Lhokseumawe – At least 10,000 people fled their homes in nine villages across Juli district in Bireuen regency on Friday to escape intense firefights between government troops and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Forum on the Environment (Walhi) said on Thursday it would file a lawsuit against 20 companies and seven local governments in Riau later this week over forest fires and their disastrous effects on the environment in the province.

Zakki Hakim and Fifi Yulianti, Jakarta – City officials, accompanied by police and security personnel, Thursday barged into homes in a densely populated Jakarta residential neighborhood checking for residents' ID cards.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Indonesia's top bureaucrat has launched a stinging attack on the very team under his leadership. He says most of the country's four million civil servants are unproductive and unprofessional.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Indonesia's National Assembly Speaker and presidential hopeful Amien Rais has unveiled a star-studded list of potential running mates for next year's elections.

Jakarta – Indonesian businessmen have expressed hope that a business figure will be elected as the next president, so that the prolonged economic crisis in the country would end.

Businessmen such as Aburizal Bakrie and Lalu Mara Satriawangsa made the statement during a national convention on Golkar Party's presidential candidates, held on Wednesday night.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – East Timor has called on Indonesians to invest in the country, saying there are a number of business opportunities open to investors.

East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said on Thursday that tourism, trade and manufacturing were among the sectors that could be attractive to Indonesian investors.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – State-owned social security company PT Jamsostek is encouraging employees to check their participation in the social security schemes as many employers were found to be dishonest in registering their employees with the mandatory insurance programs.

Jakarta – The popularity of the large political in the lead-up to the 2004 general elections is continuing to decline in the eyes of the public. People believe that the political parties don't care about the future and the interests of ordinary people, they are egotistic and the elite are constantly squabbling.

Lhokseumawe – People in Bireuen regency flocked to their respective district offices on Wednesday and Thursday to apply for new ID cards, in one of the first places in war-torn Aceh where the martial law administration is attempting to separate separatist rebels from civilians.

Lhokseumawe – The military's biggest setback during three weeks of the offensive to crush the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has prompted Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu to seek a quick end to the war, but added his troops were ready to fight the rebels for as long as it took.

Indonesian troops fired artillery and moved hundreds of villagers from their homes during an attack on a suspected separatist rebel base, a local resident said.

The resident heard 38 rounds fired throughout the morning towards a hilly area in Juli sub-district just south of Bireuen town. The private RCTI television station also showed pictures of artillery being fired.

Suwarjono, Jakarta – Two members of the Aceh regional parliament (DPRD) are reported to be involved with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and are being investigated by police. Vice-president Hamzah Haz who is also the chairperson of the United Development Party (PPP) has invited security personnel to investigate those members of his party who are involved with GAM.

Jakarta – Six activists in Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua are facing up to 18 months in jail for holding a protest against the authorities, a report said Thursday.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – The House of Representatives endorsed the controversial education bill on Wednesday despite the absence of the largest faction, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).

Jakarta – East Timor's prime minister, Mari Alkatiri, called Thursday for an amnesty for prisoners currently serving sentences in Timorese jails for crimes committed around the time of the territory's 1999 bloody independence ballot.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – East Timor foreign minister Jose Ramos Horta reiterated here on Wednesday that his government did not intend to pursue an international tribunal against Indonesian military officials charged with rights abuses in East Timor.

Lhokseumawe – A military tribunal on Thursday found three low-ranking soldiers guilty of beating villagers unconscious during the military's offensive against separatist rebels in Aceh province, and sentenced them to short jail terms. They are the second batch of soldiers found guilty of the same crime during an operation in Lawang village on May 27.

Jakarta – The Indonesian military said Thursday it will check reports from the country's national human rights commission that a mass grave has been discovered in Aceh province.

The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) told AFP Wednesday that its representatives in Aceh had received information about a grave believed to contain dozens of bodies.

Banda Aceh – All of Aceh's 67,000 civil servants will be re-registered and asked to attend roll-calls to affirm their loyalty to the country, a regional administration spokesman said on Wednesday.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – The Indonesian Government is planning new regulations to restrict foreign access to the war-torn Aceh province, as evidence emerges that the Indonesian army has trained militia groups to help its military offensive against the separatist movement GAM.

Prangtip Daorueng, Jakarta – The Indonesian government is once again using nationalistic propaganda and media censorship to gain public support for its military offensive in Aceh, but journalists and activists say Jakarta would do well to learn from its previous mistakes in East Timor.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – Coordinating Minister for People' Welfare Jusuf Kalla insisted on Wednesday that the martial law administrator in Aceh would issue a new measure soon, to bar all foreigners from entering the province.

Nana Rukmana, Indramayu, West Java – Over 45,000 hectares of rice plants in the Indramayu and Cirebon regencies, known as the rice belt of West Java, have withered following the early arrival of the annual drought, predicted to last until November.

Jayapura – Trikora Military Commander Maj. Gen. Nurdin Zainal who overseas Papua withdrew a defamation suit on Wednesday against EL-SHAM Papua for accusing the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) of involvement in the attack on a PT Freeport employee bus in Tembagapura last August. Two foreigners and an Indonesian were killed in the incident.

Gillian Davey – Immigration minister Philip Ruddock's June 3 decision to grant 379 East Timorese asylum seekers permanent residency in Australia is a decision that all supporters of refugees' right should welcome. The decision ends more than a decade of waiting for the 379 people concerned.

Banda Aceh – Indonesia's Red Cross said on Wednesday it had taken 151 bodies to hospitals and morgues in Aceh since a fresh military offensive against rebels began, adding all victims had been wearing civilian clothes.

James Balowski – At around 9pm on June 4, two German tourists camping out near Lueng Gayo beach in the sub-district of Teunom in West Aceh were fired on by Indonesian troops (TNI). Lothar Heinrich Albert (54) died from a bullet wound to the chest and his wife, Elisabeth Engel (50), was shot in the knee. She is now being treated at the regional military command hospital.

Jill Jolliffe, Darwin – East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri is aiming to turn former bitter enemies into best friends and neighbours during his first official visit to Indonesia since his nation became independent.

James Balowski, Jakarta – Although coverage of Indonesia's brutal war in its northern-most province of Aceh has all but disappeared from the international media, it is still front-page news here.

Jill Joliff – East Timor's prime minister drew fire from Jakarta yesterday after resuming his call for an international tribunal to try Indonesian officers for alleged human rights abuses during his country's bloody fight for independence.

Vannessa Hearman, Melbourne – Fernando de Araujo heads the Democratic Party (PD) in East Timor, the second-largest party in the country's parliament. He also leads an eight-party parliamentary opposition to the Fretilin government. The opposition coalition includes parties from a diverse range of political perspectives.

Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta – The government is reviewing a presidential decree on public procurements to reduce corruption, but the effort has met with stiff resistance from various sides, including business associations.

Jakarta – The government team sent to Sweden to secure that country's cooperation in the war against GAM has handed over evidence to the Swedish government which its claims proves that Free Aceh Movement (GAM) leaders in Sweden are involved in separatist and terror acts in Aceh.

Jakarta – About 10,000 youth, mostly high school students, rallied outside parliament yesterday, urging legislators to pass a controversial Bill to regulate religious teaching in private schools.

Jakarta – Top level government delegations from East Timor and Indonesia signed an agreement Wednesday to control border traffic between the two halves of Timor island. The accord came after two hours of talks led by Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri and Timorese Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, who is on his first official visit to Timor's former occupying power.

Luhur Hertanto, Jakarta – The government will soon conduct a special investigations (Litsus) of state civil servants in Aceh. This follows information which suggests Acehnese civil servants are involved in the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – The government said on Tuesday it would investigate two companies which, according to environmental group Greenpeace's recent investigative report, have been allegedly involved in the supplying of illegal logs from Indonesian rainforests to build the UK's new home ministry office building in London.

Tangerang – Some 400 workers from wood processing company PT Tambun Kusuma staged a rally at the Tangerang legislative council on Tuesday amid fears that the management would lay them off.

The protesters accused the company of looking for shortcomings on the part of its workers by claiming that 40 percent of them held fake school diplomas.

Frida Berrigan – Far from the spotlight and far from Baghdad, another shock and awe campaign is underway. On May 19th, Indonesia launched a military campaign to "strike and paralyze" a small band of separatist rebels in the Aceh province.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) found human rights and humanitarian law violations in its preliminary inquiry into the imposition of martial law in conflict-ridden Aceh.

Indonesian troops and separatist rebels have fought their fiercest battle since a campaign was launched last month to crush the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), the military said.

Berni K. Moestafa, Lhokseumawe – Just hours after claiming to have made significant progress in its operation to crush the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), the Indonesian Military (TNI) lost seven soldiers during a clash in Matang Kumbang, Bireun regency, Aceh, on Monday.

Jakarta – The Aceh provincial administration's plan to screen 67,000 civil servants and "severely punish" those found to support the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has sparked criticism.

Jakarta – Thousands of children are being trafficked for prostitution in Indonesia and parents or other family members are often to blame, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said on Thursday.

Andrew Burrell – Four Indonesian state electricity workers arrived in the small village of Bendo in central Java last week on a routine job to replace some power cables. Minutes later, three of them had been bashed to death by a frenzied mob and their bodies burnt.

Indonesia's Ministry of Environment has called on PT Freeport Indonesia (FI), the operator of the giant Grasberg copper-gold mine in West Papua province, to completely improve the system of its tailing disposal by the year 2004 or face legal proceedings.

Khairul Ikhwan, Medan – There are indications that a number of civil servants in the Aceh provincial government are involved in the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), although none have so far been proven to be so. Aceh governor, Abdullah Puteh has said that the government is in the process of carrying out a more thorough investigation.

Haidir Anwar Tanjung, Pekanbaru – Choking haze plaguing the main island of Riau and the Riau archipelago, bordering Singapore and Malaysia, has reached an alarming level, raising health concerns and disturbing traffic in the province.

Dili – East Timor's prime minister drew fire from Jakarta Tuesday after resuming his call for an international tribunal to try Indonesian officers for alleged rights abuses during the country's bloody fight for independence.