Consultative Assembly (MPR).

Popular sports played in France include football, judo, tennis[376] and basketball.[377] France has hosted events such as the 1938 and 1998 FIFA World Cups,[378] and hosted the 2007 Rugby Union World Cup.[379] Stade de France in Saint-Denis is the largest stadium in France and was the venue for the 1998 FIFA World Cup final; it also hosted the 2007 Rugby World Cup final in October 2007. France also hosts the annual Tour de France, the most famous road bicycle race in the world.[380][381] France is also famous for its 24 Hours of Le Mans sports car endurance race held in the Sarthe department.[382] Several major tennis tournaments take place in France, including the Paris Masters and the French Open, one of the four Grand Slam tournaments. French martial arts include Savate and Fencing.
France has a close association with the Modern Olympic Games; it was a French aristocrat, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who suggested the Games' revival, at the end of the 19th century.[383][384] After Athens was awarded the first Games, in reference to the Greek origins of the ancient Olympics, Paris hosted the second Games in 1900.[385] Paris was also the first home of the International Olympic Committee, before it moved to Lausanne.[386] Since that 1900 Games, France has hosted the Olympics on four further occasions: the 1924 Summer Olympics, again in Paris[384] and three Winter Games (1924 in Chamonix, 1968 in Grenoble and 1992 in Albertville).[384]
Both the national football team and the national rugby union team are nicknamed “Les Bleus” in reference to the team’s shirt color as well as the national French tricolor flag. The football team is among the most successful in the world, particularly at the start of the 21st century, with one FIFA World Cup victory in 1998,[387] one FIFA World Cup second place in 2006,[388] and two European Championships in 1984[389] and 2000.[390] The top national football club competition is the Ligue 1. Rugby union is also very popular, particularly in Paris and the southwest of France.[391] The national rugby union team has competed at every Rugby World Cup, and takes part in the annual Six Nations Championship. Following on from a strong domestic tournament, the French rugby team has won sixteen Six Nations Championships, including eight grand slams; and has reached the semi-finals (6 times) and the final (3 times) of the Rugby World Cup.
Rugby league in France is a sport that is most popular in the south, with cities such as Perpignan and Toulouse having a strong presence in the game. The Catalans Dragons currently play in Super League, which is the top tier rugby league competition in Europe. The Elite One Championship is the professional competition for rugby league clubs in France.
In the last decades, France has produced a high number of world-elite basketball players, most notably Tony Parker. The French National Basketball Team has won silver at the FIBA EuroBasket 2011, its best performance in over 60 years. In addition, the national team won two Olympic Silver Medals, one in 2000 and one in 1948

//

Indonesia (Listeni/??nd?'ni???/ in-d?-nee-zh? or /??ndo?'ni?zi?/ in-doh-nee-zee-?), officially the Republic of Indonesia (Indonesian: Republik Indonesia Indonesian pronunciation: [r?publik ?ndonesia]), is a sovereign state in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 17,508 islands.[6] It encompasses 34 provinces with over 238 million people, making it the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia's republic form of government comprises an elected legislature and president. The nation's capital city is Jakarta. The country shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Malaysia. Other neighboring countries include Singapore, Philippines, Australia, Palau, and the Indian territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Indonesia is a founding member of ASEAN and a member of the G-20 major economies. The Indonesian economy is the world's 16th largest by nominal GDP.
The Indonesian archipelago has been an important trade region since at least the 7th century, when Srivijaya and then later Majapahit traded with China and India. Local rulers gradually absorbed foreign cultural, religious and political models from the early centuries CE, and Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms flourished. Indonesian history has been influenced by foreign powers drawn to its natural resources. Muslim traders brought the now-dominant Islam, while European powers brought Christianity and fought one another to monopolize trade in the Spice Islands of Maluku during the Age of Discovery. Following three and a half centuries of Dutch colonialism, Indonesia secured its independence after World War II. Indonesia's history has since been turbulent, with challenges posed by natural disasters, corruption, separatism, a democratization process, and periods of rapid economic change.
Indonesia consists of hundreds of distinct native ethnic and linguistic groups. The largest – and politically dominant – ethnic group are the Javanese. A shared identity has developed, defined by a national language, ethnic diversity, religious pluralism within a majority Muslim population, and a history of colonialism and rebellion against it. Indonesia's national motto, "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika" ("Unity in Diversity" literally, "many, yet one"), articulates the diversity that shapes the country. Despite its large population and densely populated regions, Indonesia has vast areas of wilderness that support the world's second highest level of biodiversity. The country has abundant natural resources, yet poverty remains widespread

//

Fossils and the remains of tools show that the Indonesian archipelago was inhabited by Homo erectus, popularly known as the "Java Man", between 1.5 million years ago and as recently as 35,000 years ago.[16][17][18] Homo sapiens reached the region by around 45,000 years ago.[19] In 2011 evidence was uncovered in neighbouring East Timor, showing that 42,000 years ago these early settlers had high-level maritime skills, and by implication the technology needed to make ocean crossings to reach Australia and other islands, as they were catching and consuming large numbers of big deep sea fish such as tuna.[20]
Austronesian peoples, who form the majority of the modern population, migrated to South East Asia from Taiwan. They arrived in Indonesia around 2000 BCE, and as they spread through the archipelago, pushed the indigenous Melanesian peoples to the far eastern regions.[21] Ideal agricultural conditions, and the mastering of wet-field rice cultivation as early as the 8th century BCE,[22] allowed villages, towns, and small kingdoms to flourish by the 1st century CE. Indonesia's strategic sea-lane position fostered inter-island and international trade, including links with Indian kingdoms and China, which were established several centuries BCE.[23] Trade has since fundamentally shaped Indonesian history.[24][25]


The nutmeg plant is native to Indonesia's Banda Islands. Once one of the world's most valuable commodities, it drew the first European colonial powers to Indonesia.
Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism arrived in Indonesia in the 4th and 5th century, as trade with India
intensified under the south Indian Pallava dynasty[26] From the 7th century, the powerful Srivijaya naval kingdom flourished as a result of trade and the influences of Hinduism and Buddhism that were imported with it.[27][28] Between the 8th and 10th centuries, the agricultural Buddhist Sailendra and Hindu Mataram dynasties thrived and declined in inland Java, leaving grand religious monuments such as Sailendra's Borobudur and Mataram's Prambanan. The Hindu Majapahit kingdom was founded in eastern Java in the late 13th century, and under Gajah Mada, its influence stretched over much of Indonesia.[29]
Although Muslim traders first traveled through South East Asia early in the Islamic era, the earliest evidence of Islamized populations in Indonesia dates to the 13th century in northern Sumatra.[30] Other Indonesian areas gradually adopted Islam, and it was the dominant religion in Java and Sumatra by the end of the 16th century. For the most part, Islam overlaid and mixed with existing cultural and religious influences, which shaped the predominant form of Islam in Indonesia, particularly in Java.[31] The first regular contact between Europeans and the peoples of Indonesia began in 1512, when Portuguese traders, led by Francisco Serrão, sought to monopolize the sources of nutmeg, cloves, and cubeb pepper in Maluku.[32] Dutch and British traders followed. In 1602 the Dutch established the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and became the dominant European power. Following bankruptcy, the VOC was formally dissolved in 1800, and the government of the Netherlands established the Dutch East Indies as a nationalized colony

//

For most of the colonial period, Dutch control over the archipelago was tenuous outside of coastal strongholds; only in the early 20th century did Dutch dominance extend to what was to become Indonesia's current boundaries.[34] Despite major internal political, social and sectarian divisions during the Indonesian National Revolution, Indonesians, on the whole, found unity in their fight for independence. Japanese occupation during World War II ended Dutch rule,[35][36] and encouraged the previously suppressed Indonesian independence movement.[37] A later UN report stated that four million people died in Indonesia as a result of the Japanese occupation.[38] Two days after the surrender of Japan in August 1945, Sukarno, an influential nationalist leader, declared independence and was appointed president.[39][40][41][42] The Netherlands tried to reestablish their rule, and the resulting conflict ended in December 1949, when in the face of international pressure, the Dutch formally recognized Indonesian independence[40][43] (with the exception of the Dutch territory of West New Guinea, which was incorporated into Indonesia following the 1962 New York Agreement, and the UN-mandated Act of Free Choice of 1969).[44]


Sukarno, Indonesia's founding president
Sukarno moved Indonesia from democracy towards authoritarianism, and maintained his power base by balancing the opposing forces of the military and the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI).[45] An attempted coup on 30 September 1965 was countered by the army, who led a violent anti-communist purge, during which the PKI was blamed for the coup and effectively destroyed.[46][47][48] Around 500,000 people are estimated to have been killed.[49][50] The head of the military, General Suharto, outmaneuvered the politically weakened Sukarno, and was formally appointed president in March 1968. His New Order administration[51] was supported by the US government,[52][53][54] and encouraged foreign direct investment in Indonesia, which was a major factor in the subsequent three decades of substantial economic growth. However, the authoritarian "New Order" was widely accused of corruption and suppression of political opposition.[35][55][56]
Indonesia was the country hardest hit by the late 1990s Asian financial crisis.[57] This led to popular protest against the New Order which led to Suharto's resignation in May 1998.[58] In 1999, East Timor voted to secede from Indonesia, after a twenty-five-year military occupation that was marked by international condemnation of repression of the East Timorese.[59] Since Suharto's resignation, a strengthening of democratic processes has included a regional autonomy program, and the first direct presidential election in 2004. Political and economic instability, social unrest, corruption, and terrorism slowed progress, however, in the last five years the economy has performed strongly. Although relations among different religious and ethnic groups are largely harmonious, sectarian discontent and violence has occurred.[60] A political settlement to an armed separatist conflict in Aceh was achieved in 2005.

//

Indonesia is a republic with a presidential system. As a unitary state, power is concentrated in the central government. Following the resignation of President Suharto in 1998, Indonesian political and governmental structures have undergone major reforms. Four amendments to the 1945 Constitution of Indonesia[62] have revamped the executive, judicial, and legislative branches.[63] The president of Indonesia is the head of state and head of government, commander-in-chief of the Indonesian National Armed Forces, and the director of domestic governance, policy-making, and foreign affairs. The president appoints a council of ministers, who are not required to be elected members of the legislature. The 2004 presidential election was the first in which the people directly elected the president and vice president.[64] The president may serve a maximum of two consecutive five-year terms.[65]
The highest representative body at national level is the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR). Its main functions are supporting and amending the constitution, inaugurating the president, and formalizing broad outlines of state policy. It has the power to impeach the president.[66] The MPR comprises two houses; the People's Representative Council (DPR), with 560 members, and the Regional Representative Council (DPD), with 132 members.[67] The DPR passes legislation and monitors the executive branch; party-aligned members are elected for five-year terms by proportional representation.[63] Reforms since 1998 have markedly increased the DPR's role in national governance.[68] The DPD is a new chamber for matters of regional management.[69]
Most civil disputes appear before a State Court (Pengadilan Negeri); appeals are heard before the High Court (Pengadilan Tinggi). The Supreme Court (Mahkamah Agung) is the country's highest court, and hears final cessation appeals and conducts case reviews. Other courts include the Commercial Court, which handles bankruptcy and insolvency; a State Administrative Court (Pengadilan Tata Negara) to hear administrative law cases against the government; a Constitutional Court (Mahkamah Konstitusi) to hear disputes concerning legality of law, general elections, dissolution of political parties, and the scope of authority of state institutions; and a Religious Court (Pengadilan Agama) to deal with codified Sharia Law cases