Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – The government has paid no attention to the plight of child domestics, many of whom have fallen victim to sexual harassment by their employers, activists say.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Convict Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra received important guests on Monday as more than 30 legislators, accompanied by hundreds of reporters, paid a visit to Cipinang penitentiary in East Jakarta.

Simon Cameron-Moore and Elaine Monaghan, Bandar Seri Begawan/Singapore – Indonesia defended its record in fighting terrorism on Tuesday as US Secretary of State Colin Powell lent support, hinting Washington was ready to consider resuming military ties.

Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has ruled out immediate membership for East Timor, the world's newest country, officials said Tuesday.

Asean foreign ministers, meeting at an informal dinner Monday, discussed bringing in East Timor as the 11th member of the regional grouping but could not reach a consensus.

Jakarta – Reebok International Ltd, the world's No. 2 athletic shoe-maker, said on Tuesday it is committed to production in Indonesia after 1,000 workers staged a protest against it in Jakarta the day before.

Mario Osava, Rio de Janeiro – Brazil will provide assistance in a wide range of areas to help rebuild East Timor, the world's newest nation and one of its poorest, whose first president, Josi Alexandre Xanana Gusmao, is visiting Latin America's largest country this week.

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – The victims of the July 27 incident are unlikely to see justice served in the near future as legal enforcers are reluctant to handle the case seriously, particularly if it touches on former high-ranking officials, legislators said.

Jakarta – Five senior police and military officers charged with allowing a church massacre to take place in the former Indonesian province of East Timor pleaded innocent on Tuesday.

Jose Belo, Dili – Although it's one of Asia's poorest nations, East Timor is open to receiving 56 Sri Lankan asylum-seekers stranded on a boat in its capital's harbor, its acting foreign minister said Tuesday.

The Sri Lankans were attempting to make their way to New Zealand but were forced to abandon their journey Sunday after they ran out of food, water and fuel.

Police in Indonesia's Papua province say they plan to crack down on separatist activists in the resource-rich region if dialogue fails.

Jakarta – Indonesia's military chief said on Tuesday the problems in rebellious Aceh province should be resolved through dialogue but that separatists must drop their call for an independent state.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The urban centres of Batam, Java and Sumatra will be swamped by at least 100,000 workers returning from Malaysia this week – and they won't be welcome.

Jakarta – Setting fire to a giant cardboard replica of a Reebok shoe, more than a thousand workers from the US-based manufacturer protested outside the American Embassy in Jakarta over a cut in orders they claimed has left 5,400 workers jobless.

Berni K. Moestafa, Jakarta – With new political parties sprouting fast, analysts said their prospects at the 2004 general election were dim as most of them lacked a clear support base at the grassroots level.

Banjarmasin – Activists of two student groups rallied on Monday to demand that South Kalimantan Governor Sjachriel Darham step down for incompetence.

On separate occasions, the Pro-Revolution Student Solidarity (SMPR) and the provincial chapter of the Indonesian Youth Committee (KNPI) said that Sjachriel was incapable to develop South Kalimantan during his tenure.

Vietnam and East Timor have established diplomatic relations in a brief ceremony the eve of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations foreign ministers' annual meeting in Brunei.

Vietnam's Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien and his East Timorese counterpart Jose Ramos-Horta signed a joint communique on the establishment of diplomatic ties.

Robert Go. Jakarta – HIV rates in Indonesia could be on the rise after revelations by the local Red Cross unit (PMI) that there has been a dramatic increase over the last five years in the number of donated blood samples that contain the lethal virus.

Jakarta – Indonesia's top Islamic organisation Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) yesterday demanded that an article guaranteeing religious freedom be kept untouched in the country's Constitution.

NU reiterated its stand at the close of its congress that it opposed efforts to make religious practice and syariah law obligatory for Indonesian Muslims.

Jakarta – What was President Megawati Soekarnoputri doing when thousands of her die-hard supporters and victims of the July 27 bloody attack were crying out for justice last Saturday? Throwing a party for her children, brothers and sisters of her businessman husband Taufik Kiemas, and several family business friends to celebrate her one year in office.

[First to Indonesia, where the convicted favourite son of former President Suharto is likely to appeal a 15-year jail sentence for masterminding the murder of a judge and other crimes.

Jakarta – Indonesian police have been questioning witnesses to a bomb blast that ripped through a crowded market, injuring 53 people in a Christian neighbourhood of the religiously divided province of Maluku.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – In a move to net potential voters who have been disappointed with the performances of existing political parties represented in the country's supreme law-making body, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), two noted political observers declared a new party on Sunday.

Bandar Seri Begawan – Tommy Suharto's conviction augurs well for the independence of the judiciary in Indonesia, according to Datuk Param Cumaraswamy, the United Nations special rapporteur who had last week said the country's legal system was the worst he had ever seen.

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Around 1,000 people gathered on Saturday on Jl. Diponegoro in Central Jakarta, to commemorate the July 27, 1996 incident when hundreds of people attacked supporters of the then-ousted chairman of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Defence lawyers for former President Suharto's youngest son, who was convicted on Friday of ordering the killing of a judge, intend to focus their appeal to the High Court on a technicality – the judges delivered the verdict and 15-year sentence to an empty chair.

Robert Go, Jakarta – The judges heaved a sigh of relief, the prosecutors claimed justice had been done, the defence lawyers cried foul, but the media responded to Friday's guilty verdict and the 15-year sentence against former president Suharto's favourite son with plenty of scepticism.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Life behind bars must be terrible, especially in the notorious Cipinang penitentiary in East Jakarta.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Poverty and desperation almost drove Dinda to prostitution in her teenage years.

She needed the money for her destitute family neglected by a drunk and chronic gambler father. But she was saved from a cruel fate by her renewed faith in Islam. And to reaffirm her conviction, she decided to wear the Muslim headscarf or jilbab.

Grace Nirang, Jakarta – Life had returned to normal on the streets of Indonesia's troubled eastern city of Ambon on Sunday, police said, a day after a bomb blast that injured 53 people and may raise fresh doubts about a regional peace pact.

The diplomat who nursed East Timor to nationhood is the new UN Human Rights Commissioner. Jill Jolliffe recalls his reign in Dili.

Peter Kammerer – Relations with Indonesia are progressing strongly, with issues such as the return of refugees to be settled within months, Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta said yesterday.

Mr Ramos Horta, on a private visit to Hong Kong before the Asean Regional Forum in Brunei on Monday, said Dili and Jakarta were involved in numerous negotiations.

An Indonesian court has jailed for 15 years the son of former dictator Soeharto for ordering the daylight shooting one year ago of a Supreme Court judge.

Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, 40, was also convicted of arms possession and of fleeing justice in a trial being closely watched by Indonesians as a test of the progress of democratic reform.

Max Lane – There is an interesting parallel between the history of East Timor and of Indonesia in relation to how international public opinion changed towards the presidency of General Suharto.

East Timor's Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta says the legal framework needed to attract foreign investment will be established by the end of this year.

Speaking at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Hong Kong, Mr Ramos-Horta said East Timor had a budget deficit of 30 million US dollars this year, which had been filled by contributions from donor countries.

President Megawati Sukarnoputri's performance in dealing with rebellious Aceh province is worse than her two predecessors Abdurrahman Wahid and B.J. Habibie, says an Australian observer.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The trial of nine members of the Army's special force (Kopassus) accused of killing Papuan leader Theys Hiyo Eluay will likely face further delay because the military police cannot guarantee they can hand over the results of their investigation to military prosecutors next month.

The youngest son of former Indonesian dictator Suharto has begun a 15-year prison term for masterminding the murder of a judge amid protests that his sentence failed to match the severity of his crimes.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – The Indonesian government has again extended the deadline for the repatriation of East Timorese refugees living in squalid camps in West Timor.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda said Friday the refugees would lose their refugee status by December 31, 2002 – the third such deadline.

Berni K. Moestafa, Jakarta – The surge in the number of political parties – now around 180 – may signal a thriving democracy but analysts warned on Friday new parties catered more to the political illiterate and failed to meet the people's diverse needs.

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta – An alliance of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) criticized the government on Friday for its lack of transparency in implementing policies to end regional conflicts, especially those in Aceh and Maluku.

The Central Jakarta District Court finally handed down the verdict for Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra without the presence of the defendant, who claimed to be sick. Several people share their cynical views on the case and on the judiciary in general.

Iskandar, 20, a hawker on city buses, who comes from Lampung and has been living in Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta, since 1994.

Michael Casey, Jakarta – A bomb exploded in a crowded marketplace in Indonesia's religiously divided province of Maluku Saturday, injuring 53 people, police said.

The 9am blast ripped through a market packed with shoppers in a Christian neighborhood of Ambon, a provincial capital that is divided between warring Christian and Muslim sides.

Jakarta – The Indonesian military said its troops shot dead on Friday at least 13 men believed to be separatist rebels in troubled Aceh province, where thousands have died in more than two decades of fighting.

President Xanana Gusmao vetoed the East Timorese government's tax-hiking fiscal bill Friday, in his second clash this month with Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri over financial and economic policies.

The head of the UN mission in East Timor met Friday with Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri for discussions aimed to "consolidate and intensify" relations between Dili and Jakarta.

President Megawati Sukarnoputri opened a conference of Indonesia's largest Muslim organisation with a rare attack on the "narrow fanaticism" of more extremist Islamic groups.

Jakarta – The political reforms that Indonesia has introduced since 1998 have been duly noted by the United Nations, but these have done little to improve the country's international standing in human development progress.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The Indonesian military and police may be forced to re-count and re-register their standard weapons after revelations that many such arms are being used in an increasing number of armed robberies in major cities.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Most wanted in Indonesia: More than half a million teachers willing to work long hours for little pay, no job security and little upward mobility.

Emad Mekay, Washington – Two very distinct welcomes have greeted the newest member of the International Monetary Fund (IMF): free-market advice from the Fund and World Bank and warnings from civil society groups about who controls its money.