Sahil K. Mahtani – As if to illustrate the universality of poor taste, the former chief of the Indonesian Special Forces Gen. Prabowo Subianto recently decided to run for the Indonesian presidency.

It's a great story that makes the world go 'round – apart from love and money. A story that feeds the insatiable human need for information on the condition of others.

Ika Krismantari, Jakarta – The much-hyped global trade talks collapsed Tuesday with economic powers and top developing nations trading the blame and leaving countries like Indonesia locked out of prospective markets.

Matt Chambers – Woodside Petroleum has ruled out a $15 billion East Timor liquefied natural gas export plant to process output from its Greater Sunrise fields.

East Timor's natural resource secretary of state said the decision would be a "major problem" for the Government.

Dili – Since it was built in 1983, residents of Dili have watched the retaining wall of the Pantai Kelapa road along Timor-Leste's coastline slowly erode.

Fery Firmansyah, Jakarta – Three protest actions are scheduled to take place at the State Place and two other government offices on Thursday July 31. Hundreds of protesters from a number of different groups plan to take part in the actions.

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Pressure is mounting for the AGO to re-open investigations into the Bank Indonesia liquidity support (BLBI) graft case after a court found businesswoman Artalyta Suryani guilty of bribing a prosecutor involved in the inquiry.

Andreas D. Arditya, Jakarta – The Corruption Court sentenced businesswoman Artalyta Suryani to five years in prison on Tuesday for bribing state prosecutor Urip Tri Gunawan.

Andreas D. Arditya and Desy Nurhayati, Jakarta – Two Cabinet ministers implicated in the BI liquidity support scandal declared their innocence Tuesday after a Golkar Party lawmaker testified Monday at the Corruption Court of their complicity.

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – The implementation of the electronic school textbook (e-books) policy has been met with glitches, with parents of students forced to buy expensive textbooks for the new academic year.

Nurni Sulaiman, Balikpapan – Up to 3,000 forestry workers went on strike in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, on Tuesday, demanding the government raise the monthly provincial wage by at least 30 percent to compensate for rising fuel and basic commodity prices.

Stephanie March, Dili – East Timor's inaugural Journalist of the Year awards last week provided much-needed encouragement for professionals facing an uncertain future, as authorities draft a press law that could make defamation a criminal offence.

Katie Chalk – Every morning, when Madalena opens her front door, she is faced with what has to be one of the most beautiful views on earth. High in the mountain ranges of Lequidoe, East Timor, she watches the sun spill over countless unspoilt peaks, with distant mists dissolving into a sky of impossible blue.

Fadli, Batam – As many as 2,000 workers of PT Jaya Asiatic Shipyard in Batam, Riau Islands, went on strike Monday, demanding the company fix its poor work conditions.

Jakarta – Police have launched an investigation after a cache of up to 10 petrol bombs was found stashed underneath a train heading to the Indonesian capital Jakarta, officials said on Tuesday.

The petrol bombs were detected on the executive train after it had departed the West Java city of Cirebon, 225 km (140 miles) from Jakarta on Tuesday morning.

Dili – The report of the Commission for Truth and Friendship on who was behind the violence surrounding East Timor's independence vote in 1999 ignores justice, a Catholic Church official says.

Jakarta – "The Democrats must find another coalition partner," said politics expert, Indra J. Piliang, yesterday. "This giant party is nominating its own candidate, so the Democrats must achieve significant votes on its own," he added.

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – At the opening of the Association of Islamic Students (HMI) congress in Palembang on Monday, the Golkar chairman and his predecessor shook hands and exchanged smiles as if nothing untoward had happened between them in recent years.

Jakarta – An Indonesian court sentenced a businesswoman to five years in jail on Tuesday for bribing a public prosecutor to drop a high-profile investigation in a scandal that has rocked the Attorney General's office.

Andreas D. Arditya, Jakarta – The Bank Indonesia corruption saga has expanded to the President's Cabinet, with new testimony implicating two ministers once tasked with amending the BI Law.

Dian Kuswandini, Jakarta – Calls are mounting for the government to immediately finalize drafting a bill on governance administration which is intended to promote bureaucratic reforms in Indonesia.

Desy Nurhayati, Jakarta – The press community has warned against the emergence of a new form of censorship as evident in a recent ruling between Koran Tempo and a paper company, a discussion heard Monday.

A diarrhoea outbreak in a remote area of Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua has killed at least 156 people and sickened hundreds of others, media reports say.

Local church leaders feared the toll would rise because of limited drugs and medical personnel and the possibility the outbreak would spread to other areas.

Julia Suryakusuma, Jakarta – Vivienne, an old friend of mine from Singapore, came to visit last week. I had just watched a Chinese kung fu DVD and Viv noticed the cover. Her favorites, she said, were Chinese zombie movies.

We are flabbergasted to learn that the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) is continuing to lobby the government for an indiscriminate tax amnesty it claims to be vital for luring back the billions of dollars Indonesian businesspeople took out of the country during the height of the economic crisis in 1998.

Jayapura – A group of demonstrating students from the Coalition of Students and the Community Concerned about the Land of Papua (KMMPTP) were ordered to disband by police units in Abepura for failing to comply with procedures stipulated in Law 9/1998 about expressing views in public. They were intending to hold a peaceful demonstration outside the office of the MRP.

Jakarta – At least 172 villagers have died in a cholera outbreak that has triggered unrest in Indonesia's remote eastern Papua province, church authorities said Tuesday.

Church aid workers in the Kamuu valley confirmed the victims had died from severe diarrhoea and vomiting caused by cholera, said Catholic brother Budi Hermawan from the Jayapura archdiocese.

All police units based along the country's borders have been instructed to fly the red-and-white flag all along the borders, to welcome Independence Day on 17 August 2008.

In addition, police units in regions affected by separatism and conflict are instructed to fly as many flags as possible, according to an instruction from police headquarters.

Jakarta – The country's packaging industry, which boasts revenues of Rp 20 trillion (US$2.18 billion) a year, is suffering from low imports and disrupted local supply due to power cuts, associations say.

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – While some 40 million Indonesians struggle to survive on less than US$2 per day, their representatives in the national legislature manage to each secure more than Rp 100 million ($11,000) in monthly income.

The Indonesian government has assured PNG that there would be no repeat border incursions into PNG by its soldiers.

The assurance was conveyed to Foreign Affairs, Trade and Immigration Minister Samuel Abal by his Indonesian counterpart, Hassan Wirajudi, in Singapore last week.

Jeffrey Elapa – A peaceful protest march was held in Madang on Saturday by Divine Word University students over the alleged border incursions by Indonesian soldiers.

More than 500 students and Madang residents walked with placards through the town to the Bates oval where speeches were made. The march was organised by international relations students at the university.

Chris Brummitt, Jakarta – Ten alleged militants arrested this month planned to assassinate an American teacher in Indonesia and avenge the upcoming executions of the Bali nightclub bombers by attacking the Supreme Court, a top anti-terrorism official said.

"Indonesia on execution spree", reads the headline of a wire service reporting on six such executions in the past month. Six is already six too many for the anti-capital punishment camp. But wait, there's more.

The Papua NGOs Forum is calling on Indonesia's government to stop issuing permits for oil palm plantation in Papua province.

Indonesia's government is looking to to expand its oil palm plantations in its vast easternmost provinces in Papua where it has three to four million hectares of land suitable for plantations.

Aqida Swamurti, Jakarta – The State Ministry for the Environment has recorded that verdicts of not guilty are handed down by the courts in around 40 percent of environmental cases.

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – Victims of the July 27, 1996, attack on the headquarters of then opposition leader Megawati Soekarnoputri, commemorated the incident on Sunday by launching a book strongly criticizing her.

Dian Yuliastuti, Jakarta – The National Commission for Child Protection (NCCP) has stated that violence and pornography from the internet still overshadow Indonesian children.

The Head of NCCP called on everyone to help safeguard Indonesian children by providing healthy internet education in order to protect them from pornographic sites.

Jayapura – The military commander of XVII/Cenderawasih, Major General Haryadi Soetanto issued a warning on Saturday to remind all adat councils in Papua, including the Dewan Adat Papua (Papuan Traditional Council) that they should not use these institutions for political purposes, or still worse intervene in any way in affairs of State that could undermine the Unitary Republic of In

Tom Wright, Jakarta – The global resource boom is threatening one of the world's last tropical-forest frontiers: the Merauke region of Indonesia's remote Papua province.

Dian Yuliastuti, Jakarta – Head of Internet Rental Centers in Indonesia (Awari), Irwin Day, has that the money in circulation being spent on pornography has reached US$3.075 million per second.

Agnes Winarti, Jakarta – More than half of the street children living in shelters in Central Jakarta have been sexually abused and one third take addictive substances, including cigarettes, glue, alcohol and opium, a study has found.

Triwik Kurniasari, Jakarta – Hundreds of students from the Arastamar Theological College (Setia) were evacuated from their campus in Kampung Pulo, East Jakarta, on Sunday, following clashes between students and local residents.

Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless

- TS Eliot, The Hollow Men

Australian Paul Stewart was just 15 when Indonesian soldiers murdered his cameraman brother in East Timor.

More than 30 years later, he hopes a new film about the Balibo Five killings will be as much about the suffering of East Timorese during Indonesia's 1975 invasion as it is about the newsmen who died.

Ben Doherty – There is food now, for the markets are open, and the men have found work on local farms.

But Dominges Enriques has lived too many – nine – of her 34 years at Noelbaki to believe it will last. Her family has no land of its own to work, and without it she must buy her food. Soon it will be expensive once more. She knows her children will go hungry again.

Jakarta, Indonesia July 23 – Twelve years ago, dozens of young people declared the birth of a new political party, which had a radical-progressive political line. This event became one of the changes that brought down the New Order regime and gradually expanded the democratic space.

Dian Kuswandini, Jakarta – Peace campaigners warned mobilizations of youth groups in the election campaign currently underway could lead to outbreaks of violence similar to recent violent protests by student groups in Jakarta.

Dawn Gibson – As the mini-bus pulls to a stop, a swarm of excited children press their faces against the windows, all big brown eyes and grins.

Bagus Kurniawan, Yogyakarta – Around 20 students in the Central Jakarta city of Yogyakarta were arrested by municipal police on Saturday July 26 when they tried to block President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's entourage as it approached the Gedung Agung Presidential Palace in Yogyakarta.