A group of unidentified youths set fire Wednesday to a school in the East Timorese city of Baucau, 130 kms east of Dili, causing serious material damage. No one was hurt in the incident. UN civil police investigators said the group of between five and 10 people had set fire to the building at about 2:30 a.m. local time.

Joanna Jolly – East Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao said he supports pardons for militiamen who are found guilty of committing atrocities during the territory's 1999 vote for independence.

Tomi Soetjipto, Jakarta – Indonesian Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri's expected rise to power is likely to be clouded by the same opportunistic politicking that has plagued her hapless boss.

Sixteen political parties have nominated candidates to run in the August elections for East Timor's Constituent Assembly, meeting the deadline set for noon local time on Wednesday, UNTAET, the United Nations Transitional Administration in the territory, said today.

A leading Timorese aid worker has branded as a "sham" an Indonesian canvassing drive which found that 98% of East Timorese refugees confined to camps in West Timor did not want to go home.

Jakarta – Amid the topsy-turvy of preparations for the upcoming special session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), a total of 13 members of the House of Representatives (DPR) and the MPR finally submitted forms on their wealth to the Civil Servants' Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN).

Jakarta – Activists from the Anti-Torture Network visited on Tuesday the headquarters of the city police and the West, North and East Jakarta police, and reported that their detention cells were seriously overcrowded.

Max Lane – On June 15 the Indonesian police kidnapped eight members of the People's Democratic Party (PRD) and occupied and ransacked the PRD's West Java office. The PRD activists remain in police custody in Bandung and so far have been denied access to lawyers. In Jakarta, the police have also been arresting student activists.

Peter Boyle – Indonesian non-government organisations believe the June 8 raid by police on the Asia-Pacific Solidarity Conference, during which 32 foreigners were detained, was "a threat not only for [conference organiser] INCREASE but for all other pro-democracy NGOs". They have launched a lawsuit against the police.

Jakarta – The IMF said on Tuesday it would resume a vital $5 billion loan programme with Indonesia if the government agreed to delay a debate on controversial central bank law revisions.

Hamish McDonald – Within an hour of arriving in Canberra from a gruelling journey from Jakarta, Abdurrahman Wahid was plunged into a succession of discussions and engagements last night.

Geoffrey Barker – A wizened brown man with black teeth squatted in the dusty Balibo roadside with eight 5-litre plastic jerry cans of kerosene he had lugged 8 kilometres up steep jungle hills from the smugglers' market on the border between East Timor and Indonesian West Timor.

Jakarta – Pro-independence leader Don Flassy has been arrested and is now detained in Indonesia's remote Irian Jaya province, a justice official said Tuesday.

Australia and Indonesia had agreed to put behind them the strained relationship which arose over East Timor and move on, Prime Minister John Howard said today, while Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid promised to pursue the perpetrators of human rights atrocities in East Timor.

Craig Skehan – Australia and New Zealand will press Indonesia's visiting President Wahid to prosecute members of his country's military, and militiamen, over atrocities in East Timor. But the Prime Minister yesterday also pledged support for Indonesia's "territorial integrity" in the face of secessionist conflicts.

Is it mere symbolism for the Wahid visit that John Howard has had an apparent change of heart on Asia, asks Gerard Henderson?

Jakarta – More than 250 Mayasari Bhakti bus drivers went on strike on Monday, and hundreds of others are rumored to join on Tuesday to demand a bus fare increase to compensate their dwindling income from the fuel price hike.

Jakarta – After weeks of nationwide, sometimes riotous agitation, Indonesia's labor unions scored a major victory last week when the Wahid government decided to delay implementation of two new decrees criticized for undermining workers' interests.

Jane Counsel – A United States company is stepping up efforts to settle a 25-year dispute over the oil and gas riches of the Timor Gap, announcing yesterday it would launch legal proceedings to validate its claims.

Maputo – Guterres, visiting president of the Timorese liberation movement (Fretilin), declared here on Tuesday that he is confident his party will win in the country's first presidential election scheduled for August 30. Guterres made the remarks immediately after an audience with Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano, who is also president of the ruling Frelimo party.

The civil registration process has been a success. Since the start of it on 24 February till its closing on 22 June, 777,989 Timorese have been registered at the various centers in the country. The total population of Timor Lorosae has been estimated at 812,000 people.

George Quinn – Personally I don't think Indonesia will break up, but we are talking here of probabilities, and there is an outside chance, but a real chance, that current stresses will tear the nation apart. If this happens in any comprehensive way, the new state of East Timor will find itself the star player in a whole new regional ball game.

Yogyakarta – Revolutionary groups which attack gambling houses and nightspots in the name of religious beliefs are mushrooming here, causing residents to be increasingly fearful.

Bandung – Tens of youths from various youth groups under the umbrella of the former ruling Golkar Party occupied the West Java branch office of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) here on Monday.

Geoffrey Barker – Sergio Vieira de Mello says emphatically, perhaps too emphatically, that he is convinced East Timor's coming constituent assembly elections will be free of violence despite the country's long history of political violence.

Jakarta – The death of a woman migrant worker upon her arrival at the Soekarno Hatta International Airport on Thursday has prompted calls for the government to close the special gate at Terminal III for migrant workers.

Geoffrey Barker – An armada of big, white four-wheel-drive vehicles cruises and clogs the dusty roads of Dili carrying the army of United Nations soldiers, policemen and civil servants that is preparing the world's newest impoverished nation for independence.

A group of protesters has demonstrated outside the Indonesian consulate in Melbourne on the first day of Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid's Australian visit.

MMI Ahyani/HD, Jakarta – Around 1,000 thousands people from various organisations which are Golkar Party's underbouw came to West Java legislative on Jl Diponegoro, Bandung, Monday. They demand West Java legislative to urge the government disbanding organisations suggest a new communist movement.

Gde Anugrah Arka, Jakarta – Indonesia's floundering president has sacked the widely respected head of the bank restructuring agency (IBRA), in yet another shakeup at one of the troubled country's most vital institutions.

Jakarta – Dozens of armed men attacked a residential area in the town of Poso, Central Sulawesi, in the early hours of Sunday morning, killing two people and injuring three others. The unidentified men stormed houses and fired randomly during the predawn attack which caused panic among residents. Security personnel combing the area after the attack found two bodies.

Banda Aceh – At least five people were killed in Indonesia's Aceh province which has been wracked by separatism, the military and activists said on Sunday.

Louise Williams – As the torturous "death watch" over the presidency of Abdurrahman Wahid draws to a close his raucous political opponents will be able to claim only the most hollow of short-term victories.

Jakarta – The Indonesian government wants to collect 3.2 trillion rupiah in unpaid taxes from the fugitive youngest son of former president Suharto but has lost the paperwork. "He has not paid 3.2 trillion rupiah but he is very clever... not only is he missing, even the documents of the supreme court ruling have disappeared," Finance Minister Rizal Ramli said yesterday.

Agence France Presse in Jakarta – Indonesia's MPs came under fire yesterday after it emerged each is entitled to a 5.8 million rupiah allowance to buy washing machines as part of a package of generous perks.

MMI Ahyani/HD, Bandung – National Democratic Students Student League (LMND) is scheduled to file a lawsuit to West Java Police over an arrest of LMND's seven and Democratic People's Party (PRD) for West Java activists. Next week, a pre-trial be submitted since an arrest of those seven activists believed as fabricated.

Vaudine England, Denpasar – Bali is supposed to be a powerhouse of support for Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri, but interviews with activists and members of the local elite suggest such support can no longer be assumed.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Eddie, a former waterside thug, is not too worried about a local council's recently declared intention of clearing the city of illegal businesses such as his – a street stall where he sells fake branded bags.

Lindsay Murdoch – There will be a banquet in Parliament's Great Hall hosted by the Prime Minister, a Governor-General's dinner, red carpet, effusive speeches, toasts and an exchange of carefully chosen gifts.

Jakarta – Indonesia's state oil company Pertamina on Friday described as misguided a human rights case filed in Washington against US oil giant ExxonMobil over its operations in Indonesia.

Letitia Stein, Washington – A human rights group has filed suit against Exxon Mobil, accusing the world's largest oil company of rights abuses in Indonesia. The company has denied the allegations.

Jakarta – The international workshop on crimes against humanity ended on Thursday in controversy over the need to adopt human rights principles in the military.

Mark Dodd, Dili – East Timor's de facto government, the National Council, has backed the formation of an international war crimes tribunal to prosecute leaders of anti-independence militias and their Indonesian army supporters.

Hamish McDonald – Indonesian submarines and combat aircraft shadowed so closely ships carrying Australian and New Zealand troops into East Timor in 1999 that escorting warships went onto full battle stations alert, it has been revealed.

Poso, Central Sulawesi – A band of armed men wearing ninja outfits wounded two villagers during their assault on a minivan in the village of Pinedapa as tension continued to escalate here on Wednesday. A retaliatory strike followed later in the afternoon, seriously wounding two locals.

Dili says it does not recognize claims by an American petroluem company that it obtained concession rights to exploit oil and natural gas in the Timor Gap from Portuguese colonial authorities in 1970s.

Robert Go, Jakarta – It is getting harder to hide the extent of one's wealth in Indonesia these days. Tax collectors, under pressure from their bosses at the Finance Ministry, are stepping up on-the-spot audits. They are directing their activities towards rich neighbourhoods whose inhabitants are likely to display their high-class consumption.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Indonesia would gain an additional 60 trillion rupiah (S$10.8 billion) a year if citizens paid their proper taxes, according to an aide to new Finance Minister Rizal Ramli.

Indonesians were notorious for dodging their taxes by bribing collectors and under-reporting their incomes, said Mr Anggito Abimanyu.

jakarta – Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid warned on Friday he could call early elections and take other measures if the top legislature insisted on making him account for his rule at an August impeachment hearing.

Jakarta – The chairman of Indonesia's Upper House of Parliament Amien Rais yesterday ruled out bringing forward a special assembly session, that could impeach President Abdurrahman Wahid, from its scheduled date of August 1.