Free Republic

The result was released a day ahead of schedule in the early hours of Tuesday, amid fears of unrest. Around 32,000 security personnel were deployed across the capital Jakarta, AFP news agency reports. The latest vote followed a bitter campaign in which religion played a key role, but independent observers have said it was free and fair. On Friday police said they had arrested dozens of suspected terrorists with links to Islamic State (IS), some of whom had allegedly planned to bomb political rallies when the vote result was released. The same day, the US embassy issued a travel warning...

Bambang Brodjonegoro said President Joko Widodo had chosen to relocate the capital in "an important decision"... Jakarta, home to over 10 million people, is sinking at one of the fastest rates in the world... Researchers say that large parts of the megacity could be entirely submerged by 2050. North Jakarta sunk 2.5m (eight feet) in 10 years and is continuing to sink an average of 1-15cm a year... But President Joko Widodo has achieved ambitious infrastructure building in his five years in office, so he may well be the man that finally does it.

There are lots of reasons why President Barack Obama is meeting with Indonesian President Joko Widodo today in Washington. Indonesia doesn't often get the attention it deserves, but it is a key country with major links to the United States. It's in the G7, and millions of its citizens or former citizens live in the US. Most important, Indonesia is the fourth most populated country in the world, with a Muslim population that outstrips all other countries in the Middle East and North Africa in size. Because it has a democratic system of governance, President Obama and other US officials...

SNIPPET: "The police arrested two terrorist suspects at the house: Fahri Tanjung, also known as Hilmi, and Hamzah. The police also found chemicals they believed were to be used to make explosives and an activated hand-made high-explosive bomb inside the house. West Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Sutarman said the police detonated the high-explosive bomb on location after failing to defuse it. Books and VCDs on jihad, as well as an air rifle were seized as evidence. One of the VCDs was titled Afghanistan jihad: The journey of the oppressed. Sutarman said the suspects had been involved in acts of...