Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Stop by Floor M of the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry on Jl. Gatot Subroto in South Jakarta to witness a finely honed bureaucratic process in full working order.

Bandung – Hundreds of pedicab drivers in Bandung protested outside the office of civilian guards on Monday after the alleged beating of a driver on Saturday.

Pedicab driver Agus Sarifudin said the protest had not been planned. "It's spontaneous," he said.

Damien Kingsbury, Melbourne – In asking the question, is Papua in danger of becoming another East Timor, Ahmad Qisa'i does little more than highlight a number of misunderstandings about East Timor, Papua and Australia (Jakarta Post, March 29).

Jakarta – Robust demand for Indonesia's crude palm oil (CPO) and rubber helped push up the country's total exports for the first two months of the year by nearly 19 percent from the same period last year, offsetting a drop of more than 10 percent in oil and gas exports in February.

Jakarta – Residents of a village in Rawakalong, Depok, have filed a lawsuit against a textile factory, saying their wells are filling up with diesel fuel from its leaking pipes.

The late Adam Malik, long Indonesia's foreign minister and later vice-president, was called the "kancil" after the mousedeer which, in his country's folktales, uses cunning and humour against bigger predators. In one story Mr Malik's admirers used to tell – not one found in illustrated children's books – the mousedeer evades a tiger by running into a hollow log.

Some people following the case of the three Christians awaiting execution for their alleged involvement in the Poso violence in 2000 have no doubt recalled the movie In the Name of the Father, based on the real-life story of the Guildford Four, who were wrongly convicted for an IRA bombing.

Jakarta – Thousands of village heads from around the country staged a street rally in Jakarta on Monday to push for better pay.

Ruslan Sangadji and Yemris Fointuna, Palu/Kupang – Two of three men on death row in Poso, Central Sulawesi, told police Monday they were advised by their legal counsel not to reveal the names of 16 men who masterminded a wave of sectarian violence.

Jakarta – Defying the stance taken by Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) leaders, moderate young activists from the nation's biggest Muslim organization say they oppose the controversial pornography bill.

Grouped in the NU Youth Forum, the activists said the House of Representatives should address issues more urgent than the much-debated legislation.

The Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) is to join the annual Pacific Area Special Operation Conference for the first time since a military embargo was imposed on the country by the United States in 1998.

Jakarta – Indonesian Defence Forces (TNI) chief Marshal Djoko Suyanto said military cooperation between Indonesia and Australia would remain normal despite the souring of Indonesia-Australia relations following Canberra's action in granting temporary visas to 42 Papuan asylum-seekers.

Michael Davis – The leader of a group of Papuan refugees granted interim asylum in Australia fears a genocide similar to East Timor if the international community does not intervene to break the rule of the Indonesian military.

Jakarta – Illegal levies on trucks carrying relief supplies to tsunami-devastated Aceh province is adding to the costs of reconstruction, and Indonesia must crack down on the practice, the World Bank and the agency in charge of rebuilding said Tuesday.

Kupang – Activists have urged East Nusa Tenggara provincial council to drop plans to spend Rp 16 billion (US$1.7 million) on renovating the council building.

Misdarul Ihsan, Banda Aceh – On Monday April 3, Acehnese student organisations from the Aceh Peace Alliance (AAD) once again held a demonstration in support of the Draft Law on Aceh Government (RUU-PA) that is currently being deliberated by the House of Representatives (DPR).

Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandarlampung – As many as 393,952 people in Lampung, or 8.5 percent of the population over the age of 15, cannot read or write, recent data from the province indicates.

Jakarta – Social study centers and an NGO focusing on labor rights have proposed the government focuses on reforming the bureaucratic system with its legal and "illegal" taxes rather than reducing labor rights.

Ruslan Sangadji, Palu – Prosecutors insisted Sunday the death sentence for three men convicted for their role in the sectarian conflict in Poso, Central Sulawesi, would be carried out soon despite mounting calls for a stay of execution.

Jakarta – Two men who participated for nearly a month in a hunger strike protesting the installation of super high voltage towers ended their fast on Saturday.

Rasjad bin Casmin, 42, and Tarjono bin Carman, 36, residents of Brebes, Central Java, agreed to return to their hometown after being visited by their village chief.

Jane Bunce – An Australian Anglican minister says at least 10 people have disappeared in military reprisals since a violent demonstration in Papua.

Canberra – Prime Minister John Howard assured Indonesia Sunday that he does not support the separatist movement in Papua after an Australian newspaper crudely lampooned the Indonesian president over the restive province.

Julia Suryakusuma and Tim Lindsey, Jakarta – Reformasi promised to unravel the New Order and its legacy of state control, social repression and intermittent violence. One of the key mechanisms for this was, of course, decentralization and the grant to the regions of various levels of autonomy.

Jakarta – Uncovering human right abuses in Aceh will likely take time because of strong resistance from the military and police, observers say.

Jakarta – Indonesia's slow bureaucratic processes once again appear to be preventing an industry from achieving its full potential in the global market.

Depok – Employees of electronics manufacturer PT Sanyo Jaya Components Indonesia returned to work Friday after a two-day strike.

"The company agreed to give us a raise," said an executive of the workers union, Iswan Abdullah, as quoted by Tempointeraktif.

The work stoppage was in response to the delay of a Jan. 1 pay rise.

Jill Jolliffe – In October 1999, Indonesian troops filed silently through the smoldering remains of East Timor's capital, Dili, and on to its port. Their sullen embarkation signified the end of a bloody imperial adventure which began in the former Portuguese colony 24 years before.

Lindsay Murdoch – Dan Murphy says he used to "stack the bodies" in his clinic in Dili in 1999 when he was one of only a few doctors in then Indonesian controlled East Timor.

Four years after the tiny territory gained its independence, the American doctor says he has not seen much change in the health of the Timorese.

Denpasar – Legendary dangdut singer Rhoma Irama and others intent on beefing up the moral fiber of Indonesian society would probably have been scandalized by Friday's spectacle in downtown Denpasar.

Jakarta – Indonesia has described as "tasteless" a caricature in an Australian newspaper depicting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as a dog.

The publication of the cartoon in the Australian daily followed a similar drawing in an Indonesian daily portraying Prime Minister John Howard and his Foreign Minister Alexander Downer as copulating dingoes.

Jim Lobe, Washington – Moving with unusual speed, the administration of US President George W Bush officially normalized military relations with Indonesia on Wednesday when the State Department posted a formal notice permitting the sale of lethal military equipment to Jakarta for the first time in seven years.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The manpower and transmigration minister has appealed to workers not to stage massive strikes throughout the country to protest a draft labor law, which unions say will drastically reduce employee pay and conditions.

Erman Suparno said Wednesday the draft bill currently before the House of Representatives had yet to be finalized.

The announcement during British Prime Minister Tony Blair's visit to Indonesia yesterday that the two countries plan to strengthen military and anti-terror ties is a blow to Indonesian democracy and human rights, says TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which has been by far the most vocal party in its opposition to the pornography bill, is proposing revisions to the bill if pressure to drop the bill fails.

Jakarta – Indonesia's economy may grow more slowly this year than in 2005 as private investment remains sluggish and only likely to pick up during the second half of 2006, the World Bank said in a report released Thursday.

Indonesia has missed a deadline to pass a law granting autonomy to Aceh under a peace pact with separatists but both sides say the delay would not derail the process.

The pact signed last August by the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) called for a law granting Aceh partial self-rule by March 31.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – A recent graduate of Cendrawasih University in Papua was shot Tuesday evening by two unidentified assailants, in the latest incident following a bloody clash March 16 near the university that left five security officers dead.

Dili – East Timor's foreign minister said Thursday that recent street disturbances in the capital were not related to a military crisis in the new nation, criticizing media reporting of the violence as "irresponsible, alarmist and completely false".

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – Gastao Salsinha thought he would be a hero of East Timor's independence. "I fought the Indonesians in the bush but instead of being a hero I'm now being treated like a dog," he says.

Mr Salsinha became a lieutenant in the Australian-backed army that was formed after East Timor became the world's newest nation in 2002.

One of Indonesia's biggest-selling newspapers has depicted John Howard and Alexander Downer as a pair of sex-crazed dingoes, dragging media outrage over the Papua visa row down to a new low.

Shawn Donnan, Jakarta – British Prime Minister Tony Blair signalled on Thursday that London would normalise its defence ties with Indonesia, saying in Jakarta that the two countries were entering a "new relationship".

Lloyd Jones, East Awin, Papua New Guinea – At the age of five, Donatus Kaenop was carried through the jungle and across the border into Papua New Guinea by his refugee parents escaping violence and persecution in the Indonesian province of Papua.

Michael Vatikiotis, Singapore – It was a potentially sticky situation. There was Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda standing beside Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, on her recent visit to Jakarta, and the subject was Iran. The reporter asked: "Do you think the idea of an eventual Iranian nuclear bomb is inevitable?"

David Manne is a refugee advocate who has been a fierce critic of Australia's harsh policies towards asylum-seekers, someone the Howard Government would have dismissed not so long ago as a usual suspect.

Jakarta – More than 100 cases of sexual violence or harassment have been reported by Acehnese women living in camps and shelters after the 2004 tsunami, according to a report by an Indonesian women's commission released Thursday.

Sarah Stephen – On March 23, the immigration department announced that 42 of the 43 West Papuan asylum seekers who arrived in Australia on January 18 and have been held on Christmas Island since then, had been granted refugee status. They will be issued with three-year temporary protection visas.

Jakarta – About 100 Indonesian Muslim hardliners staged a protest outside the British embassy on Wednesday ahead of a visit by Prime Minister Tony Blair to the world's most populous Islamic nation.

Kerryn Williams – After police attacked a protest outside the Cendrawasih University in the West Papuan capital Jayapura on March 16, several police officers and an Indonesian military intelligence officer were killed. Many students and other citizens, including a five-year-old child, were injured in the conflict and more than 70 people were arrested.

Jakarta – Greenpeace Wednesday called on the leaders of Indonesia and Britain to adopt laws to help halt the destruction of Indonesia's last ancient forests, ahead of the arrival of Tony Blair for a one-day visit.

Jakarta – The revision of the labor law is vital to provide a more stable labor system that would lead to more jobs from the expected inflow of labor-intensive investment, an employers' group says.