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More than a quarter of the victims on AirAsia flight 8501 were members of the same pentecostal church in Indonesia ... Mawar Sharon Church, in Surabaya, Indonesia, hosted a prayer service earlier this week as to comfort relatives and remember those who were lost in the crash.

The newly-elected Chinese Christian governor of Indonesia’s capital city, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, is finding new allies in Jakarta’s influential Muslim leaders, reports MNN. Mr. Purnama, who goes by “Ahok,” reflects an “acceptance of diversity” agenda being put forth by the newly-elected President and former gubernatorial running mate, Joko Widodo. “He’s referred to as a double-minority because he’s ethnic Chinese, which is a minority in Indonesia, and he’s also Christian,” notes John Bachman of the Haggai Institute. “Given the fact that Indonesia has a very large Muslim population, there are some leaders that have been very vocal [about], ‘This is not...

The CIA should be abolished. After a trial run of 67 years, the agency has proven a sorcerer’s apprentice. The director and his subordinates have became insufferably arrogant Platonic Guardians hiding behind secrecy in the belief that the rest of us are too stupid or naive to judge what risks to accept to preserve liberty and the rule of law. The CIA has made Americans less safe. Its incorrigible anti-democratic ethos was epitomized by legendary chief of counterintelligence James J. Angleton. He voiced contempt for the Church Committee’s investigation of chronic agency abuses, i.e., the “Family Jewels.” As reported in...

...among the top 10 breakthroughs was the realization, made public in October, 2014, by scientists that cave paintings discovered in 7 cave sites in the Maros karsts on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia were actually between 35,000 and 40,000 years old. The breakthrough was significant in that it was the first time that prehistoric human cave painting art found in Indonesia, or East Asia, for that matter, was found to date during time periods usually associated with the "first cave painter" works long known to exist in Europe. In the potential landmark study, the researchers used uranium-series dating of...

WASHINGTON – Ancient cave drawings in Indonesia are as old as famous prehistoric art in Europe, according to a new study that shows our ancestors were drawing all over the world 40,000 years ago. And it hints at an even earlier dawn of creativity in modern humans, going back to Africa, than scientists had thought. Archaeologists calculated that a dozen stencils of hands in mulberry red and two detailed drawings of an animal described as a "pig-deer" are between 35,000 to 40,000 years old, based on levels of decay of the element uranium. That puts the art found in Sulawesi,...

Indonesian rescue teams said Tuesday that they had found bodies and what appeared to be debris from the AirAsia plane that vanished shortly after taking off from the airport here on Sunday. Members of search teams told the Indonesian news media that they had spotted what appeared to be suitcases, life vests and aircraft debris. Indonesian television showed a rescuer descending from a helicopter toward a bloated corpse floating in the sea. The debris was found in the Karimata Strait off the coast of Borneo. Search teams also spotted what appeared to be a larger piece of the fuselage of...

Several pieces of debris have been spotted floating in the sea off Borneo island, possibly linked to the missing AirAsia jetliner, an Indonesia National Search and Rescue spokesman said Tuesday. Yusuf Latif said an Indonesian military aircraft saw white, red and black objects, including what appears to be a life jacket, off the coast, about 105 miles (170 kilometers) south of Pangkalan Bun. He said the agency has dispatched at least one helicopter to pick up at least 10 pieces of debris to be checked. The items will be taken to the search and rescue coordination post on Belitung Island....

It’s been a rough year for Kuala Lumpur-based airlines, but AirAsia’s response to the loss of an airliner over the Java Sea has been miles ahead of Malaysia Airlines. Darkness and bad weather forced the suspension of a massive search and rescue operation for AirAsia Flight QZ8501, which disappeared Sunday over the Java Sea as it flew from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore. Distraught relatives rushed to airports for news about the missing aircraft, an Airbus A320-200 carrying seven crewmembers and 155 passengers, including 16 children, one of them an infant—162 people presumed lost. Singapore and Indonesia authorities searched the heavily...

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Several hours of searching Indonesian waters turned up no sign of an AirAsia plane that disappeared Sunday with 162 people on board in airspace possibly thick with dense storm clouds, strong winds and lightning, officials said. Aircraft searching for AirAsia Flight 8501 called off the effort for the night and will resume at Monday morning, said Achmad Toha of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency. Some ships were continuing the search overnight, he said. The plane took off Sunday morning from Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, and was about halfway to its destination, Singapore, when it vanished from radar....

HOURS after the disappearance of QZ8501, aviation experts are already comparing the incident with the yet to be solved mystery of MH370. Like MH370, the AirAsia Indonesia flight disappeared from radars and made no further communication with Air Traffic Control early into the flight from Surabaya to Singapore. ...

An AirAsia flight travelling from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact with air traffic control, the company has said. Indonesian media say more than 160 people were on board the Airbus A320-200. The aircraft, flight number QZ8501, lost contact with air traffic control at 07:24 (00:24 GMT), AirAsia tweeted.

An Air Asia plane travelling from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore has lost contact with air traffic control, Indonesia's Metro TV reported on Sunday. - See more at: SNIP ...He said the plane had asked for an unusual route before it lost contact, Reuters reported. There are reportedly 162 people on board.

CBS NEWSDecember 27, 2014 Air Traffic Controllers Lose Contact With AirAsia Plane Indonesian officials said air traffic controllers lost contact with an AirAsia flight from Indonesia to Singapore, Reuters reported late Saturday. Transport Ministry official Hadi Mustofa told Indonesian media air traffic controllers in Jakarta last heard from Flight QZ 8501, enroute from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore, at 6:17 a.m. local time. Mustofa said the pilots had asked for an unusual route before it lost contact, according to Reuters.

By ROB KENNEDY, Associated Press Writer BANGKOK, Thailand - A German statesman, a Czech supermodel and a Swedish Olympic ski champion were among the vacationers whose search for peace and sun in tropical southern Asia was shattered by the tsunamis that spared neither rich nor poor. AP Photo   Petra Nemcova — who appeared on the cover of 2003 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue — was carried away with her boyfriend, the fashion photographer Simon Atlee, after a huge wave plowed into southern Thailand on Sunday. Nemcova's New York spokesman, Rob Shuter, said the model and her boyfriend had been vacationing...

There's only one real way to compare military strength, and thankfully the world hasn't had many opportunities lately. Despite the potential powder keg in the South China Sea, standoffs in Ukraine, and proxy wars throughout the Middle East, inter-state warfare between the world's military powers has been all but banished from the global scene (for the time being, at least). For a simpler evaluation of military power, we turned to the Global Firepower Index, a ranking of 106 nations based on more than 50 factors including overall military budget, available manpower, and the amount of equipment each country has in...

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The first Christian governor of Indonesia's capital in 50 years was sworn in Wednesday despite loud protests from Islamic hard-liners who insisted Jakarta's top political job should go to a Muslim. Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, a Protestant who is also the first ethnic Chinese to become an Indonesian governor, gained a reputation as deputy governor of being outspoken and combating corruption and cutting red tape. He is better known by Chinese nickname "Ahok." Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation, and 87 percent of its 250 million people are Muslim. Christians make up about 10 percent.

During Indodefence 2014, the international defence exhibition held in Jakarta in November, SAAB and local shipyard PT Lundin presented a redesigned Stealth Fast Attack Craft (FAC) trimaran. The first hull of the original project called KRI Klewang 625 (solely designed and built by PT Lundin) was destroyed in a fire in Septembre 2012 shortly after its launch. The new project, presented by SAAB as a turnkey system solution, incorporates many modification and improvements. Compared to the original KRI Klewang, the redesigned stealth FAC includes a raised bridge, modified wave-piercing hull and a higher mast. The new Sea Giraffe 1X 3D...

Liyangan archaeological site on the slope of Mount Sindoro in Temanggung regency, Central Java, has again proven its position as home to one of main archeological findings in Indonesia after archeologists from the Yogyakarta Archeology Agency found the fossilized remnants of staple foods, comprising maize and rice, still inside a bamboo basket at the site. The archeologists said the finding indicated that Indonesia had long been part of an international agriculture network because maize was not endemic to Java and at the site they had also found many artifacts from other countries, especially China. Head of the Yogyakarta Archeology Agency,...

MATARAM, Indonesia (AFP) - An Indonesian district has ordered male civil servants to pay 1 million rupiah (S$100) to marry a second wife to crack down on polygamy, officials said on Wednesday, but activists criticised it as a "crazy" bid to profit from the practice. Male officials in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country were already required to get written permission from their superiors if they wanted a second wife. Under Islamic law, men can have up to four wives. But in East Lombok district, they will now also have to pay a 1 million rupiah fee to the local...

The last decade has seen some pretty awesome looking warships hit waters around the globe. On the "blue water" side of things the Star Wars looking Zumwalt Class and the minimalist art-like Lafayette Class were clearly designed with stealth in mind. Yet the "brown water" is where the most exotic vessels roam, and this is precisely where the X3K was born to fight. An Indonesian Combat Trimaran Designed In Sweden The X3K was built by Indonesian-based Swedish boat builder North Sea Boats, and designed in part by renowned exotic boat builder LOMOcean Design LTD. The goal was to build a...