Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – The sharp increases in fuel prices on Thursday boosted the prices of several staples, causing an outcry among the people here.

Banda Aceh – Indonesian Vice-President Hamzah Haz yesterday warned the Acehnese against harbouring futile dreams of independence, as a general strike called by separatist rebels hit the province for a second day.

Jakarta – Street protests hit the Indonesian capital of Jakarta for the second day in a row Friday over the government's decision to raise fuel prices by an average 22 percent.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Yesterday's 22-per-cent hike in fuel prices dealt a second blow within a month to Indonesia's already hard pressed businesses, particularly those operating in the export sectors.

Makassar – Student protests against the fuel price hike turned violent here on Thursday, with crowds hijacking and vandalizing a truck belonging to state oil company Pertamina.

The oil truck was passing the Indonesian Muslim University (UMI) on Jl. Urip Soemohardjo, where a group of students were staging a protest.

Banda Aceh – Eight more deaths were reported Friday as a general strike called by separatist rebels gripped Indonesia's restive province of Aceh for a third day. Most public minibuses stayed off the streets, schools remained shut and most shops were closed, especially in the main towns of Banda Aceh and Lhokseumawe.

Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta – Indonesia's rebellious province of Aceh began returning to normal on Friday, the last day of a strike called by separatist rebels to draw attention to the decades-long conflict, residents said.

Jakarta – Some 150 casual workers of state-owned fertilizer company PT Pupuk Sriwijaya (PT Pusri) went on strike on Thursday, demanding a 100 percent wage increase.

Reme Ahmad, Kuala Lumpur – SOME 500 Indonesian textile workers in Negri Sembilan overturned vehicles and shouted profanities at policemen in a violent protest against a midnight anti-drug raid at their hostel.

A'an Suryana and Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – An internal rift has cast a shadow over the planned Golkar Party executive board meeting early next month, which may be marked by talks on holding an extraordinary congress to demand that Akbar Tandjung account for his troubled leadership.

Jakarta – About 200 students grouped in the loose student alliance City Forum (Forkot) protested on Thursday the government's decision to increase fuel prices.

The group blockaded Jl. Diponegoro in Central Jakarta near the Megaria area during afternoon peak hours, creating heavy traffic congestion in the area.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Imam Utomo, Governor of densely populated East Java, is concerned about the increasingly crushing burdens of poverty, hunger and unemployment suffered by his people, as local prices of food, fuel and electricity soar.

East Timor's Constituent Assembly passed a motion today to extend its deliberations on the draft Constitution beyond the current 25 January deadline.

A proposal was made to extend the deadline to 28 February, but the motion passed did not specify a date. Instead, the new deadline will be debated by a working commission.

John Aglionby, Jakarta – The last Indonesian soldier of occupation left East Timor well over two years ago, but while many of the physical scars have healed, the mental and psychological trauma sustained during the previous quarter of a century of turbulence, invasion and brutal occupation is still raging.

Thalif Deen, United Nations – A senior United Nations official reacted strongly Thursday to charges the UN's peacekeeping mission in East Timor is dominated by white people and Westerners.

New York – The Indonesian government failed to address human rights violations last year and the situation in the separatist province of Aceh worsened sharply, Human Rights Watch said.

Jakarta – Indonesia's Supreme Court has handed down tougher sentences to three men for the brutal killing of three foreign UN aid workers in West Timor, according to court documents obtained by Reuters on Thursday.

A general strike called by separatist rebels shut down businesses and public transport for a second day in Indonesia's restive province of Aceh, residents said.

Jakarta – The total value of Indonesia's 2002 imports is expected to drop by 10 percent year-on-year, an official said Wednesday.

"I forecast for 2002 imports will decrease as a whole from 2001 by about 10 percent," said the import division chief of the state Central Bureau of Statistics, Irlan Indrocahyo.

Max Lane – The Indonesian economy is in a truly parlous state. The combined public and private foreign debt is US$150 billion, standing at 110% of GDP, and more than 40% of the government's revenues are devoted to interest payments on foreign debt. In addition, the government owes another staggering US$64 billion to several Indonesian banks.

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta – Human rights activists expressed skepticism Tuesday on the fairness of trials in cases of human rights atrocities scheduled to start in February, citing the government's secrecy in recruiting ad hoc judges who were unveiled on Monday.

East Timorese judges responsible trying crimes against humanity have launched a boycott of court proceedings over a contractual dispute with the UN transition administration, judicial sources told Lusa Wednesday.

Dili – In a final step toward nationhood, East Timor will hold its first presidential election on April 14, the territory's UN administrator announced Thursday.

Violence has left at least ten people dead as explosions and volleys of gunfire marked the start of a two-day strike called by rebels in Indonesia's Aceh province.

Jakarta – A court in the Indonesian capital on Wednesday sentenced an activist fighting for a referendum on self-determination in troubled Aceh province to one year in prison.

Faisal bin Saifuddin is guilty of spreading enmity and hatred against the state, chief judge Iskandar Tjake said in the verdict.

Jakarta – A top politician has urged US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz to provide proof that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network was present in Indonesia, reports said Wednesday.

Jakarta – An Indonesian body charged with monitoring business practices on Wednesday began investigating reports of alleged collusion in the government's bid to sell it shares in the country's largest private bank, Bank Central Asia "We will summons the parties concerned including the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency," said Muhammad Iqbal, the chairman of the government-sanction

Don Greenlees, Jakarta – President Megawati Sukarnoputri has approved a list of 18 judges to sit on a human rights tribunal trying crimes committed during Indonesia's retreat from East Timor, opening the way for the first trials of soldiers and militiamen more than two years after their bloody retribution over East Timor's vote for independence.

The East Timor Action Network (ETAN) said today that Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri's last minute approval of judges for an ad hoc court on East Timor does not alter its view that the court will not bring to justice all, or even most of, those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in East Timor.

Jakarta – The country's largest Muslim organisation, which founded the Nation Awakening Party (PKB), is giving up on attempts to reconcile two rival factions within the party.

Emmy Fitri, Jakarta – Governor Sutiyoso's plan to use more muscle to order the city, including evicting illegal squatters, will not solve his administration's many problems as he only looking for a quick solution and not a real one, activists say.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Several legislators said they would boycott Parliament Speaker Akbar Tandjung, a key suspect in a financial scandal, if he refused to vacate his post temporarily while undergoing a legal investigation.

Jakarta – Former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid was questioned by police yesterday over allegations that he received nearly US$2 million from an errant son of former president Suharto in an attempt to buy a presidential pardon.

United Nations – Rejecting "implicit suggestions of racism," the United Nations on Friday denied an accusation made by one of its officials that the peacekeeping mission in East Timor was dominated by white Westerners.

The charge was made by N. Parameswaran, a Malaysian who resigned this week as chief of staff of the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET).

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – As thousands of people displaced by the recent city-led forced evictions cry for help, their representatives in City Council are due to leave for the mountain resort of Puncak, West Java, to discuss the proposed city budget, drawing strong criticism from the public and non-governmental organizations.

Jakarta – The authorities in the Indonesian capital have refused to halt a wave of forced evictions of Jakarta's poor, which has left almost 50,000 people homeless in the past year, a welfare activist said.

Emmy Fitri, Jakarta – The rising price of rice may not affect the middle to upper income households but it is surely having a major impact on the poor small-scale rice vendors.

Upi Sobri, 52, said she had to close her business selling nasi uduk (rice cooked in coconut oil) to school children last week because she could no longer afford the soaring price of rice.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Aid money earmarked by the government to offset the effects of fuel-price hikes on the poor will not help the needy, said activists who work with Indonesia's impoverished urban communities.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Signs of a crack in the coalition government between the largest and second largest party, which catapulted Megawati Soekarnoputri to the presidency last July, is getting more obvious as the days go by.

Aan Suryana and Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – The government's decision to reestablish the military command in Aceh and internal conflicts in nearly all major political parties would do harm to efforts to end the military's role in politics, military observers warned on Friday.

Jakarta – Indonesia's former armed forces commander General Wiranto has accused President Megawati Sukarnoputri and her predecessors of failing the reform movement.

"None of the governments has been capable of taking the nation out of the crisis, let alone promoting the people's welfare," Gen Wiranto said on Wednesday, quoted by the Antara news agency.

Jakarta – The price of rice has increased by nearly 30 percent in several areas in Central and West Java, and many are attributing that to the government's plan to increase fuel prices and electricity bills.

In Purwokerto, Central Java, low quality rice, IR, is now Rp 3,000 per kilogram, Rp 600 higher than before.

Jakarta – The military is establishing a separate command in Aceh to spearhead the war against the rebel Free Aceh Movement, a move which means that soldiers in the province will no longer be accountable to headquarters in Jakarta.

Human rights activists have denounced the move, saying the action will increase military atrocities.

Washington – US and Indonesian officials believe hundreds of al-Qaeda fighters trained last year at a camp in central Indonesia, and fear sleeper cells could soon become operational there, the Washington Post reported Friday.

Banda Aceh – At least 12 people, including a soldier, were killed in the latest outbreak of violence in restive Aceh province from Wednesday to Thursday, official and humanitarian activists said.

Banda Aceh – Separatist rebels in Indonesia's Aceh province on Friday accused US-based energy giant ExxonMobil Indonesia of providing funds and facilities to soldiers to wage "a brutal military campaign" in Aceh.

Lisbon is negotiating with the United Nations over the possibility of taking over command of the UN peacekeeping force in East Timor, it was announced Friday by Portuguese Defense Minister Rui Pena.

Jakarta – Indonesian vice president and prominent Islamic leader Hamzah Haz on Friday warned the United States not to target the world's most populous Muslim nation in its war on terrorism, the official Antara news agency reported.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The Indonesian government has failed to lift the country out of the economic crisis despite initial confidence in the new economic team of President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Tempo news magazine concluded in its New Year edition that almost all indicators showed that the country's economy was still in a rut.

East Timor's religious leader, Catholic Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, called Friday for the holding of legislative elections for the first post-independence Timorese parliament, instead of the planned transition of the Constituent Assembly into this body.