26/09/2025

FRIDAY | SEPT 26, 2025

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Free meals initiative causes mass poisoning in Indonesia

Philippines orders evacuations as storm nears MANILA: Philippine authorities yesterday ordered pre-emptive evacuations of residents in areas threatened by Tropical Storm Bualoi, which could trigger floods, landslides and mudflows as it nears the country’s eastern coast, reported German Press Agency. The storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 110kph and gusts of up to 135kph while moving at 20kph towards the eastern region of Bicol, the state weather bureau said. Bualoi is expected to make landfall over Bicol today and exit the Philippines tomorrow, it said. Storm warnings were raised in about 30 provinces, including the capital region of Metro Manila as well as some areas that were recently hit by Typhoon Ragasa . Roderick Mendoza, who is head of the disaster agency in Albay province, one of the areas expected to be hit by Bualoi , said local officials were instructed to move residents to evacuation centres. “Local government officials have been told that within the day, residents should be evacuated from areas in danger of (mudflows), floods and landslides,“ he said. Schools and government offices were suspended in several provinces while sea travel was halted. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology warned that intense rainfall could trigger volcanic sediment flows on Mayon Volcano and muddy runoff in rivers and drainage areas. – Bernama-dpa PYONGYANG MAY HAVE TWO TONNES OF URANIUM: SEOUL SEOUL: North Korea is believed to possess up to two tonnes of highly enriched uranium, South Korea’s unification minister said yesterday. Chung Dong-young said “intelligence agencies estimate Pyongyang’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, more than 90% pure, at up to 2,000kg.” He said: “Only five to six kilogrammes of plutonium is enough to build a single nuclear bomb.“ He also said “stopping North Korea’s nuclear development is an urgent matter”, but argued that sanctions would not be effective and the only solution lies in a summit between Pyongyang and Washington. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said this week he is open to US talks, provided he could keep his Buddhist monks were killed when the cable pulling their rail car snapped, causing it to crash down a mountainside in northwestern Sri Lanka yesterday. The victims were crowded into a small makeshift cabin as they headed to meditation units atop a mountain within the vast Na Uyana forest monastery on Wednesday night, police said. “There were 13 monks in the car. Two managed to escape with minor injuries but four are in critical condition.“ He said among the dead were monks from India, Russia and Romania. – AFP nuclear arsenal. – AFP SEVEN MONKS KILLED IN SRI LANKA CABLE CAR INCIDENT COLOMBO: Seven

BR I E F S

The mass poisoning was reported in four areas of West Java province, said its governor Dedi Mulyadi yesterday, as NGOs issued calls to suspend the programme due to health concerns. The latest cases follow the poisoning of 800 students who ate school lunches last week in West Java and Central Sulawesi provinces, which were supplied under President Prabowo Subianto’s free nutritious meals programme. Questions have been raised about standards and oversight of the scheme, which has expanded

rapidly to reach over 20 million recipients, with an ambitious goal of feeding 83 million of Indonesia’s 280 million people by year-end. The initiative’s IDR$171 trillion (RM43 billion) budget would double next year. Mulyadi said more than 470 students fell sick in West Bandung on Monday after eating the free lunches and on Wednesday, three more outbreaks took place there and in the Sukabumi region, affecting at least 580 children. “We must evaluate those running the programme. The most important

Administration said about 50,000 sandbags have been placed in the tunnel void to prevent soil from sliding into the structure of the Vajira Hospital underground train station. Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt, who visited the site on Wednesday to inspect the operation, said the broken shaft, which had split into five sections, along with other debris such as electricity poles, must be removed from the sinkhole to prevent obstructing the tunnel sealing works. – Reuters scams globally, including in Singapore, the ministry and police force remain concerned by the prevalence of such scams in Singapore,“ said the ministry. It is the first such order issued under the nation’s new Online Criminal Harms Act 2023, which came into force in February 2024. – Reuters thing is how to deal with the students’ trauma after eating the food,” he said, adding that small hospitals in West Bandung were overwhelmed by sick students. Prabowo’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest cases. The National Nutrition Agency oversees the free meals programme, and its head Dadan Hindayana said kitchens with poisoning cases have been suspended. Local broadcaster Kompas TV showed footage from a local sports hall in West Bandung that was turned into a makeshift treatment centre, with dozens of sick students on fold-out beds and others laid on the floor in pain. Other images showed students being treated outside hospital buildings, with ambulances coming and going. Before this week, at least 6,452 children nationwide had suffered from food poisoning from the programme since it was launched in January, according to think tank Network for Education Watch. Mulyadi said kitchens were tasked with feeding too many students and were located far from the schools, forcing them to start cooking very early, sometimes the night before it was served for lunch. “When the food was still warm, it was put on a tray and the tray was sealed, making it spoil.” The local government has declared health emergency status for the West Bandung region due to mass food poisoning, allowing the provincial government to allocate funds to handle the cases, he added. – Reuters

JAKARTA: More than 1,000 children in Indonesia’s West Java have suffered food poisoning this week from school lunches the latest in a series of outbreaks and another setback for the president’s multi-billion-dollar free meals programme. o NGOs issue calls to suspend programme due to health concerns

An elementary school student receiving treatment for food poisoning at a makeshift clinic inside a district hall in Bandung yesterday. – REUTERSPIC

Thailand calls for troop reductions with Cambodia BANGKOK: Thailand and Cambodia should scale back their military presence along their shared border and work together to de-escalate tensions, Thailand’s new foreign minister told reporters yesterday. the joint actions that were agreed upon during a dialogue earlier this month, including the reduction of forces, the clearance of landmines and a crackdown on illegal activities, he said. mapped by France in 1907 when Cambodia was its colony. Tensions over disputed areas exploded into armed conflict in July, including the use of artillery fire and fighter jet sorties. around the clock to fill a 50m-deep sinkhole on Samsen Road in Bangkok to prevent further subsidence. The Bangkok Metropolitan

Sworn into office along with Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul a day earlier, Sihasak Phuangketkeow stressed the need to uphold a ceasefire agreed by Thailand and Cambodia at the end of a deadly five-day conflict in July. He told reporters on his first day as foreign minister that his priority is to secure peace between the two Southeast Asian neighbours. The countries need to implement

“Peace needs reduction of forces, such as the withdrawing of heavy weaponry from border areas to reduce the risk of violence. “We have agreed to these things in principle but what we need to see now is progress.“ Thailand and Cambodia have for more than a century contested sovereignty at various undemarcated points along their 817km land border, which was first

At least 48 people were killed and thousands temporarily displaced in the heaviest fighting between the countries in over a decade. The fighting ended after both countries agreed to a ceasefire brokered on July 28 and the border has remained mostly calm since, although tensions continue to simmer. In a separate development, Thai authorities said they were working

Singapore threatens fines for Meta over Facebook scams SINGAPORE: The government here said yesterday it has given Meta Platforms until the end of the month to introduce measures such as facial recognition to help address impersonation scams on Facebook. excuse”, the Home Affairs Ministry said in a statement, adding that failure to do so would result in fines of up to SGD$100,000 for each day after the deadline. an increase in instances of scammers exploiting Facebook for impersonation scams between June 2024 and June this year, using videos or images of government office holders in fake advertisements, accounts, profiles and business pages.

The ministry said the directive was issued to Meta on Wednesday. The firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The ministry said it saw

Meta faces a fine of up to SGD$1 million (RM3.27 million) if it fails to comply “without reasonable

“While Meta has taken steps to address the risk of impersonation