1,200 Convicts Escape After Multiple Mass Prison Breaks In Indonesia

Agencies
October 1, 2018

Jakarta, Oct 1: Some 1,200 Indonesian convicts are on the run from three different detention facilities in devastated Sulawesi after the region was rocked by a powerful earthquake and tsunami, a justice ministry official said Monday.

One prison in tsunami-struck Palu city -- built to hold just 120 people -- saw most of its 581 inmates storm past guards and escape to freedom through walls collapsed by the massive 7.5 magnitude shake.

"Things were initially fine...but not long after the quake, water erupted from under the prison yard causing prisoners to panic and then run onto the road," said Ministry of Justice official Sri Puguh Utami, adding that the water was not from the tsunami.

"I'm sure they escaped because they feared they would be affected by the earthquake. This is for sure a matter of life and death for the prisoners," she added.

Inmates had fled from another overcapacity facility in Palu by breaking down its main door and another in Donggala, an area also hit by the disaster.

The Donggala jail was set on fire and all 343 inmates were now on the run, Utami said.

The arson was thought to have been sparked by angry detainees demanding to see their families.

"They panicked after learning that Donggala was badly hit by the earthquake," Utami said.

"Prison officials did negotiate with prisoners about allowing them to go to check on their families. But some prisoners were apparently not patient enough and committed the arson."

Some of the convicts were jailed for corruption and narcotics offences, she said.

Five people convicted of terror-related crimes had been moved from the prison just days before the disaster.

Just over 100 prisoners at the two facilities in Palu were still in jail, but overstretched guards were struggling to keep them fed.

"The prison no longer had enough food," Utami said.

"Officials then tried to buy supplies from stores around the prison that were still open."

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News Network
April 11,2020

Washington, Apr 11: China is considered a developing country, make the United States too a developing one, US President Donald Trump said on Friday, alleging that Beijing has taken advantage of his country.

"China has been unbelievably taken advantage of us and other countries. You know, for instance, they are considered a developing nation. I said well then make us a developing nation too,” Trump told reporters at his daily White House news conference on coronavirus.

The president was responding to a question on China.

“They get big advantages because they are a developing nation. India, a developing nation. The United States is a big developed nation. Well, we have plenty of development to do,” he said.

Reiterating that United States was taken advantage of by the World Trade Organization, Trump said the Chinese economy started booming after it joined WTO with the help of the US.

“If you look at the history of China, it was only since they went into the WTO that they became a rocket ship with their economy. They were flatlined for years and years,” he said.

“Frankly, for many, many decades. And it was only when they came into the WTO that they became a rocket ship because they took advantage of all -- I'm not even blaming them. I'm saying how stupid were the people that stood here and allowed it to happen,” he said.

For latest updates on coronavirus outbreak, click  here

The Trump Administration will now allow that to happen, he said.

“If they don't treat us fairly, will leave. But now we're starting to win cases,” he said.

Alleging that China has taken advantage of the United States for 30 years, he said, China has taken advantage of the US through WTO and using rules that are unfair to the United States.

"They should have never been allowed it, this should have never been allowed to happen", he added.

“When China joined and was allowed to join under those circumstances the WTO, that was a very bad day for the United States because they have rules and regulations that were far different and far easier than our rules and regulations,” he said.

“Plus. They took advantage of them down to the last. China took advantage of them like few people would even think to take advantage of them and again they are considered right a developing nation,” he added.

The United States, he rued, is not considered a developing nation.

“The were given advantages (for being a developing nation). For many years China has ripped off the United States. Then I came along and right now, as you know, China is paying 25 percent," said Trump, adding that the US is now gaining "billions and billions and billions of dollars in tariffs from China”.

The US is not paying, he asserted.

“Not every country is China but China would devalue their currency and they would also pour out money and they essentially were paying most of those tariffs not us,” he said.

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News Network
May 20,2020

Washington, May 20: The United States recorded another 1,536 coronavirus deaths over the past 24 hours, the Johns Hopkins University tracker said.

That figure, tallied as of 8:30 pm (0030 GMT), raises to 91,845 the total number of COVID-19 deaths in the US.

The US tops the global rankings both for the highest death toll and the highest number of infections, with more than 1.5 million cases.

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News Network
July 25,2020

Madrid, Jul 25: Spain is witnessing a new surge in virus" coronavirus infections with nearly a thousand cases daily, a month after lifting the pandemic lockdown.

The country is reinstating both voluntary guidelines and mandatory restrictions that it had lifted on June 21, The Washington Post reported.

Spain on Wednesday reported over 224 outbreaks and 2,622 virus" coronavirus cases. According to a report in Washington Post, the new surge is attributed primarily to seasonal farmworkers, people attending family get-togethers and nightclub partyers.

On Thursday, the health ministry reported an additional 971 cases.

"The majority are related to fruit collection and also to the spaces where measures to avoid contact are relaxed," Spain Health Minister Salvador Illa told parliament. "We have to call on citizens to not lose respect for the virus not to be afraid of it, but not to lose respect for it either."

The government of Spain lifted all restrictions put in place to combat virus" coronavirus on June 21 and declared 'a new normal'. 

The virus" coronavirus pandemic till then had killed 24,000 people and infected more than 2,70,166.

Countries around the world are witnessing the second surge of virus" coronavirus. The resurgence could threaten the economic bounce Spain was hoping to get from vacationers eager for summer fun.

The surge in cases has been greatest in the northeastern region of Catalonia with more than 7,953 new confirmed cases since July 10.

Spain's National Epidemiological Survey has predicted that the rate of increase more than doubled in the past three weeks.

Meanwhile, the Catalan government reverted to pre-June 21 confinement rules in Barcelona and a dozen other municipalities in the metropolitan area, as well as in Figueras, Vilafant, La Noguera and Lleida.

Authorities have ordered bars and restaurants to limit indoor occupancy to 50 per cent, reduced sports to fewer than 10 people, closed night clubs and gyms and blocked some cultural activities.

The epidemiologist in charge of the region's biggest hospital warned in an interview last week with the Spanish daily El Pais that the situation in the agricultural hub of Lleida, located about 100 miles west of Barcelona, "had clearly gotten out of hand."

"Nobody foresaw that there would be a number of people coming from abroad to pick fruit in unfavourable conditions and that they might be infected," said epidemiologist Magda Campins of Vall d'Hebron in Barcelona. "And when the infections began to be detected, it was hard to keep tabs on the cases and their contacts because some of them, although they should have been in isolation, got away because they needed to earn money."

Catalonia's Department of Labour, Social Affairs and Family is using a hotel in Lleida to quarantine fruit workers who test positive for COVID-19 but are unable to isolate at home.

In the capital of Madrid, which was the epicentre during the pandemic's first wave in the spring, authorities reported 710 new cases in the past week. The use of face masks is widespread, but the region has shied away from making them mandatory in public.

Madrid's regional health secretary, Enrique Ruiz Escudero, defended that position while citing an uptick in infections in the under-40 age group. He told young people not to let down their guard.

"We can't take even one step backwards. Young people have to be aware of the responsibility they have," Ruiz Escudero said in a news conference Thursday. "I ask them to use the face mask and to maintain a safe distance."

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