Jane Perlez and Evelyn Rusli, Kling Meria – Like many of the hundreds of thousands of survivors left homeless by the recent tsunami, Mohamed Adan, his wife and their six children confront an unpalatable choice about where to go now. But here in Aceh that decision must be made at the intersection of natural calamity and civil war.

John Mcbeth – Nationalism, often tinged with conspiracy theories and a measure of xenophobia, is never far from the surface in Indonesia.

Marianne Kearney – A military-backed militia group responsible for widespread killing and looting when Indonesia pulled out of East Timor has established a base in tsunami-devastated Aceh. The local leader of Laskar Merah Putih, or Red and White Troops, says the group is ready to defend the province from separatists.

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Dozens of members of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) moved swiftly out of the pickup trucks as they arrived at the mosque in Ajun residential area in tsunami-battered Banda Aceh.

A brief prayer started their work on Sunday to locate and remove the corpses around the area and to clean up the mosque.

Jakarta – The official ban on US weapons and military equipment sales to Indonesia is unfair and "punishes" the country by hampering its military's tsunami relief and recovery efforts, Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono said Tuesday.

Jakarta – Former East Timor governor Abilio Soares vowed on Wednesday to continue his challenge against the retroactive application of the rights tribunal law despite his acquittal of all charges arising out the 1999 atrocities in the former Indonesian province.

Josh White, Jakarta – Indonesia's defense minister on Sunday called on the United States to ease its restrictions on military relations between the two nations and to help train Indonesian military leaders, reaching out during the period of cooperation that has emerged in the wake of the devastating tsunami last month.

Andi Hajramurni, Banda Aceh – At least six people in Banda Aceh, including two children, have died of tetanus over the past several days, while 30 others have been hospitalized with severe infections.

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – A chief executive officer of a state cement firm in East Java once said that the most devastating factor that could affect the firm's production cost lay not in fuel spending nor workers' wages, but on congested highways.

Sumitomo Corporation Chairman Kenji Miyahara, who is also vice chairman of the powerful Nippon Keidanren (Japanese Economic Federation) talked to The Jakarta Post's Kornelius Purba on Sunday about Japanese investors' views and expectations about Indonesian investment prospects. He is in Jakarta to attend the two-day Infrastructure Summit on Monday and Tuesday.

Matthew Moore, Banda Aceh – Muharram believes the foreign presence in Aceh will help GAM's cause.

The scale of the tsunami disaster and continuing health risks in Indonesia's Aceh province are almost beyond comprehension. Getting desperately needed emergency aid to the survivors, wherever they are, is now an overwhelmingly urgent humanitarian priority.

The secretary of state for defence's visit to East Timor, due to start tomorrow (Tuesday 18 January), has been postponed until the end of the month. Jorge Neto is now expected to visit the country on 30 January, during which he will sign the Military-Technical Cooperation Programme for 2005 with the Timorese authorities.

John Aglionby – Rahmatun is almost inaudible over the drone of the low-flying aid helicopter. Pointing upwards, the softly spoken 14-year-old eventually makes herself understood. "That's what I want to do when I grow up," she says. Her smile implies she is aware that this is not the standard career choice of a devoutly Muslim teenage girl in Aceh. "I want to be a pilot.

Patsy Spier, Washington – one of the survivors of a 2002 military-style ambush on a group of contract teachers in the Indonesian province of Papua, spoke out today about the attempts by the Bush administration to resume full military ties with Indonesia before the government in Jakarta accounts for military crimes in East Timor and fully cooperates with a US investigation into the P

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The governments of Indonesia and the United States see the possibility of improved military ties following the significant role of US troops in tsunami relief operations in Aceh.

The United States has given its clearest signal yet that it may consider lifting the arms embargo imposed on Indonesia in 1999. A partial lifting of the embargo came soon after the tsunami struck the coast of Sumatra, with the US military offering spare parts for Indonesia's Hercules C-130 transport planes.

Jakarta – Flooding over the past week around the country drove people from their homes and damaged infrastructure and crops.

Hundreds of people in Palembang, South Sumatra, who live on the banks of the Musi River had to seek refuge after the river burst its banks and inundated their houses.

Geneva – The Indonesian ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Makarim Wibisono, Monday was elected chairman of the UN Human Rights Commission despite concerns by some campaigners that his country has done too little to tackle its own abuses.

Eva C. Komandjaja, Jakarta – The need for the government to set up a special body to control and monitor the performance of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) has become urgent, a police/intelligence ethics activist has said.

Urip Hudiono, Jakarta – The public debate continues on how Indonesia should respond to the debt moratorium offer from the Paris Club creditor countries, as the offer itself is still vague in what it implies.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Several weeks before the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) convenes a national congress in March, disgruntled party members are beginning to flex their muscles to block the reelection of PDI-P leader Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Dili – Australia and East Timor will resume in March talks to resolve their dispute over shared maritime boundaries and the carving up of Timor Sea hydrocarbon revenues, Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said Monday.

Adam Gartrell – Buses donated to East Timor by the NSW Government in 2002 have never been used and sit in an empty parking lot, makeshift homes to a handful of Timor's poor.

Five of the 20-year-old Mercedes-Benz Mark Two buses, worth about $10,000 each, were shipped to East Timor, at an added cost of $70,000, by the Transport Department in January 2002.

Mawar Kusuma, Jakarta – The People's Representative Assembly (DPR) is to continue urging the US government to lift the arms embargo on Indonesia. This was revealed by the chairperson of the DPR's defense commission, Theo Sambuaga, to Tempo when contacted by telephone on Sunday afternoon, January 16.

Vaudine England – His long flowing hair and tight jeans mark him out as a young intellectual even before he starts talking.

When delegates at a tsunami aid world summit in Jakarta tucked into beef, lamb, chicken and swordfish even as Indonesians scavenged for food on demolished coastlines, it was perhaps a sign that not all funds raised for victims would reach those who needed it most.

Sue Pleming, Jakarta – The United States and Indonesia are seeking closer military ties after years of limited contact because of concern over past human rights abuses by Indonesia's army, top defence officials from both nations said on Sunday.

Paul Dyer – The $7 billion Greater Sunrise gas project in the Timor Sea has been shelved by project operator Woodside Petroleum.

Woodside has halted funds and reassigned project employees because a border dispute between Australia and East Timor remains unresolved.

Michael Vatikiotism Meulaboh – Indonesia Almost a month after the tsunami, the town of Meulaboh still reeks of death and misery. As I drove down the main street, named after the great Acehnese leader Teuku Umar, images of Dresden and Tokyo after the firebombings sprang to mind, even after some intensive cleanup.

Matthew Moore reports – It is more than 13 years since Max Stahl shot his famous footage of Indonesian troops massacring East Timorese at the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili. Hiding behind gravestones, Stahl stayed calm as he filmed hundreds of Timorese fleeing a relentless spray of automatic fire, some reaching safety, many falling dead or wounded before his lens.

In the first weeks of the aftermath of the tsunami of December 26, we were stunned by the severity of the destruction, and thankful for the many small miracles of survival told by enduring residents.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – High profile corruption suspects will surely have difficult times ahead as a new anti-graft ruling currently being drafted by the government will not only allow authorities to detain them from the start of probe, but also will allow the state to immediately confiscate their personal assets.

Jakarta – The city administration plan to triple the price of on-street parking is aimed at encouraging motorists to keep their vehicles at home in order to ease traffic congestion in the city, an official says.

Jakarta – The fact-finding team formed to assist the police investigation into the death of rights activist Munir had its first coordinating meeting with the police at the National Police Headquarters on Thursday.

Ian Fisher, Calang – This town was not just destroyed. It vanished. After almost three weeks, only 323 bodies have been found. Before December 26, when the tsunami swept in from both sides of the pretty tropical peninsula that once cradled Calang, 7,300 people lived here.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – As the United States rides its sudden wave of popularity in the world's most populous Muslim country, Indonesia, the secular government there has been handed a very hot political potato.

Banda Aceh – Indonesia wants the United States to lift a long-standing ban on weapon sales to its military, arguing that it could respond more effectively to disasters such as last month's tsunami if its forces were better equipped.

Jakarta – Hundreds of squatters evicted from a three-hectare land owned by PT Kereta Api Indonesia (PT KAI) in Tanah Abang district, Central Jakarta have set up tents along the banks of West Flood Canal.

As if the people of Aceh, where at least 108,000 died in the tsunami, didn't have enough problems already. Now the Indonesian government – and especially its military – is putting obstacles in the way of international efforts to aid survivors in the devastated province.

Amy Goodman: We're joined by journalist and activist, Allan Nairn.

Stephen Fitzpatrick, Montasik – Acehnese rebels fighting for an independent homeland have descended from the isolation of northern Sumatra's mountains to restock and regroup after the tsunami that killed 100,000 on the Indonesian island.

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – The labor union of state-controlled cement producer PT Semen Gresik (SG) will launch a massive strike if the government decides to hand over the company's Tuban, Java plants to Mexican cement giant Cemex SA.

Matthew Moore in Banda Aceh and Cynthia Banham – The acting governor of Aceh has asked foreign troops and aid workers to stay and provide "long-term support" for victims of the tsunami despite growing pressure from the Indonesian Government for all foreign troops to leave by the end of March.

Andrew Burrell, Banda Aceh – The acting governor of Aceh said yesterday he was "frightened" of being abandoned by the thousands of foreign troops and aid workers involved in the massive humanitarian mission in his tsunami-battered province.

Norbert Vollertsen, Banda Aceh – I feel almost as if I am back in North Korea again. The military road blocks, heavily armed police tanks at every street corner and thousands of soldiers everywhere all remind me of the 18 months I spent in the Stalinist state.

Raymond Bonner, New York Times, Jakarta – The US ambassador here said on Thursday that the United States was not troubled by the demands by the Indonesian government that aid workers in Aceh Province register and that all foreign troops be gone by the end of March.

Dili – It was announced on 21 December 2004 that the governments of East Timor and Indonesia had agreed on the formation of a Truth and Friendship Commission to look into the Referendum-related violence which took place in East Timor in 1999, however, the precise details as to how this will be achieved remain unclear.

Prospects for peace in Indonesia's war-torn and tsunami-hit Aceh province were lifted by an offer of talks from separatist rebels, but tensions continued to overshadow efforts to aid disaster victims.

Banda Aceh (Agencies) – Indonesia wants a lasting truce with separatists in tsunami-ravaged Aceh province, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said on Friday, as both sides expressed a willingness for talks to end the 28-year rebellion.