Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – The police admitted on Wednesday that some officers were out of control when they beat and kicked students during Tuesday's demonstration to mark the fall of former authoritarian president Soeharto.

Denpasar – About 150 students staged a peaceful rally on Tuesday at the Bali legislative council building to protest what they called continuing state-sponsored violence against civil society.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Police in Labuhan Batu, North Sumatra, arrested on Tuesday five Acehnese people who were trying to smuggle a huge cache of M-16 automatic rifle ammunition and 103 boxes of medicine from Jakarta to strife-torn Aceh.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – About a dozen children, each with a piece of paper and a pen in hand, gathered together and were engaged in a serious discussion.

They may look like ordinary children but they have experiences that many people could never imagine. They are abused street children.

Jakarta – Britain has offered its help to convince the United States to restore military relations with Indonesia, the Indonesian defense minister said Wednesday.

Jon Land – As the official festivities wind down in East Timor following the May 20 independence celebrations and the international dignitaries fly back to their comfortable and privileged lifestyles, a beckoning question for most East Timorese remains, what does independence hold?

Bandung – Hundreds of people from the Forum of Struggle for the Disabled (Forpadi) marked National Awakening Day with a rally here on Monday.

Jakarta – The Central Jakarta District Court sentenced seven defendants on Tuesday to two months and 15 days each for the March attack on the offices of the Commission for Mission Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) in Menteng, Central Jakarta.

Jakarta – Unlike other historical days, the fourth year of the reform movement was observed in a bitter mood on Tuesday, with students nationwide taking to the streets to vent their disappointment with the political elite's failure to comply with the reform agenda.

Denpasar – Some 150 students from various groups staged a peaceful demonstration here on Tuesday at the Bali Legislative Council, protested what they called the continuing state-sponsored violence against civil society.

Aaron Goodman, Dili – The unfurling of East Timor's flag and the lighting of fireworks on Sunday marked the formal coming out of the newest country of the millennium, one whose test of nationhood will be under way for many years to come.

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – Bandung Police are questioning more than 40 crews of container trucks after a rally they held to protest widespread levies and demand a whole day of access to Padalarang toll road ended in violence on Tuesday.

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Due to a greatly increased amount of construction and over-exploitation of groundwater, the city's land has subsided up to 91 centimeters in recent years, a city official said on Tuesday.

Jakarta – At least 40 protesters were detained at Jakarta Police headquarters following clashes that broke out separately in Megaria and Jl. Cendana in Central Jakarta on Tuesday, reports said.

In trying to rein in Jakarta, Australia put its special relationship with the Indonesian army on the line, write Don Greenlees and Robert Garran in the third of four exclusive extracts from their book Deliverance.

Jakarta – Hundreds of students staged rallies in at least six cities throughout the country on Tuesday to mark the downfall of former president Soeharto and to remind the government under President Megawati Soekartoputri to meet the pledge for reforms.

Jakarta – Hundreds of students of various universities from Jakarta, Bogor and Bekasi on Tuesday threatened to stage huge rallies if the government was unable to improve the condition of the nation within one month.

The students claimed the rallies they would stage would be similar to the ones which lead to the downfall of then president Soeharto in 1998.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Surabaya businessman Lukman Hartono knows he is a marked man in the eyes of predatory immigration officials in Indonesia.

As an ethnic Chinese, it is: Pay up and get paperwork "expedited". Refuse to pay, and face probing questions and hassle.

East Timor hailed its move to democracy May 20 by signing the Timor Gap Treaty with Australia just hours after becoming the world's newest independent state. However, the signing of the treaty was more an empty symbol of goodwill than a declaration of cooperation between the two on developing the Timor Sea's vast natural resources.

Jakarta – Severe economic hardship and political instability have undermined efforts to eradicate child labor in the country, Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea said on Monday.

Vaudine England – Indonesian media greeted the birth of an independent East Timor with congratulations and the stated desire for better ties. But behind the positive rhetoric remains a Government and armed forces determined to avoid responsibility for past abuses in the new nation.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Investigation into the killing of Papuan pro-independence leader Theys Hiyo Eluay last year points at the possible involvement of high ranking officers, National Military Police Chief Maj. Gen. Sulaiman A.B. said on Monday.

Jakarta – Acehnese separatist rebels have warned civil servants to stay away from state facilities, which they plan to attack.

Free Aceh Movement (GAM) spokesman Tengku Sofyan Dawod said from the group's foreign base in Norsborg, Sweden, that the prior warning was issued to avoid futile fatalities in the long-standing conflict.

Dean Yates, Dili – About the only thing pro-Jakarta militias didn't destroy in their rampage after East Timor voted in 1999 to break free was something they couldn't touch – the territory's stunning natural beauty.

Jakarta – Students, activists and members of non-government organizations held various protests and rallies to commemorate National Awakening Day on Monday, reports said.

Semarang – A demonstration held by the Democratic Front for Poverty Eradication (FDPRM) turned violent on Monday when the group was attacked by dozens of people claiming to be members of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) Two demonstrators, a plainclothes police officer and a local photojournalist were injured in the violence.

Ian Timberlake, Jakarta – Four years after restrictions on free speech ended with the fall of strongman Suharto, Indonesian reporters fear a recent government crackdown could signal a return to this nation's repressive past.

Jakarta – The Free Aceh Movement armed wing (AGAM) joined the worldwide chorus of congratulations for the people of East Timor on their independence and the inauguration of Xanana Gusmao as the country's first president.

Lincoln Wright – To avoid provoking Indonesia, Australia should pull its 1450 troops out of East Timor after the United Nations leaves in 2004, according to a new defence report.

But the Howard Government should help upgrade East Timor's police force to improve security.

Joseph Fitchete, Lisbon – Bill Clinton presumably didn't notice any problems during East Timor's independence celebrations last week. After nearly two days' flying time to the Pacific as the Bush administration's representative, Clinton spent only a few hours in Dili, the new capital.

Jakarta – East Nusa Tenggara Military district chief Col. Moeswarno Moesanip consoled some 30,000 pro-integration East Timorese refugees who were politically estranged in West Timor following East Timor's independence on Monday, saying all sides, including the military must accept the reality.

Simon Montlake Tanahmerah – From the mangrove-fringed shore, the waters of Bintuni Bay look deceptively calm. Only a metal platform a few miles offshore hints at the riches beneath this remote bay in eastern Indonesia.

Aboeprijadi Santoso and Yemris Fointuna, Dili/Kupang – Despite reconciliatory gestures from their leaders, the future of ties between Indonesia and its new neighbor East Timor hangs in the balance due to a legacy of wide-ranging unfinished business.

Lyall Johnson – As East Timor celebrated its nationhood yesterday, 1600 East Timorese asylum seekers living in Australia faced an anxious wait to see if they could remain in the country many have called home for more than a decade.

I Wayan Juniartha and Agus Maryono, Denpasar/Purwokerto – President Megawati Soekarnoputri said the unabated crisis the country was facing had been exacerbated by the yawning gap between the political classes and the masses.

Jakarta – Former president B.J. Habibie's written testimony in the Rp 40 billion Bulog scandal read during a hearing on Monday has solidified the case against his former minister/cabinet secretary Akbar Tandjung.

Tangerang – Some 75 artists from the Tangerang Arts Council staged a rally at the municipal administration office on Monday to demand the administration provide them a space to put on exhibitions and performances.

Dili – Australian soldiers marred East Timor's independence day by stealing flags from outside a Dili hotel, an Australian businessman claimed.

Hotel Dili manager Gino Favaro also accused the six soldiers of threatening a local security guard with a rifle butt.

Tom Hyland, Dili – On its first day as an independent nation, East Timor yesterday warned Australia of a tough fight ahead for a greater share of Timor Sea oil and gas revenue, even as the two sides signed a treaty to exploit resources in the energy-rich seabed area.

Tom Hyland and Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – East Timor became an independent nation early this morning but a row over the unauthorised arrival of Indonesian warships highlighted the potential fragility of its hard-won freedom.

Tributes

"If 92 countries are gathered here today it is because the settlement of the question of East Timor was the responsibility of the international community.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The US Congress will evaluate the embargo imposed on the Indonesian Military (TNI) in July, pending the completion of the ongoing Human Rights Tribunal in the country against military and civilian officials accused of committing gross human rights violations in East Timor in 1999, an official said on Saturday.

[East Timor has claimed its independence. How is the new nation viewed by its imposing neighbour, Indonesia? Tony Eastley speaks with Wimar Witoelar, who was spokesman for Indonesia's former president Abdurrahmin Wahid, and who is now a visiting professor of journalism at Deakin University, in Victoria. Compere: Tony Eastley Reporter: Tony Eastley.]

As the East Timorese celebrated their hard-won independence overnight, spare a thought for the Jakarta lobby in Australia, including luminaries such as Dick Woolcott, Gough Whitlam, Gareth Evans and Paul Keating, to name only a few. How must they feel?

These men have dedicated much of their professional lives to opposing just such an event.

Ben Terrall, Oakland, California – East Timor will celebrate its independence today after throwing off a 24-year Indonesian military occupation that killed 200,000 East Timorese.

Ben Terrall – As the world's newest nation looks forward, the US must look back at its complicity in East Timor's bloody past. Recently declassified documents reveal that the United States gave a "green light" to Indonesian dictator Suharto before his invasion of East Timor. It's no time, writes PNS contributor Ben Terrall, to renew military aid to Indonesia.

Dili – Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri was greeted by 50 silent protesters shortly after she arrived in East Timor late on Sunday to attend independence events for a territory Jakarta once ruled with an iron fist.

Harald Bruning, Macau – East Timor's constitution, which came into force at midnight last night, is a combination of civil guarantees, national fervour and provisions for social welfare and public ownership of the half-island's natural resources.

[It's the world's newest republic, but it will take a long time for old sores to heal. Lindsay Murdoch and Tom Hyland explain why guilty parties on both sides will get off scot-free.]

Dili – East Timor formally swore in its cabinet on Monday, hours after the tiny territory became independent and new President Xanana Gusmao took office.