April 28, 2015
Indonesia Executes Foreign Drug Smugglers - Daily Caller
Firing squads 'ready' for executions: Police - Jakarta Post
Cilacap Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Ulung Sampurna Jaya says that the police have prepared the firing squads for the executions of nine death row inmates that are expected to be conducted either on Tuesday evening or early Wednesday, in line with existing rules.
He said the convicts would be shot simultaneously by each of their own firing squads.
Ulung said the firing squads were ready and could be dispatched straightaway to the execution site once the execution orders were issued.
“The National Police are ready. Any time the Attorney General’s Office [AGO] orders us to move, we are ready to move,” he said in Cilacap, on the sidelines of security checks jointly conducted by the Central Java Police and the Jakarta Prosecutors’ Office on Tuesday.
Jakarta Prosecutors’ Office head M. Adi Toegarisman said based on the security checks he conducted together with Central Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Noer Ali on Nusakambangan, all preparations for the executions were complete.
He refused to make comment on the exact time of the executions. “On the exact execution time, we cannot yet announce it,” said Adi.
As stated earlier, the executions of the nine death row inmates are expected to be held either on Tuesday evening or early Wednesday.
The nine facing death are two Australians named Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, Raheem Agbaje Salami, Okwudili Oyatanze, and Silvester Obiekwe Nwaolise alias Mustofa from Nigeria, Zainal Abidin of Indonesia, Rodrigo Gularte from Brazil, Martin Anderson alias Belo from Ghana and Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso from the Philippines. (ebf)(+++)
Source: Top Stories - Google News
Tuesday, April 28, 2015 0
Nigerian army says it has rescued nearly 300 from Boko Haram hideout - CBS News
LAGOS, Nigeria -- The Nigerian army says that it has rescued 200 girls and 93 women in the Sambisa Forest, but officials say they are not the schoolgirls kidnapped a year ago by Boko Haram extremists from Chibok.
The army announced the rescue on Twitter Tuesday and said it is now screening and profiling the girls and women.
Troops also captured and destroyed three terrorist camps in the forest, known as an operating area for the Boko Haram.
More than 200 schoolgirls were kidnapped from Chibok in northeastern Nigeria by the Islamic extremist group in April 2014. The militants took the schoolgirls in trucks into the Sambisa Forest and the girls have been missing since. The plight of the schoolgirls has garnered international attention and the #BringBackOurGirls campaign.
Play Video
CBS Evening NewsStill no trace of 200 kidnapped girls in Nigeria
There's been no trace of the 200 kidnapped schoolgirls who were kidnapped by militants seven months ago, despite Nigeria's assurances a rescue op...
The Nigerian army announced two weeks ago that it is going into Sambisa Forest, which is a center for the Boko Haram fighters.
Meanwhile, hundreds of skeletons of children, women and men believed killed by Boko Haram have been found in the recaptured Nigerian border town of Damasak, indicating another atrocity by the Islamic extremists, witnesses say.
© 2015 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Source: Top Stories - Google News
Tuesday, April 28, 2015 0
Time slips away for Bali Nine duo - NEWS.com.au
A friend of Andrew Chan has arrived at Cilacap port with 8 buckets of KFC who says they're for Chan and other inmates.
Rehabilitated ... Bali Nine ringleaders Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan helped to educate other prisoners. Source: Supplied
AFTER an initial denial of the rights for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran to have a religious adviser of their choosing, authorities have now agreed that two Australian ministers will be allowed to accompany the men in their final hours.
It is not clear what time the two ministers — David Soper and Cristie Buckingham — will be asked to leave Nusakambangan before the executions but they will not be with them in their final moments as they are strapped to wooden planks and shot. Two Indonesian pastors have been appointed to that role.
Final hours ... Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan spent their last day with their families. Source: Supplied
The turnaround came as the Australian and French governments issued a joint statement with the European Union appealing for President Widodo to halt the planned execution.
The statement, reported by Fairfax Media, said the executions would not “give deterrent effect to drug trafficking” and that “to execute these prisoners now will not achieve anything”.
“It is our hope that Indonesia can show forgiveness to ten detainees. Forgiveness and rehabilitation are fundamental to the Indonesian judicial system as well as in our system,” it said.
Screams could be heard inside the port building at Cilacap, as the families of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran prepared to cross to the prison island to say their last goodbyes to the forsaken men.
The Bali Nine ringleaders and seven others are to be executed by firing squads just after the stroke of midnight (3am AEST). Indonesian President Joko Widodo has coldly turned his back on the pleas of the international community to spare them.
So much pain ... Chinthu Sukumaran and his sister Brintha after seeing their brother for the last time. Picture: Adam Taylor Source: News Corp Australia
Nine cheap and badly made silk-lined coffins — each valued at around $100 — passed in an ambulance onto a ferry and over to the prison island of Nusakambangan, confirming the mass execution was in its final planning stages.
One of them had been commissioned extra large for Sukumaran.
For much of Tuesday, Chan, 31, and Sukumaran, 34, were denied the right to spend their final hours with their trusted hand-picked religious advisers from Australia — and which Indonesia had promised could be with them.
Devastating ... Andrew Chan with his beloved wife Febyanti Herewila. Picture: Lukman S. Bintoro Source: News Corp Australia
It threatened to be another humiliation in what has been a disgraceful episode from the time the pair were shifted from Kerobokan jail in Bali, in March, under armed fighter jet escort, to their final destination in south Java.
Australian leaders, lawyers and members of the public have rallied around Chan and Sukumaran in the last months, contradicting the often-ventilated social-media claim that Australians cared little for them because neither man was caucasian.
Agony ... Brintha Sukumaran breaks down as she arrives at Nusakambangan Port to visit her brother. Picture: Adam Taylor Source: News Corp Australia
Chan’s new bride, Febyanti, appeared stricken as she went to say goodbye to the man she married inside Nusakambangan on Monday night.
Sukumaran’s mother Raji sobbed as she struggled to walk. Myuran’s sister Brintha wailed and collapsed as she made her way to the port gate.
Unbearable grief ... Myuran Sukumaran as a boy with his brother and sister. Source: News Limited
The families were forced by heavy-handed security forces to get out of their car 100m from the port office, manhandled and jostled through a throng of security and media, as three police guard dogs jumped and snapped at them.
Indonesia’s Judicial Commission, which was tasked with investigating claims that sentencing judges had in 2006 sought $130,000 in bribes to guarantee the men would receive life, rather than death, sentences, claimed there was no evidence of corruption.
The Judicial Commission said it had examined the allegations in a professional, careful way. They said the commission had no authority to halt the executions and asked all parties to respect the legal process of Indonesia. None of the people who have provided statements to the commission have been interviewed or contacted.
Living hell ... Andrew Chan inside Bali’s notorious Kerobokan Prison. Source: News Corp Australia
Julian McMahon, the pair’s Australian lawyer, said: “To my knowledge I am unaware of the Judicial Commission speaking to any of the witnesses who provided statements.
“I do not understand how anybody could say that the investigation has been undertaken if the witnesses have not been spoken to.”
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who has been barely able to conceal her anger at the executions, said she had taken advice that nothing would be gained by a last-minute dash to Jakarta.
“Clearly, if travelling to Indonesia would make a difference, we would have gone there,” Ms Bishop said.
Hundreds gathered in Sydney's Martin Place for an eleventh-hour vigil organised by the Mercy Campaign for Bali Nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran who are expected to be executed in the early hours of Wednesday at Indonesia's prison island of Nusakambangan. (AAP Video/Carol Cho)
Prime Minister Tony Abbott was in transit back to Australia from Europe as the men’s last hours counted down.
President Widodo spent the day in his Jakarta palace and made no public appearance or statement.
The Abbott Government’s response to the executions will not be known until they are confirmed dead.
Indonesia watcher Dave McRae, told News Corp he believed it would be appropriate for the federal government to initiate some limited form if suspension of relations, with the aim of getting Indonesia to change its death-penalty policy.
“This may not be the last time an Australian faces the death penalty in Indonesia,” he said.
However, Indonesia would seize on this and point out that Australia does not impose sanctions on other death-penalty countries, including the US.
Last time ... Michael Chan talks to journalists at a hotel in Cilacap after visiting his brother. Source: News Corp Australia
Chan and Sukumaran are set to each face a 12-man firing squad — and Myuran told friends he planned to reject the offer of a hood and look his killers in the eyes.
Seven others, from Nigeria, Brazil, the Philippines and Indonesia were to be shot alongside them. Their chest wounds from 5.56mm bullets would then be stitched shut by medical officers as they lay slumped on the killing field and previous in previous executions it has taken prisoners six to seven minutes to die after being shot. They are then to be carried a short distance where their bodies would be cleansed of blood and placed in the coffins.
Innocence ... Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan at primary school in Sydney. Source: Supplied
Some of the victims who have little family or consular support, such as the Nigerians, will likely be buried on the island. Others, such as Brazilian Rodrigo Gularte, may be cremated in the nearby town of Purwokerto because of the problems of transporting a body back to his country.
The bodies of Chan and Sukumaran are expected to be driven directly to Jakarta, 10 hours to the north, most likely to the police forensic centre on the southern outskirts of the city.
They will then be transferred to proper caskets for repatriation to Australia.
Source: Top Stories - Google News
Tuesday, April 28, 2015 0
Nepal PM puts toll at 10000, says rescue operations not effective - Times of India
Three days after the 7.9-magnitude temblor flattened their homes and dwellings, desperate people across Nepal looked for succour from helicopters that criss-cross the Himalayan nation as massive international aid, including from India, poured in.
Nepal-India earthquake complete coverage
Prime Minister Koirala, who was in Indonesia when the earthquake struck and returned home on Sunday, held an all party meeting in which he said government was sending desperately needed tents, water and food supplies to those in need.
He acknowledged that authorities were over whelmed by appeals for help from remote villages but the administration has been unable to initiate rescue efforts in many areas due to lack of equipment and rescue experts.
Koirala told Reuters that the death toll could reach 10,000 because information from the affected remote villages is yet to come.
Eight million people have been affected by the devastating earthquake, the United Nations said today.
More than 1.4 million need food, while water and shelter are also in short supply, the UN said in a report.
Hundreds of people are still trapped under tonnes of rubble in capital Kathmandu and some of the worst-affected remote mountainous areas.
http://ift.tt/1nXwkCk Koirala,Rescue and relief operation,Nepal-India earthquake,nepal earthquake
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Source: Top Stories - Google News
Tuesday, April 28, 2015 0
Over 5 000 Burundians flee to Rwanda in 2 days - News24
Geneva - More than 5 000 Burundians fled to Rwanda over the weekend following mounting tensions in the east African country, bringing the total number of arrivals in April to nearly 21 000, the UN said on Tuesday.
"There has been a sharp increase in the number of Burundian refugees arriving in Rwanda," Ariane Rummery, spokesperson for the UN refugee agency said.
"Five thousand people entering the country in two days is quite a significant jump... It is certainly concerning," she told reporters in Geneva.
The Rwandan government has put the number of Burundians arriving in the country since the beginning of April at 21 000, and expects the number could rise to 50 000.
Another 3 800 Burundian nationals have meanwhile fled to the South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo since the beginning of the month, the UNHCR said.
Most of the new arrivals in Rwanda are women and children, Rummery said, adding that the refugees had reported facing intimidation and threats of violence linked to upcoming elections.
Massive demonstrations
The outflow came as the official list of candidates for Burundi's presidential elections on June 26 was published at the weekend, with President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid to cling to power for a third term sparking massive demonstrations.
At least five people have died since clashes broke out on Sunday after the ruling CNDD-FDD party, which has been accused of intimidating opponents, confirmed Nkurunziza's candidacy.
The government has banned all protests and deployed large numbers of police and troops to quell the unrest. Some of those killed were shot at close range.
Hundreds of stone-throwing protesters have been arrested.
"The situation is quite chaotic at the moment," the UNHCR spokesperson Karin de Gruijl told reporters.
"We think that this violence might continue and this fear of violence might continue and that there might be a bigger outflux, particularly to Rwanda," she warned.
Rwanda, which is already hosting more than 74,000 refugees mainly from neighbouring DRC, has allocated land in Mahama in the Eastern Province for a new refugee camp, with the capacity to hold up to 50 000 people.
The UNHCR said it was helping move refugees there in daily convoys of up to 1 500 people.
Source: Top Stories - Google News
Tuesday, April 28, 2015 0
Coffins arrive at Indonesia prison ahead of drug traffickers' execution - The Globe and Mail
Ambulances carrying coffins arrived Tuesday at a prison island and relatives paid final visits to their condemned loved ones in a sign that Indonesia will imminently execute eight foreigners and one Indonesian man, despite an international outcry and pleas for mercy.
The nine inmates, all convicted on drug charges, were given 72-hour notices over the weekend that they would be executed by a firing squad, prompting a flurry of last-minute lobbying by foreign leaders. The United Nations has argued that the inmates’ crimes are not egregious enough to warrant the ultimate punishment.
Indonesia has not said exactly when the executions will take place. But the arrival of the coffins and the families’ visits Tuesday, along with comments by lawyers and Indonesia’s usual execution protocol, suggest the inmates will be shot shortly after midnight.
The relatives were being allowed to visit with the inmates until 8 p.m., said Tony Spontana, spokesman for Indonesia’s attorney general.
“All the officials, prosecutors, firing squads and ambulances are in place, so hopefully the time (of the executions) is getting closer,” he told reporters. “So at the moment, we’re entering the quiet period before the executions, which will be carried out this week.”
Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo would not confirm comments by defence lawyers that the executions would be carried out in the early hours of Wednesday morning. “Let them count by themselves, that is their business,” he said. “They defend their clients, we defend the nation.”
Among the condemned are two Australians – Myuran Sukumaran, 33, and Andrew Chan, 31 – whose emotional families made what could be their last visit to Besi prison on Nusakambangan island, where the prisoners are scheduled to die.
Sukumaran’s sister, Brintha, wailed in agony and had to be carried through a crowd of media waiting at the ferry port to the island.
Chan received a visit from Febyanti Herewila, an Indonesian Christian pastor who became his wife in a marriage ceremony on the island on Monday.
A dozen ambulances, nine carrying coffins, were driven onto the ferry to Nusakambangan. On the dashboard of one ambulance was a piece of paper bearing the name of Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipino woman who is among those scheduled to die.
Over the weekend, authorities asked the nine inmates – the two Australians and Veloso, as well as four Nigerian men and one man each from Brazil and Indonesia – for their last wishes and gave them a 72-hour notice of their executions.
On Tuesday, Australia’s foreign minister defended Prime Minister Tony Abbott against online criticism that he had not done enough to save the lives of Sukumaran and Chan.
Australian actors including Geoffrey Rush, Guy Pearce, Joel Edgerton and Bryan Brown have launched an online video calling for Indonesia to show mercy to the two men.
“Tony, if you have any courage and compassion, you’d get over to Indonesia and bring these two boys home,” actor Brendan Cowell said to the prime minister.
But Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the Australian government was acting on advice from Australian diplomats in Jakarta who were part of a sustained campaign seeking a stay of execution.
“Clearly if travelling to Indonesia would make a difference, we would have gone there,” Bishop told Nine Network television.
Abbott has spoken to Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo several times on the issue, most recently in Singapore in late March at the funeral of Lee Kuan Yew, the city-state’s first prime minister, Bishop said.
She said her Indonesian counterpart, Retno Marsudi, wrote to her Monday night and gave no indication that the executions would not go ahead as early as Wednesday morning.
“While they are still alive, there is still hope and I will continue to advocate all throughout today,” Bishop said.
Prasetyo said Monday that another convict, Frenchman Serge Atlaoui, would not be executed with the others because he still has an outstanding legal complaint over the rejection of his clemency appeal.
Prasetyo said Atlaoui would later face a firing squad alone if his complaint is turned down by the Administrative Court. Similar appeals by Sukumaran and Chan were rejected by the Administrative Court and the High Administrative Court, with both ruling that clemency is the prerogative of the president.
The head of Europe’s human rights watchdog on Tuesday urged Indonesia not to carry out the executions. The France-based Council of Europe holds its 47 member countries accountable to the European Convention on Human Rights, which opposes the death penalty.
“The death penalty is a terrible injustice which can never be put right,” Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland said in a statement. He urged Indonesia to refrain from the executions and “then to consider introducing a moratorium on the death penalty with a view to working towards abolition.”
Philippine President Benigno Aquino III appealed to Jokowi on Monday to spare the life of Veloso, the Filipino drug convict, in a meeting on the sidelines of an annual summit of Southeast Asian leaders in Malaysia.
Filipino boxing champion Manny Pacquiao also appealed to Jokowi to spare Veloso’s life.
“I am begging and knocking at your kind heart that your excellency will grant executive clemency to her by sparing her life and saving her from execution,” Pacquiao said in a live interview from Los Angeles with Philippine network GMA News.
Veloso’s two sons and her mother were seen arriving at the prison for a final visit.
Source: Top Stories - Google News
Tuesday, April 28, 2015 0
The Latest on Nepal Quake: UN says 8 million affected - The Denver Post
A victim with a broken leg from Saturday's massive earthquake, is carried by Nepalese soldiers as she arrives by helicopter from the heavily-damaged Ranachour village at a landing zone in the town of Gorkha, Nepal, Tuesday, April 28, 2015. Helicopters crisscrossed the skies above the high mountains of Gorkha district on Tuesday near the epicenter of the weekend earthquake, ferrying the injured to clinics, and taking emergency supplies back to remote villages devastated by the disaster. (AP Photo/Wally Santana)
4.45 p.m. (1100 GMT)
The United Nations says 8 million people have been affected by the weekend earthquake in Nepal that killed nearly 4,400 people and 1.4 million people are in need of food assistance, but the challenge would be to reach them.
Jamie McGoldrick, U.N. resident coordinator in Kathmandu, told reporters that of those affected 2 million people are in the 11 worst-hit districts.
He says that 72 hours after the quake on Saturday, "people are still in a very much hard-ship mode."
The challenge of supplying to small villages at high altitudes and in rough terrain "is quite significant, he said.
An elderly woman, injured in Saturday's earthquake, sits outside Bhaktapur public hospital in Bhaktapur, Nepal, Tuesday, April 28, 2015. Many people have camped outdoors in the chilly night cold since Saturday?s massive earthquake that shook Nepal?s capital and the densely populated Kathmandu valley. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) (Bernat Armangue/AP)
After flying by helicopter over Dhulikhel town, on the north side of the Kathmandu valley, he estimated that about 40 percent of the houses were damaged, but the destruction was erratic.
"Some areas on one ridge are completely untouched, on the other side it's completely flattened," he said.
— Todd Pitman, Kathmandu, Nepal
———
4.15 p.m. (1030 GMT)
The Mt. Everest base camp has grown deeply quiet over the past couple days, as more and more climbers leave in the wake of the deadly avalanche that pulverized part of the mountaineering village after the Saturday earthquake that killed nearly 4,400 people.
Base camp is "very silent," Azim Afif, the leader of a team from University of Technology Malaysia, said during a brief interview on the messenger service WhatsApp. His team, he said, had decided not to attempt to reach the summit. They were planning to descend from base camp Wednesday.
The main trail through the Khumbu Icefall, the expanse of immense chunks of ice that must be traversed during summit attempts, was wiped out by the avalanche. The "Icefall Doctors" — the Sherpas who create the trail of ropes and ladders — had already left base camp, he said.
Ground staff members carry aid goods to be sent to Nepal for earthquake victims at the Taoyuan International Airport in Taoyuan, Taiwan, Tuesday, April 28, 2015. Saturday's magnitude 7.8 earthquake spread horror from Kathmandu to small villages and to the slopes of Mount Everest, triggering an avalanche that buried part of the base camp packed with foreign climbers preparing to make their summit attempts. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying) (Chiang Ying-ying/AP)
As a result "I'm not sure if anyone is still trying" to make summit attempts.
— Karly Domb Sadof, Bangkok, Thailand
———
2.15 p.m. (0830 GMT)
At Dubai International Airport, workers loaded crates packed with relief aid into a Boeing 747 destined for Nepal, just over a four-hour flight away.
The Gulf commercial hub is home to a sprawling logistical and warehouse facility known as International Humanitarian City that is used by United Nations agencies and NGOs to deploy humanitarian aid.
The chief executive of IHC, Shaima al-Zarooni, said relief workers have faced difficulties in delivering needed aid such as temporary shelters, satellite communications gear and medical equipment because of closures and congestion at the airport in Kathmandu.
Taiwan's emergency search and rescue team members stand for inspection before heading to Nepal to assist with the earthquake relief effort at the Taoyuan International Airport in Taoyuan, Taiwan, Tuesday, April 28, 2015. Saturday's magnitude 7.8 earthquake spread horror from Kathmandu to small villages and to the slopes of Mount Everest, triggering an avalanche that buried part of the base camp packed with foreign climbers preparing to make their summit attempts. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying) (Chiang Ying-ying/AP)
The United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai, announced on Sunday it was deploying search-and-rescue team to Nepal on Sunday to help with recovery and relief efforts.
— Fay Abuelgasim, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
——
2.15 p.m. (0830 GMT)
The largest Emirati telecom, Etisalat, is offering customers five free minutes to call loved ones in Nepal by entering a special code on their mobile phones.
Chief Marketing Officer Khaled Elkhouly described the move as "a small gesture during this hour of crisis."
Kuwait announced Monday evening it would provide $3 million in urgent aid to assist victims of the earthquake.
In this photo provided by World Vision, a house stands destroyed by Saturday?s earthquake at Paslang village in Gorkha municipality, Nepal, Monday, April 27, 2015. Reports received so far by the government and aid groups suggest that many communities perched on mountainsides are devastated or struggling to cope. Udav Prashad Timalsina, the top official for the Gorkha district, near the epicenter of Saturday's quake, said he was in desperate need of help. (Bishwo Ghimire/World Vision via AP) (Bishwo Ghimire/AP)
The oil-rich Gulf states are a key destination for Nepalese migrant workers, where they find jobs as maids, security guards and construction workers.
— Adam Schreck, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
———
1.15 p.m. (0730 GMT)
Helicopters crisscrossed the skies above the high mountains of Gorkha district, ferrying the injured to Gorkha and other towns for treatment, and aid supplies back out to remote villages — some reachable only by air after landslides blocked mountain roads.
Two chartered helicopters brought in eight women from Ranachour village, two of them clutching babies to their breast, and a third heavily pregnant.
Nepalese volunteers unload relief material brought in an Indian air force helicopter for victims of Saturday?s earthquake at Trishuli Bazar in Nepal, Monday, April 27, 2015. The death toll from Nepal's earthquake is expected to rise depended largely on the condition of vulnerable mountain villages that rescue workers were still struggling to reach two days after the disaster. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) (Altaf Qadri/AP)
Sangita Shrestha, a heavily pregnant woman, said there are many more injured in her village.
Some of the women on the flight were grimacing and crying in pain and unable to walk or speak, in agony three days after being injured in the quake Saturday that killed nearly 4,400 people in Nepal.
Sita Karki winced when army troops lifted her from the helicopter. Her broken and swollen legs had been tied together with crude wisps of hay twisted into a makeshift splint to keep them from moving.
— Katy Daigle, Gorkha, Nepal
———
1.00 pm. (0715 GMT)
In Bhaktapur, one of Nepal's most historic cities neighboring Kathmandu, people were beginning to go back to their damaged homes to collect anything they could salvage. A team of Chinese rescue workers was at work on the ground.
Some parts of the battered town look like a deserted jungle of electricity cables and broken bricks.
The tourists, so much a part of this temple town's landscape, are now missing and the locals wander around.
At the local public hospital patients have been camped in the lawns since the massive quake struck Saturday and flies buzz everywhere.
Ten-year-old Sia Ganesh, her leg broken, cries in pain. Her grandmother tries to comfort her when she cries. Her father also suffered a broken leg.
Her 5-year-old brother Aros was among the nearly 4,400 people killed in Nepal alone in Saturday's quake.
— Bernat Armangue, Bhaktapur, Nepal
———
12.30 p.m. (0645 GMT)
At the Kathmandu airport, helicopters chartered by trekking brought in both foreign trekkers and local Nepalese villagers from remote areas where they were stranded after Saturday's earthquake that killed nearly 4,400 people.
Dave Gordon, from San Francisco, Ca., said he was in Langtang, a popular trekking area 60 kilometers (40 miles) north of Kathmandu, until Tuesday waiting for the rescue flight.
When the quake occurred, "cliffs came down" and four or five porters were killed, buried in the rock fall," he said. "Trails are completely destroyed. People are stuck. They can't get out. It was very bad."
— Binaj Gurubacharya, Kathmandu, Nepal
———
12.15 p.m. (0630 GMT)
An expedition doctor and base camp manager for a trekking group says that all those injured in Saturday's quake-triggered avalanche have been evacuated and the dead bodies flown out.
Dr. Nima Namgyal Sherpa says at least five teams are still waiting to hear if they will get permission to scale the summit.
Sherpa says they "have not made the decision to quit yet."
The others are now salvaging whatever they can and planning to trek down from base camp, Sherpa told The Associated Press in a WhatsApp message.
The government will decide within the week whether they'll close the mountain or allow the climbers to proceed. At least 18 people were killed in the avalanche and more than 4,400 in the earthquake in Nepal alone. About 100 died in India and Tibet.
— Yirmiyan Arthur, New Delhi.
———
11 a.m. (0515 GMT)
An American doctor working at a hospital in Kathmandu, says about 90 percent of the houses are "just flattened" in Gorkha district, and hundreds of thousands of people are homeless after Saturday's earthquake.
Rebecca McAteer says her team was the first to arrive in many places in Gorkha, where the earthquake's epicenter was located. More than 4,400 people were killed in the earthquake in Nepal, India and Tibet.
She said these villages have very poor infrastructure with flimsy homes, and the residents are mostly older women and men, and children.
She said "the young men have all left to look for work elsewhere."
— Katy Daigle, Gorkha, Nepal
———
Source: Top Stories - Google News
Tuesday, April 28, 2015 0
Heat index seen to rise to dangerous levels on Thursday, Friday - Inquirer.net
THE heat index or how the temperature feels like in one’s body will rise close to danger levels on Friday, prompting the state weather bureau to advise the people to stay indoors as much as possible.
A heat index of up to 40.2 degrees Celsius is forecast on Thursday, while a heat index of up to 39.9 degrees Celsius is forecast on Friday.
Temperatures between 32 to 41 degrees Celsius are under “extreme caution” and heat cramps and heat exhaustion are possible, the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said.
“Continuing activity could result in heat stroke,” Pagasa said.
The danger levels are between 41 to 54 degrees Celsius.
The heat index is defined by the weather bureau as human discomfort index that gives the “apparent” temperature or what persons perceive or feel as the temperature affecting their body.
Pagasa advises the public to stay indoors, and if there is no air conditioning available, they should stay on the lowest floor and stay away from sunlight.
The public is also advised to wear lightweight and light-color clothing, drink plenty of water and eat small meals and often.
“Avoid eating food of high in protein which can increase metabolic heat,” Pagasa said.
Drinking liquor should also be avoided as it dehydrates the body. AC
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Source: Top Stories - Google News
Tuesday, April 28, 2015 0
Indonesian executions: key questions and answers - GMA News
Ambulance with Mary Jane's name arrives. An ambulance carrying an empty coffin and bearing the name of Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipino death row inmate facing execution, enters Wijayapura port as it heads to the prison island of Nusa Kambangan in Cilacap, Central Java island, Indonesia on Tuesday, April 28. Nine drug traffickers are being held in isolation cells at an Indonesian maximum security prison awaiting execution by firing squad, after Indonesian authorities notified them they had no hope of reprieve. Reuters/Beawiharta
Eight foreigners and a Indonesian facing execution on a prison island are believed to be spending their last hours Tuesday before they are led into a clearing, tied to posts, and shot by firing squad.
Despite international outrage and desperate appeals for mercy from relatives, Jakarta looks set to execute the group, who include nationals from Australia, Brazil, Nigeria and the Philippines, as early as Tuesday night.
Under Indonesian regulations, the eight men and one woman will be given the option of sitting, kneeling or standing as they meet their fate. The position of their hearts will be marked on their clothes in black ink to provide a target for the 12-man firing squad.
If the convict survives the initial volley of gunfire, then an officer delivers a shot to the head with a handgun.
Here are key questions and answers about the process:
Q: Where do the executions take place?
A: Indonesia executes death row inmates at Nusakambangan, a rugged island off Central Java that has served as a high-security jail since Dutch colonial rule.
Among the more notorious inmates to spend their final days there were Imam Samudra, Mukhlas and Amrozi, three men behind the 2002 bombings on the resort island of Bali that killed 202 people. They were put to death there in 2008.
Those sentenced to death are eventually transferred to Nusakambangan.
Q: How much notification do prisoners receive before being shot?
A: Authorities must provide a minimum 72 hours' notice. Once this is given, the prisoners are moved to isolation cells to wait. If they are foreigners their governments are informed of the impending execution.
Q: What happens next?
A: One hour before the scheduled execution time, a team of 12 specially trained policemen assembles at the site.
They take position five to ten meters (16 to 32 feet) from where the condemned inmates will be positioned and lay out their rifles.
A commander loads each rifle with one round but only three of the rounds are live. The rest are blanks, meaning it cannot be determined who fired the fatal shot.
Prisoners sentenced to death for the same crime -- like the two Australian ringleaders of the so-called "Bali Nine" heroin-smuggling gang -- must by law be executed at the same time but by a different firing squad.
It is not known how many firing squads will be used and into what number of groups the convicted will be divided.
Q: How are the prisoners executed?
A: The condemned inmates are marched to a clearing, where their hands and feet are bound and they are placed in front of individual posts. They are given the option of sitting, kneeling or standing and can wear a blindfold if desired.
The prisoners then have a final three minutes with a religious counsellor, before a commander draws a black mark on the inmate's clothing over the heart.
The squad commander then raises a sword. The marksmen take aim and fire when he swishes the blade down.
If a doctor determines the prisoner has survived, an officer delivers a single shot to the head by handgun.
Q: Do Indonesians support the death penalty for drug use?
In a nationwide survey published last month by pollster Indo Barometer, 84 percent of respondents supported the death penalty for drug traffickers, while just 12 percent disagreed.
The broad public support partly explains why President Joko Widodo -- who believes Indonesia faces a drugs emergency -- has been so unwavering in his determination to put drug dealers to death.
Many in Indonesia view drug dealers as akin to terrorists, mass murderers or rapists.
The country has some of the world's toughest anti-drugs laws and sentences for possession of even minor quantities of narcotics can be harsh. — Agence France-Presse
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Tuesday, April 28, 2015 0
'India Has Demonstrated Its Global Leadership', Says US, as India Helps Quake ... - NDTV
"India has demonstrated its global leadership in recent weeks, first in Yemen and now in Nepal. We are grateful; we are impressed; we are inspired.
"And because our cooperation is expanding, India is using C-17s and C-130s on the front lines of its response," US Ambassador to India Richard Verma said.He said that the US side has received administrative clearances for its relief efforts in Nepal without delay.
"As our relationship progresses, we will be able to do even more together," he added.
India was the first to respond to the Nepal crisis and it immediately sent relief material.
The death toll in the devastating earthquake that rocked Nepal has climbed to over 4,350 today with more than 8,000 people injured.
Crisis loomed over quake-hit Nepal with an acute shortage of food, water, electricity, and medicines as fear of another quake kept tens of thousands of people out in the open.
Mr Verma also said that the United States has provided US $10 million in humanitarian funding.
He said that the embassy has deployed personnel and disaster response resources to Nepal to participate in the rescue effort.
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Tuesday, April 28, 2015 0
Labor Day heat index may heat feverish levels - GMA News
Temperatures could soar on Labor Day this Friday, with the "init factor" reaching the 40°C level in some areas of the country.
Labor Day is a holiday in the Philippines, though many Filipinos are expected to go out to the streets to call for better working conditions.
The so-called "init factor" or "heat index" gives the apparent temperature, taking into account the actual air temperature as well as other factors such as humidity.
State weather agency PAGASA's Tuesday heat index indicated Metro Manila may feel up to 39.9°C—equivalent to the body temperature of a person with a high fever.
But the projected highest temperature on Friday will be in Laoag, Ilocos Norte: a sizzling 40.1°C.
On Friday, Puerto Princesa City may experience a high temperature of 38.1 degrees; Iloilo and Bacolod City up to 37.1 degrees; and Metro Cebu up to 36.9 degrees.
Metro Manila itself is expected to experience a temperature of 40.2°C on Thursday, April 30 (http://ift.tt/1z96G3F).
On the other hand, the highest projected temperature with "init factor" for this week may be on Saturday in Laoag City at 40.7°C.
PAGASA said that between a heat index of 32 and 41°C, "fatigue is possible with prolonged exposure and activity" while "continuing activity could result (in) heat cramps."
PAGASA's tips to cope with the heat index include:
- Stay indoors as much as possible.
- Wear lightweight and light-colored clothing.
- Drink plenty of water regularly. Avoid drinking liquor because it dehydrates the body.
- Eat small meals but eat more often. Avoid eating foods of high in protein which can increase metabolic heat.
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Tuesday, April 28, 2015 0
April 27, 2015
Pacquiao's plea to save drug mule - Independent Online
Manila – World boxing champion Manny Pacquiao added his voice to growing calls in the Philippines for Indonesia to spare a 30-year-old Filipino mother from execution for drug smuggling.
“On behalf of my country[wo]man, Mary Jane Veloso and all of the Filipino people, I am begging and knocking on your kind heart that your excellency will grant executive clemency to her,” he said in a televised appeal to Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
Labour and women’s rights activists earlier picketed the Indonesian Embassy in Manila to plead for the life of Veloso, a mother of two who was convicted of smuggling 2.6 kilos of heroin in 2010.
The activists vowed to stay outside the embassy in Manila until Widodo stops Veloso’s execution or a second appeal filed by her
lawyers is granted.
Veloso was notified on Saturday that she would be executed within 72 hours. She was allowed to spend time with her two sons, aged 6 and 12, father, mother and siblings on Sunday.
Her children earlier issued an appeal to Widodo’s 19-year-old son to ask his father to stop the execution of their mother.
Philippine President Benigno Aquino on Monday personally appealed to Widodo to spare Veloso on the sidelines of a regional leaders’ summitin Kuala Lumpur. He said Widodo was “sympathetic,” and told him that he would ask the attorney general to look into the “legal issues.” – DPA-ANA
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Monday, April 27, 2015 0
PHL to offer aid to quake-hit Nepal - GMA News
(Updated 2:26 p.m.) The Philippine government will offer aid to Nepal in the wake of the powerful earthquake that hit the country over the weekend.
At a press briefing on Monday, presidential spokesman Secretary Edwin Lacierda said the government "will be communicating with our counterparts in Nepal" to determine how the Philippines can help those affected by the earthquake.
"We are prepared to, and consequently taking steps to, render aid to the maximum of our limitations," Lacierda said.
A 7.9-magnitude quake hit Nepal Saturday. The death toll has so far been pegged at more than 3,200.
PNoy extends sympathy at ASEAN Summit
Earlier in the day, President Benigno Aquino III extended sympathy to those affected by the powerful quake in Nepal when he spoke at the 26th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Malaysia.
“President Aquino expressed the Filipino people’s solidarity with the Nepalese people in the aftermath of the strong earthquake that killed and hurt thousands over the weekend,” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said in a separate statement.
He added that Aquino, along with other ASEAN leaders, pledged "support for the alleviation of the unfolding humanitarian crisis” in the Himalayan nation.
Lacierda, for his part, also expressed "sorrow and concern” for those affected by the earthquake.
"In this time of great loss, Nepal is not alone. We are confident that, with the help of the entire world, they will be able to overcome this calamity,” the President’s spokesman said. —JJ/KG, GMA News
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Monday, April 27, 2015 0
Meralco revenues up 14% in Q1 to P62.6B - The Manila Times
Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s largest power distributor, reported consolidated revenues of P62.6 billion for the first quarter of the year, which was 14 percent higher than the P55.1 billion for the same period last year.
Meralco President Oscar Reyes said the consolidated revenues accounted for 98 percent or P61.1 billion of the total revenues.
He said the 2015 consolidated revenues were three percent lower compared with 2014 after the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) ordered the Philippine Electricity Market Corp (PEMC) to recalculate the power purchases from WESM for December 2013.
The adjustment, which amounted to P9.3 billion, was passed on to the customers and to a large extent accounted for the significantly lower 2014 revenues compared with 2015, Reyes said.
He said the company’s sales volume grew by around 2.3 percent year-on-year or 8,092 gigawatt-hours (GWh) from the 7,908 GWh for the same period last year.
The sales growth within the Meralco franchise area was complemented by a 16 percent increase in electricity distributed by Clark Electric Distribution Corporation (CEDC) attributable to volume from new connections, Reyes said.
He said the number of Meralco customers also went up by four percent to more than 5.6 million primarily due to vibrant residential, commercial and industrial segment sales.
Residential customers, which account for 91 percent of Meralco’s entire customer base, rose with almost 198,000 new accounts or four percent over the same period in 2014, Reyes said.
“The increase in number of customer accounts translated to a two percent growth in energy consumption, year-on-year, with total residential volume amounting for 28 percent of total sales,” Reyes told reporters.
The average per capita consumption of the residential segment, however, was lower by two kilowatt-hour (khW) as a result of the numerous holidays and increasing awareness of energy conservation among consumers.
Commercial segment volume grew by three percent and accounted for a 40 percent share in total Company sales driven by the hospitality and services, real estate and retail trade industries.
Industrial volume grew by one percent year-on-year with contributions from the food and beverage, metallic and non-metallic industries.
Betty C. Siy-Yap, Meralco Senior Vice President & Chief Finance Officer said the company’s unaudited consolidated core net income amounted to P4.4 billion for the three months were eight percent higher compared with last year.
She said the consolidated net income, which excludes one-time, exceptional charges, for the period also stood at P4.4 billion, reflecting a 10 percent growth over 2014.
The higher consolidated core net income for the first quarter of 2015 as compared of last year was largely attributable to the combined effect of a more than two percent increase in electricity volume distributed.
This was supported by a four percent growth in Meralco customer base, growth in the number and volume of contestable customers of MPower, 14 percent increase in the contribution to net income from operating subsidiaries, affiliates and other related parties and improved yield on cash and cash equivalents, and other financial instruments.
Yap also said that the capital expenditure (Capex) of the company for the first quarter of the year was P3 billion.
Meralco Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said the Capex would help ease the tight summer supply situation in 2015 and 2016.
“These initiatives and developments are mer ely palliatives. The key to longer term power supply and price stability remains in developing and bringing in new highly reliable and life-cycle cost competitive generating capacity,” said Pangilinan.
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Monday, April 27, 2015 0
April 25, 2015
Nepal earthquake collapses buildings in Kathmandu and northern India killing ... - ABC Online
Updated
Six Australians have been listed as missing after a magnitude-7.9 earthquake struck Nepal and north India, killing more than 1,300 people and triggering a fatal avalanche on Mount Everest.
A police spokesman said the death toll in Nepal alone had reached 1,394, with around 4,700 injured. More than 630 have been killed in the Kathmandu valley and at least 300 in the capital itself.
There were also grave fears for a number of Australians who were in the area when the magnitude-7.9 earthquake hit.
Friends and family members have listed at least six Australians on the Red Cross website including Ballantyne Forder, 20, from Perth, Dianne Joy Coburn, 59, and Liam Coburn, 18, from Victoria, Zachary Sheridan, 20, from Adelaide, a 43-year-old man and Hamish McKee, 21, from Canberra.
The website allows concerned relatives or friends to list people as missing and for those affected by the disaster to indicate that they were safe.
A further 36 fatalities were reported in northern India, 12 in Chinese Tibet and four in Bangladesh.
At least 18 of those killed in Nepal were people at Mount Everest base camp, part of which was buried after an avalanche triggered by the earthquake.
More than 1,000 climbers had gathered there at the start of the climbing season.
Choti Sherpa, who works at the Everest Summiteers Association, was unable to call her family and colleagues on the mountain. "Everyone is trying to contact each other, but we can't," she said. "We are all very worried."
The quake, Nepal's worst in 81 years, was more destructive for being shallow, toppling buildings, opening gaping cracks in roads and sending people scurrying into the open as aftershocks rattled their damaged homes.
Kathmandu's Bir Hospital had so far received 300 to 350 patients with serious injuries, and most of them died, said paramedic Dinesh Chaudhary.
He said the hospital was running out of supplies and were procuring medicines from shops outside.
"There will be many more patients coming in tomorrow because only a very small part of the debris has been cleared," he said.
Thousands of people braved freezing temperatures and patchy rain to sleep on pavements, in parks or in fields in the crowded Kathmandu valley, too afraid to return to their damaged homes.
Indian tourist Devyani Pant was in a Kathmandu coffee shop with friends when "suddenly the tables started trembling and paintings on the wall fell on the ground".
"I screamed and rushed outside," she told Reuters by telephone from the capital, where at least 300 people died.
"We are now collecting bodies and rushing the injured to the ambulance.
"We are being forced to pile several bodies one above the other to fit them in."
Fears for missing Australians
Australian actor Hugh Sheridan has taken to twitter to ask for prayers for his brother Zachary Sheridan who is missing on Mt Everest and was last heard from four days ago.
"Please. Anyone who is awake, please pray for my little brother Zachary who is on Mt Everest, I'd appreciate every prayer you have spare x," he tweeted.
The actor and musician is best known for his role in the Australian series Packed to the Rafters.
The family of a Perth woman volunteering at a Kathmandu orphanage also used social media to ask for prayers saying they were concerned for her welfare.
Ballantyne Forder was last heard from on Wednesday when she left Pokhara for the capital, her sister, Amanda-Sue Markham, tweeted.
Mrs Markham said despite the images of destruction coming out of Nepal she was trying to stay positive.
"She's following her calling over there, looking after these children, so that's why I sort of think she's probably still with them," she said.
"I don't think getting to a phone at the moment is her top priority.
"I just hope someone hands her a sat phone soon so that we know she is safe."
Hamish McKee from Canberra has not been heard from since Thursday, when he was in the town of Pokhara. His mother reported him missing to the Red Cross today.
Victorians Liam Coburn Oliver, 18, from Daylesford, and Dianne Joy Coburn, 59, from Sunshine, are also among the missing. Dianne is Liam's aunt.
Liam's brother Darcy Oliver said his brother was travelling from Change, in Nepal's east, to Dharpani on the Annapurna Circuit.
"We have not heard back from him yet and any info from anyone would be a huge help," Mr Oliver said via Twitter.
Mr Oliver said he was not sure where his aunt was when the quake struck.
"I'm not 100 per cent [sure] where she is and any info that anyone can find would be a bonus," he said.
"[I'm] trying to get the word out."
ABC reporter Siobhan Heanue was in the old part of the capital, and experienced the quake firsthand.
"At the ancient temple complex near Patan in the south of the city called Durbar Square several temples collapsed to the ground as people fled," she said.
Siobhan Heanue in Kathmandu
In the capital Kathmandu, old temples — many World Heritage-listed and some dating back to the Middle Ages — have been destroyed or damaged.The three Royal Squares, Patan Bhaktapur and Kathmandu Durbar Squares, suffered significant damage.
In Patan, several temples collapsed, sending thousands of people running for their lives.
The square was packed with tourists and locals out enjoying a Saturday afternoon relaxing on temple stoops and wandering through the historic buildings.
The built-up surrounds of the square left people with few options for safe harbour when the quake hit.
People screamed in terror as the shaking intensified and historic buildings crumbled.
The earthquake, measuring 7.9 in magnitude, lasted for over a minute and was followed by several strong aftershocks.
Locals rushed to clear piles of rubble, searching for survivors with their bare hands, picks and shovels, amid a minimal police presence.
The rescuers sometimes tossed, sometimes gingerly lifted priceless cultural relics from the ruins as they scrambled to unearth any survivors.
At least 12 bodies were pulled from the rubble at Patan Durbar Square with no reports of survivors from under collapsed buildings in the temple complex.
The city of Kathmandu was encircled in clouds of dust, with injured people sitting bandaged in the street and many being stretchered out of buildings by neighbours or dragged from under the rubble of collapsed homes and businesses.
The taxi and bus system disintegrated, leading to an exodus of thousands of people walking through the streets of the capital to get home, many stopping to gawk at destroyed temples and houses.
People converged in open spaces like wide streets and parks as aftershocks continued into the night, huddling amid mounds of concrete and bricks removed from the site of collapsed buildings nearby.
The healthcare and emergency infrastructure of the developing nation already appears severely stretched by the magnitude of this natural disaster.
Compounding the crisis for Nepal, mountaineering season has just begun and many thousands of trekkers in the mountains may not be able to be contacted for days.
"Shortly after rescue crews swung into action, locals and tourists even have been helping to clear the rubble.
"There were several violent aftershocks and Nepalese people have fled into open squares for safety."
Victorian aid worker Wes Pryor was in Kathmandu when the earthquake struck, but said he had heard of more destruction elsewhere.
"There's reports of landslides blocking roads, whole parts of neighbourhoods being pushed down the valley and very significant casualties in those areas," he said.
"There are reports coming in from further west in Nepal, from Pokhara, where the epicentre of the earthquake was nearby, that there are villages there that are not there any more."
He said people were calm, but expecting more chaos overnight.
"We expect it to rain so people are finding temporary shelter, rushing back into their homes — when it's safe to do so — to get cooking equipment and water, so by and large the city is now pretty stable, people are calm," he said.
"But as we have aftershocks and we see houses move a little bit we anticipate that there might be some more chaos going into the night."
The US Geological Survey said the magnitude-7.9 quake struck 77 kilometres north-west of Kathmandu at lunchtime (local time), with walls crumbling and families racing outside their homes.
Rescue workers were seen dragging bodies from the rubble and TV footage showed chaotic scenes at the site, as people desperately tried to dig through piles of bricks and dust with their bare hands.
Among the Kathmandu landmarks destroyed by the quake was the historic 60-metre-high Dharahara Tower, built in 1832 for the queen of Nepal.
A jagged stump just 10 metres high was all that was left of the lighthouse-like structure.
As bodies were pulled out of the ruins, a policeman said up to 200 people had been trapped inside.
Dharmu Subedi, 36, was standing outside the tower when it collapsed.
"It was difficult to breathe, but I slowly moved the debris. Someone then pulled me out. I don't know where my friends are," said Mr Subedi from a hospital bed.
The tower had been open to visitors for the last 10 years and had a viewing balcony on its eighth floor.
Tremors felt as far as New Delhi, India
Strong tremors were felt as far away as New Delhi and other northern cities in India.
At least 34 people were known to have died in India, including 23 in the eastern state of Bihar, while buildings in the capital New Delhi had to be evacuated.
Laxman Singh Rathore, director-general of the Indian Meteorological Department, told reporters that the impact had been felt across large areas of the country.
"The intensity was felt in entire north India. More intense shocks were felt in eastern UP (Uttar Pradesh) and Bihar, equally strong in sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim," he said.
Mr Rathore said that a second tremor of magnitude 6.6 had been recorded around 20 minutes later and centred around the same region.
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi said in a tweet: "We are in the process of finding more information and are working to reach out to those affected, both at home and in Nepal".
A police officer in the control room of the Indian state of Bihar said the phone lines were jammed with callers from across the heavily populated state.
"We don't know about the casualties, we are flooded with calls," the officer said.
China's official Xinhua news agency said that two people, including an 83-year-old woman, were killed in the Tibet region as a result of the quake.
The earthquake was also felt across large areas of Bangladesh, triggering panic in the capital Dhaka as people rushed out onto the streets.
In the garment manufacturing hub of Savar, on the outskirts of Dhaka, at least 50 workers were injured after the quake set off a stampede in a garment factory, according to the private Jamuna television.
As fears grow of a humanitarian disaster in the impoverished Himalayan nation of 28 million, an overwhelmed government appealed for foreign help.
India was first to respond by sending in military aircraft with medical equipment and relief teams. Israel and the United States also announced response teams would be sent.
The United States said it had authorised an initial $US1 million to address immediate needs, the US Agency for International Development said on Saturday.
US secretary of state John Kerry said in a statement that the government was "working closely with the government of Nepal to provide assistance and support".
A magnitude-8.3 earthquake struck Nepal in 1934, killing over 8,500 people.
ABC/Wires
Topics: disasters-and-accidents, earthquake, nepal
First posted
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Saturday, April 25, 2015 0
Bali pair told the date of their execution - Sydney Morning Herald
Australian lawyer Julian McMahon with three self-portraits by Sukumaran: "The 72 hours just started", "Strange Day" and "Our new prints: A bad sleep last night". Photo: Amilia Rosa
- Bali nine: drug supply suspect killed in seconds by police
-
'Speechless' over Chan, Sukumaran executions: Bali nine prisoner
Jakarta: The end has come for the Bali nine organisers and others on death row in Indonesia who have been told they will be executed on Tuesday night.
Karim Utomo, a lawyer for one of the Nigerian prisoners facing the firing squad, said Andrew Chan was strong after being notified of his execution on Nusakambangan on Friday.
Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran will be executed within days, according to lawyers. Photo: Anta Kesuma
The lawyer did not see the reaction of Myuran Sukumaran. "Each convict on death row was called in one by one, for between 30 minutes to one hour, it varied," Mr Utomo said.
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"My client (Nigerian Raheem Agbaje Salami) was notified of the day of the execution, it will be Tuesday night."
The Indonesian government has not yet officially announced the date of the execution. However the Indonesia Migrant Worker Network said Filipina maid Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso had also received a letter on Saturday informing her the execution would be on April 28.
Serge Atlaoui with his wife Sabine Atlaoui in 2008. Photo: AFP
"Both parents, older siblings and two of Mary Jane's children are in Cilacap," the network said. "They cried upon receiving the news. Mary Jane's father said he'll commit suicide if his daughter's shot."
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said it was not too late for Indonesia to have a change of heart. "I again respectfully call on the President of Indonesia to reconsider his refusal to grant clemency," she said.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo will fly to Malaysia on Sunday to attend the ASEAN summit, which runs from April 26 to 28.
Sabine Atlaoui, the wife of French man facing execution Serge Atlaoui holding their son Yasen Atlaoui, while they wait to visit him on Nusakambangan prison island. Photo: Kate Geraghty
Evangelist preacher Matius Arif Mirdjaja, a former drug addict and prisoner in Bali's Kerobokan jail who was baptised by Chan, said Indonesia would be remembered as a nation that killed a pastor and an artist, not drug kingpins.
"History will write that we are a nation that killed all the repented, a nation that loses empathy and compassion for people who have transformed their lives and helped others," he said.
Their Australian lawyer Julian McMahon returned from Nusakambangan, where the men will be executed, with three self-portraits painted by Sukumaran. One painting, still wet and dated April 25, carried the haunting inscription: "The 72 hours just started." The second, dated April 24, was called "Strange Day". And the third, also dated April 25, said: "Our new prints: A bad sleep last night."
The Indonesian Attorney-General's office has indicated it is waiting on Monday's Supreme Court decision on Indonesian marijuana trafficker Zainal Abidin before setting a date.
The men's devastated families will now be allowed to visit them every day in their isolation cells on Nusakambangan before they are shot by a 12-man firing squad.
Ms Bishop said she had spoken to Sukumaran's mother Raji on Friday and assured her the government would continue to seek clemency from Mr Joko for both men.
A French man on death row with Chan and Sukumaran won a temporary reprieve from the firing squad but any hope for the nine others has disappeared.
Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir told Fairfax Media the French embassy was not among those summoned to discuss the imminent executions because Serge Atlaoui still had a legal case before the Administrative Court.
Local undertaker Suhendro Putro told Fairfax Media police had asked him on Friday to prepare coffins but had not given him an indication of how many.
"I hope it's less than 10," Mr Suhendro said.
All of the felons except Atlaoui have been transferred to isolation cells in the high-security Besi prison on Nusakambangan ahead of the executions.
Zainal Abidin's death already seems a fait accompli despite Monday's court ruling, with his family contacted by authorities on Friday to ask where and how they wanted his body buried.
"It really upsets the family. It's as if they already know the outcome, that it's going to get rejected," said Zainal Abidin's lawyer, Ade Yuliawan.
The Attorney-General's Office has repeatedly said it would wait for all legal processes to be exhausted because it wanted to execute the 10 drug felons simultaneously.
Several prisoners besides Atlaoui have ongoing legal processes, including the Australians, Filipina maid Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, and Brazilian Rodrigo Gularte, who is schizophrenic.
But the Indonesian government insists they have no remaining channels of appeal.
"We only sent notification to embassies whose nationals have exhausted their legal avenues," Mr Arrmanatha said.
Lawyers for Veloso on Friday lodged a request for a second judicial review on the grounds she was "primarily a human trafficking victim in the first place, and therefore, must be protected".
Her Indonesia lawyer Ismail Muhammad, who visited Veloso on the island on Saturday with her two young sons and other family members, said they didn't yet know whether it would be accepted by the Supreme Court.
But the Foreign Ministry's Mr Arrmanatha said Indonesian law stated there could only be one judicial review.
Lawyers for the Australians are challenging the clemency laws in the Constitutional Court and the Judicial Commission is investigating allegations the judges who sentenced Chan and Sukumaran to death offered bribes for lighter sentences.
However, any ruling made on the country's clemency laws by the Constitutional Court would not be retrospective and the Attorney-General has made it clear the case would not prevent the executions from proceeding.
Atlaoui, a welder, was arrested near Jakarta in 2005 in a secret laboratory producing ecstasy. He has always maintained he was innocent of drug charges and was simply installing equipment in what he thought was an acrylics factory.
His lawyers lodged an appeal in the Administrative Court on April 23 and are waiting for a date.
A spokeswoman said Atlaoui's wife, Sabine, had not been informed that he had been taken off the list for this batch of executions.
A source close to his case said it would be a violation of the law if Atlaoui was executed before six others who were arrested at the acrylics factory at the same and had also been sentenced to death.
"According to the law, people who are sentenced to death in one case must be executed together," she said.
The Indonesian government held off executing Sukumaran in the first round of executions on January 18 this year because Chan had not yet received a response to his clemency plea.
with Amilia Rosa and Karuni Rompies
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Saturday, April 25, 2015 0
