John Phaceas – Development of a $1.5 billion gas pipeline to Phillips Petroleum's Bayu-Undan gasfield in the Timor Sea will go ahead after the US energy giant finally reached agreement with East Timorese authorities over project taxes.

Max Blenkin, Dili – In two months in East Timor, the soldiers of the Townsville-based 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, have not fired a shot in anger, let alone sighted any of the infamous militia. But that does not mean they are prepared to write them off as a completely spent force.

Ainur R. Sophiaan, Surabaya – On Thursday, following a two-month deadlock between employers and workers, the governor of East Java moved to set the monthly minimum wages in 36 regencies and mayoralties in the province for the 2002 fiscal year.

Hundreds of street vendors from around the Gambir Railway station attacked city public order officers on Thursday after the officers confiscated the vendors' possessions just days after Idul Fitri celebrations.

The officers transported six truck loads of belongings confiscated from the vendors around the station in Central Jakarta to a warehouse in Cakung, North Jakarta.

Tiarma Siboro and R.K. Nugroho, Jakarta/Jayapura – Bowing to intense public pressure, the government announced on Thursday that it was forming an independent team to investigate the November 11 murder of Irian Jaya independence leader Theys Hiyo Eluay.

Banda Aceh – At least seven people were killed in Aceh on Tuesday and Wednesday, three were military personnel and four others were Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist rebels, officials and witnesses said on Thursday. The incidents took place in three different sites in West Aceh, Aceh Besar and East Aceh.

Vaudine England and agencies in Jakarta – An Indonesian military transport plane was destroyed after being hit by rebel ground fire yesterday as it approached an airport in separatist-racked Aceh province.

Makassar (South Sulawesi) – For the fifth – but hopefully the last – time, delegates of the two warring factions in strife-torn Poso, Central Sulawesi, have agreed to end the three-year conflict that has claimed more than 2,000 lives.

Constituent Assembly President Francisco "Lz-Olo" Guterres said today he expects the assembly to pass East Timor's first Constitution by the 25 January deadline.

"The process is difficult but we expect to approve a Constitution within the extra time that we have allotted for the task," he said.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – The government is currently reviewing around 50 regulations deemed discriminative against ethnic and religious minorities in the country, Cabinet deputy secretary Erman Rajagukguk said here on Wednesday.

Indonesian police have questioned former East Timorese militia leader Eurico Guterres in connection with criminal charges against former president Suharto's youngest son Tommy.

Jakarta – An Indonesian court sentenced a grandson of former President Suharto to two months and 22 days in jail on Thursday for illegal firearms possession, but he could be freed within a week because of time already spent in detention.

The Indonesia Human Rights Network (IHRN) and East Timor Action Network (ETAN) today strongly condemned a provision in the Defense Department Appropriations bill (HR 3388) aimed at funding US training of the Indonesian military (TNI).

The Constituent Assembly today passed twelve articles of East Timor's draft Constitution dealing primarily with political and economic rights.

The articles passed today, all with significant majorities, include the following:

Catharine Munro, Jakarta – East Timor's best-known militia leader Eurico Guterres today said he was ready to face court for human rights violations during the vote for independence in 1999. The Indonesian nationalist who was born in East Timor said he was ready to turn against the Indonesian government in the international courts.

R.K. Nugroho, Jayapura – As many as 50 Irianese religious leaders and local figures expressed on Wednesday support for the government's plan to give special autonomy to the resource-rich province of Irian Jaya.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta – A member of the rights commission's fact-finding team on the death of Theys Hilo Eluay claimed there were already strong clues that might shed light on the case, but without presidential intervention the police would be unable to unravel the murder any further.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Cash-strapped Indonesia is considering a proposal to sell more than 500 houses alloted as perks to MPs and Cabinet ministers as a means of saving money, said the head of parliament's budget committee.

Banda Aceh – The government must be extra careful with an Indonesian Military (TNI) plan to reestablish an Aceh-specific military command, or else the dialog to settle the lingering conflict in the province will be disrupted, an Acehnese figure says.

Indonesian Army Chief general Endriartono Sutarto rejected allegations that the military was behind the murder of an Irian Jaya pro-independence leader and vowed to punish any soldier implicated in the case.

Grace Nirang, Jakarta – Gunmen shot dead nine Christians in Indonesia's eastern Ambon city on Wednesday and police said they could not rule out the possibility of unrest erupting elsewhere during next week's Christmas celebrations.

Jakarta – Indonesia's army commander indicated for the first time that rogue troops may have killed a separatist politician in Irian Jaya province last month. "If it is one of my men who did it, [then] this is an action without any orders," General Endriartono Sutarto said after meeting President Megawati Sukarnoputri on Wednesday.

Sydney – The commonwealth is fighting a US company's bid to win compensation in the federal court for losing vast gas reserves in the Timor Sea.

The Constituent Assembly today passed the fortieth article of East Timor's draft Constitution, approving eight articles relating to rights of the citizen.

The articles passed today, all with significant majorities, include the following:

Jayapura – Just four days before President Megawati Soekarnoputri is due in Irian Jaya's provincial capital of Jayapura to hand over the much-awaited Autonomy Law to Papuan elders, students in the country's easternmost province are already intensifying their protests rejecting the proposed wide-ranging autonomy.

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta – Human rights abuses involving the state remain rife as the economic crisis continues to batter Indonesia, a local human rights watchdog says.

Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta), an affiliation of the Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI), predicts that the situation will not improve next year.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Public anger is growing in Indonesia over the "soft" treatment that the country's most notorious suspect, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, has received since police investigators nabbed him three weeks ago.

Jakarta – Some 200 people vandalized a police station in Indonesia's West Java, after police rejected their demand to hand over a murder suspect, police said Wednesday.

The mob attacked parts of the Cianjur district police on Monday evening, pelting stones after police refused to hand over the man suspected of having killed a motortaxi driver, First Sergeant Suhendi said.

Ambon – Gunmen shot dead nine Christians travelling in a boat in the riot-torn eastern Indonesian city of Ambon, residents and hospital sources said Wednesday. Six women and three men were killed Tuesday, a nurse at the Halong navy hospital told AFP.

Darlis Muhammad, Palu – This year alone it has been recorded that attacks and violence have affected 61 villages in Poso Regency, Central Sulawesi. The turmoil comprises 124 incidents that have claimed 141 lives, 90 injuries, 27 missing people and 102 cases of abuse. Furthermore, 2438 cases of arsen and other physical attacks upon houses have been recorded.

Jakarta – Indonesian MPs are planning an all-expenses paid jaunt around Asia to carry out a study of the perks accorded to their peers, the Jakarta Post reported Wednesday.

MPs from the national assembly's In-House Affairs Body will undertake a "comparitive studies" trip to compare their salaries, benefits and office facilities with legislators elsewhere in the region.

Agence France Presse in Jakarta – Hundreds of students occupied the Parliament in Indonesia's restive province of Irian Jaya yesterday, demanding an independence referendum instead of a new autonomy package from the central Government.

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Government intervention in political parties' internal affairs, commonplace during the authoritarian New Order era, is making a comeback, analysts say.

They said on Saturday that the practice would disrupt the process of democratization and the new found freedoms that began to emerge following president Soeharto's fall in 1998.

Lela E. Madjiah, Lhokseumawe – The Indonesian Military (TNI) is considering reestablishing the Iskandar Muda military command, which would be an Aceh-specific military command, if the Acehnese people agree to its resumption, a military commander said here on Sunday.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – The military says it has found evidence that a group on the Indonesian side of Timor island is striving for an independent state, which it wants to call Timor Raya. Col.

Bandung – Hundreds of prisoners at the Kebon Waru Penitentiary in Bandung, West Java, were involved in an extremely intense riot on Thursday, damaging the warden's office and smashing windows and other property inside the prison.

Dili – East Timor's Constituent Assembly appears to be gaining momentum in its deliberations, today passing 12 articles covering a wide range of rights issues.

The increased speed in deliberations – as compared with the assembly's previous passage of, in some cases, just one article a day – reflects a change of procedures and longer working hours agreed upon last week.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – The Indonesian military is sounding the alarm over a separatist group that is aspiring to unite both halves of Timor island.

East Timor's interim foreign minister, Jose Ramos Horta, visited the Lisbon headquarters of the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP) Monday, reaffirming Dili's intention of joining the seven-nation organization.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – National Intelligence Agency chief A.M. Hendropriyono backtracked on Thursday from comments he made one day earlier that an international terrorist group in Poso were exacerbating the Christian-Muslim conflict there.

R.K. Nugroho, Irian Jaya – Papuans are becoming increasingly impatient with the slow pace of the investigation into the death of independence leader Theys Hiyo Eluay, who many believed was murdered for political reasons.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Legislators rejected on Thursday some articles in the government-sponsored antiterrorism bill which, it was widely feared, would justify human rights abuses.

Jakarta – Former president Suharto could not be tried because of illness but it was up to prosecutors whether or not to take him to court again, the Supreme Court said yesterday.

Ahmad Junaidi, Jakarta – The City administration is hastily implementing stopgap measures to prevent an outbreak of disease threatened by the mounting piles of trash throughout Jakarta, neglected as a result of the dispute over the Bantar Gebang dump site.

Jakarta – Indonesia signed a new letter of intent with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) yesterday, paving the way for the disbursement of a long-delayed US$400 million (S$732 million) loan.

[On November 21 President Megawati Soekarnoputri signed off on a new anti-corruption law. Teten Masduki, chairman of Indonesia Corruption Watch, in an interview with The Jakarta Post contributor Christiani Tumelap, criticizes the definition of corruption adopted in the new law on the grounds that it only covers activities that cause a financial loss to the state.]

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung's days are numbered as parliamentary speaker and party leader as foes within and outside Golkar conspire to establish a special commission to probe his involvement in a damning financial scandal.

Indonesia has extended its aid programs to some 70,000 East Timorese refugees by one month to the end of January, allowing them more time to decide between repatriation and resettlement in other parts of the country.

The military commander of Indonesian West Timor, Major-General Willem da Costa, made the decision public Thursday.

Debate continued Thursday in East Timor's parliament on the future constitution of the territory, due to become independent next May. Members of the Constituent Assembly voted to remove the term "sexual orientation" from part of article 16 of the final draft constitution which deals with anti-discrimination.

Jakarta – United Development Party (PPP) chairman Hamzah Haz dismissed on Wednesday media reports claiming that his party had received money from the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) and then president B.J. Habibie in 1999.