In a landmark victory for Indonesian environment campaigners, a court on Thursday ordered President Joko Widodo to clean up Jakarta's notorious air pollution, ruling that the leader and other top officials had been negligent in protecting citizens.The capital and its surroundings form a megacity of about 30 million people, which routinely ranks among the most polluted cities in the world.Experts have warned for years about the threat posed by Jakarta's smog to the health of resident

Hundreds of schools in Jakarta threw their doors open to students Monday, as some parents resisted the return to in-person learning weeks after Indonesia overtook India and Brazil as the pandemic's global epicentre.In Jakarta, the preliminary reopening applies to students from just 610 of more than 10,000 schools, from pre-school through high school. Elsewhere, in-person learning has resumed in less badly hit areas at the local government's discretion.

Virus-wracked Indonesia said Sunday that small businesses and some shopping malls could reopen despite warnings that loosening curbs could spark another devastating COVID-19 wave, even as it moved to extend a web of restrictions launched this month.President Joko Widodo said measures imposed in early July would continue until 2 August as the highly infectious Delta variant tears across the Southeast Asian archipelago, which has been overtaking battered India and Brazil as the world's vir

Indonesia's hijab-wearing, headbanging VOB count some of rock music's biggest stars among their fans, but the all-female heavy metal band faced a tougher battle in winning over their parents.The diminutive trio behind Voice of Baceprot ("Noisy Voice" in English) have spent years honing their skills at music festivals around the world's biggest Muslim majority nation after forming VOB as young teens in 2014. It is a long way from the conservative town in West

Human rights groups and people in Myanmar have criticised an agreement between Min Aung Hlaing, the general who seized power in a military coup nearly three months ago, and Southeast Asian leaders to end the violence-hit nation’s crisis, saying it fell short of restoring democracy and holding the army to account for killing hundreds of civilians.There were no immediate protests in Myanmar’s big cities a day after the armed forces’ chief flew to Jakarta to meet leaders of the Associat

Southeast Asian leaders held Myanmar crisis talks Saturday with junta leader Min Aung Hlaing who has become the focus of international outrage over a military coup and crackdown that has left more than 700 dead.The senior general was at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Indonesia's capital, marking his first foreign trip since security forces staged a coup that ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in early February.Mass protests by an angry population have

Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hlaing will join a special ASEAN summit next week, the Thai foreign ministry said Saturday, his first official trip since masterminding a coup which deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.The 1 February putsch triggered a massive uprising, bringing hundreds of thousands of protesters to the streets to demand a return to democracy, while civil servants have boycotted work in a bid to shutter the junta's administration.The military has deployed lethal force

Whole neighbourhoods of Indonesia's capital Jakarta and dozens of major roads were flooded on Saturday after torrential rains pounded the Southeast Asian city overnight.More than 1,300 residents have been evacuated to temporary shelters, with parts of the capital under four to nine feet (1.2 to 2.7 metres) of water.Images showed rescuers on rafts battling to evacuate the elderly and children from submerged houses in hard-hit southern and eastern areas of the city, and dozens of cars were

In 2019, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recognised burnout as a diagnosable condition, which was entered into the international classification of diseases (IDC-11).

Authorities in the Indonesian capital re-imposed a partial coronavirus lockdown Monday and vowed to strictly isolate anyone testing positive for COVID-19 as infections soared in the metropolis.Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan said the city would resume large-scale social restrictions for two weeks starting Monday, calling it a necessary measure to prevent the health system from collapsing. Non-essential businesses are only allowed to operate at 25 percent capacity, restaurants can onl