Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – An international aid agency helping tsunami victims in Aceh has temporarily shut down operations after a group of youths ransacked its Medan office on Wednesday because they had not won an aid contract.

Jakarta – The first ever direct gubernatorial election in West Irian Jaya, scheduled for Nov. 28, would almost certainly be postponed until the stalled establishment process for the new province was completed.

Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta – Environmentalists and foresters suggested on Thursday that more incentives be offered to countries that have vast areas of tropical forests, such as Indonesia, and to timber companies, which all play roles in preventing further deforestation.

Malang, East Java – The Indonesian Army is to establish one Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) division in Papua. This is aimed at deterring separatist action and maintaining security in border areas.

The United States has lifted its six year military embargo on Indonesia. Imposed in 1999, after the military ravaged East Timor during the territory's break from Jakarta, Washington now wants to help Indonesia in its fight against terrorism.

Presenter/Interviewer: Kanaha Sabapathy

Speakers: Bob Lowry, consulting analyst on political and military affairs in Indonesia.

Jakarta – The government has been urged to open the way for broadest possible dialogue with various elements in Papuan society, such as the traditional communities, students, youth, NGOs and also the OPM.

Malang – Lieutenant General Hadi Waluyo, Chief of the Indonesian Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad), has stated that the number of Army weapons was sufficient.

Mark Forbes in Denpasar and agencies – The US has restored military ties with Indonesia, lifting a 13-year ban imposed due to human rights violations, stating the relationship was of the "utmost importance" in the fight against terrorism.

Manokwari, West Irian Jaya – The West Irian Council insisted on Monday that the province should be allowed to hold regional elections on Nov. 28 as planned, saying that there was no legal basis to postpone them. "No matter what happens, we will still hold the poll. There is no constitutional reason to postpone it," said Council Speaker Jimmy Idjie.

Doug Lorimer – The Australia West Papua Association (AWPA) has called on the Australian government to follow the Dutch government's example and commission a study into Australia's involvement in the 1969 UN-organised "act of free choice" in West Papua.

Glenn Kessler – Acting swiftly with new congressional authority, the Bush administration said yesterday that it has restored military ties with Indonesia, formally ending the last of the restrictions imposed after violence in East Timor in 1999.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono hailed Washington's decision to resume some military aid as marking a new chapter in relations, but other officials and politicians were more cautious.

The Timor Sea Justice Campaign today labelled the Australian Government's decision to discontinue aid funding to 13 East Timorese Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) as political interference.

Telly Nathalia and Dean Yates, Jakarta – Indonesia has welcomed the resumption of military relations with the United States while human rights groups expressed concern and said monitoring of the armed forces would need to be tightened.

Chris Brummitt, Jakarta – Indonesia welcomed a US decision to lift a six-year arms embargo to help the mostly Muslim nation fight terrorism, but human rights groups said Wednesday it betrayed victims of military brutality.

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Antigraft activists have criticized members of the Aceh and Nias Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency (BRR) as "overpaid and underachieving".

The decision yesterday by the State Department to override Congress-imposed restrictions on US military relations with Indonesia is a grave setback for Indonesian democracy and human rights, says TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign.

Ilyas, Langsa – Because the normative and other rights employees have not been accommodated by the leadership board of the Langsa City branch of the All Indonesia Workers Union (SPSI), scores of Langsa SPSI members held a demonstration and issued a motion of no confidence in the SPSI leadership.

Multa Fidrus and Abdul Khalik, Tangerang/Jakarta – Although the road access to Sang Timur Catholic school in Karang Tengah, Tangerang regency, has again been blockaded by protesting local residents, students keep coming to school.

As their cars cannot reach the school, parents have to drop off their children on the main road and let them to walk to school.

Max Lane – The Indonesian government's policy, announced last month, of giving a A$40 handout to people on an income of less than $25 per month as compensation for rises in fuel prices was only due to last for a few weeks, yet was supposed to help people out over a three-month period.

Jon Lamb – On October 15, a band of angry villagers and former pro-integration militia from East Timor crossed the border from the Indonesian province of West Timor into the East Timorese province of Oecuessi and attacked two startled East Timorese border police.

New Delhi – India and Indonesia, Asia's largest democracies, agreed Wednesday to forge closer defense and economic ties and cooperate in fighting terrorism, Indonesia's president said.

Imran MA, Eastern Aceh – On Monday November 21, Muhammad Nurdin (43), a resident of the Buket Paka village who has been a member of the Rantau Peureulak sub-district Red White Militia (Laskar Merah Putih, LMP) in Eastern Aceh, surrendered a hand grenade to a former member of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) for the Peureulak region.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Labor unions say the government should scrap the current minimum wage system, which according to them does little to protect the vast majority of workers outside the formal sector.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Tight regulations for government officials whose families run businesses will be not enough to keep them from abusing their powers, an expert says.

It would be better for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to replace his Cabinet ministers who had direct links to business enterprises, the expert suggests.

Ambon – Army soldiers and police officers were fought a pitched battle at dawn on Monday in Ambon city, leaving three civilians injured.

The brawl broke out as a wedding reception was winding down into the wee hours in Nusaniwe district of the city.

Bambang Bider, Contributor, Kalimantan – Life becomes more meaningful when one becomes aware that everything in this universe is a whole entity, the parts of which are interrelated and interdependent.

Slamet Susanto, Yogyakarta – Higher production costs prompted by the government's decision to raise fuel prices on Oct. 1 have forced hundreds of handicraft producers in Yogyakarta to cut production by up to 40 percent.

Hundreds of others have had to halt all production and lay off workers because of a fall in orders in the wake of the Bali bombings in October.

Urip Hudiono, Jakarta – Indonesia's economy has continued growing at a slower rate, official figures from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) show, as high oil prices and rising interest rates dampened exports and investments, while consumption also stalled under a rising inflation.

Jakarta – Former rebels in Indonesia's Aceh province successfully ended the third round of a weapons handover on Tuesday after struggling to surrender enough arms that met the criteria of international peace monitors.

Aboeprijadi Santoso, The Hague – A Dutch study on Papua, charged with political implications for Indonesia, has been greeted with rejoicing by many Papuans, and led to controversy in the Netherlands and growing concern about the prospects for Papua.

A perusal of the backgrounds of the suicide bombers who wrecked havoc in Bali on Oct. 1 can serve to tell us a lot about why there seems to be no shortage of terrorists. Mat Sukarto, a 57-year-old farmer and father of one of the bombers, said he did not fully understand why his less-than-religiously-inclined son, Misno, had decided to take his own life in such a manner.

Jakarta – The country's leading Islamic figures, grouped in a special task force set up last week by the Ministry of Religious Affairs, are set to launch a war against militant ideas spread by terrorists using the Islam brand.

Leony Aurora, Bandung – Analysts and industry players have expressed a wide range of views over the government's target of raising the country's oil production to 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2009, with some saying it would be challenging and others saying it would be downright impossible.

Indonesia's economy expanded in the third quarter at the slowest pace in a year as rising fuel costs, higher inflation and interest rates curbed consumer spending.

Rusman, Samarinda – The timber industry in East Kalimantan is on the brink of collapse due to rising production costs and a lack of raw materials, an executive with a timber firm association says.

Rendi A. Witular, Busan (South Korea) – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has met US President George Walker Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin for talks on how to enhance Indonesia's defense capabilities and of ways to contain the bird flu outbreak.

Dean Yates, Jakarta – A move by Indonesia's mainstream Muslim groups to form a team to counter militant ideas, work with the police and review radical publications is an important step but must be more than just rhetoric, analysts said on Monday.

Muhammad Nur Hayid, Jakarta – An action by hundreds of people from Indonesian Farmers Youth (Pemuda Tani Indonesia, PTI) became heated when demonstrators broke down the gates and forced their way into the national parliament building while hundreds of police stood ready to contain them.

Lhokseumawe – Indonesia pulled out more than 2,000 troops from Aceh province Saturday after the rebels handed over weapons as part of a peace deal to end 29 years of fighting, the province's military chief said.

Batam – Batam employers rejected a workers' proposal on Friday for an increase in the regional minimum wage, leading to widespread grievances among Batam workers, who now have to bear the brunt of increased costs following the fuel price hike on Oct. 1.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, currently on trial for the murder of human rights activist Munir, on Friday gave a different account from his earlier testimony as cited in the indictment. However, judges and prosecutors did little to question why defendant had changed his story.

Evi Mariani, Jakarta – An online, global sex survey carried out by condom manufacturer Durex revealed that 31 percent of the Indonesian respondents said they wish to have sex more frequently, while only 34 percent of the total 1,112 respondents said they are happy with their sex lives.

The police shot dead Indonesia's most-wanted bomber, Dr. Azahari bin Husin, and one of his followers, Arman, in a raid on their hideout in the East Java hill resort of Batu a week ago, and subsequently arrested at least five terrorist operatives. Former National Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief A.M.

Eva C. Komandjaja, Jakarta – A cosmetics salesgirl was attacked and murdered on Friday morning by three machete-wielding men in Palu, Central Sulawesi, in yet another grisly terror attack on young females in the tense province.

US President George W. Bush and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono agreed Saturday to work toward expanding bilateral military ties, a senior US administration official said.

Ivy Susanti, Jakarta/Jayapura – The government plays down the controversial study by Dutch historian Prof. Pieter Drooglever on 1969 vote in Papua, saying that his report was purely academic.

"We view the report as an academic study which is no different from other studies on Papua," Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Yuri Oktavian Thamrin said.

Fadli, Batam – A drastic drop in Batam's tourist arrivals in the January-October period has forced dozens of entertainment establishments, such as karaoke and massage parlors, to close down. Based on data from the Batam Tourism Office, tourist arrivals started decreasing after the government started to crack down on gambling activities few months ago.

The Australian media has recently reported that a resource sharing agreement between East Timor and Australia on how to share the Greater Sunrise gas field is set to be signed by the end of the year.

Bandung – Some 500 workers in the Cimahi industrial zone held a protest on Thursday in front the Cimahi regency council, demanding that the administration increase the local minimum wage.