 News

 Business

Japan court rejects Ghosn release bid

 News Desk

Agence France-Presse

Tokyo, Japan / Wed, January 9, 2019 / 07:07 pm

Judge Yuichi Tada (back, second left) sits while members of former Nissan chairman Carlos
Ghosn's legal team, including chief lawyer Motonari Otsuru (third right), Go Kondo (second right) and
Masato Oshikubo (right), look on in a courtroom ahead of a court hearing on Ghosn's case of Ghosn
at the Tokyo District Court in Tokyo on January 8, 2019. Former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn
appeared in public on January 8 for the first time since his arrest in November rocked the business
world, as he offers his side of the story in a high-profile court hearing. (AFP/Kiyoshi Ota / POOL )

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A Japanese court on Wednesday rejected a bid by former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn to end his
detention over alleged financial misconduct, a day after he denied all accusations in a dramatic court
appearance.
Ghosn's lawyers had appealed to the court to free the auto tycoon, claiming at a special hearing in a
Tokyo court there were no grounds for his detention, which has now lasted more than 50 days.
But the court batted off the request, saying in a terse statement: "The request to cancel the detention
filed by Mr. Ghosn's lawyers yesterday... was rejected on January 9."
Ghosn stands accused of under-reporting his income in documents to investors, apparently in
response to criticism that he earned too much.
He is also under investigation for allegedly seeking to pass off personal investment losses to
Nissan's books and paying a Saudi businessman from company funds to stump up collateral to
cover the losses.
Ghosn on Tuesday mounted a systematic denial of all the allegations, concluding that he had been
"wrongly accused and unfairly detained based on meritless and unsubstantiated accusations".
The presiding judge explained that Ghosn continued to be detained because he presented a flight
risk and there were concerns he could tamper with evidence.
On Friday, Ghosn's latest maximum period of detention will end and he will either be freed on bail or
-- more likely -- see his detention extended.
Even his main lawyer Motonari Otsuru has acknowledged the 64-year-old executive has little chance
of being released soon, describing it as "very difficult" to win bail before the case goes to trial.
And that, he said, could take at least six months.
  News
 Sports

Indonesia ready to bid for 2032 Olympics:

Erick Thohir
 Gemma Holliani Cahya

The Jakarta Post

Jakarta / Sun, September 2, 2018 / 09:10 am

Logo of the International Olympic Committee (IOC/IOC)

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Indonesian Asian Games Organizing Committee (INASGOC) chief Erick Thohir says the country is
ready to host an Olympic Games.
Erick, the chairman of Indonesian Olympic Committee (KOI), echoed a plan that had been
announced by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo that Indonesia was interested in bidding to host the
2032 Olympics.
Erick said the President had met with International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief Thomas Bach
and Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) boss Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah at Bogor Palace in West
Java on Saturday morning to discuss various issues, including the planned bid.
“The President asked Bach about the possibility of Indonesia hosting the 2032 Olympics and he said
[the IOC was] open to the idea of Indonesia bidding to become a host candidate for the 2032
Games.
“Shortly after the Asian Games closing ceremony, we will send the official letter [to the IOC],” said
Erick, a media mogul and owner of Italy’s Internazionale and United States’ D.C. United soccer
clubs.
Indonesia is aware that the bidding process can take some time, but Erick said he was optimistic.
“After the Asian Games, I hope sports federations in Indonesia will be more aggressive in fighting to
host international sporting events, so we can be more prepared for the Olympics bid.
“We already have world-class venues, such as the velodrome and the aquatic arena. These
outstanding venues will be useless if we don’t host international events regularly,” he added. (nkn
  News
 National

Mt. Bromo erupts, visitors banned from

within 1-kilometer radius
 Aman Rochman

The Jakarta Post

Probolinggo, East Java / Tue, February 19, 2019 / 05:08 pm

The crater of Mount Bromo has a diameter of around 800 meters. (JP/Nedi Putra AW)

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Mount Bromo in East Java erupted on Monday Morning, emitting a 600-meter-high ash column into
the air, the Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Center (PVMBG) reported.
The PVMBG said the eruption occurred at around 6 a.m., causing tremors with an amplitude of 0.5
to 1 millimeters.
The ash moved in a northwesterly direction from the 2,929-kilometer-high mountain.
“According to the Bromo PVMBG, the mountain has been on level 2 [caution] alert since 2016 after
its eruption in 2011. We are currently preparing to increase the alert level and security for Mt. Bromo
visitors while coordinating with the [central] PVMBG,” Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park
(TNBTS) management head Jhon Kenedie said.
He added that while visitors were prohibited from being within a 1-kilometer radius from the park's
craters, visitors could still enjoy nearby hills and panoramas. (mai)
  Academia
 Opinion

Managing climate risks for early warning

system on epidemics
 Yopi Ilhamsyah

Bogor / Tue, February 19, 2019 / 01:52 pm

A worker sprays insecticide with a fogging machine to eradicate mosquitoes in a residential area in
Bintaro, South Tangerang. (The Jakarta Post/Seto Wardhana )

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Despite more use of climate data in the public health sector, more efforts are still required to control
climate-sensitive diseases. Climate information would be better taken into account if it could be used
effectively to improve public health services in a bid to prevent certain epidemics. Prevention efforts
would include detection, by monitoring and predicting epidemics that might lead to an early warning
system; and control, by assessing the warning system’s impact on prevalent diseases in a given
population. The main infectious and often fatal diseases in Indonesia which include malaria, yellow
fever, dengue and cholera, are strongly associated with climate factors, e.g., rainfall, humidity, and
temperature. The first three are transmitted by mosquitoes and the last by human waste and flies.
The relationship between climate and the epidemics occurs seasonally though their sensitivity to
climate varies. Different seasonal patterns are detected, especially those with a short period of
development. Understanding the incubation period of particular epidemics and their effects on
climate would help health workers in determining when to deal with high incidence or outbreak of the
diseases.
Knowledge of climate patterns may help health workers to recognize the prevalence of diseases like
malaria and dengue. In Indonesia, the outbreak period mostly occurs during the wet season from
October to March and peaks in January to February. Thus, a climate-based early warning system is
essential to address such problems.
Recently, early warning models on health have become available mostly regarding outbreaks of
epidemic diseases, but not many are easy to use. In the case of Indonesia, a newly established
early warning model, referred to NEWMs, has been developed by scientists of the Bogor Institute of
Agriculture (IPB University) for seasonal epidemics like dengue and malaria. It is easy to run and
practical to predict the incident rate of the diseases and to determine the best fogging times for
mosquito breeding sites.
The model is developed only based on climate information, for example average, minimum, and
maximum temperature and rainfall. Nevertheless, lack of climate data basis to run NEWMs remains
among the greatest challenges in Indonesia. Meteorological stations are still rare and not located in
the outbreak areas.
Thus, it is necessary to provide easy access of climate information by developing a model with a
good forecast capability in specific study sites. A numerical weather prediction (NWP) model can be
employed to address the issues. The NWP is a physics-based dynamical model developed in the
United States, which resolution can be set down to 1 kilometer or even less.
The model can also be performed for long-term climate simulation under numerous boundary
conditions; in this case, it would focus on a seasonal climate forecasting.
Other approaches to obtain climate information include statistical-based climate forecasting tool
such as the Climate Predictability Tool (CPT) or bioclimate statistical gridded data which are freely
accessible at WorldClim-Global Climate Data webpage with very high resolution.
The other credible sources to fill the data gaps over certain areas can be retrieved through a climate
generator (CLIMGEN) produced using a stochastic spreadsheet. This recently developed method, is
a powerful tool to generate a forecasting chart which shows all possible output values. For instance
a stochastic spreadsheet is applied to NEWMs for forecasting future incidents of epidemics and the
necessary fogging schedules of dengue and malaria in Indonesia.
Hence scarcity of climate data would no longer remain a classical challenge to speed up NEWMs
implementation for public health. Availability of climate-related as well as epidemic health information
on climate-change risks on health could be better managed in Indonesia, reducing the nation’s
vulnerability to epidemic diseases impacted by climate change.
***
The writer is a Ph.D student at Applied Climatology, Graduate School of the Bogor Institute of
Agriculture (IPB University).
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official
stance of The Jakarta Post.
  News
 Business

UK deeply disappointed by Honda's

decision to close plant
 News Desk

Reuters

London, United Kingdom / Tue, February 19, 2019 / 05:35 pm

An image about Honda's British factory is projected while Honda Motor Chief Executive Takahiro
Hachigo (not in the picture) speaks at a news conference in Tokyo, Japan, February 19, 2019.
(Reuters/Kim Kyung-hoon)

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Britain said on Tuesday it was deeply disappointed by Honda's decision to close its only British car
plant.
"The UK is one of the leaders in the development of these technologies and so it is deeply
disappointing that this decision has been taken now," Business Secretary Greg Clark said.
"This is a devastating decision for Swindon and the UK," Clark said. "This is a commercial decision
based on unprecedented changes in the global market."
Honda said it had informed employees about what it called its "proposal" to close the Swindon plant.
"Honda of the UK Manufacturing has today informed associates (employees) of the proposal to close
its Swindon vehicle manufacturing plant, at the end of the current model’s production lifecycle, in
2021," Honda said in a statement.
  Travel
 News

Tourism Ministry introduces 10 halal

destinations
News Desk
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta / Fri, February 15, 2019 / 12:06 pm

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Baiturrahman Grand Mosque in Aceh. (Shutterstock.com/riza azhari)

The Tourism Ministry launched the 2019 Indonesia Muslim Travel Index (IMTI) on Wednesday.
According to kompas.com, the IMTI is based on the Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI), a ranking system
that evaluates and ranks countries based on how well they cater to Muslim travelers.
In the 2018 GMTI, Indonesia was ranked second after Malaysia. The 2019 IMTI was created to push
Indonesia’s ranking to first place in the 2019 GMTI meeting, which is slated to take place in the middle of
the year.
The ministry has selected 10 halal destinations for the 2019 IMTI, namely Aceh, Riau and Riau Islands, West
Sumatra, Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta, East Java, Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara and South
Sulawesi.

Read also: Indonesia eyes top position on 2019 Muslim travel index
These destinations will receive assistance and will later be monitored and evaluated based on the GMTI.
“The movement of the world’s Muslim travelers is amazing. Indonesia is highly committed to becoming a
global player for halal tourism,” said Anang Sutono, head of the ministry’s halal tourism acceleration team.
Anang said he deemed the commitment was right considering Indonesia was the world’s largest Muslim-
majority country.
Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said Indonesia had developed four aspects of the GMTI ahead of other
countries.
He said that the 2019 IMTI would allow each area to be developed as a halal tourism destination. (jes/wng)