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China has just had a run-in with its only friend in the South China Sea, and that could complicate matters for Beijing as it continues to try to take a more aggressive stance in the region. On March 19, an official Indonesian vessel detained a Chinese fishing trawler that was operating in Indonesia's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off the coast of the Natuna islands. The islands are on the periphery of the South China Sea, and their EEZ abuts China's self-declared Nine-Dash Line, which Beijing uses to mark its claims in the region. In the past, Indonesia has not had...

The Catholic Justice and Peace Commission of the Archdiocese of Brisbane, Australia, has charged that "slow-motion genocide" is taking place in West Papua, an historically Christian province of Indonesia. "The Indonesians want to replace the Christian religion with Islam," said Sister Susan Connelly, the author of the commission’s report. "There is clear evidence of ongoing violence, intimidation, and harassment by the Indonesian security forces," added the commission’s executive officer, Peter Arndt.

My name is more prominent than understanding for before all things ((( (( ( "I AM" ) )) ))) and I became The Foundation for all I created and it is in my wisdom the very heavenlies rest, as my knowledge reveals their place of rest as my understanding is the tongue and spirit as a thread and needle led by my love to hold all these things together and so it is that I have created a gown of protection and warmth for my church and Bride drawn and sewn from my light for this pleases The Father of...

China’s ambassador to Indonesia is being summoned over a standoff involving a trawler in the South China Sea, an incident an international expert described as so serious it could alter Indonesia’s foreign policy. Susi Pudjiastuti, Indonesia’s minister for fisheries and maritime affairs, told reporters he would summon the Chinese ambassador, Xie Feng, on Monday to discuss a Chinese fishing trawler accused of illegally fishing in Indonesian waters. Indonesian authorities attempted to capture the trawler on Saturday and arrest the Chinese crew. But they were stopped by a Chinese coast guard boat that reportedly “rammed” the trawler and pushed it back...

The mayor of Indonesia's Tangerang city has reportedly claimed that babies can become gay by consuming instant noodles and milk formula. "To create Indonesian children that are healthy smart and competitive, the most important thing is, from the beginning, to provide them adequate nutrition, especially breastfeeding," Arief R Wismansyah said during a city-run pregnancy seminar on Tuesday, reported Coconuts Jakarta.

Six Bangladeshi migrants caught entering Australian waters have been sent back to Indonesia on a fishing boat, according to an Indonesian official. The decision has been criticised by the Indonesian foreign ministry, which is opposed to Australia's controversial policy of returning migrants. It warns that such acts could be dangerous at sea. The six men, along with two Indonesian crew, left from the eastern Indonesian city of Kupang last week bound for Australia. After three days at sea they reached Australian waters, but had engine trouble and the boat began to sink. They were picked up by the border patrol....

Islamic nations’ leaders meeting in Indonesia Monday acknowledged the chaos wracking parts of the Muslim world, but said that should not move the spotlight away from “the central issue” for the world’s Muslim community: Palestine. A resolution endorsed at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) “extraordinary” summit on the Palestinian issue said the leaders were “aware of the tragic spread of crises” in the Islamic world, including armed conflicts and terrorism. “Nonetheless,” it said, that situation “should not divert international attention from the cause of Palestine and al-Quds al-Sharif [Jerusalem], which must remain the central issue of the Islamic ummah...

Indonesia’s president urged a summit of Muslim nations to be part of the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict rather than part of the problem. Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who heads the world’s most populous Muslim nation, said Monday the entire world is concerned by the deterioration of the situation in Palestine. …

Indonesia is currently mulling the purchase of an air defense system from China, a senior defense official said Monday. According to Air Vice Marshal M. Syaugi, the director general of defense planning at Indonesia’s defense ministry, the country is currently evaluating the purchase of the Chinese-made AF902 Radar/Twin 35 mm AA Gun/PL-9C Missile Integrated Air Defense System (AF902 FCS/35) to bolster its aerial defense capabilities. The evaluation, Syaugi told state-run news outlet Antara News on March 1, is being done in line with the Indonesian Armed Forces 2015-2019 strategic plan. Syaugi made the remarks after a recent visit to China...

This foraging occupation of one site effectively doubles and confirms the length of Madagascar’s known occupational history and thus the time during which people exploited its environments. The rock shelter yielded a stratified assemblage with small flakes, microblades, and retouched crescentic and trapezoidal tools, probably projectile elements, made from cherts and obsidian, some brought more that 200 km. The assemblage from the top layers of the site is well dated to 1050–1350 A.D. This was achieved using carbon dating and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), as well as ceramic typology imported from the Near East and China. Below this layer is...

Around 5,000 years ago, the island of Madagascar would have resembled a Sci-Fi novel. Strange, prickly forests, gorilla-sized lemurs, pygmy hippopotamuses, horned crocodile and elephant birds whose eggs were 180 times the size of what you'd find in your fridge today, all called the African island home -- that was until the humans arrived.

Studies prove people of Madagascar came from Borneo and Africa mongabay.com July 8, 2005 Studies released earlier this year found the people of Madagascar have origins in Borneo and East Africa. Half of the genetic lineages of human inhabitants of Madagascar come from 4500 miles away in Borneo, while the other half derive from East Africa, according to a study published in May by a UK team. The island of Madagascar, the largest in the Indian Ocean, lies some 250 miles (400 km) from Africa and 4000 miles (6400 km) from Indonesia. Its isolation means that most of its mammals,...

Diminutive humans that died out on an Indonesian island some 15,000 years ago were not Homo sapiens but a different species, according to a study published Monday that dives into a fierce anthropological debate. Fossils of Homo floresiensis--dubbed "the hobbits" due to their tiny stature--were discovered on the island of Flores in 2003. Controversy has raged ever since as to whether they are an unknown branch of early humans or specimens of modern man deformed by disease. The new study, based on an analysis of the skull bones, shows once and for all that the pint-sized people were not Homo...

The pursuit of happiness is to enter into obedience and not leave. Many of My children are doing their own thing which truly has nothing to do with My Kingdom or The Father's will and in such manner have heaped upon themselves coals of futility weighing themselves down with yokes of bondage. However where My Spirit is there is freedom and in this place you will find My Vessels filled from My Spring of Life within them for there is a well flowing freely that need not be dug again. . . 2 Corinthians 3:17 17 Now the Lord is...

Guinness is attempting to become more popular in Indonesia, where alcohol is mostly frowned up by the predominantly Muslim population. The company has developed non-alcoholic Guinness in a bid to win over those who shun alcoholic beverages. [...] The new non-alcoholic beer is called Guinness Zero and is said to be selling very well. There are no plans, however, to sell it anywhere else. The Guinness move comes after after the Indonesian government banned the sale of beer in convenience stores from April 2015 and other small stores. Guinness will continue to sell its regular brew in large supermarkets and...

Late last week, ISIS claimed its first attack in Indonesia, which might be a signal that the group is seeking to expand its reach in southeast Asia, according to The New York Times and other news outlets. Though the attack on a shopping center in Jakarta, Indonesia's capital, is the first for which the terrorist group ISIS (also known as the Islamic State, ISIL, and Daesh) has claimed responsibility in the country, smaller-scale attacks have been carried out by self-identified ISIS sympathizers in the region over the past year. And it appears that ISIS didn't just take credit for the...

Several explosions have been heard in the centre of the Indonesian capital ...

Several explosions were heard in the center of the Indonesian capital on Thursday, witnesses told Reuters. Police were not immediately available for comment, but according to the an official Jakarta police Twitter account one explosion went off in front of a shopping centre called the Sarinah mall.

Israel is the only country for which the UNHRC has assigned a permanent special investigator. A United Nations special investigator into alleged Israeli human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories resigned Monday citing Israel’s two-year refusal to grant him a visa to the West Bank so he could see the situation first-hand. “I took up this mandate with the understanding that Israel would grant me access as an impartial and objective observer,” Makarim Wibisono said. Wibisono, of Indonesia, was appointed to the post of special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories in 2014. He replaced...

Skywatchers will have many opportunities in 2016 to see just how small we are in the universe. Four days into the new year, hundreds of meteors will dance across the night skies.... Come September, an outer ring of the sun's annular eclipse will be visible across Africa. In between, there will be spectacular shooting stars, super moons, and lunar eclipses to take in. ... From about Jan. 20 to Feb. 20, all five planets that are visible to the naked eye — Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn — will occupy the morning sky. This hasn't happened since 2005, according...