Washington – President George W. Bush on Monday talked about Iraq and the war on terrorism with Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri a week after the United States closed its Jakarta embassy, the White House said.

Berni K. Moestafa and Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – As disgraced House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung continued to turn a deaf ear to the mounting calls for him to step down, representatives of dozens of legislators will submit on Monday their petition against him to the House's steering committee.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has reminded the government of its unfinished investigations into a number of alleged crimes against humanity involving the state in Aceh.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – Papua's police chief has cast serious doubt on the Indonesian military's claim that separatists were responsible for last month's shooting of 14 people at a remote US mine.

Audrey Young – Jose Ramos-Horta, East Timor's Foreign Minister, is everything his country is not: highly educated, sophisticated and stylish.

For 25 years he roamed the globe as an international spokesman for East Timorese independence, acquiring degrees, a doctorate and a Nobel Peace Prize on the way.

Banda Aceh – Two personnel of the Police Mobile Brigade were killed in a firefight with rebels in Seunuddon, North Aceh, some 300 kilometers east of Banda Aceh on Saturday, according to reliable sources. The bodies of the two policemen who have yet to be identified were taken to the Military Hospital in Lhokseumawe, hours after the firefight.

Banda Aceh – A woman teacher was executed in war-torn Aceh on Thursday, adding to the growing list of more than 50 teachers killed since 1998.

R.K. Nugroho, Jayapura – Police in Papua have so far questioned 21 Army soldiers who were on duty during the shooting at giant copper and gold mining company PT Freeport Indonesia compound in Timika on August 31, 2002 but have said the investigation remained inconclusive with no one yet held responsible for the incident.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – Gunmen shot and wounded an Indonesian soldier yesterday in almost the same place that a fortnight ago gunmen killed three employees of a giant US mine in West Papua.

Alan Sipress and Ellen Nakashima, Jakarta – The body of a key suspect in the killing of two Americans and an Indonesian in the eastern province of Papua has been identified by his family as an informant for the Indonesian military's special forces, according to a human rights group helping in the police investigation.

Jakarta – A US-led attack on Iraq would fuel radicalism and anti-US sentiment among Muslim communities, putting western interests, particularly that of the United States, across the country further at risk, analysts warn.

Cairo – President Megawati Soekarnoputri has said the support she gave to Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso had nothing to do with his reelection victory.

"If he was reelected as governor, it was not because of me. Never relate it to me," she told a press conference here Thursday night, winding up her state visit to a number of African and European countries.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – A widespread blackout in the Indonesian capital and the surrounding West Java towns has underscored Jakarta's failure to build power infrastructure to keep pace with the growing demand.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Choking haze in central and west Kalimantan reached its worst levels this season, with visibility down to only a few metres yesterday.

A scientist from an international forestry research centre said the pollution levels, that are now being described as "extremely dangerous", were predictable, given the dry El Nino season.

Yuliansyah, Banjarmasin – The Association of Indonesian Private School Employees (Asokadikta) Banjarmasin chapter said Friday that it was planning to stage a large-scale rally to demand that the government give serious attention to the Rp 4 billion in overtime pay for temporary teachers that is still being held by the education office there.

Matthew Moore – The sign at the village gate says Kadun Jaya, but everyone calls it Kilo Sepuluh, or Ten K, because it is 10 kilometres out of town. The town is Timika, deep in the heart of Indonesian Papua and home to the best golf course, airstrip and hotel in the province, all built on the back of the world's richest gold mine, known as Freeport.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Activists hailed on Friday a bill on witness and victim protection, but demanded that it not only provide protection for witnesses in criminal cases, but ensure leniency for those people involved in criminal cases willing to testify against fellow defendants.

Jakarta – Experts welcomed on Friday the government's plan to provide incentives for rice farmers, but said that the government must also curb the smuggling of cheap rice into the country, which has been hurting farmers' income.

Jakarta – The Indonesian government has delayed plans to pass a controversial new media law that would bar local broadcast outlets from relaying foreign news programmes and allow the government to temporarily shut down news broadcasts deemed to violate the law.

Armed men in military uniforms were seen at the place where gunmen shot dead two Americans and an Indonesian teacher near the Freeport gold mine in Papua province, a report said Friday.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – Violent incidents such as the shooting of 14 people at a mine in the Indonesian province of Papua last month are likely to continue unless the Indonesian military's involvement in the area's resource projects is scaled right back, a report warns.

Nick O'malley – Fresh out of a Dili jail, Edit Horta, sister-in-law of East Timor's foreign minister, Jose Ramos Horta, island-hopped to Darwin in 1994.

She was pregnant and had an eight-year-old son in tow, but the need to escape Indonesia's oppressive rule and be reunited with her three daughters, who escaped two years earlier, kept her going.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – President Megawati Sukarnoputri's backing for the re-election of Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso has undermined her anti-graft drive, said analysts critical of her support for a politician widely seen as corrupt and ineffective.

John Garnaut – A Sydney University professor has described as "outrageous" claims by Indonesia's Security Minister, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, that the university could be linked to the murders two weeks ago of two Americans and one Indonesian on a road near the Freeport mine in Indonesia's Papua province.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Suhari spends almost one-third of his day on the road. It is not because he is a driver. The employee of a company in Kota, Central Jakarta, spends, on average, nearly six hours in public vehicles because he lives in East Bekasi, which is about 40 kilometers away from his workplace.

Richard Galpin, Jakarta – A senior police official in Indonesia has confirmed reports that 30 people demonstrating on Wednesday against the re-election of the governor of Jakarta were poisoned with cyanide.

Ibnu Mat Noor, Banda Aceh – Two unidentified gunmen in Aceh ignored the cries by a schoolboy for his mother's life on Thursday morning, shooting her in the head before stealing her motorcycle, local residents said.

[Indonesia, like other predominantly Islamic countries in the Asia Pacific region, has felt the impact of the September 11 attacks on the US. The effects have at times threatened to destabilise the balance between President Megawati Sukarnoputri's secular rule and the demands of a devout Muslim population.

Ainur R. Sophia'an and Nana Rukmana, Surabaya/Cirebon – Thousands of sugar farmers and peasants employed by sugar plantations in West and East Java went on strike Thursday to protest sugar imports that have affected the sugar industry at home.

Medan – At least 700 workers from six regencies in North Sumatra grouped under The North Sumatra Labor Union NGO Forum held a rally on Wednesday at the provincial legislature to oppose the bills on labor protection and industrial dispute settlement.

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – Three assessment companies appointed by the Ministry of Forestry to help filter out bad forest concession holders are being suspected of having links to certain concession holders including timber tycoon Bob Hasan.

Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – Over 550,000 poor families will no longer receive government assistance through "Rice for the Poor" program in 2003 due to a reduction in the subsidy and anticipated higher rice prices, the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) chief said on Wednesday.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Police yesterday fired blank warning shots, tear gas and water cannons to disperse thousands of protesters as Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso won a parliamentary vote for another five years in office.

Berni K. Moestafa and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – Activists have welcomed the submission of the anti-race and ethnic discrimination bill to the House of Representatives saying that it will ensure equal rights of all citizens.

Lee Kim Chew – Last week's three-year jail sentence for Akbar Tandjung, Indonesia's Lower House Speaker and Golkar party chairman, is another new milestone in the country's legal history.

Even as Akbar fights to stay in the saddle – he is appealing against his conviction for corruption – the reformers have claimed yet another sweet victory.

Berni K. Moestafa and Muhammad Nafik, Jakarta – Local analysts expressed doubt on Wednesday that al-Qaeda had any organized cells here, but warned that the country was ripe for radicalism, while at least one Muslim scholar said he had evidence of links between al-Qaeda and a local group.

A Dili court has sentenced a Timorese man who belonged to a pro-Indonesian militia to twenty years imprisonment for three murders that he committed in 1999, it was announced Wednesday.

Medan – Hundreds of employees of a regional construction company staged a demo at the city council building in Medan, North Sumatra, on Monday demanding a guarantee for their future employment status following the state owned firm's management transfer.

Catharine Munro, Jakarta – The Indonesian Government has ordered an investigation into links between a fatal ambush on international schoolteachers near a mine in Papua and a trip to Australia by a group of Papuans at the time of the attack.

Norman Brewer, Sydney – Reconciliation and peaceful dialogue among West Papuans was the theme of the workshop of the West Papua Project, held at Sydney University on September 2-3.

James Balowski – On August 31, a band of unidentified assailants ambushed a group of mine workers in Indonesia's eastern-most province of West Papua, leaving three dead and 11 injured.

Indonesian officials immediately blamed the Free Papua Movement (OPM), however others have accused the Indonesian security forces of involvement in the attack.

Jakarta – The Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which is fighting for the war-torn territory's independence, accepted the government's tentative plan for further dialogs in Geneva, Switzerland, by the end of September or early in October, to end the prolonged conflict that has claimed more than 900 civilian lives this year alone.

Representatives of protesters rejecting the likely re-election of Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso scuffled with police after they were refused entry to the voting room at the city legislative assembly building.

Jakarta – Indonesia's economy is forecast to grow 3.86 percent year-on-year in the third quarter and 5.76 percent year-on-year in the fourth due to expected higher output ahead of year-end celebrations, Finance Minister Boediono said on Wednesday.

US Ambassador to Indonesia Ralph L. Boyce has advised American investors not to make any new investments in Indonesia until the investment and security climate improves.

Tangerang – Hundreds of passengers were stranded across Tangerang on Monday following a strike by public minivan drivers serving three routes from Cimone to Cikupa, Tigaraksa and Perumnas.

Earlier in the day, drivers parked their vans at Kadewaran intersection in Bitung and then marched to the regency legislative council office to voice their protest.

Alan Sipress and Ellen Nakashima, Jakarta – Indonesian police are investigating whether soldiers were behind the killing of two Americans and one Indonesian near the Freeport-McMoRan gold and copper mine in the eastern province of Papua, the regional police chief said today.

[The most senior Indonesian diplomat in Australia has warned that a war on Iraq will divide Indonesia – Australia's most important and populous neighbour. Imron Cotan, the deputy chief at the Indonesian embassy in Canberra, says Indonesia wants United Nations backing for a war on Iraq.

Novan Iman Santosa, Jakarta – In a last minute attempt to foil governor Sutiyoso's nomination in the gubernatorial election on Wednesday, thousands of people from various groups – some brought along two cows with them -packed the City Council building on Jl. Kebon Sirih, Central Jakarta on Monday.

Manuela Saragosa – Indonesia has the world's second largest reserves of natural forest but the World Bank has warned it could all disappear within the next decade.

Critics say the country's forests have been exploited with little regard for their sustainability as a valuable resource.