Washington – A leading Timorese aid worker on Wednesday branded as a "sham" an Indonesian canvassing drive which found that 98 percent of East Timorese refugees confined to camps in West Timor did not want to go home.

Hundreds of protesters from the Student Action Front for Reform and Democracy (FAMRED), All-Indonesia Front (FIS), Peoples Action Committee for Victims of Violence (KARAT), and Student Union (IISIP) staged a demonstration in front of Merdeka Palace in Jakarta, this afternoon demanding the dissolution of both Golkar Party and parliament.

Aloysius Bhui, Jakarta – The revised budget currently being debated in parliament designed to contain the fiscal deficit to 3.8 per cent of GDP should be enough to satisfy the International Monetary Fund but will prove very tough and problematic to implement, analysts said.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Indonesian immigration officials yesterday freed 29 foreigners, including 18 Australians, who were detained at an international conference in Jakarta, as criticisms grew of police-sanctioned brutality against the organisers.

Jakarta – The 13 rivers in the Indonesian capital are turning into a major health hazard as factories and families dump untreated toxic waste into the waterways.

Jakarta – Minister of Foreign Affairs Alwi Shihab claimed here on Monday that the United States government under President George W. Bush had loosened its military embargo on Jakarta.

Banda Aceh - Police claimed on Monday that at least 16 people had been killed in guerrilla attacks on transmigration sites in Central Aceh since Sunday. Aceh Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Sad Harunantyo said the Javanese migrant settlers were killed when the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels on Sunday and early Monday attacked Kresek and Lindung Bulan villages.

G. K. Goh, Jakarta – Embattled Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid has stepped up his defiance saying he will not resign and challenged the military and police to try and use force to oust him, media reported on Monday.

Jakarta – Around 2,500 workers rallied in front of Indonesia's presidential palace on Monday demanding the government drop plans for a 30.1 percent fuel price hike later this month. There were no reports of trouble from the protesters who shouted slogans under the watchful eyes of 200 policemen and dispersed by midday.

The decision by Indonesian police to detain local and foreign participants at a human rights and labor rights seminar on the outskirts of Jakarta has further tarnished the nations international image. Last Fridays raid was seen as a return to the tactics of ex-president Suhartos regime, which routinely used police and thugs-for-hire groups to repress pro-democracy activities.

Craig Skehan, Malcolm Brown and Lindsay Murdoch – Australian diplomats warned protesters last night against inflammatory action as attempts continued to get 18 Australians, accused of visa violations for attending a political conference in Jakarta, out of Indonesia. However, a protest outside the Indonesian Consulate in Maroubra went ahead yesterday as scheduled.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – In a bid to cut down pollution in one of the world's most polluted cities, the government is planning to phase out the fume-emitting and noisy three-wheeled bajaj and replace it with more environmentally friendly vehicles.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Originally imported from India in the 70s as a faster alternative to the motorised rickshaw, the bajaj – similar to Thailand's tuk-tuks – was never officially legalised in many parts of Jakarta.

Robert Go, Jakarta – The economic crisis, as much as fashion, is responsible for the current fad among Indonesians for wearing body-hugging, belly-button-baring clothes.

Sergio Vieira de Mello, the head of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), has called the dissolution of the East Timor resistance umbrella organization CNRT a difficult and painful decision, but a "politically courageous, wise and timely one."

Robert Go, Jakarta – For cabby Sutardjo, the petrol-price increase scheduled for this coming Friday could erode his daily take-home earnings of around 40,000 rupiah (S$6.80) by as much as 20 per cent.

Mark Dodd, Dili - Amid emotional scenes, the organisation that united ordinary East Timorese in the struggle to end Indonesian rule dissolved itself on Thursday evening.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Indonesia's new Attorney-General pledged yesterday to restart corruption proceedings against former President Suharto, who spent his 80th birthday praying at a mosque and giving out charity packages to orphans.

Soraya Permatasari, Jakarta – Indonesian police said on Saturday that more than 30 foreigners, including a four-year-old girl, detained at a human rights seminar were suspected of immigration violations and would be questioned next week.

Agence France Presse in Jakarta – Disgraced and ailing former dictator Suharto was moved to tears by an orphan when he marked his 80th birthday yesterday, two days after the man he overthrew, founding president Sukarno, would have turned 100.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – The thousands of East Timorese still languishing in West Timor's camps are not free to choose to return to home as they have been intimidated by pro-Indonesian militia during a registration programme to determine their future, say aid workers and international observers.

Mark Dodd, Dili – As its final act, the organisation that united ordinary East Timorese in the struggle to end Indonesian rule called for all political parties contesting the August elections to sign a national unity pact.

Mark Forbes, Canberra – Jose "Xanana" Gusmao will become East Timor's first president next year despite his pledge not to nominate, according to fellow independence campaigner Jose Ramos Horta.

Jakarta – Indonesia's Parliament wants stiffer cuts in petrol subsidies and price hikes more drastic than the 30 per cent jump already slated by the government – a development that could inject additional fuel to the escalated political tension in Jakarta and spark further mass demonstrations later this month.

Indonesian language Internet media sources have published comments by East Timorese refugee representatives and IX/Udayana Military Area Commander Maj- Gen Willem T da Costa on the post-registration future of the refugees.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – The bodies of six people, including a boy, have been found in Aceh, taking the death toll from a military offensive launched on April 11 to almost 200. Police said the bodies of five of the latest victims were bullet-riddled while a sixth bore torture marks.

Jakarta – Indonesia's central bank (BI) and the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) on Friday agreed to repatriate the equivalent of around 20 million dollars of Indonesian rupiah now circulating in East Timor.

Surabaya – An investigation team formed by the National Awakening Party (PKB) faction at the East Java provincial legislature claims to have found evidence that people arrested following riots in Pasuruan were tortured during police questioning.

Susan Sim, Jakarta – Opposition politicians with no skeletons in their closets need not fear the new Attorney-General.

Jakarta – An overwhelming majority of East Timorese refugees languishing in West Timor camps want to stay in Indonesia, early results of a registration drive showed Friday.

Chris Brummitt, Jakarta – With calls growing for her to lead the nation, Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri lashed out at critics who say she lacks the experience for the presidency.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – In a further sign of the animosity between Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri and President Abdurrahman Wahid, Ms Megawati yesterday snubbed a Cabinet meeting she was supposed to chair.

Irwin Arieff G. K. Goh, United Nations – East Timorese refugees eager to return home are being threatened and intimidated by militia who forced them into squalid camps in Indonesian West Timor two years ago, an aid worker charged on Thursday.

On June 6 and 7, the Indonesian government conducted a procedure throughout the refugee camps in West Timor. One stated objective was to allow each family to choose whether to be resettled in Indonesia or to return to East Timor, their homeland from which they were forcibly abducted 21 months ago.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – The East Timorese militia leader Eurico Guterres has been freed 23 days after an Indonesian court jailed him for six months.

Mark Dodd, Dili – East Timorese languishing in Indonesian refugee camps were asked yesterday if they wanted to stay or go home as aid agencies warned that those who opted to go home faced violent retaliation from the militias who control the camps.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – The younger sister of Indonesian Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri lashed out at Parliament yesterday, accusing it of organising a virtual coup d'etat by attempting to impeach President Abdurrahman Wahid.

Karen Polglaze, Canberra – East Timor could not begin its life as an independent country by scaring off investors – so it would reach agreement with Australia on a Timor Gap Treaty, interim foreign minister Jose Ramos Horta said today.

The East Timorese leader [currently cabinet member for foreign affairs] Jose Ramos Horta says his country cannot support the claim to secession by the Papuans in Indonesia's Irian Jaya Province. Mr Ramos Horta, who won the Nobel Peace Prize three years before East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia, says East Timor cannot support every secession claim in the region...

Jakarta – Jakarta stocks edged higher on Thursday, but the market was under pressure from rumours, later denied, that politically isolated President Abdurrahman Wahid would sack the armed forces commander in a bid to hang on to the leadership.

Kupang – Allegations of widespread fraud and reports of intimidation of voters marred an Indonesian-run vote Wednesday for thousands of East Timorese refugees in West Timor to decide whether if they wish to return to their homeland.

Jakarta – Legal activists made a fresh call on Wednesday for the abolishment of military courts and joint civilian-military tribunals which, they said, were often used to protect the military's impunity.

Sadanand Dhume and Dini Djalal, Jakarta – In most democracies, a president who has lost the confidence of parliament, the army and the business community would be expected to slink away quietly. Not in Indonesia, where President Abdurrahman Wahid continues to cling to office.

Jakarta – Lawyers from Aceh yesterday urged the Indonesian government to ensure that courts are run properly after judges fled the troubled province fearing for their safety.

Bagus Kurniawan/HD, Yogyakarta – On Wednesday, around 100 students calling themselves Anti New Order People Front (Frarob) from various universities in Yogyakarta staged a demonstration at the Yogyakarta Provincial Legislative Council (DPRD) aimed at dissolving the Golkar Party and purging the parliament from any New Order elements.

John Gauci, Sydney – "East Timorese must ask themselves, why are we still divided? We can't go on holding other countries to blame", the new country's foreign minister Jose Ramos Horta told a public lecture at the University of New South Wales on May 30. "There is need for reconciliation. We need to develop relations with our neighbors and swallow our pride.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – He was autocratic, plunged Indonesia into a period of economic disaster and widespread poverty and flirted with communism. Yet, Indonesians today can't get enough of Sukarno – Indonesia's founding president.

Thousands are expected to flock to Blitar, his burial site in East Java, for today's celebration of the 100th anniversary of his birth.

Jakarta – Tensions around Indonesia's leadership crisis seeped into a centenary commemoration Wednesday of the country's founding ruler Sukarno when a partisan crowd cheered his daughter, the vice president, but jeered the embattled leader.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – The word being debated among foreign journalists in Jakarta is "mutiny". The police chief sacked last week by President Abdurrahman Wahid has refused to step down and his stance is being interpreted by the security forces as a reason for defiance of their own.

Max Lane, Jakarta – On May 30, an alliance of members of parliament from Golkar (the party of former Indonesian dictator Suharto), the armed forces (TNI), the muslim right-wing Central Axis parties and vice-president Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) passed a resolution in the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR, Indonesia's parliament) to hold a