Grace Nirang, Jakarta – Gunmen shot dead nine Christians in Indonesia's eastern Ambon city on Wednesday and police said they could not rule out the possibility of unrest erupting elsewhere during next week's Christmas celebrations.

Jakarta – Indonesia's army commander indicated for the first time that rogue troops may have killed a separatist politician in Irian Jaya province last month. "If it is one of my men who did it, [then] this is an action without any orders," General Endriartono Sutarto said after meeting President Megawati Sukarnoputri on Wednesday.

Sydney – The commonwealth is fighting a US company's bid to win compensation in the federal court for losing vast gas reserves in the Timor Sea.

The Constituent Assembly today passed the fortieth article of East Timor's draft Constitution, approving eight articles relating to rights of the citizen.

The articles passed today, all with significant majorities, include the following:

Jayapura – Just four days before President Megawati Soekarnoputri is due in Irian Jaya's provincial capital of Jayapura to hand over the much-awaited Autonomy Law to Papuan elders, students in the country's easternmost province are already intensifying their protests rejecting the proposed wide-ranging autonomy.

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta – Human rights abuses involving the state remain rife as the economic crisis continues to batter Indonesia, a local human rights watchdog says.

Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta), an affiliation of the Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI), predicts that the situation will not improve next year.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Public anger is growing in Indonesia over the "soft" treatment that the country's most notorious suspect, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, has received since police investigators nabbed him three weeks ago.

Jakarta – Some 200 people vandalized a police station in Indonesia's West Java, after police rejected their demand to hand over a murder suspect, police said Wednesday.

The mob attacked parts of the Cianjur district police on Monday evening, pelting stones after police refused to hand over the man suspected of having killed a motortaxi driver, First Sergeant Suhendi said.

Ambon – Gunmen shot dead nine Christians travelling in a boat in the riot-torn eastern Indonesian city of Ambon, residents and hospital sources said Wednesday. Six women and three men were killed Tuesday, a nurse at the Halong navy hospital told AFP.

Darlis Muhammad, Palu – This year alone it has been recorded that attacks and violence have affected 61 villages in Poso Regency, Central Sulawesi. The turmoil comprises 124 incidents that have claimed 141 lives, 90 injuries, 27 missing people and 102 cases of abuse. Furthermore, 2438 cases of arsen and other physical attacks upon houses have been recorded.

Jakarta – Indonesian MPs are planning an all-expenses paid jaunt around Asia to carry out a study of the perks accorded to their peers, the Jakarta Post reported Wednesday.

MPs from the national assembly's In-House Affairs Body will undertake a "comparitive studies" trip to compare their salaries, benefits and office facilities with legislators elsewhere in the region.

Agence France Presse in Jakarta – Hundreds of students occupied the Parliament in Indonesia's restive province of Irian Jaya yesterday, demanding an independence referendum instead of a new autonomy package from the central Government.

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Government intervention in political parties' internal affairs, commonplace during the authoritarian New Order era, is making a comeback, analysts say.

They said on Saturday that the practice would disrupt the process of democratization and the new found freedoms that began to emerge following president Soeharto's fall in 1998.

Lela E. Madjiah, Lhokseumawe – The Indonesian Military (TNI) is considering reestablishing the Iskandar Muda military command, which would be an Aceh-specific military command, if the Acehnese people agree to its resumption, a military commander said here on Sunday.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – The military says it has found evidence that a group on the Indonesian side of Timor island is striving for an independent state, which it wants to call Timor Raya. Col.

Bandung – Hundreds of prisoners at the Kebon Waru Penitentiary in Bandung, West Java, were involved in an extremely intense riot on Thursday, damaging the warden's office and smashing windows and other property inside the prison.

Dili – East Timor's Constituent Assembly appears to be gaining momentum in its deliberations, today passing 12 articles covering a wide range of rights issues.

The increased speed in deliberations – as compared with the assembly's previous passage of, in some cases, just one article a day – reflects a change of procedures and longer working hours agreed upon last week.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – The Indonesian military is sounding the alarm over a separatist group that is aspiring to unite both halves of Timor island.

East Timor's interim foreign minister, Jose Ramos Horta, visited the Lisbon headquarters of the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP) Monday, reaffirming Dili's intention of joining the seven-nation organization.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – National Intelligence Agency chief A.M. Hendropriyono backtracked on Thursday from comments he made one day earlier that an international terrorist group in Poso were exacerbating the Christian-Muslim conflict there.

R.K. Nugroho, Irian Jaya – Papuans are becoming increasingly impatient with the slow pace of the investigation into the death of independence leader Theys Hiyo Eluay, who many believed was murdered for political reasons.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Legislators rejected on Thursday some articles in the government-sponsored antiterrorism bill which, it was widely feared, would justify human rights abuses.

Jakarta – Former president Suharto could not be tried because of illness but it was up to prosecutors whether or not to take him to court again, the Supreme Court said yesterday.

Ahmad Junaidi, Jakarta – The City administration is hastily implementing stopgap measures to prevent an outbreak of disease threatened by the mounting piles of trash throughout Jakarta, neglected as a result of the dispute over the Bantar Gebang dump site.

Jakarta – Indonesia signed a new letter of intent with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) yesterday, paving the way for the disbursement of a long-delayed US$400 million (S$732 million) loan.

[On November 21 President Megawati Soekarnoputri signed off on a new anti-corruption law. Teten Masduki, chairman of Indonesia Corruption Watch, in an interview with The Jakarta Post contributor Christiani Tumelap, criticizes the definition of corruption adopted in the new law on the grounds that it only covers activities that cause a financial loss to the state.]

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung's days are numbered as parliamentary speaker and party leader as foes within and outside Golkar conspire to establish a special commission to probe his involvement in a damning financial scandal.

Indonesia has extended its aid programs to some 70,000 East Timorese refugees by one month to the end of January, allowing them more time to decide between repatriation and resettlement in other parts of the country.

The military commander of Indonesian West Timor, Major-General Willem da Costa, made the decision public Thursday.

Debate continued Thursday in East Timor's parliament on the future constitution of the territory, due to become independent next May. Members of the Constituent Assembly voted to remove the term "sexual orientation" from part of article 16 of the final draft constitution which deals with anti-discrimination.

Jakarta – United Development Party (PPP) chairman Hamzah Haz dismissed on Wednesday media reports claiming that his party had received money from the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) and then president B.J. Habibie in 1999.

Four separatist rebels have been killed in the latest violence in Indonesia's troubled province of Aceh, security authorities said.

Soldiers killed four suspected members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in a gunfight Wednesday in Aceh Besar district, said military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Firdaus.

Jakarta – Employees of state-owned cement maker PT Semen Gresik will strike on Friday, with support from its president, if the government does not drop plans to sell a 51 percent of the company to Mexico's cement giant Cemex SA de CV, a union leadersays.

Oslo – Most of the 60,000 East Timorese refugees still abroad are likely to return by the end of 2002 and any linked to pro-Jakarta militias will be treated fairly, the territory's chief minister said on Wednesday.

Members of East Timor's Constituent Assembly approved a motion Thursday extending the period for debate and approval of the future Constitution until January 25, more than a month after the date originally scheduled.

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra's lawyer, Elza Syarif, played down on Monday the allegation that there was a deliberate ploy between her client and the police over recent cases released by Tommy's lawyers, which were believed to be aimed at distracting public attention.

Max Lane – The cities and towns of the northern province of Aceh were almost like ghost towns on December 4, the 25th anniversary of the GAM, the Free Aceh Movement.

Jakarta – The House of Representatives (DPR) passed a bill mandating the creation of a council to help the President develop a policy on national defense into law Monday.

Jakarta – Indonesia was unlikely to arrest a military officer charged in the first trial of cases of crime against humanity arising from the mayhem surrounding East Timor's 1999 independence vote, a senior rights advocate said Wednesday.

Ambon – The situation in Ambon, the provincial capital of Maluku, was tense on Tuesday morning following an explosion onboard the California passenger boat, which was in Ambon Bay sailing from Benteng seaport to Galala ferry port.

Jakarta – Indonesia has proposed raising domestic phone charges by an average of 15 percent starting next year in a move which will help state phone monopoly PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) boost its revenues and reach its fixed line growth target.

Chris McCAll, Poso – Osama bin Laden's photo adorns sentry posts along the road into Poso, with the words "jihad post" scrawled on the wooden walls. Above them fly flags bearing Arabic calligraphy and sometimes the image of a sword.

Annastashya Emmanuelle, Jakarta – Jakarta may sink under a mountain of rotting garbage within a matter of days unless the city administration finds new appropriate dump sites for the 25,000 cubic meters of household trash that the city produces daily.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Legal experts strongly criticized on Monday the antiterrorism bill currently being formulated at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, saying that the bill has condoned violence in its articles.

Dili – East Timor's fledgling lawmaking body on Tuesday adopted the tongues of both their native ancestors and Portuguese colonisers as the official languages of the world's newest nation.

Jakarta – More than 1,000 students and youths demonstrated peacefully in Irian Jaya Tuesday to demand quick answers over the murder of pro-independence leader Theys Hiyo Eluay last month, police said.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – In an unprecedented alliance, the environment and forestry ministries and the navy have launched a get-tough policy against illegal loggers and timber smuggling.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) Spokesman Rear Marshall Graito Usodo admitted on Monday that the Air Force charged US$4,500 (approximately Rp 45 million) an hour for air transport, but denied such "a fee" had delayed police deployment to conflict-torn places.

Jakarta – The House of Representatives approved on Monday the controversial National Police bill, which critics claimed was overly militaristic and was possibly open to abuse by the president's office.Only a few changes had been made to the bill which was passed despite severe public criticism.

Bronwyn Curran, Jakarta – Ten members of a gang responsible for one of the worst massacres linked to East Timor's 1999 vote for independence were Tuesday found guilty of crimes against humanity and given jail terms of up to 33 years, United Nations officials in Dili said.

Jakarta – The majority of factions in Indonesia's parliament on Monday rallied behind the idea of a probe into a financial scandal with which its influential speaker has been linked, a move that could boost political instability.