Indonesia’s fabled island is running out of water, with monsoon rains delayed and the tourist industry expanding. Denpasar, Bali – The people of Bali have shared water resources through “subak” – a sophisticated irrigation system that diverts water from channel to rice field and back – since the ninth century. More …
TAMBAKLOROK, Indonesia (Reuters) – Indonesian fisherman Miskan says the once-abundant catches he used to enjoy have been dwindling in recent years on this stretch of the Java Sea. Birds perch on dead-trees at Bedono, a village affected by land subsidence and rising sea level, in Demak regency near Semarang, Central …
A Sumatran elephant was found decapitated with its tusks ripped off in an apparent poaching of the critically endangered subspecies, an Indonesian conservation official said. The rotting corpse of the 40-year-old male creature was discovered by a plantation worker on Monday in Riau province on Sumatra island. “The elephant’s head …
JAKARTA (Reuters) – He was once a boy scout and member of a patriotic flag-raising team in high school. University students and members of Indonesian labour organisations take part in a protest over human rights, corruption and social and environmental issues in Jakarta, Indonesia, October 28, 2019. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan But …
They spent much of the past 20 years trying to get them out of politics Along a dirt track bordered by rice paddies and studded with potholes, soldiers and villagers labour side by side. They are levelling the rutted surface so that it can be paved over with concrete. The road …
An Indonesian man – who worked for an organisation that helped draft strict adultery laws – has been publicly whipped after being caught having an affair with a married woman. Mukhlis bin Muhammad of the Aceh Ulema Council (MPU) was flogged 28 times. The woman he had the affair with …
Oath ceremony in Jakarta takes place under heavy security as Widodo starts his second term with a series of challenges. Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo has been sworn into office for his second and final five-year term amid a string of fresh challenges around security, corruption and economic slowdown. Widodo, a former furniture salesman popularly …
LAKE TOBA, Indonesia — The ground still occasionally trembles here, a reminder of the active volcano below that last erupted 75,000 years ago and blasted a crater out of the earth the size of Los Angeles. The violent explosion, which triggered a global volcanic winter, formed a natural wonder — …
The fierce lizards are in perpetual decline on their native island. A huge influx of visitors hasn’t helped. There’s nothing cuddly about the 5,000 or so Komodo dragons that still roam the wild. They’re aggressive, venomous predators that can reach 10 feet long and weigh more than 150 pounds. They’ve …
The Indonesian island of Komodo, home to the Komodo dragon, will not be closed to tourists next year – but a $1,000 membership scheme will be introduced, the authorities have said. It reverses a July announcement that the island would close in January to protect the dragons and their habitat. …
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Thousands of protesters gathered outside of Parliament and in cities across Indonesia on Monday urging the president, Joko Widodo, to halt legislation aimed at crippling anti-corruption efforts and sharply reducing personal freedom. Efforts by the outgoing Parliament to rush through a series of contested bills with the …
But many other countries tolerate or encourage it ONE IN FIVE girls marries before reaching adulthood. One in twenty is wed before her fifteenth birthday. In Indonesia, which has the eighth-highest number of child brides in the world according to the UN, the phenomenon should soon be a thing of …