Indonesia has consulted the International Monetary Fund on its delay in raising fuel prices, said Economics Minister Kwik Kian Gie. He added that the IMF gave no reaction and Mr Kwik said this means no objection.

Jakarta – The government collected Rp 95.57 trillion (US$12.74 billion) in income, sales, value-added and property taxes in the fiscal year which ended on Friday, about 3 percent above the Rp 92.14 trillion target.

Jakarta – Jakarta Police chief Maj. Gen. Nurfaizi said on Friday the capital would be on high alert from Saturday through until the end of April.

Jakarta – The Indonesian capital, put on top security alert in anticipation of planned massive demonstrations against fuel price hikes, was essentially quiet Saturday except for a brief clash involving students calling for former president Suharto to be tried for corruption.

Jakarta – Although on Friday the government delayed the price increase of fuel, thousands of high school, university students and workers went ahead with a demonstration on Saturday. They were protesting the government policy on fuel, electricity the regional minimum wage and [high-ranking civil service] wage increases.

Esther Permatasari, Jakarta – Around 2000 students from the National Student League for Democracy (LMND) and 5000 workers under the banner of the Indonesian National Front for Labour Struggle (FNPBI) are presently preparing to pack out the national parliament building.

Jakarta – Seven student and labor organizations have vowed to bring some 10,000 people to the streets on Saturday to protest the government's plan to raise fuel prices the same day.

Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Noelbaki refugee camp – Sitting on a rickety wooden bed frame in a cramped corner of her barracks, with only a sheet to provide privacy from her neighbors, Augustina Said spends her days hoping she and her family can return to the life they had in East Timor. To their freshly painted house. To their television, refrigerator and comfortable furniture.

Joanna Jolly – An organised campaign of misinformation regarding the situation in East Timor is preventing many refugees from returning home, say international aid workers in the Indonesian province of West Timor.

Tom Fawthrop, Dili – Riot police and UN peacekeepers held back a mob of more than 800 angry East Timorese protesters outside the world body's headquarters in Dili yesterday. Many in the crowd had shown up for promised job interviews but the UN had earlier cancelled them without informing the applicants.

Don Greenlees, Kupang – Even in a military known for disregarding civil rights, Korem 164 is a notorious unit. Its men will be remembered either for standing by and watching the rape of East Timor or joining in the final rampage of arson, lootings and murder.

Jakarta – Indonesian police fired tear gas during clashes yesterday with protesters against a planned weekend increase in fuel and electricity prices.

The clashes occurred a short distance from the house of former President Suharto, who earlier in the day failed to turn up for questioning about alleged corruption.

Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid openly criticized his Cabinet – particularly the economic team – on Thursday, banning ministers from overseas travel until they are able to resolve a pressing problem with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Slobodan Lekic, Jakarta – Leaning forward in his armchair, Indonesia's founding father, President Sukarno, hands a sheaf of papers to a general seated on his right. Other generals, presidential aides and the first lady watch impassively.

Sidrap – Thousands of farmers in Sidrap regency, some 230 kilometers north of the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar, have threatened to stop growing rice if the price of unhusked rice does not improve before the next harvest in October.

Frustrated by the fact that they had not benefited from planting rice this harvest, the farmers claimed they would prefer to plant cacao.

Jakarta – The Indonesian government has shut down polluting pulp maker PT Inti Indorayon Utama (JSX: INRU) in Porsea, North Sumatra, pending a permanent settlement of its case by an arbitrator, an Indonesian environmental activist said.

Banda Aceh – Unidentified gunmen killed at least seven people, including three policemen, and injured two in a series of shootings in restive Aceh province, police and residents said Thursday.

Jakarta – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that instability could occur if the government presses ahead with its plan to increase prices in the energy sector, at a time when economic recovery is still in a fragile state.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Only a day after attending a lavish reception in Jakarta for his grand-daughter's wedding, former president Soeharto has claimed he is not healthy enough to answer questions about corruption during his 32-year rule.

Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Dili – Louis Nkopipe spent last week in the sweltering Dili courthouse conducting a crash course on elementary legal principles. "Defendants are presumed innocent," intoned Nkopipe, a French lawyer, at the start of one lecture. "And they have the right not to incriminate themselves."

Paul Daley, Canberra – Paul Keating has launched another attack on John Howard's handling of the East Timor crisis, repeating his allegation that the Prime Minister is directly responsible for the bloodshed in the newly independent state.

Shoeb Kagda – Concern over the International Monetary Fund (IMF) delaying its next loan payment of US$400 million to Indonesia sent the rupiah skidding yesterday to its lowest level in over two months.

The Indonesian currency fell to as low as 7,630 against the US dollar in morning trade before recovering later to close at the 7,600-level.

Singapore – The chief of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) said Tuesday top Indonesian ministers have given "verbal" approval to issue bonds to bail out 48 companies indebted to IBRA.

Hundreds of Indonesian illegal immigrants rioted at a holding centre in Johor. Local newspaper reports quoted an Indonesian consulate official as saying that the riot began after a detainee was allegedly assaulted by a guard and sent to hospital.

Jakarta – The Indonesian government will pay out 495.8 billion rupiah (S$112 million) in subsidies for the poor and public transport operators to offset planned fuel price hikes.

A total of 164.8 billion rupiah had been earmarked for subsidies to the poor to buy kerosene, the deputy chairman of the National Development Planning Board, Muhammad Abduh, said.

Jakarta – A close friend of former president Suharto was detained yesterday by the Attorney-General's office in connection with an investigation into the alleged misuse of funds involving an Indonesian government contract.

Pip Hinman – Indonesian House of Representatives speaker and Golkar faction leader Akbar Tandjung wants the Abdurrahman Wahid government to ratify the draconian security law which was pushed through a depleted parliament during the last hours of the B.J. Habibie government on September 24.

Comment by Max Lane – Socialists and progressive people face an important challenge in the coming few years to match the "solidarity" the Australian ruling class is extending to the new government of Indonesia and to any new conservative elite who may emerge as rulers in East Timor.

Editorial and opinion – Competing agendas remain one hindrance to reform within the Indonesian Military, says Damien Kingsbury, the Executive Officer of Monash Asia Institute, who recently wrote Guns and Ballot Boxes: East Timor's vote for independence.

Medan – The provincial authorities have banned the Aceh Community Congress (Konggres Masyarakat Aceh), scheduled to begin on Monday and last through Friday, citing security reasons.

Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid has proposed breaking his country's reliance on the United States for military equipment. He proposed that instead the domestic defense industry expand along with a network of international suppliers. Wahid appears to be seeking leverage for an upcoming visit to Washington.

Semarang – Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid said yesterday that his government will propose that the country's next president and vice-president be elected directly by the people in 2004.

Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid said Indonesia must develop its own military industries, diversify its weapons- sourcing and move away from dependence on the United States.

Paul Daley, Canberra – Indonesian military figures associated with the discredited Suharto regime are deliberately smearing Australia with unsubstantiated allegations of unauthorised RAAF spy flights over the archipelago, senior Australian defence and intelligence figures claim.

Jakarta – Three generals, allegedly involved in quashing a 1984 riot in Jakarta when scores of Muslim militants died, have been identified by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas Ham) and will be summoned for questioning.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) – a watchdog body that monitors abuses involving corruption, collusion, and nepotism (KKN) – commented that President Wahid has not yet significantly combatted corruption in Indonesia.

Jakarta – An armed mob yesterday torched a market in Jayapura, the capital of Indonesia's eastern province of Irian Jaya, after a youth was stabbed by migrant traders, police said.

"The Entrop market was burned to the ground this morning but the fire has now been put out," said Sergeant Major Bahar from the Irian Jaya police headquarters.

Michael Richardson, Jakarta – After sidelining the military and consolidating democracy in Indonesia, a country long used to authoritarian rule, the government of President Abdurrahman Wahid is under increasing pressure to speed economic reform efforts or risk losing the fragile gains in stability it has achieved.

Jakarta – Police found the remains of at least 34 foetuses yesterday at a burial site on the southern outskirts of Jakarta.

Police forensic expert Mun-Iem Idris said the foetuses, between three and seven months old, were believed to have been buried not far below ground-level in the past few months by a team of illegal abortionists working in the area.

Jakarta – Three hundred East Timorese crossed the border to return home from West Timor yesterday, a week before Jakarta cuts off all assistance to the tens of thousands of refugees still holed-up in camps in West Timor, an official said.

Jakarta – Indonesia's General Elections Commission (KPU), plagued by allegations of corruption, has elected a presidium to replace its chairman, retired General Rudini, who resigned recently for health reasons.

Jakarta – The people of Aceh are planning to hold an all-Aceh congress next month to seek a peaceful settlement to the problems of the troubled Indonesian province, organisers said on Wednesday.

Jakarta – Thirty years after the military dealt with a communist threat, the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) – the country's highest authority on Islam – is pressing the government to maintain the 34-year-old ban on the ideology and its teachings.

Makassar – President Abdurrahman Wahid yesterday said he supported a plan for the construction of three new naval bases – in Sorong, Sumatra and Java – to better assure security in this archipelago nation.

Jakarta – Ex-president Soeharto's children were under siege yesterday as son Bambang Trihatmodjo was questioned by state prosecutors while a company controlled by daughter Siti 'Tutut' Hardiyanti Rukmana faced a lawsuit filed by state toll road operator PT Jasa Marga.

Jose Manuel Tesoro, Jakarta – "Indonesian politics these days is like a Chinese movie," says a disgruntled Indonesian former civil servant. If one imagines vengeful Chinese martial artists in combat, each threatening retribution on the other's descendants, one does indeed approach the petty vindictiveness and vicious skirmishes that now dominate Jakarta's elite politics.

Melbourne – Prime Minister John Howard today responded to overtures from Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid by praising Mr Wahid's leadership and democratic principles.

"I admire the courage that he's displayed in the time that he's been the president," Mr Howard said, after Mr Wahid reportedly spoke of a desire "not to leave him [Mr Howard] out in the cold".

Tim Dodd, Jakarta – In a stunning reversal, Indonesia's President Abdurrahman Wahid has praised the Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, for his "strength" in sticking to his controversial views on Asia and offered to build a new relationship with Australia.

Jakarta – Indonesian share prices, which fell 1.6 percent this week, are expected to remain flat next week due to a lack of positive sentiment and the market's disappointment with the announcement of the winner of PT Astra International's bid, analysts said Friday.

Jakarta – Calls for President Abdurrahman Wahid not to ratify the controversial state security bill continued on Thursday with the Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI) officially sending a letter requesting a review of the bill.