Indonesia's president has stepped in to take over his ruling party, so damaged by a series of corruption scandals that even its senior members concede it faces a rout in elections next year.

Indonesia suffered its first ever annual trade deficit in 2012 as shipments to most of the country's major trading partners fell during the year amid the slowdown in the global economy.

Two landslides triggered by heavy rains killed at least 16 people and left 9 others missing on Indonesia's Sumatra island, officials said on Sunday.

An Indonesian court sentenced a British grandmother to death on Tuesday for smuggling cocaine worth US$2.5 million in her suitcase onto the resort island of Bali — even though prosecutors had sought only a 15-year sentence.

A senior Indonesian judge will face an ethics tribunal for saying rape victims enjoyed the act, an official said Monday, after a judicial commission recommended his dismissal.

The death toll from floods in Indonesia's capital has climbed to 14 after searchers pulled three more bodies from the waters.

Indonesia's army deployed rubber boats in the capital's business district on Thursday to rescue people trapped in floods that inundated much of the city of 14 million people. The president was pictured standing in water up to his shins — his trousers rolled up — at the palace waiting for the arrival of Argentina's leader on a state visit.

After the recent inauguration as a International Cruise Terminal, Benoa Port, which serves as both the embarkation and debarkation point for cruise passengers, welcomes the New Year as a new era for cruise ship tourism in Bali and Indonesia. According to the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry, 306 cruise ships have confirmed stopovers for 2013, which is a remarkable 43-percent increase from last year.

Indonesia has issued regulations that will require cigarette packets to bear graphic photographic warnings, a long-delayed measure in a country with one of the highest rates of smoking in the world.

Police discovered a stash of more than 20 homemade bombs in central Indonesia Wednesday after uncovering plots to attack tourist destinations in the region, a spokesman said.