Rare Sumatran rhinoceros, captured on Borneo, dies

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) " A rare Sumatran rhinoceros has died just a month after being captured by Indonesian conservation experts on Borneo where only of a few of the animals survive.

Nyoman Iswarayoga, a spokesman for World Wildlife Fund Indonesia, says Wednesday that the female rhino, named Najaq, had a severe infection from wounds believed to have been inflicted by poaching traps.

Only an estimated 100 Sumatran rhinos remain, mostly in Sumatra, and nine are in captivity. The species is threatened with extinction by poaching for horns and destruction of its habitat by farmers, illegal loggers and palm oil plantation companies.

Najaq was captured five months after being identified by forest cameras. Conservation experts have sighted only two other Sumatran rhinos on Borneo but believe the population is larger.

Source: Rare Sumatran rhinoceros, captured on Borneo, dies

Jet collides with aircraft being towed in Indonesia, catches fire

Alexandra Douglas | April 6, 2016, 0:55

Jet collides with aircraft being towed in Indonesia, catches fire

Passengers escaped unharmed when two planes collided at a Jakarta airport last night.

A part of the left wing of the Batik Air aircraft was damaged as a result of the collision.

It was reported that there were 49 passengers and seven crew on the Batik Air plane and just one person, the pilot, on the TransNusa.

Batik Air is a subsidiary of Lion Air and its plane collided with the Transnusa aircraft when the latter was being towed to a gate by a tractor.

Passengers feared for their lives as their plane set fire and filled the cabin with the stench of gasoline following a collision with another aircraft on an Indonesian runway, an eyewitness said on Tuesday, April 5.

Images posted online showed severe damage to the wing of the Batik Air jet, a Boeing 737-800.

Authorities immediately evacuated passengers and crews of both planes as they rushed to contain the fire.

There were no reports of casualties in the incident, the airline's press service added.

Indonesia has had a dismal air safety record amid a boom in air travel, particularly with budget carriers. The incident, which took place at around 8pm local time, prompted immediate closure of the largely-domestic airport until Monday midnight.

That same year another Lion Air plane skidded off a runway on the island of Sulawesi after it crashed into a cow.

Usain Bolt say ' Chris Gayle is a loser'!The West Indies Team, both men and women enjoyed the song during their celebrations after their wins on Sunday. They danced to it at the Eden Gardens, in their team bus and also at their team hotel.

Source: Jet collides with aircraft being towed in Indonesia, catches fire

Jakarta's three-to-one car rule suspended after 10 years

Traffic-clogged Jakarta has suspended its peak-time rule of three people to one car.

5 Apr 2016 - 7:38 PM  UPDATED 1 HOUR AGO

Traffic-clogged Jakarta began to suspend its peak-time rule of three people to one car on Tuesday.

Lines of people from women holding babies to school age children, with a hand held up to show they're for hire, are usually a ubiquitous sight on the Indonesian capital's busiest roads during rush hour.

But without the peak-time rule, the passengers for hire, known as jockeys, who helped drivers cheat the traffic controls, will be out of a job.

By lifting the 3-in-1 rule, city authorities will be testing what happens to congestion.

If there's no difference to the number of cars on the road, they'll know that a system in place for more than a decade is broken.

Abandoning the policy will be bad news for the poor in a city where maddening traffic produces numerous novel ways to eke out a living.

Apart from jockeys, there are self-appointed U-turn police and parking wardens who are tipped by drivers despite sometimes hindering more than helping.

The trial ends on 13 April.

Source: Jakarta's three-to-one car rule suspended after 10 years

Lion Air plane in Jakarta runway collision, no casualties

JAKARTA - Two passenger planes collided late Monday on an airport runway in the Indonesian capital, an airline spokesman said, causing minor damage but no injuries to passengers. A Batik Air plane carrying 49 passengers and seven crew was taking off from Jakarta's Halim Perdanakusuma airport when it clipped a TransNusa plane being towed across the runway.

Source: Lion Air plane in Jakarta runway collision, no casualties

Jakarta aims to go paperless for next year's national exams

The Jakarta administration aims to implement a completely computer-based National Examination by next year for efficiency and to lower the potential of materials being leaked as the nation-wide exams start on Monday.

The computer-based test would also help provide a greater variety of questions to students, Jakarta Education Office head Sopan Adrianto said.

"More variety of questions will make the test impossible to leak. It will also save our energy as the paper-based test must be delivered to schools from printing offices outside Jakarta in the early morning," Sopan told journalists on Monday without giving further details about the plan.

Not all senior high school students in the capital have a chance to do the computer-based national examination this year.

The nation-wide examinations for high school students start on Monday to Thursday.

From a total of 133,961 high-school-level students, there are 63,883 from 203 high schools, 167 vocational schools and 10 madrasah aliyah (Islamic high schools) who will take the computer-based exam this year, while the rest will receive the paper-based test.

Difficulties in procuring computers by some schools has hampered the implementation of the computer-based exam in the capital, said Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama.

"About 47 percent of the school buildings in Jakarta are in bad condition. With the bad buildings, if we have computers, they can be easily broken by the [rain] water. It will be inefficient because we want to tighten the budget," Ahok said, adding that there were 627 damaged school buildings in the city that would be renovated next year.

His administration would carefully select the contractor companies for the school renovations to make sure of the construction.

If the renovations could not be completed next year, then the city would coordinate with several universities in the capital to carry out the computer-based national examinations.

Private universities like Bina Nusantara University had offered to carry out the exams this year and use their computer facilities, Ahok said. However, the city passed on the offers as it was difficult to manage the administration of thousands of students taking the test in a university. (rin)

Source: Jakarta aims to go paperless for next year's national exams