Solo Prototype cars made by Indonesian engineering students have triggered a frenzy of interest from fellow countrymen who want to buy them, the project’s supervisor has said. Ten examples of the Kiat Esemka car have been built at the Kiat Motor workshop in the Central Java city of Solo, said its owner, Sukiyat. The first [...]

BANDA ACEH A 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck off the west coast of northern Sumatra early on Wednesday, sending panicked residents onto the streets and in search of higher ground. Thousands on the island of Simeulue, 200 kilometres from the epicentre, ran from their homes as the ground shook. But after Indonesia issued a tsunami warning, the [...]

JAKARTA An Indonesian factory producing Nike shoes will shell out US$1 million in unpaid overtime wages to thousands of employees, Nike said on Thursday. “An agreement was reached between the factory and the local union and $1,002,830 will be reimbursed to workers for back wages in accordance with Indonesian labor law,” Nike said in a [...]

JAKARTA The head of an Islamic school that was suspected of being a bomb factory went on trial on terrorism charges on Wednesday. Prosecutor Bambang Suhardi told the Tangerang District Court outside Jakarta that Abrory M. Ali was charged with possessing explosives and inciting terrorism – offences that carry the death penalty. Abrory was the [...]

JAKARTA Ten Islamists accused of planning attacks against Indonesian police went on trial on Thursday, facing life sentences if found guilty. The 10 men, including alleged ringleader Abu Umar, were rounded up by police last year in a four-day operation in which more than a dozen firearms and hundreds of bullets were seized. In a [...]

JAKARTA Workers at a giant mine in Papua owned by US company Freeport-McMoRan ended their three-month strike over wages after reaching a deal with the company on Wednesday, a union spokesman said. Under the agreement workers will receive a 37-percent pay hike over the next two years. “The deal has been signed this evening by [...]

JAKARTA A coalition of environmental groups headed by WWF has accused Indonesia’s biggest paper producer, Asia Pulp & Paper, of clearing forest in a tiger sanctuary set up by the company. The report, “The truth behind APP’s greenwashing” by the coalition Eyes on the Forest, published satellite maps showing cleared land within the Senepis tiger [...]

BANDA ACEH Nearly 1,000 police officers found to have used drugs in Aceh will be given a month to get clean or face dismissal. The officers, representing at least six percent of the provincial police force, failed drug tests carried out by the National Narcotics Agency, Aceh Police chief Iskandar Hasan said. The police tested [...]

JAKARTA A 22-year-old man has died after setting himself on fire near the presidential palace, in what is believed to be the country’s first self-immolation protest. The man, identified as student Sondang Hutagalung, died on Saturday after he was taken to hospital with 98 percent burns, Jakarta Police spokesman Baharudin Djafar said. “He died yesterday [...]

JAKARTA President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has called for an immediate resolution of a nearly two-month strike by workers at a giant US-owned gold and copper mine in Papua province. About one-third of the 23,000 workers at Freeport McMoRan’s Grasberg mining complex, who have been on strike since mid-September over better wages, threatened on Tuesday to [...]

An former senior executive of Citibank Indonesia went on trial this week for bank fraud and allegedly embezzling US$5 million from customers’ accounts, crimes which carry a 15-year jail term. Inong Malinda Dee, 49, allegedly embezzled the money from wealthy customers’ savings accounts between 2007 and February this year when she was a premium client [...]

LAGOS Nigeria’s military has freed 19 hostages in an operation in the country’s main oil-producing region, including Nigerians and foreigners, two security sources said. “We’ve got confirmed reports that, yes, all 19 have been reported freed,” one of the security sources said on Wednesday. “It was a JTF operation,” he added, referring to Nigeria’s Joint [...]