INDONESIA A NEWS

A STAMPEDE on a docked ferry in Indonesia's East Java has left at least eight dead and dozens injured, an official says.  More than 500 passengers panicked when a truck overheated and caught fire around dawn this morning aboard the KM Kirana IX, docked at the Tanjung Perak port in the provincial capital of Surabaya. "The passengers heard there was a fire and they all panicked and ran off the boat," Disaster Management Agency head Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said. "Eight people have died and others have been taken to hospital." The vessel's owner, Bambang Haryo, told Metro TV that part of the deck was burned but that the fire did not cause any serious damage. "We quickly extinguished the fire, following standard safety procedures, by activating the sprinklers as soon as we detected it," he said. On Monday, another ferry serving the same route to the city of Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan province on Indonesian Borneo collided wi...

Malaysian maritime authorities said they arrested six Indonesians attempting to rob a ship in the Strait of Malacca, the latest in a surge of piracy attacks in the strategic waterway.The suspects were spotted by Malaysian patrols early Sunday morning as they tried to board a merchant vessel off southern Johor state near Singapore, Maritime Enforcement Agency chief Admiral Zulkifli Abu Bakar said. "The pirates realized they were spotted and tried to flee on their boat but our patrol vessel gave chase and fired several warning shots before intercepting the pirate ship in Malaysian waters," he told AFP.He said the pirates appeared to have come from the nearby Indonesian island of Batam and had gathered in the area intending to rob three ships. An investigation was under way. The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) in June sent an alert to ships traversing the area, warning of a heightened piracy risk following the hijacking of three tugboats and a barge this year.The gl...

A regular but prestigious conference on Indonesia will be held in Canberra, Australia, on September 30-October 1. The Indonesia Update Conference 2011 of the Australian National University will host "Indonesia's Place in the World". A number of prominent academics, mostly from Australia and Indonesia, are scheduled to speak. The topics range from updates on politics and economics, Indonesia in regional and global economic and trade arrangements and "Indonesia's Rise", to considering Indonesia as a democratic Muslim power.  The title of the event itself is intriguing. Certainly, assumptions over Indonesia's place in the world will be varied. Optimists would argue that Indonesia has risen into a higher stage of the international arena, particularly after the elevation of Group of Twenty (G-20) interactions to summit level in 2008. Indonesia is one of the G-20's developing country members. Pessimists say that the country is still quite far from b...

A large number of Indonesian nationals, including men, women and children, gathered outside their country’s consulate Saturday, demanding immediate repatriation from the Kingdom.  Security vehicles and officers were called to maintain order.Several women, including some elderly ones, were seen sitting on the curb near the building and by the mosque opposite the consulate.Jeddah police spokesman Brig. Misfer Al-Juaid confirmed the demonstration had taken place.“The people gathering in the area are overstayers, but we haven’t received any security concerns on the nature of their presence,” he said. Al-Juaid added they included Indonesians who had overstayed on Umrah visas as well as those who carried expired work visa permits.Less than a year ago, a similar situation occurred in front of the Indonesian Consulate in Jeddah.In April, the Indonesian government sent a ship to Jeddah to take home more than 2,000 workers, mostly housemaids who were stranded in the Kingdom. ...