Nov
8
2023
A physical oceanographer, Jessica Benthuysen monitors real-time data on the temperature, salinity and currents of oceans thousands of kilometres from her desk in Perth. She has worked with the Australian Institute of Marine Science for the last decade, first in Townsville and now in Western Australia, using ocean observations and ocean models to understand more about …read more
Jul
6
2023
Following a brief working visit to Australia, Indonesian president Joko Widodo will return to Jakarta with a substantial farewell gift in hand: easier visa rules for Indonesian business travellers. Indonesia has long chafed at the current visa inequality. Australians travelling to Indonesia enjoy $50 visas on arrival but Indonesians coming to Australia usually have to fork …read more
Feb
17
2023
The New Zealand pilot kidnapped by independence fighters in Indonesia’s restive eastern-most province of Papua is now living in the jungle with the separatist fighters and eating what they eat, a separatist spokesman has told Crikey. Independence fighters from the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) seized Susi Air’s small propeller plane when it landed at …read more
Feb
9
2023
Separatists in Indonesia’s eastern-most area of West Papua have taken guerrilla warfare to another level by kidnapping a New Zealander pilot in the rugged mountainous terrain of Nduga. History suggests this desperate bid to win some autonomy from Jakarta will not end well.
Jan
17
2023
It took Indonesian president Joko Widodo nearly a decade to make good on his 2014 election promise to address the nation’s historic gross human abuses – most of them the bloody work of the police and the military. Last week he listed 12 of the historic atrocities that have blighted the nation’s human rights record. …read more
Nov
22
2020
Qing dynasty treasures, including a carved white jade figure of the star god of longevity, Shulao, are scheduled for auction in Hong Kong on November 30 in a sale titled Imperial Glories from the Springfield Museums Collection.
Sep
1
2019
A serious attack involves fever, sweating, vomiting, muscle spasms, driving thirst, thumping pain behind the eyes and in the joints. Weeks pass, tossing and turning in hellish delirium. And right now, a deadly wave of dengue fever is sweeping across Asia, killing hundreds and leaving tens of thousands sick, overwhelming health services and creating panic …read more
Sep
25
2014
The commercial roll-out of the world’s first dengue vaccine is in sight, but tropical disease experts are already questioning the breakthrough vaccine’s drawbacks. Often known as “breakbone fever”, with symptoms of excruciating joint pain, high fevers, and, in severe cases, internal bleeding – dengue is carried by mosquitos.
May
10
2014
Hungry mosquitos float out into the steamy air as soon as Sularto snaps open the container lid. Blowing the insects gently on their way, as gently as he might blow on a spoonful of hot soup, the stocky Indonesian waits for a minute before hitching his denim bag more securely onto his shoulder and setting …read more
Apr
11
2014
The deadliest creature in the world can be squashed with a casual slap. Yet the tiny mosquito still manages to kill hundreds of thousands of people a year with the diseases it carries: malaria, dengue, Japanese encephalitis and yellow fever. Now it seems science is getting closer to controlling some of the mosquito’s cargo of …read more