On January 18, Indonesia’s parliament passed a bill to relocate the nation’s capital from Jakarta to the jungle island of Borneo, with the new city’s name to be Nusantara. The move, according to BBC News, will cost an estimated 466 trillion rupiah, or roughly $32.4 billion. The bill passed by approvals from eight factions, with one faction rejecting, according to Indonesian House Representative Puan Maharani.
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Deadly violence erupted in Indonesia after intense protests in the country’s Papua region, forcibly displacing approximately 16,000 residents.
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A 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia, leaving at least 50,000 people displaced from their homes and at least 844 people dead. Following the earthquake, a tsunami was generated with waves reaching up to 20 feet.
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After an oil spill occurred in the Indonesian port city of Balikpapan, President Abdurrahman Wahid declared a state of emergency.
Read MoreIn Southeast Asia, the U.S. maintains a strong military presence to combat terrorist groups in the south of the Philippines, where 6,000 troops are stationed—twice as large as the deployment in Iraq, reports the Manila Times.
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