Paul Daley – There has been a lot of disagreement recently about just who said what to whom in serious policy and political discussions over the course of the last government.

Jakarta – Head of Indonesian Internet Cafe Association's Supervisory Body Judith Monique said Saturday the government should require all internet services users to verify their identity.

Rizal Harahap, Pekanbaru – PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (Riaupulp) will dismiss up to 2,000 workers, or around half of its total workforce, to help stop the company from sinking amid a prolonged raw material crisis.

Riaupulp director Rudi Fajar said the raw material shortage had been plaguing the giant pulp and paper mill for the past two years.

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Cimahi – Thousands of laborers from various factories in Cimahi, West Java, staged a rally protesting Cimahi Mayor Itoc Tochija's decision to set the city's minimum wage lower than their expectations.

Itoc set the minimum wage at Rp 1,019,000 (US$82.17), some Rp 80,000 lower than workers demand of Rp 1,101,700.

Ricky Gunawan, Jakarta – On Jan. 22, 2007, Hartoyo was at home with his partner, Bobby (not his real name), when two men forcibly entered his house and proceeded to vandalize his property before assaulting the two men.

Angel Flassy, Papua – Amid protests from Papuans and NGOs, the Papua provincial legislative council is set to pass a bylaw on HIV/AIDS that includes a controversial article requiring certain people living with the disease to be implanted with a microchip.

Oil-rich states and companies that reaped unprecedented gains when prices skyrocketed have a moral duty to ease the world's economic crisis, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has said.

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – The health sector is "highly vulnerable" to fraudulent practices, with state losses from the 49 cases currently under investigation totaling Rp 128 billion (US$10.24 million), the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) says.

Aditya Suharmoko, Jakarta – The rupiah continued its fall against the US dollar Thursday as dollar demand rose at a time when many preferred the greenback to a lack of confidence in the local currency.

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – In a move that could end years of bitter rivalry, prominent military figures Prabowo Subianto and Wiranto have hinted at the possibility of joining forces in the next presidential election.

Aloysius Unditu and Leony Aurora – Indonesia seized control of PT Bank Century eight days after the lender delayed meeting a 5 billion rupiah ($413,000) obligation, as its capital has deteriorated.

Angie Bexley - "Gembel" is an Indonesian word meaning homeless person, bum or vagrant. A group of Timorese youth in Dili, Timor Leste, co-opted this derogatory term to use as their collective name for creative projects which include visual art, music and theatre. Gembel have no studio, no government support, no official structure and little by way of equipment and materials.

Alfian, Jakarta – Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) on Thursday unveiled findings of alleged state losses of Rp 21.32 trillion (US$1.7 billion) from unrecorded tax revenue from sales of subsidized fuels by state oil and gas company Pertamina.

There is no record chief welfare minister Aburizal Bakrie ever contributed to Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Jusuf Kalla's 2004 campaign fund, said Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) corruption and politics coordinator Adnan Topan Husodo in Jakarta on Thursday.

Jakarta – The former commander of the Indonesian army's special task force [Kopassus], Prabowo Subianto, held a friendly meeting with former enemy, Lere Anan Timur, in Jakarta on Friday.

During the meeting, Lere, a former commander of the Fretilin guerrilla army, was accompanied by Timor Leste's deputy defense minister, Julio Thomas Pinto.

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Victory or defeat for the Golkar Party in next year's legislative elections could spell certain doom for Vice President and party chairman Jusuf Kalla, analysts say.

Lima – Indonesia, expecting a slowdown in economic growth to 6 percent in 2008 in the face of a global economic crisis, intends to turn to its large domestic market to maintain growth, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told executives from Asia and the Americas on Friday.

Jakarta – The threat of a wave of dismissals as a consequence of the global crisis is beginning to be concretely felt by the manufacturing sector. As of Thursday November 20, the government has received requests from several companies that plan to dismiss 12,600 workers and lay of at least 1,200 more.

Astrid Wijaya, Jakarta – Negative campaigning is common practice in elections, and all presidential candidates must be ready to come under fire from rival political parties in the run up to the 2009 polls, a discussion has concluded.

Angela Flassy, Jayapura – The return home from Australia of two Papuan asylum seekers was due to legal problems arising from the couples ongoing incidence of domestic violence – and nothing else, Alfons Adadikam, chairman of the Melbourne based Victoria West Papua Association (VIWPA) said.

East Timor's government says closing the country's internal refugee camps represents only a small part of the effort needed to ensure a full recovery from the civil conflict of two years ago.

More than 100,000 people fled their homes and settled in camps across East Timor when violence erupted in 2006.

Aditya Suharmoko, Jakarta – The rupiah's recent heavy falls against the US dollar do not pose a threat yet to the business community, with the fluctuations still within an acceptable range, businesspeople say.

Yogyakarta – Dozens of transgender people in Yogyakarta on Wednesday commemorated Transgender Day of Remembrance, which falls every Nov. 20, by distributing stickers and flowers to people passing by the Yogyakarta post office on Jl. Malioboro.

Mob power has taken over the role that the state once played in our recent past in curtailing our freedoms – from freedom of speech and expression and freedom of thought to freedom of religion.

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Chief welfare minister Aburizal Bakrie is still widely perceived as politically and financially influential in the country, despite huge debts wreaking havoc on his business empire.

Jakarta – Hundreds of workers staged a rally outside of the Presidential Office in Central Jakarta on Wednesday to protest a joint ministerial decree (SKB) that would take power to set provincial minimum wages (UMPs) out of the hands of employees.

Democrats on Capitol Hill are obstructing military ties

Mabsuti Ibnu Marhas, Jakarta – Around one thousand workers in Banten province resonated protests against new regulation on workers pay on Wednesday by protesting at Banten Governor office.

Protester met by the Head of Regional Office of Labor Ministry Eutik Suharta, to discuss the matter as the governor according to regional officials is on a trip to Malaysia.

Tom McCawley, Jakarta – Two old rivals are already jostling in Indonesia's biggest political battle, the presidential elections which take place every five years, with the next scheduled for September 2009. Incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has vowed to re-contest the seat he won from his former boss, Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Sara Webb, Sekayu – When Indonesia shifted power from the capital, Jakarta, to the regions, investors had to start dealing with a confusing constellation of districts, some business-friendly, others downright unwelcoming.

Jakarta – The Marines celebrated their 63rd anniversary here Tuesday, with a military demonstration and parade displaying, among other things, their aging equipment.

Blontank Poer, Surakarta – Artists, journalists and activists from non-governmental groups in Surakarta on Tuesday urged the police to guarantee freedom of expression in relation to art and journalistic works and to prevent anyone or any group from restricting them.

Aditya Suharmoko, Jakarta – The rupiah bounced back from its weakest level in 10 years on Tuesday as demand for the corporate sector to pay off any year-end overseas obligations begins to build.

John Aglionby, Bali – Indonesia, the world's largest palm oil producer and emitter of greenhouse gases through deforestation, yesterday dealt a blow to hopes it would step up efforts to combat climate change.

Hyginus Hardoyo, Denpasar – Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono on Tuesday defended Indonesia's drive to expand oil palm plantations, despite a demand by environmentalists for a moratorium on deforestation.

Setyo Budi – West Papuan man Opinus Tabuni was shot and killed by the Indonesian military during a celebration of the UN World Indigenous People Day in the highland city of Wamena in August. The murder aimed to strengthen the presence of the Indonesian security apparatus in the province, according to a recent finding of the Indonesian Human Rights Commission.

Jakarta – Indonesia, which has been losing forests at a rapid pace in recent years, plans to plant 100 million trees across the country this year in an effort to limit deforestation, a forestry official said on Wednesday.

Jakarta – Demanding an end to the minimum-wage talks deadlock between employers and workers, thousands of workers have rallied at the East Java governor's office in Surabaya on Wednesday.

At least four villages in Glaharum and West Siring subdistricts in Porong district were inundated when the giant mudflow pond overflew due to heavy rains in Sidoarjo regency on Tuesday.

In addition, demands that Lapindo Brantas Inc. pay compensation to the residents according to the presidential instruction are increasing.

Dian Kuswandini, Jakarta – A court has rejected a prosecution request to present as evidence a document they claim links former spy Muchdi Purwopranjono to a military operation that led to his dismissal from the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) and a vendetta against activist Munir Said Thalib.

Jakarta – Military analysts say the Indonesian Military (TNI) must get out of politics and business completely to pave the way for a more professional armed forces.

Marwaan Macan-Markar, Jakarta – In many crowded neighborhoods of this sprawling city families sat glued to their television sets late into the night of November 8, watching updates on the execution of the three men convicted of the 2002 nightclub bombings on the resort island of Bali which left 202 dead.

Buol, Indonesia – Six people were killed and some 10,000 displaced by the powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake which struck Indonesia's Sulawesi island this week, officials said Tuesday.

Surakarta – Indonesian artists protested here Tuesday after police bowed to pressure from Islamic hardliners and shut down production of a film about the 1965-66 massacres of communists.

Protesters rallying outside police headquarters in Surakarta, Central Java, said police should protect the filmmakers from religious fanatics rather than shut down the film.

Blontank Poer, Surakarta – Radical groups in Central Java have forced a prominent filmmaker to stop shooting a feature on a past tragedy that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, accusing the work of campaigning for communist ideology.

Aditya Suharmoko, Jakarta – Indonesia's third quarter economy grew at the slowest speed in six quarters as slumping commodity prices cut export revenues and the global economic slowdown reduced demand for Indonesian products.

Andra Wisnu, Denpasar – The head of the West Papua Provincial Legislative Council (DPRD) repeated the province's intention to secede from Indonesia if the anti-pornography bill passed into law, during a rally in front of the Bali governor office in Denpasar, on Saturday.

Desy Nurhayati, Jakarta – The Prosperous and Justice Party (PKS) has admitted it deliberately glorified Indonesia's national heroes in a series of TV ads that began airing last week to woo voters for the 2009 legislative election.

PKS secretary-general Anis Matta told a discussion Saturday the ads also reflected the party's message of national reconciliation.

Dicky Christanto, Jakarta – According to estimates, around 5,000 children, most of them girls, in Jakarta are being sexually exploited today, rights activists said over the weekend.

Even worse, the activists added, some girls had been forced to perform sexual acts by their parents of close friends.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The Banda Aceh State Administrative Court (PTUN) on Friday rejected a lawsuit filed against the Aceh elections commission by eight legislative candidates who failed the Koran test required as part of their nomination.