Free Republic

Warning: Pictures in social media posts contain scenes some may find distressing ====================================================================== A man died two days after his wife set him on fire following an argument sparked by his refusal to give her his phone password. Dedi Purnama, 26, was repairing the roof of his house in a coastal village in Indonesia on the afternoon of Jan. 12, according to local media reports, when his wife called up to him, wanting to access his phone. He refused and climbed down the ladder. An argument followed. He then reportedly hit his wife, Ilham Cahyani, who then grabbed a fuel...

Erectus AhoyPrehistoric seafaring floats into view Bruce Bower As the sun edged above the horizon on Jan. 31, 2000, a dozen men boarded a bamboo raft off the east coast of the Indonesian island of Bali. Each gripped a wooden paddle and, in unison, deftly stroked the nearly 40-foot-long craft into the open sea. Their destination: the Stone Age, by way of a roughly 18-mile crossing to the neighboring island of Lombok. Project director Robert G. Bednarik, one of the assembled paddlers, knew that a challenging trip lay ahead, even discounting any time travel. Local fishing crews had told him...

JAKARTA (REUTERS, AFP) - An explosion on a ferry between the Indonesian resort islands of Bali and Lombok on Thursday (Sept 15) killed two people, an Indonesian and a Dutch national, and injured 13, police said. The boat was carrying 35 passengers, all of whom were foreigners, and four crew, and had just left Padang Bai port in eastern Bali on Thursday morning when the blast occurred. "Two of them died, 13 were injured," Bali police spokesman Made Sudana said, adding the explosion happened off the coast of Lombok. "It seems there was some sort of explosion on the boat,...

Lombok. A United States citizen residing on the Indonesian island of Lombok will appear in court “within two or three days” on charges of blaspheming Islam, police said on Tuesday. Central Lombok Police said the dossier of Greg Luke, 64, from California, had been accepted by the Praya District Prosecutor’s Office. The charges stem from an incident in which police claim the Californian entered a mosque near his house in Kuta, turned down its speakers and insulted Islam. Luke was attacked by a rampaging mob and his home and contents destroyed or stolen in the aftermath. Nurkholis, head of the...