News items on indahnesia.com

2007

Garuda flies into the black, finally
After many years of writing its financial results in red ink, Garuda Indonesia closed the first semester of 2007 by reporting a net profit of Rp. 148 billion (11.56 million euro). In an impressive turn-around, the current profit results stand in stark contrast to the first six months of 2006 when the Airline reported losses ... ( read on )

2006

Indonesia allots 6M hectares for biofuel
Indonesia has earmarked 6 million hectares for development of its biofuel industry, part of plans to reduce its dependence on crude oil and susceptibility to price fluctuations, its energy minister said Friday. "Our target to develop our biofuel industry is by 2009-2010," said Energy Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro. "And we have plans for 6 million hectares ... ( read on )

2005

Aceh prisoners who didn't escape during tsunami rewarded
The government of Indonesia has decided to reward the prisoners in Aceh who chose not to escape from their jails when they were destroyed during last December's tsunami, by having their sentences halved. To mark the country's independence day on August 17, Indonesia's justice and human rights minister, Hamid Awaluddin, has said 300 prisoners in ... ( read on )

2004

Indian national executed for drug smuggling
An Indian national was executed by firing squad early on Thursday for smuggling heroin into Indonesia, despite opposition from international human rights groups, officials said. "We confirmed that the execution of (Chaubey) has been carried out," said on official at North Sumatra's prosecutor's office. The execution of Ayodhya Prasad Chaubey, 65, took place at about ... ( read on )

2004

Police break up suicide squad
Six Muslim militants arrested last month in Indonesia were members of a suicide squad that was awaiting attack orders from leaders of the Jemaah Islamiyah terror group, a top security official told The Associated Press on Wednesday. Police recovered letters in a house rented by the men in which they told their families they intended ... ( read on )

2004

Oil spill from Singaporean ship threatens Riau islands
A Singaporean vessel carrying 200 tonnes of oil waste which sank last week off Indonesia's Riau islands has begun to spill its cargo, threatening fishing grounds, officials said Wednesday. The ship went down on July 25 as it tried to dock at a town in the Karimun region of the island chain close to Singapore, ... ( read on )

2004

Fresh faces feature in next govt
New faces will dominate Indonesia's next government following the country's April 5 legislative polls, according to official election documents. The Kompas newspaper says new faces make up 72 per cent of the country's next Parliament or People's Representative Council (DPR). It based its conclusion on the list of names of the incoming Members of Parliament, ... ( read on )

2003

Blast directed at US interests
The bombers of the five-star hotel in Indonesia might have aimed at destroying US interests in the city, Indonesian Vice President Hamzah Haz said today. "Marriott is American. Whether this (blast) is aimed at destroying US interests, I think there may have been such an aim," Haz told journalists before attending a cabinet meeting. JW Marriott ... ( read on )

2003

Bomb rocks Marriott Hotel Jakarta, 10 killed [update II]
A powerful bomb exploded on Tuesday at about 12:30 p.m. just outside the JW Marriott Hotel on Jl. Dr Satrio in the Mega Kuningan business complex in Kuningan, South Jakarta. The front of the hotel is still burning at this time, with black smoke billowing out from the lobby. Plaza Mutiara, an office ... ( read on )

2003

Effort to revoke ban on Indon communist party fails
A controversial proposal to legalize Indonesia's Communist Party - banned in 1966 by former president Suharto - has failed to win approval from the country's top legislative body. Members of President Megawati Sukarnoputri's party who had pushed for the ban to be repealed, said Monday the effort ran into opposition from a majority of factions ... ( read on )

2003

Blast outside Marriott Hotel Jakarta kills three
An explosion outside the Marriott Hotel in downtown Jakarta on Tuesday killed at least three people and damaged the building, witnesses said. It was also not immediately clear whether the blast was caused by a bomb. However, since last year's terrorist attacks in Bali, which killed 202 people, authorities have warned that more attacks were ... ( read on )

Other events on this day

2000

Indonesian govt representatives and Acehnese separatist rebels meet in secret near Geneva, Switzerland, to take stock of a two-month-old "humanitarian pause" agreed upon between the two sides to try to end violence in the restive province.

2000

Some 5,000 Muslims converge on the Kridosono Sports Stadium in Yogyakarta to attend the first Indonesian Mujahiddin Congress, with calls for Islamic law to be applied in the country.

2000

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) maintains that the Constitution, especially Article 29 on religion, should not be amended because it would open the possibility for the unitary state to become a religious state.

1999

President BJ Habibie arrives in the South Sulawesi capital of Ujungpandang and is greeted by student activists and local residents demanding that former president Soeharto be put on trial and that Indonesian Military Commander Gen. Wiranto resign.

1997

Two Indonesians, Tarmizi Yacob, 25, and Bustaman Bukhari, 23, are sentenced to death by a Kuala Lumpur court for drug trafficking.

1987

A torrential storm batters Mt. Bawakaraeng, on the apex of which hundreds of people of an Islamic sect are performing the Id al-Adha service. 15 people are killed and 24 others injured on the mountain, 100 km northeast of Ujungpandang, S. Sulawesi.

1986

President Soeharto inaugurates, in a video hook-up from Bina Graha presidential office, Indonesia's second offshore oil field in the South China Sea near the island of Natuna, about 1,250 kilometers from Jakarta.