Jakarta – Abortion is strictly prohibited under both the Criminal Code and the Health Law. But despite the legislation, women continue to seek abortions.

Marina Carman – One hundred and fifty students staged a protest outside the office of the regional legislative assembly in Surabaya, Indonesia, on February 22. The students were angry at the Indonesian military's repression and domination of political life in the country.

Mark Dodd, Dili – Heavily armed intruders from across the Indonesian border are believed responsible for a weekend attack in which one person was killed, another injured and a third person taken hostage.

Mark Dodd, Dili – In the local Tetum language it is known as Uma Mutuk, or Burnt House, restaurant. It is arguably Dili's most popular eatery, and, like the mythical phoenix, its proud owners say their flourishing business has risen from the ashes.

Eric Wright, Dili – The former colonial power of East Timor, Portugal, is creeping back through an open door, more than 25 years after fleeing ignominiously from the mainland. The Timorese, in dire need of cash and assistance to build their new country, are willing to accept the Portuguese gifts.

Jakarta – Leading politicians and observers said on Monday the attack on National Awakening Party (PKB) chairman Matori Abdul Djalil was politically motivated, speculating that it might be part of a larger conspiracy to destabilize the government.

Jakarta – A new presidential decree will be issued allowing the government to take over Rp 4 trillion (US$540 million) in assets from former president Soeharto's seven foundations.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – The baby sits in rags among the filth, a commodity for sale. A beggar pays a little money and buys a tragic bundle to cry when cars pull up at the traffic lights.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – More than 10 senior military officers, at least one of them holding a three-star rank, threatened to quit the Indonesian defence forces (TNI) last week after complaining of "repeated presidential intervention" in military affairs.

Jakarta – The director of a politically linked company accused of involvement in Indonesia's multi-million dollar Bank Bali fraud scandal has been acquitted on a technicality, reports said Tuesday.

Djoko Tjandra, executive of PT Era Giat Prima (EGP), had been charged with corruption in "arranging and engaging in illegal transactions," the Jakarta Post daily said.

Jakarta – Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights on Tuesday set up a team to probe the 1984 shooting in Jakarta's northern port area that left scores dead.

The commission's Secretary General, Asmara Nababan, told journalists here that team, composed of nine members and headed by Joko Sugianto, will investigate the 12 September 1984 shooting in Tanjung Priok.

Dili – A vice president of the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT), Jose Ramos Horta, said Friday he was "amazed" by a news report that Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid had suggested East Timor could yet opt for integration in Indonesia.

Marianne Kearney, Riau – Where there's smoke there is fire but in Riau province, central Sumatra, finding the source of the fire and who started it is not always easy.

On February 28, Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid appointed an unusual new advisor: former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) Commander Adm. Widodo approved a large-scale reshuffling of the military this week, shifting 74 officers and several top positions. In the most noteworthy transfer, he appointed an outspoken reformer, Lt. Gen. Agus Wirahadikusumah, as the head of the elite Army Strategic Reserve Command, known as Kostrad.

Jakarta – A loan scandal involving Indonesia's biggest textile magnate, Marimutu Sinivasan of the Texmaco Group, is turning into a major challenge for President Abdurrahman Wahid's four-month-old government.

Mark Dodd, Dili – Australian and New Zealand peacekeepers based along East Timor's border with Indonesia have come under sustained fire from suspected militia in the most serious test so far of United Nations military readiness after the departure of Interfet.

Dili – More than 600 people are known to have been killed in East Timor last year , but the actual toll is likely to be higher, the United Nations said yesterday. No cases have yet gone to trial under East Timor's fledgling judicial system.

Jakarta – Suspended Cabinet minister General Wiranto has denied that Lt-General Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the military's former chief of territorial affairs, proposed that he should seize power amid the political violence preceding the downfall of former President Suharto.

Jakarta – Indonesia's best-known writer, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, is a surprise critic of the country's new President, Mr Abdurrahman Wahid. Pramoedya dismisses the President as "part of the elite ... that implemented fascism and ran the country by terror ... everyone became afraid and those who wanted to live had to become a hypocrite".

Marianne Kearney, Pekanbaru – Just across the Malacca Strait from Singapore, was yesterday enveloped in a blanket of haze as over 100 fires blazed for the third day this week.

Riau province in central Sumatra, which last year had one of the highest recorded number of blazing hot spots, has again become a fire centre.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – The Indonesian armed forces (TNI) plans to reduce the number of its extensive territorial commands in the country in a move that could diminish the military's political role further.

Singapore (AP) – Fires have broken out on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, where land-clearing blazes caused severe pollution in much of Southeast Asia in 1997, officials in Singapore said Thursday.

Banda Aceh – Six more bodies have been found at separate locations in the troubled Indonesian province of Aceh, as a handgrenade exploded in the office of the North Aceh district chief, injuring four people, police and residents said Friday.

Slobodan Lekic, Jakarta – While affirming Indonesia's "territorial integrity," the United States today urged President Abdurrahman Wahid not to use force in quelling a bloody separatist rebellion in the country's north.

Jakarta – The House Commission VIII in charge of mining and energy said it would ask the Mines and Energy Ministry to clarify the position with regard to higher fuel price and electricity tariff.

Jakarta – A visiting senior US official Friday called the prevailing situation in camps holding tens of thousands of East Timorese in Indonesian West Timor since September "untenable."

"The situation in West Timor [refugee camps] is untenable," US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Pickering told a press briefing here.

Jakarta – People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien Rais said on Wednesday Indonesia did not need foreign advisors, thus President Abdurrahman Wahid's appointment of several foreign dignitaries in that role was merely a symbolic gesture.

Jakarta - Warning shots were fired on Thursday as mobs attempted to prevent police from clearing barricades from the streets in a town in Indonesia's easternmost province of Irian Jaya, police said.

Jakarta – The government and the House of Representatives budget committee agreed on Wednesday to raise the basic salaries of President Abdurrahman Wahid and Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri by 78 percent and 120 percent respectively.

May Sari, Jakarta – Having failed to gain satisfaction from their employer or the Indonesian government, thousands workers from PT Kong Tai Indonesia protested outside parliament here on February 21.

Pip Hinman, Jakarta – Around 500 members of the People's Democratic Party (PRD) protested outside the Presidential Palace on February 21 to demand that the Indonesian government abandon its plans to cut fuel and electricity subsidies. PRD members travelled to Jakarta from all over the country.

Jackie Coleman spent January working at the Maubere Cultural Institute (MCI) in Dili, East Timor. Her visit, on behalf of Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET), was in response to a request for assistance from the institute. In this article, Coleman describes her stay.

James Balowski – "In a forest west of Dili, Filomena Amaral is about to learn the details of how her husband, a village schoolteacher and church leader, was tortured and killed. Photographs of her husband's shattered bones are needed as evidence in the event that his killers are ever brought to trial.

Jayapura – One man was killed when police opened fire on mobs attacking a Mobile Brigade (Brimob) police headquarters in the easternmost province of Irian Jaya, police said on Tuesday.

Jakarta – Indonesian police fired warning shots in eastern Irian Jaya province on Wednesday to disperse an angry mob which attacked a police headquarters after the death of a pro-independence student, police said.

Mark Abberton – Following the downfall of the Suharto and Habibie governments, the election of the "reform" president, Abdurrahman Wahid, and the withdrawal of Indonesian troops from East Timor, the Indonesian government has been forced to grant some democratic reforms, including offering "special autonomy status" to West Papua (Irian Jaya) and Aceh.

Chris Latham – One hundred and fifty East Timorese refugees refused to leave the East Hills army barracks in Sydney on February 22. The government was determined to remove the refugees from the camp for a "voluntary" flight home on February 22.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – Former military strongman Wiranto is finished politically and is unlikely to ever play a dominant role in politics here, Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono said in an interview.

Jody Betzien, Melbourne – Two human rights workers from West Papua visited Melbourne last week to draw attention to the training of pro-Indonesian militia and arbitrary killings in the Indonesian province.

Jakarta – Indonesia signed the protocol of the United Nations Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (UN-CEDAW) on Monday.

In Indonesia, hundreds of drivers of the popular three-wheeled pedicabs took to the streets late last night.

According to reports by the official Antara News Agency, they were rallying against a local government decision banning them many of the streets in Jakarta.

Jakarta – An Indonesian anti-graft watchdog has demanded that the youngest son of former president Suharto return 255 million dollars which it charged he had embezzled through his clove marketing agency, a report said Tuesday.

Wilson da Silva, Dili – An impost on coffee exports in East Timor, among tax measures to be announced by the governing United Nations authority this week, was introduced at the insistence of the International Monetary Fund, despite resistance from the World Bank, UN staff and most Timorese leaders.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) announced on Monday another major reshuffle that included the promotion of Maj. Gen. Agus Wirahadikusumah, a progressive figure, as the Army Strategic Reserve Command (Kostrad) chief.

Michael Ware – The capture of a militia reconnaissance team inside East Timor just one day after Major-General Peter Cosgrove's departure marks a heightened campaign of militia activity in the wake of the Interfet pullout.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – The Indonesian military's most outspoken reformer, Major-General Agus Wirahadikusumah, has been appointed to head his country's main combat force in a further blow to his arch rival, General Wiranto.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid moved to consolidate his control of the armed forces yesterday by replacing two allies of recently deposed General Wiranto.

Dili – Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid made a historic visit to East Timor Tuesday, braving the wrath of the population over 24 years of repression, to pledge the opening of a new chapter in the two countries' bloodstained history.

John Martinkus, Salale – Indonesian military and New Zealand troops mix freely on the bridge that forms the border here. It is hot, isolated and boring, surrounded by crocodile-infested mangroves. The main problems for the New Zealand troops here are the mosquitoes carrying dengue fever and malaria.