Jokowi asks clerics to help ensure safe polls
JAKARTA • Indonesian President Joko Widodo has asked clerics to help ensure a peaceful gubernatorial election in Jakarta today, after widespread calls on social media for crowds from outside the capital to mobilise and supervise polling stations in the city.
Some 60,000 military and police personnel will secure a contest that could see the city's first non-Muslim to be elected mayor, as sectarian tensions simmer.
JAKARTA POST/ ASIA NEWS NETWORK
PAS leader forgives daily for caricature
KUALA LUMPUR • Malaysia's Islamist opposition leader Abdul Hadi Awang said he forgives Chinese daily Nanyang Siang Pau for publishing a monkey caricature of him.
The president of Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) said yesterday he received a formal apology from Nanyang, and asked fellow Muslims who have been offended by the cartoon to forgive the media outlet. Nanyang has also received a stern warning from the Home Ministry.
THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
26 killed, 21 hurt in Philippine bus crash
MANILA • At least 26 people were killed and 21 injured when a passenger bus crashed into a deep ravine in the mountainous northern Philippines yesterday, the authorities said. The bus plunged about 24m into the ravine in the province of Nueva Ecija, after its brakes failed on a winding road.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
