Indonesia

A video of Suzethe Margaret entering a mosque wearing shoes before letting her dog run around went viral in July.

It sparked anger in the Muslim-majority country where many consider dogs to be impure.

A panel of judges in Bogor, a town near Jakarta, found her guilty of blasphemy on Wednesday but said she could not be held responsible for her actions.

Margaret has paranoid schizophrenia, according to psychiatric examinations in 2013.

Prosecutors had demanded she be sentenced to eight months of imprisonment.

The Wellington-based diplomat said his new role was aimed at increasing Indonesia's presence in the Pacific.

This is to be done through strengthening of economic, political, and people-to-people links with countries and territories in the region.

Tantowi Yahya was a driving force behind the launch last year of Jakarta's 'Pacific Elevation' strategy for greater connectivity with Pacific Islands countries.

According to Kumpuran News, the ambassadorial appointment by Indonesia's foreign ministry comes as it develops its Indo-Pacific Outlook.

The quake had a magnitude of 7.1 and its epicentre in the sea was 139 km (86 miles) northwest of the city of Ternate at a depth of 45 km, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. More than 20 aftershocks occurred.

Indonesia's geophysics agency lifted the tsunami warning after two hours because it detected only small waves in Ternate, Jailolo and Bitung.

Miftahudin, an official in Jailolo in the Halmahera area of the Moluccas, said residents had fled to the hills.

Racist harassment of Papuan students in university dormitories in Javanese cities last month sparked weeks of widespread protests and unrest in Papua.

While Indonesian police have started investigations into the harassment, many students claim they continue to face threats and feel unsafe.

As of Monday, 2047 students had been recorded by Papua's provincial government as having left their studies to return to their home region since August.

The majority of the students are from Highlands regencies in Papua.

Lawyers told the BBC that many families were persuaded to sign forms preventing them from taking legal action.

BBC Panorama has discovered that other relatives signed similar agreements after two other crashes, stopping them from suing Boeing in the US courts.

Boeing has declined to comment on the agreements.

All 189 passengers and crew died when the Boeing 737 Max crashed into the sea just 13 minutes after taking off from the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, on 29 October 2018.

Within weeks, relatives were offered compensation by insurance lawyers.

Dozens of government and private sector representatives from the Pacific are in Auckland for the Pacific Exposition this week.

On Friday, the foreign ministers of Indonesia, New Zealand and Australia will hold talks, where human rights issues in West Papua are expected to be raised.

Indonesia's ambassador to New Zealand, Samoa and Tonga, Tantowi Yahya, said he hopes to bring economic benefit to the Pacific through trade and tourism.

Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency says 70 people were killed by landslides in Jayapura regency and seven others died from floods in Jayapura city.

Rescue teams are searching for 43 people still missing.

More than 4000 people have been evacuated to six locations and more than 11,000 families have been affected by the flash flooding.

According to reports, the disaster management agency has attributed the floods to deforestation and encroachment on a nature reserve in the Cyclops mountains over the past 15 years.

On Saturday, giant waves crashed into coastal towns on the islands of Sumatra and Java, killing at least 222 people and injuring 843.

It is thought that volcanic activity set off undersea landslides which in turn generated the killer waves.

Anak Krakatau was erupting again on Sunday, spewing ash and smoke.

Video shot from a charter plane captured the magnitude of the event in the Sunda Strait, between Sumatra and Java.

President Joko Widodo has expressed his sorrow for the victims and urged people to be patient.

The country's disaster management agency says hundreds of buildings were damaged by Saturday's tsunami.

It says the possible cause of the tsunami was undersea landslides after the Krakatoa volcano erupted.

The strait, between the islands of Java and Sumatra, connects the Java Sea to the Indian Ocean.

The disaster management agency warned that the death toll after the tsunami, that struck at about 21:30 local time (14:30GMT) on Saturday, is likely to rise further.

Deaths have been reported in the Pandeglang, South Lampung and Serang regions.

It's 57 years since the Papuan Morning Star flag was first flown officially when the indigenous people of the former Dutch New Guinea declared independence.

Demonstrations to mark the anniversary occur annually in Papua region, other parts of Indonesia, and in cities around the world.

Indonesian police and security forces were out in large numbers to crack down on the demonstrations which have grown in recent years in non-Papuan cities.