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Thursday, February 7, 2013
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International
S’pore probing bus drivers’ allegations of assault Associated Press Writer
SINGAPORE — Police are investigating two Chinese men’s allegations that officers assaulted them while they were in custody over participating in Singapore’s first strike in three decades, the city-state said Tuesday. The men said in separate interviews with a local documentary filmmaker in January that they were threatened and beaten by police during questioning. Both were among five bus drivers charged for involvement in the Nov. 26-27 strike which saw 171 Chinese immigrant bus drivers of a public transport company protesting over being paid nearly a quarter less than their Malaysian colleagues. The labor action disrupted about 5 percent of bus services in the city-state where such labor actions are almost unheard of. The Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement on Tuesday evening that it takes a serious view of the public allegations and that an independent office within the police force was investigating the men’s claims.
Quake and tsunami... From page 1
AP Photo/Bernandino Hernandez
Police patrol on the beach outside a home after masked armed men broke into the home in Acapulco, Mexico, Tuesday Feb. 5, 2013.
Mexico seeks culprits in rape of 6 Spaniards
Associated Press Writer
ACAPULCO, Mexico — Authorities have information they hope will lead them to the gang of armed, masked men who raped six Spanish tourists in the Mexican resort of Acapulco, the attorney general in the southern state of Guerrero said. The vicious, hours-long attack at a beach home on the outskirts of Acapulco before dawn Monday was the latest chapter of violence that has tarnished the once-glamorous Pacific coast resort celebrated in Frank Sinatra songs and Elvis Presley movies. “Fortunately we have strong evidence to lead us to those responsible for this reprehensible act,” Guerrero state Attorney General Martha Garzon Guzman told Mexico’s Radio Formula on Monday. The beach home on an idyllic stretch of coastline had been rented by six Spanish men, six Spanish women and a Mexican woman. The attackers gained access to the house because two of the Spaniards were in the yard and apparently were forced to open the door, Acapulco Mayor Luis Walton told a news conference late Monday. The five attackers burst into the house and held the group at gunpoint, he said. They tied up the six men with phone cords and bathing suit straps and then raped the six
Spanish women. The Mexican woman was not raped. Garzon said the Mexican woman begged the men not to rape her and the assailants told her they would spare her because she is Mexican. The attack began on Monday about two hours after midnight and the victims were only able to report the crime five hours later, at nearly 7 a.m. “This is a regrettable situation, and of course it is going to damage Acapulco,” Walton said. The once-glittering resort that attracted movie stars and celebrities in the 1950s and 60s has already been battered by years of drug gang killings and extortions, but except for very few incidents, the violence has not touched tourists. Walton said he believed, but wasn’t sure, that the assailants in Monday’s attack didn’t belong to a drug gang. Garzon said witness descriptions of the attackers were more difficult to obtain because they wore masks. “From what the attorney general has told me, I don’t think this
was organized crime,” Walton said. “But that will have to be investigated, we don’t know.” Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department issued a statement saying it regretted the attack. “Up to now, the investigations are being carried out by local authorities and they will be the ones to provide information,” the statement said. In Mexico, it’s up to local authorities to determine if organized crime is behind an attack, and, if so, turn the case over to federal authorities. Security and drug analyst Jorge Chabat said that, after years of drug gang activity in Acapulco, the distinction may be merely semantic. “At this point, the line between common and organized crime is very tenuous, there are a lot of these gangs that take advantage of the unsafe situation that currently exists, they know the government can’t keep up,” Chabat said. “ The Spanish Embassy in Mexico City said the victims were receiving consular assistance.
Richard Dapo, a school principal on an island near Santa Cruz, said he lives inland but has been fielding calls from families on the coast whose homes have been damaged by the waves. “I try to tell the people living on the coastline, ‘Move inland, find a higher place. Make sure to keep away from the sea. Watch out for waves,’” he said. He said he’s heard the waves have swamped some smaller islands, although he’s not aware of any deaths or serious injuries at this point. He said it’s difficult to contact people because cellphone coverage is patchy in the region. In Honiara, the warnings had prompted residents to flee for higher ground. “People are still standing on the hills outside of Honiara just looking out over the water, trying to observe if there is a wave coming in,” said Herming, the prime minister’s spokesman. Atenia Tahu, who works for the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corp. in Honiara, said most people were remaining calm. “People around the coast and in the capital are ringing in and trying to get information from us and the National Disaster Office and are slowly moving up to higher ground,” Tahu said. “But panic? No, no, no, people are not panicking.” Dr. Rooney Jagilly, the medical superintendent at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara, said the hospital asked about half its 200 patients to leave and stay with family or friends as a precautionary measure because the hospital is located near the shoreline. Those patients who weren’t mobile enough to move stayed, but the hospital remained ready to evacuate them. Jagilly said there had been no flooding and he hoped the hospital would return to normal Thursday. He said his staff was ready to mobilize to Santa Cruz because the small hospital there has no doctor after the previous one died recently. An official at the disaster management office in Vanuatu said there were no reports of damage or injuries there. More than 50 people were killed and thousands lost their homes in April 2007 when a magnitude 8.1 quake hit the western Solomon Islands, sending waves crashing into coastal villages. The Solomons comprise more than 200 islands with a population of about 552,000 people. They lie on the “Ring of Fire” — an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones that stretches around the Pacific Rim and where about 90 percent of the world’s quakes occur.
International
Thursday, February 7, 2013
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INDONESIA Meat import bribery case
KPK to question PKS politician Antara
JAKARTA - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is scheduled to question politician Luthfi Hasan Ishaq here on Wednesday in relation to bribery case regarding request to get meat import quota at the Ministry of Agriculture. Luthfi who is former Chairman of Islamic-background Prosperous and Justice Party (PKS) will be questioned here on Wednesday as witness for suspect Juard Effendi. Juard who is Director of PT Indoguna Utama was arrested last January after handing over a bribe worth Rp1 billion to Ahmad Fathanah (Luthfi’s right man).
The amount of cash money was said to be part of a total of Rp40 billion bribe money to be given to Luthfi in exchange for his effort to influence Ministry of Agriculture to give meat import quota to the company. The anti-graft commission has named Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq and Juard Effendi as suspects in the bribery case. Juard is said
to have violated Regulation Number 5 Article 1, Regulation Number 20/2001 and Regulation Number 55 Article 1 about bribing public officials. Meanwhile Luthfi is charged with Regulation Number 12, Number 5 Article 2, Regulation Number 20/2001 about public official who received bribe money.
Pelindo II earmarks Rp7 trilion for port development
Antara
JAKARTA - State-owned port operator Pelindo II said it was preparing Rp7 trillion to build Kalibaru (North Jakarta) and Sorong (Papua) ports. “The investment funds of Rp7 trillion will be used to build the ports of Kalibaru and Sorong. The construction of Kalibaru port has been undergoing while Sorong has not yet because its permit is still under the issuance process,” President Director of Pelindo II RJ Lino told the press here on Tuesday. He said that the investment funds increased drastically from the total funds in 2012 which were Rp2.1 trillion. The funds were obtained from the company’s internal sources and from strategic partners. The Kalibaru port of North Jakarta will be used as a container terminal and fuel terminal. It is also expected to increase the capacity of loading and unloading activities which have so far been done at Tanjung Priok port. In the meantime, Sorong port will be used to reinforce
the country’s pendulum system to reduce logistics sea transportation costs and to generate equitable economic activities in Indonesia. It was reported last year that the Kalibaru port project’s first phase will include the installation of container terminal and related equipment worth US$1.38 billion, while a further US$730 million will be made available for constructing a new petroleum product terminal in the port. According to Lino, IPC II is enthusiastic about the project and believes that it will rise up to the challenge offered by the presidential instruction to make Indonesia’s dream come true - that is, to build a port that the country can be proud of. IPC II’s challenge is to build the port without funding support from the government or the state budget. “It does not involve a state budget fund. The funds will come from the investors and be facilitated by PT Pengembangan Indonesia, a subsidiary of the IPC II,” Lino added. IPC II may also raise funds
for the port by forging partnerships with and receiving investments from major shipping and port operators as well as loans from national and international lenders. The New Priok (Kalibaru) Port will be built to alleviate the load on the currently over-burdened Tanjung Priok Port. Therefore, the New Priok Port’s construction will be accelerated to reduce the old port’s burden by about 1 million TEU containers. Upon its completion in 2023, the New Priok Port will more than triple the annual capacity of Tanjung Priok Port, from 5 million TEU to 18 million TEU. Lino remarked that the construction of the New Priok Port, which was previously called Kalibaru Port, will elevate Indonesia’s reputation to the level of countries with international scale ports. Earlier, Pelindo II which has changed name into Indonesia Port Corporation (IPC) posted a net profit of Rp1.79 trillion, which increased by 21 percent from the profit it gained in 2011.
AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim
Indonesian worker march during a protest rally in Jakarta, Indonesia, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013. Thousands of Indonesian workers staged the rally demanding the government for implementation of minimum wage.
APP promises no deforestation in Indonesia
Agence France-Presse
JAKARTA - The world’s third-largest paper producer Asia Pulp and Paper said Tuesday it had stopped using logs from Indonesia’s natural forests, after fierce campaigning by green groups against the company. The firm has in recent years lost packaging contracts with big brands such as foodmaker Kraft and Barbie’s Mattel after Greenpeace accused APP of clearing carbon-rich forest, home to endangered Sumatran tigers and orangutans. “APP has committed to stop logging in all natural forest,” the firm’s sustainability head Aida Greenbury told AFP. “We will only expand operations on open land and scrubland.” In a statement the company said that from “February 1st, all of APP’s suppliers have suspended natural forest clearance”, and that it was conducting assessments to identify high-conservation-value forest for protection. The Indonesian firm has failed to carry out similar commitments before, including an agreement with environmental group WWF signed in 2003 to protect highconservation-value forests over an initial 12-year period. WWF cancelled the agreement in 2004, saying the company had failed to make any progress on its commitment. “Unfortunately, APP has a long history of making commitments to WWF, customers and other stakeholders that it has failed to live up to,” said the WWF’s conservation director in Indonesia, Nazir Foed. “We hope this time the company does what it promised,” Foed said, adding that it would independently monitor APP’s activities. Greenpeace’s forest campaign chief in Indonesia, Bustar Maitar, said that if APP fully implements its new policies “it will mark a dramatic change in direction, after years of deforestation in Indonesia”. The APP has also been accused of greenwashing (making deceptive claims of green benefits) with environmental projects, including a Sumatran tiger sanctuary which was questioned by scientists and activists.