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When a US delegate once confronted a Chinese diplomat about Beijing's uncompromising support for Pakistan, the Chinese reportedly responded with a heavily-loaded sarcastic remark: "Pakistan is our Israel". But judging by China's unrelenting support for some of its allies, including North Korea, Burma, Zimbabwe and Sudan, its protective arm around these countries is no different from the US and Western political embrace of Israel - right or wrong. ..."China is trying to reassert its political clout at the United Nations as a counterweight to its defensive stand on currency and trade issues." The New York Times newspaper said on Tuesday...

Indonesia Muslim hard-liners have resumed protests in the country’s capital and two other cities against the Miss World pageant being held in the resort island of Bali. … They waved banners with the slogan “Reject Miss World” and “Miss World Go To Hell.” …

AFP - A driver collecting video data for internet giant Google's Street View feature in Indonesia slammed into two vehicles after trying to flee responsibility for an earlier crash, police said Saturday. The Indonesian man had been driving a Subaru hatchback ... when he hit a public minivan. "He did accompany the minivan driver to the garage, but he said he was scared the repair fee would be high, so he got in his damaged car and fled," Bogor district police operations chief Hendra Gunawan told AFP. ... "He has been released and all the payments for the vehicles have...

President Barack Obama will be traveling to Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines, at the beginning of next, the White House announced today. "The President will travel to Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines from October 6 – 12 as part of his ongoing commitment to increase U.S. political, economic and security engagement with the Asia Pacific," reads the press secretary's announcement.

Ford, 71, was in the country as part of a Showtime series on climate changed called "Years of Living Dangerously." According to The Telegraph, Ford angered presidential adviser Andi Arief, who accused Ford of "attacking" Hasan with questions and "harassing state institutions."

The United States announced on Monday that it will sell eight Apache attack helicopters to ally Indonesia for $500 million plus maintenance, radar, and training as part of its “pivot” toward Asia, a move many analysts see as an attempt to counter an increasingly assertive China. US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced the deal during a meeting with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta, saying the helicopters were an example of the US’s commitment to helping Indonesia build its military capability. Though human rights groups criticize the sale for ignoring allegations of abuse by military forces against separatists in...

JERUSALEM – A senior Israeli government official has posted online comments on Facebook saying he is “sick” of commemorations for the victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings, a local newspaper reported. “I am sick of the Japanese, ‘Human rights’ and ‘Peace’ groups” over holding their “annual self-righteous commemorations for the Hiroshima and Nagasaki victims,” the Haaretz daily quoted Daniel Seaman, a deputy director general at the Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs, as writing in his Facebook post. Seaman, a key Israeli online public relations official, also wrote on the social networking site: “(The bombings of) Hiroshima...

As President Obama offered greetings from the White House to Muslims celebrating the feast that ends the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, the Catholic school he attended in Jakarta was hit with a terrorist attack. Asia News said the attack Wednesday came amid an escalation of tensions on the eve of the Muslim feast of Eid al-Fitr. Two Molotov cocktails were thrown inside the walls of the Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic School in South Jakarta by an assailant on a motorcycle, Asia News reported. The attack on the school followed the double bombing of a Buddhist temple Sunday, which...

Dr. Orly Taitz has been pushing the Barack Obama eligibility issue for some time now. She has sought to go specifically through the court system and back in February she attempted to (Obama Eligibility Case Requested To Move To Oral Arguments At US Supreme Court) move to oral arguments on Obama’s eligibility to hold the office of president of the United States. She is also one that ( questions the motives) of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Mike Zullo in their investigation. In June she presented

PALABUHANRATU, INDONESIA – Japan is steeped in century-old rituals where people traditionally eat grilled freshwater eel on “doyo no ushi no hi,” the day customarily dedicated to eating eel. Eel day fell on July 22 this year, but concern over dwindling stocks in Japan is growing, with other countries in the region reporting a similar trend. Continued demand for juvenile eel has led to an increase in the smuggling of glass eel from Indonesia to Japan and China, prompting Jakarta to toughen regulations. In Japan, eel is commonly eaten in the summer but is also the main ingredient in several...

The Obama administration on Saturday vetoed a U.S. trade body's ban on the sale of some Apple AAPL +1.28%iPhones and iPads, a rare move that upends a legal victory for smartphone rival Samsung Electronics Co. 005930.SE +0.47% U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman made the decision to veto the ban on the Apple devices, citing concerns about patent holders gaining "undue leverage." He said Samsung could continue to pursue its patent rights through the courts.

If you believe the myth that all cats hate getting wet, then you've yet to meet the flat-headed cat. With webbed feet and a streamlined head perfectly adapted for speed in the water, these strange felines not only like the water, they practically live in it. They are also recognized as the world's least known feline. And unfortunately, they may remain mysterious. According to National Geographic, a new study published in the journal PLoS ONE has indicated that the flat-headed cat's habitat is rapidly being transformed into vast biofuel plantations. Native to the swampy peat forests of Thailand, Malaysia and...

If you believe the myth that all cats hate getting wet, then you've yet to meet the flat-headed cat. With webbed feet and a streamlined head perfectly adapted for speed in the water, these strange felines not only like the water, they practically live in it. They are also recognized as the world's least known feline. And unfortunately, they may remain mysterious. According to National Geographic, a new study published in the journal PLoS ONE has indicated that the flat-headed cat's habitat is rapidly being transformed into vast biofuel plantations. Native to the swampy peat forests of Thailand, Malaysia and...

The State Palace on Monday lashed out at foreign governments that allegedly spied on Indonesian leaders, saying the practice was unethical. “Wiretapping is not good for bilateral relations,” presidential spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said at the State Palace on Monday. The comments come days after allegations resurfaced that at a Group of 20 conference in London in 2009 attended by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, intelligence agencies including Britain’s General Communication Headquarters and the US National Security Agency tapped into delegates’ personal e-mails and text messages. The allegations published by Australian media outlets on Friday, which suggested that the Indonesian delegation...

BANDUNG, Indonesia – Authorities in central Indonesia will ask a restaurant owner to explain his reasons for opening a Nazi-themed cafe that has sparked controversy among locals and tourists, an official said Thursday. Soldatenkaffee includes a red wall of Nazi-related memorabilia, including a large flag with the swastika and a giant picture of Adolf Hitler. Its wait staff dresses in SS, or Schutzstaffel, military uniforms, and can be seen posing in front of the cafe on its Facebook page. The cafe, located in the West Java provincial capital of Bandung, one of Indonesia's tourist destination cities, has been open since...

MEDAN, Indonesia (AP) — Authorities were searching for scores of inmates, including terrorists, who escaped a crowded Indonesian prison that was still burning Friday after prisoners set fires and started a deadly riot at the facility in the nation's third-largest city. Thousands of policemen and soldiers are deployed around Tanjung Gusta prison to blockade roads linking Medan, the capital of North Sumatra, to other provinces were blockaded while fire brigades were battling the fires. About 200 prisoners escaped following the riot late Thursday in which three prison employees and two inmates were killed. Officers deployed to hunt the escaped inmates...

Indonesia is a long way from achieving the openness and tolerance of the United States and Europe toward people of diverse sexualities, experts and activists say. But a National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) statement calling for more protection for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people is a step in the right direction, they say, adding that civil society groups should push the government to end discrimination and violence. Heru Susetyo, a human rights expert at the University of Indonesia, told the Jakarta Globe that community leaders needed to engage in public debate on LGBT issues. “There should...

Rescuers on Monday reached five men trapped in trees by several Sumatran tigers for five days after the angry animals mauled a sixth man to death, police said. First Lt. Surya Purba said three tamers managed to drive the tigers away before the men who were in weak condition were evacuated from trees in the protected Mount Leuser National Park in Tamiang, an Aceh district neighbouring with North Sumatra province. The men were looking for rare agarwood — used to make incense and perfume — and accidentally caught a tiger cub in a trap they were using to catch deer...

A whistle-blower from Higher Education Services Corporation in Albany New York came forward and advised Attorney Orly Taitz that she personally reviewed Barack Obama’s financial aid information, which stated that financial aid was given to Obama as foreign student and as a citizen of Indonesia. She [whistleblower] further checked that Obama transferred from the Occidental college to Columbia University in New York and his financial aid would indeed be handled by the Higher Education Services Corporation...

Asian equities got hammered on Thursday after the Federal Reserve signaled an end to its bond-buying program later this year while shrinking factory activity in China further added to market gloom. Japan's Nikkei index closed down 1.7 percent after dipping below the 13,000 mark. Amid the worst hit, Australia's benchmark tumbled over 2 percent, while South Korea's Kospi and the Shanghai Composite traded at 2013 lows. Emerging Asia also suffered, with Thailand's SET Composite, and Indonesia's Jakarta Composite sinking over 3 percent each. "I think everyone is looking at everyone else in the market and trying to figure out if...