Indonesia plans to use weather-changing technology to try to unleash torrents of rain and extinguish raging fires on Sumatra that have cloaked neighboring Singapore and Malaysia in thick haze, an official said on Wednesday. Singapore, which…
10:13 pm June 19, 2013Read More
Police have caved to Islamic indignation over their dress policy, saying they are reviewing a regulation prohibiting female uniformed officers from wearing an Islamic headscarf, or jilbab, while on duty. Brig. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar, a…
9:56 pm June 19, 2013Read More
An Aceh court sentenced a teenager to 9.5 years in prison on Wednesday for raping and murdering a six-year-old girl. The panel of judges decided that Hasbi Lara, 17, was convincingly guilty of the rape and…
8:47 pm June 19, 2013Read More
Indonesia’s leading state universities were ranked among Asia’s top 300 institutes of higher learning in the latest edition of the QS University Rankings, with Pelita Harapan University topping the list of private schools in the country.…
6:45 pm June 19, 2013Read More
The graft-tainted Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) will bring the Bogor District Education Office to court over an exam question concerning disgraced chairman Luthfi Hasan’s alleged involvement in a beef import corruption scandal. “This is clearly a…
6:00 pm June 19, 2013Read More
Indonesian students wishing to further their education in Australia will be able to research and plan their choice of study with the help of a new official website, the Australian embassy said on Wednesday. The new…
5:01 pm June 19, 2013Read More
The National Police announced on Wednesday that they arrested two men for allegedly running two Ecstasy factories in the capital. The Jakarta Police’s narcotics unit arrested two suspects, Darwin Muchsim and Ong Tjai Then, and seized…
4:42 pm June 19, 2013Read More
The Mimika Regency government in Papua has asked the central government to push forward talks with Freeport Indonesia in order to speed up the reopening of the company’s Grasberg mine. “We asked the Ministry of State…
3:44 pm June 19, 2013Read More
The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) called Agriculture Minister Suswono in for questioning for a third time on Wednesday over its ongoing inquiry into the country’s beef-import bribery scandal, a KPK spokesman said. “He’s being questioned [as…
11:39 am June 19, 2013Read More
Economists and business leaders have urged the government to treat the decision to reduce fuel subsidies only as a first step in a pricing reform project, saying the job is not done until subsidies are phased…
11:11 am June 19, 2013Read More
Police in Papua have arrested 14 people following Sunday’s attack on a police district headquarters in Pegunungan Bintang, a police official said on Wednesday. “Six people have been named as suspects and the other eight people are…
9:32 am June 19, 2013Read More
Criticism has mounted over the government’s lack of discussion regarding the Rp 155 billion ($15.7 million) fund allocation in the 2013 state budget for the management of the Sidoarjo mud volcano in East Java. The announcement…
4:00 am June 19, 2013Read More
A recent spate of cases of girls being sold into prostitution or indentured labor has underscored growing concerns about the issue of human trafficking and the dearth of law enforcement to tackle it. Police revealed on…
9:21 pm June 18, 2013Read More
The Democratic Party criticized presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto’s inconsistent stance on the government’s fuel subsidy cuts on Tuesday after his Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) party voted against the revised 2013 state budget less than 24 hours…
7:08 pm June 18, 2013Read More
Some 15 days after a motorcyclist blew himself up in front of a Poso police station, killing himself and injuring a construction worker, authorities in the central Sulawesi port town believe they have identified Zainal Arifin…
5:34 pm June 18, 2013Read More
Santika Indonesia Hotels and Resorts has added one more hotel to its portfolio in Grogol, West Jakarta, that would lift the company’s total number of hotels to 57. The Amaris brand — a two-star budget hotel…
10:42 pm June 19, 2013Read More
San Francisco. Nvidia Corp., the largest maker of chips used in computer graphics cards, said it plans to license technology to other chipmakers, seeking to broaden sources of revenue. Both current and future graphics technology will…
9:01 pm June 19, 2013Read More
The proposed price increase for subsidized fuel will not impact the credit rating of state oil and gas company Pertamina, Fitch Ratings said on Wednesday. The price increase, scheduled to be announced sometime this week, will…
8:19 pm June 19, 2013Read More
Paris. Hermes, the select handbag and scarf maker, accused luxury conglomerate LVMH of carrying out the “most important fraud in the history of the French stock market” in a court filing, as quoted in the Les…
7:19 pm June 19, 2013Read More
Palm oil shipments from Indonesia, the world’s largest producer, gained the most in six months in May as buyers boosted purchases to meet demand in the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and on falling supplies of…
5:24 pm June 19, 2013Read More
Australia’s Intrepid Mines Ltd is learning that business in Indonesia is personal as it wages a difficult fight to win back rights to a $5 billion copper and gold prospect in East Java. Intrepid was booted…
5:21 pm June 19, 2013Read More
Indonesia’s biggest media conglomerate, MNC Group, is set to buy free-to-air television station ANTV, owned by Bakrie group’s Visi Media Asia. MNC Group director, David Fernando Audy, confirmed the company was in talks with Visi Media…
5:11 pm June 19, 2013Read More
Swedish clothing retailer Hennes & Mauritz is set to open its first Indonesian store in Gandaria City in September, as well as two other outlets soon afterward. Hindo Indonesia, the owner of the H&M brand in…
5:00 pm June 19, 2013Read More
Helsinki. Finland’s Finance Ministry cut its forecast for the northernmost euro member’s economy that’s mired in a recession along with its single-currency peers. Gross domestic product will shrink 0.4 percent this year, compared with the 0.4…
4:31 pm June 19, 2013Read More
Toyota Astra Motor reported a 9 percent increase in sales from January through May this year, consolidating its position as the market leader in Indonesia. The company, which has the exclusive rights to distribute Toyota cars…
2:48 pm June 19, 2013Read More
Emerging-market stocks fell for a second day, led by Chinese shares, as money-market rates surged and investors speculated the government will step up property curbs. The Philippine peso weakened before Wednesday’s US Federal Reserve policy announcement.…
2:16 pm June 19, 2013Read More
Shanghai. US auto giant General Motors on Wednesday broke ground on a $1.3 billion plant in Shanghai to produce Cadillacs as it seeks a larger share of China’s growing market for luxury cars. The plant…
1:06 pm June 19, 2013Read More
Sydney. Japanese stocks rose on Wednesday, thanks to a positive lead from Wall Street plus a softer yen, outperforming the rest of Asia which anxiously seeks clarity on the Federal Reserve’s next policy step. Major currencies…
1:06 pm June 19, 2013Read More
Jamsostek, Indonesia’s biggest pension fund, said the nation’s benchmark stock index will extend losses, giving the manager an opportunity to boost equity holdings amid optimism about the country’s economic growth. There will be short-term volatility and…
12:28 pm June 19, 2013Read More
Indonesian businesspeople this week dismissed market fears a weakening rupiah would jeopardize the business environment, saying the depreciating currency was only temporary. Ira Dompas, corporate secretary of private equity fund Saratoga Investama Sedaya said the currency…
11:37 am June 19, 2013Read More
Economists and business leaders have urged the government to treat the decision to reduce fuel subsidies only as a first step in a pricing reform project, saying the job is not done until subsidies are phased…
11:11 am June 19, 2013Read More
The International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) has granted scholarships to seven corporate governance practitioners from Indonesia, Morocco, Nigeria, Peru, the Netherlands and Pakistan to support them in promoting good corporate governance in difficult or emerging-market environments.…
10:57 am June 19, 2013Read More
Mitra Adiperkasa, a franchiser of more than 100 international brands, says the Indonesian government’s plan to reduce fuel subsidies will not affect the group’s revenue targets as its clients are unlikely to be affected by such…
10:50 am June 19, 2013Read More
Sofia. Bulgaria’s Socialist-backed government is under severe pressure to resign after just two weeks in office following several days of demonstrations in the EU’s poorest country. The latest protests began on Friday when Delyan Peevski, an…
9:17 pm June 19, 2013Read More
Kano, Nigeria. An armed gang has raided a northern Nigerian village and killed 48 people in an apparent reprisal attack targeting a local vigilante group, a state official said Wednesday. The attack saw gunmen move house…
6:15 pm June 19, 2013Read More
High levels of a toxic substance called strontium-90 have been found in groundwater at the devastated Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, the utility that runs the facility said on Wednesday. Strontium-90 is a by-product of…
4:45 pm June 19, 2013Read More
The new coronavirus that’s killed 38 people, most of them in Saudi Arabia, may evolve into a health crisis reminiscent of SARS as a lack of information from the Arab world’s largest economy impedes the fight…
4:15 pm June 19, 2013Read More
Washington. The World Bank on Wednesday warned that severe hardships from global warming could be felt within a generation, with a new study detailing devastating impacts in Africa and Asia. The report presents “an alarming scenario…
3:58 pm June 19, 2013Read More
The Mimika Regency government in Papua has asked the central government to push forward talks with Freeport Indonesia in order to speed up the reopening of the company’s Grasberg mine. “We asked the Ministry of State…
3:44 pm June 19, 2013Read More
Berlin. President Barack Obama will on Wednesday propose the United States and Russia cut strategic nuclear warheads by a third and reduce tactical nuclear arsenals in Europe, a US official said. Obama, who will make the…
3:20 pm June 19, 2013Read More
Cancun, Mexico. Mexican officials said late Tuesday that they had arrested former US university professor Walter Lee Williams, an alleged child sexual predator on the FBI’s list of top 10 Most Wanted criminals. Williams was arrested…
2:55 pm June 19, 2013Read More
Singapore. More than 30 wild animals, including pythons, tortoises, a slow loris and a marmoset have been seized from a flat in Singapore in the city’s largest such haul of banned wildlife in more than a…
1:43 pm June 19, 2013Read More
New Delhi. Air force helicopters searched for survivors in northern India after days of monsoon rains triggered flash floods and landslides, killing more than 130 people and leaving hundreds missing. Parts of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh,…
1:18 pm June 19, 2013Read More
Mae Chan. In a rural classroom in the Thai highlands, hill tribe children energetically slide their fingertips over tablet computer screens practicing everything from English to mathematics and music. The disadvantaged students are part of an…
11:32 am June 19, 2013Read More
Seoul. North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un has reportedly given copies of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” to his top officials, urging them to study it as a leadership skills manual. Kim handed out translations of the German…
11:24 am June 19, 2013Read More
Los Angeles. Michael Hastings, the Rolling Stone journalist who triggered the 2010 downfall of US Afghanistan commander General Stanley McChrystal, died in a car crash Tuesday, his employer announced. Hastings, whose profile of McChrystal quoted the…
11:23 am June 19, 2013Read More
Oslo. Few religious communities have gone as far in fighting climate change as a church in Queensland, Australia, which has 24 solar panels bolted to the roof in the shape of a Christian cross. “It’s very…
11:04 am June 19, 2013Read More
United Nations. In the aftermath of the global economic crisis and with three years to go until the 2015 deadline of the Millennium Development Goals, global leaders are struggling to formulate a post-2015 agenda that can…
10:10 am June 19, 2013Read More
June heralds the beginning of the peak holiday season in Bali, and Ubud’s Agung Rai Museum of Art is an icon of local wisdom communicating the virtues of Balinese culture to the multitudes of inquisitive foreign…
6:23 pm June 19, 2013Read More
Perhaps Indonesia’s most famous pop export, Anggun Cipta Sasmi, can look back on a successful venture that began with recording her first album at the age of 9. Anggun, now 39, has come a long way…
6:18 pm June 19, 2013Read More
Since Burufly was established in April last year, the people behind Indonesia’s first social travel site have worked relentlessly to bring the country’s diverse beauty closer to the public through user-generated content. Burufly’s founder and chief…
5:40 pm June 19, 2013Read More
Bordeaux. For years the Chinese have been buying up wine from Europe, but with domestic wine production predicted to overtake Australia and Chile by next year, Tiana Wu is hoping European drinkers are ready to be…
3:32 pm June 19, 2013Read More
Increasingly more attention has been given to children with autism as support organizations and institutions seek to accommodate and create systems for autistic children in society. The Indonesian Museum of Records on Tuesday proved that children…
9:00 am June 19, 2013Read More
London. Teen pop star Justin Bieber was involved in a late-night traffic accident, which Los Angeles media said injured a photographer who had been among a crowd trying to take pictures of the singer. Video taken…
9:00 pm June 18, 2013Read More
As far as Indonesian scandals go, the sex scandal involving Peterpan band frontman Nazril “Ariel” Irham in 2010 was one most other bands might have struggled to come back from. Sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail…
7:10 pm June 18, 2013Read More
For most people, the word “cabaret” evokes visions of the colorful displays of energetic chorus lines of sassy, bawdily dressed can-can performers, and the Moulin Rouge dance hall in Paris, immortalized in the Baz Luhrmann musical…
3:45 pm June 18, 2013Read More
By the age of 30 most people have navigated the murky waters of young adulthood, have started thinking about children or have made a definite decision against them, and have reached a point in their careers…
3:30 pm June 18, 2013Read More
The coffee scene in Jakarta just keeps getting better with a flurry of exciting new openings, many with impressively dedicated baristas. As the capital of a nation that produces more than 10 percent of world’s coffee,…
3:13 pm June 18, 2013Read More
Gorgona Island, Italy. High on a hillside overlooking the azure sea on a small Mediterranean island, two brawny men toil under the sun in a vineyard that has just released a 50-euro ($66) wine destined for…
5:36 pm June 17, 2013Read More
Toronto. Less than four years ago, Viktoria Mohácsi enjoyed the life of an international politician, eating at pricey restaurants in Brussels and winning awards as a human rights activist. Today, the 38-year old mother of three…
5:26 pm June 17, 2013Read More
Superman blockbuster “Man of Steel” soared to the top of the North American box office this weekend, scoring a $113-million opening despite mixed reviews, provisional figures showed Sunday. The Zach Snyder-directed movie stars British actor Henry…
4:55 pm June 17, 2013Read More
The spiritual heart of Shiite Islam and a hub for religious tourism in Iraq is being badly hit as sanctions against neighboring Iran have resulted in fewer pilgrims with less money to spend. Business leaders, shopkeepers…
10:02 am June 17, 2013Read More
For most of us, pucung is an unfamiliar word as it is known by a more colloquial name. Pucung is a Betawi name for keluak or black nut. The black nut is usually mixed with many…
3:46 pm June 16, 2013Read More
Newly crowned Indonesia Open Superseries champions Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan remain the ones to beat at the Singapore Open after their victory over Malaysian rivals Goh V Shem and Lim Khim Wah during Wednesday’s opener.…
7:07 pm June 19, 2013Read More
The city of San Jose filed a federal anti-trust lawsuit against Major League Baseball on Tuesday after four years without progress on a potential move of the Oakland A’s to San Jose. The San Jose Mercury…
1:15 pm June 19, 2013Read More
Chelsea defender David Luiz on Tuesday led his Brazil teammates in speaking out in support of mass protests in the country that have overshadowed the start of the Confederations Cup. Some 250,000 people took to the…
1:01 pm June 19, 2013Read More
Spain forward Fernando Torres was on the outside looking in as his compatriots made a winning start in the Confederations Cup against Uruguay, but the Chelsea forward says he intends to give coach Vicente Del Bosque…
11:39 am June 19, 2013Read More
Having defeated Pelita Jaya in the National Basketball League final, Dell Aspac Jakarta will shoulder a bigger responsibility by representing Indonesia in the 2013 Southeast Asian Basketball Championship at Medan’s Samudra Stadium later this week. With…
8:35 pm June 18, 2013Read More
Even though Indonesian veteran shuttler Taufik Hidayat officially said goodbye to fans and retired from international competitions last week following the Indonesia Open, he is still giving back to the game that made him a star.…
8:22 pm June 18, 2013Read More
After taking the Indonesia Warriors to two consecutive Asean Basketball League finals, head coach Todd Purves will part ways with the Jakarta-based side, the club announced on Tuesday. Purves’ contract will expire on June 30 and…
7:51 pm June 18, 2013Read More
Djarum has confirmed to officially pull out of its sponsorship on Indonesia Open Superseries starting next year following a tobacco ban policy issued by the Badminton World Federation. Though Djarum will no longer support the…
8:40 pm June 17, 2013Read More
As fans looked on in Jakarta’s Istora Stadium, a slideshow commenced on a giant screen to commemorate the many achievements of retiring veteran Indonesian shuttler, Taufik Hidayat. Ending with Taufik’s motto “Winning is an attitude. Keeping…
9:55 am June 17, 2013Read More
Local badminton men’s duo, Hendra Setiawan and Mohammad Ahsan completed their mission successfully when they won the Indonesia Open finals on Sunday. Playing against Korea’s Lee Yong Dae and Ko Sung Hyun at Istora Senayan, world…
9:24 am June 17, 2013Read More
Recife, Brazil. For soccer fans flocking to Confederations Cup matches in Brazil’s tropical northeast next week, getting tickets to the stadium should be simple — but two in three will not find accommodations in the host city Recife. Officials are…
1:36 pm June 16, 2013Read More
Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s football authority announced a slew of measures to punish and prevent racist behaviour at games, after Philippine football chiefs complained to FIFA about racist abuse of its players and fans. The moves…
1:16 pm June 15, 2013Read More
Indonesian Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka overcame a substantially lower world badminton ranking to down China’s Du Pengyu on Friday, delivering him a semifinal spot in the $700,000 Djarum Indonesia Open. Playing at Istora Gelora Bung Karno in…
7:40 pm June 14, 2013Read More
Brasilia. After months of angst over preparation delays, Brazil steps into the global spotlight Saturday when it kicks off the Confederations Cup, a key test of its readiness to stage the World Cup next year. Six…
7:35 pm June 14, 2013Read More
Indonesian badminton men’s doubles team, Markis Kido and Alvent Chandra secured a quarterfinal berth in the Indonesia Open after defeating their Malaysian rivals, third seeds Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong. Markis and Alvent claimed…
3:30 pm June 14, 2013Read More