Indonesian Ferry Fire: Scores Killed And Injured In Thousand Islands

Faulty wiring cited as cause of blaze  

SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
By Jewel Topsfield
01/02/2017

JAKARTA -

Twenty-three people have been killed and at least 17 have been injured after a fire on board a ferry on the way to one of Indonesia's Thousand Islands, a popular tourist getaway for Jakartans, on New Year's Day.

The Zahro Express, which was heading to Tidung Island, caught on fire at 9.42am on January 1 after leaving Muara Angke Port in North Jakarta.

Thousand Islands police spokesman Ferry Budiharso said the number of casualties was at 23. He said three people died at Atma Jaya hospital and another 20 bodies were found on the boat. The boat manifest listed only 100 passengers and many more than that had already been rescued. It did not name any foreigners 

All of the survivors thus far had been Indonesian.

"We suspect the boat was carrying more than the manifest," Mr Ferry said.

"The 20 bodies are now at the police hospital and the disaster victim identification team is processing the bodies. The bodies were burnt, we can't even tell if they were female or male, let alone their identities."

Aldi Munaldi, who was taking his family to Tidung island for a holiday, told television program Liputan 6 that the incident happened 20 minutes after the ferry left port.

"[The fire] started in the engine room in the back. Suddenly there was black smoke. We couldn't breathe."

He said people, some of whom were wearing life jackets, started panicking and jumping overboard: "People screamed 'jump, jump'."

Mr Aldi, whose mother suffered burns, said the ferry later exploded.

"My one year old is safe; I carried my child," he said.

"We wanted to go for a holiday, but it turned out like this. We were drifting for 20 minutes at sea before … boats came and helped."

Jakarta search and rescue spokesman Ramli Prasetio said the number of passengers on board the Zahro Express had been tallied at 247 thus far, but given the boat manifest was incomplete it is not known if more people are missing.

Of the 247, 192 passengers had returned home and 32 were in three different hospitals, with injuries ranging from mild to serious.

"Twenty body bags containing burned body parts are now at the police hospital to be identified," Mr Ramli said.

The Thousand Islands are a chain of islands off the north of Jakarta's coast, which are popular with tourists and Indonesians eager to escape the city.

The search was called off on Sunday night and will resume on Monday morning. 

The Zahro Express had a maximum capacity of 280 passengers, according to Tonny Budiono, the director general for sea transportation from the Ministry of Transportation.

Ferries in Indonesia have a poor safety record with accidents common across the archipelago.

This news bureau contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

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Washington Post Forced To Backtrack On Report That Russia Hacked U.S. Power Grid

Americans are hip to Bezos' fake news rag that will go the way of CNN - into bankruptcy and oblivion  

RT
01/01/2017

The Washington Post has corrected an article in which it said that Russian hackers had infiltrated the US power grid at a Vermont utility. The newspaper now says authorities have no such “indications” as people on social media claim the outlet promotes “fake news.”

On Friday, Burlington Electric, a Vermont-based power company, raised an alarm after finding malware code on a company laptop. Referring to undisclosed officials, the Washington Post then ran a damning headline, saying that “Russian operation hacked a Vermont utility” which posed a risk “to US electrical grid security.” Yet it turns out that the laptop that was penetrated wasn’t even attached to the power network, according to a statement from Burlington Electric. 

“We detected suspicious internet traffic in a single Burlington Electric Department computer not connected to our organization’s grid systems,” the message reads. 

No evidence of a Russian trace has been released either. Eventually, the Washington Post issued a correction to its article. “An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that Russian hackers had penetrated the US electric grid. Authorities say there is no indication of that so far,” the statement said. The headline, blatantly accusing “Russian hackers” of breaching the US power grid, remains, though.

Glen Greenwald, a prominent US journalist who was among those breaking the story on Edward Snowden’s leaks on the NSA spying scandal, said the case suits America’s anti-Russian agenda. “It matters even more because it reflects the deeply irrational and ever-spiraling fever that is being cultivated in US political discourse and culture about the threat posed by Moscow,” Greenwald wrote. 

It’s not the first time the Washington Post has had to correct a report containing ill-founded allegations. On November 24, an article by the newspaper alleged that Russia is in fact behind a massive spread of “fake news” which affected the US presidential campaign in November last year. 

One of the experts cited by the newspaper was a group called PropOrNot, which “identified” over 200 websites as spreading Russian propaganda. Yet the article drew serious criticism from people on social media as well as journalists over PropOrNot's own dubious credentials.

In return, the Washington Post issued a lengthy editor’s note, saying that some of the sites included by PropOrNot “have publicly challenged the group’s methodology and conclusions.” The group later deleted them and Washington Post on its part said that does not “vouch for the validity of PropOrNot’s findings.”

CNN, MSM join Washington Post in flooding media with bogus Russian hacking propaganda in a failed attempt to delegitimise Trump election victory

In October, the US officially accused Russia of hacking computers of individuals and organizations of the Democratic campaign ahead of the US elections. Moscow rebuffed the accusation as “nonsense.”

Following the victory of the Republican candidate Donald Trump, the Washington Post, citing a CIA report, said that Moscow specifically helped Trump to get into the White House.

The President-elect called the allegations “ridiculous” and labeled them yet “another excuse” by the Democrats for the loss of Hillary Clinton. Speaking to RT, a former member of the British MI5 intelligence agency, Annie Machon, said that rolling out with a bright headline and later issuing a correction is part of the Washington Post’s tactics.

“Time after time after time, we are seeing this fake news coming out in the Washington Post,” she said. “And every time they put these fake stories out they have to put [out] a disclaimer afterwards. But of course, the seed is then sown,” Machon said.

This news bureau contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

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