Indonesian courts have commenced the trial of Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, facing charges of blasphemy for having joked about a paragraph in the Quran that implies Muslims should not be governed by non-Muslims.
The international human rights organization Amnesty International is slamming Kellogg’s and other companies that it says are profiting from child labor and other exploitative practices.
Indonesia police announced Wednesday that Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, an ethnic Chinese Christian, is a suspect in a probe of a blasphemy law violation for joking about the Quran forbidding non-Muslims to rule over Muslim people.
Students of the big Clinton scandals of the 1990s will remember the name of James Riady, an Indonesian businessman who ultimately pled guilty to making illegal donations to Bill Clinton’s political campaigns.
A mob of 150 thousand Muslim protesters took to the streets on Friday in Jakarta, Indonesia, calling for the death penalty for the capital’s Christian governor.
In a private speech shortly after leaving her post as Secretary of State, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton reportedly asserted that China has “a right to assert themselves” with regard to the South China Sea, a region in which the communist government has usurped the sovereign territory of six countries.
Jakarta motorists had an especially interesting commute last week when a Japanese porn film was screened on an electronic billboard for about five minutes until power to the billboard could be cut. The prankster has been identified as a 24-year-old IT analyst named Samudera al Hakam Ralial, according to International Business Times, and he might end up in prison until he is 30.
The United States consulate in Adana, Turkey, warned Americans traveling abroad Monday of specific threats of violence from Islamic State members against hotels hosting foreigners.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, has agreed to block dozen of gay websites and apps in the country. The three specific websites at the center of this crackdown are the dating sites and applications Grindr, Blued, and BoyAhoy.
A Muslim fashion designer made history this week by debuting the first fashion collection to feature traditional Muslim hijabs in every look during New York Fashion Week.
Lawmakers are proposing a ban on alcohol sales and consumption throughout Indonesia, which may negatively affect the island of Bali’s booming tourist economy.
The head of Indonesia’s anti-drug agency says he is hoping to boost police capabilities and wage a war on drug traffickers similar to the controversial work President Rodrigo Duterte has begun in the Philippines, adding that the life of a drug dealer was “meaningless.”
A Catholic Church in Medan, Indonesia, suffered a failed jihadist attack this week as an 18-year-old rushed into a service, wielding an ax and detonating a bomb that injured only himself.
Indonesia’s government has declared that there is “no room” for gays in the country. This isn’t a surprise. It’s a Muslim country, and gays are starting to realize that they aren’t safe in Muslim societies.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, has responded to criticisms in a new Human Rights Watch report by stating that the government will protect the rights of gay people, but there is “no room” for an LGBT “movement” in the
A noodle snack with a picture of a bikini-clad woman and the words “squeeze me” on the packaging has triggered outrage in Muslim-majority Indonesia, with consumer groups calling Friday for it to be pulled from shops.
Indonesian counterterrorism police have thwarted a jihadist missile attack early Friday, arresting six terror suspects who reportedly planned to fire a rocket from the nearby Indonesian island of Batam into downtown Singapore.
A state-run Chinese newspaper has run an editorial calling the governments of Japan and the United States the “eunuchs” of new Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, following a humiliating loss for Beijing at the Hague over its claims in the South China Sea.
President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan personally sent off a naval warship Wednesday morning to patrol Taiping Island, a Taiwanese territory in the South China Sea that Taipei fears they could lose as a result of Tuesday’s verdict rejecting China’s claims
The Indonesian legislature has approved a nearly ten-percent increase in the nation’s defense budget following a visit by President Joko Widodo to Natuna Island, a territory on the cusp of China’s “nine-dash line,” unilaterally defining Beijing’s borders as extending into five other countries.
Contents: ASEAN makes humiliating South China Sea reversal under pressure from China; Obama administration reevaluates plans for Afghanistan troop withdrawal
Calls for a probe into the 1965 crackdown on a communist-led coup attempt have rattled Indonesians, long accustomed to living in a country where the Communist Party is banned.
The president of Indonesia has signed a legal directive which will allow judges to rule that convicted pedophiles must undergo chemical castration, have a microchip implanted in them to allow complete government monitoring, or — in extreme cases — face the death penalty.
TEL AVIV – Deep inside a lengthy New York Times Magazine article, President Obama’s top aides Ben Rhodes and Valerie Jarrett expounded on how President Obama’s early childhood years in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, helped shape the president’s worldview.
The Chinese government has sent folk singer Song Zuying to Fiery Cross Reef, a disputed territory in the South China Sea, to perform patriotic songs and begin a tour of the region titled “The People’s Army Advances.”
The Philippine Star reports that a large number of government and corporate websites were hacked and vandalized by a group calling itself the “Indonesian Defacer Team,” which replaced the normal web pages with messages praising itself.
A number of jihadist groups in Southeast Asia have pledged loyalty to the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) and up to 1,000 people have left Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines to join the terrorist organization in Iraq and Syria, reports BBC.
Kidnappings by the Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf group have prompted Indonesia to call for joint maritime patrols with the Philippines and Malaysia.
The Chinese government is fighting off protests from American officials that it landed a military plane on Fiery Cross Reef, a disputed territory both Vietnam and the Philippines claim, alleging the flight was necessary to save a worker having a medical emergency.
Indonesian authorities have publicly caned an elderly Christian woman for selling alcohol. It is the first time they have punished anyone outside of Islam under Sharia Law.
An elderly Christian woman has been caned in a conservative Indonesian province for selling alcohol, the first time someone from outside the Islamic faith has been punished there under strict religious laws. The 60-year was whipped nearly 30 times with
Chinese media outlet Xinhua has confirmed that a third illegally constructed lighthouse in the South China Sea is now fully operational. The lighthouse is located on the artificial island formerly known as Subi Reef and equipped with “automatic identification systems” that significantly expand China’s surveillance capabilities.
Vietnamese officials have seized a Chinese ship and arrested its crew after it wandered into Vietnamese waters in the South China Sea, the latest in a string of similar seizures of trespassing Chinese ships around the globe. In addition to not being able to justify their presence in Vietnam, the Qiong Yangpu’s crew refused to identify the origin of their cargo: 100,000 liters of diesel fuel.
Actor and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio faces being banned from Indonesia after he criticized the country’s palm oil and paper industries online.
On Tuesday, Indonesia announced that ten of its citizens, sailors working aboard a coal barge, had been kidnapped, with a ransom demand made by the Islamist militant group Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines. Wednesday brought reports that elite Indonesian counter-terrorist units are standing by to assist in a possible rescue operation.
Incumbent Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama has asked the government to fire Ambassador to Japan Yusron Ihza Mahendra for a tweet in which the latter allegedly incited violence against ethnic Chinese people in Indonesia.
Following the arrest of the crew of a Chinese ship allegedly fishing illegally in its waters, the government of Indonesia is facing regional criticism for shooting at two Taiwanese ships that it also alleges had trespassed into Indonesian territory. The recent incidents are helping to raise Indonesia’s profile as a formidable player in growing tensions in the South China Sea.
Contents: China’s coast guard warship rams vessel in Indonesian waters; US and Philippines agree on access to five military bases
China is accusing a group of Philippine fishermen of attacking Chinese Coast Guard ships with fire bombs after the Chinese ships chased them out of disputed waters in the South China Sea, waters the Philippines considers its sovereign territory.
After a dramatic incident at sea that resulted in the arrest of a Chinese fishing crew trespassing in the waters of Indonesia, China protested Indonesia had no right to intervene on what has long been a “traditional Chinese fishing ground.”
