VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Max Verstappen leads his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez to victory in Jeddah. (Photo: AFP/Giuseppe Cacace) - 

VOInews, Jeddah : Max Verstappen won Saturday's (Mar 9) Saudi Arabian Grand Prix from Sergio Perez to maintain Red Bull's perfect start to the season.

Charles Leclerc's Ferrari was third with British teen Oliver Bearman a remarkable seventh on his debut for Ferrari as a late stand-in for the ill Carlos Sainz.

"He's done an incredible job, seventh in your first race in F1 is hugely impressive," said Leclerc of 18 year old Bearman, only called up before third practice on Friday with Sainz hit by appendicitis.

While Bearman was voted driver of the day Verstappen once again demonstrated his ability to overcome all the distractions off track from the continuing fallout from the inquiry into team principal Christian Horner.

After a season opening win in Bahrain last Saturday, the defending three time world champion notched up a ninth consecutive victory and a 100th career podium finish.

Oscar Piastri of McLaren finished fourth ahead of Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin.

George Russell (Mercedes), Bearman, Lando Norris (McLaren), Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top 10//CNA-VOI

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, attends a news conference during an informal EU Development Ministers Council, in Brussels, Belgium, Feb 12, 2024. (File photo: REUTERS/Johanna Geron) - 

VOInews, Geneva : The head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency said he was cautiously optimistic some donors would start funding it again within weeks, warning it was "at risk of death" after Israel alleged some of its staff took part in the Oct 7 Hamas attack.

An independent review of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has been launched under French former foreign minister Catherine Colonna, and the final report is expected to be published next month.

"I am cautiously optimistic that within the next few weeks, and also following the publication of Catherine Colonna's report, a number of donors will return," UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said in an interview with Swiss broadcaster RTS that was aired on Saturday (Mar 9).

Lazzarini told RTS that UNRWA was at "risk of death, at risk of dismantlement".

Colonna, whose work on the review began in mid-February, said on Saturday she would visit Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ramallah and Amman next week.

UNRWA, which provides aid and essential services to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and across the region, has been in crisis since Israel accused 12 of its 13,000 staff in Gaza of involvement in the Oct 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war in the Palestinian enclave.

The allegations prompted several countries, including the United States, to pause funding.

When the allegations emerged, UNRWA fired some staff members, saying it acted to protect the agency's ability to deliver humanitarian assistance, and an independent internal UN investigation was launched.

UNRWA said some employees released into Gaza from Israeli detention reported having been pressured by Israeli authorities into falsely stating that staff took part in the Oct 7 attack, according to a report by the agency dated February.

"What is at stake is the fate of the Palestinians today in Gaza in the short term who are going through an absolutely unprecedented humanitarian crisis," Lazzarini told RTS.

UNRWA runs schools, healthcare clinics and other social services in Gaza, and distributes humanitarian aid. The UN has said some 3,000 members of staff are still working to deliver aid in the enclave, where it says 576,000 people - one quarter of the population - are a step away from famine.

"The agency I currently manage is the only agency that delivers public services to Palestinian refugees," Lazzarini said.

"We are the quasi-ministry of education, of primary health. If we were to get rid of such a body, who would bring back the million of girls and boys who are traumatised in the Gaza Strip today back to a learning environment?"//CNA-VOI

An exterior view of the Picasso Museum in Paris on Jan 29, 2024. (Photo: AFP/Ian Langsdon) - 

VOInews, PARIS : The Picasso Museum in Paris, which houses the world's biggest collection of the Spanish artist's works, is reopening on Tuesday (Mar 12) with an overhauled display and a first-ever tribute to his ex-partner, the renowned painter Francoise Gilot.

The new permanent collection will present a fresh selection of 400 works by Pablo Picasso across the museum's 22 rooms.

They have been drawn from some 200,000 items stored in its archives, which include a large proportion of the 2,000 paintings and more than 11,000 drawings he completed during his lifetime.

All the key periods are represented - from blue, pink and cubist to surrealist, collage and ceramics.

The museum boasts that it is the only institution that can trace Picasso's development from the very beginning up to his death in 1973.

A section called Laboratory highlights Picasso's countless sculptures - made from cardboard, metal, wood, cigar boxes and whatever else came to hand - together with related drawings and paintings.

Another focuses on his work during World War II and the Nazi occupation of Paris, including the sculpture Man with a Sheep, which became a symbol of resistance.

One room has been entirely dedicated to Gilot, who died in June 2023 at the age of 101.

She lived with Picasso for a decade up to 1953 and had two children with him.

Gilot is seen as the one long-term partner who managed to stand up to his often tyrannical behaviour toward women, establishing herself as an artist in her own right.

With many of Picasso's works travelling around the world for the 50th anniversary of his death in 2023, the rehanging is billed as "his return home" said Cecile Debray, the museum's director.

It contrasts his work with artists who influenced him, including Henri Matisse and Paul Cezanne, as well as many anonymous sculptures from Africa and Oceania that ended up in his collection.

A research centre will be inaugurated near the museum in the autumn//CNA-VOI

Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi (left) inspected Cirebon Station, Cirebon, West Java, on Saturday (March 9, 2024). (ANTARA/Fathnur Rohman) - 

VOInews, Cirebon, West Java : The Ministry of Transportation is currently devising plans for the revitalization of historical train stations in Indonesia, which will be carried out without reducing their historical value.

"We are currently studying the stations that have the potential to be revitalized and this revitalization will recover their historical values," Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said here on Saturday.

He noted that there are several stations in regions that have historical heritage and can be developed into tourist attractions considering that they are mostly still well-maintained.

One of the stations, he said, is Cirebon Station, which has been around since the colonial period and whose main building has a European architectural style.

According to him, the revitalization concept is being designed to be appropriate, while maintaining the historical heritage of the buildings.

"I am currently evaluating heritage stations in Indonesia. We know that stations in Indonesia are beautiful and full of historical features," he added.

The minister underscored that the heritage stations must be optimized, meaning that they should not only be used for train services, but also developed as tourist attractions.

He expressed the hope that once the study and evaluation are completed, the revitalization phase to beautify the historical stations will be carried out as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, the vice president of state rail company PT KAI, Operational Area 3 Cirebon, Dicky Eka Priananda, welcomed the revitalization plan.

"We held a meeting earlier; by May 2024, the detailed engineering design must be completed. Further developments will await the Minister of Transportation's decision," he said.

According to information provided by PT KAI Operational Area 3 Cirebon, Cirebon Station was inaugurated on June 3, 1912, coinciding with the opening of the 137-kilometer Cikampek-Cirebon Railway Line.

The station was designed by Dutch architect Pieter Adriaan Jacobus Moojen with European elements, which were adapted to the Indonesian climate//ANTARA-VOI