Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Hundreds of non-governmental organizations and labor advocacy groups accuse Indonesia and Malaysia of ignoring fundamental rights in a draft of a memorandum of understanding on workers due to be signed in May.

Pandaya, Banda Aceh – Teen pop icons Raja and Ratu's joint concert turned Banda Aceh upside down last month. The partitions erected to segregate the thousands of boys and girls, as required by the province's sharia law, crumbled as the hysterical star-struck young people jostled to get closer to their idols on stage.

Mardiyah Chamim, Jakarta – It was a breezy, sunny day. The Neusu soccer field in capital Banda Aceh was abuzz with positive energy. A dozen or so small boys were playing soccer, while several young men jogged around the field – A happy scene amid the sadness left by the deadly tsunami that killed more than 100,000 people in December 2004.

Michael Sheridan, Banda Aceh – This was supposed to be the scene of the world's greatest aid effort, but endemic corruption has drained it of millions of pounds while leaving tens of thousands of tsunami victims stranded in tents.

Ruslan Sangaji, Palu – Fabianus Tibo, one of three men on death row for their roles in the attacks that killed some 200 Muslims six years ago in Poso, Central Sulawesi, has accused the Synod Council of the Central Sulawesi Christian Church (GKST) of involvement in the violence.

Damien Kingsbury – The diplomatic row between Australia and Indonesia has highlighted the increasingly critical situation in the already troubled territory of Papua. As events develop, the future of Papua looks less clear than at any time since Indonesia moved into the former Dutch territory in 1963.

Jakarta – Her chores are done and Tina is waiting for her husband to come home to their makeshift shack under Matraman overpass in Central Jakarta. She is not alone.

Ridwan Max Sijabat and ID Nugroho, Jakarta/Pacitan – Vice President Jusuf Kalla called on workers Thursday to cancel a plan to hold a national May Day strike. Kalla said workers' concerns about the planned revision of the Labor Law were being heard.

Jakarta – Nineteen people are still on the run following last month's riots in Indonesia's Papua province in which six people were killed, police said.

Four of the fugitives described as the "main actors" are suspected of being responsible for the deaths of five security officers in the March 16 riot at a US-run mine, Papua chief detective Paulus Waterpauw said.

Pasi – Furious tsunami survivors at this village in Indonesia's Aceh have told an international aid agency that they no longer want their help after waiting a year for them to build promised houses.

Roy Tupai – World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, who served as US ambassador to Indonesia from 1986-89 and more recently as hawkish deputy defense secretary, has been back in town this month, extolling the need for good governance, supremacy of the law and anti-corruption strategies.

Saffron Howden and Adam Gartrell, Canberra – The federal government's tough new asylum-seeker regime has been condemned as an act of moral abandonment timed to be obscured by the fallout from the AWB wheat scandal.

Roy Tupai – A human rights group has criticized the US government for inviting the chief of the Indonesian Army's elite Special Forces (Kopassus) to a recent regional military conference aimed at combating terrorism.

Multa Fidrus, Tangerang – Barflies and ladies' men of Tangerang regency had best live it up while they can.

The regency is considering adopting the ordinances on prostitution and the sale of alcoholic drinks that were set forth in Tangerang municipality last year.

Urip Hudiono, Jakarta – The government, in another effort to improve the country's investment climate, has completed a new bill prohibiting regions from arbitrarily imposing local taxes.

Rini Kustiani, Jakarta – The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) believes that the national political parties do not want former GAM members to joint them.

Jakarta – Indonesia and the United States will restore their joint military training programs, especially for elite forces, after they were halted due to the US military embargo imposed on Indonesia for alleged gross human right violation in East Timor in 1999, an Indonesian military official said.

Jakarta – About 5,000 workers from one of the country's largest trade union organizations swarmed the streets Wednesday in Jakarta and Surabaya to reject the government's proposal to revamp revisions to the labor law.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Hundreds of workers in Medan are camping out in front of the North Sumatra provincial council building to protest alleged abuses at the furniture company they work for.

The employees of PT Cipta Mebelindo Lestari began their protest March 16, accusing the company of intimidating workers and denying them their basic rights under the Labor Law.

Jakarta – More than 25 percent of the natural forests in Papua have been sold in concessions to timber firms exporting to Japan, the US, the European Union and China, said the director of Greenpeace in Southeast Asia, Emmy Hafild, on Wednesday.

Meidyatama Suryodiningrat, Jakarta – It is naive to think that the country's top circle of political-security decision makers could so easily lead the nation into folly.

But Indonesia's impulsiveness in recalling its ambassador from Canberra after Australia granted temporary visas to 42 Papuan asylum seekers remains a crude and unnecessary response.

Max Lane, Sydney – The arrival of 43 Papuan refugees in Australia followed soon after by the violent dispersal of otherwise peaceful student demonstrations in Papua has resulted in two weeks of sustained media coverage of the situation in Papua and its implications for Australia.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The business community and labor unions agreed Tuesday to support the government's plan to insure dismissed workers through state-owned insurance firm PT Jamsostek.

B. Herry-Priyono, Jakarta – For a few months in 1981, I was a casual worker at a pharmaceutical factory in Central Java. Then between 1992 and 1995, I had the privilege of working among the urban poor, including industrial workers, in Greater Jakarta. It was a period when the confidence of the New Order regime was at its peak.

After triggering a wave of protests, the government's version of the draft revision of the labour law has been canceled.

Jakarta – It could have been fueled by an overreaction to fears of authoritarianism making a return, or fanned by eager-to-please businesspeople posturing before political leaders.

John Martinkus – I was last in Papua early in 2003, reporting on the rise of Islamic militia groups aligned with the Indonesian Army on the PNG-Papua border, the intimidation and attacks on human rights workers by the Indonesian military and the outrage of Papuan leaders at the insincerity of the government in Jakarta in honouring the 2001 autonomy law.

Banda Aceh – Her face heavily made-up, 'Bella Saphira' struts a darkened length of cement path along the Krueng Aceh river in Indonesia's Banda Aceh, wearing a loosely flowing dress but no Islamic veil.Elsewhere in the staunchly-Muslim province of Aceh, which has been gradually implementing Islamic sharia law, Muslim women are required to cover their heads – but then, Saphira is not

Max Lane – On April 5, the Papuan People's Assembly (MRP) issued a resolution calling for the closure of the huge Freeport mine, a demand that had been raised by student protesters at a March 15-16 demonstration and at protests earlier in the year in both Papua and other parts of Indonesia.

Sarah Stephen – Soon after the federal government's decision to grant 42 West Papuan asylum seekers temporary protection visas, an April 2 national day of action in solidarity with West Papua welcomed the decision while urging the government not to ignore the human rights situation in West Papua.

Markus Makur, Timika – The National Commission on Human Rights urged Mimika regency administration and mining company PT Freeport Indonesia to pay more attention to tribal communities in the regency.

Tiarma Siboro and Nethy Dharma Somba, Jakarta/Papua – Security authorities suspect "outside elements" may have been involved in Monday's deadly attack on a military post in Papua, with the hunt continuing for the killers.

Jakarta – About 300 hard-line Indonesian Muslims vandalized a building housing the office of Playboy magazine on Wednesday in a protest against its publication in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

Hugh White – Australia's debate over Papua in the past fortnight has fallen into the ruts worn in our national consciousness by East Timor. We hear of principles on one side, and pragmatism on the other. But that is a false dichotomy, as we all should have learned from East Timor.

Jakarta – The business community warned Monday the government's decision to review proposed changes to the labor law at the urging of workers would jeopardize investment prospects amid still high labor costs.

Bruce Haigh – For as long as the Indonesian army administers West Papua, abuses will occur toward the indigenous Papuan population. The raison d'etre of the military is to hold the archipelago together – an archipelago inherited by the Javanese from the Dutch after a guerilla war. The Indonesian Republic came into being on December 27, 1949.

Jakarta – The Indonesian military is stirring up unrest and intimidating residents in the remote province of Papua, an independence campaigner charged.

Jakarta – Protesting government policy, around 200 students are planning a hunger strike in front of the State Palace – although they will not be doing anything dramatic like sewing their mouths shut.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – A rift within the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), which used to be dubbed "locomotive of democracy" has peaked with its chief being fired last week.

This time the conflict is between executive chairman Munarman and veteran lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution, who chairs the foundation's powerful supervisory body.

Rebecca Bream and Shawn Donnan – Freeport-McMoRan has faced a litany of criticism in recent months over the operation of its Grasberg copper and gold mine in Indonesia's remote and conflict-torn Papua province.

Minutes after James Leong and Lynn Lee arrived in Jakarta to present their documentary on East Timor, Passabe, at a film festival, they were told it had been struck off the programme.

Given the subject, it is easy to understand why the Indonesian authorities were concerned.

Panca Nugraha, Mataram – Hundreds of people vandalized and set fire to the Labuapi Police station in West Lombok regency Sunday, injuring two officers.

The incident was caused by news that police had shot and killed a resident of Karang Bangkot, which is located about 15 kilometers from the West Nusa Tenggara provincial capital Mataram.

M. Wahid Supriyadi – The granting of temporary protection visas to 42 West Papuans has given new ammunition to anti-Indonesian activists.

Wahyoe Boediwardhana and Blontank Pour, Malang/Surakarta – Thousands of Muslims staged a rally in Malang, East Java, strongly opposing the publication of the Indonesian edition of Playboy on the grounds that it would promote pornography in Indonesia.

Sydney – Australia Sunday has signalled a tougher line on refugees from Indonesia's troubled province of Papua as it faced what the foreign minister called a "crisis" in relations with its giant Islamic neighbour.

Tom Hyland – Efforts are under way to start peace talks aimed at settling the growing dispute over control of the Indonesian province of Papua.

As tensions in the territory spill over into a diplomatic row between Jakarta and Canberra, an umbrella organisation of Papuan independence groups is seeking the talks, with an Australian academic acting as intermediary.

Ellen Nakashima, Singapore – A Singapore timber trader boasted that the cargo he had sent to India was a hardwood known as merbau, prized for its use in elegant flooring and door and window frames. The species has been so heavily logged in Southeast Asia that conservationists consider it threatened.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Welfare-based job security could be a win-win way of settling the current the industrial conflict between workers and employers and repairing the investment climate in the country.

Rendi Akhmad Witular, Jakarta – The government has officially postponed its plan to submit the controversial draft of the labor law amendment to the House of Representatives following waves of massive, rowdy street protests across Indonesia.

Jayapura – Papuans seeking for political asylum in Australia are a bunch of traitors, a Papua youth leader said Sunday.