Indonesia, East Timor mudslides kill over 200
Mudslides in Indonesia and neighboring East Timor one week ago have claimed over 200 lives.
Heavy rain from a cyclone caused mud flows and landslides on April 4, in Indonesia s East Nusa Tenggara Province and East Timor.
Indonesia s disaster management agency said that 177 deaths had been confirmed as of Sunday, and 45 others were missing.
The government of East Timor says 42 people have been confirmed dead in the capital Dili and elsewhere.
About 13,000 people have been displaced in the country. They received relief aid from Japan, including about 4,800 blankets on Sunday.
A magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck Indonesia s main island of Java on Saturday, killing eight people.
Reporter
Sugar prices are soaring worldwide. The Food and Administration Organization says the international price index of the household staple has hit an almost four-year high, thanks largely to a steep drop in imports from Asia, where farmers in key sugar-producing countries are struggling as climate change delivers unfavorable weather for their crop.
Sugarcane crushing season is coming to an end in Thailand, and it has been a tough year for the farmers. Unusually dry weather means the country’s output has plummeted by about 40 percent according to the country’s Cane and Sugar Board.
Small-scale sugarcane farmers like 43-year-old Mali Ditri face an increasingly difficult choice. Mali oversees 79 acres of farmland in the agricultural heartland of Nakhon Sawan province. The area got about 1,200 millimeters of rainfall in 2005, according to the Thai Meteorological department. Last year it got just 800 millimeters.
More Japanese are looking for farming jobs
A Tokyo-based employment information firm says the coronavirus pandemic has led to more people in Japan looking for farming jobs.
Mynavi Corporation launched a job-hunting app in 2019 for those seeking work on the land. The aim was to connect them with farmers and agricultural companies facing a labor shortage as rural populations decline.
The company says nearly 13,000 had signed up through the app as of the end of January. That s a roughly 10-fold increase year-on-year.
Mynavi says people in their 20s and 30s accounted for half of those job hunters.
The firm cites the effects of the pandemic as reasons for the surge. These include falling wages, as well as greater scope in where to work as more companies encourage telecommuting.
Baby Japanese eels were exported to Taiwan for the first time in 45 years last month, following the easing of restrictions by Japan's trade ministry and fisheries agency.