Jakarta – Indonesia's Foreign Minister Ali Alatas on Tuesday accused pro-independence East Timorese of a disinformation campaign to portray Jakarta as destroying moves to peacefully resolve the territory's future.

United Nations – The United Nations on Tuesday issued a new appeal to the East Timorese and Indonesia not to derail political talks but rejected a call for a UN peacekeeping force to stop violence.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was "seriously concerned by continuing reports from East Timor of an escalation of violence," his spokesman Fred Eckhard said in a statement.

Jakarta – The registration of millions of voters for Indonesia's crucial June 7 elections got off to a sluggish start here Monday with few registrants and many areas awaiting delivery of registration papers.

Jakarta – Twenty charred bodies were found Monday in homes set on fire during new Moslem-Christian unrest in the Maluku islands, taking the death toll to 55, a report said.

For the past couple of months, we have received daily information pointing to a deterioration of the situation in East Timor.

Today, we received new information that civilian militias backed up by ABRI opened fire this morning on the population in Mauboke (Maubara, Liquica district, west of Dili), killing four and seriously injuring at least seven others.

Jakarta – Pro-Indonesia militiamen and troops killed at least 17 people, wounding dozens more, in an attack Monday on an East Timorese village near Liquiga, a resistance spokesman told Lusa.

Washington – The State Department on Monday called "dangerous and troubling" news that detained East Timorese rebel leader Xanana Gusmao now favors a return to armed struggle.

Spokesman James Rubin also voiced US concern about continuing violence in the former Portuguese territory.

Jakarta – The trials of an Indonesian official and a businessman charged with corruption linked to a land exchange scheme involving a son of former president Suharto opened Monday.

Jakarta – Religious clashes in the Southeast Maluku town of Tual have claimed at least 11 and injured 50, police and hospital sources said Friday.

Head of the Tual General Hospital, Nona Notanubun, told Antara that a priest, Butje Hehanussa, and his two sons, Hensen Hehanussa and Dani, were killed as a result of machete attacks on Wednesday.

Jakarta – A planned meeting of Indonesia's ruling Golkar party in East Java was cancelled after supporters of another party trashed the venue and ambushed the participants as they made their way there, a report said Saturday.

Sander Thoenes, Wamena – If people here are wary of the Army, they have a reason to be. In Irian Jaya, Indonesia's easternmost province, thousands have died during three decades of a small but persistent antigovernment guerrilla war.

So when Army troops last week chased away the pedicab drivers and took up positions, a tremor moved across Wamena's marketplace.

Abu Shams – The battle for votes in the upcoming Indonesian national elections is already on and it exposes rivalries among the existing Islamic political parties in the country. Among such Islamic parties is the United Development Party, whose leaders have chosen the Kabah which all Muslims face in prayer, as the new party symbol.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Hopes of a peaceful United Nations-supervised vote to decide East Timor's future are fading amid escalating tension among rival Timorese activists and an attack on Indonesia's armed forces commander, General Wiranto, by the resistance leader, Xanana Gusmao.

Jakarta – The Indonesian government has proposed scrapping its draconian subversion law and including new articles in the criminal code to cover crimes against the state, reports said Thursday.

Tokyo – A Japanese contractor allegedly paid at least 40 million yen (340,000 dollars) in kickbacks to cronies of former Indonesian president Suharto and related ministries to get a railway contract, a report said Thursday.

Christopher Torchia, Jakarta – Foreign investment will probably flow back into Indonesia's shattered economy if parliamentary elections on June 7 are conducted without any major disruption, former US President Jimmy Carter said Thursday.

Carter, who plans to act as an election observer, described the poll in Indonesia as the most significant in 1999.

Dili – The calling back of thousands of East Timorese students currently pursuing studies in various cities throughout Indonesia has been deplored. Students would be better off concentrating on their studies. Not all students supported either independence or integration for the territory.

Jakarta – Nine students from Trisakti University and a university security guard were badly wounded by riot troops in a clash in a street rally held on Wednesday in front of the Ministry of Defense and Security in Central Jakarta.

Two of the wounded students were women. The university security officer, Riswadi, was assigned to help supervise the students' protest.

It is hard to see how worse bloodshed can be avoided without much stronger international pressure on Jakarta to pull its troops into line, writes Brian Toohey.

Alexander Downer could be excused for wondering whatever happened to the famed special relationship between the Australian military and the Indonesian military now that it is needed.

Jakarta – The Indonesian military relinquished command of the police force Thursday as part of a government push to reform the armed forces, which have been tainted by charges of corruption and human rights abuses.

Michael Richardson, Jakarta – Indonesia's badly battered economy appears to be stabilizing and could return to growth before the year is out, according to officials and analysts who have been tracking it.

Lisbon – East Timor resistance spokesman Jose Ramos Horta has announced his support for the NATO military intervention in Yugoslavia and blamed the current situation on the intransigence of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

Jakarta – Standard and Poor's hurriedly restored Indonesia's long-term foreign currency sovereign rating Wednesday, just a day after a downgrade by the US agency sparked an angry central bank rejoinder.

Performing a rare about-face, the New York-based credit assessor said it had "reset" the rating from "Selective Default" back up to "Triple-C-Plus."

Jakarta – Tension remained high throughout villages in the eastern Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara on Wednesday after clashes between residents that left at least five people dead, police and news reports said.

Lewa Pardomuan, Jakarta – Portugual's envoy to Indonesia on Wednesday urged the United Nations to help secure peace in the troubled province of East Timor in the run-up to a vote on autonomy likely later this year.

Jakarta – East Timor's detained rebel chief Wednesday accused the Indonesian military of conspiring to undermine a planned vote on autonomy in the Indonesian-controlled territory.

Indonesia has been arming civilian militias in East Timor to create chaos that will sabotage the vote, which is expected in July, guerrilla leader Jose Alexandre Gusmao said.

Jakarta – East Timorese rebel leader Xanana Gusmao said Wednesday that a broad autonomy package offered by Indonesia to the troubled territory carried the message – integration or civil war.

Sydney – Australia will contribute to a UN peacekeeping force in East Timor if a peaceful transition in the province could not be realized otherwise, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Wednesday.

Jakarta – A senior minister and the national police chief arrived in Indonesian Borneo Tuesday as calm returned after days of grisly ethnic violence that left over 200 dead and displaced more than 28,000 people.

Padang – Seven students were injured and 46 arrested after clashes with security forces during a protest here against a Jakarta-appointed caretaker administration put in place after the governor resigned.

Jenny Grant, Jakarta – The court ruling allowing ministers to campaign will undermine public confidence in a fair poll and could threaten the smooth running of the election, analysts said.

Jakarta – Some 100 Indonesian students on Tuesday marched to the Elections Commission headquarters here to demand the disbanding of the ruling Golkar party ahead of the pivotal June 7 election.

The Student Action Forum for Reform and Democracy (Famred) chanted "disband Golkar" as their advance was blocked near the office by some 40 anti-riot police and troops.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Electoral Commission has issued a definitive schedule for the June 7 election process, documents showed Tuesday.

In a ruling issued by the 53-member commission, voter registration for the polls, the first since the fall of former president Suharto, will be held from April 5 to May 4 and the final list of voters issued on May 13.

Tomi Soetjipto, Jakarta – Around half of Indonesia's children aged under five suffer from malnutrition as economic crisis plunges families into poverty, a UNICEF official said. The figure, based on UNICEF research and experience in the field, represents around 11.5 million children.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Pro-independence Timorese leaders plan to seize millions of dollars' worth of properties in East Timor acquired by the family of disgraced former president Soeharto during Indonesia's 23-year rule of the former Portuguese colony.

Thomas Wagner, Jakarta – Ever since President Suharto resigned last year during widespread rioting, his successor, B.J. Habibie, has impressed many Indonesians by lifting some of the authoritarian restrictions that they had lived under for decades.

Jakarta – An angry mob vandalized seven shop-houses in the eastern Indonesian province of Irian Jaya following the death of a college teacher in police custody, a report said Monday.

Christine T. Tjandraningsih, Jakarta – An Indonesian committee passed a code of conduct Monday for the general election campaign, set from May 19 to June 4, that includes the ban of street rallies and the disqualification of parties from the June 7 election if they abuse the rules.

Surabaya – The supporters of other political parties have continued to vandalise the Golkar party's flags, banners, stickers, and signs. Most of the Golkar signs mounted in the streets were pulled apart by crowds, many wearing the colours of Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI-Struggle), when mass meetings of that party were being held.

Karen Polglaze, Dili – Bony arms raise gnarled hands in a shaky Mexican wave as the call to salute rings out across the buckled, weed-infested square of the village of Maubara.

Karen Polglaze, Jakarta – A local government authority in East Timor has begun a compulsory survey of all public servants to find out if they support independence for the troubled province, observers said.

The regent of Bobonaro, Guilherme Dos Santos, issued the instruction on March 24 requiring all employees in the town of Maliana to fill in a form stating their views.

Indonesia's experiment in population control has left a bloody legacy, reports John Aglionby in Pontianak

Sarni Kemal was wearing everything he owns when the headhunters came – a ripped shirt, a pair of grubby jeans and his underpants. When they came, he fled with his wife and eight children into a forest.

Canberra – Defence Minister John Moore today defended the holding of joint military exercises with Indonesia's armed forces (ABRI following allegations about military operations within Indonesia.

Canberra – The federal opposition has backed East Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmao's call for pro-integrationist militias to be disarmed urgently.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Laurie Brereton today supported Mr Gusmao's view that a democratic process would be jeopardised if these militia groups remained armed in the lead up to a ballot on independence.

Jakarta – The death toll from nearly two weeks of ethnic violence in Borneo rose to about 260 when new attacks on villages killed at least 15 people and dozens of refugees died of injuries or illnesses, newspapers reported Saturday.

Jenny Grant, Jakarta – Indonesia's ruling Golkar party could threaten the credibility of June's general election if it resorts to vote-buying, the nation's top electoral official warned yesterday.

Rudini, the chairman of the General Election Commission, said Golkar was ready to "play dirty" by buying votes and forcing the private sector to donate campaign funds.

The United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women, Dr Radhika Coomaraswamy, has said that not only have women been raped by military personnel in East Timor, Aceh and Irian Jaya, but that in some cases victims were sent photographs of their own rape.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – The release of 10 political prisoners after 33 years in jail said little about any government commitment to political freedom, historians and other former political detainees said yesterday.

The 10, jailed for their part in the alleged communist coup attempt of 1965, were freed late on Thursday.

Dili – Three people were killed Friday after Indonesian soldiers opened fire while trying to catch a suspected killer in East Timor, police said.

Bacau district police chief Major S.C. Marpaung said the soldiers were chasing a suspected murderer, identified as Faria, when they opened fire in Gariwai village in Baucua district.

Desmond Wrightm, Banda Aceh – Indonesia's president on Friday apologised to the restive province of Aceh for years of human rights abuses, as thousands of protesters demanding self-rule clashed with police and soldiers.

Hospitals said 111 people were injured, eight seriously, in clashes between protesters and security forces. Three people had been shot.