Now increasingly visible in Jakarta and other cities, independent libraries and reading communities have become new hubs for readers, taking the lead in promoting reading culture as government initiatives continue to fall short.

Local and national police are continuing to search for at least 122 people still missing in the aftermath of the flooding and landslides that struck northern Sumatra on Nov. 26.

As fevers, typhoid and skin infections surge among survivors of last week’s deadly floods, authorities are stepping up medical outreach and disease-prevention efforts across Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra to contain outbreaks and protect vulnerable communities.

The military has erected at least 10 portable bridges, called "Bailey bridges", in Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra provinces to help with the distribution of food and aid supplies to isolated residents, Major General Freddy Ardianzah told reporters on Friday. 

In two recent operations, the Indonesian Navy has thwarted one smuggling attempt involving sports apparel worth around Rp 6.1 billion and another involving 133 reptiles from Papua.

Nearly 200,000 people died in Aceh alone after a 9.1-magnitude quake off the northern province triggered the catastrophic Indian Ocean tsunami on December 26, 2004.

Joint authorities in Aceh are working around the clock to open alternative land routes and flying in fuel to support road repairs as several regions across the province are still cut-off and hindered from receiving aid.

Many evacuees have been forced to take shelter along the roadside, enduring scorching heat by day and cold temperatures at night due to a lack of temporary shelters. Residents are resorting to filtering water from puddles left by the flood to meet their basic drinking needs.

An analysis conducted at WIOEH’s Green Hospital Laboratory in South Korea detected 23 hazardous plastic-related chemicals in all samples, with the waste workers showing significantly higher concentrations than the control group.

As Indonesia commemorated World AIDS Day, some regions in the country recorded thousands of HIV cases, prompting renewed calls for stronger HIV education in schools and families.

Coordinating Food Minister Zulkifli Hasan has suddenly become the target of public ire after a decade-old video of his interview with actor Harrison Ford resurfaced online, which for some netizens, made him a convenient scapegoat for the deadly floods in northern Sumatra.

Goods, including non-commercial ones, shipped from Batam have to pay high taxes to enter Indonesian customs area.

A week after cyclone-induced floods and landslides hit three provinces in Sumatra, authorities are still scrambling to find those who are missing and to distribute aid, as several affected areas remain still cut off and awaiting necessary supplies.

The Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister has dispatched around 40 tonnes of food and medical supplies to flood-ravaged Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra, as the government pressed on with search and rescue missions for a disaster that has claimed nearly 800 lives.

She was one of the lucky ones on Wednesday, when soldiers in military fatigues oversaw the distribution of rice to flood survivors.

Political tensions continue to rise within the country’s most influential Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), after a leaked internal audit alleged millions of dollars were funneled into the organization's central board under chairman Yahya Cholil Staquf in a suspected money laundering scheme.

About 1.4 million hectares of forest cover have been cleared across Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra between 2016 and 2025 to make way for plantations and mining, according to the environmental group Walhi. The areas hardest-hit by floods and landslides last week were degraded watersheds. 

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said tropical cyclone seeds could emerge across several regions in southern Indonesia between the second week of December and early January, which may dissipate or intensify into a full-fledged cyclone.

Sibolga city is among the regions worst affected by flash floods and landslides in North Sumatra. 

The six illegal workers worked as a team and each had a specific role, such as team leader, cutter or transporter.

The KPK has welcomed a district court's decision to throw out the corruption fugitive's legal challenge related to his arrest in Singapore on jurisdictional grounds, saying it hopes the ruling will pave the way for Paulus' extradition under a bilateral treaty.

In affected regions, there is growing frustration among survivors of catastrophic flooding and landslides over the pace of the rescue effort and aid delivery.

Environmentalists, experts and even the government have pointed to the role forest loss played in flash flooding and landslides that washed torrents of mud into villages and stranded residents on roofs.

The three provinces have suffered severe devastation after a rare tropical storm formed in the Malacca Strait and unleashed a week of torrential rain and powerful winds, triggering widespread floods and landslides.

Siegfried Mets, 73, was sentenced to death in 2008 for distributing drugs, while Ali Tokman, 64, was serving life imprisonment for smuggling more than 6 kg of the synthetic drug MDMA.

The agency in a press conference late on Tuesday said 708 people had been killed since last week, a figure lower than the 753 reported on its website earlier in the day. It did not give a reason for the discrepancy. 

The discovery was the latest in a string of elephant deaths in recent months that has heightened concern over the endangered species’ survival.