'No mercy' for firms responsible for forest fires in Indonesia: Minister - CNA

JAKARTA: Indonesia will take stern action against firms that are found to have caused forest fires in the country, Environment Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar warned on Wednesday (Jan 25).

She was quoted as saying by state news agency Antara that there will be “no mercy” for those who are caught.

“If forest fires happen because of (the activities of) the private sector, there will be no mercy (for the firms),” Ms Siti said at a press conference.

She added that firms will be “immediately given a warning” once a fire hotspot has been identified on their land.

“As soon as a hotspot is detected (in the area owned by them), we will immediately give a warning (to them),” she was quoted as saying by Antara.

The country’s Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Mohammad Mahfud Mahmodin also called on firms that deal with forest management to help in handling the forest fires.

"If (a disaster) happens, the consequences or losses that arise will also befall the companies," Mr Mahfud reportedly said. 

Antara on Wednesday also reported that the Indonesian government has been taking firm action against the perpetrators of forest and land destruction in the country.

It cited a recent lawsuit the government won against PT Agri Bumi Sentosa in which 1,500 hectares of land was damaged in South Kalimantan in 2019.

The company was required to pay material compensation of 160.69 billion rupiah (US$10.7 million) and environmental restoration costs of 591.55 billion rupiah. 

During the 2019 Southeast Asian haze, thousands of fires were started in Indonesia in order to clear land for crops. Media reports then stated that some 900,000 Indonesians reported suffering from acute respiratory infections as a result of the haze in the first nine months of that year alone. 

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2023-01-26 09:51:04Z
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8 dead, including 6 Chinese nationals, after ship sinks near Japan - CNA

China's Consul General in the city of Fukuoka, Lu Guijun, told state broadcaster CGTN on Thursday that of the 13 people found, "eight have been confirmed dead, of whom six are Chinese".

"Five of them - including four Chinese crew members - are not in life-threatening conditions," he added.

"We express our deepest condolences to the unfortunate victims."

The Japanese coast guard later confirmed the toll given by Lu, adding that the other two dead crew members were from Myanmar. Nine more people remained missing, it said - four from China and five from Myanmar.

Officials from local Chinese missions visited the Nagasaki coast guard, the Fukuoka consulate said, where they laid flowers for the dead crew members and expressed their condolences.

They also visited survivors, conveying a message from China's ambassador to Japan, Kong Xuanyou, while providing clothing, food and drinks, the consulate said.

The accident came as a cold snap hit much of Asia, with daytime temperatures in some Japanese islands nearest the rescue site reaching just 3 degrees Celsius.

The 6,651-tonne Jin Tian is registered in Hong Kong, Japan's coast guard said.

In 2020, a cargo ship with 43 crew and 6,000 cattle on board sank off southwestern Japan after being caught in a typhoon. Two crew survived.

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2023-01-26 08:31:34Z
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Russia slams German tank decision as escalation of conflict, betrayal of history - CNA

Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia's invasion of Ukraine, launched on Feb 24 last year, amounts to an unprovoked war of aggression aimed at seizing territory. Moscow says the West is using Ukraine to weaken Russia's own security.

"HISTORICAL RESPONSIBILITY"

Germany's decision on tanks followed weeks of agonising by the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, prompted by concerns about escalating the war and provoking Russia.

More than 80 years after their country invaded Soviet Russia and Ukraine in World War II, some Germans recoil at the idea of sending tanks into a new conflagration there, out of a sense of historic guilt that the Russian embassy statement directly tapped into.

"Berlin's choice means the final refusal of the Federal Republic of Germany to recognise its historical responsibility to our people for the terrible, timeless crimes of Nazism during the Great Patriotic War, and the consigning to oblivion of the difficult path of post-war reconciliation between Russians and Germans," Nechayev said.

"With the approval of the leadership of Germany, battle tanks with German crosses will again be sent to the 'eastern front', which will inevitably lead to the deaths of not only Russian soldiers, but also the civilian population."

Kyiv has for months asked for Western tanks that it says it desperately needs to give its forces the firepower and mobility to break through Russian defensive lines and recapture occupied territory in the east and south.

Russia has repeatedly said foreign tanks will "burn" in Ukraine. It says they will only extend the war and prolong Ukrainian suffering, and that the West is "deluded" to think otherwise.

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2023-01-25 15:37:00Z
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Germany approves sending heavy Leopard tanks to Ukraine - CNA

BERLIN: Germany will supply its Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, it announced on Wednesday (Jan 25), overcoming misgivings about sending heavy weaponry that Kyiv sees as crucial to defeat the Russian invasion but Moscow cast as a needless provocation.

Pressure has been building for weeks on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government to send the tanks and allow other NATO allies to do the same ahead of expected spring offensives by both sides that could help turn the tide of the war.

Scholz's government had stalled on the decision, wary of moves that could prompt Russia to escalate or suck the NATO alliance into becoming party to the conflict.

Germany's decision paves the way for other countries such as Poland, Spain and Norway to supply their stocks of Leopard tanks to Ukraine.

"This decision follows our well-known line of supporting Ukraine to the best of our ability. We are acting in a closely coordinated manner internationally," Scholz said in a statement.

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2023-01-25 10:54:00Z
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Germany to approve sending heavy battle tanks to Ukraine: Report - CNA

Ukraine and the West call Russia's actions an unprovoked land grab to subdue a fellow former Soviet republic that Moscow regards as an artificial state.

Earlier on Tuesday, Poland upped the pressure on Scholz to make a decision, saying it had formally sent a request to the German government to allow it to send some of its Leopards. Defence procurement rules mean Berlin must approve re-exports of the NATO workhorse tank by its allies.

And two US officials told Reuters Washington may drop its opposition to sending some of its M1 Abrams tanks.

While the Abrams is considered less suitable than the Leopard for Ukraine due to its heavy fuel consumption and difficulty to maintain, such a move would appear designed to make it easier for Germany - which has called for a united front among Ukraine's allies - to allow the supply of Leopards.

The Pentagon declined to comment on any coming announcements on the Abrams. It also declined comment on whether Germany might green light deliveries of the Leopards.

LEADERSHIP PURGE

Separately on Tuesday, Ukraine dismissed more than a dozen senior officials including governors of several major battlefield provinces, part of an anti-corruption drive by Zelenskiy's government made more critical by the need to keep its Western backers onside.

Among Ukrainian officials who resigned or were dismissed on Tuesday were the governors of the Kyiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and adjacent Dnipropetrovsk are frontline provinces now. Kyiv and Sumy were major battlefields earlier in the war.

A deputy defence minister, a deputy prosecutor, a deputy head of Zelenskiy's office and two deputy ministers responsible for regional development were among the others who left.

Some, though not all, had been linked with corruption allegations. Ukraine has a history of graft and shaky governance, and is under international pressure to show it can be a reliable steward of billions of dollars in Western aid.

Zelenskiy aide Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted: "The president sees and hears society. And he directly responds to a key public demand - justice for all."

The purge came two days after a deputy infrastructure minister was arrested and accused of siphoning off US$400,000 from contracts to buy generators - one of the first big corruption scandals to become public since the war began 11 months ago.

The Defence Ministry said Deputy Defence Minister Vyacheslav Shapovalov, responsible for supplying troops, had resigned to retain trust after what it called untrue media accusations of corruption. It followed a newspaper report that the ministry overpaid for food for troops, which the ministry denied.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy chief of staff in Zelensyiy's office, announced his own resignation, also citing no reason. He had helped run the president's 2019 election campaign and more recently had a role in overseeing regional policy.

As the shake-up unfolded in a series of announcements, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told a cabinet meeting that Ukraine was making progress in its anti-corruption campaign. "It is systemic, consecutive work which is very needed for Ukraine and is an integral part of integration with the EU," he said.

The European Union, which offered Ukraine the status of candidate member last June, welcomed the development.

"As a general rule we do not comment on ongoing criminal investigations but we do welcome the fact that the Ukraine authorities are taking these issues seriously," an EU spokeswoman said.

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2023-01-24 21:22:00Z
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New Zealand's Ardern bids emotional farewell on last day as prime minister - CNA

WELLINGTON: Jacinda Ardern on Tuesday (Jan 24) bid an emotional farewell on her last day as prime minister, speaking of the kindness and empathy New Zealanders have shown her, but said she was ready to be a sister and a mother.

Days after stunning the world by announcing she had "no more in the tank" to lead the country and would step down, the 42-year-old arrived at a gathering of politicians and Maori elders in the small town of Ratana, north of the capital Wellington, and was instantly surrounded by supporters seeking photographs.

"Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the greatest privilege of my life," Ardern told the gathering in a speech.

She will resign on Wednesday and be replaced by the new Labour party leader, Chris Hipkins.

Ardern, along with Hipkins and opposition politicians, were making an annual visit to Ratana, where a weeklong celebration is held for the birth of Maori prophet Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana.

Wearing a black dress with her shoulders covered in a traditional Maori cloak, called korowai, she led members of her party onto the community grounds as a brass band played. The speeches and accompanying songs and dances that followed saw elders speak with humour and warmth about Ardern.

"Thanks so much for teaching us to love quickly," one elder told Ardern.

Ardern responded, saying she that hadn't planned to speak but that those there refused to give her an out.

"My overall experience in this job of New Zealand and New Zealanders in this job has been one of love, empathy and kindness,” she said.

The left-leaning global icon gained attention for bringing her baby to a United Nations meeting and wearing a hijab after a massacre targeting Muslims. Although she became a target for hate and online abuse by right-wing extremists on social media, she said she was leaving the job with love in her heart.

"I want you to know I leave with a greater love and affection for Aotearoa New Zealand and its people than when I started."

Before heading onto the grounds, Ardern faced the media for possibly the last time as prime minister, smiling broadly as declining to answer political questions, saying they were now the responsibility of her successor.

"I am ready to be lots of things. I’m ready to be a back bench MP (member of parliament). I’m ready to be a sister and a mum,” she said.

Her daughter Neve is 4 years old and starts school in June.

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2023-01-24 10:05:04Z
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7 dead in new California shootings, Asian farm worker arrested - CNA

"HOSTILE"

On Monday, a picture began to emerge of the culprit in Monterey Park, a man who, according to his marriage licence, had immigrated from China, and who had been a regular at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in the past.

Tran's ex-wife told CNN that the couple had met there two decades ago when he offered to give her informal lessons.

The woman, who did not want to be named, said they married a short time later, but the relationship did not last, with the divorce finalised in 2006.

She said that Tran, who sometimes worked as a truck driver, was not violent, but could be impatient.

A man who said that he had previously known Tran said he would complain about dance teachers, who, he claimed, would say "evil things about him", CNN reported.

He was "hostile to a lot of people there", the man told the broadcaster.

Detectives who searched a mobile home where Tran had been living in Hemet, 140km east of Los Angeles, recovered a rifle, electronics and ammunition, Luna said.

Earlier this month, Tran had made "fraud, theft, and poisoning allegations involving his family in the Los Angeles area 10 to 20 years ago", police in the city said.

"HER LAST DANCE"

The family of 65-year-old My Nhan said that the tragedy was "still sinking in".

"She spent so many years going to the dance studio in Monterey Park on weekends," a statement said.

"It's what she loved to do. But unfairly, Saturday was her last dance."

Amid the grief, one tale of heroism has given hope as 26-year-old Brandon Tsay revealed how he grappled with Tran as the elderly man arrived at another dance studio, in what police believe was a planned second attack.

"He was hitting me across the face, bashing me in the back of my head, I was trying to use my elbows to get the gun away from him," Tsay told ABC.

"Finally, at one point I was able to pull the gun away from him, shove him aside, create some distance, point the gun at him, intimidate him, shouting: 'Get the hell out of here. I'll shoot. Get away. Go.'"

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2023-01-24 03:35:00Z
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