Terminal 3 of the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport will be operational in December, president director of state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II Edie Haryoto said Thursday. "The new terminal will be able to handle four million people, increasing the airport's capacity to 22 million people per year," Edie said.

Indonesia is likely to cultivate sorghum as an alternative food staple to wheat as many factors hinder the latter's local production, a food expert says. "Since wheat is a subtropical plant, we need to focus first on cultivating a tropical breed," said Listyani Wijayanti, from the State Ministry of Research and Technology, on Thursday. She said further research was necessary to identify and anticipate potential wheat diseases in tropical soils and weather like Indonesia's.

Presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was ready to lose popularity over his plan to raise subsidized fuel prices to preserve the economy. "The president realizes that raising fuel prices carries a political risk. He is risking his career and popularity in order to save the nation's economy. That's what's most important to him," Andi told University of Indonesia's Student Committee representatives at the Presidential Palace on Friday.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia has awarded five oil and gas exploration and development contracts to four companies including Italy's ENI, the energy ministry said Friday. ENI Indonesia Ltd. was awarded the contract for a block in West Timor, ministry oil and gas director general Luluk Sumiarso was quoted by AFP as saying. US-based Murphy Overseas Ventures was awarded the contract for the South Barito block in South Kalimantan, while Swedish oil-and-gas firm Lundin Oil and Gas B.V.

Jakarta (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - PT Bakrie Indo Infrastructure said it hopes to win more infrastructure projects, mainly power generating projects, worth US$5 billion until 2013. The target does not include three projects worth US$2.9 billion the company has already won and is building, its president said. He added the subsidiary of PT Bakrie & Brother is targetting at least four power generating projects in addition to toll road and gas pipeline projects.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - A long-delayed plan to privately fund a monorail to ease congestion in Indonesia's traffic-choked capital is "completely implausible", the World Bank said here Friday. The plan to build the 27-kilometre (17 miles) network entirely with private sector money would be impossible, with the costs of running the scheme meaning heavy losses, the Bank's infrastructure specialist Hongjoo Hahm told AFP.