INDONESIA CONCERNED OVER EGYPT'S MASS DEATH PENALTY by Fardah

      Jakarta, April 30, 2014 (Antara) - Many countries, including Indonesia, reacted to another preliminary mass death sentence handed by a court in Egypt, where more than 680 people were reportedly on trial.

         The legal decision announced on April 28, followed the March 24 conviction of 529 defendants on various charges, including membership of an unlawful organization Ikhwanul Muslimin (the Muslim Brotherhood), incitement to violence, vandalism, unlawful gathering and the killing of one police officer. All the charges related to events in August 2013 after the government of President Mohamed Morsi was ousted.

LEGAL ENFORCEMENT NEEDS TO BE INTENSIFIED TO PROTECT SUMATRAN ELEPHANTS by Fardah

     Jakarta, April 29, 2014 (Antara) - Conflicts between people and elephants continue to escalate in Sumatra and threaten the survival of the Sumatran elephants (Elephas Maximus Sumatranus), which have lost around 70 percent of their habitat over the past 25 years.

         As forests the elephant's habitat shrink, the giant animals are often forced to enter fields, cultivated land and human settlements causing conflicts with humans that often results in the death of the elephants by poisoning or capture. 
    NGO ProFauna cited data from forestry authorities that about 100 elephants and 42 people died during human-elephant conflicts (HECs) between 2002 and 2007.

INDONESIA INTENSIFIES FIGHT AGAINST ILLEGAL FISHING by Fardah

    Jakarta, April 26, 2014 (Antara) - Indonesia will never give up on efforts to combat the menace of illegal fishing on its territory as poaching activities wreak serious economic and environmental damage on the nation.

        The maritime affairs and fisheries ministry disclosed that the country was losing Rp101 trillion or US$ 8.8 million a year due to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities conducted in its waters.

        It also results in the Indonesian government losing revenue from foregone tax on fishery products and in fuel subsidy due to IUU fishing, the secretary to the maritime affairs and fisheries ministry's director general for supervision of fishery resources, Ida Kusuma Wardaningsih, stated recently.

HEALTHY OCEANS CRUCIAL FOR FOOD SECURITY by Fardah

    Jakarta, April 24, 2014 (Antara) -  The Global Oceans Action Summit (GOAS) for Food Security and Blue Growth has emphasized the importance of maintaining healthy oceans, where around 80 percent of all life on the planet is found, to solve one of the biggest problems of the 21st century - how to feed 9 billion people by 2050.

        "Urgent coordinated action is needed to restore the health of the world's oceans and secure the long-term well-being and food security of a growing global population," Árni M. Mathiesen, Assistant Director-General for Fisheries and Aquaculture at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said before over 500 delegates, including 60 ministers, attending the Summit being held in the Hague, the Netherlands, April 22-25.  

HORROR STORY FROM JAKARTA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL by Fardah

   Jakarta, April 23, 2014 (Antara) - The incident about a six-year-old boy sexually assaulted by at least two men in his kindergarten's toilet is not an episode of "American Horror Story" series on cable television channel FX, but a grim reality.

         This incident has led to the prestigious Jakarta International School complex to improve its security measures.

         The boy, who was five years old when sexually assaulted in February and March, was raped by the school's cleaning staff members during school hours in the bathroom near his classroom.  The child who was locked inside the toilet during his ordeal contracted herpes and a bacterial infection after being sodomized.

GOVERNMENT'S PLAN ON BTN ACQUISITION BY MANDIRI TRIGGERS CONTROVERSY by Fardah

    Jakarta, April 22, 2014 (Antara) - Some 1,000 employees protested outside the Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN) headquarters in central Jakarta on April 20 to oppose the government's plan to sell its stake in BTN to fellow state lender Bank Mandiri.

         "Reject the acquisition of BTN. Return BTN to the people because it belongs to them," Chairman of BTN's labor union Satya Wijayantara said during the rally. The employees had staged a rally wearing black uniforms and headbands saying "Reject the Acquisition of BTN."

VOTERS DEFY PRELIMINARY ELECTABILITY SURVEYS ON ISLAMIC-BASED PARTIES by Fardah

     Jakarta, April 21, 2014 (Antara) - Most Islamic-based parties should thank survey institutes for issuing the polls showing that their prospects would be bleak in the legislative elections held nation-wide on April 9.

         The party electability surveys, in fact, served as "warning" or a "wake-up call" to some Muslim voters to "return to religion".  

News Focus - BALI LAUNCHES FIFTH MASS VACCINATION PROGRAM AGAINST RABIES by Fardah

          Jakarta,  April 19 , 2014 (Antara) -  The fifth mass vaccination program against rabies , which is part of the government's effort to make Bali free from rabies, has been ongoing acrosss the island

since April 15, targeting 350 thousand stray dogs..  

    Bali has resolved to become rabies-free by the year 2015, in order to maintain its reputation as the world's most famous resort island. Nationally, the central government has targeted theentire country to be rabies-free by 2020.

          Over the past few years, Bali authorities have routinely carried ot mass vaccination programs against rabies, targeting strays, as well as domestic dogs.  

INDONESIA ENCOURAGES TOURISTS TO EXPLORE EASTERN DESTINATIONS by Fardah

      Jakarta, April 18, 2014 (Antara) - Indonesia is a large archipelago comprising more than 13 thousand islands and extending over 5,120 kilometers from its western most province of Aceh to eastern most province of Papua, which is mostly not yet explored.

         Having an official slogan of "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika" or "Unity in Diversity," the country consists of hundreds of distinct native ethnic and linguistic groups and has vast areas of wilderness that is home to the world's second-largest biodiversity.

        "It may well be the last great adventure on earth. From the western tip of Sumatra to the eastern edge of Papua, this nation defies homogenization," Lonely Planet described Indonesia on its website (http://www.lonelyplanet.com/indonesia

WCRC TO PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF CORAL REEFS by Fardah

      Jakarta, April 16, 2014 (Antara) - North Sulawesi is gearing up for  the World Coral Reef Conference (WCRC) which will be held in the provincial capital of Manado, May 14-17, 2014.

         The WCRC is as a follow up of the World Ocean Conference )WOC) and the Coral Triangle Initiatives (CTI) summit in 2009 that issued the Declaration of Manado aimed at protecting and preserving coral reefs.

         The upcoming conference is expected to help promote sustainable utilization and management of coral reefs in a number of countries, according to Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Agung Laksono on April 15, 2014, after chairing a ministerial coordination meeting on the implementation of the WCRC.

News Focus - DUTCH-PROPOSED PLAN OFFERS LONG-TERM SOLUTION TO JAKARTA FLOODING by Fardah

    Jakarta, April 14, 2014 (Antara) - Following the Jakarta major floods in 2007, the Dutch government has decided to give consultation assistance to address the flooding problem in Indonesia's capital city.
    Starting 2008, Indonesian and Dutch experts from the public and private sectors and research institutions worked on the Master Plan for National Capital Integrated Coastal Development (NCICD) for six years.

BENGKULU PROMOTES GIANT RAFFLESIA FLOWERS TO ATTRACT TOURISTS by Fardah

    Jakarta, April 10, 2014 (Antara) - Bengkulu Province is one of few habitats of the world's rarest gigantic Rafflesia species that are  found only in southeastern Asian forests of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand.

         Rafflesia is the official flower of Indonesia's Bengkulu province, Sabah state in Malaysia, and also Surat Thani Province in Thailand.

         The Bengkulu administration is currently making a map of the Rafflesia habitats in the province and promoting the flower species to attract more tourists.  Four species of Rafflesia exist in Bengkulu forests. They are Rafflesia arnoldii, gadutensis, hasselti, and bengkuluensis.

INDONESIA'S PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS RUN PEACEFULLY, PDIP LIKELY TO LEAD by Fardah

     Jakarta, April 9, 2014 (Antara) - Indonesia's parliamentary elections, the largest and most complicated single-day poll in the world, were peaceful on Wednesday, as the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) took an early lead in the voting.

         More than 185.8 million voters spread across thousands of islands, which stretch some 4,800 km from east to west, were registered to vote in over than 545 thousand pooling stations during the elections, in the world's third largest democracy, following India and the United States.

DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTION SUPPLIES IN PAPUA CHALLENGING by Fardah

     Jakarta, April 8, 2014 (Antara) - Some 185.8 million out of Indonesia's population of about 240 million will go to polling stations to cast their votes for the legislative elections across Indonesia on April 9, 2014.

         Distribution of election materials, such as ballot papers, ballot boxes and ink, is a challenge for the world's largest archipelago consisting of thousands of islands.

        Election officers, with the assistance of the Indonesian military personnel, had used air, water and land transportation to deliver the supplies as the General Elections Commission (KPU) had set the deadline of April 8 as the date by which all materials must arrive in polling stations.

GARUDA INDONESIA SETS AMBITIOUS TARGET IN 2014 by Fardah

    Jakarta, April 3, 2014 (Antara) -  Having a population of around 245 million people and comprising about 1,300 islands stretching from Sabang to Merauke, Indonesia was a very promising market for the airline industry.

         "The market potential that had not yet been exploited was large," National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia's President Director Emirsyah Satar stated in Jakarta on April 2, 2014.

         Indonesia's air traffic passengers rose to 94.9 million last year or 39 percent of the total population of the country, which was 244.5 million.

SAIL RAJA AMPAT EXPECTED TO ACCELERATE DEVELOPMENT IN PAPUA By Fardah

    Jakarta, April 2, 2014 (Antara) - "Don't die before going to Raja Ampat islands," West Papua Governor Abraham Octavianus Aturury said when promoting Sail Raja Ampat before a number of foreign ambassadors and diplomats in Jakarta recently.

         Raja Ampat is recognized as the most beautiful diving site in the world, and it was extraordinarily rich in marine flora and fauna.  
    It has 1,320 fish species; 75 percent of the world's coral species, 10 times the number of corals in Caribbean; five species of rare turtles; 57 species of mantis shrimps; 13 species of marine mammals; and 27 species of rare fish.

INDONESIANS ENTHUSIASTICALLY PARTICIPATE IN EARLY VOTING OVERSEAS by Fardah

    Jakarta, April 1, 2014 (Antara) - Indonesia will organize parliamentary elections simultaneously throughout the  country on April 9, but its citizens overseas cast their ballots earlier, namely on March 30 to April 6, 2014.

        A number of Indonesians enthusiastically cast their votes for legislators in eight cities abroad on Sunday, March 30 and Monday, March 31. 
    On Sunday, early voting was organized in Beijing and Shanghai in China, Hong Kong, Copenhagen in Denmark, Santiago in Chile, and Brasilia in Brazil, while it was conducted on Monday in Kabul in Afghanistan and Quito in Ecuador.