VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Jakarta. The Indonesian Police's anti-terror squad Densus 88 has arrested three more terror suspects with alleged links to the suicide bombing at the Cathedral Church in Makassar, South Sulawesi on Sunday (March 28, 2021).

"Today, three suspects were arrested by Densus 88. Until today, (Densus 88) has arrested 16 people in Makassar and its surrounding areas," spokesperson for South Sulawesi Police, Senior Commissioner Pol. E Zulpan, said here on Thursday.

The three suspects were picked up from three different locations, Zulpan informed, without providing further details.

"Of the total 16 suspects, six are female and the others are male," he added.

Meanwhile, two other terror suspects were released as no link was found between them and the bombing, he said.

Zulpan did not provide details on the role of each suspect in the bombing, saying that police are still investigating the case.

"We cannot give the information because the 16 suspects are still under investigation. Two other people were released. It is still under investigation of Densus 88," he said.

Two suicide bombers, believed to be a married couple, blew themselves up outside the church located on Kajaolalido Road in the Baru neighborhood area of Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province, about 10:30 a.m. local time on Sunday.

The two bombers had tried to enter the church compound around the time the Palm Sunday Mass service ended, but security guards had stopped them at the gate.

At least 20 people, including churchgoers and the church's security guards, were injured in the blast.

The suicide bombers, who reportedly belong to a JAD network, carried out the attack using a pressure cooker bomb. (Antaranews)

Jakarta. China’s TopRidge Pharma has agreed to produce more than 100 million doses of Russia’s two-shot Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19, Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund said on Thursday.

The fund, which markets Sputnik V globally, said the two sides planned to cooperate on clinical trials in China and to promote its use there.

TopRidge Pharma will be able to distribute the vaccine in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, RDIF said in a statement. (Reuters)

Jakarta. India’s temporary hold on major exports of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 shot will undermine Africa’s vaccination plans, and could have a “catastrophic” impact if extended, the head of the continent’s disease control body said on Thursday.

India decided to delay big exports of the shots made in its territory by the Serum Institute of India (SII) to make sure it could meet local demand, two sources told Reuters last week.

The hold “will definitely impact our ability to continuously vaccinate people,” the director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, told a news conference in Addis Ababa.

The African Union had planned to vaccinate 30-35% of the continent’s population by the end of the year he said. “If the vaccines are delayed we are unlikely to meet our target,” he added.

That AU target primarily relies on supplies from the global COVAX vaccine-sharing facility, through which 64 poorer countries including many in Africa are supposed to get doses from the SII. COVAX aims to provide enough shots for African countries to inoculate at least 20% of their populations.

“If the delay continues, I hope it’s a delay and not a ban, that would be catastrophic for meeting our vaccinations schedule,” Nkengasong said.

African countries have reported 4.25 million coronavirus infections and 112,000 related deaths, though experts have said the actual numbers could be higher.

The AU has also been negotiating with manufacturers to help member states secure the additional doses they will need to achieve 60% coverage.

On Monday, Johnson & Johnson announced it would supply the AU with up to 400 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine. Delivery of those doses is due to begin in the third quarter of this year and will continue through 2022.

Those doses are separate from the GAVI/WHO-backed global COVAX facility.

Nkengasong said on Thursday the AU has “pivoted” towards the J&J shot in part as a result of the delay in the delivery of AstraZeneca shots, and also because it is a single-dose shot.

The J&J doses will begin to arrive in June or July, which will ease any shortage caused by the delay in the AstraZeneca doses, Nkengasong said. The gap until the arrival of the J&J doses is a concern, he added. (Reuters)

Jakarta. Iran has begun enriching uranium with a fourth cascade, or cluster, of advanced IR-2m machines at its underground Natanz plant, a report by the U.N. atomic watchdog showed, in a further breach of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

It was the latest of many steps by Iran raising pressure on U.S. President Joe Biden with the two sides in a standoff over who should move first to salvage a deal that was meant to curb Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear bomb, if it so intended.

The deal imposed limits on Iran’s nuclear activities that it started breaching in 2019 in response to a U.S. withdrawal from the accord under Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump, as well as the reimposition of U.S. sanctions against the Islamic Republic that had been lifted under the agreement.

The deal only lets Iran enrich with relatively antiquated first-generation IR-1 centrifuges at the underground Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) at Natanz, a commercial-scale enrichment facility. Last year Tehran began adding more advanced centrifuges there able to enrich much faster than the IR-1.

“On 31 March 2021, the Agency verified at FEP that: Iran had begun feeding natural UF6 into a fourth cascade of 174 IR-2m centrifuges,” the International Atomic Energy Agency said in its confidential report dated Wednesday and obtained by Reuters on Thursday. By UF6, it was referring to uranium hexafluoride, the form in which uranium is fed into centrifuges for enrichment.

Iran has informed the IAEA that it plans to use six cascades of IR-2m machines at the FEP to refine uranium up to 5% fissile purity. The report said the remaining two cascades were installed but not yet enriching. Installation of a planned second cascade of IR-4 machines had not yet begun, it added.

“In summary, as of 31 March 2021, the Agency verified that Iran was using 5,060 IR-1 centrifuges installed in 30 cascades, 696 IR-2m centrifuges installed in four cascades and 174 IR-4 centrifuges installed in one cascade to enrich natural UF6 up to 5% U-235 at FEP,” said the report, sent to IAEA member states. (Reuters)