TNI Moves to Secure Ambalat

The Indonesian Military (TNI) will move to secure the disputed oil-rich Ambalat territory, amid renewed tensions between Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur, TNI chief Gen. Djoko Santoso said on Sunday, as quoted by kompas.com.

TNI would continue to guard the border areas but would leave the dispute solution to the government, Djoko said.

Ambalat is a maritime area located off the eastern coast of Kalimantan, which both Indonesia and Malaysia claim as their territory.

Indonesia recently accused Malaysian battleships of entering Indonesian territorial waters surrounding Ambalat. Malaysian naval ships have breached the disputed zone several times. According to the TNI, this was the ninth time Malaysia had breached the law in 2009.

The dispute over the maritime bloc, believed to be rich in oil and gas, has been increasing tensions between Indonesia and Malaysia since the 1980s.

Jakarta Post

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Indonesia to Send Diplomatic Note to Malaysia over Ambalat

Indonesia has decided to resolve diplomatically its border spat with Malaysia over the oil-rich Ambalat waters off East Kalimantan.

The move comes amid escalating tensions and widely spouted war rhetoric churned up by Malaysia’s frequent incursions into the disputed area.

The call for diplomacy comes just before scheduled border talks between the two countries.

Indonesian Navy Chief of Staff Adm. Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno said at a press conference Wednesday he would send a letter, through Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Djoko Santoso, to Foreign Affairs Minister Hassan Wirajuda, requesting a diplomatic note.

Tedjo added Indonesia would not increase its military presence in Ambalat, but saying it would keep guarding the area with its current six warships and three military aircraft.

“We’ll continue to guard the border and take measures that are in line with regulations and the President’s directives,” Tedjo said after a meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Erwida Maulia, The Jakarta Post

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The Temple of Borobudur

The Borobodur Temple complex is one of the greatest monuments in the world. It is of uncertain age, but thought to have been built between the end of the seventh and beginning of the eighth century A.D. For about a century and a half it was the spiritual centre of Buddhism in Java, then it was lost until its rediscovery in the eighteenth century.

The structure, composed of 55,000 square meters of lava-rock is erected on a hill in the form of a stepped-pyramid of six rectangular storeys, three circular terraces and a central stupa forming the summit. The whole structure is in the form of a lotus, the sacred flower of Buddha.

One of the ninety-two Dhyani Buddha statues enclosed in stupas

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Mount Bromo National Park - Indonesia

This National Park is one of the most beautiful places of interest in East Java. The beauties of mountain covered, give a special and characteristic green plants, arousing great interest. Tenggerese traditional farming also makes this famous place being more interesting and attractive. In addition, cool and breezy wind always blows freshly giving ever visitor special deep impression a unforgettable memories.

The accessibility has no problem and very reachable (via Malang, Pasuruan, Probolinggo or Lumajang).

Surely, different access give different characteristics scenery landscape. The elevation reaches about 2.392 meter sea level above and the temperature varies from 3 up to 20 degrees centigrade.

Facilities: Star Hotels, home-stays, restaurants, and many others that visitors needed can be found.

The people who live in this area are supposed to be descended from Majapahit Kingdom about six hundred years ago. The belonged to Tenggerese Hinduism with old traditional. That tradition still survives up to now. Every year, they always carry out the traditional and religious ceremonies, and the most popular ones is Yadnya Kasada, an offering ceremony held at the edge of the crater on the top of mount Bromo.

The Story of Offering Kasada Ceremony
Hundreds years ago, during the reign of the last king of Majapahit, Brawijaya, the situation was so uncertain due to the expanding new religion, Islam. At the time, the queen gave birth a baby girl and named her Roro Anteng, later the princess married Joko Seger, a Brahma Caste.

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Obama in The Street

.. Indonesian painter S. Wito puts finishing touch to his painting of U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill, at his street-side studio in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday. Obama, who was born in Hawaii, moved to Indonesia at age 6 to live with his mother and stepfather, attending schools in the country until age 10, when he returned to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents...

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Indonesian Serial Killer - Five More Victims

Police on Monday lifted five more bodies from holes in the backyard of a serial killer`s house after recovering four others from the same area in Maijo hamlet, Jatiwates village, Jombang district, East Java last week.

Verry Idham Henryansyah alias Ryan (34) who sparked public horror last week after he was arrested for mutilating a friend, butchering four others and burying them in two holes in the backyard of his home, admitted on Sunday he had battered to death five more people who had previously been reported missing by their families.

The chief of the Jombang Police Resort, Adjunct Senior Commissioner M Khosim, said Sunday, Ryan had admitted that the five people reported missing by their families were among the victims of his killing sprees.

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Serial Killer Also Murder a Foreign Citizen

Mutilation murder suspect Verry Idham Henryansyah, alias Ryan, admitted to police Tuesday that one of the four bodies buried in his yard in Jombang, East Java, was that of a foreign citizen.

Jakarta city police spokesman Comr. I Ketut Untung Yoga said Verry had admitted to having killed a male Dutch citizen and burying his body, along with three other victims, in the backyard of his father’s house in the regency.

“We will cross-check Verry’s confession with the Dutch Embassy, but police have yet to receive a missing persons report from any foreign embassies,” Ketut.

Head of the press and culture attache at the Dutch Embassy, Paul Peters, said he could not confirm the identity of the body.

“The examination is still going on. We haven’t been asked by police to identify the body,” he said.

The forensics team is conducting autopsies at the Bhayangkara Police Hospital in Surabaya, following the exhumation of four bodies on Monday. One of the deceased is believed to be Ariel Somba Sitanggang, a Jakarta real estate agent.

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Serial Killer Also Murder a Foreign Citizen

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