JAKARTA Indonesian budget airline Adam Air has been banned from flying on safety grounds, the country’s chief of air transport said Tuesday. “The transport ministry has decided to revoke Adam Air’s operational specification, effective 17:00 Tuesday (local time),” Budhi Muliawan Suyitno told reporters here. “With this, Adam Air is banned from operating its aircraft. All of its planes must be automatically grounded.”

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JAKARTA The soaring cost of rice and other basic food in Asia has raised security concerns across many Asian countries. In Indonesia, the high cost of staple foods is hurting the poor and raising fears of social unrest.

According to government statistics, in the past year cooking oil has risen nearly 40 percent, rice is up 25 percent and tofu, a staple of the Indonesian diet, has gone up by 50 percent. Bayu Krisnamurti, the deputy minister for agriculture, says the government is concerned the high price of basic commodities has the capability of fueling social unrest, similar to the 1965 coup that led to the rise of the dictator Suharto and the 1998 protests that toppled the former president.

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