Indonesia - Page 5

Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has chosen Jakarta’s first Christian governor of Chinese descent, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, as a top candidate to oversee the construction of a new capital city in the majority-Muslim country, the Nikkei reported on Friday.

The Ministry of the Interior of Saudi Arabia on Friday announced a 24-hour coronavirus lockdown and nationwide curfew for the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which is scheduled for May 23 to 27 in the kingdom.

Indonesian police arrested three people on Thursday for using fake “coronavirus-free” documents to island-hop from Java to Bali. 

One of Indonesia’s largest labor groups says it will defy a police ban on staging May Day rallies in the capital enacted to curb the spread of the coronavirus, Indonesian news site Kumparan reported on Wednesday.

Indonesia on Tuesday announced the banning of Idul Fitri, the annual exodus at the end of Ramadan where people return home to their villages and see their families, over fears it could worsen the spread of the Chinese coronavirus.

BAHTIM, Egypt — Every year during Ramadan, the Light of Muhammad Mosque sets up long tables on the street and dishes up free meals at sunset for the poor to break their daily fast. It’s a charity that many rely on in this impoverished district on the edge of the Egyptian capital.

Indonesian officials in Central Java province have gotten creative with their punishments for quarantine violators, forcing them to stay in a haunted house, Coconuts Jakarta reported Monday.

A group of prisoners granted early release in the Indonesian province of Gorontalo last week celebrated their freedom by making a TikTok video dancing to music from Spongebob Squarepants, the Asian outlet Coconuts reported on Tuesday.

The governor of Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, said on Tuesday that nearly 300 suspected and confirmed victims of the Chinese coronavirus had been buried since the start of March.

Indonesian government authorities successfully halted a planned gathering of almost 9,000 Muslim pilgrims late Wednesday, amid fears it would spread Chinese coronavirus.

Tens of thousands of Muslim faithful sparked an outcry in Bangladesh on Wednesday as they defied authorities to hold a mass prayer gathering just as the South Asian nation reported its first death from the global pandemic.

The owner of a grocery store in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta was widely praised across social media after refusing to panic about the coronavirus outbreak, which was officially confirmed as active in Indonesia on Monday.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced on Monday that two of his citizens have tested positive for Chinese coronavirus, making them the first official cases of the virus on his country’s soil.

Australian maritime authorities intercepted an illegal asylum seeker boat last month and forced it to immediately return to its port of departure in Indonesia.

A senior Indonesian Health Ministry official baffled journalists by insisting that a man who tested positive for “SARS-CoV-2” did not have “COVID-19,” the Jakarta Post reported on Tuesday. The former is the virus that causes the latter.

Lawmakers in Indonesia are considering legislation that would require state “rehabilitation” for individuals seeking “sexual satisfaction through unusual and unreasonable ways, which include sadism, masochism, incest, and homosexuality,” the Jakarta Post revealed this week.

An Indonesian Muslim group named Indonesia Tanpa Pacaran (“Indonesia without dating”) has declared February 14 “Indonesia Without Dating Day,” organizing rallies, talks, popular events to stamp out both the holiday and the practice of dating before marriage.

Pope Francis is looking to travel to Indonesia later this year, the nation with the highest Muslim population in the world, Reuters reported Monday.

Asian countries including Indonesia and the Philippines remain fearful of suspending visa-free entry for Chinese citizens amid the outbreak of the contagious coronavirus because they do not want to endanger their close economic and political relationship with Beijing. 

Islamic authorities in Indonesia’s Aceh province have unveiled a new all-women flogging squad tasked with punishing fellow women found in violation of Sharia Law, AFP reported Tuesday.

(AFP) — Indonesia’s human rights body on Tuesday slammed a crackdown on the LGBT community in a city that was once home to a man described as Britain’s most prolific rapist.

AFP — The father of an Indonesian student described as Britain’s most prolific rapist said his son’s life sentence “fits the crimes”, as the lurid case sparked shock and disgust in his native country. On Monday, a judge in Manchester

Indonesia on Friday announced it would increase maritime patrols around islands in the South China Sea, a few days after Chinese coast guard vessels “trespassed” near the northern Natuna Islands.

Police in the Indonesian city of Makassar carried out “condom raids” at convenience stores across the city Tuesday in an effort to prevent sexual intercourse from taking place during New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Hardline Islamists in Indonesia signaled they will keep trying to ban one of Asia’s biggest annual dance music festivals, the Djakarta Warehouse Project (DWP), because it brings “immorality” into the capital city (whose name is more commonly spelled “Jakarta” outside of Indonesia) and violates Islamic law.

Governments on the Indonesian island of Sumatra have banned Christians from celebrating Christmas in private homes, according to a report Thursday from International Christian Concern (ICC).

President Joko Widodo of Indonesia warned the nation’s devout Muslims on Tuesday not to use violence to enforce a fatwa handed down by the nation’s Islamic council in 2016 against Christmas celebrations, urging tolerance for other faiths.

An Indonesian school teacher was arrested this weekend on charges of molesting 18 of his school students, having reportedly making them swear to secrecy through the Islamic holy book. 

An Indonesian man who fainted during a brutal public flogging Thursday for indulging in pre-marital sex was revived and then had his punishment resumed before he was taken to hospital for recovery.

A celebrity spiritual “healer” in Indonesia has caused controversy after telling a supposed spirit within a woman’s body that she deserved the gang rape and consequent suicide. 

A strictly observant Muslim Indonesian man – who worked as a religious policeman enforcing adultery laws – has been publicly whipped after being caught with a married woman. He now stands to lose his job after local Islamic officials expressed a lack of confidence in his ability to discharge his duties.

Indonesian crash investigators stated in a recently published report that a series of failures by Boeing led to the fatal Lion Air Flight 610, one of two Boeing 737 Max aircraft to crash in a short period of time.

Islamic organizations in Indonesia voiced their concern this weekend over a group of Muslim men wearing religious female attire. One group called on police to start cracking down against such behavior.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced long-awaited plans to relocate the country’s capital from the overcrowded metropolis of Jakarta to a site in sparsely populated East Kalimantan province on Borneo island, local media reported Wednesday.

South Korea is planning a series of events to promote halal restaurants in a bid to boost Islamic tourism, the Korean Tourism Organization announced on Wednesday.

A Turkish ambassador this week called for his country and Indonesia to be deemed permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).