The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program (SOCP) announced today Sumatra's first ever successful sentence of an illegal orangutan owner and trader in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia.

On 6 August, the website of the Indonesian daily Kompas reported that 13 residents of Air Batu Village, Air Batu Sub-district, Asahan District, North Sumatra, were suspected of being infected with Avian Influenza. Two were being treated in the isolation ward at Adam Malik Hospital in Medan.

Southeast Asia-focused independent exploration and production firm Salamander Energy has spudded the Gurame-1X appraisal well in the Seruway production sharing contract in North Sumatra, Indonesia.

Excerpt from report in English by Indonesian newsp

Flooding in the Indonesian region hit by a tsunami in 2004 has killed 29 people and displaced 70,000 others, government officials said Sunday.