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Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan said that Cilamaya seaport in Karawang, West Java, should be developed to accelerate the shipment of cargo from industrial areas in the district.
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Some 63.8 percent of land meant for the Indonesia's 658.6-kilometer Trans-Java toll road has been cleared, a senior public works official said.
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Indonesias foreign debts rose to US$290.6 billion by the end of July from US$284.9 billion a month earlier. The debts included US$134.2 billion owed by government and US$156.4 billion owned by the private sector, data at Bank Indonesia said.
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Indonesias economic slowdown in the second quarter of this year was in line with macro-economic stability policy adopted by the government and Bank Indonesia aimed especially to control inflation and current account deficit, the central bank said.
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Bank Indonesia (BI) revised down its prediction of economic growth in 2014, from its initial 5.5-5.9 percent to 5.1-5.5 percent. "The factor that had made us revise the economic growth target down is the revision of export performance," BI governor Agus Martowardojo said at a press conference here on Thursday.
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Finance minister Chatib Basri had predicted Indonesia's economy grew 5.7 to 5.8 percent in the first quarter of 2014, primarily due to consumer spending. The minister said here on Monday consumer spending was expected to rise in March, although the impact had not been felt as of now.
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As many as 19 out of 127 volcanoes in Indonesia have shown increasing volcanic activities and their statuses have been raised from normal to alert level II (Waspada).
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Indonesia's economy is expected to slow down in 2014 as a result of being impacted by various domestic and foreign factors, said market analyst Surjanto Yasaputera here on Thursday. "The BI rate hike from seven percent to 7.5 percent is one of the factors holding back foreign investors from making new investments," he stated.
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The rapid decline in the value of the Indonesian Rupiah against the U.S. Dollar and a host of other currencies is presenting a myriad of challenges to Bali and its tourism industry.
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The Indonesian Minister of Tourism and the Creative Economy, Mari Elka Pangestu has labeled as “optimistic” a target of 9.5 million foreign tourists in 2014. Quoted in Kompas.com, Pangestu said: “The big possibility is that we can no longer adhere to a target of 10 million visitors, maybe we will achieve only 9.5 million.
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Slow procession of Lebaran holiday home-bound travelers extended as far as 3 km along Trans-Sumatra highway in Bandarlampung, Lampung Province, on Monday morning.
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President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyoho has expressed his regret at the slow official statement from both central and regional governments in relation to Tanjung Gusta prison riot in Medan, North Sumatra. The rioting in the over-capacity correctional institution on Thursday in Medan left five people dead and caused 240 inmates to escape.
"I wait for respond and reaction time from the central and regional government but it comes late. There is no official statement ten hours after riot occurs," President Yudhoyono said when opening a limited meeting at Halim Perdana Kusuma airport here on Saturday to discuss the handling of the riot, and the skyrocketing price of beef.
According to the president, the official statement was necessary because it could avoid an impression that the government was ignorant. Therefore, soon after arriving from West Nusa Tenggara for a working visit, the head of state immediately gathered a number of related ministers to discuss the matters.
On the occasion the president admired Law and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsuddin who had decided to leave for Medan to obtain first hand information about the incident.
Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Djoko Suyanto said in a press conference here on Friday that the president had ordered an investigation into the rioting in the Tanjung Gusta prison.
"The President has ordered an in-depth investigation to establish the motive behind the rioting at the Tanjung Gusta correctional facility. National Police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo himself has appointed any of his officers to conduct the in-depth investigation," Djoko Suyanto said.
At a coordination meeting held earlier in the day to discuss the handling of the rioting case, the government decided to remove some of inmates to the closest prisons, he said.
"Because the prison is overcapacity, Deputy Minister of Law and Human Rights Denny Indrayana has been asked to remove some of the inmates to other correctional facilities," he said.
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The factions of the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) have rejected the endorsement of the Bill on Mass Organizations (RUU Ormas).
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Indonesia's inflation may jump to 9 percent this year under the impact of the recent rise in the prices of subsidized fuel oils, World Bank economist Ndiame Diop has predicted.
"The higher fuel prices will first have a greater impact on the inflation rate by increasing average annual inflation rate in 2013," he said here on Tuesday.
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About 78 Indonesians who are being detained by authority in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for their involvement in a stampede in front of the Indonesian consulate will be deported soon, Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa said here on Thursday.
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The floods that hit Bekasi district, West Java province, on January 18-19 have killed three people, according to a spokesman of the Bekasi Police Chief, Adjunct Senior Commissioner Bambang Wahyudi.
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President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has inspected a number of areas around the State Guest House, which were affected by floods on Thursday.
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The Jakarta-Merak toll road at the Km 57-59 was reopened for traffic on Friday after it has been closed since Wednesday because of flood.
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The House of Representatives (DPR) endorsed North Kalimantan Province as a new autonomous region on Thursday, after bifurcating it from the East Kalimantan Province.
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Domestic tourist visiting attractions across the country during the just completed Idul Fitri holiday grew dramatically, providing much needed income to the local economies during the traditional downturn in foreign visitors of the fasting month.
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Activist from Indonesian Nationalists Students Movements (GMNI) in Pamekasan, Madura, Hafid Hamsih has called for Indonesia`s five principles ideology, Pancasila, to be implemented into the economic system of this country.
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Indonesia is bracing itself for the possibility of an economic slowdown following the worsening crisis in Europe, said Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo here on Friday.
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Bank credit grew 26 percent in April year-on-year, beating earlier estimates of 23-24 percent. Central bank deputy governor Halim Alamsyah said here on Monday that such growth indicated that the domestic economy was doing well.
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Health minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih`s health conditions have been worsening since Tuesday morning and she is now being given a standard Intensive Care Unit (ICU) treatment.
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Despite the global financial crisis, economic growth in Indonesia is estimated to reach 6.5 percent in the first quarter of 2012, according to Bank Indonesia (BI).
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Indonesia will revise downward its growth target for the 2012 budget from 6.7 percent to 6.5 percent, Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo has said.
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Unable to compete in the acculturation process with other groups, the Sebo tribe in Kayu Pulau, Jayapura, Papua, has become extinct, and two other tribes - the Tampoto and Dasim - are on the verge of extinction.
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Indonesian officials are calling on the government to introduce new laws in an attempt to slow down the population growth rate in the country, local media reported on Tuesday.
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A strong earthquake struck Northern Sumatra in western Indonesia on early Tuesday morning, seismologists said, but there was no immediate word about damage or casualties. No tsunami alert was issued.
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The government of Indonesia on Thursday said it estimates its exports in 2012 will increase by at least 18 percent, despite a negative outlook in global markets.
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At least 21 houses were buried on Saturday night by a flood of volcanic material from Mount Merapi in Indonesia's Central Java.
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Earlier this year the Borobudur temple complex near the town of Magelang in Central Java was closed due to an eruption of the Mount Merapi volcano. Soon, this complex should be reopened to the public, at least partly. Reopening is scheduled for later this month.
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Indonesia's Mount Merapi death toll has increased to 273 after long weeks of constant eruptions, officials said Wednesday.
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Thousands of villagers returned to ash-covered homes along the slopes of Indonesia's most volatile volcano Monday, after the government said some areas well away from the fiery crater appeared out of danger from another eruption.
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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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Hot weather causes search and rescue for victims of hot pyroclastic flows exhausted by the Mount Merapi volcano. It is expected that there are still a number of bodies in several villages in and around Cangkringan, but because of hot weather, evacuation efforts are slower than expected. Search and rescue teams had to retreat to an emergency post in Wedomartani, Ngemplak.
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After a series of delays, the management of the ancient Buddhist temple Borobudur, in Magelang, began the process of cleaning volcanic ash from the temple grounds on Friday, hoping to complete the operation in less than a month.
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Two days ago, also soon after our breakfast, we got on our motorcycle to make the trip towards Klaten. Since all roads directly north of Yogyakarta were sealed off, and Cangkringan was one of the worst-hit areas, I wanted to go east as far as possible before driving back to the Mount Merapi volcano again. There were relatively little problems in that area, which was also easy to reach.
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The Mount Merapi volcano north of the city of Yogyakarta in Central Java is still erupting. Earlier this morning, during a brief period of clear weather, a clear dark ash cloud could be seen rising from it;s crater. The volcano also produced hot pyroclastic flows that came down some of it's slopes earlier this morning and last night.
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Yesterday, after a night of rest without too much new activity of the Mount Merapi volcano, we left for that area soon after breakfast to see what happened outside the city of Yogyakarta. That this was much worse than inside the city was nothing to doubt about. How bad? That is something I didn't know yet, because I had never had the chance to experience it.
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Volcanic material has reached the city of Yogyakarta via a number of rivers in the area. Because of rainfall in the region, these rivers have swollen as well and they are flowing faster than normal. One of the rivers is the Code River which runs directly through the heart of Yogyakarta. It is currently transporting volcanic debris and parts of trees with it's raging currents. The river also threatens to burst it's banks.
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After the most recent eruption of the Mount Merapi volcano in Central Java, the city of Yogyakarta was hit by ash rains. Houses and streets in a large part of the city are now covered in a thin layer of grayish white ash which measures several millimeters.
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Indonesia is one of the "rising stars" of emerging Asia and some economists believe this vast nation will one day become a regional superpower, behind only China and India, as global economic activity increasingly shifts towards east Asia, away from the faltering developed nations of the west and Japan.
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And that is something you notice when you have arrived on the island of Batam, at some 45 minutes by boat from Singapore. Jakarta is a western city already with a young population that is not that tight concerning the traditional adat in the country, but in Batam this is exaggerated even more.
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Bali's governor Made Mangku Pastika is studying the feasibility of creating a slow rail system that will circle Bali, providing inexpensive access to many of the less-visited areas of the island. As reported by beritabali.com, the Governor views the proposed rail system as a solution to the imbalances in tourism development between north and south Bali.
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The train track and main road between the large city of Surabaya and Malang has is threathened to be flooded once again near the Sidoarjo mud flow. At several locations along the main supporting dam along the road and the track, there is mud escaping via leaks.
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At least 130 buildings belonging to the city of Yogyakarta do not have the proper building permits (IMB). Most of the buildings are schools. The reason for the missing permits is mainly due to the slow progress of migration from buildings belonging to the state to the regional governments.
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An economy-class passenger train derailed Tuesday on the way from Jakarta to Tegal, Central Java, prompting a four-hour delay for its 600 passengers, with no fatalities reported. The incident reportedly occurred at 6:30 p.m. near the West Java town of Indramayu, 175 kilometers from Jakarta
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The southern square (alun-alun kidul) belonging to the kraton in Yogyakarta will slowly be stripped from it's peddlers that are earning a living around the square. Since several days, it is not allowed anymore to set up shop on the pavement, this information was released by the head of a government tidiness service in the city.
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The number of species and the populations of waterbirds in Muara Angke natural conservation area, North Jakarta, have decreased because of water pollution and human encroachment into the area, an environmental organization says.
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The slow response from the government on a recommendation to revoke over 150 bylaws that are seen as discriminative against woman have made it possible that another 15 new bylaws that are also seen as such, may be enacted any time soon now. This worrisome news was released by the National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan) earlier.
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A group of five climbers which were climbing the Mount Ceremai volcano near the city of Kuningan in West Java province have gone missing. They were reported missing earlier today because they could not be contacted for over a day now. Search and rescue teams are currently searching the mountain slopes they would use to climb the mountain.
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Bali's negative reputation as a center for the slaughter and sale of turtles is slowly changing, due to a number of heroic efforts such as the establishment of the Bali Turtle Education and Conservation Center established on Serangan Island five years ago.
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It is after six o'clock in the morning when I decide to get up. Outside it is still raining, weather that started the afternoon before with heavy thunder and some rain as well. During the night, this weather came and went continuously, but for the daily life here that doesn't matter at all, remarkably enough.
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It is half past ten in the evening and the DAMRI bus that left the Kampung Rambutan bus terminal around half past seven in the evening has stopped and is on the emergency lane of the toll road between Jakarta and Bandung. Just short of three hours of traveling in the direction of Cilacap and engine problems already forced us to stop. What the exact problem is, is not known. There are bottles of water and the driver and kenek (from the Dutch word 'knecht', helper) are looking for a solution.
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Yesterday in the late afternoon I was still in Jakarta. Not entirely according to my own planning, but those things are very hard to plan in this country, and even then there is not a real problem, because there is always another way to enjoy yourself and to get home as well.
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I woke up again early in the morning when we already had made a short stop in Cirebon before departing again. Slowly a new day started and the first people were already working on their rice paddies. The colorful fields range from fresh green young plants to the brown colors of a newly harvested field and the left-overs on the dry fields.
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Rescue teams are moving in the direction of the location where the Dumai Express 10 has reportedly sunk earlier this afternoon. The ferry is said to have sunk in the waters off Tukong Iyu, near the island of Karimun in the Riau Archipelago. There were 213 adults and 15 children on board of the boat, but there is no report on their faith yet.
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In a survey that has cost some 250 million Rupiah (195,000 euro), the botanic garden in Cibodas and LIPI (the Indonesian Institute of Sciences), has concluded that for every tree that is cut down, at least ten new seedlings have to planted to replace it. The seedlings should be put in the earth before the tree is actually cut, realizing that Indonesians normally don't tend to clean up their work after they have started.
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Tourists and residents across the island are complaining that temperatures on the island are exceptionally hot. According to Kompas.com, Bali's hotter-than-normal-heat-wave have seen sunbathers, who used to spend the entire day on Kuta Beach, abandoning the shoreline at 9:30 a.m. to escape the escalating heat.
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Not the first time and most likely also not the last time that I was 'aught in a 'trap' when on the road. This means that all motorcyclists are stopped by police to check their paperwork. Drivers of motorcycles should always bring a valid STNK ('license plate registration') and SIM C ('driving license for motorcycles') with them.
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Daniel Himawan, 11, stood silently on the front porch as his mother swept the floor of their house, which was damaged in the earthquake that devastated Indonesia's West Sumatra province. "I'm scared that another big earthquake will hit again," said Himawan, a sixth-grader.
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Rescuers are refocusing their efforts on survivors now that hopes of finding anyone alive under the rubble of destroyed buildings in the capital, Padang, were slim, officials said. Most people missing in Padang city were buried under heavy concrete and it is unlikely they could survive for five days, said Priyadi Kardono, a spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA).
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Despite growing tourist arrivals to Bali, recent information released by Bank Indonesia show that the amount being spent by tourist visitors to Bali is on the decline. Ida Bagus Viraguna Bagoes Oka who heads the Bali branch of Bank Indonesia, pointed to the changing composition of Bali visitors now dominated by Asians who stay for shorter periods and spend less on a per day basis while holidaying in Bali.
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Hundreds of schoolchildren of a school in the city of Padang, in West Sumatra, Indonesia, are trapped under the rubble of their collapsed school. Rescue work is under way, but progress is slow because of a lack of proper tools. Most work is done by hand, stone by stone, piece by piece. Several dozens of bodies have been found already. It is feared that thousands of people are killed when the building they were in collapsed during the quake.
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Until this moment, 52 bodies have been pulled from the rubble of Hotel Ambacang, one of the biggest hotels in the city of Padang that was flattened during the earthquake of September 30. Eight people were pulled out the rubble alive after some two days of fighting to stay alive in between the rubble of the hotel.
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Some 174 internet hot-spots will be installed throughout Yogyakarta to help ease internet access in the city. A local partner of the tourism agency said this. "In the first phase, 14 internet hot-spots will be made available in Jalan Malioboro," said Fadjar Vyatatomo, general director of Hanoman Duta Mataram.
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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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Smoke from forest fires in the region have once again covered the city of Palembang in South Sumatra. Activity on the Musi river has been slowed by the smoke. The smoke originates from forest fires which occur in forests around the Musi river itself and cause visibility to drop to some 200 meters.
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The Ministry of Transportation has said that it expected that more than 27 million people will hit the roads to be with their families during the upcoming Idul Fitri period later this month. Jusman Syafii Djamal, Minister of Transport, told that it was expected that some 16.3 million people would take public transport and planes, while 11 million others would use private vehicles.
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Inbound passengers to Bali on board Garuda Indonesia flights from Tokyo are seeing their waiting time at the airport of Bali reduced by virtue of a new on board immigration service now in operation. Explained by the manager of Garuda Indonesia in Denpasar, Bagus Siregar, passengers will have their passports processed by immigration officers during their flight from Tokyo and Bali.
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Irresponsibility by PT Lapindo Brantas may cause more problems for the people already affected by the mud flow near Sidoarjo just south of Surabaya in East Java province. The mud, that has been gushing out of a crater in the earth for over three years now, used to be pumped away in the Porong river. But these pumps are not working correctly anymore. Only two out of the 12 are functioning.
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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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I have just arrived at 'Soekarno-Hatta International Airport of Jakarta', or short just 'the airport' or even shorter Soetta. Later this afternoon, at 16:20 local time, my flight should depart. When I got out of the taxi about half an hour ago I first bought a cup of iced tea at A&W. Not the best choice in the area, but I needed over an hour to reach the airport and had already spend an hour in the bus. Two hours without drinking is far from good for me.
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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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Indonesia's poverty rate dropped 1.3 percentage point this year from 15.4 per cent last year owing to stable inflation and higher wages, the national bureau of statistics said Wednesday. According to a survey conducted in March, 32.5 million Indonesians live under the poverty line, or 14.15 per cent of the country's population, the bureau said.
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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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An official of the Department of Culture and Tourism has told the press that Indonesia is not capable of "vertical promotion" using international broadcast media due to a lack of needed funding. Nia Nurcaya, Director for Conferences, Incentives and Promotion of the Marketing Division of the Department of Culture and Tourism, said, "in terms of the vertical promotion of tourism, Indonesia is left far behind by other neighboring nations, such as Malaysia."
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It has been quite some time ago since I last flew with Lion Air. This is caused by the fact that Wings Air is a 100% daughter-company of Lion Air. Lion Air itself is currently renewing it's fleet with Boeing planes, but Wings Air is the trash can of Lion Air. They still operate two MD-82 planes built in 1982 which are in poor condition; PK-WIL and PK-WIK are just too dangerous to fly with if you ask me. It's amazing that they didn't crash already.
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The Indonesian central bank on Wednesday reduced its benchmark interest rate for a seventh straight month by 25 basis points to 7.0 percent to help spur economic growth, the bank said in a statement. Indonesia's economy is struggling to achieve the 4.5 percent target set for this year.
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Indonesian exports in April fell 22.5 per cent from the same month a year ago to 8.46 billion dollars, the Central Bureau of Statistics said Monday. Indonesia, South-East Asia's largest economy, had a trade surplus of 2.08 billion dollars in April because its imports dropped 45 per cent to 6.38 billion dollars, the bureau said.
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The head of the Center of Volcanology and Disaster Management, Surono, has said that the activity of the Mount Slamet volcano is still increasing. Observations at the observation post for the volcano in the village of Gambuhan show that since April 26, 2009 the number of lava eruptions and tremors is still increasing.
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From Aphrodite in Taman Rasuna we took an 'Express' taxi which brought us to the lobby of the five-star Shangri-La Hotel in just a matter of minutes - all of a sudden it went quick because of a lack of vehicles on the protocol-roads of Jakarta. I was happy that I dressed myself decently and also brought enough clothes for the coming days, however an extra blouse with long sleeves would be welcome, but that was something to be taken care of later on.
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Indonesia was ranked second in GoAsia's The Best Travel Destination in Asia after Thailand while Malaysia was placed as the third best, the Jakarta Post reported quoting the Indonesia Foreign Ministry as saying on Friday. Go Asia, a German tourism institution, invited travel agents from all over the world to participate in the voting process on Wednesday in Berlin. The body also gave awards for Asia's best tourism organizations or tourism boards, airlines and tour operators.
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Indonesia's exports fell 36 percent in January from a year ago, the biggest drop since 1986, amid plunging demand for the country's vast natural resources and manufactured goods, the statistic's agency reported Monday. The downward trend - which began in October - was in line with declines in exports from other nations across Asia.
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A boat sank in Aceh, western Indonesia, on Wednesday night due to bad weather and high waves, the Jakarta Post reported on Friday. The ill-fated boat was carrying about 45 people including some illegal migrant workers when it left Penang on Sunday. Its engine broke only two hours before reaching Aceh and later sank in waters off the coast of Peureulak, East Aceh at about 9:30 p.m. local time.
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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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A fuel crisis that grips six districts near Kupang, in the province of East Nusa Tenggara, has caused the price for just one liter of petrol to be as high as 50.000 Rupiah, which is ten times as much as the current official price. Diesel fuel and cooking oil are traded at 25.000 per liter, which has caused the transportation sector to come to a complete stop. "Only rich people can afford it to buy fuel here for their vehicles," said Martinus Rohi, a teacher at an elementary school in the area.
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PT Freeport Indonesia, a unit of Freeport McMoran Copper and Gold Inc., said on Wednesday that it will look for efficiency and was to delay exploration projects, following lower world copper prices. But spokesman of the company Mindo Pangaribuan said that the firm, which has cut 75 jobs at its Jakarta office recently, was still optimistic that the prices could recover in coming months.
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Indonesia has secured emergency loans worth five billion dollars to help plug its budget deficit and boost growth, authorities have said. "The loans, which come from the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, Japan, Australia and France, can be drawn upon whenever Indonesia needs them," finance ministry official Rahmat Waluyanto told on Saturday.
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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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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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Indonesian central bank kept on hold its benchmark interest rate at 9.5 percent on Thursday, the bank said. "Amid the current global financial upheaval and slowing of the world economy, the Bank Indonesia (the central bank) thinks that it is necessary to keep a right monetary policy so that it can achieve a balance between the economic growth and efforts to maintain monetary stability," the bank said in a statement.
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It is around half past two in the early morning at a random Sunday in the holy month of fasting Ramadan. For a big part of the population this is the time to enjoy a nice meal, a part of the people leaves the nearby nightclub Republic for the lesehan* at Jalan Malioboro. A colorful group of young women in short skirts, high heels and often quite a lot of make-up and proper young men in a blouse quickly fills up the lesehan. They have just over one hour to eat their meal and enjoy a cigarette before the call to open the fasting for this Sunday is made by the imam from the mosque almost next door to the nightclub.
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The road between Yogyakarta and Malang consists mainly of a reasonably maintained two lane road. That is what they call jalan raya ('big road') here, but it's not that big after all. The two most widely used roads for traveling from west to east and the other way around on the island is one road that is virtually on the beach, the Pesisir. The second is a road that runs through the Javanese heartland and brings you to Bandung, Yogyakarta, Surakarta (popularly known as Solo), Madiun and Malang. The road from Yogyakarta to Malang is some 375 kilometers - not in a direct line of course - and has different levels of maintenance in different areas. The road in nice condition in the province of Yogyakarta are in sharp contrast with the bad situation near Madiun.
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Residents of Kamalmuara, North Jakarta, were scared by the discovery of a small mud leak in the Tanjungan stream. The small mud leak is currently slowly increasing in size. According to information from Metro TV, the mud leak currently is some 20 centimeters high and 60 centimeters in diameter.
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Extra long buses for the Trans-Jakarta bus way system - often named just 'Busway' - will be used on the route Kampung Melayu-Ancol, or Corridor V. The launch of the new buses was executed by the governor of Jakarta, Fauzi Bowo yesterday morning. Ten new extra long buses have been prepared to be operational starting from today. These new buses can only be used on this corridor, because the infrastructure here is completely ready as well.
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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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The number of foreign tourists in Indonesia rose nearly 16 percent in February from a year ago, helped by a surge in visitors to the resort island of Bali, government data showed on Tuesday. The predominantly Hindu island of Bali, which accounted for about 40 percent of total foreign arrivals, has seen tourist numbers rebound after a slow recovery from the impact of suicide bomb attacks by Islamic militants in 2002 and 2005.
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Efforts by Bali's provincial House of Representatives to impose a "donation" on tourists passing through Bali's Ngurah Rai Airport has been strongly rejected by Jakarta who saw the imposition of an additional financial burden on Bali's tourists as unacceptable.
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