Jakarta – Speakers of the country's two legislative bodies urged the government on Thursday not to allow the extradition of former militia leader Eurico Guterres to East Timor.

Jakarta – Many Indonesians are dying each year of tobacco-related diseases, but the country's heavy dependence on revenues contributed by the clove cigarette industry is hampering efforts to curb the smoking habit.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Pressure is mounting as the Tokyo meeting of international aid donors takes place this month to decide whether to provide Indonesia with US$4.8 billion in fresh aid – or to launch economic sanctions against the country whose militia had killed three United Nations aid workers in Atambua.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The Indonesian government, toughening its stance against separatists in Irian Jaya yesterday, officially banned the hoisting of the Bintang Kejora (Morning Star) flag because it had been "misused to symbolise struggle to secede" from the unitary state.

Jakarta – Reactions by top politicians to last week's arrest of East Timor militia leader Eurico Guterres underscored Indonesia's policy ambivalence toward East Timor.

Jakarta – The World Bank will tell foreign aid donors set to decide on fresh loans to Indonesia that the country's government system needs major reforms, according to advance briefing notes for a conference next week.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid has rejected a summons to be questioned by MPs over two palace financial scandals, creating a new threat to his government.

Jakarta – Unrest broke out again in the Malukan city of Ambon on Thursday, with houses torched and unconfirmed reports of deaths and casualties, residents there said.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Authorities in East Timor have issued an arrest warrant for Eurico Guterres, the militia leader held by police in Jakarta.

"We're asking the Indonesian authorities to send Guterres over," said Barbara Reis, spokeswoman for the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (Untaet). "We're waiting for feedback from the Indonesian Government."

Jakarta – Four members of the House of Representatives Commission I yesterday paid a visit to former pro-Jakarta militia chief Eurico Guterres, who is being detained at police headquarters in South Jakarta.

Arifin/GB, Jakarta – Two more active military servicemen have been detained for selling weapons based on evidence obtained from a suspect in the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) bombing. The two officers were actually detained last Monday but their detention was only confirmed Thursday.

Bern – Six Indonesian Christians, who have been holed up in the Swiss embassy in Jakarta since September 27 to press for political asylum, have left the premises, the Swiss foreign ministry said Thursday.

One of the Indonesians left Wednesday evening and the five others stepped out late Thursday afternoon, said the statement which gave no further details.

Jakarta – A fire badly damaged the Audit and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP) building in Central Jakarta yesterday, destroying documents on the huge liquidity loans given by the central bank to ailing banks.

Budi Santosa/Hendra & GB, Jakarta – The government has admitted that cash transfers to be used as fuel subsidies have not been distributed uniformly. Not only have some areas missed out altogether, but even those allocated funds have yet to receive them.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Despite government claims that pro-Indonesian militias have been disarmed in West Timor, United Nations staff fear the fate of more than 100,000 East Timorese refugees still in the western half of the divide d island will be determined without UN help.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Indonesia's former armed forces chief, General Wiranto, has intensified his criticism of attempts to prosecute military officers over last year's violence in East Timor, declaring them innocent and accusing the United Nations of "vulgar fraud".

Port Moresby – Human rights lawyer and Melanesian Solidarity (Melsol) activist Powes Parkop has warned that West Papua will soon erupt into a more explosive and bloodier war than East Timor.

The Papua New Guinea government must deal with the West Papua issue with urgency and honesty, he said.

Pip Hinman – Protests by tens of thousands of workers and students have rocked Indonesia since the government of President Abdurrahman Wahid and Megawati Sukarnoputri, under pressure from international creditors, decreed an average 12% increase in the price of domestic fuel on October 1.

Bandar Lampung – Students from campuses around the city rallied and marched on September 28 to mark the first anniversary of the murder of two students, Yusuf Rizal and Saidatul Fitria, by the military during a political demonstration.

Jakarta – Groups of local residents in Riau, demanding jobs from contractors of an oil company, have seized cars and blocked rigs trying to enter the company's premises, virtually crippling its operations.

Adam Schwarz – It's not as if the administration of Indonesia's President Abdurrahman Wahid doesn't have enough on its plate already. Unfortunately for the beleaguered Mr. Wahid, his plate is about to get more crowded.

Michael Richardson, Jakarta – When the Indonesian armed forces commemorated their 55th anniversary recently, the display was less elaborate than in past years. There were no air force jets screaming low overhead, no parachutists dropping from the sky for precision landings in front of the military brass and VIPs. Even the marching bands had been cut back.

Jakarta – Hundreds of Indonesian workers protested outside the presidential palace on Tuesday to demand that a recent fuel price hike be cancelled.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Indonesian army chief General Tyasno Sudarto has been replaced only weeks after court evidence implicated him in an alleged multi-million-dollar counterfeit operation to finance clandestine military operations in East Timor last year.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid blinked first in the standoff with hawkish generals after being forced into a compromise over the choice for the coveted post of army chief. Whatever hopes there were of civilian supremacy over the military in post-Suharto Indonesia took a step back.

Ambon – Muslims from two villages on Ambon island Tuesday attacked a nearby Christian hamlet, torching empty houses, residents here said.

"Suli Bawah, where most of the houses have already been vacated by their occupants, was attacked early this morning," a local journalist said from Ambon, some 20 kilometres west of Suli.

Mark Dodd, Dili – East Timor is facing an acute shortage of qualified teachers, with teacher-pupil ratios in some schools as high as 100 to one, according to the country's independence leader, Mr Xanana Gusmao.

Banda Aceh – Indonesian police shot dead three civilians Monday in the village of Julok in East Aceh Regency in Aceh Province, the representative of a joint committee set up by the government and a major separatist group said Tuesday.

Jeremy Wagstaff and Puspa Madani, Jakarta – Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid swore in new army and navy commanders after failing to persuade increasingly assertive generals to accept one of his favored officers as deputy commander of the army.

Chaidir Anwar Tanjung/GB, Pekanbaru – Villagers from the Sungai Rangau area, Tanah Putih subdistrict, Bengkalis, Riau province, Sumatra, have virtually taken over the local oilfields mined by international mining giant Caltex. After seizing 37 vehicles, the villagers moved on to occupy five oilfields, halting operations completely.

Nurul Hidayati/PT & GB, Jakarta – Civil unrest has flared in Bontang, East Kalimantan, Monday. Locals blockaded the American-owned Tanjung Santan Unocal Terminal oil refinery, clashed with security forces and 23 locals suffered gun shot wounds.

Jakarta – Settlers sought refuge at military and police posts yesterday as the Indonesian police, with orders to shoot on sight, began restoring order in a remote Irian Jaya town following the slaughter of 40 people in the latest violence.

Jakarta – In a meeting marked by blood and tears, detained East Timorese militia leader Eurico Guterres wept Monday as he accused the Indonesian government of failing to appreciate his efforts to keep East Timor within Indonesia, police said.

Canberra – The Labor Party and Australian Democrats are urging Australia to change its national boundaries with East Timor to help the struggling country gain financial independence.

Negotiations began today in Dili between Australia and the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) over the Timor Gap treaty.

Yogyakarta – Minister of Defense Mahfud M.D. said his ministry in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights and the Attorney General's Office is currently drafting a bill to enable military personnel to be tried under a civil court if they are indicted for violating civil laws.

Jakarta – Indonesia's President Abdurrahman Wahid is expected to come under mounting pressure from the country's largest political party to impose a state of civil emergency in restive Aceh province when he meets parliament this week, a report said Monday.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Troops with shoot-on-sight orders were yesterday patrolling a remote valley in Irian Jaya, where 40 people are believed to have died in violence triggered by the killing of two indigenous people by police at a separatist flag-raising ceremony.

Ambon – Sporadic attacks occurred at several locations across Saparua and Ambon islands in Maluku province over the weekend, leaving one dead.

Budi Sugiharto/Hendra & AP, Surabaya – Labor action is disrupting Surabaya, with around 15 thousand laborers demanding to directly speak to the Mayor of Surabaya. The laborers, who took over the mayoral offices today at 10.30am, are demanding an increase in the minimum cost of living allowance.

Mark Dodd, Dili – Indonesian authorities have told the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees that thousands of refugees are likely to be repatriated amid unconfirmed reports that militia gangs are losing control of the border refugee camps.

Pro-Indonesia East Timorese militia leaders in West Timor told two key Indonesian ministers Sunday they would tell the United Nations how the Indonesian military trained and armed them last year if their leader Eurico Guterres, who is currently being detained in Jakarta, is not released.

Sydney – Foreign Minister Alexander Downer renewed an invitation Sunday to Indonesia's President Abdurrahman Wahid to visit Australia after the Indonesian parliament last week vetoed the trip.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Eurico Guterres, the well-connected militia leader, was questioned by four Indonesian prosecutors yesterday about his role in an East Timor massacre last year and more recent violence in West Timor.

James Conachy – A week after the September 28 Jakarta court ruling that former Indonesian dictator Suharto was "medically unfit" to stand trial, the government of President Abdurrahman Wahid is seeking to have the decision overturned.

Dili - A small group of New Zealand soldiers shot and killed an armed militia member near Suai, East Timor, last night. The New Zealand Defence Force said in a statement today that none of the soldiers were injured in the 11pm incident about 4.5km north of Suai, where New Zealand troops are based near the West Timor border.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Timorese militia leader Eurico Guterres was arrested yesterday, two days after being named as a suspect in the violence that followed last year's independence vote in East Timor.

Jakarta – Coordinator of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) Hendardi said on Wednesday that the police were likely to soon release most of the suspects in the bombing of the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) building.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – A protest organiser who hired demonstrators to rail against fuel price rises became the target of the mob he had rented when he failed to pay them and they missed out on a free lunch.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – Defence Minister Mahfud M.D. yesterday conceded that army elements were behind the spate of violence in Indonesia to destabilise the government. He said that the problems in outlying provinces like Aceh and Maluku and the recent explosions in the capital were the doing of generals linked to former president Suharto.

Jakarta – Hundreds of students of privately-run Krisna Dwipayana University mobbed four members of the student paramilitary regiment (Menwa) and razed two campus facilities to the ground on Wednesday. The violence erupted at the end of a peaceful protest by the students demanding the abolition of Menwa in their campus in Jatiwaringin, East Jakarta.