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You can search the blog with our simple search below, or use the extended functions of the Google search engine to search for blog articles you are looking for.
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The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) movement was inseparable from the interest of some Western countries and got financial support from them, Indonesias Ambassador to Switzerland, Joko Susilo, has said.
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Presidential hopeful Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has clarified smear campaign against him when he met ulemas at Al-Khairiyah Islamic boarding school in Cilegon. "Rumors saying that I will abolish rice distribution for the poor and the teacher certification program are slander. In fact, if Jokowi-Jusuf Kalla pair wins, we will increase them," Jokowi said here on Tuesday.
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Vice presidential candidate Jusuf Kalla has urged the police to immediately arrest the publisher of "Obor Rakyat" tabloid that has so far spread slanders about presidential candidate Joko Widodo.
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The State News Agency Antara reports that the managers of Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport are implementing steps to enhance security and supplement personnel following an “unlawful incident” initially reported as the hijacking on a Virgin Australia flight from Brisbane to Bali.
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Borobudur temple, the worlds largest Buddhist temple located in central Java, is expected to be fully opened next week as the cleaning up work of the temple from Mount Keluds ash has reached 80 percent.
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Indonesian police officers arrested two terror suspects in Makassar, South Sulawesi, and in Poso, Central Sulawesi, on Saturday, a police spokesman said here on Monday.
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On Monday, February 11, 2013, the strange and twisting tale of Bali expatriate Andrea Geovani Soreti (earlier reported as Sorenti) ended in police custody at a Sleman, Central Java hospital where he died, aged 49, reportedly of dehydration, septicemia and kidney failure.
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Courage is required to settle a religious conflict in Sampang, Madura, East Java province, said Waluyo, a senior official at the Social Affairs Ministry. Two Muslim siblings, Tajul Muluk and Roisul Hukama, began to fight, which resulted in a religious conflict in the area. We have to find a solution, he said on Tuesday.
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Police confirmed that the body of a terrorist suspect killed during a firefight with police Densus 88 anti-terrorist squad in Poso belongs to M Choiri alias Jipo alias Iben hailing from Bima, West Nusa Tenggara.
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Coordinating minister for people`s welfare Agung Laksono has refuted the allegation that Islamic Boarding Schools or Pondok Pesantren have helped shape radical groups.
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Visiting US State Secretary Hillary Clinton in her remark at a press conference here on Monday said there should be no discrimination against any minority in this world.
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An Islamic leader has said the recent conflict in Sampang, Madura island, East Java province, was not between Nahdlatul Ulama (Sunnis) members and Shiites.
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Two people were killed when four construction workers were hit by landslide in the village of Sampora, Kuningan, West Java, on Saturday. The four workers were digging the ground to make foundation of a Muslim boarding school when they were suddenly buried alive in the land slide that morning.
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Noted cleric from Baltimore, the US, Muhammad Bashar Arafat, is in Lombok, in West Nusa Tenggara province to visit a number of Islamic boarding schools to inform about Islam development in his country.
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The 6.1-magnitude earthquake that hit Sukabumi on Monday has damaged 448 buildings, reported an official of the Sukabumi disaster mitigation office (BPBD).
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The Jakarta Metropolitan police suspect that the alleged terrorists arrested in Pondok Aren, South Tangerang, in the Banten province, West Java, were fund collectors. "We suspect that they are members of a `fai` (fund collecting) group," command spokesman Senior Commissioner Rikwanto said here on Monday.
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Last week it made some headlines, but I didn't have the time to get back to it right away. Well, that should be special new then, right? Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be that special. Hardly any attention was given to it in Indonesia, at least not of the stone-throwing and firebombing kind of attention that we should expect with this kind of news.
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The chief of the Nahdlatul Ulama Islamic organization, Said Aqil Siradj, said the conflict in Sampang on the island of Madura in East Java recently was not between Sunnis and Shiites but a mere family matter.
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Umar Patek, the terror suspect arrested in Pakistan in January 2011 and returned to Indonesia, was brought to Bali by Indonesian police to Bali on Thursday, October 20, 2011, to visit five locations linked with the 2002 Bali bombing.
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The real life adventures of former al-Qaida-linked terrorist Nasir Abas have become a new comic book in Indonesia, chronicling his transformation from militant to invaluable ally in the fight against terrorism.
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It was a normal Wednesday last week and still it seemed that something was completely wrong with Lion Air. After they had received a stern warning from the Department of Transport, the came with so-called 'own' improvements, but the airline does not seem capable of letting their many flights depart on schedule.
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A wave of condemnation greeted the verdicts imposed on Thursday against 12 people accused of killing three members of the minority Ahmadiyah group in Indonesia.
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Three board members from the Umar Bin Khatab (UBK) Islamic boarding school, where a bomb blast over two weeks ago killed one person, are still wanted for their involvement in terrorist attacks, officials said Monday.
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Indonesian National Police on Saturday officially announced the arrest of the principal of the Umar Bin Khatab (UBK) Islamic boarding school, where a bomb blast two weeks ago killed one person, and named him a terror suspect.
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Indonesian police on Friday arrested the principal of the Islamic boarding school where a bomb explosion killed one person last Monday, officials said.
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Two days after a bomb explosion in an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia killed one person, police were finally able to enter school grounds after struggling with armed students, officials said Wednesday.
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At least one person was killed after a bomb explosion targeted an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia, as police continue to struggle with students to enter school grounds, local media reported Tuesday.
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At least 17 people have been confirmed dead after a boat capsized off the Indonesian island of Kalimantan, officials said Monday.
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At least 123 Indonesians are still in Libya, more than the previous number announced by the government earlier this week, the Jakarta Globe reported Thursday.


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About 253 Indonesians were evacuated from Libya early Sunday after waiting more than 40 hours for an aircraft the Indonesian embassy had chartered, the Antara news agency reported.
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News Agency Antara reports that the Bali police successfully thwarted an effort to smuggle more than 50 people originating from the Middle East to Australia via Bali and Madura. "The were 52 immigrants from the Middle East who we taken into custody near Kubu, Karangasem on Saturday night, February 20th," said the director of the Bali Water Police, Agus Doeta Supranggono.
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Indonesian terrorist suspect and Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir was transported to a Jakarta hospital in an armored vehicle on Monday amidst tight security, the Antara news agency reported.
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With two tickets Batam-Jakarta-Yogyakarta we made an effort to get to our final destination of the day quite early in the morning today. When I checked the news enjoying a fresh cup of coffee I found out that the airport of Yogyakarta was still closed and that this was likely to stay this way for some time to come. So no direct flight to Yogyakarta today.
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The radical islamic FPI (Islam Defenders Front) will not hold its congress for new leadership until 2013, yet several of its elites are already in competition to wrest the chairmanship from the frail Habib Rizieq. A source within the FPI said internal rivalry has intensified since 2005 between the founding elite and those who have since joined the organization.
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Because of the relative closeness of the free world - everything is relative - that is called Singapore, you will find all kind of products on Batam up for the grabs. Of course you should make sure that you are buying the real stuff, but generally spoken you will, but without the hefty import duties Indonesia puts on luxury imported goods.
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The anti terror unit of the Indonesian national police, Densus 88, has arrested a number of suspected terrorists yesterday and earlier today. This happened in a number of separate raids in the last 24 hours. The raids were held in Jakarta and Bekasi, directly east of the Indonesian capital.
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I have been there before and I have written about it before. It is still a nice and not unimportant easy-to-reach destination for a quick lunch and a Large Bintang before you start the second half of the day. Just relaxing for a couple of hours, coming to terms after the first part of the day.
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Again the Goddess of the South Sea, Ratu Kidul has claimed victims. Seven people went missing on the beach of Parangtritis near Yogyakarta earlier today. They were dragged into the sea by the waves of the Indian Ocean. Bodies of three of them were recovered by rescue teams, that ventured out on sea soon after the incident, during the afternoon.
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On Sunday, November 15, 2009, Indonesia's Minister of Culture and Tourism, Jero Wacik, and the Minister of Law and Human Right, Patrialis Akbar, conducted a snap inspection of the visa-on-arrival (VOA) procedures at Bali's Ngurah Rai Airport.
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The leader of the Islamic boarding school in Ngruki, Abu Bakar Bashir, was almost forced to leave a village near the city of Serang in West Java early this morning. Some fifty residents of Kaujon village visited the residence of Mamah Suhaemi, a former leader of the Mujahidin Council of Indonesia, where Bashir spent the night.
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Although KLM is flying to destinations like Jakarta and Surabaya in Indonesia through a 'detour' - by codeshares with Malaysian and Singapore Airlines for example - they will also fly to Bali with their own blue swans three times a week later this year. This means that three plane loads of Dutchmen can fly to Bali to celebrate their holidays without leaving the Netherlands behind during their long flights.
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An Indonesian court has acquitted controversial Muslim cleric Pujiono Cahyo Widianto over child sexual molestation charges for marrying an underage girl, aged 12 last year. Widianto risked up to 15 years in jail, had he been convicted of the charges. Prosecutors said they would appeal the court ruling. The girl is his second wife.
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After flying with AirAsia resulted in a slight disappointment I tried to fly with Batavia Air more often. They also have a number of new planes and offer regular fares which are attractive enough to give it a try as well. Fares are not that much different than those of AirAsia, but AirAsia just knows how to play the pricing game better.
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It is something that children do, as well as adults. For adults it is a full-time job or volunteer job and not something you just do incidentally. But that last one is what happened two nights ago. It was just after six in the evening when a Dutch friend and I were having a beer in one of the many cafe's in the Jodoh area on the island of Batam. One of the Australians that entered before we did walked outside but came right back in. "There is a fire," he said with a normal voice.
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Residents of the village of Ngrowo in the district of Bojonegoro last night entered a room of a boarding house after they suspected that the people inside were doing something that God has forbidden. When the villagers noticed that two men entered the room around eight in the evening, they did not suspect anything. After nine in the evening - normal visiting hours are until that time in Indonesia - however the second young man had not left yet.
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Some 5.000 Muslims from several districts in the Surakarta region gathered yesterday to declare their fight against terrorism. A number of Islamic organizations and leaders of boarding schools gathered on the central square of Kotabarat to denounce acts of terrorism which have already killed hundreds in Indonesia alone in the past decade.
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Before you know it you are in another boarding room. In this case on the airport of Hang Nadim. Back to Jakarta indeed, but the Batavia Air plane has not arrived yet so the minutes of delay start to count already. In contrary to the airport of Jakarta, there are no boards with information about the recently introduced laws on the protection of passengers in case of delay. Most people don't know about the fact that they have the right to a snack and a drink if there is a delay indeed.
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The local police in Depok have succeeded in seizing 89 kilograms of marijuana ready to be distributed in a boarding house in the Pancoran Mas Permai housing complex in the city in West Java province. The police was not able to arrest the person who was about to distribute the drugs, only known by his initials A.Y.
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The number of patients that are suspected of having H1N1 Mexican Flu has increased to 89 in total. Earlier today, the Haji Hospital and Soetomo Hospital in the city of Surabaya in East Java started to refuse new possible patients originating from the pesantren (Islamic boarding school) Al Fitra. The Haji Hospital says that their isolation rooms are all full. The Sutomo Hospital says that three santri do not need to be observed in the hospital.
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Dozens of santri (schoolchildren of Islamic boarding school) of Pesantren Al Fitrah in Surabaya are currently being treated in the Haji Sukolilo hospital. A number of them has already tested positive for H1N1 Mexican flu while test results for the others are not known yet.
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The JI was established as a loose confederation of several Islamic groups. Sometime around 1969, two men, Abu Bakar Bashir,and Abdullah Sungkar, began an operation to propagate the Darul Islam movement, a conservative strain of Islam. Darul Islam was almost eliminated in the 1950s after members belonging to that sect instigated a rebellion in an effort to create an Islamic state in parts of Indonesia.
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In the last few days it has become clear that the idea to blow up the restaurants of the J.W. Marriott Hotel and Ritz-Carlton Hotel might have originated from the Malaysian terrorist-on-the-run Noordin Mohammad Top, which is related to the Southeast Asian terrorist network of Jemaah Islamiyah. Also some pesantren (islamic boarding school) in Central Java are closely watched for their possible connection to that person.
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International suspicion focused Friday on a Malaysian accountant-turned-bombmaker as the instigator of a pair of blasts at Western hotels in Jakarta that may have signaled the re-emergence of deadly attacks by Southeast Asian groups affiliated with Al Qaeda, according to counterterrorism officials and analysts.
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I had to get quite early this time, around four o'clock in the morning. That time is better known here as subuh, about the time at which the first prayer of the day for Muslims is held. However the alarm from my cell phone - no need for a buzzer or watch - was set at exactly four o'clock, I woke up just a few minutes earlier. In the background I could already hear some mosques uttering their first call for prayer at this early time. However that is no reason for me to get up this early, catching a plane is.
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With a flight in the afternoon I departed from Yogyakarta to the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta. For the first time I was to fly this route with AirAsia. It is called AirAsia here, but in fact it's a separate company that listens to the name Indonesia AirAsia. This difference is subtle, but if you know that AirAsia uses airline code AK, and Indonesia AirAsia QZ, it all becomes clear.
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A leader of a Islamic boarding school (Pondok Pesantren) is accused of raping two of his students and is currently in a police cell in the district of Malang. The leader, only known as N.H., was arrested by the regional police of Malang in a rented house in Pare, in the district of Kediri. N.H. is also the leader of a boarding school in the village Kaumrejo, sub-district Ngantang in the district of Malang. There he has allegedly raped two of his students. The two girls, both 17, are from the village of Ngawensari, sub-district Ringin Anom, district Kendal in Central Java.
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Thousands of people gathered for the funerals of three Indonesians executed on Sunday for the 2002 Bali bombings, sparking clashes between police and emotional supporters. The three men from the group Jemaah Islamiah, Imam Samudra, 38, and brothers Mukhlas, 48, and Amrozi, 46, were executed by firing squad in central Java shortly after midnight, claiming to want to die as "martyrs" and having shown no remorse for the attacks.
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Three Bali bombers have been executed on an Indonesian island for their lead roles in the 2002 nightclub bombings that killed 202 people. The family of Mukhlas and his younger brother Amrozi said the bombers had been executed along with Imam Samudra just after midnight local time on Nusakambangan Island, in Central Java, where they had been jailed.
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When the Ramadan arrives, the 'waria' (wanita-pria or shemale) also have the need to join others for their prayers in a local mosque. But there is still a negative effect surrounding them. They are lucky enough to have a religious leader (ustadz) which noticed this problem and decided to open a religious boarding school for shemales in Notoyudan, Yogyakarta. "Here we are humans again. We learn to recite prayers together, break the fast together and thing like that. All activities are done together," said Arief.
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Indonesian AirAsia was recently scolded by the Director General of Civil Aviation, Tri S. Sunoko, who told the low cost airline to start assigning seat numbers on the airline's boarding passes. According to the Indonesian aviation official, the pre-assignment of seats is needed to help identify passengers in the event of an air accident.
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Outside the use of the many thousands of - in general - old buses that are still in use today, there is a new option which was introduced just a few years ago. In 2004 these were brand new buses which were used on - then - just two routes. One route ran from north to south and back and the other one from west to east and back. The official name TransJakarta can be found on the buses, but for the rest the company is known as 'Busway'. And that is exactly what it is, because TransJakarta is too common. In the four year that this company exists hundreds of bus stops were constructed from durable materials and four more routes were organized as well. They seem to run all across the city without any logic though.
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What is the fastest way to get from the north of Jakarta to somewhere in the southern part of the city? That is a question which is hard to answer for a city like Jakarta. With some 15 million residents and several hundreds of square kilometers of city it often is such a big unorganized situation that you will not be able to just go somewhere to buy groceries or to pick someone up.
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Passengers of a Batavia Air flight from Jakarta to Jambi have waited more than eight hours for their departure, before the plane eventually left at 21:15 local time. Earlier, the passengers protested against their huge delay. They beseiged another Batavia Air plane which was scheduled for departure to Denpasar.
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It didn't get better when I carefully lifted the plastic flap and reached outside with my head. A driver on a motorbike which was in some kind of a hurry could hardly avoid me. In front of us a long row of red lights in the streets. Between the vehicles I could mainly see water and more nearby I heard the water gush out of the draining canal onto the pavement and the street. Ooh well, it must be raining heavily somewhere close, because it was quite an amount of water that came rushing towards us. Slowly the three wheels of the bajaj disappeared under water. I was hoping that the water would not reach too high at the end, because after over half an hour in this kind of transport, sitting becomes quite uncomfortable.
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All of a sudden I got a rush that I would be able to find a bajaj - a terrible orange noise factory on three wheels - driver who was to drive me around through these 'floods', the water was less than 30 centimeters high, so it didn't seem that terrible through my untrained eyes. My girlfriend wanted to join me as well, but not directly because she wanted to see it, but mainly because I had a stupid idea like this once again. Safety was the main reason I guess, however I would be able to save myself here. If water levels would reach high enough which was pretty unlikely given the fact that the sea was less than a kilometer away with a flat landscape - I would be able to swim home as well. That is the worse-case-scenario however, I prefer to stay as dry as possible.
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Traveling by minibus we arrived in Jakarta from Bandung with a large detour via Soekarno-Hatta International Airport we were dropped at our destination, a boarding house in Pluit, a neighborhood in the far north of Jakarta. A friend of us also stayed in the boarding house, so it seemed like a nice idea to spend several nights there, also because there was a nice shower and air-conditioning of course. Without both it would be a pretty sweaty adventure in the always sticky city of Jakarta. In this case preventing is better than having to look for a cure later on, so we preferred a room in the boarding house. After we dropped our bags we ate something, because lunch time had already passed. After lunch we had a quick look around to see where we had ended up after all.
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It is a completely random day at the end of August. Time to catch a plane to head for a new destination. Fortunately I know what is waiting for me on the other side. This is, for me personally, a lot less stress. I tend to arrange everything into the smallest details, and that from someone that tries to build a life in Indonesia. Yeah, I know, it sounds strange, but until now it was relatively easy for that matter. The bright red AirAsia plane touches down after about two hours of flight. The environment still is tropical and green. It is clouded, that is the only thing I notice directly. That means that here at least I can see what kind of weather it is, because that is a big difference than just two hours ago. Because Jakarta is always covered under a thick layer of brown smog and other lethal stuff.
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When Singapore's Dr Love invites you up to his hotel room, you don't say no. And once you're inside, he doesn't disappoint. The doctor has plans for educating about the entire world about sex. He starts with pointing at his laptop - and Indonesia. People there can send questions via cellphone text messages anonymously. An avatar called 'Nova' - a virtual character with artificial intelligence - will give an answer.
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Prosecutors in Indonesia have asked for 15 to 20 year jail sentences for 17 Christians charged under anti-terror laws of the murder on two Muslims by an angry mob which presented itself after the execution of three Christian militants last year. The 17 were part of a gang that allegedly killed a Muslim fishmonger and his assistant in the region of Poso in Central Sulawesi. This area is a Christian pocket in the predominantly Muslim Indonesia.
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Just over one week ago it all happened. At walking distance one person was killed, some were arrested and after that the party was over as quick as it started. It wasn't a criminal shootout and n drugs were found as well. It was nothing more than busting some terrorism-suspects by an anti-terror squad from the Indonesian police (Densus 88); they were simply overwhelmed in their hide-out. The one that tried to flea, was directly given some bullets and didn't survive the event. Seven others were arrested. In fact that could be the entire story, but it was just not to happen that way. It proved to be the start of what currently looks like a terror cell uncovered. Within two weeks after the first shooting several more police actions were held. Police is scarce with giving information, but in recent days is became clear that most likely a part of the Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah has been found.
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An Islamic militant began his 20-year jail sentence last Thursday on charges of plotting the beheading of three Christian schoolgirls in Poso in 2005. Tho other militants sentenced for the same crime were sentenced to each 14 years. Judges said they had no doubt that the 34-year-old Hasanuddin was the mastermind behind the murders. "The defendant along with his accomplices has violated the anti-terrorism laws," said chief judge Binsar Siregar told the court on Wednesday.
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A 32-year-old GO worker and his partner from the same sex were allegedy brutally tortured and sexually abused by the police in Banda Aceh while in custody last January. This was said by the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC). AHRC has named the NGO officials as Hartayo and Bobby. The motive behind the detention, torture and sexual abuse is because they are homosexuals, says AHRC in an 'urgent action' appeal.
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Police and army in Central Sulawesi are put on high alert after warnings that Islamic militants are planning attacks in the area. This was told by the regional police chief late Friday. Earlier that day the Australian government had announced it had credible information that militants were already in an advanced stage of planning attacks in Central Sulawesi, which has been the scene of tensions between Christians and Muslims for quite some time now.
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Policemen arrested on Thursday two men wanted as top members of a local Islamic militant group that has terrorized the country's Central Sulawesi province and had links to an Asian terror network, police said. Officers wounded one of them who had fired at the security forces, said a senior police official in Central Sulawesi's Poso regency, where raids on hideouts of suspected militants have intensified recently.
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A suspected Islamic militant told judges Wednesday he took part in the beheadings of three Christian girls on an Indonesian island wracked by sectarian violence to avenge the deaths of Muslims, but apologized to their families. "We are not cool-blooded killers," Hasanuddin told the Central Jakarta District Court. "We just wanted revenge."
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Police arrested 14 Christians accused of bludgeoning two Muslim men to death amid anger at the execution of three Roman Catholic militants on Sulawesi island last month, a police officer said Monday. The fish salesmen were killed at an illegal roadblock on the island's main highway and their bodies were buried in a shallow grave nearby, said Central Sulawesi Police Chief Brig. Gen. Badrudin Haiti.
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A Muslim religious leader in the predominately Hindu island of Bali in Indonesia has said that any fresh terrorist attack on the island could spark sectarian violence. "The relations between the majority Hindu people and the Muslim minority are still good but I fear this could change if there were another attack," Wayan Sahdan, a Balinese Muslim and director of a private Islamic school on the island told Adnkronos International (AKI).
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A home-made bomb went off near a church in Indonesia's restive own of Poso, Central Sulawesi province, just after midnight Saturday, causing no injury. "It was a low explosive caused by a home-made bomb," Central Sulawesi Police spokesman M. Kilat was quoted by the country's leading news website Detikcom as saying. "But the blast was the third in the last two months. We have increased the security profile."
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Indonesians rioted yesterday after the executions of three Christian men convicted of leading an attack on a Muslim boarding school that killed 200 people. Tensions flared in central Sulawesi as the trio's death by firing squad was carried out, with anger increasing as it emerged that at least one of the men's bodies was buried against his family's wishes and without the family being able to view his corpse.
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Gridlocked cars. Noxious traffic fumes. Indonesia's capital is crying out for a new transport network, but stop-start plans for a monorail illustrate the country's chequered efforts to build badly needed infrastructure. The idea of a gleaming monorail gliding above the congested tropical city of nearly 9 million people is an enticing one and proponents point to neighbouring Bangkok's Skytrain or Kuala Lumpur's monorail in at least easing equally grim transport woes.
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Three Indonesian Christian militants convicted of leading a mob that killed Muslims will be executed on Thursday, the convicts' lawyer said, but there was no immediate word on the fate of their clemency appeals. Fabianus Tibo, Marianus Riwu and Dominggus Silva were sentenced to death in 2001 after being found guilty of leading a Christian mob in an attack that killed more than 200 people at an Islamic boarding school during Muslim-Christian clashes in Central Sulawesi's Poso region.
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It was about time for me to get a new visa. Because of regulations it's not possible to extend a certain kind of visa - tourist visa. Also you can't apply for a new visa when in Indonesia as well. You will have to go to an Indonesian embassy. Where that embassy is doesn't really matter, so there are a lot of options left to look around for a holiday-hobbyist. And so I got to plan my first 'visa trip' to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Someone I know from the internet lives around there as well, so I also created the opportunity to meet. That should not be a problem because I would stay there for one entire week. I wasn't in a hurry - I didn't have to go back to Indonesia the same day or so - so I could look around there while my passport would be updated with a new sticker which permits entry into Indonesia again.
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Looking back in a bunch of old airline tickets, entrance ticket and whatever more, I again found some 'remarkable' items. A part of a boarding pass for a flight with Garuda Indonesia, which haven't been flying to the Netherlands for quite some time now. Also an entrance ticket to the Prambanan temple complex as well as a lunch in the Via Via Cafe in the well-known Jalan Prawirotaman in Yogyakarta. Several months after the earthquake I happened to be there accidentally because I was looking for something completely different. Still a reminder to get on my motorbike and see what became of the place. Especially going there for that one thing didn't have to, because I would go there anyway for renting a car for some friends coming over from Bali.
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Indonesia is arguably Asia's least well-educated country, and the government is largely to blame. With 30% of its 242 million population school-aged, the world's largest Muslim country ranks lowest among its Asian neighbors in terms of public education expenditure.
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Nearly 40 passengers were still missing after a ferry sunk in rough waters off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island, officials said Friday. Most of the over 130 passengers and crew on board the Surya Makmur Indah ferry when it sunk off the coast of North Sumatra Thursday were rescued, but dozens of others were still missing.
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A militant cleric alleged to be a top leader in an al-Qaida-linked terror group was released from prison Wednesday to cries of "God is great" from supporters. Abu Bakar Bashir, 68, had served 26 months for conspiracy in the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people and thrust Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, onto the front lines of the war on terror.
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An Indonesian militant cleric jailed in connection with a 2002 Bali bombing will be free in a week, said a top Indonesian official. Indonesia's Justice and Human Rights Minister Hamid Awaluddin said Tuesday that Abu Bakar Bashir, 68, would be released on June 14. Bashir has served 26 months of a 30-month sentence after being convicted of conspiracy in the nightclub bombing that killed 202 people, including two Canadians.
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Indonesia prepared to welcome British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Wednesday on a visit aimed at strengthening ties and anti-terror cooperation between Britain and the world's most populous Muslim nation. The trip is the first by a British prime minister to Indonesia in more than two decades, showing the country's renewed importance for Western nations seeking to build alliances with moderate Muslims.
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Traveling in Indonesia, whenever you attempt to do this, you will notice the vast amount of small paper - sometimes even like toilet-paper - tickets you get. On virtually every occasion you will get at least one. Not one, but one for your car, motorbike, your friends, your family, your kids. And it gets even worse, since you don't get tickets for everyone, but also for everything. This becomes clear when you take the ferry. It doesn't matter which ferry, but you will get a ticket to enter the seaport, for parking, for boarding the boat, for bringing your car and to be insured during your trip. This results in a handful of tickets, and then you only got onto the ferry.
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The recent research conducted by the International Center for Islam and Pluralism (ICIP), the Indonesian Islamic Boarding School Association (BKSPPI) and AusAID, in which I was involved, shows that many pesantren (Islamic boarding schools), both traditional (salaf) and modern, in West Java reject pluralism as they perceive this as an acceptance of the relativity of religion -- or rejecting the notion that Islam is the absolute truth.
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The death toll of floods and landslides in Jember district, Indonesia's East Java province, had increased to 85 as of Thursday morning, while rescue workers are still searching and evacuating other victims.
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Flash floods swept away hundreds houses and schools in central Indonesia early Monday, killing at least 34 people, said a government official. Villages were inundated when overnight rains triggered a landslide on a hill in Panti, a subdistrict of East Java province, and forced a river to burst its banks.
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There is no danger that Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, will be turned into an Islamic state. One reason for this is that most Indonesians practice a moderate strain of Islam and are tolerant of different religions. Another reason is that the nation's founding fathers, who included charismatic Muslim leaders and ulema, never wanted Indonesia to be an Islamic state.
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Indonesian Vice-President Jusuf Kalla is calling for the fingerprinting of 3.5 million Islamic boarding school students. The move has sparked outrage across the archipelago, the Australian reported Monday. There are about 15,000 Islamic boarding schools across Indonesia. They have been on the defensive since the second Bali bombings in October, with the Indonesian Government taking steps to crack down on the schools.
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Attending a ceremony to mark the 60th anniversary of the Indonesian military (TNI) on October 5, just days after the deadly bombing in Bali, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono instructed the TNI to "take part in effectively curbing, preventing and acting against terrorism".
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Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, will monitor Islamic boarding schools as part of its effort to fight militant violence and suicide bombings, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said. Indonesia has been racked by a spate of bomb attacks in recent years, including one on the tourist island of Bali this month in which 23 people died, including three suicide bombers.
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Only for the first time since 1999, I was about to make some boat trips. After planning a trip by motor from Yogya all the way to Sumbawa Besar (yes, on Sumbawa island), I soon discovered there was no road all the way, but there were some stretches of sea to cross as well. By plane was one option, but then I had to check in my motorbike several times. I didn't even think about using a plane, since it was most likely a lot of work arrange six flights to and back from some of Indonesia's eastern islands.
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One year after a leading Indonesian human rights activist was murdered after boarding a flight from Jakarta to Europe, the Indonesian government has failed to properly investigate and prosecute those behind Munir Said Thalib’s death, Human Rights Watch said today.
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Heavy rain fell on Indonesia's corpse-littered city of Banda Aceh Saturday, creating the conditions for cholera and other waterborne diseases to spread and adding to the misery of the thousands made homeless by the quake and tsunamis. A steady stream of foreign military aircraft _ including the first Blackhawk helicopters off of a U.S. aircraft carrier _ touched down at the airport close to this provincial capital with emergency aid. But officials acknowledged distribution networks were not in place to deliver the supplies to the most hard-hit areas.
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Budi, a 30-year-old resident of Bogor, West Java, was anxious when he learned that Jakarta would launch raids on rented houses starting Thursday, to weed out unregistered newcomers to the city. "I'm afraid of being arrested. Who would pay the Rp 5 million (US$555.56) fine so that I could walk free -- certainly not my employer," said the food stall employee. "Do I have to have a Jakarta ID even though my house is in Bogor?"
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