JAKARTA: Three passengers on a small speedboat carrying 11 people, believed to be Malaysians, died as the vessel drifted in the Sulawesi Sea for eight days after running out.

The eight others were rescued at about 10am on Sunday by fishing vessels and brought to Tolitoli in Central Sulawesi, said Ilham, secretary of Ogotua Mukim, as quoted by Antara news agency.

The boat was believed to have ran out of fuel while searching for the direction to Tawi-Tawi in the Philippines due to a compass failure.

NEWLY-CROWNED Miss Indonesia Universe Qori Sandioriva, 18, was being queried last week by clerics and community leaders for taking part in the contest without wearing a headdress.

FULL STORY IN MALAY MAIL PRINT COPY TODAY

Deputy Foreign Minister Senator A. Kohilan Pillay said today relations between Malaysia and Indonesia remained cordial despite the attempts by a small group of people in Indonesia to undermine the
ties through provocation in the media.
He said the relations at the highest level, between Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, were at the best.

INDONESIA briefly issued a tsunami warning on Saturday after a powerful earthquake struck the eastern part of the country, but the meteorology agency later lifted the alert.

Officials were still checking for possible casualties or damage after the quake struck in an area of the Banda sea southeast of the Maluku islands.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck at 11:40 p.m. (1440 GMT) and measured magnitude 7.0.

Its epicentre was located 232 km (144 miles) northwest of Saumlaki and 366 km southeast of Ambon at a depth of 138.5 km.

CLOSER to home in Indonesia, moralists and religious purists are at it again.

They are attempting to stop a movie company's plan to fly in Maria "Miyabi" Ozawa, a Japanese adult movie actress, to co-star in a local comedy flick about college students being obsessed by the 23-year-old babe.

Miyabi is scheduled to arrive in Jakarta on Wednesday for the shooting of the film "Menculik Miyabi" and the momentum to stop her going to Indonesia is rising.

MALAYSIAN students are not the only ones stranded in quake-hit west Sumatra. Consul-General of Malaysia in Medan, Fauzi Omar, said yesterday there were also several Malaysian tourists trapped in the province.

“I believe the tourists could be AirAsia and Firefly passengers. Many flights have been suspended due to the airport’s inaccessibility on Wednesday. The tourists were pretty much stuck there as well,” he told Malay Mail.

JAKARTA: A massive earthquake wreaked havoc on the Indonesian island of Sumatra yesterday, with officials saying it could have killed more than 1,000 people as homes and buildings collapsed.

At least 75 people were confirmed dead after hospitals and hotels crumbled, and as fires raged in the coastal city of Padang, home to nearly a million people, in the wake of the 7.6-magnitude quake.

“People are trapped, hotels have collapsed, schools have collapsed, houses have collapsed and electricity has been cut off,” Vice-President Jusuf Kalla told reporters in Jakarta.

INDONESIA has scored a victory of sorts as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) adds Indonesian batik to its Intangible Cultural Heritage list in a ceremony tomorrow.

 

Associated Press reported that Indonesia’s president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has announced a “batik party” to be held in victory.

FIRST it was the pendet folk dance, Rasa Sayang rendition and now gamelan is fast becoming another item on a long list of disputes between Malaysia and Indonesia.

Gamelan is a traditional musical ensemble featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums and gongs, bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings.

JAKARTA: China's US$200 billion (RM6.94b) CIC sovereign wealth fund has lent Indonesian coalminer PT Bumi Resources Tbk US$1.9 billion in its latest move to secure exposure to global commodities.

In less than a week, China Investment Corporation has also bought a 14.5 per cent stake in trading firm Noble Group for US$850 million and agreed a cooperation pact with commodity trader Glencore.