Ann Harrison – The citizens of East Timor who perished during Indonesia's brutal 24-year occupation of their tiny island nation might have died unaccounted for – as many civilians do in military conflicts around the world. But a group of determined programmers and statisticians refused to let that happen.

Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta – Police and media in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, are too lax in their treatment of radical Islamic groups and their violence, a leading moderate Islamic cleric said on Thursday.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Pematang Siantar, Jakarta – When the recruiter passed through the small village in North Sumatra promising young women good-paying jobs in Malaysia, "Salma" seized what she thought was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to achieve the future she always dreamed of, for herself and her family.

Jakarta – Although most of the nation's political parties declare their opposition to the enforcement of sharia, inconsistencies in what is said and done seem to rule in regions where Islamic law has been adopted into bylaws.

Mustaqim Adamrah, Jakarta – Greenomics, a local non-governmental organization supporting good forestry governance, has warned the government that the devastating floods affecting many parts of Java are likely to continue in the future.

Dili – Most of the 400 East Timorese soldiers protesting against alleged discrimination bowed to President Xanana Gusmao's ultimatum to return to barracks and dispersed early Thursday from around the presidential palace.

Indra Harsaputra, Surabaya – Bending to pressure, the governor of East Java recently revised the monthly minimum wage, but the move failed to please either workers or businesspeople in the province.

With both sides unhappy, it is almost inevitable that more protests will be held in a province that has seen a number of violent labor actions in recent months.

The uproar over the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad has yet to blow over. Violent protests continue, while even more editors decide to reprint the pictures, and as the list of casualties rises.

Tiarma Siboro and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has come to the defense of opposition legislators after the police monitored parties probing the government's policy on rice imports.

Cirebon – Environmentalists blame illegal sand mining for recent floods that damaged thousands of hectares of paddy fields and houses in the West Java towns of Cirebon and Indramayu.

"Rivers can no longer accommodate rainwater, inundating paddy field and residential areas," Yoyon Suharyono of the Foundation for Workers and the Environment said Tuesday.

Some 20 ships loaded with illegally cut logs and sawn timber are docked outside Tanjung Balai Karimun Customs Office in Riau Islands province.

The ships were detained by the customs office while attempting to smuggle their illegal cargo into Malaysia and Singapore, the head of the office, Bambang Prasodjo, told The Jakarta Post.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Playboy magazine, which was due to make its debut in Indonesia next month, is at the center of a growing anti-pornography debate in Indonesia.

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Despite the police crackdown on what they term "porn", prospective buyers of erotica, be it cheesecake magazines and tabloids or hard-core VCDs, can still find what they are looking for if they know where to look.

Jon Lamb – Journalists and human-rights organisations within East Timor and internationally are increasingly concerned about the consequences of a new penal code on defamation, which includes the penalty of up to three years' imprisonment for defaming a public figure. Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri signed an executive decree approving the proposed law in December.

Peter Short, Perth – "The voice of West Papua must be heard, it has been silenced for 45 years", West Papua solidarity activist Ned Byrne told a crowd of 140 people who packed into Fremantle's Kulcha venue on January 31.

Dili – President Xanana Gusmao sent copies Wednesday of the East Timorese Truth Commission's report on a quarter century of human rights violations and crimes against humanity, mostly committed under Indonesian occupation, to foreign embassies, international institutions and human rights groups.

Sarah Stephen – Greens Senator Kerry Nettle received a warm welcome when she finally managed to get to Christmas Island on January 28-30 to visit the 43 West Papuan asylum seekers and a family of West Timorese being held there.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Activists grouped in the Aceh Network for Democracy have demanded an rewrite of the Aceh governance bill, which they say accommodates Jakarta's interests more than those of the Acehnese.

Paul Kingsnorth – "Tomorrow," said Galile, "I will take you to the Bird of Paradise. We know where they live. You will hear them, and maybe see them too. They are very beautiful."

Dili – Hundreds of East Timorese troops who gathered outside Dili's presidential palace Wednesday to demand the dismissal of a senior commander have left the complex and will meet President Xanana Gusmao later today to discuss their grievances, officials said.

Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – The prospect of a strike by tourist industry workers could not come at a worse time for the country, an Indonesian Tourism Council official says.

"This is not the right time. Bali's occupancy rates are less than 30 percent," deputy chairwoman of the tourism council Meity Robot said Tuesday.

Abdul Khalik and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – A police decision to investigate members of two political parties opposed to the government's policy of importing rice from Vietnam was slammed by lawmakers Tuesday.

Jakarta – Foreign companies will soon receive guidelines on seeking military protection for their operations in Indonesia, the defense minister said Monday.

All payments to the military should be voluntary and made through a civilian agency, not directly to soldiers or police, Juwono Sudarsono said, citing regulations that could be complete "as early as next week."

Hugh White – In Jakarta, they fear that one of their worst nightmares may be coming to life. For years, Indonesians who know Australia have worried about what happens if the simmering independence movement in West Papua starts to catch the attention and sympathy of the wider Australian community. They fear a repetition of East Timor.

What the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten did in September was absurd. It failed to exercise self-restraint or consider what is fit to print. Publishing 12 cartoons degrading the Prophet Muhammad was certain to enrage Muslims, most of whom believe any visual depiction of the Prophet is forbidden.

Jakarta – Indonesia will miss a deadline to move tens of thousands of people made homeless by the 2004 tsunami into temporary houses because of problems obtaining timber, a senior government official said on Wednesday.

Jakarta – Police officers involved in the crackdown on obscene materials in the capital are not second guessing themselves on whether covers of local adult magazines and tabloids qualify as smut or art. It only takes the showing of skin for a publication to fall foul of the law.

Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) entered into a collaborative arrangement Monday to eliminate corruption and unfair competition in government and state-enterprise procurements.

Jakarta – Indonesia's foreign debt has many people seriously worried. Most fear the country may never be able to escape the debt trap it has fallen into, which they say prevents it from using its resources for promoting development and better public welfare.

Jakarta – Despite record 2005 export earnings, a closer look at the trade statistics suggests the country's manufacturers are having a tough time competing overseas, particularly against more efficient manufacturers from other countries in the region.

Jakarta – Activists and economists are outraged at Indonesian plans to cut a swathe through one of the world's largest remaining areas of pristine rain forest to create a massive Chinese-funded palm oil plantation.

Robin McDowell, Jakarta – Soon after scientists landed by helicopter in the mist-shrouded mountains of one of Indonesia's most remote provinces, they stumbled on a primitive egg-laying mammal that simply allowed itself to be picked up and brought to their field camp.

M Isma & Saiful Bahri, Banda Aceh – Demonstrations "opposing" the Home Affairs Department's revisions to the Draft Law on a Government for Aceh (RUU-PA) are continuing and spreading.

Carla Bianpoen, Contributor, Jakarta – Both the Helsinki Accord and the BRR (Aceh and Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency) are failing to include women, says Samsidar, Nobel Prize candidate, special rapporteur on Violence against Women, and chair of the Aceh Women Volunteers for Humanity (RPuK).

Bandung, Semarang, Surabaya – Despite calls for restraint, protests intensified in the country's main cities Monday over the publication in European media of caricatures depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

Protesters in most of the cities decried what they considered the use of freedom of the press to justify insulting Islam.

Jakarta – Indonesian Muslims staged noisy but peaceful protests in four cities on Monday demanding Denmark apologize over controversial cartoons that Muslims say insult Islam and the Prophet Mohammad.

About 200 protesters from a leading Islamist party rallied near a building housing the Danish embassy in Jakarta.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – At least 200 officials at state-owned companies (BUMNs) are being investigated for their alleged involvement in graft and abuse of authority, State Minister for State Enterprises Sugiharto said Saturday.

Eko Nopiansyah, Jakarta – Edwin Partogi, the operational head of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), has said that retired Major General Muchdi Purwoprandjono's request to the Muslim Defender Team to assist him in the case of the murder of human rights activist Munir proves that the TNI (Indonesian military) does not support him.

Tony Hotland and Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The government has been criticized for the slow process in the selection of members of the long-awaited Truth and Reconciliation Commission (KKR) tasked with resolving past gross human rights violations.

The selection process has been stalled at the presidential office for almost six months.

Jakarta – Activists from several NGOs dealing with women's issues on Saturday came out against the much-debated pornography bill, which they claimed would repress women.

The bill, which was drafted in part to protect women from exploitation, would have the opposite effect of placing limits on women's expression and freedoms, the activists said.

Indonesia has ramped up pressure on the Howard government not to grant asylum to 43 Papuan boat people, with a senior minister denying that human rights abuses are systemic in the troubled province.

Greg Roberts – The number of people crossing illegally from the Indonesian province of West Papua into Australia may be much greater than was thought.

Jakarta – Indonesia will maintain a ban on foreign media reporting from its easternmost province of Papua to prevent an escalation of tension in the restive region, Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono said Monday.

Banda Aceh – Vice President Jusuf Kalla says he opposes the inclusion of a clause in the bill on governance in Aceh that would allow independent candidates to run for public posts.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The House of Representatives has yet to start deliberating the bill on Aceh's future governance but opposition and criticism of its contents have already been voiced.

Nancy-Amelia Collins, Jakarta – The Indonesian defense minister has acknowledged that some military and police personnel have committed rights abuses in the eastern province of Papua. He says, however, any abuses are not part of a systematic policy.

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Water is the great equalizer for Jakartans, whether they live in a swank neighborhood of the city or a crowded kampong only a stone's throw away. For everybody has to pay extra to get a drop that is fit to drink.

Jakarta – The government has been called upon to take action against those responsible for Saturday's attack on houses owned by members of the Jamaah Ahmadiyah congregation in West Lombok regency, West Nusa Tenggara.

Jakarta – Former Army chief of staff General Ryamizard Ryacudu says there is a global plot to weaken the TNI (Indonesian military). This has been proven by the growing estrangement between the TNI and the people.

The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) has urged Xanana Gusmao, President of Timor-Leste, to veto the criminal defamation provisions contained in the country's new Penal Code.