‘I’m happy to have this slow day’: Bali marks new year with day of silence

To mark Nyepi, everything from the airport to local supermarkets and ATMs are closed, while residents and tourists remain inside for quiet self-reflection

Bali’s typical soundtrack of construction sites and car horns has been replaced for 24 hours with birdsong and the lapping of waves as the island celebrates its annual day of silence.

To celebrate the Balinese New Year, known as Nyepi, the island’s usually busy streets have fallen quiet with residents and tourists expected to remain indoors for a day of quiet self-reflection.

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Families dismayed as Indonesia court acquits two police over stadium crush that left 135 dead

Another officer jailed but sentence too light, say victims’ relatives, after police blamed for triggering crush last October

An Indonesian court has acquitted two senior police officers charged with negligence over a stadium crowd crush last year that killed 135 people, angering relatives of those who died in one of football’s worst tragedies.

Another officer was jailed for 18 months but families of the victims said he had been treated too leniently.

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Parents in Indonesia outraged by 5.30am school start trial

Controversial pilot project in Kupang, the capital of East Nusa Tenggara province, has twelfth-graders at 10 high schools starting classes in the dark

Early every morning in a city in Indonesia’s far east, sleepy teenagers can be seen trudging through the streets on their way to school.

The students are taking part in a controversial experiment to get the day off to a much earlier start.

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Bali to ban tourists from renting motorbikes

Governor says foreigners will only be allowed to rent cars, after series of road traffic offences

The Indonesian island of Bali plans to ban tourists from renting motorbikes after a series of incidents in which foreigners have violated traffic rules.

Bali’s governor, Wayan Koster, said that underchanges to be imposed this year, foreigners would only be allowed to drive cars rented from travel agents.

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Hot clouds spew into sky as volcano erupts in Indonesia – video

Indonesia's Merapi volcano erupted, spewing hot clouds into the sky, on Saturday. The eruption of the volcano, located in Indonesia's Yogyakarta region, generated a lava flow 1.5km long and a cloud of ash up to seven kilometres across.

Residents in the nearby community have been warned to halt any activities in the danger zones, which range between three to seven kilometres' radius from the crater, an official statement said

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Huge fireball seen in Jakarta sky during blaze at fuel storage depot – video

At least 17 people including two children have died after a fire at state energy firm Pertamina’s Plumpang depot in the north of the Indonesian capital. Sixty people were injured, with many severely burned, while hundreds more living in residential areas near the depot had to be evacuated. Top officials have called for an investigation into the cause of the fire and an audit of the country’s energy facilities after several recent blazes

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Two children among 17 people killed after fire at Jakarta fuel storage depot

Another 60 people injured and hundreds evacuated after fire at Pertamina’s Plumpang depot

At least 17 people including two children have died after a fuel storage depot fire in Jakarta.

Three people are still missing after Friday night’s blaze at state energy firm Pertamina’s Plumpang depot in north Jakarta, with Indonesian officials the next day calling for an audit of “all fuel facilities and infrastructures” in the country.

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‘This is my last responsibility’: Indonesia’s parents seek justice over child cough syrup deaths

More than 200 Indonesian children have died after taking syrups contaminated with toxic chemicals. Their parents want to make sure it can’t happen again

The Indonesian language has words for children who have lost their mothers or fathers, but none for parents who lose their children. Some say that is because the pain is inexplicable, something 42-year-old Safitri Puspa Rani can attest to.

Safitri’s eight-year-old son Panghegar died in October 2022, one month after his birthday. Panghegar had spent weeks in a paediatric intensive care unit, fighting acute kidney injury caused by syrup medicines that had been contaminated with toxic chemicals commonly found in industrial solvents and antifreeze.

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Troy Johnston death: Indonesian man arrested after Australian Rio Tinto worker dies in Bali bar

Perth man dead after altercation in South Kuta bar

An Indonesian man has been arrested and police say will be charged with murder after the death of an Australian man in a Bali bar.

Local media reported that on Wednesday night Perth man Troy Johnston, 40, was drinking at Uncle Benz cafe in South Kuta.

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Troy Johnston death: Indonesian man charged after Australian allegedly murdered in Bali bar

Perth man, who worked for Rio Tinto, dead after altercation in South Kuta bar

An Indonesian man has been charged with murder after the death of a Australian man in a Bali bar.

Local media report that on Wednesday night Perth man Troy Johnston, 40, was drinking at Uncle Benz cafe in South Kuta.

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West Papuan separatists release video of New Zealand pilot they took hostage

Phillip Mark Mehrtens, a pilot for Susi Air, was abducted by armed wing of the Free Papua Movement

Separatist rebels in Indonesia’s restive Papua province have released photos and videos of a man they say is the pilot from New Zealand they took hostage last week.

Phillip Mark Mehrtens of Christchurch, a pilot for the Indonesian aviation company Susi Air, was abducted by independence fighters from the West Papua National Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement, who stormed his single-engine plane shortly after it landed on a small runway in Paro, in the remote Nduga district.

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Separatists fighters in Papua hold New Zealand pilot hostage

Police and military sent to Nduga area after Susi Air plane was stormed and then burned by separatists opposed to Indonesian rule

Separatist fighters in Indonesia’s Papua region have taken a New Zealand pilot hostage after setting a small commercial plane alight when it landed in a remote highland area on Tuesday, a pro-independence group said in a statement.

A police spokesperson in Papua province, Ignatius Benny Adi Prabowo, said police and military personnel were sent to the area to locate the pilot and five passengers.

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WHO urges action after cough syrups linked to more than 300 child deaths

Deaths in the Gambia, Indonesia and Uzbekistan due to kidney injury associated with contaminated medicines, the WHO said

The World Health Organization has called for “immediate and concerted action” to protect children from contaminated medicines after a spate of child deaths linked to cough syrups last year.

In 2022, more than 300 children - mainly aged under 5 - in the Gambia, Indonesia and Uzbekistan died of acute kidney injury, in deaths that were associated with contaminated medicines, the WHO said in a statement on Monday.

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Sea ‘a graveyard’ as number of Rohingya fleeing Bangladesh by boat soars

UN figures show number of those attempting to escape horrendous conditions in refugee camps increased from 700 in 2021 to over 3,500 in 2022

The number of Rohingya refugees taking dangerous sea journeys in the hope of reaching Malaysia or Indonesia has surged by 360%, the UN has announced after hundreds of refugees were left stranded at the end of last year.

Rohingya in Bangladesh refugee camps have warned that human smugglers have ramped up operations and are constantly searching for people to fill boats from Myanmar and Bangladesh headed for Malaysia, where people believe they can live more freely.

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