Singapore, this year’s chair of the annual ASEAN Regional Forum, published its statement summarizing the foreign ministers’ meeting, which took place Saturday. The annual ARF is the sole regional forum in which the North’s top diplomat participates.

“The ministers urged all concerned parties to continue working towards the realization of lasting peace and stability on a denuclearized Korean Peninsula,” the statement reads.

“They also urged the DPRK to fulfill its stated commitment to complete denuclearization and its pledge to refrain from further nuclear and missile tests,” it added, referring to North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The statement also noted that the ministers welcomed the April and May inter-Korean summits at the border truce village of Panmunjom and the historic June Singapore summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

At the summits, Kim committed himself to the complete denuclearization of the peninsula, which was seen by optimists as a positive sign but by skeptics as yet another vague pledge with no specifics as for how and when to achieve that goal.

The statement, in addition, said that during the ARF talks, some ministers expressed their readiness to engage in dialogue with the North to resolve other outstanding issues, including humanitarian concerns.

Contrary to the widespread expectations, the chairman’s statement did not include the phrase, “complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization,” apparently in reflection of Pyongyang’s aversion to the term.

Meanwhile, the ministers at the forum voiced concerns over land reclamations in the South China Sea, an apparent allusion to Beijing’s construction of artificial islands capable of hosting military installations.

“The ministers discussed the matters relating to the South China Sea and took note of some concerns on the land reclamations and activities in the area, which have eroded trust and confidence, increased tensions and may undermine peace, security and stability in the region,” the statement said.

“They reaffirmed the need to enhance mutual trust and confidence, exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities and avoid actions that may further complicate the situation, and pursue peaceful resolution of disputes in accordance with international law,” it added.

Based on its growing economic and military heft, China has been suspected of seeking to expand its sphere of influence through man-made islands in the strategically vital waterway — or farther into the Pacific. China’s claims to the lion’s share of the South China Sea continue despite a 2016 ruling by an international tribunal in The Hague against them.

In a Facebook post at about 9.55pm, the Minister said that he was working on his laptop in his room on the 10th floor of a building when the quake struck.

“Suddenly the room shook violently, walls cracked, it was quite impossible to stand up. Heard screams,” he added.

Mr Shanmugam left the hotel room and made his way downstairs while the building was still shaking, adding that the power in the building had gone out for a while.

The delegation, which has 11 members, was in Lombok for a sub-regional counter-terrorism meeting co-hosted by Indonesia and Australia.

Other countries that are involved in the meeting include Malaysia, Brunei and New Zealand. The conference ends on Monday.

He noted that while the Singapore delegation was safe, there were casualties among other guests.

Australia’s Home Affairs minister Peter Dutton, who was there for the same meeting, told the Sydney Morning Heraldthat the quake “was powerful enough to put us on the floor”.

“We were up on the 12th floor, the lights went out and we were able to evacuate,” Mr Dutton said. “I think we were pretty lucky in the end.”

Mr Dutton and his delegation, along with his New Zealand counterpart, have since been evacuated from their hotel and are standing by to be evacuated to Bali, where the quake’s effects are thought to be less severe.

Mr Shanmugam advised Singaporeans in Lombok to contact the Singapore embassy in Jakarta at +62-(811)-863-348.

“Hoping that there are no serious injuries and that everyone will be ok,” he said.

Indonesia’s resort islands of Bali and Lombok were hit by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake on Sunday.

The quake, which struck at a depth of 15km off the north coast of Lombok, prompted a tsunami warning which was later lifted at 8.25pm local time.

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Indonesia 7.0 quake kills 82, injures dozens, damages buildings

Singaporean tourist Ramya Ragupathi, 37, was just finishing a massage in Ubud when the quake struck at 7.45pm local time.

“I was a little shaken. It was quite intense. I felt really woozy, and at first thought it was because of the massage. But then the receptionist got everyone to move and evacuate,” she said.

Ms Ragupathi, who owns a gluten-free food firm in Singapore, also said that local staff at her accommodation stayed calm and were very helpful even as the tremors were felt.

In a high alert advisory, Singapore’s National Environment Agency said there are no reports of tremors in Singapore and that Singapore is unlikely to be affected by any tsunami that may be generated.

In response to The Straits Times’ queries, Singapore Airlines said Singapore Airlines flights to Bali and SilkAir flights to Lombok are currently due to operate as scheduled.

“As the situation remains fluid, customers are advised to check the status of their flights on our website,” the spokesman said.

A Jetstar spokesman said the airline was monitoring the situation closely, and that its flights to and from Denpasar were operating as scheduled.

“Should there be any changes, we will advise our passengers as soon as possible,” they added.

Changi Airport Group said on Sunday evening that it was monitoring the situation.

The Carr Fire, located some 200 miles (322 kilometers) north of San Francisco, is still growing, CalFire said Sunday.

Its intensity was so great at one point, that it generated a tornado-like whirl of fire — as well as its own weather system.

PG&E power company identified the worker Sunday as Jairus Ayeta, who was killed in a remote area of Shasta county where crews were working to restore electricity.

“The safety of our employees and our customers is PG&E’s top priority. Our thoughts and prayers are with our fallen team member, his family and our extended team,” the company said in a statement.

“We are working with law enforcement to investigate the circumstances of the incident,” it added.

The Carr Fire has scorched 154,524 acres (62,534 hectares) of land since July 23, when authorities say it was triggered by the “mechanical failure of a vehicle” that caused sparks to fly in tinderbox-dry conditions.

The fire has also razed more than 1,600 buildings, including some 1,000 homes, making it the sixth most destructive blaze in the history of the fire-prone western state, state officials say.

More than 4,200 firefighters have been deployed to battle the conflagration but they have only succeeded in containing 41 percent of it so far.

Other fires raging in the state include the Mendocino Complex, comprised of two blazes: the River Fire and the Ranch Fire.

Several thousand people have been evacuated as the fires swept across the state, although some have been given permission in recent days to return to their homes.

The 6.9 magnitude tremor, which triggered panic among tourists and locals on Sunday evening, was also felt on the neighbouring island of Bali, one of Southeast Asia’s leading tourist destinations.

Nugroho said an initial tsunami warning which was later cancelled had sparked terror as residents scrambled to reach safer ground.

“People were panicking… especially because of the early tsunami warning,” he said.

Memories of the devastating 2004 tsunami which claimed 168,000 lives in Indonesia remain raw in the vast archipelago nation.

Most of the victims in the latest disaster died in mountainous northern Lombok, away from the main tourist spots on the south and west of the island. Thousands of people were evacuated to outside shelters.

Lombok’s beaches and hiking trails draw holidaymakers from around the world.

The death toll jumped from 37 hours earlier as the scale of the destruction began to emerge overnight.

The US Geological Survey said the shallow quake hit northern Lombok just 10 kilometres underground and was followed by two further secondary quakes and nearly two dozen aftershocks.

‘Everyone ran out of their homes’

Rescue officials said much of the damage had hit Lombok’s main city of Mataram.

Residents of the city described a strong jolt that sent people scrambling to get out of buildings.

“Everyone immediately ran out of their homes, everyone is panicking,” Iman, who like many Indonesians has one name, told AFP.

Electricity was knocked out in several parts of the city and patients were evacuated from the main hospital, witnesses and officials said.

Singapore’s Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam, who was in Lombok for a security conference when the earthquake struck, described on Facebook how his hotel room on the 10th floor shook violently.

“Walls cracked, it was quite impossible to stand up,” he said.

Despite the tsunami warning being cancelled, seawater poured into two villages, senior disaster agency official Dwikorita Karnawati told local television.

In the neighbouring resort island of Bali people could be heard screaming as locals and tourists ran onto the streets.

Bali’s international airport suffered damage to its terminal but the runway was unaffected and operations had returned to normal, disaster agency officials said.

Facilities at Lombok’s main airport were also unaffected, although passengers were briefly evacuated from the main terminal.

The tremor came a week after a shallow 6.4-magnitude quake hit Lombok, killing 17 people and damaging hundreds of buildings.

It triggered landslides that briefly trapped trekkers on popular mountain hiking routes.

Indonesia, one of the most disaster-prone nations on earth, straddles the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide and many of the world’s volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur.

In 2004 a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9.3 undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra in western Indonesia killed 220,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 in Indonesia.

The move follows vigorous calls by Canada for the immediate release of human rights activists swept up in a new wave of detentions.

“The kingdom of Saudi Arabia… will not accept interference in its internal affairs or imposed diktats from any country,” the foreign ministry tweeted.

“The kingdom announces that it is recalling its ambassador… to Canada for consultation.”

The ministry said that the Canadian ambassador to Riyadh had 24 hours to leave the country, and announced the “freezing of all new commercial and investment transactions” with Ottawa.

The move came after the Canadian embassy in Riyadh said it was “gravely concerned” over a new wave of arrests of human rights campaigners in the kingdom, including award-winning gender rights activist Samar Badawi.

“We urge the Saudi authorities to immediately release them and all other peaceful #humanrights activists,” the embassy tweeted on Friday.

Badawi was arrested along with fellow campaigner Nassima al-Sadah last week, “the latest victims of an unprecedented government crackdown on the women’s rights movement”, Human Rights Watch said.

The arrests come weeks after more than a dozen women’s right campaigners were detained and accused of undermining national security and collaborating with enemies of the state. Some have since been released.

The Saudi foreign ministry voiced anger over the Canadian statement.

“It is very unfortunate that the words ‘immediate release’ appeared in the Canadian statement… it is unacceptable in relations between countries,” the ministry said.

THE afternoon clouds did little to take the edge off the extreme heat Yan Horl endures toiling in his rice field in Cambodia’s Prey Veng province. He arrives home exhausted.

Just a few years ago, the 58-year-old could eke out a living on his one-hectare plot in the village of Trapeang Cham. Yields that routinely exceeded three tonnes now barley surpass two as rising temperatures and a greater propensity for disease reduce productivity.

Horl’s travails are not unique, and illustrate just part of a deeper story of threats to Cambodia’s food security and farmers responsible for achieving it.

In the end, farmers like Horl are spending more money on fertiliser, insecticides and diesel to fuel their water pumps.

“I pump water onto my field for two days in a row and a few days later the water is all dried up. But when it rains, it rains too much and insects come to destroy our rice,” Horl says.

Yan Horl (left) and his neighbor discuss the growing hardship changing weather patterns have brought to those in their community persevering to make ends meet. picture by HENG HAK

None of the US$515 (Bt17,000) received from his last harvest went toward supporting his family.

Then there’s the physical toll. “There is nothing to stifle the rising heat, which also affects our health,” he says.

Yang Phirom, an organic-rice expert who previously advised the Cambodian Centre for Study and Development in Agriculture, says that nearly 90 per cent of the Cambodian population are farmers who largely depend on rain.

With the arrival of climate change, he says, “Sometimes it doesn’t rain and it’s very hot, making the rice yield drop. In contrast, when it’s almost harvest season, rain falls and destroys the harvest.”

Back in the 1990s, Horl says, it was common for family members to head abroad off and on for a few years and send money home. He and many of his friends did so. Now they don’t come back. His daughter Vanny and son Vanna have both gone to Thailand to work in the fishery industry, with no plans to return.

At least a million Cambodians are currently working in Thailand. Trapeang Cham is home to 128 families, but Horl reckons that more than 50 per cent have migrated because farming is too risky and there are no

other opportunities.

Though Cambodia remains an agricultural country, farm employment is declining dramatically from 80 per cent in 1993 to about 40 per cent last year and projected to fall below 30 per cent by 2030.

Women who are often left behind inherit expanded domestic and farming responsibilities. Ever since her husband left to work in Malaysia several years ago, Sieng Hay, 24, has risen before dawn daily to make breakfast for the six-member family before heading out to the fields. While returning home, Hay collects grass for the family’s cows, hunts for crabs and snails, and cuts vegetables to make dinner.

Struggling to respond

To adapt to changing weather conditions, the government has bred new rice species in addition to distributing over 10,000 tonnes of rice for people affected by recent droughts and floods.

As Trapeang Cham continues to face rising temperatures, domestic water shortages and insufficient irrigation have become more frequent.

Yan Horl says that, in the 1990s, villagers retrieved water from three wells that were less than nine metres deep. As groundwater shortages began to take hold, the families employed a local company to sink a well 16 metres further.

Such local investments are insufficient, however, says village chief Chy Luk, adding that rising temperatures cost farmers more money. Luk, whose son and two grandsons have migrated, hopes the village can build an additional pond.

But it’s unclear how the pond will help them overcome the kind of drought the country experienced two years ago when 15 provinces and 2.5 million people were affected.

Heng Hak is an independent journalist based in Phnom Penh. The story was produced in cooperation with Mekong Eye, a project of Internews’ Earth Journalism Network.

After the violence erupted in 2016, Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi chose fellow Nobel laureate Kofi Annan, the former United Nations chief, to chair the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State. It was tasked with examining the complex challenges facing the state and proposing solutions.

Last August 23, after a year of consultations across Rakhine and in other parts of the region, Annan’s commission submitted its report to Suu Kyi. It recommended urgent and sustained action on a number of fronts to prevent violence, maintain peace, foster reconciliation and offer a sense of hope to the oppressed population.

Two days later, a militant group – the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army – launched a series of attacks on Myanmar security outposts. The response from the Tatmadaw – the Myanmar military – was brutal, culminating in a “clearance operation” in which thousands of people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced. An estimated 700,000 Rohingya were uprooted from their homes after soldiers and police chased them out of the country and into Bangladesh. There were accounts of rape, torture and mass killings. The international community and UN raised concerns over ethnic cleansing.

Rather than immediately implementing Annan’s recommendations, Suu Kyi tapped Thai former foreign minister Surakairt Sathirathai to chair an Advisory Board to the Committee on the Implementation of the Recommendations on Rakhine State.

Surakiart meets with Suu Kyi in Nay Pyi Taw during a meeting on Rakhine crisis recently–Picture: surakiart.com

Surakiart’s board faced its first setback in January when former US ambassador to the UN Bill Richardson, a long-time friend of Suu Kyi, quit the board, accusing it of whitewashing the government’s excesses and acting as a cheerleader for Suu Kyi. The board suffered another blow last month when veteran diplomat Kobsak Chutikul resigned to send what he called a “cautionary message” to Myanmar.

In reality, Surakiart’s panel had a shaky foundation from the start, because Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak instructed Thai ministries and agencies not to lend it support.

According to Thai official sources, the Tatmadaw, the most powerful institution in the country, was concerned that Thailand was playing a “double game”. The suspicion was that Surakiart was there to influence affairs in Myanmar while Thailand officially maintained a guise of friendship. Thailand had declined to criticise Myanmar’s atrocities against the Rohingya Muslims. Fellow Asean members Malaysia and Indonesia, which are predominantly Muslim, were more critical.

According to the sources, the Thai government wants to relieve the Tatmadaw of any such suspicion. Thus government agencies and ministries were told to refrain from supporting Surakiart and his panel.

Somkid could not be reached for comment on the matter. Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai rejected the allegation, saying the panel has coordinated closely with the Thai government and the military. Thailand has played a key role in development schemes in Rakhine, he said.

Thailand, together with China and Japan, has expressed economic interest in Myanmar’s western state. Myanmar and a Thailand-based business institute last month discussed recruiting investors for large-scale projects, while China is mulling a deep-sea port as part of a special economic zone, Don said.

Setting up and dealing with international panels is entirely Myanmar’s affair, he said.

According to one source, Surakiart and his panel, which came into being last December, have five times asked to meet Myanmar army chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, always in vain. The panel met State Counsellor Suu Kyi, but she does not control the security forces.

Myanmar’s Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of the Myanmar armed forces.AFP PHOTO

Moreover, the Asian Peace and Reconciliation Council, a high-level panel of international statesmen that Surakiart was also chairing, refused to lend its name to the peace initiative because it believed the government was insincere about solving the crisis. It did not want its name “exploited” for that reason.

While the ability to implement the Annan recommendations is in doubt, Myanmar has established yet another “independent” board to investigate human-rights violations in Rakhine.

Asean expressed its pleasure about the new board led by former Philippines deputy foreign minister Rasario Manalo. Don said it might do well because countries such as Japan supported its creation, but other observers have denounced it as a political gimmick.

From the Rohingya point of view, advisory boards are useless unless the authorities are sincere about addressing their plight. “All the solutions are already there [in Annan’s report],” Rohingya activist Khin Maung Myint said. “We don’t ask for anything more than our rights.”

As they wait for the divers to show their jumps during the Red Bull Cliff Diving competition which is held on 04 and 05 August 2018.

// EPA-EFE PHOTO

// EPA-EFE PHOTO

// EPA-EFE PHOTO

The latest tremor had a magnitude of seven and struck just 10 km underground according to the US Geological Survey. It was followed by two aftershocks.

Officials issued a tsunami warning, which was later cancelled

“Please go to a place with higher ground, while remaining calm and not panicking,” Dwikorita Karnawati, head of the agency for meteorology, climatology and geophysics, told local TV.

Seawater had entered two villages as high as 10 cm and 13 cm (4-5 inches), Karnawati said later.

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency, said many buildings were thought to have been damaged in Lombok’s main city of Mataram.

“They are mostly buildings with weak construction material,” Nugroho said.

Residents in Mataram described a strong jolt that sent people scrambling out of buildings.

“Everyone immediately ran out of their homes, everyone is panicking,” Iman told AFP.

Another resident Rita Siswati, 47, said the quake knocked out electricity and patients were evacuated from the main hospital.

The epicentre was in the sea 18 km northwest of Lombok, the USGS said, far from the main tourist spots on the south and west of the island.

The USGS reported two aftershocks, one with a magnitude of 5.4.

The quake was felt some 100 km (60 miles) away on the bustling resort island of Bali, and there were early reports of damage including to Ngurah Rai International Airport.

Agung Widodo, a resident of Bali’s main town of Denpasar, said he felt two strong tremors.

“The first one lasted quite a while, the second one was only about 2-5 seconds. The first one was the bigger one,” he told AFP.

People could be heard screaming as locals and tourists ran onto the road.

The tremor came a week after a shallow 6.4-magnitude quake hit Lombok, killing 17 people and damaging hundreds of buildings.

It triggered landslides that briefly trapped trekkers on popular mountain hiking routes.

Indonesia, one of the most disaster-prone nations on earth, straddles the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide and many of the world’s volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur.

In 2004 a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9.3 undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra in western Indonesia killed 220,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 in Indonesia.

“The police have the sad certainty that the 20 people aboard perished,” police spokeswoman Anita Senti told a news conference.

The Junker JU52 HB-HOT aircraft, built in Germany in 1939 and now a collectors’ item, crashed into the Piz Segnas mountain in the east of the country on Saturday.