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Indonesia

Islamic medicine is on the rise in Southeast Asia

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A 47-year-old housewife who recently started using Islamic medicine emerged tearfully from an exorcism, speaking of newfound tranquility after a turbulent period. Also, her abdominal pains are finally easing.
Suratmi, who suffers from an ovarian cyst, has been taking a mix of herbal medicine harking back to the dawn of Islam, as [...]

Read More » No commentSeptember 26, 2011

Indonesian ferry catches fire after tug collision

An Indonesian ferry with more than 400 people on board collided with a barge and caught fire, killing at least two, a search and rescue official said.
The KM Marina Nusantara, travelling on Monday from Surabaya in eastern Java, collided with the barge as it approached the city of Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan province on Indonesian [...]

Read More » No commentSeptember 26, 2011

Suicide bombing at Indonesian church injures 22

SOLO, Indonesia (AP) — A suicide bomber blew himself up inside an Indonesian church as hundreds of worshippers were filing out after the Sunday service, injuring at least 22 people, police said.
The bomber’s mangled body lay at the entrance of the Tenth Bethel Gospel Church. Around him, screaming people were splattered in blood.
Police Chief Gen. [...]

Read More » No commentSeptember 26, 2011

Massacred village in Indonesia awaits Dutch amends

RAWAGEDE, Indonesia (AP) — Six decades have passed, but Kadun bin Siot’s voice still trembles as he recalls the morning Dutch troops surrounded his tiny Indonesian village and nearly wiped out its entire male population.
He was 12, peering through the slats of a wooden barn as soldiers flushed his father out of his hiding place [...]

Read More » No commentSeptember 24, 2011

Paper company blamed for tiger’s death

A graphic video showing the last hours of a rare Sumatran tiger as it writhes in a trap in Indonesia exposes the gruesome toll of rampant rainforest clearing, Greenpeace activists said Tuesday.
Greenpeace Southeast Asia forest campaigner Zulfahmi said the trap was set up by villagers to catch wild pigs on a logging concession [...]

Read More » No commentJuly 26, 2011

Bali bomb suspect to be sent to Indonesia from Pakistan

An alleged mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people will be sent to Indonesia after being arrested in Pakistan in March, a senior counter terrorism official said Monday.
“Pakistan has delivered a message early July that they will send Umar Patek to Indonesia,” National Anti-Terror Agency (BNPT) deputy chief Tito Karnavian [...]

Read More » No commentJuly 26, 2011

Clinton: Indonesia can be democratic role model

BALI, Indonesia (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is urging Indonesia to promote democracy in Myanmar and countries in the Middle East and North Africa in the throes of upheaval. She says its successful transition from dictatorship and status as a vibrant Muslim-majority democracy make it an ideal [...]

Read More » No commentJuly 24, 2011

Clinton: South China Sea disputes need urgent work

BALI, Indonesia (AP) — Increasing and sometimes violent encounters between China and its neighbors with competing claims in the South China Sea are driving up shipping costs and risk getting “out of control,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned on Sunday, underscoring the urgency of peacefully resolving disputes over resources [...]

Read More » No commentJuly 24, 2011

Suharto relative ‘faces Indonesia drugs charge’

JAKARTA (AFP) – A great-granddaughter of the late Indonesian dictator Suharto could face up to five years in jail after she was arrested in a drugs bust, a report said.
Putri Aryanti Haryowibowo, 22, was found with 0.8 grams of methamphetamine and ecstasy pills in the Friday police raid at a hotel in the capital, and [...]

Read More » No commentMarch 23, 2011

Indonesian mail bombs target ’sins against Islam’

JAKARTA, Indonesia – One of three mail bombs sent to Indonesians blamed for “sins against Islam” wounded four people when police detonated it, a new threat coming as religious intolerance rises in the world’s most populous Muslim country.
The bomb that exploded was addressed to Ulil Abshar Abdalla, the founder of the U.S.-funded Islamic Liberal Network, [...]

Read More » No commentMarch 17, 2011