Robert Go, Jakarta – Indonesia yesterday signed its latest set of reform pledges with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to obtain US$400 million in fresh funds. But this time, the country has more say in the programme and will tailor it to changing conditions.

Jay Solomon, Lhokseumawe – A small plane circles to land at the massive Arun gas facility on the northern tip of Sumatra island. Below, pipelines shimmer in the tropical sun. "It's a beautiful sight," says an executive from Mobil Oil Indonesia Inc., looking out the window.

Banda Aceh – At least 24 people were killed in two days of violence in Indonesia's restive province of Aceh, rebels and reports said Thursday.

The first incident claimed the lives of 15 soldiers and policemen on Thursday when their truck was hit by a grenade during a skirmish in North Aceh, a deputy leader of the Free Aceh (GAM) rebel group told AFP.

John McBeth, Jakarta – The day before Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid announced his new "All-the-President's-Men" cabinet, Golkar party Chairman and House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tanjung decided there was nothing to keep him in Jakarta and boarded a plane for the United States to attend to personal and business matters.

Jakarta – State-owned PT Timah Tbk, the world's largest integrated tin maker, said protests at its main Bangka island plant had halted operations at two units, and warned the situation could be serious.

Jakarta – General Abdul Haris Nasution, an Indonesian independence hero who narrowly escaped assassination in 1965, died yesterday at 81.

The retired five-star general, former army chief and Cabinet minister died in Jakarta's Gatot Subroto military hospital, Antara reported. The cause of death was not specified, but Gen Nasution went into a coma after a recent stroke.

Marianne Kearney, Indonesia – In A bid to halt rampant illegal logging, Indonesia's Forestry Minister has announced a proposal to put a ban on all log exports from Indonesia until it can guarantee a sustainable logging industry.

Kuala Lumpur – A Malaysian businessman working in the North Sumatra capital of Medan has been kidnapped for ransom, reports said yesterday quoting his wife.

Budi Sugiharto/GB, Sampang – An angry mob has destroyed around 85% of the local legislature in Sampang on the island of Madura, East Java. Tensions have been mounting all week as protests rejecting the election of a new Regent have steadily grown larger and more confrontational.

Jakarta – A chronoloy of major events since East Timorese voted for independence from Indonesia on August 30, 1999.

Aug 30, 1999: East Timorese vote for self-determination in record numbers in a UN-supervised ballot.

Sept 4: Announcement of the vote results shows 78.5 percent of East Timorese voted for independence from Indonesia.

Jakarta – When East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia last year, feared militia leader Eurico Guterres made his displeasure known by sending his armed followers to the airport to block any East Timorese from leaving.

Vaudine England – Tension had been escalating in the refugee camps of Indonesian West Timor for several weeks before yesterday's attack on the UN office in Atambua, in which three staff, all foreigners, were burned to death.

David Crary, United Nations – Six hours before he and two colleagues were murdered in West Timor, an American relief worker e-mailed a friend at a UN security office with a warning that a mob was en route to destroy his compound. "We sit here like bait, unarmed," he wrote.

Mark Dodd, Suai – They gathered by the thousand, many bringing tributes of flowers to mark the single worst act of militia violence in East Timor – the Suai Cathedral massacre one year ago.

Outside the chapel where Fathers Hilario Madeira, Francisco Soares and Dewanto were hacked and shot to death and their bodies burnt, hundreds wept, laid flowers and placed candles.

Tom Hyland – His childhood was spent in the jungle, where his family had fled an invading army. By the age of 11 he was leading a unit of independence guerrillas. He endured a decade in Indonesian prisons where he celebrated the fall of President Suharto with Jose "Xanana" Gusmao.

Jakarta – Irian Jaya Police Chief Brigadier General S.Y. Wenas yesterday ordered his personnel to continue a crackdown on separatist flags flying in the country's troubled easternmost province.

Dili – Members of Timorese Socialist Party (PST) around East Timor have been occupying buildings left by the Indonesian government in order to establish offices for their work with the grassroots.

In order to claim right to use empty buildings, groups have to inform the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor that they are taking possession.

Philippa Skinner and Jill Hickson, Dili – From August 21-29, members of East Timor's seven political parties participated in the congress of the CNRT (National Council for Timorese Resistance), which debated a wide range of recommendations and proposals for the development of Timor's political system between now and the elections to be held in 2001.

Chris McCall, Jakarta – Unions threatened nationwide protests yesterday after the Government vowed to press ahead with controversial fuel price increases next month.

It will be the first across-the-board increase since May 1998, when a similar move triggered a nationwide wave of bloody rioting which ended former president Suharto's 32-year reign.

Simon Montlake, Jakarta – The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency plans to restructure 70% of its major debt cases by the end of this month, Irwan Siregar, a senior IBRA executive, said Wednesday.

IBRA is managing loans with a nominal value of about IDR260 trillion, which it has taken over from the devastated banking sector.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – The Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden has established links with Muslim radicals in Indonesia who are behind attacks on Christians in the Maluku islands, according to Western intelligence sources in Jakarta.

Stewart Taggart – Walk down any street in East Timor's capitol of Dili and the scene is the same: blackened, roofless buildings and heaps of rubble. Severed telephone lines dangle from exposed walls, charred satellite dishes point skyward, and traffic lights stare blindly at intersections. Only a tiny fraction of the city's 60,000 residents have running water or electricity.

Soraya Permatasari, Jakarta – An Indonesian commission said there were signs that some listed firms, including noodle giant Indofood and some cement companies, might be in violation of an anti-monopoly law that took effect on Tuesday.

Aulia Andri/Swastika & Ari P, Medan – The abduction of four activists from the Consortium for Agrarian Reform (KPA) while protesting outside the General Assembly in early August remains a tug of war between the Jakarta City Police and the KPA, with the KPA believing that the abduction was committed by police officers.

Jakarta – The joint team set up by the Attorney General's Office to investigate rights violations in East Timor has ignored the real offenders, a watchdog said on Saturday.

Jakarta – Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid yesterday appointed 16 judges to the Supreme Court in support of reform of the country's judicial system.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – As the Indonesian government considers extending a civil emergency for the strife-torn region of the Malukus, local groups warn that fresh violence could erupt at any time.

Matthew Rothschild, Dili – On August 30, a huge crowd in Dili, East Timor, gathered to celebrate the first anniversary of the independence vote for this tiny nation. But all is not well in East Timor.

Jakarta – Dozens of older men and women belonging to the Victims of New Order Human Rights Abuse Association (Pakorba HAM) met French human rights activist, Danielle Mitterand, here today.

Chris McCall, Jakarta – The Government and rebels from the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) yesterday half-heartedly announced that their ineffective truce would be extended, at least for now. A day after the truce officially expired, a joint statement was issued announcing new talks this month in Switzerland, where the deal was first signed in May.

Jakarta – Seven people, including four women, were accosted when some 100 members of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) attacked cafes and bars in Tebet, South Jakarta, on Friday evening, a police officer said on Saturday.

Chaidir Anwar Tanjung, Pekanbaru – Protected forests at Bukit Suligi in Kampar regency, Riau province on Sumatra's west coast, are being plundered without local authorities lifting a finger and even supporting the illegal industry.

Susan Sim, Jakarta – If history is written by victors and it is left to fiction to lionise the defeated, then General Wiranto and his nemesis, Attorney-General Marzuki Darusman, cannot have crafted a better outcome than the one dictated by the hard realities of Indonesian politics.

Chris McCall and Staff Reporters – They were among the men to fear in Dili in the bloody weeks before and after last year's independence vote.

Chris McCall, Jakarta – Jakarta yesterday finally named a string of top military and police officers among 19 suspects involved in last year's East Timor bloodbath, but received a suspicious response.

Jakarta – Three Indonesian student activists who picketted the national assembly last month, have related how they and a fellow protestor were abducted at gunpoint and held incommunicado for 13 days, reports said Saturday.

Jakarta – Dozens of students in Lampung province took to the streets yesterday to protest against a government plan to increase fuel prices and a rise in public transport fares, reports said.

They gathered at a main intersection in the provincial capital, Bandar Lampung, causing traffic jams, the state Antara news agency said.

Jakarta – An international rights group on Saturday welcomed Indonesia's naming of 19 suspects in the violence that ravaged East Timor after its independence vote last year, but said "serious obstacles" remained in bringing them to justice.

Jakarta – Indonesian investigators were condemned by rights activists Friday for omitting top Indonesian generals and notorious militia leaders from a list of suspects in last year's bloodshed in East Timor.

Jakarta – With former president Soeharto's appearance as a defendant in his corruption trial in doubt, judicial experts disagreed on Thursday over the legality of trying him in his absence.

Jakarta – Indonesia on Friday named three generals as suspects in its probe into the violence that followed last year's East Timor independence vote but immediately came under pressure to go higher up the military chain of command.

Nenden NF/Hendra & LM, Yogyakarta – A 70% rise in economy class railway fares, implemented Friday, are likely to prove extremely burdensome for the poor.

Jakarta – The Cabinet's new economic team is not seeking major changes in the International Monetary Fund-sponsored economic reform program, Bank Indonesia acting governor Anwar Nasution said here on Thursday.

Rising tensions and an increasing number of attacks on foreign aid workers in West Timor reduced the IOM/UNHCR repatriations of East Timorese refugees to a trickle in July and August. In early July, IOM was forced to suspend all return operations from the Kupang area following fighting between the local population and East Timorese refugees.

Maryadi/BI & AH Detik, Pontianak – A student protest at the Malaysian Consulate in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, today, Thursday 31 August 2000, has ended with four students being beaten and arrested.

Jakarta – Student reformists who helped topple former Indonesian president Suharto two years ago reacted with anger and disgust Thursday at his failure to show up at the start of his corruption trial.

Mark Dodd, Dili – After a 24-hour session, East Timor's main independence umbrella group has reaffirmed support for Mr Xanana Gusmao as its leader and approved measures aimed at a smooth transition to independence.

Mark Landler, Jakarta – The corruption trial of Indonesia's fallen leader, Suharto, got under way here this morning in the converted auditorium of a government ministry building that was crowded with spectators and ringed by police officers, but missing one man: the accused.

Jakarta – Former Indonesian president Suharto's failure to attend the opening of his own trial Thursday had been widely expected but public patience is wearing. Economists, political analysts and a former judge warned of further social unrest if the "stage show" continues.

Joanna Jolly, Dili – On a day tinged with sadness and joy, thousands of East Timorese yesterday celebrated the first anniversary of their independence from often brutal colonial rule by Indonesia.