Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Two former senior intelligence officers alleged to be connected with the death of rights activist Munir Said Thalib have expressed their support for the investigation into the activist's murder, but only if the investigation heeds to professional and justice norms.

Kendal – In the aftermath of the forced adjournment of a regional conference of the National Liberation Party of Unity (Papernas), Papernas' Kendal regional leadership board (DPD) intends to report the incident to the Central Java regional police.

B. Gunawan, Jakarta – Believe it or not, although the monetary authority has continued to lower the interest rate, loans for the real sector have not increased. On the other hand, many banks are busy offering consumer loans to the public. They are even luring customers with all manner of offers.

The ongoing debate over whether President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will reshuffle his cabinet seems to have missed the point. And the President himself, as well as Vice President Jusuf Kalla, has contributed to the prolonged confusion.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Journalists from different media organizations in North Sumatra rallied Monday at the provincial legislative council in Medan to draw attention to the fate of one of their colleagues, who has been in police detention for nearly a month.

Tangerang – More than 6,500 employees from Reebok shoe producer PT Dong Joe Indonesia staged a rally at the company's Tangerang factory Monday in demand of close to RP 100 billion in unpaid salaries and severance pay.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The Army's Special Forces, or Kopassus, was warned against complacency during this time of peace and stability, being reminded to remain vigilant against security threats that could arise from inside or outside the country.

Singapore – Southeast Asian militant network Jemaah Islamiah has formed an assassination squad to attack police, prosecutors and judges, a Singapore newspaper said on Monday, citing an Indonesian official.

Zainal Effendi, Surabaya – The Surabaya state prosecutor has seized primary and secondary school history books that are deemed to have the potential to disrupt national security. The book seizures were based on Attorney General Decree Number 19/1997.

Mark Forbes – The former head of Garuda, Indonesia's national airline, has been arrested over the poisoning of the country's leading human rights activist, Munir Said Thalib, on a flight to Amsterdam.

Suryani Ika Sari, Jakarta – The All-Indonesia Organization of Workers (previously the Association of Financial Workers Union) has estimated that around 9,000 bank workers are threatened with being laid-off this year.

Dili – East Timor officials have said they have found more discrepancies in last week's presidential election while stressing the poll's outcome will remain unchanged.

Some votes counted in the poll, the first since the impoverished nation gained its independence in 2002, would be re-checked amid concerns of irregularities, they said.

Dili – The confusion surrounding the first round of voting in East Timor's presidential election mounted Saturday when the election commission said a district with 100,000 eligible voters had produced three times as many votes.

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – The first indication there would be problems with East Timor's presidential election came days before when Martinho Gusmao, a key member of the organising commission, publicly endorsed the rising star of the country's politics, Fernado "Lasama" de Araujo.

Dili residents are angry about the latest Australian military operations, apparently undertaken to increase pressure on the fugitive Major Alfredo Reinado.

Eight Reinado family members were detained during a night-time raid on their central Dili home on Monday, a move prompting criticism from human rights watchdog Yayasan Hak.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The inability of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's government to make headway in solving major national problems such as poverty and corruption has signaled a crisis in national leadership, senior politicians and researchers said.

Surabaya – Prominent Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) cleric and the caretaker of the Langitan pesantren (traditional Islamic boarding school) in Tuban, East Java, KH Abdullah Faqih has been chosen to lead a group opposing the National Liberation Party of Unity (Papernas).

Poso – Two homemade bombs exploded 15 minutes apart in this central Indonesia town that has been plagued by religious violence, police said Sunday. No one was hurt.

Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo, Jakarta – Indonesia needs a free press and an independent judicial system to become a stable democracy and to be able to prosecute past human rights violations, a visiting German legal expert says.

Jakarta – For the first time in history Jakartans will this year be given an opportunity to elect their governor – but a survey shows more than one quarter of residents will not vote because they do not like the candidates.

Mark Forbes, Jakarta – Cliff Muntu wanted to serve the Indonesian people, so after failing to gain entry to police college he enrolled at the Institute for Public Administration, hoping to obtain a mid-level public sector position.

Jakarta – An estimated 50 million children in Indonesia do not have birth certificates despite the presence of laws mandating the provision of free certificates, a children's rights expert said.

Police on Friday handed over to prosecutors new evidence relating to the murder of prominent human rights activist Munir Said Thalib.

Jakarta – Many pro-democracy activists are beginning to play active roles in politics in an attempt to improve political representation in the country, research conducted by the Center for Democracy and Human Rights Studies (Demos) revealed Thursday.

Jakarta – Indonesia could suffer losses as great as, or even worse, than those that other developing countries have suffered as a result of entering into free trade agreements, such as the proposed Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Japan, says an international NGO.

Bandarlampung – Teater Satu, a leading theater group in Lampung, will stage from April 13-14 Nyai Ontosoroh by the late senior writer and novelist, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, at the Taman Budaya cultural center on Jl. Cut Nyak Dien, Bandarlampung.

Under mangled branches in a dusty, untended East Java cemetery lie the remains of human rights activist Munir Said Thalib.

Prodita Sabarini, Jakarta – An obsolete approach that sees drug users treated like criminals instead of victims is the main cause of overcrowding and HIV/AIDS related deaths in prisons, the National AIDS Commission says.

Imanuddin Razak, Jakarta – An academic and an activist have alleged that two cabinet members implicated in the transfer of US$10 million belonging to Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra into a Justice and Human Rights Ministry bank account abused their authority in endorsing the transfer.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has called on law enforcers to exercise caution when investigating officials from state-owned enterprises for corruption.

Yudhoyono said Thursday that in their fight against corruption, investigators should act prudently to avoid building erroneous cases and wrongly prosecuting individuals.

Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandarlampung – More than 390,000 Lampung children have dropped out of school this year to help their families earn a living despite billions of rupiah being set aside to provide scholarships for underprivileged families.

Jakarta – The Central Jakarta District Court rejected Wednesday a lawsuit filed by an alliance of NGOs against the House of Representatives over the draft pornography bill, stating the matter pertained to constitutional law, not civil law.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Many small- and medium-scale businesses in Medan have reportedly shut up shop over the past six months due to the low purchasing power of consumers there.

Head of the Medan Market Traders Association, Azri, said most of the bankrupt enterprises were those dealing in the cottage and garment industries and shop-front retail.

Mark Forbes Herald, Jakarta – A Garuda policy of preserving fuel may have been why a pilot did not abort a landing in Yogyakarta last month that killed 21 people, the head of the airline's pilots association said.

Captain Stephanus said the jet's pilot, Captain Marwoto Komar, had made an "impossible" decision to continue landing at excessive speed.

Jakarta, Kompas – The announcement by Indonesian police chief General Sutanto of the initials of two new suspects in the Munir murder case has raised questions among members of the House of Representatives (DPR) and activist circles. They are asking what the police actually want to solve, a case of document falsification or Munir's murder.

Jakarta – Lawyers of the six convicted murderers of PT Freeport Indonesia's employees Thursday submitted appeal documents to the Supreme Court over those sentences by lower courts.

Jakarta – The police claim to have new evidence as regards declaring former Garuda Indonesia Managing Director Indra Setiawan and Vice President forAviation Security Ramelgia Anwar as suspects in the murder case of human rights activist Munir.

Ahmad Pathoni, Dili – East Timor's election commission rejected on Thursday calls for a vote recount as the tiny nation looked set for a presidential run-off between Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta and the ruling Fretilin Party's candidate.

Tony Eastley: Doubts are being raised about the fairness of the Presidential election in East Timor with claims of vote manipulation and voter intimidation.

The accusations come from five of the eight candidates. The Electoral Commission says it won't investigate though until it receives a formal complaint.

Dili – An East Timor human rights group said Thursday it had received reports that supporters of the troubled nation's ruling party had intimidated voters ahead the country's presidential election.

"We have reports from the districts and we noted an increase of violence from Fretilin members," said Jose Luis de Oliveira, of the human rights group Yayasan HAK.

Abdul Khalik, Dili – Opening his math book, Manuel da Silva, 17, discovered he had something to clarify before he could finish the homework his teacher had given him.

"I don't understand question number three," he told his teacher in Indonesian, his eyes not moving from his Indonesian-language textbook

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Police on Tuesday named two new suspects in the 2004 murder case of human rights activist Munir Said Thalib.

Padang, West Sumatra – West Sumatra Police have uncovered 39 cases of illegal logging in the last two weeks, a police officer said Tuesday.

Spokesman for the West Sumatra Police Bambang Hermanto said that the 39 illegal logging cases were discovered in 19 regencies throughout the province in the period between March 23 and April 9.

Medan (SIB) – Dozens of people from the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) demonstrated at Regional House of Representatives (DPRD) in the North Sumatra regional capital of Medan on Tuesday April 10 against the National Liberation Party of Unity (Papernas).

Jakarta – The majority of deaths in the country's prisons are caused by HIV/AIDS, authorities said Tuesday.

Andi Hajramurni, Makassar – The government has embarked on an enormous reforestation program in a bid to rehabilitate 59.2 million hectares of damaged forest throughout Indonesia, Forestry Minister Malam Sambat Kaban said Tuesday.

Indra Harsaputra, Sidoarjo – Residents displaced by the mudflow in Sidoarjo, East Java, said Wednesday that they were pessimistic about the new agency in charge of the disaster.

The government set up on Monday the National Mitigation Agency for the Sidoarjo Mudflow to replace the temporary national mudflow mitigation team.

Ramadhian Fadillah, Jakarta – The naming of two new suspects in the mysterious murder of human rights activist Munir offers some small measure of hope that the case will be solved. Munir's widow, Suciwati, says that the naming of the two new suspects can be said to be a step forward in the investigation but only if it is not just for the sake of courtesy.

Ramadhian Fadillah P, Jakarta – The former deputy head of the Munir Fact Finding Team (TPF), Asmara Nababan, is calling in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's promise to provide direct information on the case to the public.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Political bills prepared by the government and the House of Representatives should provide for a more rigid party system in order to move political parties closer to the people and to pursue popular representation – both at the legislative and executive level.