Jakarta – The government says it will form a new intelligence body so that President Abdurrahman Wahid will receive reliable information and no longer have to rely on rumors and hearsay.

DSB & HD/GB, Jakarta – New revised laws concerning the introduction and implementation of a State of Emergency are to be passed by the parliament by 30 October according to the Minister of Justice and Human Rights. However, Indonesias four leading legal and human rights organisations have condemned the legislation and urged the government and House to reject it outright.

Chaidir Anwar Tanjung/GB Detik, Pekanbaru – Negotiations with angry locals continue to produce few results at Caltexs Riau operations in Sumatra and four vehicles owned by the company have again been seized. Meanwhile, a member of the Riau government has called on the company to give some ground and for locals to control themselves, fearing the fields may go up in flames.

Jakarta – The last governor of East Timor Abilio Jose Osorio Soares said on Tuesday that he preferred an international tribunal to try human rights violations which occurred after the referendum in the former Indonesian territory, saying it was fairer that the country's judicial system.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jayapura – Pro-independence leaders and militia in West Papua vowed yesterday to defy a government order to pull down the separatist Morning Star flag by tomorrow, setting the stage for more violence in the Indonesian province.

Jakarta – Conflict between three factions within the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) is hampering efforts to reform the military, says an academic. Marcus Mietzner, a military analyst from the Australian National University (ANU), says the three factions are radical, moderate and conservative.

Andrew Perrin – Adriano Almeida da Carmo owns the most popular restaurant in the mountain town of Ainaro, in central west East Timor. There is little to recommend it. Chair legs slip through the cracks of the homemade bamboo floor where customers perch precariously, the food is poor, the beer is warm, and, when night falls, the restaurant is plunged into pitch black.

Susan Sim, Jakarta – Indonesia's tough new army chief will soon invite public auditors to scrutinise the accounts of the service's many business companies and foundations. And if evidence of any illegal activity is found against any officer or soldier, he will throw the book at the culprits, General Endriartono Sutarto vowed yesterday.

Jakarta – Jakarta Police Chief Inspector General Nurfaizi and East Java Police Chief Inspector General Dai Bachtiar were among 31 middle and high ranking officers who lost their positions in a reshuffle yesterday.

Michael Millett, Tokyo – Indonesia yesterday parried criticism of its performance on everything from human rights to the environment as it sought to persuade the international community to hand over another $A9.2 billion to ease its crippling financial problems.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – The leader of Indonesia's highest legislative body said yesterday that the country was desperately in need of a new leadership, one that was based on an alliance between Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri and Parliamentary Speaker Akbar Tandjung as her running mate.

David Roche – Back in the heady days of the early 1990s, Southeast Asia was in the middle of an economic miracle. Meetings between Asian and European trade ministers were occasions for Asian ministers to explain to their counterparts how Asia did it. Foreign investors were falling over themselves to lend money to Asian banks or invest in or set up Asian companies.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – National Assembly (MPR) chairman Amien Rais warned yesterday that Aceh and Irian Jaya could break apart from Indonesia in one to two years' time if Jakarta did nothing to address separatist pressures there.

Jakarta – Indonesia should again be able to achieve rice self-sufficiency, as it did in 1985, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bungaran Saragih said here yesterday.

Data from the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry shows that the countrys annual rice consumption is now 30 million tons, while world market supply has only reached 20 million tons.

Maryadi/Fitri & GB, Pontianak – Tensions between the entrenched Governor of West Kalimantan and the coalition of students and other civilians who want to see him ousted and are on the boil again. An all-in brawl resulted Tuesday when Aspar's supporters occupied the provincial government's offices and then met anti-Aspar demonstrators.

Prosecutors in Indonesia have admitted that six of the 22 suspects wanted for questioning in connection with human rights abuses in East Timor last year have gone missing.

A spokesman for the attorney-general's office said they included some of the most notorious pro-Jakarta militia leaders accused of carrying out atrocities during the independence referendum last August.

Tokyo – Protestors on Tuesday appealed to a meeting here of Indonesia's donor nations to force Jakarta to address human-rights abuses before releasing any new aid.

Jakarta – Four former leaders of pro-Indonesia militias who helped run a campaign of wholesale murder and looting in East Timor last year have offered to reveal everything they know in exchange for guarantees of safety.

Banda Aceh – The campaign of violence perpetrated by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist rebels over the past 10 months has claimed 74 lives, police said here on Monday.

Jakarta – A witness in the multimillion dollar graft trial of timber baron Mohamad "Bob" Hasan told a court hearing on Monday that in 1992 then president Soeharto ordered that a forestry mapping permit be granted to a firm belonging to the defendant.

Jakarta – Former home affairs minister Syarwan Hamid was yesterday named a suspect in the 1996 attack on the headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI). Syarwan, a retired lieutenant general, was head of the militarys social and political affairs department at the time of the brutal attack.

Jakarta – The US Embassy yesterday rejected reports that Ambassador Robert Gelbard had tried to intervene in the selection of the countrys new Army chief.

Jakarta – Tourist arrivals in Indonesia dropped 2.19 percent in August to 374,900 people due to security worries during the Annual Session of the People's Consultative Assembly held in the same month, according to data issued by the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS).

Jakarta – PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia, struggling against disruptions caused by protesting villagers who are demanding jobs, has been accused of using bombs to find oil sources in Riau province.

Jakarta – The largest crude oil producer in Indonesia says it has lost 30,000 barrels a day of output this year because of civil unrest.

More than 100 institutional investors have shown interest in buying some of the US$62 billion in assets managed by the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (Ibra) at a roadshow in Hong Kong last week. Agency vice-chairman Arwin Rasyid said the positive response from investors revealed their confidence in the Indonesian economy.

Tokyo – Activists on Monday urged international donors preparing to meet in Tokyo this week to cut Indonesia's vast debt and tackle wrenching poverty.

Indonesia is to estimate its debt next year at 4.9 billion dollars during the World Bank-backed Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI) meeting on Wednesday and Thursday, according to Japanese reports.

Hamish Mcdonald, Dili – A quarter century ago, just about the time most readers will open this newspaper at home or on the way to work, five young television newsmen from Sydney and Melbourne were shot and stabbed to death while trying to surrender to Indonesian soldiers at the village of Balibo west of here.

Jakarta – Some 100 armed men in Muslim clothes, stormed the Kawanua puband restaurant on Jl. Abdullah Syafi'i in Tebet district, South Jakarta, inthe early hours of Sunday.

They smashed the pub's windows, chairs and tables, musical instruments, the bar, the kitchen and toilets, causing the owner of the building to suffer millions of rupiah in damages.

Mataram – A bomb exploded at multinational mining company PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara [NNT] on Friday. The bomb blast, which occurred at around 3.15 am, shattered the backside walls of the company and could be heard three kilometers away from the location. There has been no immediate report on whether there are any casualties.

Bandung – Air pollution resulting from gas emissions has become an obvious problem here, with the local Environmental Impact Management Agencyoffice estimating the number of vehicles exceeding the tolerable exhaust emission limit at 36 percent.

Aulia Andri/Fitri & GB, Medan – Up to 30,000 employees of PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) II of North Sumatra went on strike Monday while some 2000 others held a lively demonstration at the North Sumatra Provincial Legislative Council demanding their employer implement a previously negotiated work agreement.

Jakarta – Attorney-General Marzuki Darusman says the loss of documents concerning the mishandling of emergency support funds from Bank Indonesia in a fire on Thursday will not hamper investigations into the case.

Jakarta – Some 50,000 of the around 500,000 workers employed in 90 footwear factories could face dismissal due to the government's prolonged ban on the import of leather raw materials from South Korea and Japan, a footwear industry executive warned.

Ulfie MS dan Swastika/GB, Jakarta – Violence erupted Saturday night near Ratu Plaza on Jl Moestopo, South Jakarta, in what is normally a busy and up-market shopping district when punks hanging out in the area clashed with a truck-load of Mobile Brigade police troops.

Jakarta – The government will maintain the state of civil emergency in the strife torn islands of Maluku as sectarian riots are still raging, Indonesia's top security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has said.

Jakarta – Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid yesterday revealed he had personally rejected a request by the youngest son of former President Suharto for a review of his 18-month Supreme Court sentence for corruption.

Jakarta – State human-rights investigators yesterday implicated 23 military personnel in the massacre of 33 Muslim protesters in 1984 at the height of the New Order government under Mr Suharto.

The National Human Rights Commission submitted its findings in a report to the Attorney-General's Office and recommended that the 23 be made the focus of a criminal investigation.

Jakarta – Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid's former personal masseur, a suspect in a scam involving billions of dollars, has been arrested after months on the run, reports said today.

Hamish McDonald, Dili – The United Nations refugee agency says Indonesian Government efforts to disarm militias controlling refugee camps in West Timor appear to have halted.

What appeared a week ago to be a gathering flood of East Timorese returning from camps across the border has dried to a trickle – only eight people on Thursday and none by midday yesterday.

Jakarta – Police said that the Presidium of the Papuan Council (PDP) onFriday has begun to take conciliatory steps following the government's decision to crackdown on pro-independence forces in Irian Jaya.

United Nations – Indonesia rejected Nobel Peace laureate Jose Ramos-Horta's call for an international war crimes tribunal for East Timor, saying it wants to bring those responsible for last year's deadly rampage to justice and does not need outside help.

Jakarta – The police chief of Riau province yesterday apologized to university students for a clash that erupted earlier this week when security forces resorted to violence to disperse a protest against vice.

I apologize to all people, especially to Riau students for the October 11 incident, Brigadier General Maman Supratman was quoted as saying by Antara.

Agence France Presse in Jakarta – The Government yesterday moved to convince the international community, including Jakarta's main donors, of its determination to resolve the violence and refugee problems in West Timor.

Jakarta – Indonesia warned yesterday that protests disrupting production by one of the country's largest oil producers could damage the budget and the economy. Jobless locals demanding work have blocked the entrance to PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia (CPI) oil field in Riau province on Sumatra island, hitting operations.

Jakarta – Several female politicians have established a caucus that aims to raise public awareness of the role that women can play in running the affairs of state.

Jakarta – Political and military analysts warn of declining morale among many middle and high ranking Army officers who have found themselves without a job, thanks to the withdrawal of the Indonesian Military (TNI) from the political arena. More than 170 officers, including 13 generals, have no posts in the Army structure at present.

Nuriddin Lazuardi/PT & GB, Jakarta – Dozens of police clashed with students from the Jakarta branch of the Association of Islamic Students (HMI) during an anti-Israel and America protest in front of the American Embassy, Friday.

Chaidir A. Tanjung/PT & GB, Pekanbaru – The island of Batam in Riau province is thought to be a major gateway for the illegal trade in firearms in Indonesia. "Batam's close proximity with other nations has been exploited to smuggle in firearms," said a spokesman for the Riau police.

Jakarta – Angry villagers in Riau province yesterday continued to occupy a water treatment plant operated by oil company PT Caltex Pacific Indonesias (CPI). They also blockaded a contractors drilling rig at Kopar region, and held six CPI vehicles, one which they set ablaze.