Police in Indonesia have arrested the captain of a ferry that burst into flames, leaving 23 people dead.
There are reports he was the first to leave the boat when the fire broke out, and was rescued from the sea.
A senior official at the country’s transport ministry has vowed to revoke the captain’s licence if the reports were found to be true.
Police are questioning him in connection with negligence. He has not been officially identified.
Nineteen people were still in hospital recovering from their injuries on Monday, officials say. Everyone who was on the boat has been accounted for.
The Zahro Express was carrying 230 people from Jakarta to Tidung island, a resort some 50km (30 miles) away.
Its manifest said it was only carrying 100 passengers.
A fire started when the ferry was about 1.5km (just under a mile) from its starting point. Passengers panicked and clamoured for life jackets.
The authorities blame an electrical fault for the blaze.
Tonny Budiono, a senior official at the transport ministry, was quoted by local media as saying: “If the captain jumped first then he is not a real captain.
“If it is true we will revoke his licence, he will not be allowed to sail any more. ”
Under the 1914 Safety of Life at Sea, captains have ultimate authority over their ships. It is also understood in the industry that captains will organise evacuation efforts – for which they will probably need to stay on board.
Reports suggested those on board were Indonesians heading to Tidung, which is part of the Thousand Islands chain, to celebrate the new year holiday.
Ferries are a key form of transport in Indonesia, which is made up of thousands of islands. But safety records are poor, with ferries often overcrowded and poorly maintained.

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New York — Dick Clark Productions is hitting back against Mariah Carey’s claim that it sabotaged her live performance on its New Year’s Rockin’ Eve special.
ICYMI: Carey’s performance during the annual New Year’s Eve special in Times Square was a lip syncing disaster and made international headlines.
The superstar vocally stumbled through her short set, failing to sing for most of it despite a pre-recorded track of her songs playing in the background.
See a clip of the performance here:
Carey was visibly upset during the performance and afterward tweeted “(expletive) happens. ”
See that clip here:
Mariah’s representative Nicole Perna blamed technical difficulties, and in an interview with Billboard she said Dick Clark Productions hampered Carey’s performance.
“She was not winging this moment and took it very seriously,” Perna told Billboard. “A shame that production set her up to fail. ”
Perna said Carey’s earpiece wasn’t working and she flagged the issue to the production team but was told it would be OK when she got on stage.
“However, that was not the case, and they were again told that her earpiece was not working,” Perna said. “Instead of endeavoring to fix the issue so that Mariah could perform, they went live. ”
In a statement released on Sunday, the production company called such claims “absurd. ”
“As the premier producer of live television events for nearly 50 years, we pride ourselves on our reputation and long-standing relationships with artists,” it said. “To suggest that dcp (Dick Clark Productions), as producer of music shows including the American Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards, New Year’s Rockin’ Eve and Academy of Country Music Awards, would ever intentionally compromise the success of any artist is defamatory, outrageous and frankly absurd. ”
It said that in “very rare instances” there are technical errors that can occur with live television. It said an initial investigation, however, indicated it had no involvement in the challenges associated with Carey’s performance.
“We want to be clear that we have the utmost respect for Ms. Carey as an artist and acknowledge her tremendous accomplishments in the industry,” it said.
A person familiar with the production of the show who asked for anonymity to speak publicly about the incident said all of the other performers, including Gloria Estefan, rehearsed onsite for their performances and Carey was there but had a stand-in for her rehearsal, atypical for the show’s performers. The person said all of the monitors were working and no technical problems were found.
Ironically, Carey was Dick Clark Productions’ first live performer for the broadcast in 2005, when it went off without any such problems.

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Following are key dates in the battle for Syria’s Aleppo where fierce fighting resumed on Wednesday in a blow to hopes for the peaceful evacuation of the last rebel-held areas.
People leave as medics and security officials work at the scene after an attack at a popular nightclub in Istanbul. (IHA via AP)
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Istanbul – ISIS has claimed responsibility for the Istanbul
shooting that killed 39 people and wounded scores of others.
The ISIS-linked
Aamaq News Agency said the New Year’s Eve attack was carried by a “heroic
soldier of the caliphate who attacked the most famous nightclub where
Christians were celebrating their pagan feast”.
It said
the man opened fire from an automatic
rifle in “revenge for God’s religion and in response to the orders”
of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The
group described Turkey as “the servant of the cross”.
Hurriyet
and Karar newspaper reported on Monday cited unnamed security
officials saying that authorities have determined that the gunman who killed 39
people comes from a Central Asian nation and is believed to be either from
Uzbekistan or Kyrgyzstan.
Police had
also established similarities with the high-casualty attack at Ataturk Airport
in June and was investigating whether the
same ISIS cell carried out both attacks.
The
gunman, who is still at large, killed a policeman and another man outside the
Reina club in the early hours of 2017 before firing at people partying inside.
Nearly
two-thirds of the dead were foreigners, many from the Middle East.
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With 2016 over and the NFL regular season as well, it’s about time for the NBA to start showing up more often on more nights.
The new year will feature a new night of national TV games, one of the highlights of a busy January, when there are nearly half as many nationally televised games as in the previous two months combined.
TNT’s new Monday night package debuts where last season ends, with the second NBA Finals rematch between Golden State and Cleveland on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The Jan. 16 doubleheader concludes with Oklahoma City at the Los Angeles Clippers.
The second season of ABC’s Saturday night prime-time coverage then returns at the end of that week with San Antonio visiting Cleveland.
There are 49 nationally televised games in January, including 17 NBA TV telecasts. There were 104 such games through Dec. 31.
—
Steve Clifford painted a bleak picture for Eastern Conference teams late last season when it came to competing with the Cavaliers.
“If they play well, it’ll be difficult for anybody in the East to beat them four times,” the Charlotte coach said. “Somebody can beat them once or twice maybe, but not four times in my opinion. ”
He was right. Cleveland swept the first two rounds and then beat Toronto 4-2 in the Eastern Conference finals.
The Cavs enter the new year much sharper than they did in 2016, when they were sometimes wobbly under David Blatt and still hadn’t figured out how to properly use Kevin Love. Now Love is thriving, averaging 22.2 points and nearly 11 rebounds, and the Cavs seems firmly in control of the conference.
But Clifford won’t concede anything yet the way he seemed to do then, praising the Raptors as well — though Cleveland has handled them in all three meetings this season.
“Love is playing, I think, at a different level, more comfortable. They’re going to him more, he’s getting the ball in the post more, also,” Clifford said. “But I mean, there’s 50-something games to play, so health… is always a big part of it. But I mean they’re playing at a really high level. ”
—
THINGS TO WATCH THIS WEEK
MVP! MVP!: It’s Russell Westbrook vs. James Harden on Thursday when Oklahoma City visits Houston. Winner pads what so far are the two leading MVP resumes.
BIG MAN BATTLE: Karl-Anthony Towns vs. Joel Embiid could be a big-man battle to watch for years, and Round 2 comes Tuesday in Philadelphia. Towns (25 points, 10 rebounds) and the Timberwolves rolled over Embiid (10 and 10) and the 76ers in November.
TERRIFIC THOMAS: Isaiah Thomas finished his dazzling December with a career-best, 52-point performance in a victory over Miami, and he opens January on Tuesday against the Utah Jazz, who went into the new year allowing a league-low 94.7 points per game.
END OF THE ROAD: Toronto wraps up a difficult six-game Western Conference trip on Tuesday at San Antonio. It’s the third stop on the trip, joining Utah and Golden State, where the Raptors played a team that starts this week as a division leader.
HELP ON THE WAY?: Teams looking to fill roster spots have another option starting Thursday, when 10-day contracts can be signed.

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