Jakarta – Thousands of students, workers, activists and farmers took to the streets across the country on Thursday to protest the plan to raise fuel prices by up to 80 percent, while motorists queued up at gas stations before the new prices take effect.

Emmy Fitri, Jakarta – Cecilia and Felia get out of a sedan and carefully walk in their stylish sandals on the wet cobbled stone floor on the side of the house.

It has been raining since morning and nearly all the floor outside – and parts of the inside of the dilapidated house – are wet.

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – The House of Representatives' disciplinary committee said it has found prima facie evidence of a conspiracy among lawmakers to "sell" budget allocations.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The government has been accused of stalling the deliberation of a bill on free access to information, casting doubt over its commitment to clean and good governance.

Shawn Donnan – Under the Suharto regime, Toga Tambunan spent 13 years detained without trial in an assortment of jails and prison camps. He was beaten for reasons such as planting flowers that unexpectedly bloomed a communist red. When he was finally released in 1978 he was shunned by a father-in-law ashamed of his past as a political prisoner.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Indonesia urgently needs a doctrine on state defense to identify all internal and external threats to its territorial integrity and to manage its defense forces, a retired general says.

Hera Diani, Jakarta – Noted Muslim cleric Yusuf Hasyim held up a number of large mug-shots – people whom he said were victims of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) scheme to take over the country four decades ago.

Harry Bhaskara and Kornelius Purba – If ever they have the opportunity to read it, The New York Times' correspondent C.L. Sulzberger's report from Jakarta on April 13, 1966, might help three young girls understand why, on every Sept. 30, their father locks himself away.

Something horrible happened 40 years ago that changed the course of Indonesia's history, unfortunately for the worse. But while the circumstances surrounding the kidnapping and murder of six Army generals on the night of Sept.

Jakarta – The Indonesian military's top commander denied reports that armed militias continued to exist in Aceh, threatening the province's fragile path towards peace, local media reports said Friday.

Indonesia's defence minister, Juwono Sudarsono, has denied media reports that Indonesia's National Defence Forces have deployed a large number of military personnel to Papua province.

Jakarta – As the country braces for more street protests and panic buying ahead of the fuel price increase on Oct. 1, the fuel scarcity has created long lines on Wednesday at filling stations and kerosene distributors nationwide.

Imanuddin Razak, Jakarta – The Aceh peace agreement has been signed and non-local Indonesian Military (TNI) troops and police officers have begun to return to their home bases.

Jakarta – While protests are mounting ahead of the government's announcement of the new fuel prices, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono warned the public against turning violent.

Jakarta – The Jakarta government is to mobilize government-owned vehicles as well as those belonging to the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police (Polri) in case there are mass strikes protesting over the planned fuel price increases.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Forty years after the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) was accused of masterminding the bloody attempted coup on Sept. 30, 1965, political prisoners associated with the movement still bear scars of incarceration and persecution.

The Indonesian military has begun selling off some of its business ventures as part of government reforms. The defence minister has given the green light to the sale of some assets a month before they're due to be taken over by the state.

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – The "clearance sale" of assets and properties belonging to Indonesian Military (TNI) foundations and business ventures could last for a month, the Minister of Defense says.

Forty years ago this weekend, Indonesia was plunged into the darkest period in its history when Major-General Suharto unleashed a wave of mass killings regarded among the worst of the 20th century.

Dean Yates, Jakarta – Thousands of Indonesians staged noisy protests across the country on Thursday, some throwing rocks and burning tyres as they demanded President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono drop a plan to raise fuel prices sharply.

Fadli, Batam – Lured by promises of a high salary and better working conditions, Oneng left her hometown in the West Java town of Cianjur to work as a maid in Malaysia with high hopes.

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – Factions in the House of Representatives are drawing up strategies to snatch top positions in strategic commissions or auxiliary bodies, following the introduction of new guidelines on House leadership positions.

Jakarta – Garuda pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto was not scheduled to be on the Sept. 6, 2004 flight bound for Amsterdam via Singapore, according to Eddy Santoso, Garuda's crew scheduling manager.

Febry Orida, Leupung – Every morning Yahya leaves home with a hoe in hand. But he is not tending his coffee crops as he did before the tsunami slammed into Aceh's coastlines, killing 131,000 people: He is digging for bodies.

Jakarta – Indonesian legislators have cleared the way for a controversial rise in fuel prices this weekend, slashing petrol subsidies despite growing public anger over the move.

Police said they were bracing for anything from street protests to fuel-truck thefts before the price rise, which has been imposed to battle a budget shortfall, comes into force on Saturday.

Jakarta – The government played down on Tuesday demonstrations against looming fuel price increases, despite the fact that the protests were growing in frequency and gathering pace of late.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who is on an overseas trip to South Africa, said the government was not worried about the demonstrations.

Bandung/Makassar/Medan – State postal company PT Pos Indonesia, which has been given the task of printing special cards for those entitled to government assistance funds, has printed and distributed 3.6 million cards in 15 towns across the country.

The Australian Defence Force (ADF) chief says Australia's defence relationship with Indonesia is as good as it has ever been.

Relations between the two neighbours suffered a major setback when Australian troops were sent into East Timor in 1999. They were sent there to stem the violence after East Timor's vote for independence from Indonesia.

Shanties, Jakarta - Indonesian police have identified the presence of infiltrators in social groups who will demonstrate against fuel price increases on October 1. It is suspected the infiltrators will provoke the pubic during demonstrations and incite them into anarchistic acts.

Indramayu – An estimated 80,000 fishermen did not vote in the Indramayu regency election on Sept. 22, said Bachtiar of the Indramayu General Elections Commission on Monday.

The fishermen were among the 379,992 eligible voters who chose not to cast their ballots in the election, said Bachtiar. A total of 1,224,122 people were eligible to vote in the election.

Henri Salomo Siagian, Jakarta – Although political parties are expected to exploit demonstrations against fuel price hikes, as a whole the atmosphere in the lead up to the price increases is conducive.

Semarang/Makassar/Samarinda/Batam – Gasoline and diesel shortages worsened across the archipelago on Monday as the government's scheduled price increase on Oct. 1 draws near.

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – Holding her family card in both hands, Niah, 57, a resident of Petojo Selatan subdistrict, Gambir in Central Jakarta, was figuring out how to spend the Rp 300,000 (US$29) she was about to receive as "compensation" for the upcoming fuel price increase.

Aleksius Jemadu, Bandung – The success of a monitoring mission involving foreign parties in resolving an intra-state conflict can be achieved as long as the implementation of the peace agreement satisfies the expectations of the conflicting parties.

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – The much-awaited tax reform is unlikely to be implemented soon as lawmakers will not be able to finish deliberating on the revised draft of tax laws on schedule.

Jakarta – The House of Representatives has agreed to ratify the international covenant on civil and political rights with an adjustment that will ensure its enactment will not justify any separatist movements.

Australia's new Defence Force Chief has made it clear he wants Australia to have strong defence ties with Indonesia. It hasn't impressed human rights groups in Indonesia who say abuses by the military are continuing and Australia should be placing more conditions on cooperation between the defence forces of the two countries.

Jakarta – A team set up by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to probe into the abductions of prodemocracy activists during the regime of former dictator Soeharto has come to conclusion that all the victims had died.

Peter Gelling – The Indonesian military on Sunday withdrew the last of a promised 6,000 troops from Aceh Province, completing the first phase of the peace accord signed by the government and a separatist rebel group last month.

About 200 soldiers left the town of Lhokseumawe by ship, leaving more than 20,000 Indonesian soldiers still to be withdrawn by the end of the year.

Nani Afrida, Tamiang – Tears flowed down the cheeks of Nuraida, 35, a resident of Bendahara district, Tamiang regency, Aceh. She murmured prayers while her fingers brushed away the dried leaves from the three graves in front of her.

Jakarta – Thousands of people took to the streets to protest the government's plan to raise fuel prices on Oct. 1 to ease the state's burden of paying for a mushrooming fuel subsidy due to higher global oil prices.

Tony Hotland and Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Over Rp 38.8 billion (US$3.85 million) worth of profits from assets of the Indonesian Military (TNI), which were used by third parties, have not been accounted for, according to a Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) report on the central government.

Tiarma Siboro and Hera Diani, Jakarta – The House of Representatives has set up a special commission to draft a revision of Law No. 62/1958 on citizenship, but few people expect a quick revision after some legislators warned of the negative implications of giving "privileges" to mixed marriage couples.

For children of mixed marriages: Children automatically take the fathers' citizenship. However, based on the 1984 Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which has been ratified by Indonesia, the distinction between father and mother to determine children's citizenship should be eliminated.

Simon Pitchforth – Indonesian policemen, noble upholders of the law, with their voluminous peaked caps and their epaulets the size of telephone directories. Love them or loathe them, you are bound to run into the medium-length arm of Indonesian law enforcement sooner or later.

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – Legislators and activists lashed out at the Attorney General's Office (AGO) for not being serious in its efforts to recover over Rp 6.66 trillion (some US$660 million) in fines and restitution monies from those convicted of corruption.

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – A Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) report on the House of Representatives has revealed that legislators left hundreds of millions of rupiah worth of unpaid electric and telephone bills, and it has forced the House to use re-allocated budget money to pay them off.

Miswar, Banda Aceh – The chairperson of the Acehnese Popular Democratic Resistance Front (FPDRA), Thamrin Ananda, is calling on all parties not behave in a counter-productive manner and threaten the ideals of the peace process in Aceh.

Riswan, Banda Aceh – The Acehnese people are calling on the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) to disarm the militia in Aceh during the period of demilitarisation. If they are not disarmed and their organisations disbanded it could threaten the peace process in Aceh.

Canberra – A US defence commander said on Friday that Indonesia must show it had taken steps to reform its military for resumption of aid and arms sales, held back because of concerns of human rights abuse by troops.