Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – As of January 2002, the government will no longer provide any financial or food assistance to East Timorese refugees in West Timor as it will reinstate the Indonesian citizenship of those who choose to stay in Indonesia.

Jakarta – More than one thousand protesters from various non governmental organizations (NGOs), grouped into the newly-formed organization the Anti-Debt Coalition (KAU), staged on Wednesday an anti-foreign debt rally, urging the government to stop talks with the creditor nations of the Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI).

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The South Jakarta District Court sentenced two student activists to five months in jail each on Wednesday for defying police officers during a demonstration against a fuel price hike in June.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Only eight of 286 cases of trafficking of women reported to the police during the last two years have gone to court, according to North Sumatra's Kaukus Perempuan, a coalition of non-governmental organizations dealing with women's concerns.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji, the first senior Chinese leader to visit Jakarta since diplomatic ties resumed in 1990, yesterday announced a 40-million-yuan (S$8.9-million) gift to aid Indonesia's infrastructure development.

Joanne Collins and Soraya Permatasari, Jakarta – International donors threw crisis-hit Indonesia a generous lifeline of $3.73 billion in aid on Thursday after one senior official bemoaned the need to "beg" for funds he said might be pilfered.

Jakarta – Jakarta will maintain the status quo on a local government's unilateral takeover of a major cement firm's affiliate, Home Minister Hari Sabarno said Thursday.

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta – The Ministry of Agriculture has accounted for Rp 125 million following its settlement of 35 financial-related irregularities valued at Rp 14.99 billion discovered by the State Audit Agency (BPK) in its 1999 and 2000 reports.

Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – Some 100,000 textile workers may lose their jobs next year due to a combination of the global economic slump and unfavorable domestic conditions, according to a top industry executive.

Jakarta – Indonesian police said on Wednesday they had arrested an Egyptian suspected of being the chief smuggler responsible for organising a refugee boat for illegal migrants which sank last month killing more than 350 people.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Dr Amien Rais, house speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), chastised legislators for skipping parts of their annual meeting and spending their days watching television in their posh hotel rooms.

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Remember the old politicians who made a scene jostling and screaming at each other at the first-day meeting of the People's Consultative Assembly the other day? The "bad men" eventually got what they fought for yesterday: Their Regional Representatives Faction will be reinstated. It will be renamed, though.

Jakarta – Activists criticized on Tuesday the city administration's policy on the eviction of poor urban people, including those living along riverbanks here.

Tubagus H. Karbyanto, spokesman of the Antieviction Society Alliance, said the eviction policy showed that the administration had never regarded the poor as city residents.

Jake Lloyd-Smith – Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri yesterday fired a parting shot as the Asean summit wound up, saying the US-led military action in Afghanistan should be suspended.

Bagja Hidayat, Jakarta – About a thousand farmers staged a rally at the legislature complex today, demanding the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Ad Hoc Committee, particularly MPR's Commission C1 discussing the Bill of Agrarian and Natural Resources Reform, to orient the bill with the interests of farmers at its core.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Lost in the recent hoopla of Parliament's approval of special autonomy for Irian Jaya is the fact that four of the separatist-inclined province's leaders remain on trial for subversion.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The South Jakarta District Court sentenced on Monday former chief of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) Beddu Amang to two years imprisonment for his involvement in a land swap deal causing some Rp 20 billion (US$ 20.8 million) in losses to the state. Beddu, 65, was also ordered to pay back Rp 5 billion to the state and a Rp 5 million fine.

Ahmad Junaidi, Jakarta – City officials complained on Monday over the interference of city councillors in their drafting of next year's city budget and alleged that they might be tempted to seek an advantage from the planned projects.

The rupiah plunged to near 11,000 per US dollar late on Monday, the lowest level during President Megawati Soekarnoputri's three-month-old administration.

R.K. Nugroho, Jayapura – A legislator has called on Jayapura District Court to free the Papua Presidium Council's functionaries from subversion charges, as what they have fought for has been accommodated in the newly endorsed law on special autonomy for Papua.

Jakarta – Indonesia's Attorney General's Office said on Tuesday it had formally asked the country's central bank to freeze assets of 28 companies and groups suspected of having links to terror activities.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Three Islamic parties in Parliament are pushing for the inclusion of Islamic Syariah law in the Constitution to pave the way for its implementation in Indonesia.

Kupang – Afghan and Iraqi asylum-seekers staying at an Indonesian police college here quietly protested Wednesday against their treatment by the Australian military and international refugee agencies.

About 100 men, women and children sat on hot ashphalt in the mid-afternoon protest with some claiming the group would go on a hunger strike.

Jakarta – A majority of factions in Indonesia's top assembly have agreed to hold the country's first ever direct presidential election in 2004, although the format is still being debated, local media reported on Monday.

Jakarta – The World Bank on Monday urged Indonesia to immediately defy provincial government attempts to take-over affiliates of state-owned cement producer Semen Gresik, warning the moves were endangering the future of investment.

Robert Garran – Indonesian troops attacking the East Timorese town of Balibo in October 1975 had good reason not to want five Australian-based journalists to escape, according to a new book.

Dean Yates, Jakarta – The World Bank said on Monday it expected Indonesia to "muddle through" its economic woes, adding the most urgent tasks were to ensure fiscal sustainability and improve the climate for private investment.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – The news that Japan has authorised its troops to serve overseas, despite the country's pacifist constitution, sends shudders down the spine of Marta Pereira, an aged East Timorese woman who lives on the outskirts of Dili.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Indonesians will find out next week whether they will be able to vote directly for their choices of president and vice-president in the 2004 election, after the country's supreme legislative body reaches an agreement on the issue.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Running low on rice and other staple goods, Indonesia is mulling over a barter programme with other Asean countries to trade for those commodities using locally produced planes, trains, coal and other goods, senior officials say.

Surabaya – Around 3,000 Muslims Friday demonstrated against US-led attacks on Afghanistan in Indonesia's second largest city.

The peaceful rally in the city of Surabaya, some 800 kilometers, was the latest in a series of anti-US protests in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.

Craig Skehan, Kelly Burke and AAP – Indonesia accused Australia of a failure in diplomacy over boat people yesterday, attacking Canberra's "unacceptable" practice of going public before raising problems with Jakarta.

Sydney – Australian Prime Minister John Howard was forced to acknowledge Thursday the testiness of his country's relationship with Indonesia as a new diplomatic spat brewed.

Yemris Fointuna, Atambua – East Timorese refugees living in Atambua, East Nusa Tenggara, have destroyed some 700 hectares of protected forests in the regency of Belu for agricultural purposes following a halt in aid from the government.

Jakarta – Indonesians working abroad often become victims of extortion at the airport when they return home, a minister said in a newspaper report Wednesday, vowing to replace the relevant management.

Jakarta – Central Bank Governor Sjahril Sabirin was convicted of fraud for his role in allowing an illegal payment to PT Bank Bali, said state prosecutor Jan Mere.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Former Defence Minister and military chief General Wiranto yesterday denied having misused 10 billion rupiah (S$1.7 million) from the state food logistics agency known as Bulog.

However, General Wiranto did admit to prosecutors that the 10 billion rupiah had been used to fund a security outfit in East Timor prior to an independence ballot there.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The Indonesian media, assessing President Megawati Sukarnoputri's first 100 days in office, said she did not live up to expectations and that her administration was heavy on rhetoric but achieved little.

Jakarta – Indonesia's state-owned electricity company, PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), is seeking foreign loans to avert a likely power shortage in the main islands of Java and Bali, a report said Tuesday.

United Nations – The Security Council decided Wednesday that the UN-administered territory of East Timor should become independent on May 20 next year.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – In line with the planned establishment of an independent East Timor early next year, Indonesia and East Timor have agreed to demilitarize their border areas to allow their people to visit one another freely.

Jakarta – Chief of the Udayana Military Command overseeing Bali, East and West Nusa Tenggara, Maj. Gen. Willem T. da Costa, said on Tuesday that he supported former rebel leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao as a possible president of neighboring Timor Lorosae (East Timor).

Jakarta – The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Tuesday that it has helped repatriate 188,646 East Timorese refugees from Indonesia's West Timor in the past two years.

Banda Aceh – At least four people have been killed and three badly wounded in the latest violence to hit the restive Indonesian province of Aceh, the military and residents said Wednesday.

Jakarta – Indonesia's cash-strapped state television station is to start carrying advertising for the first time since it was set up almost 40 years ago, a report said Wednesday.

Jakarta – Indonesia's navy said on Wednesday it would not detain any asylum seekers found on boats in the country's waters and would even feed needy refugees before they resumed their journey.

Melbourne – Jakarta has failed to renew a key agreement that allowed Australian and Indonesian police to cooperate directly on stemming the flow of illegal immigrants to Australia, according to a report here yesterday.

John Aglionby, Jakarta – Megawati Sukarnoputri, Indonesia's president, marked 100 days in office yesterday with the threat of national disintegration, unchecked corruption and rapidly declining natural resources top of her agenda.

Hong Kong – East Timor's future president Xanana Gusmao has recalled his fury when Australia refused to accept temporarily a handful of East Timorese students fleeing persecution in Indonesia.

Setiyardi, Timor Lorosae – Floating hotels are a symbol of high living, an irony in stark contrast to widespread poverty in Timor Lorosae.