Today in Pictures, July 4, 2025
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Straits Times
a day ago
- Straits Times
Today in Pictures, July 4, 2025
Domestic tourists visiting the beach at Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Area in Wonsan, North Korea's Kangwon province, on July 1, 2025. North Korea opened a massive resort area on its east coast after its leader Kim Jong Un was reportedly set to welcome Russian guests later in July. PHOTO: AFP
Business Times
3 days ago
- Business Times
4 dead, 38 missing after ferry sinks on way to Indonesia's Bali
[DENPASAR, Indonesia] At least four people were dead and dozens unaccounted for Thursday after a ferry sank on its way to the resort island of Bali, according to local authorities who said 23 survivors had been plucked from the water so far. Rescuers were racing to find 38 missing people in rough seas after the vessel carrying 65 passengers sank before midnight on Wednesday as it sailed to the popular holiday destination from Indonesia's main island Java. '23 rescued, 4 dead,' Rama Samtama Putra, police chief of Banyuwangi in East Java, where the boat departed, told AFP. President Prabowo Subianto, who was on a trip to Saudi Arabia, ordered an immediate emergency response, cabinet secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said in a statement on Thursday, adding the cause of the accident was 'bad weather'. Java-based Surabaya search and rescue agency head Nanang Sigit confirmed the same figures in a statement, and said efforts to reach the boat were initially hampered by adverse weather conditions that have since cleared up. Waves as high as 2.5 m with 'strong winds and strong currents' had affected the rescue operation, he said. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 8.30 am Asean Business Business insights centering on South-east Asia's fast-growing economies. Sign Up Sign Up The agency had earlier said 61 people were missing and four rescued, without giving a cause for the boat's sinking. 'KMP Tunu Pratama Jaya... sank about 25 minutes after weighing anchor,' it said. 'The ferry's manifest data totalled 53 passengers and 12 passenger crews.' A rescue team of at least 54 personnel including from the navy and police were dispatched along with inflatable rescue boats, while a bigger vessel was later sent from Surabaya city to assist the search efforts. The ferry crossing from Ketapang port in Java's Banyuwangi regency to Bali's Gilimanuk port - one of the busiest in Indonesia - is around 5 km. It is often used by people crossing between the islands by car. Four of the known survivors saved themselves by using the ferry's lifeboat and were found in the water early Thursday, the rescue agency said. It said the ferry was also transporting 22 vehicles, including 14 trucks. It was unclear if any foreigners were onboard when the ferry sank. Accidents common Rescuers said they were still assessing if there were more people onboard than the ferry's manifest showed. It is common in Indonesia for the actual number of passengers on a boat to differ from the manifest. Marine accidents are a regular occurrence in Indonesia, a South-east Asian archipelago of around 17,000 islands, in part due to lax safety standards and sometimes due to bad weather. In March, a boat carrying 16 people capsized in rough waters off Bali, killing an Australian woman and injuring at least one other person. A ferry carrying more than 800 people ran aground in shallow waters off East Nusa Tenggara province in 2022 and remained stuck for two days before being dislodged with no one hurt. And in 2018, more than 150 people drowned when a ferry sank in one of the world's deepest lakes on Sumatra island. AFP
Straits Times
3 days ago
- Straits Times
Copenhagen's summer offer: Pick up rubbish, get free stuff
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox The CopenPay initiative offers around 100 activities in exchange for free or reduced prices. COPENHAGEN - Mexican tourist Rocio Gomez spent an hour boating on Copenhagen's canals free of charge in exchange for picking up rubbish in the water, part of a city programme for rewarding eco-friendly tourists. During her tour on an electric motorboat, which normally costs around US$95 (S$121) an hour, Ms Rocio collected rubbish in the Copenhagen port. 'You're doing something helpful and you're also having a good time,' she told AFP. The 34-year-old who works in sustainable development said she planned to take advantage of other similar deals offered in Copenhagen during her visit. From mid-June until late August 2025, the CopenPay initiative offers around 100 activities in exchange for free or reduced prices on a selection of experiences. For example, participants can get a coffee, pastry or concert ticket in exchange for an hour of picking up trash; a rebate on a restaurant dinner if they do some gardening; or a free guided tour for those who stay in the city longer than three days. 'We saw that four out of five people actually want to do good, but only one does it. So we wanted to see how we could bridge that gap and inspire more people to do good,' said Ms Rikke Holm Petersen, head of communications at the Wonderful Copenhagen tourism board. The initiative was tested on a smaller scale in 2024, when 75,000 people took part. In 2025, Wonderful Copenhagen expects at least twice as many. The number of companies and institutions taking part, and getting no financial gain in return, has increased four-fold. The campaign targets tourists, but it applies to anyone who wants to participate. At the motorboat rental company GoBoat, as at many other places, the offer is limited. 'Around 60 people can come every Tuesday and Thursday morning' after signing up on a CopenPay website, said GoBoat's Ms Isabel Smith. Ms Smith, a marine biologist, is in charge of analysing the trash hauled by CopenPay users, averaging 2kg per boat, most of which is plastic. 'I measure the plastic by width and length, then identify the type of plastic,' she said. 'This will contribute to our current understanding of the role of the harbour and plastic pollution.' Spread abroad? The programme has proven popular with tourists. 'When you are travelling to different places, you want to experience different things. And I found that this is pretty amazing,' Ms Gomez said. 'At the beginning, it was pretty clean — extremely clean — but then we found certain corners that were pretty dirty.' 'And then we started to pick up all the trash from the corners with bamboo nets.' Also in her boat was Ms Marta Reschiglian, an Italian student visiting Copenhagen with a group of friends on an Erasmus University exchange programme. 'Since we are students and we are sometimes on a really tight budget, it's so nice to be able to do these things, to combine a bit of a sustainable, friendly behaviour and also a way to get things for free,' Ms Reschiglian said. 'Lots of cities should start to adopt these kinds of initiatives,' she added. 'We are seeing all over the world that there are so many problems with mass tourism.' The project could spread to other cities outside Denmark. 'We've been sharing insights with 100 destinations all over the world,' said Ms Petersen at Wonderful Copenhagen. In the Danish capital, the initiative could become permanent in the future, with a winter programme as well. Around four million tourists visit Copenhagen each year, the majority in summer. AFP
