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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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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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A chapter of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), the highest Muslim authority, called on all Muslims Monday to not watch 2012, saying that the Hollywood movie was misleading and against Islamic belief. Produced by Sony Pictures, Roland Emmerich's 2012 is a new movie about the Mayan doomsday starring John Cusack.
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This time not just one picture, but set of pictures of a well-known Indonesian woman, Julia Perez. She is known from Indonesian television, where she acts and presents. The also is a dangdut singer and also a model, as you can see below. Because of her relation with Damien Perez she was able to feature as a model in FHM and Maxim magazines in France, so she is not only known in Indonesia.
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Because the first few pictures that were published here on the blog were a big hit - little reactions but many, many views - we are continuing with the 'Sexy and Indonesian' series for now. This time it is Fifi Buntaran that is on our blog. If you are in need of more, pictures can be found on Flickr.
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Oscar-winning Hollywood star Julia Roberts has arrived in Bali for what is expected to be a month-long filming of the Bali portion of Elizabeth Gilbert's novel "Eat Pray Love." Gilbert's best-selling autobiographical recounting of her post-divorce travels in Italy, India and Bali is to become a Columbia Pictures (Sony) film starring Roberts, Javier Bardem and Richard Jenkins.
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indahnesia.com has gathered 18 high-resolution pictures of the aftermath of the 7.6 magnitude earthquake that struck the city of Padang and West Sumatra province on September 30, 2009 late in the afternoon. The pictures show rescue work in progress but also the massive landslides that covered entire villages. Some of the images may be disturbing to some people.
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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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The regional government of Makassar in South Sulawesi has ordered it's civil servants not to download pornography at government offices. With increasing ease, porn is accessible via internet, something that Indonesians have found out as well. It is no secret that Indonesians do also use the internet to find what they are looking for.
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People who watch television in Indonesia probably know her. She presents a TV-program on Saturdays in which she prepares good-looking meals. Whether they taste as good as they look, I don't know because I never tried it, but there is more than just the cooking in the program 'A la Chef' she presents on Trans TV that looks good. The now 29-year old Farah Quinn, married with a bule ('Caucasian'), is quite a famous tv-person for women and men alike so it seems.
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Plane crashes normally are breaking news across the world because of their sudden nature and the often high numbers of casualties involved in that kind of accidents. Reporting such events - and others that are also causing worldwide news - should be handled with care. However it is not always that easy to select the information and images going with them. Making a mistake in a hurry is nothing uncommon as well.
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The Department of Public Works (PU) has said that ten days before the first day of Idul Fitri, some 98 percent of the construction and renovation works on roads is finished. It only gave information about the roads that are appointed as official mudik routes, with mudik being the 27-million odd homecoming travels to celebrate the end of the Ramadan month of fasting.
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Ever wondered how to order your Indonesian girl online? Well, for those who though that you have to get out of your house life has just become easier today! A website , hosted by Google, so probably not online for too long. The site starts with a lot of information about different sexual actions and eventually closes of with the way of booking; by email or mobile Indonesian phone number.
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Zivanna Letisha Siregar did not make it until the final 15 contestants for Miss Universe. However she lead the popular vote on the internet website with a fairly large majority, she was eventually not choosen to compete among the last fifteen. She failed to advance to the bathing suit round.
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Terrorists in Indonesia are said to have detailed plans to stage a terrorist attack on American president Barack Obama. The attack should be carried out by sharp shooters. This information was made public by a safety expert in Indonesia. Obama is expected to bring a visit to Indonesia in November this year.
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It has become clear to the Indonesian police force that terrorists in hiding are not that easy to catch. Noordin M. Top, Southeast Asia's number one searched for terrorist, was not killed in a police raid last week, but is still on the run, as he has been for the last seven years of his live.
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After sitting behind bars at Bali's Kerobokan prison for nearly eight months, a man on Interpol's Most Wanted List, 46 year-old Christian Burger, is now in France to face child sexual abuse charges. Burger, who has both French and Swiss citizenship, was placed on a plane to Paris on Wednesday, August 5, 2009, following the issuance of a letter agreeing to his extradition signed by Indonesia's President Yudhoyono. He has issued the needed letter last Monday, as was confirmed by Public Prosecutor I Ketut Sujaya, SH.
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Formerly named photobooks, the picture galleries on indanesia.com have been upgraded to improve viewing experience for visitors in the first place with proper navigation above and below the pictures. We have also readied the picture galleries to accommodate much larger pictures, up to 700 pixels wide! A few of those large pictures have been uploaded already.
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It took a few days for the national police in Indonesia to realize that they also should put their pictures of 'bombers' they are looking for on the internet as well. They eventually did so, and their picture is below. They are the suicide bombers that blew themselves up in the July 17 attacks on the J.W. Marriott Hotel and Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Jakarta.
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Every single day - maybe excluded of some religious holidays - is demonstration day in Jakarta. The city will never be free of mid-afternoon demonstrations on high-profile locations because of all those demonstrations in one day. But the problem is, that most of those demonstrations consist of a group of less than 50 people, often paid to join their little demonstration to make it look big and have their pictures taken for a local newspaper.
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The regional police of Surakarta (Solo) in Central Java, is doing all it can to make the moving space for terrorists in the region as small as possible. Outside the roadside checkups that are organized at various locations in the area, they have also printed some 15.000 posters with pictures of fugitive terrorist Noordin Mohammad Top. They are spread in busy areas in the entire district of Surakarta.
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It just had to be done at a certain point, but it was lack of time and a wrong mood that prevented me from doing it for quite some time. Now it is finished, the results are here to see for all of you; a blog on indahnesia.com on which I hope to publish more store stories, but also typical blog items like pictures (outside the normal photobook on indahnesia.com) and others.
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Hotels offered on indahnesia.com in cooperation with Agoda.com have been upgraded to display more detailed information and pictures about the hotels and their environment. Google maps have been added in many occasions to display the location of the hotels and other hotels in the neighborhood.
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Indonesia has opened a tsunami museum in Aceh province to remember the severity impact of the catastrophe in 2004 that killed more than 230,000 people in Asia and most of them in the province. The museum displays pictures of victims and the huge damage in coastal areas of the province in northern tip of Sumatra island when a tsunami triggered by a strong earthquake devastated the area on Dec. 24 2004.
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A Lion Air Boeing MD-90 late yesterday landed at Batam airport without its front landing gear extended, resulting in damage to the undercarriage and the airport having to be closed. The Indonesian airline's general director, Edward Sirait, says the MD-90, local registration PK-LIO, was on a domestic flight from Medan to Batam when the crew discovered the aircraft's front landing gear was unable to be deployed.
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It is still fairly early in the afternoon for a nice evening, but still life slowly comes out of the starting blocks. It isn't a nightclub, where the doors will be kept closed until around ten in the evening. It now happens in other locations in Jogja where preparations are made. All across the city students and young adults have created meeting points to start their Saturday evening together. One of those meeting points, to say it bluntly, is Kedai Kopi Jakal. This is the name that the place has earned already, because it is not the official name.
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Sitting in a bus is not something that I do with the greatest love. However every once in a while I will still do something that I don't want to do every single day. After the flight from Yogyakarta to Surabaya in the early morning, I didn't reach my final destination for the day - by far. But fortunately I had already taken that into account when I booked the ticket. At that time I decided to use only public transport to find my way to Malang, which was my final destination for the day.
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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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The police have detained two activists from the Unified People Coalition (KRB) for allegedly burning flyers with pictures of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla at the State Palace yesterday.
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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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Shouts of "Thank you, God!" erupted inside the Indonesian Parliament building Thursday after lawmakers passed anti-pornography legislation, bringing to an end nearly 10 years of debate.
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The first of September of this year was the official start of the Ramadan, the holy month of fasting for Moslems in Indonesia. In general this comes with all kinds of threats from - in general - radical elements in the society that some places should better shut down for the entire month or otherwise be visited by people that are not visitors or customers. Fortunately those people are not the majority nor the government in this country, thus the local government on Batam has decided that the two weeks of obliged shut-downs is to be limited to only four days; the first day of fasting, the 17th day and the days of Idul Fitri (also known as the Arabic term Eid-ul Fitr). This however is the official regulation, outside that it will still be different than people hoped for.
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Departing from the flatlands from the beach of Parangtritis I decided to head east for a little while. The small mountain road up is a very nice route with generally good road conditions. It is a trip into history a little bit with houses made of bamboo and plaid work mats as walls which you will find here in some places. There are here, at just several dozen kilometers distance from the city of Yogyakarta, still villages that don't even have access to power at all.
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In the soaring heat of the countryside just north of the southern beaches near Yogyakarta I was driving towards the east on a small countryside road. This road is the only way out for the area directly west of the Opak River which causes the area to be fairly quiet until today. There are no main roads here, no buses and trucks but palm trees, open rice fields, parked bicycles and a strait black asphalt road which seems to disintegrate into water in the remote distance because of the scorching hot sun.
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Some days you will most likely not have a full agenda so you can finally do something that has been waiting for some time. Earlier this month I had such a day, I have more than one a month fortunately, but I can not always do what I want because the weather often has to be nice as well. This time it was jack pot; a nice blue sky in the early morning and some small clouds at the time I was about to depart for a days out. My plan was to take a motorbike trip to the beach of Samas.
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In between breakfast and lunch yesterday, Indonesian lawmakers gave their support for a law that is officially named 'Electronic Information and Transaction Law'. This indirect anti-porn legislation will be effective two days from now. Because of the quick pace this new monster against (press-)freedom was pushed ahead, there is little attention for it in mainstream Indonesian media. It almost looks like something that happens every day here, but it is completely absurd that a law that has been approved yesterday will become active in a matter of days, especially a law that has as many implications as this one. In theory that is.
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Indonesia lifted a tsunami alert issued after a powerful 7.2-magnitude quake struck off the west coast of Sumatra island on Monday, the geophysics and meteorological agency said. "The tsunami warning has ended after the 7.2-magnitude quake," the agency said in a text message.
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Together we are sitting below a blue plastic cover that is used as roof for a bed and some personal possessions. That is all that Kudasi has left. Together we look back at the earthquake that struck some one and a half year ago first. It caused the death of several thousand people and tens of thousands ended up in the same situation as he is in now. He was lucky then, in Parangtritis, a village at the southern beach directly south of the city of Yogyakarta, damage was limited. Now however he became one of the victims, but not from an earthquake. It were the 'new colonials' as he describes it. It is a commonly used term to represent a government that is pushing it's own ideas forward not listening to the people they ought to represent.
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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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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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Indahnesia.com has put together a large series of pictures from the current situation around the mud flow in eastern Java. News about this big issue has died down for the biggest part, but tens of thousands are displaced and until today, the actual problem has not been solved.
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First some lightning and later with a rolling thunder from the south, a bunch of dark clouds heads towards the north. After two rainshowers yesterday afternoon it is very likely that it will rain again today. A clear sign that the wet monsoon finally will kick of. Somewhat late, but with half a year of virtually no rain at all, every single drop of rain is a gift from God for farmers and people with their own garden. Yesterdays rain was just a reminder of the arrival of the wet monsoon and also cleaned the streets from the dust that had been gathered in all possible and impossible places during the last six months.
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Dozens of people have placed flowers and pictures of their loved ones at a memorial service held on the site of the deadly Bali bombings of October 11, 2002. It was the fifth anniversary of the attack yesterday.
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It has to be said that it is somewhat strange to see when you are browsing the internet and you end up looking at a number of pictures where some women with bare breasts advertise an Indonesian cigarette-brand. In this case it was Djarum that was doing its best in Hungary to have their brand settled in the local market. Whether the clove-cigarette-producer will be able to build a brand as strong as it is in Indonesia, I can't tell, but would having women with their breasts bared have any positive impact in this entire story?
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With just over two weeks to go, Indonesia is slowly turning into a more colorful country than usual. Independence Day is coming - the 17th of August. That will be celebrated as well. Of course the red and white flags will be everywhere around, but the celebration is more than just raising a flag in the early morning. Like I wrote a year ago, cleaning is done as preparation. Things that haven't been cleaned for almost a year are now cleaned to be finished just a few days short of the 17th - so they don't have to care about it for another year as well.
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However I have been asked for it several times before, I didn't own my very own Indonesian version of the very well-known magazine for the male part of the population. Until today, because I happen to run into a brand new one today, partially hidden behind other well-known names like FHM, Cosmo and Maxim. Directly I picked the dark-colored cover with gold-colored print from the top shelf. The beautifully thick glossy cover has been sealed in a thin plastic cover; if you want to see inside you first have to pay 50.000 Rupiah for it. Free is not for Playboy, you can pick any other magazine with a more 'modest' cover; a women just as pretty as the one in Playboy, but then wearing a Jilbab to cover her long black hair.
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It is a very normal Thursday afternoon when I sit down on the veranda. A light rain shower crosses my path here after a long and humid day on which it didn't want to raining the first place. The rain was not enough to clean the humid air and so tomorrow will be another of those warm and slow days. Last year the wet season only lasted until the middle of March, but now there is still rain on a regular base. Not a changing climate, but just a slight change in ocean temperatures. As far as on the other side of the world this impacts tropical areas as well, because weather here isn't that monotonous as it looks like when you see those holiday pictures with a blue sky. For sure there is much sun, but there are clouds as well and rain of course, even during the dry season. Maybe it's just a different type of rain, more light instead of a complete tropical downpour.
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First time to have a drink. I looked in the direction of the only warung that I could find here at the moment. I didn't really want to look for another one. Fortunately there was someone to serve, in the form of a Javanese women which sat on a bench in front of the house. Probably waiting for a customer. A bemo passed. That stopped and the driver got out. Hopefully he didn't bring any passengers, otherwise they had to wait. I wasn't the only one there when I walked into that direction. The driver ordered an iced tea and sat down. I just had picked up the nice idea to drink a coffee here. It had been a long time that I drunk a kopi tubruk actually. That is nice for a change. I found a nice spot at the one big table available.
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However it wasn't Saturday for sure, but a Tuesday, still I had the feeling that I had to take my motorbike for a nice day of traveling. Where it would bring me? At least as far as Purworejo. To my amazement and some shame I had never been there before, so that became the primary target. I at least had to go there so I could honestly say that I had been there. Furthermore there were no plans, like usual. It was already late in the morning, so it was not really supposed to become a long trip. Maybe after Purworejo it was time to find my way back. That also depended on what I would find along the way of course. Seen the distance and the road conditions it was to take about one and a half hour to get there. My modest estimation.
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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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The court in South Jakarta cleared the editor of Playboy in Indonesia of distributing indecent pictures to the public and earning money from them after a high-profile trial that exposed deep differences in the nation. Chief editor Erwin Arnada argued tat the magazine was good for developing a pluralistic society, while the prosecution and Islamic hardliners who have regularly attended the trial said it 'harmed the nation's morals'.
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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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Government prosecutors today demanded two years in jail for the editor of Playboy Indonesia for violating anti-indecency laws. They are supposed to have published 'porn' pictures in the magazine. Security was high when Chief Prosecutor Resni Muchtar told the court in South Jakarta that editor Erwin Arnanda 'damaged the nation's morality'. He has been given time until 22 March for their defense.
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In the early hours of Thursday, less than 24 hours after the Garuda Indonesia plane crashed at the airport of Yogyakarta, Adi Sucipto, the only remaining part of the airplane, the tail wing, has been painted white. The logo of the airline is not visible anymore for visitors, also because the entire wing seems to be detached now, it's logo facing the ground.
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It was a fairly normal beginning of the new year, for as far the first day of the year can be a normal one. The sun was shining here and the weather looked good for the day. Maybe a little bit strange, since we are in the middle of the wet season here so in fact we have to expect a lot of rain almost every single day now. The weather is slightly strange since there is really bad weather of the Java Sea. From Southern Sumatra until as far east at the Moluccan Spice Islands the weather is bad; very high waves, strong winds and a lot of rain are pounding the area. At first you think that that is not a big deal there out at sea, at least there will be no victims in flash floods, landslides and other misery that comes with the wet season in Indonesia.
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The trial of Playboy Indonesia's editor-in-chief was closed to the public Thursday, angering dozens of Islamic hard-liners who threatened to break down the courtroom doors if they are not granted access to the proceedings. Erwin Arnada went on trial three weeks ago on indecency charges and could face 32 months in prison if convicted.
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I do not have any official role within the Indonesian judicial system. But I do feel like I can provide an important advisory service in the trial of Erwin Arnada, editor of the new Indonesian edition of Playboy, who faces up to 32 months in prison for putting out a magazine with indecent pictures. I may not know much about the law or Islam, but I do know an awful lot about indecency.
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However we approach the end of the year, it may be clear that my garden here in the tropics still looks fairly green. Some of you may have been following that via internet and probably you enjoyed the always green garden. However green is relative, when I don't give extra water during the dry season, that green will be gone pretty quick.
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Hundreds of protesters on Friday burned U.S. flags and chanted "You're not welcome here" ahead of a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush to predominantly Muslim Indonesia. Traffic jammed as protesters marched through the streets of Bogor, where Bush will meet President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Monday for wide-ranging talks covering terrorism, the Middle East peace process, poverty alleviation and education.
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What should have been a nice day driving around, became a very funny little adventure. Especially about some remarks that would be made in Parangtritis. Thinking back to this in fact ridiculous fact where four people can laugh about for a long time, it's time to do some efforts to go back writing a little bit. We go back just two days. Not too early the four of us get in the rental car (license plate starting with AB, so we are just like real Yogyakartans), to drive around for the afternoon; some beach, a little bit of disaster area south of Yogyakarta and then simply back home to eat.
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St. Louis County Undersheriff Dave Phillips' efforts to photograph the inside of the sunken cruiser USS Houston have been halted by the Navy before he could get his remotely controlled underwater camera into the ship. The photos of the ship, sunk by the Japanese during World War II, were for the USS Houston Survivors Association, which contacted him because of his experience using a remotely operated vehicle camera.
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Just back from a couple of days in Malang it's about time to turn on the computer again and to clean the keyboard. Since the short holiday to Bali I didn't see any chance to write something down, but that is going to change now. The few days in Malang were a pleasant difference with the somewhat more normal life in Yogyakarta. The garden has been watered and the windows are open, though there is not too much wind. Several days back, back to Friday to be more precise. Soccer club Arema (Malang) has to play a game that day.
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On a late afternoon late last week I was to receive a short text message. I get a lot of them here as it is a cheap way to communicate here during the day, but this one was more special, or more important however you want to call it. It was from a foundation that has done emergency response after the earthquake in Central Java - today two months ago - as well as to tsunami-stricken Pangandaran just a while ago. They are still active in the area of Mblali, a village where people from other villages have found shelter after the earthquake. As one of the few they have maintained their outpost on the local field there, while most other organizations have already wrapped up their 'on-the-spot' emergency efforts.
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When Erwin Arnada, editor in chief of Playboy magazine in Indonesia, answered a summons at the police headquarters in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, he turned up smiling, behaved like a good citizen and, in turn, was treated politely during nearly six hours of questioning. The parrying, he recalled, went something like this:
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The news of the heavy earthquake off the southern coast of Java came in unexpected, as usually the case with earthquakes. Initially BMG (the Weather and Geology office) reported a 6.8 magnitude quake almost 300 kilometers south of the central Javanese city of Bandung. That means the quake occurred at sea, at only a depth of around 33 kilometers. That's 'good' enough to cause a tsunami as well, and so it happened. A several meters high wave struck many parts of the southern coast of the entire island.
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Kartika Gunawan is not a typical men's magazine playmate. But even though not a nipple was visible in her starring role in the first issue of Indonesian Playboy — in a concession to hardline Islamists calling for the publication to be banned — she faces more than two years in jail for indecency.
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A powerful earthquake rocked Indonesia's main island of Java, killing at least 1,700 people, injuring thousands more and causing mass destruction. Thousands of families fled their homes in panic after the 6.2 magnitude quake struck early in the morning, many running for higher ground amid false rumours of a tsunami like the one that devastated the country in December 2004.
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It took one week for a violent protest to erupt in Indonesia against a new local edition of Playboy magazine -- and one more day for police to say it should pack up its bunny ears and move out of the capital.
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Hundreds of Muslim protesters have attacked the offices of the newly-published Indonesian edition of Playboy magazine. On Wednesday, about 300 activists from the Islamic Defenders' Front (FPI) rallied outside the building to demand that the local version of the magazine, which carries no nude photos, cease publication. They tore up copies of the magazine and threw stones at the building, shattering windows.
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Malaysian model Amber Chia said she is proud to appear in the inaugural edition of Playboy in Indonesia, even though her mother thinks she looked sexier in photos featured by other magazines, a newspaper reported on Sunday.
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U.S. adult magazine Playboy published its first Indonesian version Friday but it appears that local readers were not as enthusiastic to the down-toned version as predicted earlier. The magazine is sold at 39,000 rupiah (4.3 U.S. dollars), more expensive than any other local men's magazines in Jakarta newsstands, featuring local girl Andhara Early on its cover.
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Australia was last night bracing itself for more tension with Indonesia following the death sentences handed down to two Bali Nine ringleaders and the life sentences that will possibly see the other ring members die in Indonesian jails. Andrew Chan, 22, and Myuran Sukumaran, 24, were convicted of drug smuggling at Denpasar District Court and face death by firing squad unless they launch a successful appeal or are granted a presidential pardon.
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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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Giggling women swarm outside a little gray tent in Block D of a sprawling refugee camp. The attraction is one tiny miracle — 2-month-old Asmaul Tzuchina, swaying peacefully in a cloth hammock. The baby simply known as Tzuchi, which means “pure” in Acehnese, represents new life and hope for the women who lost children to the earthquake-spawned tsunami nearly a year ago.
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The police chief in Bali on Tuesday expressed frustration at the lack of progress finding those behind triple suicide bombings on the resort island this month that killed 20 people. Made Mangku Pastika, who led the successful investigation of the 2002 Bali nightclub attacks, said national distribution of leaflets showing the decapitated heads of the three bombers as well as electronically enhanced pictures had yielded little.
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The Indonesian government has shut down an Australian TV drama series about the 2002 Bali bombings. Producers told the mostly Australian cast in Bali on Thursday the government had revoked their permit due to political and immigration sensitivities, actors for the drama series told AAP. The move follows the second Bali bombings on October 1.
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Police in the Bali regency of Buleleng are questioning a Dutch national who has been arrested for an alleged sexual abuse of minors. The police have taken statements from three boys who said that the 44-year-old Dutchman, identified only by his initials as MC, had sodomized them. But detective chief Adj. Comr. M. Mughoni said he was looking for two more children who might have also fallen victim to the abuse.
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Miss Indonesia has glossy black hair and a law degree, smiles constantly and talks about helping children. In many ways, she is the ideal Miss Universe contestant. But Artika Sari Devi faces one major obstacle in competing in the Miss Universe pageant May 30 - wearing a swimsuit. To Islamic clerics and many others, an Indonesian Muslim woman showing bare skin would be a public slap against Islam and a national embarrassment.
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On my trip from Yogyakarta to the east, to Bali, Lombok and even Sumbawa, I was scheduled to make a stop-over in Banyuwangi, the last city before I was to enter the boat to Bali to enter a completely different world. After driving a good 1000 kilometers on my brand new motorbike it was time to find a place to sleep for the night. Though Banyuwangi itself is not a harbour city, Ketapang is, however it close to each other, so it doesn't really matter.
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It's not the world as I know it, an aerial view over the city. Normally I will only see cities from the roads I drive on by motorbike. It's much more cheap to do so, because using a helicopter to have a look in town is not for the average man. Still I had the chance to make some pictures from the window upon arriving in Yogyakarta in December last year. Since the airport is close to the city and the weather was clear, I made a handful of pictures.
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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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Indonesian soldiers and volunteers are searching for bodies in treetops and laying dead babies in fish crates, trying to clean up before disease could spread after a tsunami killed 4,500 people. Many of the dead were youngsters and elderly who drowned in waters churning with huge rocks, logs and the remnants of homes uprooted by earthquake-triggered waves that slammed into Aceh province on the northern tip of Sumatra island on Sunday.
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At least 25 people were killed and 61 injured when a passenger plane skidded off a rain-slicked runway after landing in Indonesia's Central Java province, an official said, revising downward an earlier toll of 31 dead. "As of 11:00 am (0400 GMT), there are 25 bodies which have been identified and laid at seven hospitals in Solo," said Rudi Patrianto, commercial administration division chief at Adi Sumarmo airport.
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Rescue teams have searched areas around an airfield in central Indonesia for survivors from a plane crash that police said killed at least 31 people and left 47 unaccounted for. The McDonnell-Douglas MD-82, operated by budget domestic carrier Lion Air and carrying 163 passengers and crew, crashed in Solo city as it landed in heavy rain around dusk on Tuesday after a flight from Jakarta.
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Up to 31 people may have been killed and many more injured after a jet carrying 153 passengers and crew crashed on landing in heavy rain in Indonesia's central Java. Indonesia's Metro TV said 31 were dead and "tens" more hurt. Airport officials put the death toll at 31.
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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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Finally we found ourselves in the heart of Tana Toraja, seen as one of the few places in Indonesia where tourists go to see something that has to do with the everyday life, which is also ‘protected’ by the Indonesian government. It’s good that they see that such an important part of Sulawesi (and so Indonesian) history is preserved. And I was about to see some of it. I realised that it was not possible to see everything as thoroughly as I normally would, with my little four days in the area.
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On several different occasions, I travelled by train over Jawa. Some of the trips were made in the evening or at night, so there wasn’t much to see except some white lights from distant villages and every once in a while a train station where we made a short stop to let other trains pass, since most of the rail network still is single-lined.
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On my motorbike, enjoying the beauty of the Indonesian landscape – preferrably outside the cities – I see a lot of strange things. At least, they are strange in my western point of view. Some things make me wonder how they even got there.
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Airports are fun, not only in Indonesia, but everywhere on the world. After flying to Indonesia several times I have seen the airports of Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Zurich, Singapore, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Jogjakarta, Denpasar, Surabaya and Makassar. Not an impressive number, but it’s still growing longer. However the remote destinations always seem more attractive for me, a local flight in Indonesia, from Makassar to Jogja, with a short stop at Surabaya made me smile while thinking of it just recently. It’s just one of those experiences I should not forget about.
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Well don’t get scared or shocked after having a look at the pictures above because that’s not pics from Iraq, Somalia, Palestine or even Aceh. But from my most favorite military enthusiast club Code 4 where I myself am a member – a club that is very different from any sports club. A sport where one can almost feel the hardship, experience of a true fighting soldier in a fun simulated war situation.
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The justice minister has threatened to arrest election officials, thousands of polling stations still don't have ballots and parts of Aceh province are too dangerous to hold a vote. Nonetheless Indonesia will hold parliamentary elections Monday for the second time since the fall of the longtime dictator Suharto in 1998 - though election officials acknowledge voting will be delayed for up to five days in the remote regions of Papua and West Irian Jaya.
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Indonesia's old guard is eyeing a comeback in Monday's parliamentary elections, with nostalgia for the stability and economic growth of ousted autocrat Suharto's rule seen returning his former party to prominence. Around 90 percent of the 147 million eligible voters in the world's most populous Muslim nation are expected to take part in the election, billed as the biggest and most complex one-day vote the world has ever seen.
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Superstition, facts and fantasy are a very common daily chit-chat life in our own metropolitan city Jakarta. Real Stories from Jakarta s own streets are a proof for this fact or fiction.
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Indonesian villagers claim to have captured a python that is almost 15 metres (49.21 feet) long and weighs nearly 450 kilogrammes (992.07 pounds), a local official said Monday. If confirmed, it would be the largest snake ever kept in captivity. Hundreds of people have flocked to see the snake at a primitive zoo in Curugsewu village on the country's main island of Java, Republika daily reported. It splashed two large pictures of the reptile across its back page.
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At least 51 people, including 48 students of a senior high school in Sleman regency, Yogyakarta, were killed as their bus collided with a trailer truck and a minivan on Wednesday night in Situbondo regency, East Java. The grisly traffic accident took place at around 8 p.m. in the area of Banyu Glugur that borders Situbondo and the neighboring regency of Probolinggo, near the Paiton geothermal power plant.
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Ever since my first experience with Indonesia, back in 1999, I also had the experience of being together with a woman. It’s not that I have had that experience before in my life, but being together with a woman here is totally different as being together with a woman in The Netherlands, and I’m not mentioning some form of a fixed relation like engagement or marriage. Hey, I’m still young, not yet okay?
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In fact it was two days of doing nothing. Well, doing nothing is nothing for me, so that’s not exactly what I did. I was driving around on my motorbike with Cabe, and that’s something which is a little bit more than doing nothing. Not too early in the morning we left for a drive around the city again. First we would have a look at Gunung Merapi again, since that can be viewed in the morning, because fog tends to spoil the view somewhere in the afternoon. When we arrived at around eleven o’clock, there was nothing to see anymore. The clouds had already taken over the view over Gunung Merapi. We decided not to continue the trip, and to head back for Jogja for lunch and something else, no plans made yet.
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