Dili – Rebel East Timorese soldiers raided a police post and seized a large haul of automatic weapons, the United Nations and local officials said Monday, raising fresh security concerns in the tiny nation ahead of elections in April.

Karen Michelmore, Jakarta – The Indonesian government today declared the case of five Australian journalists' deaths in East Timor more than 30 years a closed matter.

Banda Aceh – Aguswandi BR and Thamrin Ananda have been elected by acclaim as the general chairperson and secretary general of the Acehnese People's Party for the next five year period.

Banda Aceh – Around 75 participants attending a conference of the Preparatory Committee for the Acehnese People's Party (KP-PRA) are being treated at the Zainoel Abidin Public Hospital for poisoning after consuming food. Twenty three are still being treated in hospital.

Palu – Four people were killed and another 25 injured in clashes between police and protesters in Indonesia, police have said. Some of those killed had been shot dead, senior policeman M. Nazli said.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The law commission at the House of Representatives asked the Anti-Corruption Commission (KPK) to take over unresolved corruption cases from the National Police and the Attorney General's Office.

Ruslan Sangadji, Palu – Five people were reportedly killed and dozens of others injured Wednesday during a clash with security personnel in Banggai Islands regency, Central Sulawesi.

Resident Iwan Bua said he saw five bodies following the violent clash.

Jakarta – Traditional market traders once again expressed their disappointment in the city administration Wednesday for failing to "control" modern retailers and protect their businesses.

Suherdjoko, Semarang – The government's plan to press ahead with construction of the country's first nuclear power plant in 2010 was met angrily by Jepara residents Wednesday.

Sydney – An Australian coroner on Thursday issued a warrant of arrest for a retired Indonesian cabinet minister in an inquiry into the death of five journalists in East Timor 32 years ago.

Hamish McDonald – Within seven minutes of an Indonesian army radio message being intercepted in Darwin, saying five Australian journalists had been deliberately killed in East Timor in 1975, it was translated and sent to prime minister Gough Whitlam, senior ministers and officials.

By Jim Elmslie with Peter King and Jake Lynch. A report prepared for the West Papua Project at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, The University of Sydney.

Executive Summary

Jakarta – A danger zone declared around an Indonesian "mud volcano" spewing vast amounts of toxic sludge, which has displaced 15,000 people, may have to be widened, an expert said Wednesday.

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – While a presidential decree on local political parties is still being worked out, Aceh's first-ever local party is being born this week.

The preparation committee for the establishment of the Aceh People's Party (PRA) launched its first congress in Banda Aceh on Tuesday.

The left-wing Acehnese Peoples Party (PRA) will be holding its founding congress in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh at the end of February. Sydney University Southeast Asian Studies lecturer Max Lane spoke to Thamrin Ananda, chairperson of the Preparatory Committee of the PRA.

Rohan Pearce – February 23 marked the deadline for submissions to the federal parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCT) on the new Australia-Indonesia "security" pact.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The House of Representatives will set up a special committee to investigate the 1997 abduction of 17 democracy activists, alleged to have involved former president Soeharto and Army generals.

The decision was made in a plenary meeting presided over by Deputy House Speaker Zainal Maarif on Tuesday.

Jakarta – Indonesian lawmakers have watered down an anti-pornography bill following criticism that it could restrict freedom and threaten the country's tolerant tradition, the parliamentary speaker said on Wednesday.

Chris Brummitt, Jakarta – Indonesia is planning to ban local carriers from operating jetliners more than 10 years old as part of a safety campaign following a string of crashes and accidents, the government said Wednesday.

Stephen Fitzpatrick, Mark Dodd – Renegade East Timor military leader Alfredo Reinado has threatened to defend himself "to the death" from a heavily armed post in the central town of Same, where he was yesterday surrounded by Australian SAS troops.

At the beginning of this month's long overdue inquest into the deaths of the five Australian-based newsmen at Balibo in 1975, the Crown counsel heralded the hearings as the first "open, public and completely independent" inquiry of a judicial nature into the case.

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – A US court has cleared the way for the hearing of a challenge to the rights over the Timor Sea's vast oil and gas reserves.

Lawyers for oil explorer Oceanic Exploration are preparing to take the company's claim against US-giant ConocoPhillips to the US District Court in southern Texas.

Adam Bennett, Sydney – A Sydney coroner has invited a former Indonesian general and government minister to give evidence about the deaths of the Balibo Five, as he was again linked to their killings.

Banda Aceh – The chairperson of the Preparatory Committee for the Acehnese People's Party (KP-PRA) is urging the government to immediately ratify the Draft Government Regulation on Local Political Parties in Aceh.

Usman Hamid and Lisa Misol, Jakarta – Two and a half years after the House of Representatives passed landmark legislation to improve the accountability of the Indonesian military (TNI), reform is stalled. High-level political leadership is needed to give the reform drive a much-needed boost.

The widow of an Indonesian human rights activist who was fatally poisoned on an international flight has called for Australia to rethink its security treaty with Indonesia.

Munir Talib Sahir became violently ill on a Garuda flight to Amsterdam in September 2004 and was pronounced dead shortly before arrival. An autopsy revealed he had died from arsenic poisoning.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Anti-graft activists have deplored President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's move to involve himself in the conflict between the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and State Secretary Yusril Ihza Mahendra.

Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – Most small lakes in Greater Jakarta are getting shallower as local authorities are not prioritizing their protection, an official said last week.

Even worse, the water in some lakes is no longer fit to be used even for agricultural activities.

Irwan Firdaus, Jakarta – Authorities vowed Monday to investigate why accident investigators and reporters were allowed to board a fire-gutted Indonesian ferry that then capsized, killing one person and leaving three others missing.

The government's plan to build Indonesia's first nuclear power plant, tentatively set to begin 2011, is moving forward with the public given little or no chance to have its say.

Adam Bennett, Sydney – A NSW coroner hearing an inquest into the death of one of five Australian journalists in East Timor more than 30 years ago has agreed to hear some evidence in secret.

Hamish McDonald – Australia's spooks are often aghast at the way highly classified intelligence material and techniques leak out into the public domain in the United States.

A government intelligence chief destroyed documents revealing the deaths of Australian-based journalists in East Timor in 1975 to stop news of the killings spreading.

The recent deadly flooding that submerged Greater Jakarta for one week left behind prolonged misery and remarkable damages. Not only because the floods killed 79 people and left more than 200,000 homeless, but also because the they caused a total loss of Rp 8.8 trillion (US$970 million).

Jakarta – Scholars and analysts agreed during a discussion Friday that legislators and government officials needed to stop working solely for party interests and focus more on the needs of the people who voted them into office.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – Tens of thousands of malnourished children in East Nusa Tenggara will be at risk of marasmus if attention is not given to the matter by the government and related institutions, a health official said Friday.

Marasmus, a severe form of malnutrition, involved the chronic wasting of fat, muscle and other tissues.

Jakarta – Marching is nothing unusual for members of the National Police and the Indonesian Military (TNI), but the activity took on a new meaning Friday.

It looks as though Indonesia is yet to be free of disasters. With the Jakarta floods receding and the capital's residents counting their losses, a ferry caught fire 80 kilometer's off the city's coast on Thursday. At least 16 people were killed and another 17 remain missing.

Anissa S. Febrina, Jakarta – Jakartans may think they have seen it all when it comes to environmental disasters, but it is a good bet that the worst is yet to come, a study reveals.

Jakarta – A leading environmental organization has praised police action against a company accused of illegal logging, but says it wants the authorities to take a harder line against the crime in the future.

Indra Harsaputra, Sidoarjo – Police dispersed frustrated residents Friday who had been blocking main roads and railways in Sidoarjo, East Java, upsetting motorists and causing major traffic congestion.

Jakarta – The plot has thickened in the spat between State Secretary Yusril Ihza Mahendra and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), with the former accusing the latter of being a corrupt institution that requires a thorough audit.

Jakarta – Hundreds of residents whose houses have been submerged by a "mud volcano" blocked a main road junction and railway, causing major congestion near Indonesia's second largest city.

A gas well near Surabaya in East Java has spewed steaming mud since May last year, submerging villages, factories and fields, and forcing more than 15,000 people to flee their homes.

Jakarta – More than 120 people are still missing after a deadly fire on board an Indonesian ferry, the Red Cross has said.

"One hundred and twenty-two people are still reported missing by their families," Heri Asmedi from the Indonesian Red Cross told AFP on Friday.

An Indonesian official has hit back at critics of a plan to control a gushing mud volcano by dropping concrete balls into its crater, saying something must be done to stop a nine-month-long eruption that has displaced 11,000 people.

Human Rights Working Group (HRWG), Kontras, ELSAM, Imparsial, PBHI, Yayasan HAK and FORUM-ASIA have closely viewed the 19-21 February 2007 hearing process of the Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF) as an instrument of impunity on cases of human rights violations that occurred in Timor Leste in 1999.

Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo, Jakarta – A British volcanologist is disputing a government-sponsored conference's conclusion that the Sidoarjo mud disaster was caused by tectonic forces.

Jakarta – Radical Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir failed to meet President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Thursday to file a petition calling for the implementation of sharia.

On a visit to London this week, Peneas Lokbere, a young West Papuan who survived the Abepura killings in 2000, said that many of the survivors are still suffering from the after effects of that incident, physically or psychologically.

Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo, Jakarta – A forum of intellectuals, community representatives and politicians asked the central government Thursday to postpone the planned revision of the 2001 Papuan Special Autonomy law, despite acknowledging that special autonomy has yet to be fully implemented in Papua.