Banda Aceh – The cycle of violence in Aceh seems unending as witnesses and officials reported the death on Monday of at least another eight people in various locations in the province.

Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta – Indonesian police fired warning shots and tear gas at more than 700 students protesting over national fuel price hikes in Jakarta on Monday as bus drivers went on strike in eight cities across the country.

Jakarta – City Police arrested on Monday three activists of the umbrella student group City Forum (Forkot) for allegedly provoking public transportation drivers to go on strike following the fuel price hike. The three students are Mixil, Arif Wardoyo and Miftahudin.

Tomi Soetjipto, Jakarta – A powerful bomb exploded at a boarding-house in the Indonesian capital Jakarta around dawn on Tuesday, seriously wounding five people, and police later found several unexploded devices in the building.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – A military tribunal yesterday charged nine police officers with the 1998 murder of anti-government student protesters, an event which triggered widespread riots that contributed to the fall of former president Suharto.

Rod McGuirk, Darwin – The HIV virus had taken hold in East Timor and spread into Australia, a Dili-based doctor said today. As many as 15 foreign workers, mostly Africans, evacuated from East Timor for treatment at the Royal Darwin Hospital, have tested positive to HIV, Dr Dan Murphy said.

An angry mob of street vendors stoned UN police and administrative personnel at a Dili market Tuesday, injuring three people and damaging three vehicles.

Brian Robins – From being only rank hopefuls among offshore gasfields, Timor Sea projects backed by Phillips Petroleum and Woodside are racing off the starting blocks. Both are pushing into the east coast gas market, to emerge as replacements for the Cooper Basin as its reserves decline this decade.

Lincoln Wright – A leading United States congressman, who is a major supporter of the alliance with Australia, has called for America to renew its military ties with Indonesia's navy, air force and marines, but not its army.

Lindsay Murdoch – Antonio da Silva rarely smiles. His left ear has been cut off, his fingers broken and he has seen some of his militia friends killed during his fight to keep East Timor part of Indonesia.

G.K. Goh, Banda Aceh – At least 18 people have been killed in violence pitting separatist rebels against government forces in the oil and gas-rich province of Aceh, the Indonesian military and residents said Sunday.

MMI Ahyani/HD, Bandung – Five members of Democratic People's Party (PRD) for West Java were arrested by police following unrest in Bandung last 13 June. Those PRD's members were arrested at Kebun Kelapa station Bandung and at Cicadas at noon on Sunday.

[Derwin Pereira looks at how these cukongs are adapting to the new political environment and who are next in line to take their place.]

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – The Bush Administration has decided to restore tentative military contact with Indonesia at a time that Australia is stepping up pressure on Jakarta to punish those responsible for atrocities in East Timor.

Jakarta – Eleven military personnel will be tried in a military tribunal on Monday for their alleged role in the shooting of Trisakti students, a military spokesman revealed on Thursday.

Mark Dodd – Negotiations between Australia and East Timor to conclude a new agreement on revenue sharing from the oil- and gas-rich Timor Sea have run into last-minute problems, a senior East Timorese official said yesterday.

Jakarta – Indonesian officials and rebel leaders from Aceh province will resume peace talks in Geneva next month in yet another bid to resolve a bloody separatist conflict that has raged for decades, local media reported on Saturday.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The Indonesian government yesterday temporarily revoked a controversial labour decree which cuts long-service payments, in a bid to calm violent street protests carried out by angry workers over the last three days.

Bandung – A new clash between police and protesting workers erupted here on Thursday, injuring at least nine people and damaging dozens of stores, buildings, two hotels and many vehicles.

Banda Aceh – Indonesian military (TNI) troops claimed to have raided two main bases of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist rebel group in the village of Jiemjiem, Bandar Baru district, Pidie regency on Wednesday.

Canberra – Economic prospects for East Timor remained low in the medium term, the World Bank said ahead of a two-day meeting of donors to the emerging nation that began in Canberra on Thursday.

Mark Dodd – East Timor is set to get up to 90 per cent of Timor Sea oil and gas revenue in a move Australia hopes will ensure the new nation does not become dependent on foreign aid.

The Foreign Minister, Mr Downer, said yesterday that Australia wanted to avoid mistakes made in the early years of Papua New Guinea's independence, when Australia had to prop up its Budget.

The Government delayed a controversial fuel price rise in the face of more unrest yesterday as President Abdurrahman Wahid prepared to leave his troubled country on yet another overseas trip.

Jakarta – The city administration announced on Thursday its plan to recruit some 50,000 civilians to help safeguard the city during the special session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), scheduled to begin on August 1.

Karen Polglaze, Canberra – International donors today signed-off on East Timor's 2001-02 budget, the blueprint that will take the new country through elections to independence.

Jakarta – Thousands of Indonesian workers yesterday held massive rallies in several cities, including the capital, to demand the scrapping of a ministerial labour decree cutting long-service payments.

Jayapura – Five on-duty officers of the Indonesian Police Mobile Brigade were killed in a pre-dawn attack by an unidentified group of people in the village of Wondiwoi, located in the Wasiur district of Manokwari regency, on Wednesday.

Agencies in Jakarta – In a new attempt to stay in power, President Abdurrahman Wahid has authorised prosecutors to launch corruption investigations against three ardent critics, officials at the Attorney-General's Office said yesterday.

Jakarta – Many state officials have demonstrated their unwillingness to disclose their wealth and assets as only 13 percent of the total forms distributed by the Public Servants' Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN) have been returned.

Jakarta – Police Wednesday detained 76 people following a three-day bloody communal clash in Cirebon regency, West Java, in which four people were killed and dozens were wounded. Police also confiscated hundreds of sharp weapons, Molotov cocktails, arrows and hand grenades from feuding villagers, Antara reported Wednesday.

Hamish McDonald – The United Nations is running out of patience with the Indonesian Government's move to avoid prosecuting army, police and militia suspects over atrocities in East Timor before the 1999 independence ballot.

Tony Jenkins – East Timor has acquired a powerful and unexpected new ally, a man some Americans still refer to as Dr Death: Henry Kissinger.

Lee Siew Hua, Washington – The United States has been urged to help Indonesia to regain the world's confidence and help it to improve its relations with the International Monetary Fund.

Jakarta – The National Police released Laskar Jihad Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jammaah commander Ja'far Umar Thalib from custody on Tuesday, though the suspect remains under investigation. Ja'far's lawyer Eggy Sudjana said the police officially released Ja'far via an official letter issued by National Police chief of general crimes Brig. Gen. Aryanto Sutadi, dated June 12.

Jakarta – A coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), grouped under the Ornop Coalition, urged police on Wednesday to take stern action against members of a hard-line Muslim group who had committed acts of theft and vandalism in connection with the raid on an international conference in Sawangan, West Java, last week.

Jakarta – The city administration should discriminate in its handling of hoodlums and street vendors. The city should not arrest street vendors and other informal traders as the police arrest hoodlums, experts said on Tuesday.

Kupang – Changes in the results of last week's registration of East Timorese refugees have aroused suspicion in Kupang of the possible manipulation of registration results. The refugees chose last week whether to remain in Indonesia or return to East Timor.

A security operation conducted by United Nations peacekeepers in East Timor has resulted in the surrender of 34 suspected militia members in the eastern part of the territory, the UN Transitional Administration (UNTAET) said today in Dili.

Joanne Collins, Jakarta – The IMF on Wednesday urged Indonesia's new economic team to forge ahead with the revised 2001 budget, saying it was an important precursor to mending frayed relations.

Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid turned down on Tuesday the demands of the Federation of All Indonesian Workers Union (FSPSI) to nullify two controversial ministerial decrees on labor issues but agreed to give some concessions to protect workers rights.

Jakarta – Thousands of Indonesian workers held massive rallies in several cities on Wednesday to demand the scrapping of a ministerial labor decree cutting long-service payments.

More than 1,000 workers from at least 30 labor organizations in the capital Jakarta and its outskirts demonstrated in front of the vice presidential palace facing central Jakarta's Monas square.

President Abdurrahman Wahid, fighting for his political life, named the deputy governor of the central bank, Mr Burhanuddin Abdullah, as the new chief economics minister yesterday.

Makassar, – Fifty students of the Indonesian Muslim University (UMI) put on a theater roadshow in Makassar on Tuesday as part of a renewal of their protest against the government's plan to raise fuel prices and electricity rates.

Jakarta – Eight people were killed, and 12 others wounded in armed attacks on a Christian neighbourhood and a passenger boat in the strife-torn eastern Indonesian city of Ambon yesterday.

Hamish McDonald – A score of Australians has just been caught up in a nasty example of the repressive violence that could easily become the norm again in Indonesia as Soeharto-era forces regroup behind Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri's push for power.

Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid changed his economics team Tuesday in a bid to rebuild his support ahead of impeachment proceedings and to smooth relations with disgruntled foreign lenders. It was the second major change to his troubled Cabinet in 11 days.

Dili - East Timor's UN administrators Tuesday said they would push ahead with historic elections in August despite fears of unrest. UN administrator Sergio Vieira de Mello has signed an order for the elections for a new governing assembly to proceed on Aug. 30 as planned, said UN spokesperson Barbara Reis.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – While foreign activists at the Justice Ministry tried to avoid being fingerprinted, the prime local target of a police raid on a labour seminar last week was almost forgotten.

East Timor may be forced to apply its future revenues from oil and natural gas exploration in the Timor Gap to cover its operational budget, rather than in investing in the territory's development, according to a study which will be presented to an international donors conference.

Scott Rochfort – Eight Australians detained by Indonesian police after attending a Labor rights conference in Jakarta returned, relieved, to Australia today.