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Video posted online shows 2 women being beaten, thrown into the sea for allegedly flouting rules by dining in a cafeRights groups strongly condemned a Muslim mob attack on two women in Indonesia for allegedly eating in a cafe during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and criticized police for not arresting the suspected attackers. A total of 89 organizations and 122 eminent citizens including Catholic youth groups signed a joint statement on April 19 to slam the incident saying that “persecuting women in the name of religious morality is an act that tramples humanity.” “In fact, no religion teaches...

As I publish this, the Indonesian national holiday Hari Kartini is just beginning. Geopolitically, Indonesia is a free market democratising society which is wavering between being non aligned in its region and being troubled by some aspects of modern Chinese expansionism. It behooves The West to try to understand Indonesia better. It is the fourth biggest nation in the world by population. The Kartini Day holiday celebrates the life and spirit of Javanese princess Raden Ajeng Kartini, who established the first high school for girls in Java over a hundred years ago during Dutch Colonial rule. This made Kartini a...

Eleven fishermen have survived for six days without food and water before being rescued west of Broome The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has confirmed a group of fishermen was rescued about 3pm Monday from Bedwell Island in the Rowley Shoals, 313 kilometres west of Broome, after their vessel was shipwrecked during Cyclone Ilsa. AMSA diverted a rescue aircraft to investigate and tasked a rescue helicopter to fly the fishers to Broome after a Border Force surveillance flight noticed people in distress. According to an AMSA spokesperson, survivors said there had been two fishing vessels with 10 crew each, but...

In the clips shared to social media, masses of garbage could be seen charging down canals and storm drains, the water carrying it virtually invisible for all of the junk. “These are the trash tsunamis of Indonesia and it will all end up in the ocean,” clean-up environmentalist Gary Bencheghib, who shared the clip, wrote. “We can no longer turn a blind eye to these waves of plastic.” “The trash is not the problem. It’s the people. If they don’t waste from the beginning, there will still be trash but maybe better managed,” another wrote. Others called for a more...

Bank Indonesia (BI) says it will introduce a domestic credit card system allowing for greater independence and lower fees, as transactions are settled locally rather than by foreign providers. BI spokesperson Erwin Haryono said on Saturday that the central bank had been in discussion with local industries and progress stood at 90 percent, but he declined to reveal when the domestic credit card would be launched or what it would be called. Erwin said a domestic credit card would have several benefits, notably lower fees, because offshore settlement and relying on foreign payment networks like United States-based Visa or Mastercard...

The volcano, located in Indonesia’s Yogyakarta special region, erupted at about 12pm (05:00 GMT) on Saturday and unleashed clouds of hot ash and a mixture of rock, lava and gas that travelled up to seven kilometres (4.3 miles) down its slopes. A column of hot clouds rose 100 metres into the air, said the National Disaster Management Agency’s spokesperson Abdul Muhari. There were no immediate reports of casualties. At least eight villages near the volcano have been affected by volcanic ash... Kompas TV showed ash-covered houses and roads at a village near the volcano, located on Java Island. The 2,963...

Geography often shapes culture. In most of the Indonesian island of Java, incredible fertility has long produced the bounteous harvests of a happy people, when they get their fair share. But the fruitful plains are always overshadowed by magnificent hills and mountains some of which are active volcanoes. Both the island and the people are able to erupt. Australia can be defined by being mostly desert. (70% is arid or semi-arid.) What about America? How many culturally significant geographies are there?

Indonesian rescuers and firefighters on Saturday searched for more than a dozen people missing under the rubble of charred houses and buildings, after a large fire spread from a fuel storage depot in the capital and killed at least 18 people. The Plumpang fuel storage station, operated by state-run oil and gas company Pertamina, is near a densely populated area in the Tanah Merah neighborhood in North Jakarta. It supplies 25% of Indonesia’s fuel needs. A preliminary investigation showed the fire broke out when a pipeline ruptured during heavy rain, possibly triggered by a lightning strike, said Eko Kristiawan, Pertamina’s...

A shallow earthquake shook Indonesia’s easternmost province of Papua on Thursday, killing four people who were unable to escape when a floating restaurant collapsed into the sea. The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude 5.1 earthquake hit residential areas in Jayapura, near Papua's northern coast and was centered at a depth of 22 kilometers (13 miles). Shallow quakes often cause more damage on the Earth's surface. “The residents were really panicked. I was in a car, and I felt like the car's wheels were lifted up,” said Tri Asih, a resident of Jayapura, Papua's capital. Officials said four people who...

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake shook eastern Indonesia and southern Philippines on Wednesday, with no damage immediately reported and no tsunami warning issued. Some residents tried to escape from houses in the Indonesian town of Tobelo in North Maluku province. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake occurred 48 kilometres deep under the sea, centred 154 km northwest of Tobelo. Resident Pius Ohoiwutun said some people ran from houses when the quake shook. “I felt a little swaying as the lamps also swayed,” Ohoiwutun said. The undersea quake was also felt in several provinces and cities across the southern Philippines, but...

A 31,000-year-old skeleton found in a remote area in Indonesia is rewriting what we know about early medicine medical procedures according to a new study published in the weekly scientific Nature journal on Wednesday. ... The oldest previous known example of a limb amputation had been a roughly 7,000-year-old skeleton from France, whose left forearm had been surgically removed and then had partially healed. This had led researchers to believe that operations of this nature took place in established agricultural societies. The latest discovery turns that notion on its head and suggests that Stone Age hunter-gathers had a far more...

The epicenter of the magnitude 7.6 temblor was in the Banda Sea, nearest the Tanimbar islands in Maluku province that have about 127,000 residents, according to 2021 data. Tremors were felt in several regions, including Papua and East Nusa Tenggara provinces, as well as in northern Australia. Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysical Agency issued a tsunami warning that was lifted three hours later. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake’s epicenter was at a depth of 65 miles not far from Australia’s northern tip. Deeper quakes tend to cause less surface damage than shallow shaking but are more widely felt....

International travelers have been flocking back to the popular resort island of Bali as the Covid pandemic subsides, prompting hopes that Indonesia's battered tourism industry is on the road to recovery. But this week, controversial new laws were passed in parliament that ban cohabitation and sex outside marriage. The laws will apply not just to residents but also to foreign expats and tourists in the country -- raising concerns from experts. Although the changes are not expected to kick in for at least another three years, industry players tell CNN that the new criminal code could put foreigners off visiting...

The goodwill pledge is set to arrest a steady decline of Canberra’s aid to Southeast Asia’s most populous country.Australia has agreed to lend up to $1 billion to Indonesia to aid the country’s COVID-19 recovery, the latest in a line of measures designed to bolster Canberra’s relationships with its Southeast Asian and Pacific neighbors. According to a report in The Australian newspaper, the loan is intended as a goodwill gesture that will help forestall a serious financial crisis in Southeast Asia’s largest economy. It comes after a decade in which Australia’s aid to Indonesia has fallen by more than half,...

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia's highest volcano on its most densely populated island released searing gas clouds and rivers of lava Sunday in its latest eruption. Monsoon rains eroded and finally collapsed the lava dome atop 3,676-meter (12,060-foot) Mount Semeru, causing the eruption, according to National Disaster Management Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari. Several villages were blanketed with falling ash, blocking out the sun, but no casualties have been reported. Several hundred residents, their faces smeared with volcanic dust and rain, fled to temporary shelters or left for other safe areas. Thick columns of ash were blasted more than 1,500 meters (nearly...

An earthquake shook Indonesia’s main island of Java on Monday, killing at least 46 people, damaging dozens of buildings and sending residents into the capital’s streets for safety. The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude 5.6 quake was centered in the Cianjur region in West Java province at a depth of 6.2 miles.

The White House announced yesterday that as one of the results of the G20 meeting, Indonesia is set to receive $20 billion to transition from coal to green energy. According to the press release/fact sheet, a coalition of nations all signed on to the Just Energy Transition Partnership. Those nations include “the Government of the Republic of Indonesia (GOI) and the Governments of Japan, the United States of America, Canada, Denmark, the European Union, the Federal Republic of Germany, the French Republic, Norway, the Republic of Italy, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (together the “International...

Balinese culture, a perpetual exercise in sophisticated subtlety, makes no distinction between the secular and the supernatural – sekala and niskala. Sekala is what our senses may discern. As in the ritualized gestures of world leaders – real and minor – at a highly polarized G20. Niskala is what cannot be sensed directly and can only be “suggested.” And that also applies to geopolitics. The Balinese highlight may have featured an intersection of sekala and niskala: the much ballyhooed Xi-Biden face-to-face (or face to earpiece). The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs preferred to cut to the chase, selecting the Top...

President Joe Biden abruptly canceled a G20 meeting on Tuesday, as world leaders gathered in Indonesia to conduct the official business of managing world affairs. However, the official explanation for Biden’s last minute drop-out has many wondering once again if something is seriously wrong with the president. Watch: “Breaking news would be that President Biden is missing the G20 leaders dinner,” Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy reported. “He is supposed to be at a supper right now, 8:10 in the evening here in Bali, Indonesia, with everybody that flew in. If you’re the U.S. president, you spent basically...

Another day, another embarrassing display by a very old President. It's obvious someone had written down for Biden who he was supposed to call on from the Press Corps during a presser he did after attending the ASEAN Conference in Cambodia and ahead of attending the G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia. To have this kind of display on the world stage . . .