English

KONFRONTASI-The deadly outbreak of a new coronavirus in China has triggered a "hysterical" and "shameful wave of Sinophobia" in Italy, according to members of the Chinese Italian community and a rights group, with Italians and tourists of Chinese and Asian origin reporting acts of violence, discrimination and harassment.

The incidents include assaults, calls for sexual violence, insults and boycott of businesses.

by Dr. Rizal Ramli

JAKARTA-- Back in the early 1970s, when I was a university student in the city of Bandung, my classmates and I had come to the realization that we needed to take action if our country was to have any chance of freeing itself from the grip of authoritarian rule.  

KONFRONTASI-Libya’s combatants are readying for a long conflict, as foreign weapons flood in, tribesmen close oil ports and rival alliances wrangle over revenues from Africa’s largest petroleum reserves.

The moves signal deepening animosity in a war that could worsen regional instability and swell the flow of migrants from the Middle East and Africa almost a decade after Muammar Gaddafi’s fall in 2011.

KONFRONTASI- North Korea, whose leader Kim Jong Un was filmed riding through the snow on a white stallion last year, has spent tens of thousands of dollars on 12 purebred horses from Russia, according to Russian customs data.

Accompanied by senior North Korean figures, Kim took two well-publicized rides on the snowy slopes of the sacred Paektu Mountain in October and December.

KONFRONTASI-When the world rang in the New Year on January 1, Iranians were reeling from the country's worst political unrest in decades. Just weeks before, tens of thousands of people had poured onto the streets across Iranian cities, in an outburst of anger over corruption and hardship as the country's economy buckled under the weight of US-imposed sanctions.

The protests were met with a deadly crackdown by the security forces, leaving many in Iran believing things could not get any worse.

KONFRONTASI-Hong Kong reported its first coronavirus death on Tuesday, the second outside mainland China from a fast-spreading outbreak that has killed 427 people and threatened the global economy.

China’s markets steadied after losing $400 billion in stock values the previous day, and global markets also recovered from a sell-off last week. But bad news kept coming.

The Chinese-ruled gambling hub of Macau asked casino operators to close for two weeks to help curb the virus.

KONFRONTASI - ASEAN students in Turkey were conducted South East Asia Students' Summit (SEAS SUMMIT) january 25, 2020. At that time, they also declarated new assosiation that they called by ASEAN Students Association in Turkey (ASSAT). The summit took a place at Faith Sultan Mehmet University- Halic Campus. With the theme “Partnership towards Sustainable Future,” the summit focused on ASEAN itself and also several issues about humanitarian and democracy crisis such as in Kashmiris and Uyghurs.

KONFRONTASI - The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has rejected US President Donald Trump’s so-called “deal of the century” on the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The OIC convened in Jeddah on Monday to discuss the plan Trump unveiled alongside Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday.

The 57-member organization said it "calls on all member states not to engage with this plan or to cooperate with the US administration in implementing it in any form".

KONFRONTASI-China ramped up measures to contain the coronavirus epidemic and shore up an economy hit by travel curbs and business shut-downs on Sunday as the first death from the illness was reported outside the country.

A 44-year-old Chinese man from the central city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the epidemic, traveled to the Philippines and died on Saturday in a hospital in Manila, the Philippines Department of Health said.

KONFRONTASI-More than 6,000 tourists have been put on lockdown on a cruise ship in Italy on Thursday after a suspected case of coronavirus was detected on board the vast liner.

Samples taken from a Chinese couple were sent for testing after three doctors and a nurse boarded the Costa Crociere ship in the port of Civitavecchia, near Rome, to tend to a woman running a fever, local health authorities said.

Costa Crociere has confirmed that its ship, the Costa Smeralda, carrying some 7,000 people including crew, was in lockdown.