Jakarta – An ad hoc committee of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) for the amendment of the 1945 Constitution will discuss numerous crucial issues that could raise complicated and serious problems for the public, a legislator said on Tuesday.

Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid on Monday left legislators dumbfounded as he abruptly walked out of a meeting with the House of Representatives' special committee investigating the Bulog and Brunei scandals.

Jakarta – Army Chief of Staff Gen. Endriartono Sutarto told soldiers on Monday not to be discouraged by claims by certain groups that the military was behind all the security problems in the country.

Aulia Andri/GB, Jakarta – Around 500 members of the notorious Ka'bah Youth Movement (GPK) snuck in through the back gate at the parliament and staged a demonstration demanding the House fully investigate the Buloggate-Bruneigate scandals. All were replete in their military style uniforms and the women and girls present also wore jilbabs.

Jakarta – Unlike in the past, political parties are now the vanguard of corruption in the country, as a result of democratization and decentralization, the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) revealed in its year-end report on Monday.

Mark Dodd, Dili – East Timor's hope for national reconciliation will take a step towards realisation this year with the introduction of a Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation.

Budi Sugiharto/Fitri & GB, Surabaya – Surabaya bus terminal, the biggest terminal in Surabaya, capital of East Java, has been paralysed by a strike.

Ambon – Eight Muslims were killed and 19 injured Monday after an attack on an Indonesian military patrol in Ambon, a city ravaged by two years of Muslim-Christian violence.

Banda Aceh – The Indonesian government and separatist rebels in Aceh have agreed to work together to implement a one-month truce in the violence-wracked province, a joint statement obtained yesterday said.

Chris McCall, Meulaboh – He races as fast as he can in his battered minibus, but screeches to a halt for the men with big guns. Roads in the troubled Indonesian province of Aceh are nowhere to linger without reason.

Jakarta – Police said on Saturday a woman arrested at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII) on Friday in the possession of three bombs admitted she received the bombs from Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, the fugitive son of former president Soeharto.

They also said they had uncovered a number of clues that pointed to Tommy's possible involvement in the Christmas Eve bombings.

Jakarta – The World Bank's board in Washington has approved a new lending program for Indonesia of $400 million annually over the next three years, much lower than the $1.3 billion average yearly funding in the mid-1990s.

Hamish McDonald, Dili – His full name is said to be Ely Foho Rai Boot, which translates from the main Timorese language Tetum as something like Ely Great Mountain, but he is known here just as "L7".

Associated Press in Sydney – Protesters seeking independence for the troubled Indonesian province of Aceh called on Saturday for Australia to cut military links with Jakarta to protest alleged human rights abuses.

More than 100 pro-independence demonstrators made the demand at a protest outside the Australian Department of Defence in downtown Sydney.

Ambon – The Ambon capital of Maluku was paralyzed on Friday in the wake of the commemoration of start of the bloody conflicts that have gripped the Malukus for the last two years.

Associated Press in Jakarta – Four people have died in fresh violence in Indonesia's troubled Maluku islands, a Muslim cleric said on Saturday.

Banda Aceh – The implementation of law in Aceh has almost come to a halt as many judges have fled the province because of security concerns.

Jakarta – Employers tend to try to block the establishment of labor unions, and this is a violation of the law, the head of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH) labor unit Rita Olivia said on Friday.

Hamish McDonald – Next month the legendary guerilla army Falintil, an acronym for Armed Forces of the Liberation of East Timor, will cease to exist as its remaining active fighters are absorbed into the new army being formed for their emerging nation.

Gay Alcorn, Washington – The new Bush administration wants Australia to take the lead in dealing with Indonesia's problems of violence and political instability, according to incoming secretary of state Colin Powell.

Jakarta – The Army's Special Force (Kopassus) will be reorganized to meet the demands of security environment in the future, a senior military officer said on Thursday.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Endriartono Sutarto said the elite force would slim its organization and decrease the number of its personnel as well.

Jakarta – Separatist rebels in remote Irian Jaya have seized seven negotiators trying to win the release of 11 abducted plywood workers and now hold 18 people hostage, police said Friday.

Jakarta – In yet another desperate attempt to locate the fugitive Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, police announced plans on Thursday to drill and break into at least three other spots in his house.

Jakarta – The political history of bombings in Indonesia took a sharp turn after the 1998 May riots, in which all of the cases involving bomb explosions have never been solved, the Indonesian Forum for Peace (FID) secretary Munir said on Thursday.

Shefali Rekhi – The man behind the reforms and privatisation efforts of Indonesia's state-owned enterprises has criticised his government for the slow progress in its privatisation process.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) is demanding 30 million rupiah (S$5,700) for each firearm they give up. Defence Minister Muhammad Mahfud said this condition had stopped the process of disarmament.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – The kidnapping of 12 hostages, including a South Korean businessman, in Indonesia's troubled Irian Jaya province, is suspected to be a "fake" one, staged to discredit the separatist rebels.

Vaudine England – President Abdurrahman Wahid yesterday brushed off calls for his resignation from students and lawmakers, saying his opponents were the tools of "those who are hungry for power".

In an exclusive interview, Mr Wahid said the military leadership was behind him and he had never doubted his ability to win what he called the country's "political civil war".

Jakarta – The generals are back. With civilian leaders mired in political infighting and unable to tackle Indonesia's mounting crises, the army brass – on the defensive since the ouster of the dictatorship it backed for 32 years – is reasserting its dominance in the country's politics.

Sadanand Dhume, Jakarta – With a shaky currency, the former president's son on the run from police and a series of recent bomb blasts in major cities, you would be forgiven for thinking that Indonesia has more than its share of troubles.

Jakarta – While expressing support for a united territory of Indonesia, United States Ambassador to Indonesia Robert S. Gelbard offered on Wednesday to help ensure the agreement between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and Indonesian government a success.

Jakarta – South Aceh Police found a mass grave with 14 bodies, three of which were suspected to be those of the missing researchers from the Bandung-based Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), in Tebangan village, South Kluet district, an officer said on Wednesday.

Jakarta – Speaker of the House of Representatives Akbar Tandjung rejected calls by the National Awakening Party (PKB) faction for an investigation into an alleged financial leakage in the July 2000 House rehabilitation projects and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) conference last September.

Dini Djala, North Sulawesi and West Kalimantan – At a crowded refugee camp in Bitung, North Sulawesi, some 3,000 children pass their days jumping rope, throwing ball or playing a game they call "war." The girls pretend to be nurses, busily tending the wounded, while the boys take up fake guns to fight mock battles.

Makassar – The South Sulawesi Police sent 300 personnel from its Mobile Brigade (Brimob) unit to the restive regency of Poso in Central Sulawesi following an escalation in sectarian tension, South Sulawesi Police chief Insp. Gen. Sofyan Jacob said on Tuesday.

Jakarta – Police fired warning shots at stone throwing protesters outside a trial of three Christians accused of provoking bloody sectarian riots in central Indonesian, news reports said Thursday.

Jakarta – The Central Jakarta District Court commenced the trial of Bank Indonesia (Central Bank) governor Syahril Sabirin on Wednesday regarding his alleged involvement in the disbursement of Rp 904 billion (US$96.2 million) of Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) funds to Bank Bali.

Jakarta – Police on Wednesday fired volleys of teargas at 2,500 protestors who gathered outside parliament calling on Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid to answer corruption charges or step down.

There were no casualties, an AFP reporter said, and the demonstrators briefly fell back before regrouping on a road running past the main gate of the parliament complex.

Max Lane – The process of overthrowing the Suharto dictatorship did not go sufficiently deep enough to deliver a deathblow to the political ambitions of the old regime, of Suharto's former ruling party, Golkar, and the armed forces, the TNI. During 2000, they have steadily inched their way back into position and are readying themselves for an attempt to take back their power.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – While President Abdurrahman Wahid gave his backing for another ceasefire between Acehnese rebels and the government, analysts said the bloodshed over the past few days indicated that neither side was prepared to take the truce seriously.

Pip Hinman – Acehnese activist Kautsar has been struggling for his people's right to self-determination for some years. In 1998, he helped to form Student Solidarity with the People (SMUR), the main Acehenese student-led popular movement for independence.

Jakarta – An Indonesian court has dismissed a case against an author charged seven years ago with insulting former president Suharto by suggesting that the former dictator masterminded a 1965 coup blamed on the then-Communist Party of Indonesia.

Jakarta – A group representing the Chinese community in Indonesia yesterday met Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid to ask for help in removing discriminatory legislation against the ethnic group.

Kerryn Williams – "We see the potential energy among urban poor youth, whose power has been shown many times in Indonesian history. They are brave, energetic and not afraid of new ideas and changes.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Indonesian police yesterday denied reports that they were investigating the involvement of former army generals in the Christmas Eve bombings, linking the fatal attacks that killed 19 people instead to the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

Jeremy Bowden, Singapore – East Timor is raising the stakes in talks on sharing offshore oil and natural gas revenues with Australia, according to Australian government sources.

Chris McCall, Banda Aceh – "Let our people go quickly or Indonesia will suffer the same fate as Yugoslavia." That was the dire warning from separatist rebels, as the Indonesian province of Aceh began a new truce yesterday.

Jakarta – Indonesian police in easternmost Irian Jaya province have questioned four people including a woman cleric over separatist activities, a report said here Tuesday.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Indonesia's Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri has vowed to clean up her Indonesian Democratic Party-Perjuangan (PDI-P), amid allegations that corrupt MPs within its ranks sold their votes to rival parties in local polls across the country.

Maggie O'Kane – The discovery of the bodies of four women murdered with machetes in different parts of the country last summer passed almost unnoticed in East Timor. Yet the Indonesian occupying army, which killed an estimated 200,000 people in its 24 years there, has gone, driven out by the UN cavalry over a year ago.