The wRap Indonesia: Castration for pedophiles, greenhouse gases from forest fires

Rappler.com

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Other news include the new hajj stampede death toll and the human trafficking crisis in Southeast Asia

 

JAKARTA, Indonesia – From a new law to castrate pedophiles to worsening forest fires, here’s the top news from Indonesia and around the world.

1. Castration for pedophiles

Indonesia will begin chemically castrating convicted pedophiles in an effort to combat child sex abuse, an official said, after a string of high-profile attacks.

“(It) will make people think a thousand times before committing such crimes,” Attorney-General Muhammad Prasetyo said late Tuesday after the move was agreed at a cabinet meeting led by President Joko Widodo. “This crime is extraordinary and there have been so many victims.” Read more.

2. Greenhouse gases from forest fires

GREENHOUSE GASES. The forest fires from Indonesia are emitting more greenhouse gases than all US economic activity according to a report. Photo by Bagus Indahono/EPA

Indonesian forest and agricultural fires cloaking Southeast Asia in acrid haze are spewing more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each day than all US economic activity, according to an environmental watchdog.

The shock assessment came as Jakarta said the number of blazes was increasing across the archipelago despite a multinational fire-fighting effort, and announced plans to deploy more water-bombing aircraft. Read more.

3. Hajj stampede death toll

TRAGEDY. Hundreds are dead after a tragic stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage. Photo by AFP

The death toll from last month’s hajj stampede has topped 2,000, according to tallies given by foreign officials, making it the deadliest disaster in the pilgrimage’s history by far.

Saudi Arabia has yet to provide an updated death toll after saying 769 people died in the tragedy near Mecca, home of Islam’s holiest sites. Read more.

4. Trafficking crisis

RESCUE. Acehnese fishermen (L-in boat) help Rohingya migrants in their boat off the coast near the city of Geulumpang in East Aceh before being rescued on May 20, 2015. Photo by Januar/AFP

Human traffickers will resume their brutal trade across Southeast Asia despite a regional crackdown, Amnesty International warned Wednesday, October 21, as it detailed the “hellish” abuses migrants have suffered at the hands of gangmasters.

Tens of thousands of persecuted Myanmar Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshi economic migrants have fled across the Andaman Sea in recent years, usually to Malaysia, as part of a lucrative trade controlled by smuggling gangs. Crossings tend to halt over the dangerous summer monsoon season and restart in October while the trade was thrown into disarray earlier this year by a crackdown on smuggling gangs in Thailand. Read more.

5. Asteroid hurtling toward Earth

ASTEROID. A handout photo released on March 6, 2014 by ESA shows the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope observations of asteroid P/2013. Photo by ESA/AFP

A big asteroid is hurtling toward Earth and will shave past our planet on Halloween, but astronomers say there’s no need to be spooked – it’s definitely not on a collision course. The space rock is about the size of a football stadium and is moving at an “unusually high” speed of 78,000 miles per hour (126,000 kilometers per hour), said NASA.

Early estimates put the asteroid – called 2015 TB145 – at about 1,542 feet (470 meters) in diameter, according to the astronomy website Earth and Sky. NASA expects it to be the largest known cosmic body to get near our planet until 2027. Read more. – Rappler.com

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