Indonesia

At least five passengers survived the crash of the Mandala Airlines Boeing 737-200 in the Indonesian city of Medan on Monday, the search and rescue agency said. The plane crashed into a crowded neighbourhood just outside the airport’s perimeter shortly after take-off.

Indonesian surgeons have delivered a 27-year-old baby from a middle-aged housewife who had carried the dead body inside her because she was too poor to have it removed, doctors said on Wednesday. A team of 15 doctors operated on Tuesday to retrieve the 1,6kg petrified baby from the 54-year-old woman.

Indonesian anti-graft protesters on Wednesday demanded an unorthodox punishment for the country’s numerous corruption offenders — coop them up in cells with bird-flu-infected chickens. The request was made during an anti-corruption rally outside the attorney general’s office in Jakarta.

Indonesian navy divers have found 74 bodies inside a ferry that sank off eastern Papua province nearly two weeks ago and many more were still believed to be trapped inside, a rescue official said on Tuesday. Bad weather had hampered the search for more than 100 people believed to have been trapped inside the ferry when it sank in rough seas on July 7, the official said.

Rescue workers recovered 10 more bodies after an overloaded ferry capsized in rough seas off Indonesia’s remote eastern province of Papua a week ago, officials said on Thursday. The discovery brought the total to 11 bodies and 15 survivors accounted for after the Digoel ferry capsized last Thursday night off the southern coast of Papua.

Indonesian ministers got a chilly reception on Monday when they showed up for work in casual wear after a presidential decree to turn down the cooling — only to find the order had been ignored. Vice-President Yusuf Kalla and 16 ministers showed up in batik and casual shirts or that outcast from decades ago, the safari suit.

At least 19 people were killed on Saturday in two bomb attacks in the Indonesian province of Central Sulawesi, police said. The successive blasts took place in the town of Tentena. The bombings are the most serious in a long series of bombings and other attacks in the region, many of them against Christians.

An Indonesian city mayor incensed by poor discipline among his staff has sent more than 100 officials to a police boot camp in a novel move that may help tackle the country’s rampant corruption, an official said on Monday. Fauzi Bahri, the mayor of the Sumatra city of Padang, dispatched 115 regional leaders to the 10-day course.

State leaders of countries in Asia and Africa gathered in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, on Saturday to discuss ways to strengthen cooperation between the two continents for the second and final day of the Asian-African Summit. The meeting is also a 50th commemoration of the first summit, called the Bandung Conference.

Sudan defended its handling of the bloodshed in Darfur on Friday and said it will never hand over war-crime suspects for trial at the International Criminal Court. The comments by Minister of Foreign Affairs Mustafa Osman Ismael came as the United Nations warned of new clashes between rebels and Arab militiamen in the Darfur region.

African and Asian leaders, representing two-thirds of the global population, met in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Friday to discuss ways of achieving ”a new world order”. The talks were part of the Asia-Africa Summit co-hosted by Indonesia and South Africa. In his address, Mbeki urged leaders to use the summit to build and strengthen cooperation.

Indonesian scientists have placed 11 volcanoes under close watch after a series of powerful quakes increased the chances of a major eruption. Tens of thousands spent a third night in temporary camps after fleeing the slopes of Mount Talang on Sumatra island, where hot ash has been raining down since Monday, more volcanoes began rumbling into life.

A major Indonesian food manufacturer has secured a place in the <i>Guinness Book of Records</i> by producing the world’s largest packet and the largest serving of instant noodles. The giant packet, created by PT Indofood Sukses Makmur, was 3,4m long, 2,35m wide and 0,47m thick.

Leaders at an international conference on aid to Asian tsunami victims welcomed the idea on Thursday of debt moratorium for countries hit by the disaster, but made no commitment to do so. Delegates appeared divided over the idea of postponing debt repayments.

A team of international scientists has found new fish and insect species, including a monster cockroach, living in caves in Indonesia’s remote East Kalimantan province, the group announced on Wednesday. The team said the area where the new species were discovered is threatened by environmental degradation.