Jakarta – Rupiah on Monday reached its highest level against the dollar since August 2000, sparking concerns that the upturn could be overdone and harm the country's exports.

Tim Johnston, Banda Aceh – The Indonesian army has been accused of using British-built Hawk aircraft to attack separatist rebels in the province of Aceh. That would contravene an agreement between Jakarta and London that the aircraft would not be used for suppression of internal dissent.

Women's groups in Indonesia have welcomed a new law that paves the way for more women to enter parliament.

Robert Go, Banda Aceh – The bodies of two men lay on wooden tables in the morgue at Banda Aceh's main hospital. Both were unwashed and bloodied. One showed severe rigor mortis, with limbs at 90-degree angles to the torso.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The media cannot not be required to take legal responsibility for its coverage of the ongoing military operation in Aceh because a news report is not the absolute truth, a practitioner has said.

Nana Rukmana, Cirebon – Thousands of sugar cane farmers in the West Java regency of Cirebon threatened to boycott the supply of sugar cane to sugar producers unless the government raised the price of sugar cane, said the chairman of the local sugar cane farmers' association.

Dean Yates, Banda Aceh – As the battered truck pulled up after negotiating some of Aceh's dangerous country roads, 20 traders crowded around, eager to get their supplies of tomatoes, chillis and dried crackers.

Phil Mercer, Sydney – Australia's foreign minister has warned that a victory for separatist rebels in the Indonesian province of Aceh could result in a disastrous security situation in South-East Asia. Alexander Downer says the Australian Government does not support the Free Aceh Movement in its bid for independence.

Robert Go, Banda Aceh – Indonesia said yesterday that 58 members of the separatist group, Free Aceh Movement (GAM), and five civilians have died in the troubled province since Jakarta's major offensive began.

Matthew Moore, Lhokseumawe – Up to 150,000 civilians in Indonesia's war-torn Aceh province face starvation because of a new tactic of destroying irrigations systems on which farmers rely to grow their crops.

Jakarta – Prices of some basic commodities are climbing in the Aceh capital of Banda Aceh as the ongoing conflict between government troops and separatist rebels has disrupted supplies from the neighboring province of North Sumatra.

Achmad Sukarsono, Banda Aceh – Indonesia said on Saturday civilians in Aceh, scene of its biggest military crackdown in decades, would be given new ID cards to stop separatist rebels blending in with the population.

Apriadi Gunawan, Jakarta – North Sumatra has begun to feel the effect of the war in Aceh, as hundreds of people have been streaming down from the neighboring province seeking refuge.

The displaced people, mostly women, fled their homes in Southeast Aceh regency to safer areas in Tanah Karo and Dairi regencies in North Sumatra, which border Aceh.

Matthew Moore, Lhokseumawe – War in Aceh began on Monday and the Indonesian Army kicked off with its best attempt at a big bang. Passengers watched bemused as six Hercules aircraft dropped 450 paratroopers into the province's only real airport which, not surprisingly, they secured without a murmur.

Scott Burchill – Delivering the 25th annual Menzies lecture last October, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer declared that "bit by bit, leaders of governments that suppress human rights are being made to feel uncomfortable, however much they bluster and hide behind sovereignty arguments".

A'an Suryana and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – Political leaders asserted on Friday that reform had moved at a snail's pace over the past five years, and that fresh leadership blood was needed to salvage and accelerate reform in the country.

John Hamilton – Hilton Lay is a nine-year-old kid with a cheeky grin and one passion in life – Essendon. His proudest possession is a Bombers scarf. He's about as Australian as my own two sons. They, luckily, were born here. But Hilton was born in East Timor, and that's the big problem.

Jakarta – Indonesia has banned the sale of 78 brands of traditional medicine – some of them said to enhance sexual performance – because they contain hazardous chemicals, officials said yesterday.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Some Indonesian cigarette manufacturers are dodging tax payments to the government to the tune of millions of dollars each year, said officials investigating the matter.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – A further split has cast a shadow over the United Development Party (PPP), the nation's largest Muslim-based party, as a walkout spoiled the finale of its four-day congress on Friday.

Nick Everett, from Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific (ASAP) and co-convenor of the Sydney Walk Against War Coalition and Kylie Moon, coordinator of Books Not Bombs, a youth coalition against the war, say that calls for an end to martial law in Aceh prompted Indonesian police to retaliate.

In Aceh where Indonesia's biggest military offensive in a quarter of century continues to gather pace. The Indonesian armed forces, the TNI, say they have killed more than 30 rebels of the separatist Free Aceh Movement, or GAM in a series of clashes, and continue to deny claims that civilians are among the dead.

[The West Papuan campaign against rule by Indonesia and corporate exploitation of the territory's rich resources is one of the world's most important and least known resistance movements.

The Indonesian military's attempts to stop reporters quoting rebel statements in Aceh province put journalists covering the war there "at grave risk", a New York-based journalists' organisation said Saturday.

Robert Go, Jakarta – As fighting intensifies in Aceh, Indonesia's government plans to start rounding up thousands of civilians in tent camps and intern them for short spells as the military cleanses hot spots of rebel fighters.

Leo Wahyudi S – On May 21, 1998, then president Soeharto yielded to demands to step down during the bloody rallies that followed the earlier May riots. Five years have passed since then and the country has seen three presidents. Yet, many people have voiced the same criticism: The country's leaders have failed to make things better.

The BBC's Orlando de Guzman has made a second visit to the site of Wednesday's incident, in the northern village of Mapa Mamplam, and has been told by witnesses that boys, one as young as 12, were among the victims.

Military chiefs have denied the allegations, saying that civilians are never targeted.

Indonesia's military said it has now killed 31 rebels during an all-out attack on separatist guerrillas in Aceh province and the government denied that civilians are among the dead.

Banda Aceh – Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda has gone on the defensive in the face of international concern over Jakarta's military operation against the independence movement in Aceh, the military's biggest offensive in decades.

Matthew Moore, Lhokseumawe – In Indonesia's new war against Aceh's rebels, 12 is now old enough to get shot in the back as you run for your life through a rice paddy.

Two Australian peace activists arrested at a rally in Indonesia earlier this week are expected to arrive in Sydney tonight.

Kylie Moon from Books Not Bombs and Nick Everett, from Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific, were among a number of activists arrested on Wednesday during a protest outside the Presidential Palace in Jakarta.

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – Four foreigners were deported to their home countries on Thursday for committing what immigration officials called "a dangerous activity" by participating in a rally to protest the Indonesian government's decision to launch a military operation in Aceh.

Chantal Rumble – As East Timor celebrates its first year of independence, Batemans Bay human rights campaigner James Dunn has launched a book about the country's extraordinary road to freedom.

East Timor: A Rough Passage to Independence, was launched by NSW Premier Bob Carr in NSW Parliament House last night.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Despite predictions that Indonesian state oil and gas company Pertamina faces a bleak and uncertain future after the government lifted its decades-long oil and gas monopoly, Pertamina president Baihaki Hakim this week announced his blueprint for the future.

A state-appointed human rights court acquitted the former commander of Indonesian troops in East Timor of crimes against humanity in the territory in 1999, prompting protests by rights groups.

The "dignity and position of Brigadier General Tono Suratman should be restored to him" following the verdict, said Chief Judge Andi Samsan Nganro.

Tangerang – Hundreds of motorcycle taxi (ojek) drivers blocked Jl. Rawa Bokor near the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Wednesday as part of their rally to protest PT Angkasa Pura's decision to ban them from entering the airport.

Nick Everett, from Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific (ASAP) and co-convenor of the Sydney Walk Against War Coalition and Kylie Moon, coordinator of Books Not Bombs – a youth coalition against the war, were arrested in Jakarta on Wednesday, May 21.

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta – An antiwar rally here ended in the arrest of four foreign and two Indonesian participants on Wednesday while they were expressing solidarity for the Acehnese people who have seen violence return to their home soil.

Greg Sheridan – When in 1978 Dick Woolcott paid his last call as Australian ambassador in Jakarta on then Indonesian president Suharto, Suharto told him the real threat to Indonesian stability would eventually come from Islamic extremists, who already had a stronghold in Aceh, especially if they received outside support.

Apriadi Gunawan and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Medan/Jakarta – In support of the government's pledge to quash the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), the police rounded up activists and other individuals and charged them with subversion over their alleged connection with the separatist group.

Jakarta/Lhokseumawe – Casualties rose on Wednesday as the Indonesian Military (TNI) mounted massive attacks on strongholds of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Bireuen, North Aceh, and Aceh Besar.

Sian Powell, Jakarta – Bullets cracked through the smoke from three blazing vegetable trucks and a flaming bus in the village of Teupin Raya as the battle for Aceh grew more heated yesterday.

John Aglionby – Indonesia's military chief warned Britain yesterday not to try to dictate how he should use his country's British-made Hawk fighter jets in its operations against separatists in Aceh.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Truth risks becoming another casualty in the conflict in Aceh after the military ruler instructed the media not to print statements from the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) members.

The launch this week of the biggest Indonesian military operation since the 1975 invasion of East Timor suggests an impending bloodbath in the contested northern province of Aceh.

I got there just as the Indonesian army patrol was leaving. These men are part of the Indonesian army's notorious specials forces. They told us they'd just been in a gunfight with GAM (Free Aceh Movement) rebels earlier in the morning.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Indonesia's government is moving to label leaders of separatist group Free Aceh Movement (GAM) as "terrorists", following arson attacks on nearly 200 schools and other public buildings in the region during the past three days.

Indonesian troops have been stepping up their operations against separatist rebels in Aceh province. Local reports say that in one incident, at least eight villagers were shot dead in the eastern Bireun area after being lined up by security forces. Indonesia's Foreign Ministry dismissed these reports saying they were stories aimed at discrediting Jakarta.

Indonesian troops have killed or captured dozens of insurgents in its north-western province of Aceh in a major offensive aimed at destroying a separatist rebellion. The guerrillas have pledged "a drawn-out war".

In Aceh's western district, government troops have clashed with separatist rebels as the military continues to boost its strength, sending more troops and and police. So far, 17 civilians and five rebels have reportedly been killed in the battle and some 200-schools torched. But each side is blaming the other for the destruction.

Presenter/Interviewer: Linda LoPresti