Latest Papua Stories

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian authorities have detained another 11 people in Papua province after three policemen and a soldier died in clashes with protesters demanding closure of a giant U.S.-run mine, police said on Saturday. Fifty-seven people had already been detained after Thursday's violence in the provincial capital, Jayapura, on the northeastern shore of Papua, about 3,500 km (2,200 miles) from Jakarta. The clashes sparked fears of more protests against U.S. firm...

OSLO (Reuters) - Exotic species in a little-known "Garden of Eden" in the mountains of New Guinea island are under threat from global warming, New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday. "A paradise world of undiscovered species and tropical glaciers in the mountains of New Guinea is disappearing faster than it can be explored," the British-based magazine said. It quoted Michael Prentice, a climatologist at Plymouth State University, New Hampshire, as saying that temperatures in the...

OSLO -- Exotic species in a little-known "Garden of Eden" in the mountains of New Guinea island are under threat from global warming, New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday."A paradise world of undiscovered species and tropical glaciers in the mountains of New Guinea is disappearing faster than it can be explored," the British-based magazine said.It quoted Michael Prentice, a climatologist at Plymouth State University, New Hampshire, as saying that temperatures in the...

By Achmad SukarsonoJAKARTA (Reuters) - Hundreds of native Papuans are demonstrating to demand the closure of a huge mine in Indonesia's Papua province run by the U.S. company Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc, police and witnesses said on Tuesday.In Jakarta, 100 protesters trying to enter a building that houses Freeport offices scuffled with anti-riot police, who eventually used a water cannon to help disperse the crowd.Protesters also have staged rallies in Papua's provincial capital of...

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Protesters obstructing access to a huge mine owned by a unit of U.S. firm Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. in Indonesia's remote Papua province called off their blockade on Saturday, but it was unclear whether the mine had resumed operations, a senior police official said. Operations at the Grasberg mine, believed to have the world's third-largest copper reserves and one of the biggest gold deposits, were suspended on Wednesday after illegal miners armed with...

OSLO -- Scientists exploring an isolated jungle in one of Indonesia's most remote provinces discovered dozens of new species of frogs, butterflies and plants - as well as mammals hunted to near extinction elsewhere, members of the expedition said Tuesday.The team also found wildlife that were remarkably unafraid of humans during its rapid survey of the Foja Mountains, an area in eastern Indonesia's Papua province with more than two million acres of old growth tropical forest, said Bruce...

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian authorities are hunting for four more people over the 2002 killing of two Americans in Papua province, police said on Monday after declaring eight men suspects in the case last week. The eight were arrested on Wednesday over an ambush that killed two Americans and an Indonesian, all teachers from a school run by PT Freeport Indonesia, a unit of U.S.-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., which operates mines in Papua's mountains. "We are now...

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian police have declared eight of 12 arrested men as suspects in the killing of two American teachers in remote Papua province more than three years ago, a top policeman said on Friday. Police released the four others who had been held for the killing of the teachers from a school run by PT Freeport Indonesia, a unit of U.S.-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc, which operates mines in the Papuan mountains. Ties between Indonesia and the United States...

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian police have arrested 12 people in connection with the killing of two American teachers in the remote Papua province more than three years ago, a top policeman said on Thursday. Ties between Indonesia and the United States were strained after the 2002 incident in which gunmen shot at a convoy carrying teachers from a school run by PT Freeport Indonesia, a unit of U.S.-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc, which operates mines in the Papuan mountains....

SYDNEY, Sept 9 - A major earthquake measuring 7.3 in magnitude shook parts of Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific on Friday, but there were no immediate reports of damage and a tsunami was unlikely, officials said. However, efforts to contact residents in remote areas near the quake were being hindered by poor communication lines, a spokesman for Papua New Guinea's National Disaster and Emergency Services said. "At this stage we are still trying to get information from the relevant...