantee Ukraine's security, while keeping it outside NATO, though both sides accused each other of dragging things out. 

China has not condemned Russia's invasion, though it has expressed concern about the war. 

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng said on Saturday Western sanctions against Russia were getting "more and more outrageous"//CNA

Police put the Paris turnout at 2,100, while organise said at least 8,000 marched (Photo: AFP/Christophe ARCHAMBAULT) - 

Thousands of people in several French cities marched on Saturday (Mar 19) to protest racism and police brutality.

In Paris, protesters paraded through the city centre behind a banner condemning "state crimes". Other demonstrators carried "Black Lives Matter" banners.

Several people spoke at the rally to tell the stories of members of their families who had died at the hands of the police.

Interior ministry figures put the turnout out at 2,100, but the march organisers estimated 8,000-10,000.

The interior ministry said another 11 protests took place elsewhere in France, saying the total turnout for these protests was 1,400.

Other protests took place in Bordeaux and Toulouse in the southwest, and Lyon in the southeast.

Saturday's demonstration comes two days ahead of International Day for the Elimination of Racism. It is held on Mar 21 to mark the day, in 1960, that police in apartheid South Africa opened fire on a peaceful demonstration, killing 69 people//CNA

FILE PHOTO: A participant stands near a logo of IMF at the International Monetary Fund - World Bank Annual Meeting 2018 in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, October 12, 2018. REUTERS/Johannes P. Christo - 

The International Monetary Fund's executive board will meet on Mar 25 to discuss Argentina's request for a debt deal, an IMF spokesman said on Saturday (Mar 19).

Argentina's Senate voted on Thursday to approve a US$45 billion debt deal with the IMF, converting the agreement into law and ensuring that the economically battered country can avoid another messy default.

The deal still needs to be signed off by the IMF's board. The IMF spokesman, Gerry Rice, said in a statement that "the legislative approval is an important signal that Argentina is committed to policies that will encourage more sustainable and inclusive growth."//CNA