Two missing tourists stranded on island

Markus Makur, The Jakarta Post, Flores, East Nusa Tenggara | Headlines | Wed, August 20 2014, 9:29 AM

Fishermen living around Sangeang Pulo Island, Bima regency, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) province,
have informed police that the two remaining missing victims of Saturdays boat sinking are stranded
on a beach.

However, poor weather and high tides on Monday afternoon prevented fishing boats from
approaching the beach, said Bima Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Beny Basen on Tuesday.

The weather is quite clear now, so the search efforts for the two missing people will be resumed by
the National Search and Rescue Team [Basarnas] along with members of the Bima Disaster
Mitigation Agency [BPPD], Indonesian Military [TNI] and National Police personnel, Beny told The
Jakarta Post.

He revealed that the two foreign tourists had been assumed to be Spanish citizens, based on the
identities of the tourists who had already been rescued.

However, we do not yet know the identities of the two missing Spaniards, he added.

BPBD secretary Jarudin told the Post that the two missing people had not yet been found despite a
search conducted from helicopters and boats.

Currently, the search team is scouring waters from Sape, Sangeang Pulo, Wera district, to as far as
West Flores in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).

The search has been expanded by 306 kilometers thanks to the clear weather. The search team is
currently out at sea to search for the foreign tourists, said Jarudin.

Rescue workers from various organizations have resumed the search for the victims, whose fate
remains unknown.

As of 5 p.m. on Tuesday, there was still no information on the two missing tourists. Jarudins office
remained unable to provide detailed information, as the joint search team was still searching the sea
off Sangeang Pulo.

There has been no more development in the search operation today. Yesterday, bad weather and
rough seas hampered the search mission. The search team has not yet reported on todays
obstacles, said Jarudin.

He added that Basarnas had not given a time limit for the search, and that the rescue team was still
searching for the two missing people, aided by local fishermen from the area around Sangeang Pulo.

The ill-fated named Forcase, a traditional phinisi (schooner), was carrying 20 foreign tourists and five
crew members when it reportedly sank off Sangeang Pulo on Saturday after hitting a reef.

The vessel was carrying the tourists from Labuhan Lombok, East Lombok regency, NTB, to Komodo
Island, NTT.

Meanwhile, the condition of the remaining foreign tourists, as well as that of the Indonesian guides
and crew members who survived the incident, has improved. However, they have not yet returned to
their respective countries and homes.

The rescued foreign tourists are currently staying in a number of hotels in Bima while waiting for their
two Spanish cotravelers to be found.

All the survivors are in good condition and no longer being treated at the Bima regional hospital or
community health clinics, Jarudin stated.

France's Hollande says to speed up
reforms, ease tax on poorest
BY INGRID MELANDER
PARIS Wed Aug 20, 2014 1:34pm EDT

(Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande said on Wednesday he would accelerate reforms
while at the same time giving tax breaks to poorer households as he tries to win back confidence from
voters who do not trust he can lift the country out of stagnation.
The most unpopular French president in modern history has come under growing fire from both the
opposition and some ruling Socialist party lawmakers over his economic policy after his government
abandoned growth and fiscal targets last week.
As he prepares for tough negotiations on the 2015 budget both at home and with France's EU
partners, Hollande sought in an interview with Le Monde to explain that he would work on both fronts:
reform France and help low-income households.
"It is not because the situation is difficult in France and in Europe that we should give up. On the
contrary, we need to go faster and further," he said in the interview.
"I want to accelerate reforms to boost growth as fast as possible," he said, starting with home
construction. He gave no concrete details beyond saying the plan would tackle taxation, regulatory
and financing issues for construction.
Housing has become a major headache for the government, with housing starts in France down to a
16-year low - a serious drag on the economy. Property developers blame the problem partly on
regulations that took effect this year to set rent limits in cities with more than 50,000 people.
Hollande also confirmed that the government would reform welfare benefits and income tax rules to
give poorer households a tax break on a similar scale to one struck down by the constitutional court
earlier this month.
The initial plan had been to bring lower-paid workers 2.5 billion euros ($3.33 billion) in payroll tax cuts
next year. The government had also promised to extend a rebate of just over 1 billion euros in income
tax paid by poorer households.
An Ifop opinion poll showed over the weekend that 85 percent of voters do not think the government
can cut record-high unemployment and only 16 percent believe it can boost growth.
CUT RED TAPE
While Hollande insisted in the interview on steps to help low-income households, he also said the
government would not change its supply-side economic policy, which is based on much bigger tax
cuts for businesses and ignored calls from rebel Socialist lawmakers who have asked him to change
course.
Taking a more pro-business turn to seek to lift the country out of stagnation, the government pledged
earlier this year some 40 billion euros in tax cuts for businesses over the next few years and 50 billion
euros in public spending cuts.
The Socialist president also confirmed the government would come up in September with a plan to
open up closed professions such as pharmacists and notaries. This is a long-standing demand from
Brussels and one the government hopes will help convince its EU peers it is carrying out structural
reforms - a key condition to win more reprieve on EU fiscal targets.
That bill will also "adapt" a general ban on Sunday shop openings, Hollande said, another effort to cut
red tape and a move long demanded by business leaders.
Finance Minister Michel Sapin said last week that the lack of economic growth and weaker-than-
expected inflation meant the public deficit would come in higher than expected this year and hinted
Paris would also fail to bring its deficit under the EU's 3-percent-of-GDP cap next year.
France needs to submit its draft budget plan to the European Commission by mid-October for review.
The EU executive can send it back for rewriting if it is not satisfied.
Paris also potentially risks sanctions from its EU peers if it misses the bloc's deficit target again next
year. They could, though, give France yet another reprieve like the one they gave the country in 2013.
Hollande reiterated French calls for the European Union and its central bank to do more to boost
growth through investments and weaken the euro, which he said was still overvalued.
(1 US dollar = 0.7517 euro)
(Reporting by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Andrew Callus and Toby Chopra)
Source: http://www.reuters.com/



Juppe joins race for French
presidency in challenge to Sarkozy
BY ANDREW CALLUS
PARIS Wed Aug 20, 2014 12:25pm EDT

(Reuters) - Former prime minister Alain Juppe joined the race to be the presidential candidate of
France's centre-right on Wednesday, posing a potential challenge both to a 2017 comeback bid by
Nicolas Sarkozy and to the rise of the extreme right.
Juppe's declaration on his Internet blog also came as Socialist President Francois Hollande's
government returned from its summer break to a stalled economy and an opinion poll showing more
than eight out of 10 voters have no confidence in its ability to fix it.
"(We must) rally right from the first round (of the presidential election) the forces right and centre
around a candidate who can face up to the National Front on the one side and the Socialist Party on
the other," his blog said.
"If we are divided, the outcome of the first round will be uncertain and the consequences of the
second round unpredictable," said Juppe, whose Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP) has
been dogged by internal divisions.
Francois Bayrou, head of the MoDem minority centrist party whose support the UMP might need in
the 2017 presidential election, has ruled out any alliance with Sarkozy.
"If you are asking me could I get on with Alain Juppe, then the answer is yes," Bayrou told France Info
radio on Wednesday.
Juppe, 69, was prime minister from 1995 to 1997 under President Jacques Chirac. He also served as
foreign minister under Sarkozy, who was president from 2007 to 2012, when he lost power to
Hollande.
Economic reforms Juppe proposed under Chirac never saw the light of day and he left that post
deeply unpopular, but his stature as a statesman-in-waiting has grown in recent years as the UMP
struggles to overcome its internal feuds.
Both the UMP and the Socialists have been hemorrhaging voters to the extreme right National Front.
French voters have been turned off them by scandals and infighting in the UMP and by the ruling
Socialists' inability to combat unemployment.
The National Front came first in the European Parliament elections in May and polls show its leader,
Marine Le Pen, could come out on top in a preliminary round of presidential voting.
But although Juppe's supporters believe he can broaden the UMP's appeal, his announcement also
turns a spotlight onto the rivalries and clan warfare threatening the party, where half a dozen senior
members are eyeing the chance to become leader.
"TURBULENT PERIOD"
Earlier this year, Jean-Francois Cope resigned as UMP president over a legal inquiry into whether
party officials had used its books to cover up millions of euros of overspending on Sarkozy's 2012 re-
election campaign.
In what some may see as a swipe at Sarkozy, Juppe said in his blog statement that the UMP was
"struggling to end a very turbulent period" in its history.
Sarkozy has said he will announce in August or early September whether he plans to run for the UMP
leadership - a potential first step to any fresh bid for the French presidency.
But Sarkozy's future remains as unclear as the UMP's.
Last month, he was placed under formal investigation on suspicion of trying to influence magistrates
examining his 2007 election campaign finances.
An opinion poll published by the Journal de Dimanche and Ifop on Sunday showed 45 percent of
French people would prefer Juppe or another former prime minister, Francois Fillon, as president,
while only 41 percent favored Sarkozy.
However, a July poll - conducted after the investigation was announced - showed that among UMP
supporters, 60 percent wanted Sarkozy as their leader, up 10 percent from his standing in May.
And with the UMP machine behind him, Sarkozy might prove a tough rival for Juppe, who will be into
his 70s by the time the election comes around. Sarkozy is now 59.
Jean-Christophe Cambadelis, head of the Socialist Party, said the UMP's 2017 election campaign
was already in disarray.
"Alain Juppe announces his candidature out of fear that Sarkozy will announce his own," Cambadelis
said in a statement, calling the situation "presidential overflow" for the UMP.
(Additional reporting by Yves Clarisse; Editing by Brian Love and Gareth Jones)
Source: http://www.reuters.com/