Jakarta

Authorities in Indonesia’s densely populated Central Java province said on Sunday surface tremors and multifaced quakes continue on Mount Merapi — one of the world’s most active volcanoes — and warned that a major eruption could take place in a few days.

Greenpeace on Wednesday called on the leaders of Indonesia and Britain to adopt laws to help halt the destruction of Indonesia’s last ancient forests, ahead of the arrival of British Prime Minister Tony Blair for a one-day visit. The environmental watchdog said the forests, part of the so-called Paradise Forests of the Asia-Pacific, were disappearing faster than any others on Earth.

Hundreds of people have attacked and torched a mining camp run by a local subsidiary of United States giant Newmont on Indonesia’s Sumbawa island, a company spokesperson said on Monday. The attack on Sunday followed in the wake of deadly clashes in Indonesia’s Papua province last week during protests to demand the closure of a gold and copper mine run by US firm Freeport-McMoRan.

A four-year-old boy who died in Indonesia is the sixth suspected fatal victim of bird flu in the last week, health workers said on Tuesday. The boy died on Monday at Sayidiman Hospital at Magetan, in East Java, less than 10 minutes after arriving, Sudarsih, a nurse, told Agence France-Presse.

Rescue workers found eight more survivors and recovered eight bodies on Thursday as the search continued for people missing two days after a ferry sank in rough waters off eastern Indonesia, officials said. The latest discoveries brought the number of survivors from Tuesday night’s accident to 121.

The 200-plus demonstrators from the student group Concerned Muslims who had gathered in light drizzle at one of central Jakarta’s main roundabouts had a simple message for passing motorists. ”Reject Playboy! Reject Playboy!” they shouted. ”Don’t publish that filth here. Keep the Indonesian nation clean.”

More than 60 Indonesians screamed anti-graft slogans at the top of their lungs in a contest aimed at encouraging the public to speak out against rampant corruption. The loudest yell clocked in at 113,2 decibels — roughly as loud as a chainsaw — and the screamer snared two million rupiah ($200) in prize money.

An Indonesian publisher said on Friday that he will press ahead with a local edition of Playboy despite opposition from Muslim leaders, but promised that the risqué magazine will not contain nudes. Publisher Ponti Carollus said the Indonesian-language magazine will focus on articles rather than photographs.

Indonesia on Saturday revised the estimated death toll from a landslide that levelled a village in Central Java from 200 down to about 70, after scores of people initially reported missing were accounted for. Officials had earlier said up to 200 people had been buried when a torrent of mud slammed into the hillside village of Sijeruk.

About 200 people were feared dead in a landslide triggered by heavy rains that buried scores of houses in Indonesia’s Central Java province on Wednesday, police said as rescuers scrambled to find survivors. ”We suspect there are about 200 people in 120 houses buried in the mud,” local chief of police operations Budi said.

The killing of Malaysian bomb maker Azahari Husin by Indonesian police may spark revenge attacks against the country’s president, Indonesia’s spy chief warned on Wednesday. Syamsir Siregar said that before his death, Azahari, and his compatriot Noordin Mohammad Top — who is still at large — had recruited an unspecified number of trained militants.

It doesn’t matter whether you’ve been naughty or nice this year, Santa Claus is still going to check your car for bombs at one ritzy Indonesian hotel this Christmas, where a sleighful of Santas have been descending on cars as they enter the grounds in a bid to thwart potential Islamic extremist attacks.

A catlike creature photographed by camera traps on Borneo Island is likely to be a new species of carnivore, the World Wildlife Fund said on Tuesday. If confirmed, the animal — which has dark red fur and a long, bushy tail — would be first new carnivore species discovered on the island since 1895, when the Borneo ferret-badger was found, the fund said.

One year later, officials still aren’t exactly sure how many people died in the Indian Ocean tsunami, but a tally of conservative government figures puts the number of dead and missing at more than 216 000 in 11 countries. In Indonesia and Sri Lanka, different agencies within the same governments disagree about the numbers.

The latest bombings on Bali are believed to be the work of three suicide bombers and bore the hallmarks of the Jemaah Islamiyah extremist network, Indonesia’s anti-terrorism chief said on Sunday. Powerful explosions ripped through three crowded restaurants on Bali late on Saturday, killing at least 26 people.

Indonesia on Wednesday played down fears that pirates could link up with terrorists to wreak havoc in the Malacca Strait but pledged to do its part to ensure security in the vital shipping lane. Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda, speaking at the opening of a two-day meeting with Singapore and the International Maritime Organisation, said pirates and terrorists had different goals.

Indonesian police raiding the house of a man suspected of fraud discovered the mummified body of an infant girl hidden inside an unused aquarium, a report said on Tuesday. The dried-up body was found covered in lime powder inside a glass box hidden at the bottom of the empty aquarium in the house in Bandung.

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.