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Indonesia advances world’s most ambitious biometric-based national identity card project
Tampa — You might not guess that Indonesia, a large country that’s basically an archipelago of over 70,000 islands that has infrastructure issues in electricity and limited bandwidth, is the nation rolling out the world’s most ambitious biometrics-based national identity card project for its citizens. But it is.
Indonesia is spending $600 million on a project to give 172 million residents a national identity card that will be used for a wide range of purposes, including proving identity for voter registration, passport issuance, tax and financial matters, and much more. This electronic national identity card , called the e-KTP, is a government effort to get millions of citizens to enroll at registration centers where their fingerprint, iris and face are captured as images through biometric equipment and personal information stored as a record associated with each electronic identity card. According to Dr. Husni Fahmi, who heads up the e-KTP project in Indonesia, the hope is all will be in place before the next election in 2014.
“It’s a national ID and Read more…
4 volcanoes rumble in Indonesia
Smoke and ash billow from North Maluku Smoke and ash billow from North Maluku’s Gamalama on Sunday. (Antara Photo/Rosa Panggabean)
BANDUNG, Indonesia — Three active volcanoes in Indonesia’s North Sulawesi and another one in North Maluku are rumbling due to the impacts of the recent major earthquake in the neighbouring Philippines, the head of the Vulcanology and Disaster Mitigation Agency, Surono, said Thursday.
“All four volcanoes are on alert status now,” Surono said in Bandung.
The three rumbling mountains in North Sulawesi are Mount Soputan in Southeast Minahasa, Mt. Lokon in Tomohon and Mt. Karangetang in the northern part of North Sulawesi, while Mt. Gamalama in Ternate Island grumbled in North Maluku.
Surono explained that the four volcanoes, which were located in one area, had rising levels of activity due to the impact of the Philippine earthquake.
Ash spewed from Mt. Soputan, for example, has been blown by the wind to Bitung. The volcanic ash was released by a volcanic explosion early on Tuesday morning, Surono said. “The explosion on the mountain took place until 2 a.m.,” he added.
The eruption could be heard up to 40 kilometres away. Observers now could not see or Read more…
The Ring Of Fire Is Roaring To Life And There Will Be Earthquakes Of Historic Importance On The West Coast Of The United States
Does it seem to you like there has been an unusual amount of seismic activity around the world lately? Well, it isn’t just your imagination. The Ring of Fire is roaring to life and that is really bad news for the west coast of the United States. Approximately 90 percent of all earthquakes and approximately 75 percent of all volcanic eruptions occur along the Ring of Fire. Considering the fact that the entire west coast of the United States lies along the Ring of Fire, we should be very concerned that the Ring of Fire is becoming more active. On Wednesday, the most powerful strike-slip earthquake ever recorded happened along the Ring of Fire. If that earthquake had happened in a major U.S. city along the west coast, the city would have been entirely destroyed. Scientists tell us that there is nearly a 100% certainty that the “Big One” will hit California at some point. In recent years we have seen Japan, Chile, Indonesia and New Zealand all get hit by historic earthquakes. It is inevitable that there will be earthquakes of historic importance on the west coast of the United States as well. So far we have been very fortunate, but that good fortune will not last indefinitely.
In a previous article, I showed that earthquakes are becoming more frequent around the globe. In 2001, there were 137 earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or greater and in 2011 there were 205. The charts and data that I presented in that previous article show a clear Read more…
Massive 8.6 magnitude earthquake hits Indonesia’s Aceh province
A tsunami warning has been issued in the Indian Ocean after powerful earthquakes off the coast of Indonesia’s Aceh province, prompting evacuations from coastal regions and alarm in areas struck by a devastating wave in 2004.
Wednesday’s first quake was measured at a preliminary 8.6-magnitude, according to the US Geological Survey, which revised down an earlier 8.9 estimate.
A small tsunami measuring 10cm reached Thailand’s Andaman Coast, an official said.
“A 10-centimetre tsunami wave generated by the first earthquake hit Koh Miang off Phang Nga,” the director of Thailand’s National Disaster Warning Centre, Somsak Khaosuwan, said on Thai television.
A tsunami measuring 17cm had been generated and was headed for the Aceh province, Victor Sardina, a geophysicist at the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, said.
He said the total vertical measurement of the wave, according to monitoring gauges, was 35cm, making the height 17cm. He did not provide a time estimate for landfall.
“It doesn’t look like a major tsunami,” Sardina said. “But we are Read more…
Military spending in South-East Asia
THE tiny island-state of Singapore, home to just over 5m people, has a well-deserved reputation as a quiet, clean-cut hub for banking, lawyering and golf. Yet beyond the fairways it bristles with weapons.
According to a report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Singapore is now the fifth-largest arms importer in the world, bested only by some obvious behemoths—China, India and Pakistan—plus South Korea. Singapore accounts for 4% of the world’s total spending on arms imports. Its defence spending per head beats every country bar America, Israel and Kuwait. This year $9.7 billion, or 24% of the national budget, will go on defence.
These are striking figures, but then Singapore has been one of the Read more…
Indonesia Military Powers Up
On Monday, Indonesian Defense Minister Purmono Yusgiantoro, flanked by the country’s military leadership, announced that after 10 years of frugality on the part of the military designed to give precedence to political reform, the country was now entering an intensive period of military procurement. Coming from many countries, such talk would sound reckless, if not dangerous. But coming from Indonesia, it should be welcomed.
Purnomo also spelled out his 2012 wish list, which includes tanks, multiple launch rocket systems, a guided missile destroyer, and retrofits for ex-U.S. F-16s and ex-Australian C-130 transport planes. And much more new equipment is to follow before the end of President Yudhoyono’s term in 2015, not least three new South Korean submarines.
For the first time in recent memory, the Indonesian defense ministry has money in its pocket. Announcing the acquisition of an additional six Su-30 Sukhoi fighter aircraft over the weekend, Purnomo could be heard to boast: “Our economy is very strong and we have a defense budget of Rp 150 trillion [$16.3 billion].” While that figure represents a multi-year procurement budget, Purnomo is right to feel flush. In December, the government decided to revise the defense allocation upwards, giving defense a Read more…
Indonesia issues tsunami warning following 7.6 quake off Sumatra
JAKARTA (BNO NEWS) — A powerful 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck off the Indonesian island of Sumatra on early Wednesday morning, seismologists said, prompting a tsunami warning for local coastlines.
The earthquake at 12.37 a.m. local time (1837 GMT Tuesday) was centered about 423 kilometers (262 miles) southwest of Banda Aceh on Sumatra. It struck about 29.1 kilometers (18.1 miles) deep, making it a shallow earthquake, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), the seismological agency of Indonesia, measured the strength of the earthquake at 7.6 on the Richter scale. The USGS put the magnitude at 7.3 on the regional moment magnitude (Mw) scale.
Although the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was Read more…
100,000 People Facing ‘Food Crisis’ in Eastern Indonesia: Official
Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara. Almost 100,000 people in Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara province were facing a serious food crisis, an official said on Tuesday.
Nico Bala Nuhan, from the food resilience agency in the province, known as NTT, said a total of 95,937 people spread across 21 districts and cities were facing serious food shortages due to climate change-induced drought.
The districts included South Central Timor and North East Timor, Belu near the East Timor border, East Sumba, East Flores and Lembata in the Lesser Sunda Islands.
“So there are Read more…
Religious violence, abuse growing: world study
WASHINGTON — Religious-linked violence and abuse rose around the world between 2006 and 2009, with Christians and Muslims the most common targets, according to a private US study released Tuesday.
“Over the three-year period studied, incidents of either government or social harassment were reported against Christians in 130 countries (66 percent) and against Muslims in 117 countries (59 percent),” said the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life study.
In 2009, governments in 101 nations, more than half the globe, used at least some measure of force against religious groups. A year earlier only 91 nations had done so, the report said.
As of 2009, more than 2.2 billion people, or nearly a third of the world’s population of 6.9 billion, lived in countries where religious restrictions had risen substantially since Read more…
Indonesia, South Korea Launch Stealth Jet Project
Seoul. South Korea and Indonesia are launching a partnership today to develop a new stealth fighter jet which has been delayed for years by technical and budget problems.
Defense and procurement officials from the two countries will mark the beginning of their partnership with the opening today of a new joint research center in Daejeon, about 160km south of Seoul, reported Yonhap news agency yesterday.
Noh Dae Rae, head of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (Dapa), and Eris Herryanto, secretary-general of the Indonesian defense ministry, will attend the event, said the administration.
Referring to the so-called KF-X project, Mr Noh said in a statement: ‘It will be a strategic project that will be responsible for the development of defense industries and national security in both countries.’
He said the KF-X project has been made possible because of ‘consistent exchange and cooperation in the defense industry and defense procurement’ by both sides.
South Korea launched the Read more…
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