VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

A knife-wielding attacker shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greatest) beheaded a woman and killed two other people in a church in the French city of Nice on Thursday.

A defiant President Emmanuel Macron, declaring that France had been subject to an Islamist terrorist attack, said he would deploy thousands more soldiers to protect important French sites, such as places of worship and schools.

Speaking from the scene, he said France had been attacked “over our values, for our taste for freedom, for the ability on our soil to have freedom of belief”.

“And I say it with lots of clarity again today: we will not give any ground.”

A police source told Reuters the assailant was believed by law enforcement to be a 21-year-old Tunisian national who had recently entered France from Italy. A Tunisian security source and a French police source later named the suspect as Brahim Aouissaoui.

Tunisia’s anti-terrorism court prosecutor began a forensic investigation into “the suspicion that a Tunisian committed a terrorist operation abroad”, Mohsen Dali, spokesman for the specialised counter-militancy court, said in Tunis.

In Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, state television reported that a Saudi man had been arrested in the Red Sea city of Jeddah after attacking and injuring a guard at the French consulate. The French Embassy said he was in the hospital after a knife assault though his life was not in danger.

Within hours of the Nice attack, French police killed a man who had threatened passersby with a handgun in Montfavet, near the southern city of Avignon.

France’s Le Figaro newspaper quoted a prosecution source as saying the man was undergoing psychiatric treatment, and that they did not believe there was a terrorism motive.

Nice’s mayor, Christian Estrosi, said the attack in his city had happened at Notre Dame church and was similar to the beheading earlier this month near Paris of teacher Samuel Paty, who had used cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a civics class.

Thursday’s attacks, on the birthday of the Prophet Mohammad, came at a time of growing Muslim anger at France’s defence of the right to publish the cartoons, and protesters have denounced France in street rallies in several Muslim-majority countries. (Reuters)

President Joko Widodo wants to increase economic cooperation between Indonesia and the United States (US), one way is by obtaining an extension of the general preferential tariff facility (Generalized System of Preferences / GSP) from the US, which is beneficial for the economies of both countries.

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said this after accompanying President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) in a meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the Bogor Presidential Palace, West Java, Thursday.

According to Retno, President Jokowi at the meeting conveyed the need for mutual understanding to maintain the partnership between Indonesia and the US. Apart from understanding each other, concrete cooperation efforts are also needed, including in the economic field.

"The President emphasized that Indonesia wants to see economic cooperation between the two countries increase, including of course the hope of extending the GSP to Indonesia," said the Foreign Minister.

The GSP facility is a US unilateral program that provides import duty tariff relief for exporting countries to the US market. Indonesia gets GSP facilities at 3,572 tariff posts.

However, since 2018, in the Federal Register Vol. 83 as of 27 April 2018, the US is still reviewing the eligibility of Indonesia and several other developing countries to get an extension of the facility.

In the review process, the US is known to have revoked facilities for other countries such as India. Indonesia is currently still trying to get the GSP extension facility, in order to increase business cooperation for the two countries. (Antaranews)

President Joko Widodo said the guidance and example of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) guided the nation in building Indonesia forward.

"The guidance and example of the Prophet Muhammad PBUH guide us in building a prosperous Indonesia," said the President in an upload on his Instagram account @jokowi regarding the commemoration of the Birthday of the Prophet Muhammad SAW as quoted in Jakarta, Thursday.

The President said the Maulid commemoration of the Prophet Muhammad PBUH today was done by delivering salawat or praises to the Prophet. "While remembering the weight of his struggle in bringing truth, guidance, and example for mankind," said the President. (Antaranews)

President Joko Widodo stressed the need to maintain the partnership between Indonesia and the United States when he received a visit from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the Bogor Presidential Palace, West Java, Thursday.

"In the meeting, the President said that Indonesia is partnering and good friends with America. Indonesia wants America to be Indonesia's true friend, this cannot be taken for granted," said Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, in a virtual press conference after accompanying the President received the US Foreign Minister in Bogor, Thursday.

The Foreign Minister said that President Jokowi stated that the Indonesia-US partnership must be maintained, and to maintain this partnership, serious efforts, mutual understanding, and efforts to show concrete cooperation, including cooperation in the economy.

"The President emphasized that Indonesia wants to see economic cooperation between the two countries increase, including of course the hope of extending GSP facilities to Indonesia," explained the Foreign Minister.

In addition, the Foreign Minister said, President Jokowi also wants defense cooperation with the United States to increase and the president wants to see America understand the interests of developing countries and the interests of Muslim countries.

The President said that Indonesia appealed to the United States to also understand Southeast Asia and together with Southeast Asia countries to create peace, stability, and cooperation in the region," he said. (Antaranews)