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A cold mud flow streaming from Mount Kelud and flowing into River Konto inundated farming areas in Kandangan sub-district, Pare district and Badas sub-district, Kediri district, East Java Province.
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Around 50 million cubic meters of Mount Keluds volcanic materials have posed danger of flooding in areas around the slopes of the volcano.
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The Indonesian Military (TNI) soldiers have beefed up security arrangements around the lava canal of Mount Kelud in the Kediri District, East Java province, as it can be dangerous to the residents.
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Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra has remained dangerous as eruptions continued to be recorded at 106 times in the past two days.
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On Wednesday, the Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) of Yogyakarta announced through the Gubernatorial Decree No.317/kep/2013 an alert status on floods and landslides in the Yogyakarta Special Region following the raining season.
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West Aceh District of Aceh Province is shrouded in smoke after peatlands in the region caught fire due to illegal land clearing by burning. Head of Emergency Department of West Aceh Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency Dedek Risman said in Meulaboh on Monday that the agency does not have sufficient tools to extinguish the fire.
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As many as 60 tourists were stung by jellyfish at Pelabuhanratu Beach, West Java, on Saturday. "Jellyfish were swept into the beach due to the cold water and they sting visiting tourists," spokesperson of Sukabumi Water Tourism Safety Board Dede Sumarna said here on Saturday.
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Floods on Siberut Island, Mentawai District, West Sumatra Province, have displaced around 10,000 residents, according to a spokesperson of Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) of Mentawai Islands.
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Flash flood hit 500 houses in Situbondo district, East Java, last Saturday night, Situbondo District`s Chief of Disaster Mitigation Agency Zainul Arifin said.
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State Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan has been hospitalized at a hospital in Singapore since Sunday (September 9), after he complained of fatigue.
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A joint team of rescue workers successfully evacuated 19-year-old mountaineer Jumiko Apriansyah of Yogyakarta who slipped from Mount Merapi`s crater on Saturday night.
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The Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysic Agency (BMKG) has predicted that the dry season in Indonesia will begin in 342 season zones in May 2012.
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Two Indonesian deckhands have been taken into custody after allegedly killing the Taiwanese skipper of a fishing boat last December, the Antara news agency reported on Thursday.
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The activity of the Mount Merapi volcano in Central Java is increasing once again. According to the Volcanologic Agency BPPPTK, the renewed activity is caused by the formation of a new lava dome in the crater of the volcano. The alert status of the Mount Merapi volcano has not yet been changed and still stands at level three.
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Indonesian police on Wednesday found and disposed another suspected parcel bomb in South Kalimantan province, the Antara news agency reported.
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An Indonesian legislator on Monday stated that the recent parcel bomb incidents should not be used to discredit Islam, Indonesia's Antara news agency reported.
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Indonesian police on Thursday announced that a fourth explosive device hidden in a hollowed out book was sent to a residence in south Jakarta.
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Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Wednesday ordered the national police to conduct a thorough probe on Tuesday's parcel bomb incident, Antara news agency reported.
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The Center for Volcanoes and Geological Disasters PVMBG has announced that the alert status of the Mount Bromo volcano in eastern Java still stands firm at level three or 'aware'. The volcano still produces small eruptions frequently and every once in a while a large ash cloud is exhausted as well. Some of them reach as high as 800 meters from the crater.
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The crowds of Indonesians eager to glimpse the destruction wrought by their country's most active volcano are providing business opportunities amid a tragedy. People left homeless by volcanic eruptions in Indonesia last year have turned to tourism as a form of income, charging entry fees and selling graphic DVDs to hundreds of visitors a day.
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With heavy rainfall accompanied by sporadic but strong wind currents, Indonesia's Yogyakarta was hit by the largest outflow of cold lava and mud, locally known as lahar dingin, since October's Merapi eruptions, local media reported.
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Severe flooding from Mount Merapi's cold volcanic mud in Indonesia's Yogyakarta has prompted government officials to declare state of emergency, officials said Tuesday.
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Coca Cola Amatil on Thursday announced it plans to invest $300 million in Indonesia during the next three years.
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The Bureau of Volcano Research in the city of Yogyakarta has said that the alert status of the Mount Merapi volcano has not been lowered yet. The volcano has dramatically decreased in activity, especially compared to earlier this month, but this is not enough to lower the status just yet. The volcano is still on the highest alert status, level four.
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Indonesia's Mount Merapi death toll has increased to 240 after two weeks of constant eruptions, officials said Friday. The National Disaster Management Agency confirmed the number of deaths after its latest count that included additional people who died from respiratory problems, heart attacks and other illnesses related to the eruptions. In addition, the number of refugees has reached 380,049 people have been displaced.
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During the long weekend of last week the island was flooded with Indonesian and foreign tourists that either want to shop cheaper, or want to do things that they can not do at home. Some prefer to get completely wasted on alcohol - more cheap here than in Singapore - in a matter of hours to he can take the boat back a few hours later, the other spends a night on the island to taste some of the forbidden fruits here.
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A judge on Bali has sentenced the 26-year-old David Goltar Wicaksono to 20 years in prison for the rape and murder of the 33-year old Rikasano, a Japanese tourist. The perpetrator, from Malang in East Java, was arrested late last year as a suspect in the case and was indeed found to be guilty now.
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At a normal weekday I took a reasonable early air-conditioned bus to Jakarta. I regularly make this trip because it enables me to travel cheap as well as fast - as fast as traffic allows the bus to go - to downtown Jakarta.
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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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I didn't tell anything yet about the fact why we are in the kampung all of a sudden. In fact there is not much to tell since there is only one reason why we are here now and that is the birth of a new member of the family. A nice gave birth. She gave birth to a two-kilogram weighing, but healthy, son named David on December 3.
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However I don't see myself diving into the river to wash myself, it is still common practice here in the desa ('rural village'), especially for the children, to wash themselves when they are playing in the water they are already in. It doesn't get more easy, so why not just enjoy it? That is what they do indeed.
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The information panel above the LCD-television even indicates where the train is. We have just passed Kepanjen station and are headed for Blitar at a reasonable pace. Thanks to a power outlet in the wall of the train at every couple of seats and the mobile internet connection I always use, I can now even continue writing and internetting following my own biorhythm.
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It has been a year ago that I used the Indonesian railroad services. That was a trip from Yogyakarta to Jakarta with a dirty, cold and old-fashioned train. Trains like that are still widely available on Java. It normally is really cold on board of one of these trains, which makes traveling with them not the best option available.
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As relief efforts are ramped up following the West Sumatra earthquake on 30 September, aid groups have warned that thousands of survivors of an earlier quake on the Indonesian island of Java are facing health risks unless they receive adequate shelter.
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Although is still dry season, the southeastern part of Bali has seen unseasonably cold and wet weather caused by a so-called Madden-Julian oscillation in the higher stratosphere. An official from the Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysics Agency BMKG said. Rain and low temperatures was the weather during the Idul Fitri holidays.
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An armored money transport has been the target of a failed robbery last night. The transport was moving money from a branch of Bank Danamon in Muntilan in the regency of Magelang. The three people inside the money transport were cold-bloodedly killed by the robbers, who did not even attempt to steal the money.
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The edge of the crater of the Mount Galunggung volcano in the district of Tasikmalaya in West Java province has cracked over a length of 300 meters. The crack is just about a centimeter wide however, but it is assumed that the large earthquake of September 2, 2009 is the cause. The activity of the volcano however is not increasing. The crack is only dangerous because it can cause a landslide.
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Most likely the clerk was slightly confuse because he was fasting that he somewhat stressed when he saw my pork. It was around five in the afternoon when I strolled through the Hypermart supermarket, searching for a small gas stove which can be put on a table during the meal. Still sold out, so I went shopping for some food. The freezer full of daging babi. White text on a red background may look like big danger, but it is merely dead, packed and frozen pork.
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It was a Saturday yesterday. As usual I got up on time and after breakfast, mandi and a quick look on the internet I grabbed my stuff for a short trip to Jakarta, which is still about one hour from here. The bus at ten in the morning was one bus later than I had planned on taking in the first place, but well, that's how things go. No big deal.
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It was an old-fashioned Saturday evening in Jogjakarta. A part of my life that I left behind for a new life a few hundred kilometers away. I didn't miss a thing about it in the last two months, but when I am 'submerged' in it once again, it is fairly easy to pick up the old rhythm again. That is exactly what I did, together with my girlfriend and a number of friends in town.
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It has been two months ago that I left from Yogyakarta to move to my new house in Lippo Cikarang. Now everything has settled down - for some time already by the way - it is about time to go back to the city where I spent almost three years of my life. As I told before, I did not move from Yogyakarta because I had to, so returning is not a big problem for me.
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As we all know, many Indonesians like to have a beer or some other alcohol sometimes. And why not? It is their right to choose whether they want to have a nice cold beer, a cocktail or some other drink containing alcohol. Even if they are Muslim because it is not up to a state or institution to decide whether people from a certain religion can not drink alcohol.
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The long trip by bus lay behind us when we arrived at what we called home at half past three in the night. Most of the family stayed awake to greet us, so not to be rude I sat down on the wooden bench to eat something. After that it was soon time to excuse me to catch some sleep. I just wanted to go along with the rest here, so getting up early is something obligatory. Of course there is the understanding that I didn't have much sleep, so I could get some sleep without any problems.
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At the end of a Sunday afternoon we left from Lippo Cikarang in the direction of Kampung Rambutan, a bus terminal at the edge of Jakarta. From here we would take the bus later today. We would take the one headed for Cilacap at the southern coast of Central Java to bring a visit to the family of my girlfriend. The trip to the bus terminal took about one hour, which was only a small leg in the entire trip.
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After I wrote an article recently, some people thought that I was about to return to the Netherlands. Indeed I was in the Netherlands and indeed I was about to move. Whether I put these two facts in one article on purpose or not, it were two things that played an important role at that moment. Both of them have been rounded off properly though and it wasn't that hard after all.
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It is a humid night - like most nights in Jakarta indeed - after some light rain when I sit in a taxi on my way to meet two female friends. First something to eat and then enjoying the nightlife until the early hours of the next day, that was the deal we made by SMS during the course of the day. SMS-ing is much more convenient than calling each other all the time because connections are often not optimal. Another important thing is that SMS-es can be read again in case you forgot something.
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Yeah, the title looks like pure fraud, but that doesn't seem to be completely true though. For some time now, about one and a half year, Yogyakarta has its own ice rink for those who want to skate some rounds or just want to do crazy on two of those thin metal strips under your feel. That is at least what they say in advertisements for the ice rink. That reality is slightly different than in those advertisements, is not really amazing. However the leaflet got in a pile 'still to do' somewhere on my desk, I already had the chance to have a look what the fuss was all about.
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I have to admit, it is somewhere far outside any holiday season in the middle of November, maybe that will help create the almost deserted Kuta around this time of year. It was a short trip of about one hour from the beating cultural and religious heart of Bali, Ubud. With a virtually blue sky I left the spiritual village on a rented Mio (scooter), heading for the hot lowlands and crowds of Southern Bali. That crowd was a relative thing here, but seen from Ubud almost everything in the outside world looks crowded.
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It didn't last another five minutes again before I felt the first rain coming down. And it wasn't water thrown up by the tires of trucks and buses but rain. I assumed that I drove too far for the passing rainstorm, but that was an illusion. The real situation was much more wet than those few drops of rain, but it would only be clear later on. Since the rain was intensifying I decided to take a break somewhere along the road - no idea where - to drink a glass of hot jeruk hangat (hot water with a small orange squeezed in it) and a Sampoerna cigarette. Just to get oversight about the situation.
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It is October 8, 2008 in the morning when I prepare myself for a trip to the neighboring city of Solo. I do this because there are still some stamps missing in my albums. I do not collect points here, converted to money they are worth almost nothing and that 50 Rupiah discount on a bottle of iced tea of 3.500 Rupiah is something I am not waiting for as well. Those stamps however, I would like to have, so it occasionally occurs that I have to do some more effort for them than just the short trip to the local main post office downtown, at the other side of 'Malioboro'.
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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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Looks like a frog. Swims like a frog. But doesn't croak. A flattened, brown, aquatic species from Borneo has just become the only frog shown to have no lungs. The species, Barbourula kalimantanensis, is so rare that until last year only two specimens were known to science and no herpetologist had seen it alive, says David Bickford of the National University of Singapore.
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Parts of the city of Bandung, in western Java, were hit by bad weather with strong winds and heavy rain. This time there was also hail, which is pretty rare in tropical regions. The small stones of ice with a size of about one centimeter dropped from the sky in various parts of the city while it was raining. The hail caused damage to a number of vehicles that were outside.
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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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It is half past two in the afternoon on a warm Tuesday afternoon at the start of the wet monsoon. No guarantee for rain however, it has been strange weather for over a week now in Yogyakarta and elsewhere in Java it seems to be more of the same. The wind blows from the wrong direction I was told. Maybe that is just good, because that would mean I could have a dry trip to Bandung. However using the train is less reliable on the weather than flying, it is still prone to various delays.
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There are those period in which the normal life gets a little bit more exciting. It is mainly the many volcanoes which show off at the most strange times and can cause the most strange events. In the middle of 2006 it was the Mount Merapi volcano which caused people to flee it's slopes with an outflow of lava and some lahar (hot or cold mud flows with volcanic rocks), right now I am virtually half way between the Mount Anak Krakatau in the Sunda Strait and the Mount Kelud volcano in eastern Java.
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Mount Semeru volcano in the district of Lumajang in the province of east Java is in eruption since a few hours ago. The volcano showed the eruption with a dust storm and an explosion which could be heard up to one kilometer away from the crater. "The tourist track to hike to the peak of the volcano is obviously closed down immediately until further notice," said Suparno, the head of the observation station Sawur in the district of Lumajang.
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The death of IPDN student Cliff Muntu is not surprising. In Indonesia, seniority is very much embedded into local education culture. I began to sense this when I enter junior high school, and as I moved up onto higher education in Indonesia, the sense of seniority is felt even more.
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Sometimes you have those days that you want to enjoy the evening after a day of traveling around. This enjoying will work perfectly having a cold beer and some company. Earlier that day I had enjoyed the celebrations of Independence Day in and around Yogyakarta and after that I headed for Jalan Malioboro to do some shopping. That has to be done as well, and to combine it with something good, I decided to look for a place in one of the many bars or restaurants in the first small street off Jalan Malioboro, Jalan Sosrowijayan.
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Mount Gamkonora, located in South Ibu Sub-district, West Halmahera District, North Maluku Province, erupted yesterday at 14:50 hrs East Indonesian Time or 12:50 Jakarta time. Mount Gamkonora is located 3.5 hours from Ternate, capital of North Maluku Province. The mountain spewed cold lava and the dust is now piling up to 30 cm high with the radius of around 7.5 km from the epicenter. The Center for Vulcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation has increased the level of alertness from Level III to Level IV (the highest one) since yesterday. SATKORLAK PB reported that there have been five eruptions since 07:30 Jakarta time this morning.
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Two climbers that had been reported missing last week when climbing Mount Semeru were found alive earlier today and were evacuated from Besuk Tompe to Loji Air. "Thank God, the two mountaineers, Markus (28) and Riko (27), have been found alive although they are very weak for not having had any food for the last four days," said Joko Prihanton, head of Beuk Tompe National Park by telephone.
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It was a Saturday afternoon as any other, but sometimes I just feel the need to get out for a while. This is not always possible, but when there is a possibility and there are no other appointments in the agenda, then it just might happen that after lunch I decide to grab my stuff for a trip on the motorbike. It's not too far away, within the borders of the province of Yogyakarta, but at least I can get away from the daily life for a while. Helmet, keys and a wallet is enough. To store some of the memories I have I also bring a camera with me and within a matter of minutes I leave the area. Where do I go then? Ooh, I felt like having a drink in Wonosari, so that became my first destination, knowing that most likely it would be something in that direction, but that doesn't really matter.
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It's not really difficult go get up on time, around seven in the morning, so for that matter it's a nice service that it's possible to get a minivan in front of the door within the hour when I'm making a trip to a destination at a bigger distance than just in the city or nearby. That kind of minivan is called a travel here, and plies a fixed route a few times a day, for example from Yogyakarta via Solo, Madiun and Malang to Surabaya. Of course you can also travel the other way around, if you like you can go as far as Jakarta, but from Yogyakarta that is such a big distance that I rather prefer taking the train or a plane. Trains often depart or arrive at the most strange times possible, but that's a matter of looking what you personally most like.
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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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It was less than one week before it really happened. I was in Kuala Lumpur to settle some official stuff, and when drinking an iced tea I took some time off in the evening to visit a friend. It was getting late and however we usually only 'speak' to each other on the internet, we had some serious issues as well. Sometimes it's best to make a small joke about accidents and disasters. The people on board of the missing Adam Air plane are having a splendid time diving there, things like that, whether they are fun or not. As long as it doesn't happen in your own direct environment, you can still say things like that. I also told that I always missed such events; earthquakes when I'm away; other disasters beyond my easy reach and other things like that.
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It hasn't been that long that it was a sunny and very hot day in Yogyakarta when I made a short walk around the so-called alun-alun lor, the northern square belonging to the kraton, the palace of the family of the sultan. The green grass - during the wet season the grass often is green, in the dry season it more resembles hay - reached until half a meter in some places. Not well maintained as we should expect at a palace, but at least there was an open space in the city which offered the opportunity to blow of some steam. This blowing steam you should not do at times that I generally visit this kind of locations, no it's much better in the early hours until seven in the morning and after five in the afternoon again. The salespeople along the edge will offer you something to drink or eat if you like.
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Residents working in waist-high mud salvaged family photos from washed-out neighborhoods as fresh rains Thursday triggered more flooding, compounding the misery for hundreds of thousands forced from their homes. A week after the Indonesian capital was struck by the worst floods in recent memory, waters had receded in many middle-class districts, but conditions remained grim in narrow riverside alleys where the city's poor live.
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Fears of strengthening monsoons in Asia could spell trouble for parts of Australia and Indonesia which will see longer and more frequent droughts in the future, according to a study published in Nature on Thursday. By examining the chemical makeup of corals off Indonesia's Sumatra island, researchers found that stronger monsoons in Asia 6,500 years ago led to greater ocean cooling in the eastern Indian Ocean, which reduced evaporation and, in turn increased the droughts in Indonesia and Australia.
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Quite a lot back in time, about two-and-a-half to three years already, but when I found these bills again there were certain memories returning to my mind. It's time once more to write down some of them here on this virtual paper, so I can reduce my current heap of entrance- and parking tickets and other useless prove of payment. I always keep all of them, just in case. But there is never a just in case until I find them again, like today.
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Rescuers reaching remote Indonesian villages for the first time since weeklong rains triggered floods and landslides said Friday that survivors are dehydrated and in desperate need of medical attention. The number of people killed stood at 126, with more than 400,000 displaced. In neighboring Malaysia, which is experiencing its most severe weather in a century, authorities found the body of a 14-year-old boy floating in a flood-swollen canal, bringing the tally of dead to 11. Nearly 90,000 have been displaced in Malaysia, where flood waters have caused nearly €15.2 million in damages. Both nations were bracing for continued rains throughout the weekend.
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The United States, China and now a resurgent Russia are all competing for regional influence in Southeast Asia, and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is shrewdly playing his diplomatic cards among all three suitors.
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Asked about the progress of police reform in Indonesia, criminologist and police analyst Adrianus Eliasta Sembiring Meliala said that it was obvious, but the direct benefit for citizens would not be realized in one night.
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Cities in Indonesia are falling like dominos to bird flu: Garut in West Java, then Kendari in Southeast Sulawesi, then Dairi, Serang, and finally Simalungun in North Sumatra. Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city, is still unaffected, but the cause of the recent deaths of 40 chickens there has yet to be determined. Other areas have not yet reported outbreaks but it may just be a matter of time before they too fall to bird flu. In Garut, the virus first appeared in the villages of Cikelet and Cigadog, but it has since spread to other villages. The number of suspected bird flu victims continues to rise each day.
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The death toll from the July 17 earthquake and tsunami in south Java, Indonesia, rose to as many as 650 people, according to Rustam S. Pakaya, head of crisis management at the Health Ministry, said. There are 120 people still missing, while 1,800 were injured and 42,639 are homeless, Pakaya said.
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The mobile hospital of the Chinese relief team in Indonesia's quake-hit Bantul regency has detected one suspected case of bacteria diarrhea Thursday. If confirmed, the case will be the first reported epidemic case in Bantul, the area hardest-hit by the 5.9-magnitude earthquake, according to Zhao Heping, head of the China International Search and Rescue Team.
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A university's four case scenarios for restless Mt. Merapi predicts local residents would escape harm in the event of an eruption -- as long as they stay eight kilometers from the volcano's crater. Soetoto from the Natural Disaster Study Center of Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University said Wednesday previous eruptions of the Central Java volcano had not caused the expulsion of smalls stones or rocks over a great distance, only dust clouds.
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At least 95 people have been killed in the Indonesian province of Papua due to extreme cold temperatures combined with cold-related viral diseases and illnesses in recent weeks.
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A 13-year-old Indonesian girl died of bird flu at the weekend while two others from her family have tested positive for the H5N1 virus, a health ministry official said on Monday, citing the results of local tests. If confirmed by outside laboratories recognized by the World Health Organization, the case would take total known deaths in Indonesia from the avian flu to 13 and the number who have had bird flu to 20.
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Thousands of Muslims from across Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, departed Thursday for Saudi Arabia on the annual hajj pilgrimage. Minister of Religious Affairs Muhammad Maftuh Basyuni waved off 445 pilgrims, all dressed in white robes and with their passports hung on string around their necks, from a special Hajj Terminal at Jakarta's Sukarno-Hatta Airport.
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When 76-year-old Professor Winarno Surachmad shuffled before 30,000 of his former teaching colleagues to pour out his poem about the woes of the education system, he drew the wrath of Indonesia's Vice-President, Jusuf Kalla. Mr Kalla scowled at lines, among them: "When rhinos and komodo are protected, teachers are just neglected."
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Indonesia's government may raise fuel prices by at least 50 percent in October to avoid missing the budget deficit target as surging global prices boost the cost of subsidies, Planning Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said.
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Irishman Paul Griffin took control of the Dji Sam Soe Tour d'Indonesia on Monday, winning a hard-fought first stage to Cirebon. Griffin, riding for the Giant Asia Racing Team, unleashed an unbeatable sprint in the final metres of the race to hold off his 19 break-away companions, taking the 134 km stage and the yellow jersey of race leader.
"It feels great" to have the yellow jersey, said Griffin who added that he relishes riding in hot conditions. "I'm okay in the heat, I prefer it to the cold of Ireland."
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Over about seven years of travelling to Indonesia, I have spend many of my nights at houses with relatives in Jakarta, Bali and Yogyakarta, but as a traveller it's not possible to forget all about the hotels, even if you want to. But in fact, most hotel guests won't mention their stay there when talking about their holiday with friends and family. Probably because hotels are a need and not a desired place of stay during their holiday. Why stay in a hotel when you have all the luxury at home? That is holiday of course.
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Cut Anita peered from the open flap of her sunbaked tent one recent day. She watched keenly as a carpenter hammered a wood plank less than five feet away. Another sawed a board in two, freeing the sweet fragrance of forest hardwood. Her new home was taking shape before her, and she dared not leave. "Someone else might take it," the doleful, wide-eyed woman said from the Red Cross tent erected on the concrete foundation of her former home, which was destroyed by the Dec. 26 tsunami.
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Sometimes, just sometimes when I'm walking around, having a cold drink on a nice Dutch spring day, I have the feeling that I'm on holiday. One of those days was just barely a week ago, when I was on my way to Amsterdam. I'm going there a few times a year to meet with friends or my travel agent, but this time they would be stuck in traffic elsewhere in the city or, in case of the travel agent, they would be closed. Ooh well, what's the deal then? It was 'Koninginnedag', or Queens day. Every 30th April the birthday of former queen Juliana is celebrated. Queen Beatrix, the current queen, didn't want to change that date to her own birthday to honour her, and so it happened that every 30th April is a national holiday with celebrations virtually everywhere. Cities, towns and villages have their own live bands playing on their squares and the biggest cities have one day of local markets on which everyone is - almost - free to sell what they want.
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Leaders of nations from South Africa to North Korea came to this former Dutch colonial hill station on Sunday to honor political pioneers who set the stage for the Non-Aligned Movement 50 years ago. Arriving from Jakarta in a fleet of jetliners, leaders and representatives of some 100 countries retraced the steps taken by the heads of 29 Asian and African governments who met here in 1955 to seek a path apart from the Soviet and U.S. sides of the Cold War divide.
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Back home for a week, leaving me with lots of work at the office, at home and in Indonesia. Maybe it's just good that I'm working hard right from the day I'm home, because I'm quite sure I would be missing Indonesia like hell when I was bored to death here. It was just 6 days ago, on an early Sunday morning at six, that the Singapore Airlines plane touched down on Schiphol Airport, ending my longest trip to Indonesia.
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Legions of rescuers spread across Asia today after an earthquake of epic power struck deep beneath the Indian Ocean, unleashing 20-foot tidal waves that ravaged coasts across thousands of miles and killed more than 13,340 people and left millions homeless in the fourth-largest temblor in a century. The death toll along the southern coast of Asia -- and as far west as Somalia, on the African coast, where nine people were reported lost -- steadily increased as authorities sorted out a far-flung disaster caused by Sunday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake, strongest in 40 years.
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As soon as Tana Toraja was introduced to me, it was taken away as well. I still remember the fact that I agreed on those meagre four days in Tana Toraja ‘because my schedule is too tight’, as it always is. In the van, just leaving the hotel for the last time, I was asking myself when I would really stop taking about schedules at all. Probably never, because I will always have to take an airplane in and out Indonesia again, but the time between those fixed points is merely a collection of things to do and things done in the past. For now, I was on my way to Makassar again, this very same evening I would have dinner with the owner of Caraka Travelindo, which has provided me with this wonderful trip.
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Just outside Sengkang we brought a visit to some houses with traditional weaving installations under their house. In this way they are protected from the sun’s direct heat and they are working close to home. It’s nice to see the fabrics being produced in front of your nose, too bad it’s nothing for me to buy something like it. If you ever want to buy something like it, you can choose from all kinds of natural dyes. If you which they can put real gold in it as well. Everything is for sale, however the people producing it, do wear it themselves as well.
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From Jogja, it’s just a short trip by motorbike to Solo, also known as Surakarta. Short is relative, because it takes about as long as a train ride from my current hometown of Eindhoven to Amsterdam, somewhere between 75 and 90 minutes. The road to Solo is quite easy. In fact it’s one long road which starts near the Tugu monument, in downtown Jogja. Travelling to the east the road is named Jl. Jend. Sudirman, Jl. Urip Sumoharjo, Jl. Adisucipto and finally Jl. Solo, starting outside the Jogja outer road, which can bring you to any side of Jogja in a matter of 30 minutes by motorbike.
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After going to the airport in the early morning, flying to Surabaya and Makassar, driving from Makassar airport, which is in fact located in the town of Maros, to a little town of Bira, located along the southerneastern coast of the southwestern peninsula of Sulawesi, the day ended and the evening begun. As I had been lazy for most of the day I was barely awake during the trip from the airport to Bira. It was merely the new Sulawesi views that kept me awake. The speeding driver wasn’t a problem at all, now I wanted to go to Bira, knowing there would be a lot more of Sulawesi to be seen in the coming days. The day started with the early morning sun in Jogjarta, with rain in Maros and a windy coast here in Bira. This would be my place for a few nights, just to take a rest and have a look around.
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In a series of short stories I will shine a light on things I have seen, I have done, I have smelled and touched in my three weeks stay in Indonesia (Jogjakarta and Sulawesi) in March 2004. Many things tend to fade away as soon as you are back home, picking up your daily life. Luckily I had a little booklet for some daily remarks. That will be my guide for this stories and stories to come.
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Indonesia has temporarily scrapped import duties on steel products for one year, the Finance Ministry said. The move, which takes effect on April 1, follows sharp increases in domestic steel prices since late last year due to a shortage of steel on the international market. "Imports of hot rolled coil, steel plates and cold rolled coil will have import duties abolished," the Finance Ministry said in a statement obtained on Friday.
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On behalf of The United States-Indonesia Society and the National Commission on United States-Indonesia Relations, I thank you for this opportunity to present my perspectives on some of the major trends and challenges shaping priorities for U.S. policy in Southeast Asia. I returned yesterday from two weeks in Indonesia and also look forward to sharing my views on developments in that important nation.
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 The time has come that I have to look for my own stuff here in Eindhoven. I have been living here for quite some years now, and I know my way around here pretty good (maybe with the help of an internet guide). But only a little while ago I discovered there are more people here who were looking for the same products, Indonesian products that is. After my first holiday to Indonesia, back in 1999, I had the need to shop for ‘the real Indonesian krupuk’ (shrimp-crackers) and I found that in a shop named Toko Murah in the one shopping mall Eindhoven has. I only went there for some krupuk and kue lapis, that was also enough for me.
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Arriving at Yogya by train and getting too little sleep over the last week, would come back to me, I was already preparing for that, and I was hoping to prevent it by getting to bed much more early than the days before. Unfortunately the night became all friendly and nice, which caused it to be a late night again… What a shame.
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Relevant authorities warned on Friday that activity at Mt. Papandayan, which experienced a major explosion early on Friday, has reached alarming levels, forcing thousands of people living within a radius of four kilometers (km) from its peak to flee. Mas Atje Purbawinata, a volcanologist from the directorate general for volcanology affairs and mitigation at Bandung, West Java, declared here on Friday that the volcano's status was raised to that of dangerous due to an increase in its activities after a major eruption at 6:33 a.m. on Friday.
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After four years of Indonesia holidays, I have learned several things. A little bit of language ( I’m far from happy with the current results indeed ), a little culture, food, climate and environment. But the thing I would like to tell you about this time is public transport in a variety of different ‘products’ as I call it. In fact it should not be that different from your own means of transport, but remember that you have to give up your bike and car for your transport. A car was not my problem yet, I used to do everything by bike, because the city life in a small city like Eindhoven ( pop. 200,000 ) in the Netherlands is about the same mess as the daily Jakarta life. No harm done, by bike you can enjoy special routes and roads for bikers only. Imagine that..
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City Governor Sutiyoso probably feels a bit reluctant to deplore any further the development of villas in mountainous Puncak resort, Bogor, which were believed to have contributed to the recent floods in the city, after he was"caught red handed" owning a villa himself.
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