■INDONESIA
Journalists flout film ban
Journalists yesterday vowed to defy a ban on the screening of Australian movie Balibo, saying the film depicting alleged war crimes by Indonesian forces in East Timor is educational. The film directed by Robert Connolly and starring Anthony LaPaglia was banned without explanation on Tuesday hours before it was due to premier in the country at a private showing for the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club. It depicts the alleged murder of five Australian-based journalists by invading Indonesian forces in the East Timorese border town of Balibo in 1975. Indonesia claims the reporters — two Australians, two Britons and a New Zealander — were killed in crossfire and has refused to cooperate with an Australian war crimes investigation launched this year. Alliance of Independent Journalists head Nezar Patria said its members had been invited to a screening last night at Utan Kayu Theatre in Jakarta, regardless of the ban. The film, which opened in Australia in July, was also scratched at the last minute from the program for the Jakarta International Film Festival starting next week.
■VIETNAM
Mass grave found
Authorities in central Vietnam have found a mass grave containing the remains of 25 communist soldiers killed during the Vietnam War. Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Trong Luyen says the remains were recovered on Wednesday along with personal effects like sandals, belts, caps and hammocks. Construction workers discovered the remains while digging a drainage system in Quang Ngai city. The remains are believed to be those of communist commandos killed while attacking a South Vietnamese prison during the Tet Offensive in 1968.
■UNITED NATIONS
Disabled key to poverty work
The UN warned Wednesday that attempts to halve world poverty will be doomed unless the world’s estimated 650 million disabled people are pulled out of neglect and unjust discrimination. In an appeal to mark International Day for Persons with Disabilities yesterday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said disabled people formed “one of the world’s largest and most neglected groups.” About 20 percent of the world’s poorest people have some kind of disability, while 90 percent of disabled children in developing countries do not attend school, UN data showed. “These statistics shock our conscience,” Pillay said. “Unless persons with disabilities are brought into the development mainstream, it will be impossible to cut poverty in half by 2015,” she said.
■INDONESIA
Jet passengers injured
At least six passengers were injured yesterday when they jumped off a jet as it prepared to take off from Bali, falsely believing the plane was on fire, an airline official said. The Batavia Air Boeing 737 carrying 148 passengers and six crew was about to leave the terminal at the island’s main airport, en route to Surabaya city in East Java, when the incident happened at 11:45am. “Some passengers saw smoke coming out from the plane’s right side. They screamed and shouted that the plane was on fire,” airline spokesman Eddy Haryanto said. “That caused other passengers to panic and rush to the emergency exit. They forced open the door and jumped off the plane,” he said. Six injured passengers were sent to hospital, the spokesman said, adding their condition was unknown. “There was no fire, it was only smoke from the exhaust and that’s normal as the pilot had just started up the engines,” Haryanto said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number