Photo by Darren Whiteside/ Reuters
Indonesia News
South Jakarta police requires all of its members to lose weight to the ideal standard. Deputy Chief AKBP Budi Sartono, during ceremony Thursday morning, reminds all police personnel and civil servants (PNS) to exercise and eat right, since during the past year 146 police personnel died of heart attack. After the ceremony tens of participants were asked to get a health check, before doing aerobics, running and doing push-up for an hour. —TribunnewsRussian Citizen Bought Child Porn with Bitcoin
The National Police traces the Facebook group ‘FIKA’, run by Muhamad Faisal Akbar. Faisal is a child and woman porn director, named suspect for trading porn with a Russian citizen with the initial R. Based on police investigation, the Russian citizen bought the porn video with Rp 30 million worth of Bitcoin, and then sold it to another country. —Viva
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Indonesia's Constitutional Court has rejected the petition filed by the Peaceful and Benign Islam Party—which was founded by the country's Dangdut King Rhoma Irama—regarding the 2019 presidential election. A political party or a coalition needs to have 20 seats in the House of Representatives or 25 percent of votes in the 2014 election to nominate presidential and vice presidential candidates for 2019. —KompasIndonesians Arrested in Malaysia for a Murder Case
Ten Indonesian citizens have been arrested by Malaysian police in a murder case that killed an Indonesian cosmetics seller in the city of Shah Alam. Police said that the murder happen last Saturday evening. The Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur have yet to comment on the case. —CNN Indonesia
International News
A church in Linfen, Shanxi province, was the second church to have been demolished in China in the last month. The demolitions are causing fear that there's a wider campaign against Christians as authorities are gearing to enforce stricter laws on religion. In China, authorities heavily regulate religious activities, and are known for harassing adherents of registered and unregistered religious groups. —The GuardianOne of the Hottest Places on Earth Covered with Snow
The Sahara Desert as covered by more than 30 centimeters of snow for the fourth time in nearly 40 years. The temperature in the Sahara could reach a high of 50 degrees Celsius, but the unusual cold snap was likely caused by a high pressure system moving through Europe, which pushed cold air south, into North Africa. Scientists say they can't blame this extreme weather to climate change alone, but we should be expecting events like this worldwide. —VICE News
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Bitcoin prices plummeted today after the South Korean government announced its plan to ban cryptocurrency trading on domestic exchanges. Justice minister Park Sang-ki said South Korea is preparing a bill for the ban, but the legislation process could take months or even years. —ReutersWomen to Drive For Uber in Saudi Arabia
Uber and its Dubai-based competitor Careem are recruiting female drivers after the country said it will lift the ban on women driving by June this year. Currently, all the drivers employed by both companies are men. Women account for the majority of both companies' customers. —CNN
Everything Else
YouTube is removing one of its most popular content creators from the Google Preferred program and putting their on-going and future projects on hold, after Logan Paul posted a video that featured a dead body in Japan's infamous "suicide forest" Aokigihara on December 31 last year. YouTube said the video violated its guidelines that it's “looking at further consequences." —The Japan TimesIn Laos, People Are Recycling Bombs from the Vietnam War into Jewelry
Laotian artisans are turning unexploded ordnance—there are 80 million of them—from 40 years ago into jewelry to improve the local economy. —VICEThe Futuristic Food We’ll Be Eating in 2018We've got upscale gelatin and lab-grown meat. Yum. —VICE