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.

Jakarta – Despite improvements in health over the past decades, Indonesia is listed as being among the countries that contribute 40 percent of the world's maternal deaths.

Bill Guerin – Despite growing "anti-IMF" sentiment among some Indonesian politicians, last month's draft budget for 2003 was crafted to appease the International Monetary Fund and ensure that the country continues to receive the remaining tranches of a long-drawn-out US$5 billion rescue program.

An Indonesian prosecutor has proposed that controversial human rights trials be moved to Dili, the capital of neighbouring East Timor.

Prosecutor Gabriel Simangunsong says it is difficult to get witnesses from the fledgling country to testify in Jakarta.

Sharon Labi, Fatuk-Hun – The red juice of the betel nut stains her teeth and runs down her chin, settling in the cracks of her lips and the wrinkles of her weathered face. Maria Jose Barrato has no idea how old she is; her guess is at least 80, and it shows.

East Timor's foreign minister Jose Ramos-Horta says the country's fledgling judicial and prison systems are frail because there are insufficient judges.

He has told Radio New Zealand that judges appointed by the United Nations two years ago were without basic education in law and only a few had law degrees.

Dan Murphy, Wonosobo – Maya Friera's letter home is filled with re-assurances for her parents. The 8-year-old promises she's studying hard and saying her prayers every day.

Sharon Labi, Dili – They idolise Britney Spears, watch lots of TV and worry about what to wear to school. But one disturbing truth sets these teenage girls apart from others their age – most have been raped and many have witnessed the torture and murder of family members.

[Political pressure is mounting for the resignation of Indonesian Attorney-General Muhammad Abdurrahman. Following allegations that he has underdisclosed his personal wealth he has become a target for anti-corruption campaigners and political rivals of the President.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – President Megawati Sukarnoputri has been on a seven-nation tour abroad while President Gloria Arroyo has personally visited illegal workers deported from Malaysia.

Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – Labor union activists and businessmen have expressed discontent with the changes to the labor bill being deliberated at the House of Representatives, saying the revision fails to accommodate their respective aspirations.

Jamie Walker – According to the army, it began as a Melbourne Cup day joke. Hot and bored, a group of Australian soldiers spotted two Timorese boys herding water buffalo along a sun-blasted street fronting the Battalion Support Group compound in Dili, East Timor.

A private wrapped a US dollar note around a rock and threw it to the children.

A special fund to compensate former Indonesian government employees and pensioners in East Timor expects to make its first payments next month, a founder of the fund said Monday.

Chris McCall – Virtual pariahs after their bloody destruction of East Timor, the Indonesian military and police were turned overnight into prospective friends of the West by September 11.

Police fired blank ammunition, tear gas and water cannons on Wednesday to stop a brawl between about 300 student protesters demanding the dissolution of the former ruling Golkar Party and dozens of thugs loyal to the party.

Greg Sheridan – The Bush Administration was shocked at the extent of al-Qa'ida's penetration of southeast Asia, says US Deputy Defence Secretary and former ambassador to Indonesia Paul Wolfowitz.

Wolfowitz's view flatly rejects the claims of some commentators that regional governments have exaggerated the terrorist network's links for domestic political purposes.

[Lesley McCulloch, a lecturer in Asian Studies at the University of Tasmania in Australia, says government forces and the independence movement are responding to the problem in very different ways. She writes from Aceh that there's evidence that the police and military are involved in the drug trade, while the independence movement wants to stamp it out.]

An Indonesian soldier and two civilians were killed in the restive province of Aceh, the military and residents said.

Dean Yates, Jakarta – In the struggle for the public face of Islam in Indonesia, militant Muslims rarely encounter anyone willing to confront them head on.

But Ulil Abshar-Abdalla, a young moderate Muslim intellectual, has taken the battle to the militants on the radio airwaves and through newspaper columns to defend Indonesia's traditional Islamic tolerance.

Fitri Wulandari and Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Nunukan – Rustan was dreaming of streets paved in gold when he took the offer to work in Malaysia last year. He left his hometown of Rappang in South Sulawesi, bringing with him his wife Pasah and their two-month-old son, Ruslan.

Phil Goff – The Foreign Minister Phil Goff says it is a matter of shame that New Zealand, Australia and the United States did not strongly oppose the Indonesian invasion of East Timor in the 1970's.

He has released classified papers on the invasion ahead of visits this month by the Timorese President Xanana Gusmao and foreign minister Dr Jose Ramos-Horta.

Ken Dalecki – If your company does business overseas, keep an eye on several lawsuits against US corporations alleging that they are "vicariously liable" for human rights abuses committed by others in countries where they do business.

Washington – The United States Under Secretary for Defense Paul Wolfowitz said here on Wednesday that the US government was very "disappointed" with the apparent lack of will to prosecute human rights abusers, particularly those from the Indonesian military (TNI), but added that it would be a mistake to paint the whole institution with the same brush.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI), a Muslim militant Muslim group which allegedly has links to al-Qaeda, threatened on Friday to launch "sweeps" against foreign nationals working illegally in major Indonesian cities, DPA news agency reported.

Robert Go, Jakarta – The Indonesian government wants to allow open-pit mining in protected forest areas in a bid to get more cash out of the country's vast natural resources and to speed up the pace of development in its eastern provinces.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Most Jakartans are familiar with the presence of street children at most intersections in the city every day. They take their existence for granted as another dark side of the city.

The move by some 4,000 Indonesian villagers to sue the Japanese government and its aid agencies over losses caused by the Kota Panjang dam is a sad repeat of earlier fiascos that, when the dam was first envisaged, were not supposed to happen.

Jakarta – Four people, including three teenage girl athletes, died in a powerful explosion at a sports stadium in Indonesia's strife-torn Ambon city, police said yesterday.

Jakarta – Two days after House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung was convicted of graft, his future has been narrowed down to two choices: resign or have legislators dismiss him through an honorary council.

A separatist leader in Indonesia's Papua province has accused the military of mounting an attack which killed two Americans and one Indonesian near the huge Freeport mine.

The army has blamed followers of Kelly Kwalik, a local leader of the disorganized and poorly armed Free Papua Movement (OPM) separatist army for the attack on August 31.

Matthew Moore – Glaciers appear to hang from the sky above Tembagapura, an improbable town squeezed into a valley perched nearly two kilometres above a lush Papuan rain forest. It's a crazy place to build.

Jalil Hamid, Nunukan – Indonesian officials say 35 deportees from Malaysia have died at sprawling makeshift camps in Borneo as they await the arrival of a navy vessel bringing medical help.

Jakarta (Agencies) – A powerful exploded at a stand in Merdeka Stadium in Ambon on Thursday, killing three junior high-school students and injuring 11 others, some seriously.

Antara identified two of the dead as Carla P, 15, from State Junior High School (SMPN) 4 and Yoke Siahaya from SMPN 6. Some of the injured are being treated at the GPM Hospital.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – A conviction on corruption charges and a three-year jail sentence have eroded Indonesian parliamentary Speaker Akbar Tandjung's chances of contesting the 2004 presidential elections.

Jakarta – Indonesian prosecutors yesterday indicted the half-brother of former president Suharto for embezzling state reforestation funds.

They charged Probosutejo, 72, with misusing 100.93 billion rupiah worth of funds designated by the Forestry Ministry for two of his companies in 1993, chief prosecutor I Ketut Murtika said.

Banda Aceh – Rebels in Indonesia's restive Aceh province ambushed a convoy of vehicles carrying several top security and government officials, leaving a police commander critically injured, officials said on Friday.

R.K. Nugroho, Jayapura – Four United States security officials, allegedly including an FBI agent, are visiting Papua to help look into last week's ambush that killed two Americans and one Indonesian as Indonesian troops ceased their pursuit of suspected attackers.

Muhammad Nafik, Jakarta – Criticism of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute Foundation (YLBHI) has mounted following the taking control of the once respected non-governmental organization by senior lawyers linked to the military and graft suspects.

Matthew Moore, Timika – Indonesia's national police force chief has promised to investigate allegations of military involvement in Saturday's fatal attack on a group of mainly American teachers working at the remote Freeport gold mine. Three people died in the attack and 11 were wounded.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – The conviction of parliamentary Speaker Akbar Tandjung, the second case in which a politically connected person has been sentenced to jail in the past two months, is being seen as another positive step for Indonesia's legal system.

Jakarta – Though kicked out of parliament, the army is still a force to be reckoned with. When Indonesia's parliament voted recently to abolish the 38 seats it reserves for the armed forces, pundits hailed the move as proof that the chief instrument of repression during the 32-year dictatorship of Suharto had finally been brought under civilian control.

[Leading law-makers in Indonesia are calling for the suspension of Akbar Tanjung as parliamentary speaker following his conviction for corruption. A Jakarta court has sentenced Mr Tanjung to three years' jail, for misusing over US four-million dollars in state funds, meant for the poor.

Jakarta – Hundreds of university students demonstrated in front of the Jakarta City Council building on Wednesday to protest against incumbent Governor Sutiyoso's reelection bid.

Demonstrator Syarif Effrina, from Jakarta State University (UNJ), said councillors should not be reelect Sutiyoso on Sept. 11 as he was inept, among other things.

[World Bank outgoing country director for Indonesia Mark Baird assumed the position in 1999 when the country was still struggling from a deep economic crisis, making him one of the few people intimately familiar with the country's economic development.

Jakarta – The Indonesian government will host the 55th session of the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Committee for South-East Asia Region on September 11-13, according to an official release here Thursday.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Indonesia's military will not get out of business just yet but could set up holding companies to consolidate and clean up the hundreds of enterprises under its control, according to top generals and sources.