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Helicopter crash on Indonesia’s Borneo island kills 8

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A helicopter flying between palm oil plantations on Borneo Island crashed, killing the eight people on board, Indonesian officials said Friday.

The Airbus H130 owned by PT Matthew Air Nusantara lost contact Thursday, five minutes after it took off from Melawi district in West Kalimantan province. It was on its way to another palm oil plantation in Kubu Raya district.

Searchers later located the wreckage and recovered the bodies of the two crew members and six passengers in the dense forests in Sekadau district, according to the National Search and Rescue Agency and the Transportation Ministry.

One of those killed was Malaysian.

Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago of about 270 million people, has been plagued by transportation accidents, including plane and helicopter crashes and ferry sinkings.

Beijing bans 4 New Zealand lawmakers from entering China because they visited Taiwan

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Beijing banned four New Zealand lawmakers from traveling to China for a year and demanded they apologize because they visited Taiwan on a parliamentary trip, according to a message from the Chinese embassy conveyed via parliamentary officials and shown to The Associated Press on Thursday. China has hit lawmakers from other countries with sanctions related to contact with Taiwan before, but it's the first time for New Zealand parliamentarians, the government in Wellington said. Beijing has been increasing pressure in recent years on the democratically governed island that it claims as its own territory. Two lawmakers reached by the AP on Thursday rejected the demand for an apology, while the other two could not be immediately reached. New Zealand's government said it would express concern about the travel bans to Beijing. The elected officials visited Taipei in May, as New Zealand parliamentarians have done “for decades,” a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement.
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