“Many orchids were discovered through search expeditions conducted since 2012 and that still continue today,” Atra Romeida, one of the researchers involved, said in Bengkulu on Wednesday, as quoted by Antara news agency.

The discoveries, Atra added, were a surprise for the researchers and showed the natural wealth of Bengkulu’s forests.

“Some of the orchids are categorized as endemic, meaning they only grow in a specific area, not elsewhere,” Atra said.

To cultivate the newly discovered species, researchers together with the local Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) have prepared a location for germplasm conservation and mass breeding using plant tissue culture techniques.

Tissue culture, or in vitro, refers to the growth of tissue or cells separate from an organism. Plant tissue culture is the specific term for a collection of techniques used to maintain or grow plant cells, tissues or organs. Through these technique plant populations can be increased rapidly.

“The species we are breeding with this technique are pencil orchids, which are endemic to Dendam Tak Sudah Lake in the city of Bengkulu,” Atra said.

Read also: Susi Wanggai’s enchanting garden of Papuan orchids

Atra, who is a lecturer with a doctorate who teaches plant breeding and biotechnology, said in its natural habitat, the probability of successfully growing a pencil orchid from a seed was only 0.1 to 1 percent. Whereas through tissue culture techniques, one pencil orchid seed can produce 10,000 new seeds.

“This is because the pencil orchid seeds only contain embryos, without food reserves. Through tissue culture, the orchid population can be increased,” Atra said.

With the tissue culture technique, the discovery of 160 orchid species provides opportunities for export, as orchids are valuable commodities.

“Therefore, breeding is important for the preservation of such species, whether national or regional,” Atra said.

Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, Ri Yong Ho accused Washington of creating a deadlock in talks on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

“The recent deadlock is because the US relies on coercive measures which are lethal to trust-building,” Ri told the assembly.

“Without any trust in the US, there will be no confidence in our national security and under such circumstances, there is no way we will unilaterally disarm ourselves first.”

The United States is insisting on a “denuclearization-first” policy that “increases the level of pressure by sanctions to achieve their purpose in a coercive manner,” said the foreign minister.

“The perception that sanctions can bring us on our knees is a pipe dream of the people who are ignorant about us.”

Led by the United States, the Security Council adopted three sanctions resolutions last year aimed at depriving North Korea of revenue for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

A landmark summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June led to a warming of ties and a halt in Pyongyang’s missile launches, but there has been little concrete progress toward denuclearization.

This week, Ri met with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who agreed to return to Pyongyang next month to discuss US demands that the North scrap its weapons programs.

Pompeo will also try to arrange a second summit between Trump and Kim, whose June meeting in Singapore was the first ever between sitting leaders of the long-time enemy states.

Ri told the UN assembly that his government had stopped nuclear and missile tests, dismantled a nuclear test site and continued to make efforts to build trust.

“However we do not see any corresponding response from the US,” he said.

Didiet KS Radityo, the corporate secretary of the Indonesian Flight Navigation Service Institution (AirNav Indonesia), told The Jakarta Post that Agung, who worked for AirNav Indonesia, died in hospital on Saturday morning.

Agung, who was working on the fourth floor of the ATC tower at Mutiara Sis Al Jufri Airport in Palu, had just cleared the lane for the departure of a Batik Air plane on Friday afternoon. He was waiting for the plane to take off.

When the plane was about to take off, the tremor hit but Agung remained in the tower. After the plane took off, Agung jumped from the tower because the roof had collapsed.

“Agung’s legs, arms and ribs were broken,” Didiet said.

Read also: Central Sulawesi quake: What we know so far

Didiet said AirNav Indonesia had prepared a helicopter to take him to Balikpapan for further treatment on Saturday morning.

“But God had another plan. He passed away 20 minutes before the helicopter arrived,” he added.

“Agung dedicated himself to his job until the end of his life and did not leave the control tower until the plane took off, even though the earthquake had struck.”

Yohanes Sirait, the public relations manager at AirNav Indonesia, said in a press statement on Saturday that the institution had sent its condolences after the tragedy.

“Our deepest condolences. May Almighty God bless our family (Agung) and other victims of the earthquake in Donggala regency,” he said.

The national disaster agency put the official death toll so far at 384, all of them in the tsunami-struck city of Palu, but warned the toll was likely to rise.

Some 540 people were badly injured, it added.

In the city — home to around 350,000 people — partially covered bodies lay on the ground near the shore, the day after tsunami waves 1.5 metres (five feet) came ashore.

There were also concerns over the whereabouts of hundreds of people preparing for a beach festival that had been due to start Friday evening, the disaster agency said.

Hospitals were overwhelmed by the influx of injured, with many people being treated in the open air, while other survivors helped to retrieve the remains of those who died.

One man was seen carrying the muddy corpse of a small child.

The tsunami was triggered by a strong quake that brought down buildings and sent locals fleeing for higher ground as a churning wall of water crashed into Palu, where there were widespread power blackouts.

‘I just ran’

Dramatic video footage captured from the top floor of a parking ramp in Palu, nearly 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the quake’s epicentre, showed waves bring down several buildings and inundate a large mosque.

“I just ran when I saw the waves hitting homes on the coastline,” said Palu resident Rusidanto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

The shallow 7.5 magnitude tremor was more powerful than a series of quakes that killed hundreds on the Indonesian island of Lombok in July and August.

Indonesian president Joko Widodo said the military was being called in to the disaster-struck region to help search-and-rescue teams get to victims and find bodies.

Earlier, the head of the country’s search and rescue agency Muhammad Syaugi told AFP that local staff had found “many” dead bodies.

“We’re particularly concerned about the impact of the earthquake on children, who are more vulnerable to being swept away in tsunamis,” said Tom Howells, of Save the Children.

People living hundreds of kilometres from the epicentre reported feeling the massive shake, which came hours after a smaller jolt killed at least one person in the same part of the country.

Palu and the surrounding region have been hit by about 100 aftershocks since Friday’s tremors, officials said.

The quake hit just off central Sulawesi at a depth of 10 kilometres just before 1100 GMT — early evening in Sulawesi — the US Geological Survey said. Such shallow quakes tend to be more destructive.

Pictures supplied by the disaster agency showed a badly damaged shopping mall in Palu where at least one floor had collapsed onto the storey below, while other photographs showed major damage to buildings and large cracks across pavements.

The agency also said homes and a local hotel were flattened while a landmark city bridge was destroyed.

A key access road had been badly damaged and was blocked by landslides, the disaster agency said.

Airport closed

The main airport in Palu, capital of South Sulawesi province, was shut after the tsunami struck and was expected to stay closed for at least 24 hours, complicating any disaster relief efforts.

Friday’s tremor was also felt in the far south of the island in its largest city Makassar and on neighbouring Kalimantan, Indonesia’s portion of Borneo island.

The initial quake struck as evening prayers were about to begin in the world’s biggest Muslim majority country on the holiest day of the week, when mosques are especially busy.

Indonesia is one of the most disaster-prone nations on earth.

It lies on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide and many of the world’s volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur.

Earlier this year, a series of powerful quakes hit Lombok, killing more than 550 people on the holiday island and neighbouring Sumbawa.

Indonesia has been hit by a string of other deadly quakes including a devastating 9.1 magnitude tremor that struck off the coast of Sumatra in December 2004.

That Boxing Day quake triggered a tsunami that killed 220,000 throughout the region, including 168,000 in Indonesia.

In 2010, about 430 were killed when a huge quake sparked a tsunami off the coast of Sumatra, while more than 600 were killed in a quake-tsunami disaster on Java island.

The visitors from Japan, South Korea and China’s autonomous regions such as Macao and Hong Kong will enter Myanmar enjoying visa exemption through international airports in Yangon, Mandalay and Nay Pyi Taw, Yangon International Seaport and international border points of entry on Myanmar-Thai border and Myanmar-India border.

Free visa will be aimed at only those who arrive on a tourist visa and they will be allowed to stay in the country for 30 days.

For Chinese tourists holding ordinary passports, they will be allowed visa on arrival when they enter Myanmar through Yangon, Mandalay and Nay Pyi Taw airports. They will have to pay USS50 for a visa on arrival to stay for 30 days.

Those who arrive in Myanmar with visa exemption or on a visa on arrival must respect the country’s existing laws, rules and procedures. They will be able to go freely inside the country, except from the areas restricted in terms of security.

Under the programme for easing visa restrictions, any foreign tourist who is not entitled to enter the country after inspection of security departments or organisations concerned and the Immigration Department will be denied access, according to the statement.

Anwar is expected to easily win the local election on October 13 and re-enter parliament as an MP, just months after being released from jail following his alliance’s shock election win.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, 93, has pledged to step aside within two years to hand power to Anwar, his former nemesis with whom he teamed up to oust scandal-plagued Najib Razak and his long-ruling coalition at the national polls in May.

Following the vote, Anwar, 71, received a royal pardon releasing him from prison where he was serving a sentence for sodomy in a case that his supporters said was politically motivated.

He needs to be elected as an MP to qualify to take over from Mahathir, and earlier this month a lawmaker from his party vacated his seat in the coastal town of Port Dickson to allow Anwar’s return to parliament.

On Saturday, hundreds of flag-waving supporters of the ruling Pact of Hope alliance marched to a hall in the town as Anwar and the other candidates formally registered for the poll.

But there was shock when it emerged that one of his six rivals in the election is Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan, a former volunteer in Anwar’s office whose accusations of sodomy led to him being jailed in 2015.

The ex-aide is running as an independent candidate.

Ibrahim Suffian, who heads independent polling firm Merdeka Center, told AFP Anwar’s “detractors are out to embarrass him in any little way they can”.

Sodomy charges were first thrown at Anwar in the 1990s, when he was deputy premier and Mahathir was in his first stint as premier, after the pair had a bitter falling out.

He was jailed for the first time in 1999 for sodomy and corruption.

After years leading a disparate opposition, Anwar forged an unexpected alliance with Mahathir to challenge the long-ruling coalition after Najib became embroiled in a scandal surrounding state fund 1MDB. Najib has been arrested and charged over the controversy since losing power.

Typhoon Trami, packing maximum gusts of 216 kilometres (134 miles) per hour near its centre, was forecast to hit the mainland early Sunday and could cause extreme weather across the country into Monday.

Television footage showed branches ripped from trees by strong winds blocking a main street in Naha, with massive waves splashing on breakwaters on a remote island in the region and torrential horizontal rain.

Some 600 people evacuated to shelters in Okinawa and electricity was cut to more than 121,000 homes, public broadcaster NHK said.

At least 386 flights were cancelled mainly in western Japan, according to public broadcaster NHK.

Five people suffered injuries in storm-related accidents in Okinawa, but no one was feared dead, local officials said.

“The number may rise as we are still collecting information,” said Motoki Minei, an official at the island’s disaster-management office.

“We are urging our residents to stay vigilant against the typhoon,” he told AFP.

The weather agency warned people across Japan to be on alert for “violent winds, high waves, heavy rain.”

After raking the outlying islands, the typhoon is forecast to pick up speed and approach western Japan on Sunday, remaining very strong as it barrels over the mainland.

Fishermen in Kagoshima bay, where the typhoon is expected to make landfall, were already making preparations, tying down their boats as Trami approached.

Angler Masakazu Hirase told AFP: “It’s dreadful because we already know there’s another typhoon after this one but you cannot compete with nature. We do what we can to limit the damage.”

If the forecast holds, it will be the latest in a series of extreme natural events to strike Japan.

Western parts of Japan are still recovering from the most powerful typhoon to strike the country in a quarter of a century, which claimed 11 lives and shut down the main regional airport in early September.

Deadly record rains also hit western Japan earlier this year and the country sweltered through one of the hottest summers on record.

Also in September, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake rocked the northern island of Hokkaido, sparking landslides and leaving more than 40 people dead.

Nearly 200 delegates from Thailand, the US, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines, discussed ways the largest city in Vietnam could become a smart city.

David Koh, a Singaporean researcher at the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, told HCM City officials: “Open your door to technologies that can help you build a smart city,” he said. “A smart city is desired all over the world because of a few imperatives: greenness, competition and efficiency.”

The process to achieve a smart city can take many years. However, even though a smart city will rely heavily on technology, it might ignore or sideline the human element on which development should be centered, Koh said.

“All of us are familiar with an SMS sent from one room to the next when a brief walk to talk to the person would do,” he said.

Smart cities are driven by data collection from different types of sources, including coordination and integration of dates and deliveries to consumers, and monitoring of public services.

The success of smart cities will come from the will of the government to bring resources of different departments and interests to bear on development.

Good governance is the most important factor in achieving efficiency, Koh said.

He noted that Singapore had always been on the cutting edge of trends, especially technology, which had been important in its success and business growth.

Nguyễn Thành Trung, vice chairman of the Việt Nam Fatherland Front Committee in HCM City, said the city aimed to become a smart city in the near future by implementing IoT (the Internet of Things), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data.

The city faced challenges such as flooding, traffic jams, unstable competitiveness, inadequate infrastructure, and limited resources for development, among others, he said.

To become a smart city, HCM City should develop an open data ecosystem and build a centre for the simulation of forecasts for development strategies, as well as an information security and safety centre, Trung said.

Healthcare, food safety, and social order and safety will all benefit from a smart city approach.

“It’s also important to raise residents’ awareness so they can prepare and adapt to live in a smart city,” he said.

Phan Thị Hồng Xuân, dean of the Faculty of Urban Studies at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, said under a government plan, HCM City would become “a civilised, modern and humane city” with a high quality of life.

Under the plan, the city’s Districts 2 and 9 will be developed into “creative urban areas”.

Besides Singapore, the city should learn from the experiences of Seoul, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Shanghai in building smart cities, she said.

Philippe Leonard, executive director of Smart Cities Council of Europe, said: “A smart city is not a technological issue. It’s about using technology to make a city smarter. A smart city improves the quality of life.”

“Smart cities have residents who embrace creativity and an inclusive society and advanced education,” he told delegates at the conference in Ho Chi Minh City.

“Such cities also include smart mobility [clean and non-motorised options], smart economy [innovative entrepreneurship], smart government [application of ICT and e-Government] and smart living [green planning and building and green energy],” he added.

Singapore targets becoming a smart nation by 2030, Seoul by 2030, Bangkok by 2032, Kuala Lumpur by 2020, and Shanghai by 2050.

Top European smart cities include London, Paris, Amsterdam, Geneva and Copenhagen.

The seminar, held in Ho Chi Minh City, was organised by the Việt Nam Fatherland Front Committee in collaboration with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Việt Nam Union of Friendship Organisations, Việt Nam-Southeast Asia Friendship Association and the University of Social Sciences and Humanities.

The animals comprise two Sumatran orangutans, two cenderawasih birds endemic to Papua, two cockatoos, 21 eclectus parrots (bayan nuri), 48 saltwater crocodiles and 355 sugar gliders.

The animals were intended to be smuggled by boat by three Indonesian sailors to Thailand through the waters of Malaysia. The attempt, however, was thwarted by Malaysia’s customs officials around Langkawi and Kuala Perlis waters.

All of the animals are currently at the Perlis Department of Wildlife and National Parks.

“The government must bring the animals back and take them to our conservation centers for treatment, before being released back into nature,” PKBSI chairman Rahmat Shah said recently. He added that similar smuggling attempts often occurred because of the high demand for endangered species on the black market.

Rahmat went on by saying that the market value of the foiled smuggling operation could be up to 500,000 ringgit (US$120,757).

An Environment and Forestry Ministry official, Edward Sembiring, said separately that he would cooperate with related parties to prevent similar incidents from happening again. “The smugglers must face strict sanctions to ensure there is a deterrent effect,” said Edward.

The two fathers, accused of breaching Myanmar’s state secrets law while reporting on a massacre of Rohingya Muslims, were jailed for seven years earlier this month, fueling international outrage.

Clooney said the journalists’ families had already submitted a request for their pardon, adding that the president can grant a pardon following consultation with Suu Kyi.

“The government can, if it wants to, end it today,” the British-Lebanese lawyer told an event dedicated to press freedom on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

She held de facto leader Suu Kyi to her stated priority of releasing prisoners of conscience and of having spoken of the need for a free press if the country is to transition to a full democracy.

“She knows that mass murder is not a state secret and that exposing it doesn’t turn a journalist into a spy,” Clooney said.

Earlier this month, Suu Kyi defended the jailing of Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, hitting back at global criticism of a trial widely seen as an attempt to muzzle the free press.

“She holds the key, the key to their liberty, the key to reuniting them with their young children, the key to freedom of the press.

“The key to truth and accountability, and the key to a more democratic and prosperous Myanmar,” Clooney said. “History will judge her on her response.”

Clooney recalled that when she was a student at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, the Nobel peace laureate, who studied at the same college 30 years earlier, had been “a hero to me.”

“Aung Sang Suu Kyi knows better than anyone what it is like to be a political prisoner in Myanmar. She has slept in a cell at the prison where Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo now sleep,” she said.

Suu Kyi, once garlanded as a global rights champion, has come under intense pressure to use her moral authority inside Myanmar to press for a presidential pardon for the reporters.

Myanmar rejects ICC

The case, which sparked an international outcry, was seen as an attempt to muzzle reporting on last year’s crackdown by Myanmar’s security forces on the Muslim Rohingya minority in Rakhine state.

Army-led “clearance operations” drove 700,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh, carrying with them widespread accounts of atrocities — rape, murder and arson — by Myanmar police and troops.

The reporters say they were set up while exposing the extrajudicial killing of 10 Rohingya Muslims in a Rakhine village last year.

Clooney, wife of Hollywood A-lister George Clooney, announced in March that she would join the legal team representing the journalists.

Myanmar government minister Kyaw Tint Swe told the General Assembly that his government “resolutely rejected” a decision by the International Criminal Court to investigate crimes against the Rohingya.

The ICC ruled that the investigation could go ahead because Bangladesh is a signatory of the Rome statute that created the court. Myanmar has not signed the statute.

“Let me make it clear: while the government is unable to accept this legally dubious intervention by the ICC, we are fully committed to ensuring accountability where there is concrete evidence of human rights violations committed in Rakhine state,” said the minister.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the fate of the Rohingya was a matter to be addressed by Myanmar and Bangladesh, suggesting that the United Nations should not intervene.

China, a supporter of Myanmar’s former ruling junta, has shielded the government in Naypyidaw from sanctions or other action by the UN Security Council.