nasya bahfen

Australia to continue support for PNG rugby league

2011-09-04T00:40:00.000-07:00

ABC Radio Australia (also broadcast on ABC Newsradio)
29 August 2011

Australia's governing body for rugby league, the ARL, says it'll continue to support Papua New Guinea's most popular sport, even though it's unlikely to expand its competition to include a PNG team any time soon. More

Theatre program with a difference in Bali, Indonesia

2011-06-24T19:14:00.000-07:00

ABC Radio Australia

24 June 2011

The Kerobokan prison has become synonymous with the trials and convictions of Australian drug traffickers Schapelle Corby, and members of the Bali 9. But now a professor of theatre from the United States is running a theatre program as part of efforts to change the atmosphere of the jail. More

Asia Pacific

2011-06-24T19:04:00.000-07:00

Preparing and presenting evening current affairs program

ABC Radio Australia (also broadcast on ABC Radio National and ABC Newsradio)

24 June 2011

Asia Pacific program (mp3)

Kachin group says Burmese army using rape as weapon of war

2011-06-24T18:01:00.000-07:00

ABC Radio Australia

24 June 2011

Members of the Kachin Burmese ethnic minority group in exile say women are being subject to systemic rape, as government troops and separatists clash near the border with China. The fighting followed the collapse of peace talks trying to end the conflict, which is threatening China's energy interests in the area, in Burma's north. It's disrupted the operations of two Chinese-built hydropower plants, and sent thousands of Kachin refugees into makeshift camps.

The Kachin Women's Association in Thailand is demanding an immediate end to what it says is the Burmese military's widespread use of rape, in its offensive against the Kachin Independence Army or K-I-A. More

Palm oil labelling bill gets opposition support

2011-06-23T20:07:00.000-07:00

ABC Radio Australia

23 June 2011

A bill that would require palm oil to be labelled in all Australian foods came a step closer to becoming law today. Independent senator Nick Xenophon and the Greens party, secured the support of the Australian opposition for the passing of the bill in the Senate. Conservation groups say the labelling is necessary because palm oil contains high levels of fat, and its plantations destroy native forests in Malaysia and Indonesia. But business groups say the proposed law will harm Australia's relationship with those two countries, and become a barrier to free trade. More

Thailand's vaccine plants to start production later this year

2011-06-22T19:18:00.000-07:00

ABC Radio Australia

22 June 2011

The Thai government says two vaccine plants, just outside the capital Bangkok, are expected to start production later this year. Two years ago Thailand faced a similar problem to countries in the developing world: the H1N1 or swine flu pandemic was sweeping the globe, and expensive vaccines were quickly snapped up by wealthier countries. It's hoping the locally made vaccines will free the Thai population from the stock levels of multi- national drug-makers, when other flu pandemics strike. More

Lawyers for Abu Bakar Bashir to appeal sentence

2011-06-16T19:56:00.000-07:00

ABC Radio Australia

16 June 2011

An Indonesian court on Thursday convicted cleric Abu Bakar Bashir in relation to the financing of an Acehnese based group planning attacks against foreigners and political leaders. He'd told reporters before the sentencing session began that he was being framed by Australia and the United States. Indonesian prosecutors had demanded a 20-year life sentence for the man thought to be the spiritual leader of regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah. His lawyers have vowed to appeal the ruling. More

Fraud claims in Australian overseas aid program

2011-05-25T20:05:00.000-07:00

ABC Radio Australia

25 March 2011

The Australian government is battling allegations about its aid program. Officials from the country's overseas aid program AusAID are investigating 47 cases of missing funds totalling one million dollars in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. AusAid has come under fire, with claims of widespread corruption among its partners overseas, but the total amount thought to be swept up in fraud cases is only a fraction of Australia's foreign aid budget. More

Too Cool for School

2011-03-22T23:57:00.000-07:00

Aquila Asia (English language lifestyle magazine for Muslim women in Asia)
Mar-Apr 2011 issue

NYU imam and NYPD chaplain Khalid Latif heads a group of people redefining – and battling with – what it means to be Muslim in the US today. More

Australian police criticised after Christmas Island riots

2011-03-18T00:06:00.000-07:00

ABC Radio Australia
18 March 2011

...to Australia's remote Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island, where rioting occurred last night. Christmas Island hosts an overcrowded asylum-seeker detention centre, where Australian officials keep people who arrive by boat without proper documentation. Last night, 200 asylum seekers threw rocks, threatened other detainees, and set fire to buildings. To control the rioting, Australian police used tear gas and fired so-called bean bag pellets. More

Journalism student bulletin

2011-03-17T01:07:00.000-07:00

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Bulletin produced by RMIT journalism students for Triple R

Pakistan's opposition angered by blood money deal

2011-03-17T00:01:00.000-07:00

ABC Radio Australia
17 March 2011

The release of an American C-I-A contractor who killed two Pakistanis has angered the country's main Islamic opposition group. Raymond Davis was set free after family members of the victims said they were prepared to forgive him in return for blood money. The United States has denied paying compensation to the families of the men Davis admitted to killing. More

Christmas Island breakout but locals say no violence

2011-03-14T00:04:00.000-07:00

ABC Radio Australia
14 March 2011

The Australian government has sent dozens of extra police to the remote Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island, where two groups of asylum-seekers escaped from an immigration detention centre over the weekend. Immigration officials say police needed to use tear gas to control the asylum-seekers because they were violent. But local officials deny that's the case. More

Journalism student bulletin

2010-10-11T21:01:00.000-07:00

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Radio journalism production classes at RMIT include for assessment the preparation of news bulletins for Melbourne's Triple R FM. This bulletin broadcast on 11 October 2010 was produced by Graduate Diploma in Journalism students.

A duo of dialogues: Melbourne

2010-10-10T23:45:00.000-07:00

Aquila Asia (English language lifestyle magazine for Muslim women in Asia)
Sep-Oct 2010 issue

I was at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Melbourne last year and heard this guest speaker from Saudi Arabia. She was a finance expert, and her talk left an impression on me, because she was calling for a change in the administration of zakat (the charity levied on every financially able Muslim). Traditionally zakat's been strictly about helping alleviate poverty, but this lecturer from Jeddah said while that should continue, zakat should also be more widely seen as a form of capacity building, like microfinance, long-term development assistance, or scholarships. So if money was no object I'd make my family comfortable first and then establish some sort of fund to help kids go to school, or something equally vomit-inducingly noble. More

Pakistan Moves to Ban Deadly Kite Flying

2010-02-25T16:05:00.000-08:00

ABC Radio Australia
25 February 2010

Kite flying is supposed to be fun but in Pakistan it's also assumed a deadly reputation. Each year, people die or are injured by kite strings which have been sharpened with wire or glass, to down a rival kite. In Pakistan's Punjab province, police have arrested more than 1,000 people in a crackdown on people selling and flying kites. And local authorities have now banned the traditional practice of kite-flying during next month's annual spring festival. More

Gearing up - for the Parliament of the World's Religions

2009-11-08T14:05:00.000-08:00

ABC Radio National
8 November 2009

In December the Parliament of the World's Religions is coming to Australia. It's a sort of interfaith Olympics, with thousands of people representing all the worlds myriad religious faiths expected to gather in Melbourne - under the sponsorship of the Victorian Government. In Encounter Nasya Bahfen finds out about the Parliament, and tests her prejudices about the whole interfaith project. More

Former Palau leader accused of concealing land transactions

2009-07-14T02:05:00.001-07:00

ABC Radio Australia
14 July 2009

The former President of Palau, Tommy Remengesau Jr, is now facing 19 counts of violating the islands' code of ethics. Mr Remengesau, who is now a senator, has been charged for allegedly concealing property transactions in disclosure statements he submitted for the years 2000 to 2003. Palau's Special Prosecutor Michael Copeland filed the charges. More

New University of Melbourne prayer facility to challenge perceptions

2009-07-07T02:24:00.000-07:00

The Crescent Times
July 2009

Students of the University of Melbourne will soon be able to enjoy a new purpose-built musalla (prayer room) in Pelham Street, Carlton. The new musalla, expected to cater for up to 300 students, replaces the old one in the Frank Tate building, which was closed as part of the University’s redevelopment plans. More

Book review: "Making Modern Muslims"

2009-03-24T01:02:00.000-07:00

Far Eastern Economic Review
March 2009

In November 2008, three Indonesian men who had been students of an Islamic boarding school were executed having been convicted for their roles in the bombings of nightclubs in Bali in October 2002. More

Book Review: "Home and Away" by John Marsden

2008-12-02T22:21:00.000-08:00

Migration Action
December 2008

The bulk of Australia's refugee intake comes from places of instability and conflict. With Home and Away, John Marsden and Matt Ottley have produced a picture book that is confronting, upsetting and audacious - and not in a bad way. More

Islamic finance down, far from out

2008-10-23T01:03:00.000-07:00

The Age
23 October 2008

IN THE aftermath of the US financial crisis, the future is uncertain for Islamic investment in Australia. More

Islamic finance withstands crisis

2008-10-10T22:46:00.000-07:00

Islamic Finance News
10 October 2008

Blood may have spilt on Wall Street in the past month,but in Islamic fi nance it was a minor cut. That’s according to fi guresfrom the Dow Jones Islamic Market Financials Index which measuresthe performance of around 70 stock markets around the world thatare Shariah compliant. This means it rules out many of the assets aconventional investor may consider. More

China toxic milk scare spreads

2008-09-22T00:40:00.000-07:00

ABC Radio Australia
22 September 2008

China's tainted milk scandal has spiralled into uncharted territory, as authorities dramatically revise the number of sick children to 52-thousand and counting. Four babies have died and at least 19-thousand children are sick after drinking milk contaminated by the industrial chemcial melamine. Now Chinese families are preparing to launch the biggest class action China has ever seen. More

Australian media and Islamic finance

2008-06-20T22:08:00.000-07:00

Islamic Finance News
20 June 2008

It is estimated that Islamic banks throughout the world now hold assets of more than US$300 billion, with growth rates of 15%-20% annually. That figure does not include the holdings of conventional banks with Islamic finance divisions. The southeast Asian region has seen a sharp rise in Shariah compliant financial products, with Islamic banking accounting for nearly half of Malaysia’s total banking sector, and established in Indonesia, southern Thailand, the southern Philippines and Brunei. More