VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi attends a meeting at the Ittihadia presidential palace in Cairo on Nov 15, 2023. (File photo: AFP/Khaled Desouki) - 

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s President Tharman Shanmugaratnam has written to Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to congratulate him on his re-election as president, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said on Wednesday (Dec 20).

Mr Sisi took 89.6 per cent of the vote during Egypt’s Dec 10 to Dec 12 presidential election to win a third term in office.

“Please accept my congratulations on your re-election as president of the Arab Republic of Egypt,” Mr Tharman said in his letter.

“The strong mandate that you received is especially important in the midst of the conflicts in the region and the key role that Egypt plays in both coordinating humanitarian aid into Gaza and in the pursuit of peace.”

Mr Tharman noted that Singapore and Egypt enjoy a “warm and long-standing partnership” that is “underpinned by strong political, economic and people-to-people ties”.

He added that cooperation between the two countries continues to deepen and has expanded into areas like capacity building, civil aviation and tourism.

“I look forward to continuing to work with you to further enhance bilateral ties,” said Mr Tharman//CNA-VOI

FILE PHOTO: People stroll past Christmas lights and decorations at the outdoor Christmas market at Humboldt Forum in central Berlin, Germany, on Dec 11, 2023. (Photo: REUTERS/Lisi Niesner) - 

LONDON/MUNICH: Travel within Europe in the busy holiday season is exceeding 2022 levels, despite security warnings from authorities around Europe as consumers remain determined to enjoy holidays, prolonging the post-pandemic travel boom.

Christmas markets and popular tourist sites in cities such as Munich and Paris have been bustling lately, albeit with strong security presences, as holiday travel within the European Union and including Britain was set to climb 22 per cent above 2022 levels, according to travel data firm ForwardKeys.

The spike has been driven by continued post-pandemic demand, executives and analysts said, with some people only travelling to see their families for Christmas this year for the first time since the pandemic.

But security warnings remain in the back of tourists' minds. In late November, European security officials warned of a growing risk of attacks tied to the Israel-Hamas war, with the biggest threat from potential "lone wolf" assailants.

Two militant attacks in France and Belgium in October killed three people, and these two countries, Austria, Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina have raised their terrorism threat alert levels. Italy has reimposed border controls with Slovenia, citing the risk of militants entering the country.

There was a slight spike in ticket cancellations over the Christmas period between Dec 21 and 31, ForwardKeys said, from 2.4 per cent to 3 per cent since Nov 24.

"Although this number is small, this could be an impact of the terrorism warning sent throughout Europe since the start of the recent conflict in Israel," said Juan Gomez, an analyst at ForwardKeys.

But tourists continued to swarm popular destinations, displaying an increased trust in the security apparatus in place across European hubs.

"I feel very safe and very conscious of the state of the world. And it's certainly something I think about every day, both conflicts in Europe, conflicts in the Middle East," said Gwen Fitzgerald, who visited a Christmas market in Munich this week from Boston.

"But I also really am desperate for joy at the same time."

Christmas arrivals to places such as Italy, Austria and Sweden have also grown by 25 per cent or more year-on-year.

Tourists said that, with the rise in warnings in recent years and the reinforced security around Europe tied to them, there was more of a sense of calm and they felt comfortable not calling off their travel plans.

"When we are here and we stay just one day in the downtown, we see a lot of police and security, we feel safe," said Danny Sanchez, a tourist from Villareal, Spain, visiting the Munich market//CNA-VOI

Egypt's current Permanent Representative of Egypt to the UN Osama Abdekhalek, Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia, Palestinian UN envoy Riyad H. Mansour, and Chinese Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun interact on the day of a meeting of Members of the United Nations Security Council for voting on a proposal to demand that Israel and Hamas allow aid access to the Gaza Strip at UN headquarters in New York on Dec 19, 2023. (Photo: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton) -- 

UNITED NATIONS: A United Nations Security Council vote on a bid to boost aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip has been delayed by another day as talks continue to try and avoid a third US veto of action over the two-month long Israel-Hamas war, diplomats said on Tuesday (Dec 19).

The 15-member council was initially going to vote on a resolution - drafted by the United Arab Emirates - on Monday. But it has repeatedly been delayed as diplomats say the UAE and the US struggle to agree on language citing a cessation of hostilities and a proposal to set up UN aid monitoring. 

When asked if they were getting close to an agreement, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters on Tuesday: "We're trying, we really are."

The draft resolution would demand Israel and Hamas allow and facilitate land, sea and air deliveries of aid to and throughout the Gaza Strip and ask the United Nations to monitor humanitarian assistance arriving in the Palestinian enclave.

Diplomats said the United States wants to tone done language that "calls for the urgent suspension of hostilities to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and for urgent steps towards a sustainable cessation of hostilities."

The United States and Israel oppose a ceasefire because they believe it would only benefit Hamas. Washington instead supports pauses in fighting to protect civilians and allow the release of hostages taken by Hamas.

Washington traditionally shields its ally Israel from any Security Council action. It had already twice vetoed Security Council action since an Oct 7 attack by Hamas that Israel says killed 1,200 people and saw 240 people taken hostage.

Israel has retaliated against Hamas by bombarding Gaza from the air, imposing a siege and launching a ground offensive. Nearly 20,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza health officials. U.N. officials warn of a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza with the majority of the coastal Palestinian enclave's 2.3 million people driven from their homes.

Diplomats said that Washington is also unhappy with a proposal in the UAE draft resolution that asks UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to establish a monitoring mechanism in Gaza "to exclusively monitor all humanitarian relief consignments to Gaza provided through land, sea and air routes of those states that are not parties to the conflict."

Limited humanitarian aid and fuel deliveries have crossed into Gaza via the Rafah crossing from Egypt, subjected to monitoring by Israel, but UN officials and aid workers say it comes nowhere near to satisfying the most basic needs of Gazans.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Tuesday that on Sunday 102 aid trucks and four tankers of fuel had entered Gaza via the Rafah and 79 trucks entered Gaza via Kerem Shalom.

"This is well below the daily average of 500 truckloads (including fuel and private sector goods) that entered every working day prior to 7 October," it said in a statement.

Earlier this month the 193-member UN General Assembly demanded a humanitarian ceasefire, with 153 states voting in favour of the move that had been vetoed by the United States in the Security Council days earlier.

A seven-day pause - during which Hamas released some hostages, some Palestinians were freed from Israeli jails and there was an increase in aid to Gaza - had ended on Dec 1//CNA-VOI

Indonesians head to the polls on Feb 14, 2024, in what has been called the world's biggest single-day elections. (File photo: Reuters/Willy Kurniawan) - 

SINGAPORE/JAKARTA: Indonesia’s financial intelligence government agency has found suspicious transactions involving trillions of rupiah related to the upcoming legislative elections. The transactions – one trillion rupiah is about US$64.4 million – implicate thousands of individuals with “various political affiliates”, said the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK).

"We have observed irregularities that signal potential illicit payments,” PPATK head Ivan Yustiavandana told local media.

“We are talking trillions, we are talking very large numbers, we are talking thousands of names, we are talking about all political parties.” 

The discovery occurs ahead of over 204 million Indonesians casting their votes on Feb 14, 2024 in what has been called the world's biggest single-day elections. 

Besides a new president and vice-president, Indonesians will also elect about 20,000 national, provincial and regency level parliamentary members, as well as senators. 

In November next year, Indonesians will elect their governors, regents and mayors.

PPATK did not name any candidates involved but said the investigation was into the accounts of people listed as registered legislative candidates.

According to the Jawa Pos news site, suspicions began when the PPATK noticed the special campaign fund accounts (RKDK) of parties, which are used to finance political campaigns, were relatively stagnant, if not flat.

Political parties are required to provide initial campaign fund reports and special campaign fund accounts (RKDK) to Indonesia’s General Elections Commission (KPU) no later than 14 days after they are determined as election participants, according to the commission’s website.

An RKDK account for campaigning parties must be set up before the campaign period, which began on Nov 28, and closes after the counting of votes ends.

While the RKDKs remained relatively stagnant, the financial intelligence agency noticed significant transactions in other accounts of the registered legislative candidates, which reached trillions of rupiah and dramatically increased in the second half of this year.  

"This indicates a discrepancy. We wonder, where does the financing come from if the RKDK is not active?" Mr Ivan reportedly said. 

President Joko Widodo on Tuesday instructed law enforcement agencies to follow up on the findings of PPATK, according to Tempo. 

“Everything must be done according to the existing rules … According to the rules, there will be legal procedures,” he said. 

The discovery has highlighted the “power of money” in Indonesia’s elections, an anti-corruption official told CNA.

According to research by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), success in legislative and regional head elections is 95.5 per cent determined by money, said Mr Amir Arief, the commission’s director of Anti-Corruption Socialisation and Campaign//CNA-VOI