evening and was an employee at the Wisma Atlet hospital in Jakarta.( Reporting by Agustinus Beo Da

turned away.( Reporting by Agustinus Beo Da Costa; Additional reporting by Hidayatullah Tahjuddin

JAKARTA( Reuters)-Former Indonesian social affairs minister Juliari Batubara has been sentenced to 12 years in prison over a COVID-19 graft scandal, the Jakarta Corruption Court ruled on Monday. The court said the former politician had received bribes in relation to the procurement of goods intended for COVID-19 social assistance packages. The politician was also fined 500 million rupiah($ 34, 698.13), ordered to pay back the embezzled funds, and will be banned from public office for four years

JAKARTA( Reuters)-Hundreds of Afghan refugees protested in Indonesia on Tuesday against a prolonged resettlement process, saying they needed to be offered new homes now that repatriation was out of the question with the return of the Taliban. Thousands of refugees from Afghanistan, most of them from the Hazara ethnic minority, who have long been persecuted by the Taliban, have lived in Indonesia for years as they await resettlement in third countries such as Canada or Australia.On Tuesday, hundr

JAKARTA( Reuters)-Indonesia's counter-terrorism police have arrested a member of a top Islamic council on charges of raising funds for the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah( JI) group blamed for deadly bombings, police said on Wednesday. The raid was carried out near Jakarta on Tuesday during which Ahmad Zain An-Najah, a member of the Indonesian Ulema Council, was arrested along with two associates, national police spokesperson Rusdi Hartono said.... The organisation operated in cities on Sumatra

" She's served her punishment and her permits expired," he said, adding that Mack's flight was due to leave on Tuesday evening and that she would be arriving in Chicago's O' Hare airport. Mack had given birth to a baby before she was sentenced.... Mack's lawyer, Yulius Benyamin Seran, told Reuters the child would be returning with her to the United States. Asked about other details of her deportation, the lawyer said:" I can't answer that question.... After I meet with Heather before she's dep

JAKARTA( Reuters)-Indonesia's government on Monday agreed to boost its coronavirus healthcare budget and introduce telemedicine services to non-critical patients, in an effort to reduce pressure on a health system choked by days of record COVID-19 cases.... Indonesia is battling one of Asia's worst coronavirus epidemics, fueled by the rapid spread of the highly contagious Delta variant first identified in India. Authorities on Monday reported 558 new deaths, a second day of record fatalities, a

JAKARTA( Reuters)-Indonesian security forces have killed the leader of militant group East Indonesia Mujahideen( MIT), which has ties with Islamic State, police said on Sunday.A joint operation by military and police personnel killed Ali Kalora in a shootout at a village on Sulawesi island on Saturday afternoon, according to a police statement.... With their leader dead, they will seek death as well," he told Reuters.... The country's deadliest Islamist militant attack took place on the touris

JAKARTA( Reuters)-Indonesia and Singapore signed on Tuesday a bilateral extradition agreement, a move that Jakarta expects to help authorities in their effort to bring to justice people accused of stashing offshore billions of dollars in state money.... Senior cabinet ministers from both countries also signed bilateral agreements covering airspace and defence in a ceremony aired on Indonesia's State Secretariat YouTube channel. The signings follow a meeting between President Joko Widodo and Sin

JAKARTA( REUTERS, AFP)-A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Indonesia on Tuesday( Dec 14), triggering a tsunami warning and sending residents fleeing from their homes but causing only minor damage and injuring one person, authorities said. The tsunami warning was lifted about two hours after the quake struck at 0320 GMT( 11. 20am Singapore time) in the Flores Sea, about 112km north-west of the town of Larantuka, in the eastern part of Flores island." Everyone ran out into the stree