Timika - With the coronavirus devastating jobs across the country, desperate Indonesians are flocking to illegal gold mines as the soaring price of the precious metal overrides the risk to their lives and the environment.

Tangerang - A Chinese drug trafficker on death row escaped from a jail near Indonesia's capital after digging a 30-metre (100 feet) tunnel from his cell, police said.

Jakarta - 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.

Lhokseumawe - When hundreds of Rohingya refugees paid traffickers to escape their squalid camp in Bangladesh, they were promised a new life in Malaysia after just one week at sea.

Lhokseumawe - Nearly 300 Rohingya migrants reached Indonesia early Monday claiming to have been at sea for seven months, United Nations officials said, in one of the biggest landings by the persecuted Myanmar minority in years.

Jakarta - Officials in hazmat suits paraded empty coffins through the streets of Jakarta Tuesday to remind residents that coronavirus cases are still surging in one of Asia's worst-hit nations.

Wide - Families in a mountainous community on Indonesia's Sulawesi island dig up their mummified relatives every three years, clean them and dress them in their favourite clothes to honour their spirits.

Timika - Operations have resumed at the world's biggest gold mine in Indonesia, the company that runs it said Saturday, after workers blocked access to the site in protest at being stopped from visiting their families over virus concerns.

Jakarta - Foreign tourists won't be allowed to visit Bali for the rest of 2020 due to coronavirus concerns, its governor said, scrapping a plan to open up the Indonesian island from next month.

Jakarta - A 6.9-magnitude quake struck eastern Indonesia on Friday, the US Geological Survey reported, but there was no tsunami warning issued and no immediate reports of casualties or major damage.

Jakarta - Indonesia on Tuesday launched human trials of a Chinese-made coronavirus vaccine with some 1,600 volunteers slated to take part in the six-month study.

Medan - Indonesia's Mount Sinabung erupted Monday, belching a massive column of ash and smoke 5,000 metres (16,400 feet) into the air and plunging local communities into darkness with a thick layer of debris.

Jakarta - Indonesia confirmed its 100,000th coronavirus case on Monday as the Red Cross warned that the health crisis in the world's fourth most populous country risked "spiralling out of control".

Batam - Indonesian police have charged four more people in connection with the alleged torturing to death of an Indonesian crew member found in a freezer aboard a Chinese fishing vessel, authorities said Monday.

Makassar - Rescuers pulled bodies from under mud and debris Friday as they raced to find dozens still missing after flash floods killed at least 36 people on Indonesia's Sulawesi island.

Denpasar - An Australian woman jailed with her British DJ boyfriend for beating a Bali policeman to death was freed Thursday after nearly four years in prison on the Indonesian holiday island.

Makassar - At least 15 people were killed and dozens missing after flash floods left hundreds of houses buried in mud on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, authorities said Tuesday.

Jakarta - Indonesian doctor Susana Somali and her staff cut tightly-bound plastic ropes off dozens of whimpering dogs rescued from the butcher's block after being sold or abandoned during the coronavirus pandemic.

Denpasar - Bali says foreign tourists will be allowed to return by September as the Indonesian holiday island scrambles to repair its crippled vacation sector -- even as coronavirus cases mount.

Jakarta - With her husband left jobless by the pandemic, the last thing Indonesian mother Juarsih needed was to get pregnant, but now she's expecting a third child -- one of many in the country anxiously preparing for a COVID-fuelled baby boom.