Jakarta – Forest fires and hot spots in Kalimantan are spreading at a rate of more than 100 a day over the past week, an Environment Ministry official said.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – The House of Representatives (DPR) and the government wrapped up on Monday their deliberations on the truth and reconciliation commission bill following a half-hour, closed-door meeting attended by faction leaders in the House.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Legislators with hands in the till beware: The government is on your trail and lawmakers in the provinces are a prime target as it cracks down on graft and organised crime. For the past two months, prosecutors have been fanning out across the archipelago aggressively indicting and detaining councillors at provincial and lower administration levels.

Jakarta – Ex-president Abdurrahman Wahid has thrown his weight behind President Megawati Sukarnoputri's rival in next month's election but said his party had yet to decide which candidate it would back.

Jakarta – Media-shy President Megawati Sukarnoputri, trailing in opinion polls weeks before the election, has refused her opponent's offer for a televised debate on issues confronting the world's fourth-largest country, an official said on Tuesday.

Jun Honna, the author of the book Military Politics and Democratization in Indonesia (2003), and an associate professor at Ritsumeiken University in Japan, has been in Indonesia for about one year to observe the elections here. The political scientist shared his observations with The Jakarta Post's Kornelius Purba.

Tempo recently journeyed over the 16-kilometer Blangkejeren-Dusun Gajah section of Ladia Galaska to look at the impact of the controversial road project on the environment and the local population.

If only the Indonesian Museum of Records would put on record the busiest man selling a government project to the public, Mahmun Yunan would make a good choice.

Governor Abdullah Puteh was on the front pages of newspapers for weeks in recent months, linking him to corruption in the scandalous purchase of a helicopter and a power generator for the Aceh provincial administration. The Corruption Eradication Commission has named him a suspect in the case.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Lawmakers have criticized a stipulation in the bill on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which allows it to recommend the granting of a presidential pardon for human rights abusers, despite the fact that they have not been forgiven by their victims.

Patrick Walters – A strange paradox continues to afflict Australia's bilateral relations with Indonesia.

While people-to-people links strengthen year-by-year, opinion polls show a steadily increasing proportion of Australians now nominate Indonesia as our principal long-term security threat.

Shawn Donnan – Leonardus Benyamin "Benny" Murdani, who died yesterday, was the architect of Indonesia's 1975 invasion of East Timor and from 1983 to 1993 served as first the head of the country's armed forces and then its defence minister.

Tiarma Siboro – A true intelligence officer to the end, L.B. Moerdani left this world discreetly in the wee hours of Sunday morning, and a few hours later, one of the most feared and respected generals was buried at the Kalibata Heroes Cemetery in South Jakarta.

Dili – Five years after his tiny nation voted in a UN referendum to end 24 years of Indonesian occupation, East Timor's president warned on Monday that the poverty-stricken country still faced major challenges.

It's been five years since the referendum in East Timor which lead to its independence. On August 30 1999, the people voted overwhelmingly to break away from 25 years of repressive – even brutal rule by Indonesia. But the jubililation turned to terror as violence and bloodshed, organised by pro Jakarta militia left a trail of destruction during and after the ballot.

Jakarta – Indonesian foreign affairs department spokesman Marty Natalegawa has said that the Indonesian government will not allow the United Nations Expert Commission to enter Indonesia as it would be highly inappropriate to authorize a third party institution to evaluate and monitor a legal process that still prevails in a sovereign country.

[Indonesia's Secret War in Aceh. John Martinkus. Random House Australia, 2004 326 pp.]

Emmy Fitri, Jakarta – Using the word "secret" as a book title is bound to be a magnet for curious readers, the tease to draw them in to find out more about its promise of providing more information.

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – The police denied on Friday charges leveled by a joint monitory team that they embezzled billions of rupiah from material procurement and construction projects in Aceh while the province was under martial law.

Flick through the channels on any given night and chances are you will come up against reality – reality TV that is. The most prominent and popular subgenre of these shows is reality-horror, which feature volunteers, often scared to the point of frenzy, or unconsciousness.

Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandarlampung – Lt. Col. Bambang Sutrisno, who had just been installed on Tuesday as the Piabung Marine Corps commander in Lampung province, was dismissed from his post on Friday following a raid by marines on a village concert that killed one and injured at least six others.

Simon Marcus Gower, Jakarta – Nobody would question the importance and great value of books to the processes and tasks of learning and "becoming an educated person". Undoubtedly one of the most difficult and unfortunate of challenges for many people in Indonesia is the cost of books and, in many instances, the availability of good quality books.

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – The police denied on Friday charges leveled by a joint monitory team that they embezzled billions of rupiah from material procurement and construction projects in Aceh while the province was under martial law.

Theresia Sufa, Sukabumi – Five groups of the endangered Javan silvery gibbon (Hylobates moloch), or Owa Jawa, have disappeared from the 100-hectare (ha) Kabandungan Forest, a lush corridor that connects Mount Salak and Mount Halimun in Sukabumi, West Java, a park official said.

Kupang – The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) is sending another team to Manggarai to continue its investigation into shootings in which five villagers in the area were killed by police, an official said on Friday.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The administration and supervision of the military court is to be transferred to the Supreme Court on September 1 in accordance with Law No. 4/2004 on judicial power, which reinstates a one-roof judicial system.

However, it remains unclear whether the move will enable a criminal court to try military personnel.

Suherdjoko, Semarang – Some 25 activists from the Front for Poor People's Struggle (FPRM) staged a protest in front of a government office here on Friday, questioning the government on the recent death of prodemocracy activist Churzaini, alias Saddam Hussein, in his prison cell recently.

Jakarta – Indonesia's Parliament is debating a controversial Bill to safeguard the military's profile and let it continue its regional commands.

Jakarta – On Friday August 27, the Women's Alliance Against RUU TNI (Aliansi Perempuan Tolak RUU TN) held a demonstration at the Hotel Indonesia roundabout in Jakarta.

Jakarta – Approximately 300,000 people are living in refugee camps across the country, a senior minister says, adding that the government hopes to repatriate all of them by October.

Minister of Social Affairs Bachtiar Chamsyah said on Friday the majority of the refugees were in Maluku and North Maluku.

Evi Mariani, Jakarta – Police now have no suspects in a bizarre case involving a former Jakarta city council chairman, a businesswoman and an alleged "fraud" worth Rp 1 billion (US$112,359).

Political coalitions with several parties, including the Golkar Party and the United Development Party (PPP), may not be enough for presidential candidate Megawati Soekarnoputri and her running mate Hasyim Muzadi to win the September 20 election.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Two former presidential candidates have elected not to support either Megawati Soekarnoputri or Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the September 20 election runoff, but did encourage supporters to vote in the upcoming poll.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Leaders of the so-termed national coalition of four major parties held their first plenary meeting on Friday, to consolidate their rank and file and draw up a strategy to help the Megawati Soekarnoputri-Hasyim Muzadi ticket win the runoff.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Numerous newly elected councillors across Indonesia could lose their seats after the General Elections Commission (KPU) ordered local commissions to take swift action against councillors who used false school diplomas.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – Three daughters of founding president Sukarno look set to bury their hatchets for a family reunion ahead of the election runoff, which will see the eldest among the siblings, Megawati Soekarnoputri, square off against her former aide Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Jakarta – A coalition of non-governmental organizations said on Friday it would press ahead with its drive to unravel the corruption allegations plaguing the General Elections Commission (KPU), despite a threat from the commission to file a defamation lawsuit against the group.

Matthew Moore – The South Jakarta District Court is best known as a place where judges give decisions to the highest bidder, but its ruling this week to set aside the Bali bombing charges against confessed terrorist Idris was one any decent court might have made.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – More than 60,000 workers of the Texmaco Group may lose their jobs following the government's refusal to reschedule its huge debts.

Nani Afrida and Yuli Tri Suwarni, Banda Aceh/Bandung – Seventy-four convicted Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatists arrived on Thursday afternoon in Bandung amid tight security.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – The debate over the military's territorial role looks to dominate the deliberation of the Indonesian Military (TNI) bill, which commenced on Thursday.

Janaki Kremmer, Sydney – Not so long ago, Australians were being feted for helping tiny East Timor, their northern neighbor, gain independence from Indonesia.

East Timor urged the United Nations not to be hasty in withdrawing its peacekeeping forces from the fledgling nation, after the world body said it was considering further cutting back the mission.

Nelson Santos, the secretary-general of East Timor's foreign ministry, said that security along the country's border with Indonesia had improved but remained fragile.

Megawati Sukarnoputri was right. In a pre-independence day address, the Indonesian president rejected intervening in a series of court decisions that have resulted in the acquittal of four security officials in trials related to violence in East Timor in 1999, as well as that of a military officer charged over an incident in 1984 in Indonesia that resulted in 23 deaths.

The inadequate 10-year sentence handed down to self-confessed Bali bomber Idris, after the charges relating to Bali were dropped, is a slap in the face to victims and their families and a setback in the war against terror.

Dadan Wijaksana and Tony Hotland, Jakarta – Renewed debate on whether to retain the hugely costly national fuel subsidy remerged on Wednesday, following a proposal by the government to set aside a whopping Rp 63 trillion (some US$7 billion) for the subsidy this year.

Australia announced a cruise missile programme to give it the region's "most lethal" air combat capacity, a move that further strained awkward relations with Indonesia.

Defence Minister Robert Hill said Thursday the air-to-surface missiles acquired under the 350 million to 450 million dollar (248-317 million US) programme could destroy targets up to 400 kilometres away.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Religious leaders have asked the Indonesian Military (TNI) to sacrifice its interests – at least for the next five years – for the sake of the country's democratic development.

Millions of people nationwide are beginning to feel the effects of the dry season this year, which has led to water shortages and forest fires in many parts in the country.

Rusman, Samarinda – East Kalimantan forestry office firefighters are on high alert as forest and cropland fires spread to coal deposits. As the situation becomes worse by the day, the provincial administration has increased fire watch patrols and field monitoring, and moved in more fire-fighting equipment to fire-prone locations.

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Seven months after its launch on Jan. 15, the busway has only managed to attract around 5,600 private car owners, or 14 percent of the busway's 40,000 daily commuters.