Indonesia

Shaken by the depressed oil market, Indonesia's economy is headed for zero growth at best this year after government countermeasures--including a 31% devaluation of the country's currency--have failed so far to turn it around. "We are back on solid ground," Ali Wardhana, the minister of economy and industry, maintained after devaluation of the rupiah last month. But businessmen and non-government economists are doubtful.

President Obama will probably cut short his one-day Indonesia visit because volcanic ash is complicating air travel in the region, aides said as Air Force One arrived here Tuesday. The change would be just the latest of several disruptions in the president's trip to the country where he lived for a while as a child. The Tuesday arrival comes after two cancellations earlier in the year, first because of a congressional vote on the president's healthcare plan and then because of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Indonesian soldiers lugged guns and heavy bags up gangplanks Thursday as they completed the final phase of a troop reduction in Aceh province -- a key step in an accord with separatist rebels to end a nearly 30-year war. The last of 24,000 troops pulled out on five navy ships and a Hercules air carrier, just days after Free Aceh Movement rebels completed the hand-over of their weapons and disbanded their military wing.

The teenager lay dazed amid the settling dust and debris, his leg trapped by a fallen concrete wall. He sensed that he was going to die. So he made a decision: He would cut off his own limb to save his life. Ignoring the major blood loss, taking deep breaths as he concentrated on the terrible task at hand, the 18-year-old construction worker cut halfway through his right leg just below the kneecap. Finally, too weak to continue, he begged for help, and a fellow worker finished the job for him in the aftermath of the magnitude 7.6 earthquake that struck Sumatra in September.

A hazardous haze dissipated in Malaysia, but anger mounted against Indonesia for failing to control forest fires at the root of the pollution, which forced the closure of schools and workplaces and increased respiratory ailments. "Enough Is Enough, Indonesia," said a headline in the Star newspaper. The haze is caused by the annual fires on Sumatra island -- across a narrow strip of sea from Malaysia -- where farmers, plantation owners and miners clear land during dry weather.

Hundreds of people remained trapped in collapsed buildings today after two powerful earthquakes struck near Padang on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, killing at least 529 people. The toll was expected to rise, with Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari saying it could soar into the thousands. "Let's be prepared for the worst," Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in the capital, Jakarta, before boarding a flight for Padang. Thursday's magnitude 6.8 earthquake came a few hours after a magnitude 7.6 one Wednesday, leaving the city of 900,000 reeling.

Indonesia's adopted son isn't coming home just yet. Across this sprawling archipelago, people took the news stoically that President Obama had postponed his trip here next week to attend to a pressing political agenda back home - getting his healthcare initiative passed into law. On Friday, the Indonesian media continued its coverage that treated Obama more as rock star than pragmatic political leader. White House officials said Obama would delay until June a diplomatic trip to Indonesia and Australia that is aimed at cementing U.S. ties in a region that faces rising Chinese influence.

President Obama's visit to Indonesia next week will offer the unexpected image of an American president delivering a major diplomatic speech to the Islamic world, from a country that has frequently been the source of terrorist plots against Western targets. Obama's three-day trip to the world's most populous Muslim country is intended to demonstrate Washington's improving relationship and closer security ties with the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. It is also a vote of confidence in Indonesia's security apparatus, once notorious for human rights abuses, but which in recent years has found itself back in favor with the U.S. as it battles home-grown and foreign Islamic extremist networks.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Indonesia on Wednesday to make greater efforts to reform its armed forces, echoing calls from critics of Washington's decision to restore military ties last year. In an address to Indonesia's World Affairs Council, Rice stressed that a "reformed and effective" Indonesian military was in the interests of everyone in a region beset by terrorism and unrest.

The U.S. and Australian embassies on Friday warned that international schools in Indonesia were at risk of terrorist attack and told parents to consider keeping their children home. The warnings cited "credible information." Most international schools closed in Jakarta, the capital, because of the warning. "The [U.S.] Embassy has received credible information about possible targeting of schools in Jakarta associated with Western interests," Friday's announcement said.