Associated Press in Jakarta – Corruption in Indonesia's law courts is so deeply ingrained that it might take more than two decades to purge them of graft, the newly installed attorney general was quoted as saying by newspapers on Wednesday.

Djoko Tjiptono/HD, Jakarta – Anti-Golkar Party demonstration keeps to move. This Tuesday, around 400 residents from Jakarta came to the Supreme Court (MA) building on Jl Medan Merdeka Utara, Central Jakarta. They came to demand the disbandment of the Golkar Party. At the same time, second court against Golkar continues aimed at dissolving the Golkar Party.

Jakarta – Indonesia's charismatic founding president Sukarno is enjoying a surge in popularity 31 years after his death, as his country sinks deeper into political and communal squabbling, analysts said.

Jakarta – More than 8,000 Indonesian police and troops staged a show of unity and defiance near the presidential palace Tuesday, pledging allegiance to the national police chief sacked by President Abdurrahman Wahid last week.

Jakarta – The political party of Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid on Tuesday accused the sacked national police chief and his allies of treason for refusing to accept his dismissal by Wahid.

"[General Suroyo] Bimantoro's behaviour amounts to treason," legislator Effendy Choirie of Wahid's National Awakening Party told AFP.

Canberra – An interim East Timorese government minister has accused Telstra of monitoring private telephone conversations within the fledging country. Infrastructure Minister Joao Carrascalao said Telstra did not have a main switch in Dili and the communication was transmitted via Adelaide.

Duri – It is a costly cat-and-mouse game played out daily by guards, the workers who install oil-exploration equipment and the thieves who scavenge its metal for scrap.

"We install it, they steal it," moaned Mr Akson Brahmantyo, an engineer at Indonesia's largest oilfield operated by the US energy company Caltex.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Observing the behaviour of President Abdurrahman Wahid, it is easy to paint a picture of a crazy, erratic, inconsistent and ailing old man, lashing out wildly at his opponents like a wounded animal trapped in a corner.

Andrew West – Australian Government officials have been accused of burying a crucial intelligence report about a 1998 Indonesian massacre in the West Papua town of Biak because it did not want to offend Indonesia so soon after it had thrown off the Soeharto dictatorship.

Canberra – Administrative action is being taken against two defence personnel following high profile document leak investigations. Defence department secretary Dr Alan Hawke told a Senate estimates committee the inquiries related to leaking of documents concerning East Timor and to alleged espionage by a Defence Intelligence Organisation employee who is now before the court.

Vadline England – While politicians jockey for position in Jakarta and peace talks open and close in Geneva, the death toll on the killing grounds of Aceh continues to rise. More than 900 people have been killed so far this year in the province where an independence movement is battling Indonesian security forces.

Karaniya Dharmasaputra, Adi Prasetya and Wens Manggut – Suddenly the move to force an early session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) to impeach President Abdurrahman Wahid is grinding to a halt.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – When President Abdurrahman Wahid feels cornered, he will lash out and strike his opponents.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid had long distrusted three of the four Cabinet ministers he sacked yesterday, regarding them as potential "traitors" to his government, one of his close family members said.

Bogor – Democratic People's Party (PRD) chairman Budiman Sudjatmiko alleged on Friday that the recent explosions at his parents' home in the Sukaresmi subdistrict of Tanah Sareal was a premeditated act of terror.

Robert Go, Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid's latest move to avert dishonour yesterday included the appointment of Mr Baharudin Lopa – a loyalist who legislators said would at once dig up corruption cases against opposition leaders – as Indonesia's new Attorney-General.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Indonesia's political crisis was close to spinning out of control last night after an increasingly isolated President Wahid, desperate to fend off impeachment, sacked four ministers.

Jakarta – Students of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) were involved in clashes yesterday with Police and Military who were tasked to safeguard Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri during her visit to the ITB campus to inaugurate a statue of Soekarno, Indonesias first president which was erected on the campus where he studied technical science and obtained his diploma from.

Wens Manggut and Andari Karina Anom – Where are all the laughter and hand clapping of yesteryear? They have all but disappeared from Golkar's party headquarters in Slipi, West Jakarta. It's as if the former political vehicle of the Suharto regime is black and blue, within and without.

Medan – The Medan District Court, under heavy security, began on Thursday the trial of Ligadinsyah, alias Azis bin Ibrahim Linggo, believed to be the deputy commander of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) for the Central Aceh area.

Surabaya – As many as 150 people were reported missing in the town of Pasuruan on Thursday as life gradually returned to normal following an interfaith meeting between senior local ulemas and Christian clergymen on Wednesday evening.

Washington – The United States said it was watching events in Indonesia closely as it faces a test to its democracy, and called on the country's leaders to solve its political crisis through peaceful, constitutional means.

US State Department spokesman Philip Reeker told reporters that Washington was "watching events in Indonesia very closely".

Robert Go, Jakarta – Without clear leadership at the top, Indonesia's bureaucracy could break down over the next two lame-duck months, analysts warned. The predictions came despite assurances from senior officials at various ministries, who claim the government will carry on despite impeachment proceedings against President Abdurrahman Wahid.

Susan Sim, Jakarta – Do not say anything, just focus on the G-15 meeting and your new grandson – that is the advice key Cabinet ministers are giving the President the day after impeachment became an inescapable reality.

Hongkong – Despite feeling uneasy over the recent political turmoil in Indonesia, the head of the International Monetary Fund yesterday said he was willing to work with any new policymakers chosen by the nation.

Surabaya – Protesters in East Java have admitted that they were paid to hit the streets in support of President Abdurrahman Wahid, local police said.

Reuters in Sydney – With President Wahid fighting for his political survival and his supporters vowing to lay down their lives for him, aid agencies are preparing for a humanitarian crisis.

Jeremy Hobbs, executive director of Oxfam Community Aid Abroad, said the Australian charity already had contingency plans for a humanitarian catastrophe.

Hamish McDonald – As Megawati Sukarnoputri edges closer to assuming the Indonesian presidency, she has given some signs of a more conciliatory approach to Australia and breakaway East Timor than indicated so far by her huffy nationalist stance in public.

The United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) today reported that the grenade attack that killed five people along the East/West Timor border last week was the result of a private dispute between a militia member and a gambling ring organizer.

Bogor – There was a second explosion at the house of the parents of Budiman Sudjatmiko, chairman of the People's Democratic Party (PRD), in the village of Sukaresmi here on Thursday, following an explosion a day earlier.

Hamish McDonald – Warning of a new financial crisis in Indonesia, the Federal Opposition yesterday urged a softer approach by international lenders to the country's huge debt burden left by the collapsed Soeharto regime.

By Tim Anderson for AID/WATCH

1. World Bank dictating terms of development in East Timor

Jakarta – Indonesia's intelligence agency has named a prominent Australian academic as a potential security threat, in the latest sign of the Megawati government's heightened sensitivity to criticism ahead of the July presidential election.

Jakarta – Some 10,000 supporters of President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid occupied on Wednesday the office of Situbondo local administration in East Java, paralyzing government activities in the coastal town.

Mark Dodd, Dili – A dispute over illegal trade on the East Timor border with Indonesian West Timor is thought to have caused a series of grenade attacks on Tuesday that left at least five people dead and about 40 injured, United Nations military sources say.

Brendan Pearson – East Timor's bounty from Timor Gap oil and gas revenues may hit $US1 ($1.95 billion) billion annually this decade, East Timor's interim Foreign Minister, Dr Jose Ramos Horta, said yesterday.

Banda Aceh – Fifteen people were killed or found dead in two days in Indonesia's troubled Aceh province, as rebels and the military traded accusations over the torching of scores of homes, authorities and residents said Thursday.

London – Human rights abuses emerged in East Timor last year amid delays in rebuilding the territory after the bloody destruction carried out by Indonesian forces, Amnesty International said Wednesday.

Mark Dodd, Dili – East Timor In an effort to mend an economy devastated by the violence that accompanied the Indonesian withdrawal in 1999, the United Nations transitional administration in East Timor is trying to get the American dollar widely accepted as the only legal tender.

The death toll in yesterday's attack along the border between East and West Timor has reached five, with up to 40 people injured, the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) confirmed today.

Max Lane, Jakarta – More than 500 people, Acehnese and Indonesians, attended a series of lively debates and cultural events at conference organised by the Acehnese People's Democratic Resistance Front (FPDRA) and the Popular Youth Movement (GPK), a youth organisation in political solidarity with the People's Democratic Party (PRD), held May 18-20.

Jakarta – A day ahead of the much-anticipated plenary session of the House of Representatives (DPR), thousands of President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid supporters staged a protest at Monas (the National Monument) in Central Jakarta on Tuesday.

Max Lane, Jakarta – If opponents of President Abdurrahman Wahid have their way, when it meets on May 30 the Indonesian parliament will call a special session of the People's Consultative Assembly, the only body which has the power to impeach and oust the president, for as early as late July.

Surabaya – Security forces fired warning shots into the air in an attempt to disperse thousands of supporters of President Abdurrahman Wahid who tried to forcibly enter the provincial legislative council building here on Tuesday.

A group of GNR (Guarda Nacional Republicana) [a security arm of Civpol], on Monday, fired warning shots at a group of RDTL supporters and activists at the border of Metinaro and Manatuto. Sixteen people were injured in clashes with the GNR and seven are receiving treatment at the Baucau General Hospital.

Jakarta – Pro-democracy activists, alarmed of strong signs of a reappearance of the military within politics, warned the Indonesian Military (TNI) on Monday not to enter the political contest, saying that this would be the biggest contribution it could make to democracy.

Jakarta – A key independence leader in Indonesia's remote Irian Jaya province told a court trying him for alleged subversion Monday that the province was already independent, his lawyer said.

"Theys Eluay told the court that the state of Papua has existed since December 1, 1961," defence lawyer Anum Siregar, using the locally-preferred name for the province, told AFP.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Abandoned by almost all of Jakarta's political elite, some of whom think he has lost grasp of reality, Abdurrahman Wahid is showing there is little he will not do to remain president.

Jakarta – Hundreds of enraged supporters of beleaguered Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid on Monday attacked buildings linked to rival politicians and burned tyres in the cleric's stronghold of East Java, local Metro TV reported.

Surabaya – East Java authorities have stepped up precaution measures in anticipation of possible unrest resulting from the heightened tension between members of political elite in Jakarta.

Governor Imam Utomo called a crisis meeting with Brawijaya Military commander Maj. Gen. Sudi Silalahi, provincial police chief Insp. Gen.