Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati. ANTARA FOTO

Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati while highlighting the spirit of Kartini Day called on all citizens of the nation to become the heroes of humanity despite being confined to their homes during the COVID-19 outbreak.

"Akin to Kartini, the walls of the house should not prevent us from caring for our fellow human beings," Indrawati was quoted as saying through her personal Instagram account @smindrawati in Jakarta, Tuesday.

Dressed in a white kebaya and batik cloth, she recalled that a century ago, Raden Ajeng Kartini was locked in a house owing to the customary, social, and cultural rules followed during that time.

However, the obstacles did not pose a hindrance to the national hero to continue to work and voice his concern for his fellow human beings.

Indrawati emphasized that Kartini's spirit is expected to serve as a guiding beacon for Indonesians today to unitedly fight COVID-19.

"The Creator expects humanity to be able to always care for their fellow humans and protect the universe. Have we all cared?" the minister questioned.

The former managing director of the World Bank is optimistic that by staying at home, the community would be able to help the government and fellow humans fight the COVID-19 pandemic at least by curbing the spread of the disease.

Staying at home also helps medical workers, doctors, nurses, and hospital employees, currently at the forefront and viewed as the heroes of humanity, to shield people from the threat of COVID-19.

"Congratulations on the commemoration of the spirit of Kartini Day. Hopefully, all of you, all of us, can become the heroes of humanity," Indrawati stated. (ANTARA)

Chief of the Public Relations and Protocol Bureau of the East Nusa Tenggara Provincial Secretariat Marius Ardu Jelamu (left) during a press briefing on the handling of COVID-19 on Monday (April 20, 2020) (Antara/ Benny Jahang)

The East Nusa Tenggara Province has shut down three border checkpoints with Timor Leste in a bid to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the province.

The three cross-border checkpoints are located in Motaain, Metamasin, and Wini, Chief of the Public Relations and Protocol Bureau of the East Nusa Tenggara Provincial Secretariat Marius Ardu Jelamu noted in a statement released on Monday.

"The closure of the three checkpoints along the border with Timor Leste came into effect as of Monday night (April 20)," he remarked.

After the three checkpoints were closed, citizens of Timor Leste intent on traveling to Timor Leste and Indonesia are not allowed to cross the border, he pointed out.

"(The ban) also applies to Indonesians keen on traveling to (the Timor Leste capital) Dili or the other way round when the three cross-border checkpoints are closed," he stated.

Jelamu explained that the three checkpoints were closed to break the chain of the spread of COVID-19 to all of East Nusa Tenggara.

"We hope that Timor Leste's citizens, who had planned to return home to Timor Leste via East Nusa Tenggara, would cancel the plan since the East Nusa Tenggara provincial government has officially closed the cross-border checkpoints," he noted.

Likewise, Indonesian citizens, currently in Timor Leste, are not allowed to enter East Nusa Tenggara when the cross-border checkpoints are closed, he pointed out. (ANTARA)

The price of US oil has turned negative for the first time in history.

That means oil producers are paying buyers to take the commodity off their hands over fears that storage capacity could run out in May.

Demand for oil has all but dried up as lockdowns across the world have kept people inside.

As a result, oil firms have resorted to renting tankers to store the surplus supply and that has forced the price of US oil into negative territory.

The price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the benchmark for US oil, fell as low as minus $37.63 a barrel.

"This is off-the-charts wacky," said Stewart Glickman, an energy equity analyst at CFRA Research. "The demand shock was so massive that it's overwhelmed anything that people could have expected."

The severe drop on Monday was driven in part by a technicality of the global oil market. Oil is traded on its future price and May futures contracts are due to expire on Tuesday. Traders were keen to offload those holdings to avoid having to take delivery of the oil and incur storage costs. (BBC)