Jakarta – Indonesia said on Tuesday it would not allow a referendum on independence for East Timor, and a dispute over the restive province would remain deadlocked unless Portugal accepted Indonesia's proposals to settle the issue.

Jakarta – Thousands of students across Java greeted the Armed Forces' (ABRI) 53rd anniversary on Monday with street demonstrations to demand the military quit the country's political stage.

Kafil Yamin, Bandung – The small, filthy and foul-smelling canal in Cikuya village in West Java is the community's ticket to earning a livelihood. Soon after daybreak everyday, women, men and children troop to the waste-contaminated canal and wash load upon load of used plastic bags, then sell them to traders who in turn reap profits from selling them to reprocessing factories.

Jakarta – The Armed Forces (ABRI) celebrates its 53rd anniversary on Monday by taking a hard look at its image, pledging solutions to some rights violations, and pleading against being seen as "cruel murderers and destroyers" who inflicted suffering on people.

Jakarta – Hundreds of students and civilians on Monday staged two separate street protests here to demand that the Indonesian military end its law-accorded involvement in the country's politics, witnesses said Some 300 students from various universities converged on the parliament in central Jakarta to demand that the military's "dual function" be revoked.

Manila – Some 300 leftist activists and ethnic Chinese picketed the Indonesian embassy in the Philippines Monday, to protest alleged abuses against the ethnic Chinese minority in Indonesia. Waving banners saying "Justice for the rape victims" and assailing Indonesian President B.J.

Jakarta – The conflicting political pressures of post-Suharto Indonesia have left President B.J. Habibie teetering on a tightrope – too much reform could topple his precarious government, but so could too little.

Jakarta – Staff at Tempo, Indonesia's leading weekly news magazine when it was banned by the government of former president Suharto in 1994, announced Sunday they would return the publication to the newsstands this week.

Jakarta – Indonesia's armed forces mark their 53rd anniversary on Monday amid one of their toughest battles to date – the fight to restore their honour as a defender and not oppressor of the people.

Jakarta – Two people were injured as thousands of farmers in the Indonesian province of West Sumatra protested against a palm oil plantation firm which they said had polluted a local river, sources there said Sunday.

Jakarta – Indonesian Home Minister Syarwan Hamid on Saturday installed the head of an ancient local royal family as the governor of Yogyakarta, the first governor in the country to be spontaneously elected, newspaper reports said.

Jakarta – Police in the remote Indonesian province of Irian Jaya arrested five men including two officials and a priest for suspected separatism, including calling for a pro-independence rally, a report said Thursday.

Jakarta – The owner of a private Indonesian radio station has closed down a popular pro-reform radio talk show and fired the six staff operating the program, a human rights lawyer said Thursday.

Jakarta – The Japanese-born wife of Indonesia's first president Sukarno has accused former president Suharto of having prior knowledge of the 1965 coup attempt and doing nothing to prevent it, a report said Thursday

Jakarta – Separatist guerrillas and the military in the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya have agreed on an immediate ceasefire, the official Antara news agency on Wednesday quoted a local military chief as saying.

Jakarta – Over 2,000 Indonesian Moslems gathered at Jakarta's main Istiqlal Mosque here on Wednesday in what they said was a show of support for President B.J. Habibie and his reform programs.

Jakarta – After a recent storm of public condemnation over past alleged human rights violations, the Armed Forces (ABRI) took another blow on Monday when an independent survey found its public image wanting.

Jakarta – Thousands of Indonesians rallied on Wednesday, the 33rd anniversary of an attempted communist coup, warning that communism was still alive and responsible for riots and looting plaguing the country.

Jakarta – Indonesian authorities have approved in principle an opposition party congress held by popular politician Megawati Sukarnoputri in Bali next week, police chief Lieutenant General Rusmanhadi said Wednesday.

Jakarta – In its sternest warning yet, the Indonesian government said Wednesday that protesters who threaten its existence could be sentenced to life imprisonment under a harsh anti-subversion law enacted by ex-President Suharto.

Peter Waldman, Mount Jaya – At 13,000 feet up this remote crag, Steve Drake, operations chief of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.'s huge Grasberg mine, looks out uneasily across Lake Wanagon. The dazzling turquoise pool is loaded with copper leached from the mine's waste-rock dump, so much copper that Freeport intends to mine the lake water some day. Mr.

Jakarta – The Indonesian government Tuesday abandoned a proposed law to control protests and demonstrations that critics had said would curb newfound freedom of expression following the end of the authoritarian Suharto regime.

Jakarta – Thousands of soldiers and police remained on alert in the capital and other cities Tuesday as Indonesia prepared to mark the anniversary of what the government says was a failed communist coup 33 years ago. The military has warned that anti-government groups might use Wednesday's anniversary as an excuse to stage protests.

Jakarta – Some 100 Indonesian workers Tuesday held a rally to mark the launch of their Digging and Construction Labor Union (IKAPERGABIN).

"Stop perpetuating poverty. Use conglomerates money to better our fate. Stop slavery and opression," said some posters carried by the workers who gathered at a park.

Lisbon – East Timor guerrilla chief Taur Matan Ruak said on Tuesday that Indonesia's offer of autonomy could be a basis for talks but offered no ultimate solution to the future of the disputed territory.

"I accept (autonomy) but not as a final solution," Matan Ruak said in an interview with Portuguese state radio RDP-Internacional from his mountain hideout in Timor.

Lisbon – A leader of East Timor's guerillas said Tuesday that the armed struggle for independence would continue because Indonesia has refused to negotiate an end to Jakarta's rule in the half-island territory.

Jakarta – Separate groups of farmers and workers demonstrated in the western Indonesian city of Medan on Tuesday over land appropriation and wages, the Suara Pembaruan evening daily said.

Jakarta – Police clashed with troops after an exchange of insults on the island of Borneo Tuesday, leaving four people dead and 12 others injured, police and a news report said. A police source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said two police officers and two soldiers had died from gunshot wounds.

Jakarta – Indonesia Tuesday announced a bank recapitalisation program to restore the ailing banking sector back to health.

"The aim of the recapitalisation is to retain (banks) which has a prospect of surviving and develop, and also primarily to accelerate economic restoration through a restructurisation of their ownership", Bank Indonesia Governor Syahril Sabirin said.

Jakarta – Indonesia's first real attempt at a bankrupcty case in 95 years came unstuck on Tuesday and analysts warned it would make investors even less comfortable with the country's cloudy legal system.

Beijing – Vice Premier Qian Qichen on Tuesday repeated China's calls to Indonesia to take action over the violence directed against ethnic Chinese during Jakarta's May riots.

Bogor – An expert has expressed concern that the rood crisis and malnutrition affecting an untold number of babies in various Indonesian areas will lead to the birth of stupid generations in the future.

Jakarta – Indonesian forestry companies grouped under Masyarakat Perhutanan Indonesia will launch an investigation of an estimated $2.04 billion which former President Suharto's golfing partner Mohamad "Bob" Hasan collected between 1991 and 1997. Bob Hasan served as the chairman of MPI from 1991 until March this year.

Jakarta – A prominent critic of former leader Suharto Monday urged the government of President B.J. Habibie to call on friendly foreign states to freeze all Suharto-linked assets in their countries.

Jakarta – About 15,000 Moslem youths packed the Senayan Sports Hall on Sunday for the launching of the Jakarta chapter of the Justice Party, declaring readiness to contest the planned general election in May next year.

Jakarta – A group of university graduates in the troubled territory of East Timor have set up a forum advocating a referendum on self determination for the former Portuguese colony, reports said here Monday.

Jakarta – A group in the remote Indonesian province of Irian Jaya has called for a mass rally in support of independence from Indonesia, the official Antara news agency said Monday.

Sydney – Indonesian opposition leader Amien Rais said Monday he could form a coalition government if elected to power but still insisted on major reforms, including a reduced political role for the army. Rais, leader of the National Mandate Party, told a student audience here he was confident President B.J. Habibie would stay in office long enough to call polls.

Jakarta – A long-time critic of former president Suharto was allowed to return to Indonesia Sunday but the euphoria was overshadowed by fears of a new clampdown on dissent after police tried to break up a human rights seminar.

Jenny Grant, Jakarta – Experts have advised separating the police from the armed forces and redefining the President's control over military affairs as part of moves to democratise the law-and-order system.

Bogor – Hundreds of farmers took to the streets yesterday in this West Javanese hill town and in Jakarta to protest against the taking of their land by real estate and golf course developers, witnesses said.

Jenny Grant, Jakarta – The mental and physical growth of a generation of children is under threat as Indonesia's economic crisis worsens. More than half the children under two years old in Java, the most populous island, were suffering from malnutrition, Unicef, the UN Children's Fund, said yesterday.

Jenny Grant – Faced with increasing demonstrations, the Governor of North Sumatra has armed hundreds of his staff with rattan sticks.

Paris – Indonesia took another step on its long road to recovery on Wednesday when it agreed to reschedule $4.2 billion in foreign debt and received a new endorsement of its economic reforms from the IMF.

Louise Williams, Jakarta – Indonesia's former president has threatened to sue those claiming he abused his power to amass a personal fortune during his 32-year rule. Mr Soeharto issued the warning after his first meeting with the two senior officials charged with investigating his wealth.

Jeffrey A. Winters, Chicago, Illinois – At the end of July 1997, the World Bank's country director, Dennis de Tray, and the vice president for East Asia and the Pacific region, Jean-Michel Severino, issued an angry press release denying that a large portion of the bank's loan funds routinely leaked into the hands of corrupt officials in the Indonesian government.

William Mccall – Nike shareholders on Wednesday rejected a proposal to tie executive compensation more closely to the wages that are paid at the company's contract factories in Asia.

Shoeb Kagda, Medan – Indonesia's third largest city is bracing itself for further social unrest as between 2,000 and 3,000 farmers are expected to march to the provincial governor's office today demanding land reforms.

Irwan Firdaus, Jakarta – Students protesting the policies of Indonesia's government demonstrated in three cities today, defying troops sent to put down discontent in the Southeast Asian nation.

Jakarta - Students and farmers staged street rallies in several Indonesian cities on Wednesday despite the massive presence of security forces, witnesses said.