Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by palm oil company PT Kallista Alam and ordered the company to pay fines totalling Rp 366 billion (US$25.6 million) for illeg

Paulina Quintao – Dili resident Rosaria Martins da Cruz urges the national parliament to create a consumer protection law to regulate the import of foods into the country.

Jakarta – The United Nations Children's Fund's Indonesia office has been focusing on factors such as child development, social policy, education, communication and child protection, key objectives

Jakarta – Up to 26,506 workers in Indonesia have been laid off while the rupiah has been weakening, said Manpower Minister Hanif Dhakiri on Saturday.

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – Indonesia's child mortality has declined substantially thanks to government and civil society interventions, a new global UNICEF report says.

Jakarta – The House of Representatives' Ethics Council has launched a probe into potential violations committed by House Speaker Setya Novanto and his deputy, Fadli Zon, in what has been dubbed "th

Jakarta – City councilors from Jakarta have come under fire over the cost of their purported "study trip" to Bali, and their only response has been to complain that they don't get enough money to b

Jakarta – A rights group, the Commission for Missing Person and Victims of Violence (Kontras), warned that the newly inaugurated National Narcotics Agency (BNN) chief Comr. Gen.

Jakarta – Business players and analysts have strongly criticized the central bank's recent policy that required all business transactions conducted in the Indonesian territory be carried out in rup

Port Moresby (ULMWP/Pacific Media Watch) – The Solomon Islands Special Envoy on West Papua, Mathew Wale, today cautiously welcomed the decision by the Pacific Islands Forum leaders to take forward

Paulina Quintao – The National Director of Autonomous Service for Medicines and Medical Equipment (SAMES), Odete Maria Belo said it has run out of some medicines because it is the responsibility of

Jakarta – The Attorney General's Office (AGO) said on Thursday that the National Police had yet to hand over suspended Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) leader Bambang Widjojanto, who is a pe

Up to 134 regulations in 17 ministries and state institutions are set to be deregulated.

Tassia Sipahutar and Khoirul Amin, Jakarta – Economic analysts have been underwhelmed by the government's newly launched economic policy package, regarding it as lacking the fresh solutions needed

On Wednesday, the government announced what President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo called the first of a series of regulatory and bureaucratic reforms designed to boost business and economic activity and s

Jayapura, Jubi – Indonesian Minister of Rural and Underdeveloped Region and Transmigration, Marwan Jafar, contradicted President Joko Widodo's pledge to terminate the transmigration program in Papu

Port Moresby (Pacnews/PNGLoop/Pacific Media Watch) – Solomon Islands will not be intimidated by Indonesia or other countries in the Pacific Islands Forum in its push for West Papua.

In East Timor's national hospital in Dili, an Australian doctor checks the vital signs of an impossibly tiny baby girl, six months old, born prematurely and struggling to breathe through an acute r

Slamet Susanto, Yogyakarta – People's decreasing purchasing power as a result of the downturn in the economy and increases in the prices of staple foods has affected demand for livestock ahead of I

Jakarta – The newly inaugurated chief of the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), Comr. Gen.

Jakarta – The State Intelligence Agency may be forced to postpone its ambitious plan to recruit 1,000 agents and informants for this year's regional elections as the government looks set to slash i

The Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare will push for a West Papuan group to be admitted to the Pacific Islands Forum at the annual summit of the region's leaders in Port Moresby.

Jakarta – Hundreds of university students from Jakarta and Banten organized rallies on Thursday to demand that President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's government immediately act to ease pressures caused b

Jakarta – The Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court on Thursday granted a plea lodged by high-profile lawyer turned graft suspect Otto Cornelis Kaligis to receive additional visits from family and colleagu

Jakarta – Women continue to be discriminated against in Indonesia through prevailing laws, despite progress on some fronts, according to a study by the World Bank.

Kanupriya Kapoor and Randy Fabi, Jakarta – As Indonesian President Joko Widodo was preparing on Wednesday to present a grand package of measures aimed at restoring investors' faith in the competenc

Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja – Ten plantation companies operating in Riau, South Sumatra, Jambi and Kalimantan provinces may see their licences revoked, and may be fined as investigators probe whether the

Rizal Harahap and Syofiardi Bachyul Jb, Pekanbaru/Padang – A day after being appointed the head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) Willem Rampangilei pledged on Wednesday to clear up

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – Amid the country's economic slowdown, the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) has urged the government to reduce its coal dependency in its plan to build powe

A New Zealand opposition MP Catherine Delahunty says the New Zealand government is showing a lack of leadership and credibility over West Papua.

Jakarta – Indonesia has more than halved its child mortality rate in the past 25 years, but malnutrition remains a major hurdle, a new Unicef report shows.

Syofiardi Bachyul Jb and Rizal Harahap, Padang/Pekanbaru – Thick haze produced by land and forest fires has continued to blanket several parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan, forcing local authorities t

Haeril Halim and Margareth S.

Tama Salim, Jakarta – The Golkar Party has issued an official apology for a publicity stunt involving House of Representatives Speaker Setya Novanto appearing at US presidential hopeful Donald Trum

Nani Afrida, Jakarta – Responding to a planned defense budget cut, Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo said that he would order a reduction in the procurement of new weapons.

Jakarta – Former Timor Leste president Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao has won the Excellence in Public Health Award from the World Health Organization (WHO) South-East Asia Region for his breakthrough work

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo pledged last week to revise 154 regulations pinpointed by the chief economics minister as major barriers to economic activity.

Grace D.

Jakarta – Religious Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin has called on Indonesians to pray for rainfall as the archipelago continues to struggle with the extreme dry season due to El Nino.

Julianna Waeda – The PNG Union for Free West Papua and supporters of the Free West Papua movement are convoying around the streets of Port Moresby.

Jakarta – Indonesia's antigraft commission says it may pursue investigations into individuals said to have benefited from free hajj trips handed out by a former minister now on trial for corruption

Ary Hermawan, Tucson, Arizona – At first it was funny, but then just sad.

Jakarta – The government says that it is paying close attention to the murder case of human rights activist Munir Said Thalib but stresses that it is not its responsibility to find the mastermind b

Jewel Topsfield, Jakarta – Papuan independence leader Filep Karma has flummoxed Indonesian authorities by refusing to be released from prison until he is cleared of treason.

Jayapura, Jubi – The West Papua National Committee (KNPB), Papua Students, Youth and People Movement (GempaR) and other KNPB supporters held a peaceful rally in front of the gate of the Cenderawasi

Nani Afrida, Jakarta – For the first time in the past five years, the government is planning to cut budget allocation for the defense sector, commencing in 2016.

Jakarta – Indonesian House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Fadli Zon has threatened to sue the prominent Indonesian imam of a New York City mosque after the latter accused him and House Speaker S

Arya Dipa, Bandung – The Purwakarta regional administration in West Java has recently issued a regulation that bans premarital dating after 9 p.m., suggesting that those who break the curfew get ma

Joey Tau – Solidarity groups throughout the Pacific including Australia and New Zealand are calling on Pacific leaders to act on the West Papua issue at this Forum Leaders meeting.

Fadli, Batam – Two British journalists detained by Indonesian authorities for making a documentary about piracy in the Malacca Strait without proper papers have asked to be deported soon, their law