VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOInews, Jakarta: The Saudi Arabian Embassy in Jakarta on Monday (18/12) hosted a celebration of World Arabic Language Day at the Institute of Islamic and Arabic Science in South Jakarta. The celebration took the theme 'Arabic: The Language of Poetry and Art'. The event was attended by ambassadors from Arab countries, the Indonesian Arabic Language Teachers Association, and several delegates from Islamic universities around Indonesia. This annual celebration was also enlivened by the reading of Arabic poetry and role-play dramas acted out by the academic community of the Institute of Islamic and Arabic Science.

Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Faisal Abdullah El 'Amudi, in his opening remarks, said that the Government of Saudi Arabia has great attention to the development of the Arabic language, which according to him has advantages as an Islamic identity and the language of the Koran. "Attention to the Arabic language has been carried out by the founders of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, since King Abdul Aziz, then the rulers who guard the two holy mosques after that in spreading the Arabic language in various corners of the world." according to the Ambassador who was appointed in January 2023.

"Attention to the Arabic language is carried out through the establishment of various special institutions related to the Arabic language in all Islamic countries, including Indonesia. Arabic is the identity of Muslims and the language of the Koran. Our attention to the Arabic language is in line with the context of maintaining our identity. We hope that those who are concerned about Arabic in Indonesia will continue to collaborate, and the Saudi embassy is very open to cooperation." said Ambassador Faisal Abdullah to the media crew.

World Arabic Language Day is celebrated every December 18. On that date in 1973, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Arabic as the sixth official language of the UN organization. As reported by the UN website, Arabic is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, used every day by more than 400 million people. The Saudi Arabian Government's support for the development of Arabic in Indonesia was proven among others through the development of the Institute for Islamic and Arabic Religious Sciences (LIPIA) in 1980. The institution, which is a branch of Imam Muhammad bin Saud University, now has 4 campuses in Jakarta, Aceh, Medan, and Surabaya, and has produced 21,000 alumni since its founding.

An aerial view shows flooding caused by heavy rains and water gushing through the Barron River, in Cairns, Queensland, Australia on Dec 18, 2023, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. (Screengrab: Brent Paterson via Reuters) - 

SYDNEY: Residents in Australia's northeast on Tuesday (Dec 19) took stock of flood damages from former Tropical Cyclone Jasper and authorities accelerated efforts to rescue people stranded in remote towns as rivers stayed above dangerous levels.

Jasper made landfall last week as a category 2 storm, three rungs below the most dangerous wind speed level, in the far north of Queensland state, home to several resorts along the world-famous Great Barrier Reef.

It was soon downgraded to a tropical low but the system moved slowly, dumping months worth of rain over four days, cutting off entire towns, and inundating homes, roads and farms.

Conditions have since eased with military personnel joining the state's emergency crews on evacuations and relief efforts. Search continued for an 85-year-old man missing in flood waters.

Flights from Cairns Airport, the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, will resume on Tuesday, officials said.

"Today, we will really see the beginning of the recovery effort across much of Far North Queensland. So, there'll be a big focus on recovery work," Federal Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

"We're going to see a very large amount of property damage ... So, I think we're up for a pretty expensive repair bill," Watt said.

The Insurance Council of Australia said the flooding could be escalated to an insurance catastrophe if there was a spike in claims, though it was too early to determine the full impact.

Television footage showed residents walking through homes strewn with debris and sludge after water levels receded in some towns during a pause in rains.

Authorities said most of the 300 residents from the flooded remote Indigenous town of Wujal Wujal will be evacuated soon. Some residents there had to wade through crocodile-infested waters to get to higher ground, according to media reports.

A 2.8m-long crocodile was captured on Monday in a storm drain in Ingham, a town of about 5,000. Crocodile sightings in north Queensland are more common in rivers, lagoons and swamps in rural areas//CNA-VOI

A South Korean building complex is seen in the background as North Korean soldiers guard the truce village at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) which separates the two Koreas in Panmunjom, North Korea on Jun 20, 2018. (Photo: AP/Dita Alangkara) - 

SEOUL: International troops stationed on the South Korean side of the truce village of Panmunjom on the border with North Korea who had been unarmed can resume carrying guns, the United Nations Command (UNC) said on Tuesday (Dec 19).

The US-led UNC is a multinational military force and oversees affairs in the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas, which remain technically at war.

Panmunjom, which has been a popular tourist destination, is known formally as the Joint Security Area (JSA) - a cluster of buildings that has hosted inter-Korean talks and where troops from both sides stand almost face to face.

The decision this month to allow UNC troops to carry guns came after North Korean soldiers of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) had resumed "an armed security posture" in the area, said Colonel Isaac Taylor, the spokesperson for the UNC.

Taylor said the move was aimed at protecting both civilian and military personnel in the border area.

"This action is being taken out of an abundance of caution, but UNC has also informed the ROK (South Korea) government and KPA of its position that a disarmed JSA is safer and more peaceful for the Korean Peninsula," Taylor said.

The two Koreas had agreed not to arm their troops on the JSA under a 2018 inter-Korean military pact, but North Korean troops have been reported to be carrying guns since November after a partial unravelling of the agreement.

Last month, South Korea suspended part of the pact aimed at de-escalating border tensions in a protest over Pyongyang's launch of a spy satellite.

North Korea responded by scrapping the accord and pledging to deploy stronger armed forces and new weapons on the border.

Taking a tour to the DMZ has been a popular activity for tourists looking to get a glimpse of the reclusive authoritarian state, but the trips to the JSA were suspended after a US soldier dashed across the border in July.

South Korea said some JSA tours restarted last month, though media reports said they had been suspended again due to increased tensions with the North//CNA-VOI

Tourism and Creative economy Minister, Sandiaga Uno during the Press briefing - 

Voinews, Jakarta - Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy/Head of the Tourism and Creative Economy Agency (Menparekraf/Kabaparekraf) Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno appreciated the launch of the Exclusive Catalog "Portraits of Featured Health Service Facilities" as an effort to support the special interest tourism ecosystem, especially health tourism in the country.

Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga, during "The Weekly Brief With Sandi Uno" at the Sapta Pesona Building, Central Jakarta, Monday (18/12/2023) explained that the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy together with the Indonesian Health Tourism Medical Association (PERKEDWI) are collaborating in health tourism development activities.

"We appreciate the compilation of this exclusive catalog as a reference for finding out the superior services provided by the best hospitals in Indonesia," he said.

Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga explained that health tourism is a form of special interest tourism which is divided into four subsectors. First, medical tourism to get medical services, where many Indonesians actually go abroad to enjoy them. Second, fitness tourism, namely to get overall fitness, both body, mind and soul.

According to a release received by Voice of Indonesia on Tuesday, the third is sports tourism or sports-based tourism. And the fourth is MICE tourism (meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions) which is specific to medical science.

The Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy gave the example of MICE tourism which includes special interest health tourism such as international symposiums on cancer, pediatricians, or international dentist symposiums.

"So in total for health tourism, around 2 million Indonesians have gone abroad and spent a total of IDR 160 trillion per year. So we are aiming to reduce this leakage by working on health tourism segments," he said.

On the same occasion, the General Chairperson of PP Perkedwi, dr. Mukti Eka Rahadian explained that PERKEDWI's concrete form of contributing to the development of the tourism sector is through preparing a catalog which is expected to be able to support a tourism ecosystem that is centered on superior health and medical services.

"We hope that in the future this book will become a reference and model in building medical tourism destinations together with tourism partners. "Next year we are ready to collaborate to create health tourism destinations that are of interest to tourists in the country," he said.

Present to accompany the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy at WBSU both offline and online were echelon I and II officials within the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy/Baparekraf//VOI