Two of Indonesia's most successful start-ups are to merge, the companies announced on Monday, creating the largest tech firm in the world's fourth most populous country.Ride-hailing and payments giant Gojek and e-commerce firm Tokopedia – which generated transactions worth a combined US$22 billion in 2020 – agreed to form the GoTo Group, they said in a statement.The deal will form an Indonesian tech giant combining e-commerce and financial services with on-demand offerings such as r

The special ASEAN leaders meeting conducted on Saturday 24 April indicates a collective attempt by the regional organisation to seriously deal with the deteriorating situation in Myanmar based on “the ASEAN way”. The face-to-face forum, hosted by Indonesia at the ASEAN secretariat in Jakarta, resulted in a five-point-consensus; summarising plans to stabilise the political turmoil in Myanmar. This agenda, however, has attracted supports as well as criticisms towards ASEAN.

The South China Sea (SCS), one of the most in-demand waterways in the world, is the object of contention of several claimant-states with overlapping territorial and maritime sovereignty and sovereign rights claims over its disputed waters. The said dispute is still unresolved until today and can be dated back to the 1950s.

For the past few weeks, the world`s attention has been drawn to India as COVID-19 cases soar in an extreme fashion. Daily deaths in the sub-continent have reached all-time high. With hospitals running out of beds, the health system in the country is overwhelmed. Even oxygen has become a scarce luxury that most Indians simply cannot get hold off or afford. Images of bodies of deceased COVID victims waiting to be cremated and distraught loved ones are very sad to behold.

Several employees of a pharmaceutical company have been arrested in Indonesia for allegedly washing and reselling used COVID nasal swab test kits.Up to 9,000 passengers at an airport in Medan may have been tested with the reused swab sticks, say police.State-owned company Kimia Farma is now reportedly facing a potential lawsuit launched on behalf of the travellers.COVID nasal swab testing has become routine in many countries hit by the global pandemic.Police said they believed the scam had be

Hong Kong migrant worker groups on Saturday criticised plans to make coronavirus vaccines compulsory for all foreign domestic helpers, labelling the move "discriminatory and unjust".Health officials said they were planning to roll out mandatory inoculations for the 370,000 domestic helpers in the city, mostly poorly-paid women from the Philippines and Indonesia.Those wanting to apply for work visas – or renew their current ones – would need to show they had been vaccinated, official

Indonesia said Friday it will salvage a submarine that sank off the coast of Bali, as grieving relatives paid their respects to the dozens of crew killed in the disaster.Authorities had yet to confirm if they would try to haul up the KRI Nanggala 402 from the sea floor after it was spotted cracked in three pieces.The navy on Friday said it was waiting on the arrival of two ships, including a vessel sent by China, that are equipped to handle deep-sea salvage operations.High-powered magnets and

A child molestation incident in Medan, North Sumatra has highlighted the need for schools and local authorities in Indonesia to better protect their students, particularly when the perpetrators are religious leaders, experts have said.At a school in Medan, six female students came forward last month to allege that the institution’s male principal, who is also a Protestant priest, had sexually assaulted them.

All 53 crew aboard an Indonesian submarine that disappeared last week were killed, the military said Sunday as it confirmed the vessel had been found in pieces on the seafloor.Authorities said that they picked up signals early Sunday from a location more than 800 metres (2,600 feet) deep – far below what the KRI Nanggala 402's steel hull was built to withstand.They had used an underwater submarine rescue vehicle supplied by neighbouring Singapore to get visual confirmation of the stricke

Debris has been recovered from a missing Indonesian submarine, the country's navy said Saturday, suggesting that the stricken vessel could have broken apart after sinking with 53 crew aboard. The development dashed already slim hopes of rescuing the sailors alive after their oxygen reserves were understood to have run out earlier in the day.Warships, planes and hundreds of military personnel have been searching for the KRI Nanggala 402 since it disappeared off the coast of Bali