Experts say a Southeast Asian terrorism network has expanded its influence in Central Sulawesi amid escalating violence during the past month.

Indonesia says it will cull tens of thousands of chickens kept in backyards across the sprawling archipelago in an effort to stop the spread of the bird flu virus. As VOA correspondent Nancy-Amelia Collins in Jakarta reports, the decision follows a new spate of human infections.

Indonesian health officials say two women infected with the bird flu virus have died, bringing to 61 the number of people who have died from the disease in the country.

Indonesian search teams are starting to recover pieces of a passenger jet that disappeared on New Year's Day with more than 100 people on board.

Part of a jetliner's tail, food trays and shards of fuselage were pulled from the sea in northeastern Indonesia, officials said Thursday, 10 days after a Boeing 737 disappeared in storm weather with 102 people on board.

During his Japan visit in November 2006, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono gave indications about Indonesia's willingness to extend its gas contract that'll expire in 2011 with Japan.

A team of U.S. aviation experts is in Indonesia to help investigate a missing Indonesian passenger jet that vanished from radar screens Monday during rough weather.

Indonesian officials say the United States and Singapore have joined the search for a missing passenger jet that vanished from radar screens earlier this week with 102 people on board.

Adam Air Passenger flight vanishes and probably crashed in Indonesia

Officials say rescue teams have been dispatched to find a Indonesian passenger jet carrying 102 people after contact was lost during a flight Monday. Indonesia's transportation minister Hatta Radjasa says a distress signal was detected from the northern island of Sulawesi.

Indonesian rescue workers are searching for survivors after a ferry carrying some 600 passengers sank in rough seas north of Java Island. So far at least 24 people have been rescued - many drifting in life jackets. Chad Bouchard reports from Jakarta.

Indonesia's top bird flu official says the country hopes to cut human cases from the virus to zero by the end of 2007.

Indonesian health authorities are investigating the deaths of 22 people over a two-month period admitted to the same hospital in the capital, Jakarta.