29/04/2026

WEDNESDAY | APR 29, 2026

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Two trains collide near Jakarta

EU extends Myanmar sanctions BRUSSELS: The European Union extended its sanctions against Myanmar until at least May next year, in an effort to maintain pressure on the country’s military rulers more than five years after their coup toppled an elected government. The measures include asset freezes, travel bans and an arms embargo for 105 individuals and 22 entities. They were first imposed after the February 2021 military coup and the subsequent crackdown on dissent. “The EU reiterates its strongest condemnation of the actions taken by the Myanmar military since the 2021 coup,”the EU Council said, citing what it described as continuing human rights violations and restrictions on fundamental freedoms. It called for an end to all violence and the release of people who have been arbitrarily detained. Earlier this month, coup leader Min Aung Hlaing was elected as president of Myanmar. The United Nations says at least 3.6 million people have been displaced since the coup, and the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners has verified nearly 8,000 killings and close to 31,000 arrests, with more than 22,000 people remaining in detention. The EU said it continues to withhold direct financial assistance to the administration and to suspend any aid that could be seen as legitimising the military leadership. – Reuters Regional sex abuse probe nets 445 SINGAPORE: Police here arrested 11 men in the republic as part of a regional operation that resulted in the detention of more than 300 others over child sexual exploitation. The four-week operation involved police in Singapore, Brunei, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand, CNA news outlet reported. Police said the operation involved raids in 382 locations in seven countries and resulted in the arrests of 326 people between March 23 and April 17 with 119 individuals assisting the investigation. “The 445 arrested and investigated persons comprise 430 men and 15 women, aged between 12 and 72,” police said. Authorities also seized electronic devices including 116 computers, 340 mobile phones, 25 electronic tablets, 140 storage devices, and 16 routers, along with child sexual abuse materials and obscene content. It said that authorities also worked closely with technology companies, financial institutions and non governmental organisations to wrap up the case. – Bernama bruises which the daycare centre said she must have gotten elsewhere, playing, recalled Noorman. His son had been repeatedly hospitalised with pneumonia, which the father now suspects may have had something to do with him being made to sleep on a cold floor without clothes. “I am very angry,” Noorman said. “They must be punished as severely as possible.” Under Indonesia’s child protection law, the suspects risk up to five years’ imprisonment and a 100 million rupiah fine. – AFP

JAKARTA: The death toll from a train collision near Jakarta has risen to 14 with another 84 injured, the train operator said yesterday, as rescuers completed work to extract survivors still trapped in the wreckage. The collision between a commuter train and a long-distance train happened late on Monday in Bekasi, just outside Jakarta. Bobby Rasyidin, chief executive of Indonesia’s state railway firm PT KAI, said the death toll had risen to 14. Mohammad Syafii, the head of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency, said yesterday that the evacuation had been completed, adding that it had been a delicate process to rescue trapped passengers from the mangled carriages. He said there were no more passengers to find, although rescuers will take action if they find body parts as they continue to comb through the wreckage. A women-only carriage bore the brunt of the crash. Syafii said all of the victims were women and most of them had been pinned by crushed metal. Before disengaging the trains, rescuers were seen using angle grinders to cut through the metal of the compartments and reach the survivors. Bobby told an earlier press conference that the commuter train first collided with a taxi on the tracks and was then hit by the long-distance train. Taxi operator Green SM Indonesia said on Instagram that the taxi involved in the accident

o Prabowo agrees to build flyover at crash site

train station yesterday, some looking for their relatives. Heriyati, a passenger, said she initially intended to use the women’s only carriage but opted for the one behind it. She had been on a call with her husband asking him to pick her up from the station when the collision occurred. “I hadn’t even finished with the call when the trains collided,” she said. Commuter line trains are some of the busiest in Jakarta, the world’s most populous city. PT KAI said several commuter train trips were cut short due to the crash. Adriansyah Yasin Sulaeman, an executive director of the think tank Forum Transport for Jakarta, said the government needed to improve the ageing railway network, including separating tracks for express long-distance trains and commuter trains. “These commuter trains are a symbol for the working class,” he said. “It’s a big alarm for the government to seriously improve it.” – Reuters

was part of its fleet. It said it had sent information to authorities to assist in the investigation. Green SM Indonesia is the Indonesian branch of Vietnamese electric-vehicle taxi operator Green and Smart Mobility JSC, an affiliate of Vingroup. After visiting a hospital in Bekasi, President Prabowo Subianto said he had agreed to build a flyover near the train tracks to help resolve heavy traffic congestion, adding that authorities would investigate the collision. He said large parts of the train network are not well-maintained. Indonesia’s National Transport Safety Committee is investigating the crash. Rescuers and people descended upon the

Rescuers and technicians working at the crash site in Bekasi yesterday. – REUTERSPIC

Indonesian police arrest 13 in daycare abuse case YOGYAKARTA: Police arrested 13 people after shocking images of alleged abuse of small children at a daycare centre went viral. three by three metres. “So far, 13 people have been named suspects” and arrested in the case, city police chief Eva Guna Pandia told reporters on Monday. understaffed, with not enough personnel to bathe and dress the children, said detective Riski Adrian. The daycare centre

was among those tied up. “My heart broke,” the 42-year-old civil servant said. “My wife cried. Most of them (caregivers) were women, and their body language was so tender, so soft spoken, and they appeared to be religious.” Noorman paid about 1.1 million rupiah (about RM253), half the minimum wage in Yogyakarta, for each of his two children to attend the centre, since shuttered. His oldest child, a daughter now aged six, stopped going recently. She sometimes came home with

accommodated about 100 children, more than half of whom are believed to have been maltreated, according to police. Parent Noorman Windarto said he was shocked when he received a phone call from a fellow parent last Friday, urging him to pick up his two year-old son. He later learnt from police that the boy, who had been attending the centre since he was three months old,

Police last Friday raided Little Aresha, a daycare centre in Yogyakarta, following a report from a former employee. CCTV footage circulating on social media showed children, most under the age of two, lying on the floor wearing only diapers, their hands and feet bound with rags. Authorities confirm the footage is authentic. Police said they also found 20 children crammed into a room just

Those in custody include 11 staff, as well as the headmaster and the head of the foundation that ran the centre. They will face charges including child neglect. Pandia said the suspects told police they had tied up some of the children to prevent them from disturbing others. They claimed the centre was