News Briefs (August - September 2007)

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Police Break Up Indonesian Airport Protest

Police used tear gas and water cannon to repel thousands of protesters, some throwing rocks and glass shards, at an airport in eastern Indonesia, officials said. At least 13 people, including two security officers, were injured when riot police moved in to end the violent protest at Sultan Khairun Babullah Airport in Ternate, the capital of North Maluku province, said the provincial police chief. The protesters, angry about the exclusion of a candidate from a governorship election, had traveled to the airport to try and stop electoral officials from leaving. (AP)

Asean Considers 11 New Cross-border Power Connections

Southeast Asian nations will consider 11 new power grid projects as a step towards increasing the region's cross-border electricity connections, an Asean group official said on Wednesday. The proposals will be made Thursday by the Centre for Energy of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said Khoo Chin Hean, chief executive of Singapore's Energy Market Authority. Many of the connections would be for links within the Indochina region. The bloc currently has just two cross-border power connections: between Thailand and Malaysia and between Malaysia and Singapore. The Asean Centre for Energy has been eyeing a regional power grid as well as a "trans-Asean" gas pipeline for several years. Khoo said the Jakarta-based Centre for Energy has also identified seven new natural-gas pipeline projects for possible development—part of a long-held blueprint to strengthen the region's energy security. (AP)

Bird Flu Kills Balinese Woman

An Indonesian woman became the second person to die of bird flu on the resort island of Bali, bringing the death toll in the nation hardest hit by the disease to 84, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday. The 28-year-old woman, who worked for a chicken trader, died on Tuesday after four days in hospital for four days, said spokesman Joko Suyono. Another woman died of bird flu on Bali one week ago, arousing fears that it would hurt tourism on the island, which has been struggling to recover since terrorist attacks in 2002 and 2005 killed more than 220 people. (AP)

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

North Korean Defectors Enter Indonesian Embassy in Vietnam

Five North Koreans have entered the Indonesian Embassy in Vietnam, apparently seeking asylum in South Korea, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tuesday. A man and four women climbed over the compound's fence in Hanoi at around 3:30 p.m., said Desra Percaya, adding that embassy staff were struggling to find out exactly what they were seeking. Officials at the embassy in Hanoi were not available to comment. Five Vietnamese police stood guard outside the embassy shortly after the North Koreans arrived. Thousands of North Koreans flee their communist homeland to escape hunger and harsh political oppression, many taking a long and risky land journey through China to Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries on their way to eventual asylum in South Korea. Last month, four North Koreans sought asylum at the Danish Embassy in Hanoi. (AP)

Malaysia, Thailand Ink Pact to Boost Education, Economy in South Thailand

Malaysia will help train Thai Muslim religious teachers and provide scholarships for students in insurgency-wracked southern Thailand under a pact signed Tuesday, officials said. Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont arrived in Malaysia late Monday for a three-day official visit aimed at securing Malaysia's help in boosting the economy in Thailand's Muslim-dominated south and curb the insurgency that has killed more than 2,400 people since 2004. The pact will create linkages between the two countries' education institutions especially in southern Thailand, and cover areas such as religious education, curriculum development and training, Malaysia's Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told national Bernama news agency. (AP)

Malaysian Newspapers Ordered to Ignore Racially Sensitive Video Controversy

The Malaysian government ordered mainstream newspapers Tuesday to stop reporting about a controversy over a Chinese student's rap video that parodies the national anthem and pokes fun at Muslims. It was not immediately clear whether broadcast media outlets were given similar orders.