Shooting poachers, circling polar bears, flailing four-tonne seals, singing rhinos and the world’s worst sea … the team behind Attenborough’s latest extravaganza relive their thrills and spills
Chadden Hunter, producer, North America and South America
Continue reading...Study of chicken egg samples reveals presence of dangerous chemical compounds around areas where waste is dumped
Plastic waste exports to south-east Asia have been implicated in extreme levels of toxins entering the human food chain in Indonesia.
A new study that sampled chicken eggs around sites in the country where plastic waste accumulates identified alarming levels of dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls long recognised as extremely injurious to human health.
Continue reading...Good history demands the full and uncomfortable story be in the official account
Suggestions that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is impeding or trying to censor an official history of Australia’s East Timor peacekeeping mission are disturbing but unsurprising.
They’re disturbing because good history must have as bedrock an independence from national reputation-shaping and political interference. The line between that and propaganda is fine.
Continue reading...Police say businessman masterminded killing of reporters who were helping local people in dispute with his company
An Indonesian palm oil executive has been arrested for allegedly ordering the killing two activist journalists who were mediating a land dispute between his company and local residents.
Maraden Sianipar’s body was found last week in a ditch near a palm plantation in Labuhan Batu in North Sumatra province. Police found the remains of his colleague Maratua Siregar in the same area a day later. Both had been stabbed multiple times.
Continue reading...What was meant to be a stopgap solution to a shortage of land for burial in the Indonesian capital has sparked family rifts and hit the poor the hardest
At Karet Bivak cemetery in Jakarta, the neat rows of headstones extend as far as the eye can see, seeming to sprout into skyscrapers at the horizon.
Driving his scooter through after Friday prayers, a friendly Muslim man wearing white robes and a taqiyah cap seems at peace with his fate. “This is my future home,” he says, leaning on the handlebars and indicating the graves. “Your home, my home – everybody’s home.”
Continue reading...Advance copy of report says several factors were to blame for crash that killed 189 in Indonesia
The final report by Indonesian investigators into the crash of a Boeing 737 Max plane flown by Indonesia’s Lion Air that left 189 people dead has found that problems with Boeing’s design, the airline’s maintenance of the jet and pilot errors contributed to the disaster.
The report into the October 2018 crash criticised the US planemaker’s new anti-stall system, MCAS, that automatically pushed the plane’s nose down, leaving pilots fighting for control.
Continue reading...General who has been accused of abuses is named in cabinet of Joko Widodo, against whom he ran for president
The Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, has appointed as his defence minister his former bitter election rival Prabowo Subianto – an ex-army general accused of human rights abuses.
Widodo announced his cabinet line-up on Wednesday having beaten Subianto in April’s general election. At least nine people died and more than 200 were injured due to riots in Jakarta following the fraught campaign, during which Subianto accused Widodo’s government of hosting a “massive, systematic and fraudulent” election.
Continue reading...PM to attend Joko Widodo’s inauguration and hold talks on FTA, which opposition leader says will be good for jobs
Scott Morrison’s whirlwind trip to Indonesia is a “good thing”, his political opponent says, as Labor embraces bipartisan support for Australia’s latest free trade agreement.
Morrison travelled to Indonesia for Joko Widodo’s second inauguration as president, with talks between the two leaders planned at the presidential palace.
Continue reading...Maythem Radhi accused of being part of syndicate that charged 421 mostly Iraqi and Afghan refugees for place aboard Indonesian boat
An Iraqi man has been charged in Australia with people-trafficking in connection with the drowning deaths of more than 350 asylum seekers in the 2001 SIEV X tragedy.
Maythem Radhi, 43, was arrested at Brisbane airport late Friday after being extradited from New Zealand and has been charged with “organising groups of non-citizens into Australia”, police say.
Continue reading...Subpoenas to Southwest Airlines and American Airlines seek information about flight crew training and 737 Max software MCAS
Lawyers representing families of passengers killed in a Boeing 737 Max crash in Ethiopia in March are set to issue subpoenas to Southwest Airlines and American Airlines, the two biggest US operators of the jet, according to documents seen by Reuters.
The subpoenas will be issued over the next couple of days, the lawyers separately told Reuters.
Continue reading...U-turn announced after environment minister said populations of the ancient lizard remained stable despite influx of visitors
Indonesian authorities have cancelled plans to close Komodo island to tourists, with the country’s environment ministry saying that Komodo dragons living there are not under threat from over-tourism.
In July, authorities in East Nusa Tenggara province said that the island would be closed for one year from January 2020 to stop tourists interfering with the natural behaviour of the largest species of lizard on earth. On Monday Siti Nurbaya Bakar, Indonesia’s environment and forestry minister, said the move was off.
Continue reading...Indonesian police fired teargas to break up a rally near parliament in Jakarta as several thousand protesters gathered to oppose a new law they say reduces the authority of the country's corruption commission.
More than 20,000 police and military personnel were deployed to maintain security in the capital, according to media.
Continue reading...Number of dead may be higher than official death toll and unrest in Wamena may have claimed as many as 41 lives
Witnesses to Monday’s deadly riots in West Papua claim Indonesian police gunned down Papuan students in the street during the unrest, and say Wamena has since become a militarised ghost town.
Witness testimony from Wamena, the largest town in Papua’s remote Baliem Valley, run in stark contrast to the Indonesian authorities’ official account.
Continue reading...Indonesian police fired teargas and water cannon to disperse protesters as tens of thousands of students gathered in cities nationwide over a new criminal code. Revisions to the code include penalties for sex outside marriage, insulting the president's dignity, a four-year jail term for abortions in the absence of a medical emergency or rape and a prison term for black magic
Continue reading...Millions aged under five are particularly at risk from the slash and burn fires due to undeveloped immune systems
Indonesian forest fires are putting nearly 10 million children at risk due to air pollution, the United Nations has warned.
The fires have been spewing toxic haze over south-east Asia in recent weeks, closing schools and airports, with people rushing to buy face masks and seek medical treatment for respiratory ailments.
Continue reading...At least 40 injured in student protests over plans that include outlawing extramarital sex
Thousands of students have taken to the streets in Indonesia to protest against a “disastrous” draft criminal code that would include outlawing extramarital sex and a controversial new law that could weaken the nation’s anti-corruption body.
On Tuesday, the second consecutive day of protests, thousands of students gathered outside the parliament building in Jakarta, calling for the government to suspend its plans to ratify the draft code. Police fired teargas and water cannon to disperse the demonstrators.
Continue reading...Forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan have been spewing toxic haze across south-east Asia, forcing the closure of schools and airports, and prompting Indonesian authorities to deploy thousands of firefighters to tackle them. There has been an increase in reports of respiratory illnesses
• Red skies cover parts of Indonesia as rainforest fire haze crisis worsens – video
Continue reading...Apparent climbdown follows wave of anger and criticism over draconian draft laws
Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, has ordered his government to postpone the ratification of a deeply controversial criminal code that would outlaw living together outside marriage, extramarital sex and insulting the president.
The apparent climbdown came in a surprise address at the state palace on Friday afternoon, and follows an outpouring of anger and criticism about the draconian draft laws.
Continue reading...Australia’s funding cuts force hundreds of homeless refugees to plead to be taken into immigration detention
Once a military command post, the two-storey lime green building in Kalideres, West Jakarta, is now essentially a refugee camp.
More than 400 refugees are temporarily housed here in small dome tents squashed into every room and spilling out into the concrete car park. There is no running water, electricity, bathroom facilities or any certainty of food. A few days ago someone delivered biscuits, but there has been nothing since.
Continue reading...National agencies granted greater power to enforce existing laws banning practices such as shackling
Indonesia is stepping up efforts to protect people with mental health conditions by affording national agencies new powers to monitor and close down institutions found to be abusing patients.
The country’s human rights commission and its witness and victim protection unit are among the agencies empowered to monitor facilities to check they don’t contravene a 1977 government ban on “pasung” – shackling or detaining patients in confined spaces.
Continue reading...