Ahmad Pathoni, Banda Aceh – Shops in Indonesia's Aceh province, where Islamic law is in force, will soon be banned from selling tight-fitting clothes, an official said on Thursday.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Aceh Party politician Syukri Abdullah and his female business colleague were shot dead on Tuesday night as they were driving through the district of Bireuen to their respective homes in the neighboring province of Lhokseumawe. A third passenger in the victim's vehicle sustained minor injuries.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Another Christian house of worship has been sealed off in Aceh Singkil district, bringing the total since last week to 17 and marking a new low for religious intolerance in the staunchly Muslim province, a rights group said on Wednesday.

Aceh, North Sumatra – Sixty-two young women were detained in a raid for wearing tight clothing in Wilayatul Hisbah, Bireuen, Aceh on Tuesday evening.

Four of the 62 women detained are sales promotion girls who were promoting cigarettes near the area, and were wearing tight black pants, white tops and red jilbab (veils).

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – The Aceh administration has shut down at least 16 Christian places of worship since May 2, alleging they were being run without permits and had been drawing complaints from locals.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Having failed to get reelected in the Aceh gubernatorial election on April 9, Irwandi Yusuf has established a new political party.

The National Aceh Party (PNA), which was registered on Tuesday, is chaired by Irwansyah, known as Teungku Muksalmina.

Langsa, Indonesia – Sharia police in Aceh, the only Indonesian province to practise the Islamic law, caned a homeless "punk" couple nine times Friday after they were caught having pre-marital sex in public.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Newly elected Aceh governor Zaini Abdullah, on Tuesday vowed to make stability and the economy his priorities during his time in office.

Hotli SImanjuntak, Banda Aceh – A return to the polls in at least five of the 17 regencies and municipalities across Aceh is being demanded to address claims of "cheating" in the April 9 election.

The five regions are Banda Aceh, Lhok Seumawe, Southeast Aceh, Central Aceh and West Aceh.

On last Monday, voters in Aceh went to the polls to elect a governor, a deputy governor and 17 mayors and regents. It was only the second gubernatorial election in the province since the peace accord between the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist insurgency was signed in 2005.

Muhammad Nazar, one of a number of candidates running for the Aceh governorship, was surprised when he was informed that he had barely gathered 8 percent of total votes in the unofficial "quick counts" in Monday's election.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Police have arrested two former Free Aceh Movement members for allegedly masterminding a string of armed attacks in Aceh ahead of the province's recently-completed elections.

Jakarta – More than 69,000 registered voters in the capital of Aceh province, Banda Aceh, did not cast their votes in the April 9 regional elections (pilkada), according to an Aceh official on Friday.

Michael Bachelard – When pentecostal pastor Danny Nalliah thundered that the 2009 Victorian bushfires were caused by God's wrath at that state's decision to decriminalise abortion, he was an outlier even among radical Christians.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – The ruling Aceh Party is expected to win the gubernatorial, mayoral and district head polls due to the party's strong structure of command right down to the village level, analysts said on Tuesday.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Just a day after Monday's largely peaceful elections, protests flared up in Aceh over allegations of cheating.

Arlina Arshad – In Indonesia's only province ruled by strict Islamic law, the sight of the "morals police" prompts women to quickly adjust their headscarves and male and female companions to move apart.

Michael Bachelard – By western standards, the rooms are dingy, but Aceh's love hotel is doing a roaring trade.

"Fauzi", 45, who regularly brings his 25-year-old girlfriend to this motel-style hideaway in the suburbs of Banda Aceh, says he's not interested in luxury anyway. "All I need is a bed, air conditioning and a toilet."

Indonesia's only province ruled by hard-line Sharia law elects its governor on Monday, in polls watched by militant Muslims pushing for an Islamic government nationwide.

The elections in Aceh are the second since the province suffered 170,000 fatalities in the Asian tsunami of 2004, and since a 30-year war against Indonesian rule ended in 2005, having claimed 15,000 lives.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – An Aceh election official has warned of potential dirty tricks and intimidation in the province's remote areas during the vote count that will follow Monday's elections.

Michael Bachelard – One of two candidates likely to win the election in Indonesia's troubled westernmost province of Aceh has accused the other of authorising up to 13 murders in the lead-up to Monday's poll.

Farouk Arnaz – The security situation in Aceh remains largely trouble-free as campaigning for next Monday's elections winds down this week, police said on Tuesday.

Jakarta – As the situation in Aceh becomes more volatile ahead of the local election, the National Police are stepping up security measures in the country's westernmost province.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Islamic sharia remains the main political sales pitch among gubernatorial candidates to enable them to win the upcoming Aceh regional election scheduled for April 9.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Wider implementation of Shariah law, greater economic empowerment and better governance were among the platforms espoused on Friday by the five gubernatorial candidates in Aceh.

Farouk Arnaz – The police's elite counterterrorism unit has arrested five people in Aceh and North Sumatra believed to be linked to a spate of politically motivated attacks in the lead-up to elections in Aceh next month.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Five men accused of gambling were caned six times each while hundreds of people watched in Aceh on Friday.

Nurdin Hasan – An Aceh Party politician was shot in his home Thursday morning in what may be the latest instance of campaign violence leading up to Aceh's elections.

Saifuddin Yunus was rushed to the Lhokseumawe military hospital by his groundskeeper with a gunshot wound to the torso. Saifuddin was conscious and able to talk when he arrived at the hospital.

Nani Afrida – Political competition typically turn friends into rivals; an example evident to many Acehnese in the changing relationship between former governor Irwandi Yusuf and the former commander of the freedom fighters, Muzakir Manaf.

They are competing closely in the election scheduled for April 9, with Muzakir as the running mate of Zaini Abdullah.

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Just like any mother, 60-year-old Maryani (not her real name) hoped that the ties binding her three beloved sons would always be strong after their suffering during decades of war in Aceh.

[Aceh's second direct gubernatorial election is scheduled for April 9, after five delays following unsolved deaths, violence and former governor Irwandi Yusuf's legal battle to run for governor again.

Nani Afrida – "Jakarta never keeps its promises," the Acehnese used to say. They would point to 1965, when founding father Sukarno promised them an autonomous province in return for their contribution to the fledgling republic; and 2001, when then president Megawati Soekarnoputri vowed that blood would no longer be spilled in Aceh.

[Renewed violence in Aceh killed at least 15 people in at least three regencies since last October, with police saying they cannot identify most of the perpetrators. The following is a report by The Jakarta Post's Nani Afrida on post-conflict reconciliation, to be followed later this week by reports on the economy and the direct local elections.]

Samantha Michaels & Emily Johnson, Banda Aceh – It's New Year's Eve, and a group of young friends have gathered at an outdoor basketball court in Banda Aceh for a late-night jam session. Here, where Sharia law reigns, unmarried men and women are not supposed to congregate, especially late at night, but a few young girls have decided to join in.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The Aceh legislative council finally passed a sharia bylaw on regional elections during a plenary session on Friday.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Police in Aceh are issuing increasingly strident demands for a reluctant public to relinquish the estimated thousand-odd firearms still held illegally after the province's civil war ended in 2005.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The dispute between factions of former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) members may escalate following a coordination meeting held by ex-guerrilla leaders to form a political counterweight to Aceh Party (PA), a local party founded by former combatants after a peace agreement was signed in Helsinki in 2005.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – In a show of force by the winners of the last local elections, tens of thousands of members of the Aceh Party descended on the provincial capital on Sunday in support of the party's candidates for the April 9 polls.

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – With political elites in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam at loggerheads with each other in a battle to rule the resource-rich province in the upcoming gubernatorial poll, violence threatens to tear the province apart.

Banda Aceh – Ulema in Aceh have warned Muslims, the younger generation in particular, that observing Valentine's Day is not allowed in Islam and against Shariah law that is in force in all of Aceh province.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The rescheduling of the Aceh gubernational poll drew protests on Monday from those including incumbent governor Irwandi Yusuf, who is seeking his second term.

Agus Triyono & Nurdin Hasan – The decision earlier this month by polling officials in Aceh to postpone February's local elections to as late as April was approved by the Constitutional Court on Friday, but the move failed to end the months-long bickering in the issue.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Candidate pairs for the Aceh gubernatorial election underwent Koran recital tests in Banda Aceh on Tuesday as part of an official examination of their Islamic views.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The Aceh Party, founded by former Aceh Freedom Movement (GAM) combatants, finally registered its candidates at the Independent Election Commission Aceh (KIP Aceh) on Friday.

The party had threatened to boycott the poll if its demand for a postponement was not fulfilled. The poll has now been rescheduled from Feb. 16 to April 9.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Polling officials in Aceh announced on Thursday that they had no choice but to push back the long-awaited local elections there from Feb. 16 to April 9.

Ezra Sihite, Nurdin Hasan & Arientha Primanita – The Constitutional Court has weighed in on the dispute over the upcoming Aceh elections with a ruling that unregistered candidates should be given the chance to sign up, but few were satisfied with the decision.

James Balowski, Jakarta – A group of music lovers organising a charity concert in Indonesia's northernmost province of Aceh are the latest victims of the province's discriminatory and abusive sharia laws. The 64 youths were released on December 23 after undergoing 10 days of "moral rehabilitation" in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh.

Ezra Sihite – A legislative fact-finding team has concluded that the recent deadly shootings in Aceh in the lead-up to local elections are politically motivated and should not be treated as normal crimes.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The upcoming gubernatorial elections in Aceh are facing uncertainty following a move by the ruling Aceh Party (PA) to challenge the Independent Election Commission's (KIP) decision to go ahead with the poll as scheduled.

Farouk Arnaz & Ezra Sihite – An Aceh lawmaker's home was shot at and attacked with fuel bombs on Tuesday, an act that appears to undermine official claims that the province is calm and secure following a recent spate of violence.