Jakarta – Indonesian security forces killed a suspected separatist rebel and wounded another in the latest armed skirmish in Aceh province, a local newspaper reported on Friday.

The exchange of gunfire between rebels and security forces lasted for 30 minutes on Thursday in the Matangkuli area of North Aceh, the Banda Aceh-based Serambi daily said.

Surabaya – A 65-year-old woman became the latest victim of the two-week-old killing spree in the Malang area, which has so far claimed nine lives. Alimah Saniwar was found dead in the wee hours of Wednesday morning at her home in Sumber Runcing village, Pagak district, Malang, some 90 kilometers south of Surabaya.

Jakarta – Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid has arrived in the remote eastern province of Irian Jaya, were calls for independence have been rising, to watch the first local sunrise of 2000, the state Antara news agency said Friday.

Jakarta – Jakarta-based thugs are offering large rewards to hunt down and kill suspected black magic warlocks leading to eight horrific deaths so far, security officials alleged in a report Tuesday.

Jakarta – Muslim-Christian violence raged for the third day running in the eastern Indonesian city of Ambon on Tuesday, after claiming at least 33 lives the previous day, residents said.

The sound of gunfire and explosions from grenades and home-made bombs has echoed around the city since dawn, the sources said, adding that a number of buildings were in flames.

Jakarta – Six men were killed when police opened fire on hundreds of angry fishermen who stormed and burned 10 fish warehouses in the North Sumatra port of Belawan on Tuesday, reports reaching here said.

Jakarta – Efforts to bring to justice those behind the violence in East Timor received a double blow this week with the former armed forces chief rebuffing a domestic inquiry and the government again rejecting an international tribunal.

Jakarta – The Indonesian government will impose import duties of 30 percent on rice and 25 percent on sugar from January 1, reports said Friday.

Yogita Tahil Ramani, Jakarta – Violence in the capital has known no boundaries this year. With vicious murders, countless armed robberies, bomb blasts and gruesome street justice, the year 1999 can be safely declared a year of crime.

Jakarta – Former Indonesian armed forces chief General Wiranto on Friday told a human rights commission there had been no plan or policy for either a genocide or crimes against humanity in East Timor.

Jakarta – The Indonesian government Thursday released 105 political prisoners, the last still held in the country's jails, Minister of Law and Legislation Yusril Ihza Mahendra said.

"There are practically no more political prisoners and detainees," Mahendra told journalists at the presidential office after announcing the releases.

Reuters in Jakarta – At least 43 people have been killed in bloody gang battles between Christians and Muslims in Indonesia's troubled Spice Islands, ignoring presidential pleas for peace.

More than 170 homes, churches and other buildings had been torched during the bloodshed on Buru island and hundreds of villagers had fled to the police headquarters, officials said.

Railako – There was not much left of body number 258, but a team of UN civilian police officers and soldiers from the International Force for East Timor (Interfet) set out Thursday to find as much as they could.

Jakarta – Around 8,000 workers at two Indonesian factories producing Nike shoes went on a violent rampage in protest at dragging negotiations over bonuses, a report said Thursday.

The workers from the PT Astra's Shoe Industry Division in Tanggerang, west of Jakarta, on Wednesday vandalized seven vehicles inside the factory compound and smashed factory windows with stones.

Jakarta – The Jakarta city administration has rounded up about 2,000 insane people from the streets over the past week and is now holding them at Panti Laras Asylum in Cipayung, East Jakarta.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Rahadi winds in and out of the buses pulling into Pulo Gading, one of Jakarta's main bus stations. As soon as the buses are emptied of passengers, he jumps on and starts sweeping and mopping the rubbish-strewn floor and seats.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – The political elite is using religion to incite conflicts to suit its own ends, according to Indonesia's Religious Affairs Minister Tolchah Hasan.

He said incidents such as last week's burning of a Christian compound might be part of a wider pattern, loosely described as "bringing Ambon to Jakarta".

Keith B. Richburg, Dili – Australian troops in East Timor are examining a newly discovered grave site in the Oe-Cussi enclave that may contain the remains of as many as 50 victims of last September's bloody rampage by Indonesian army troops and allied militias, which followed the territory's overwhelming vote to secede from Indonesia.

Canberra – More than 100,000 refugees in West Timor were trapped in makeshift camps and living in a state of constant fear under the rule of the militia groups that destroyed East Timor, an Amnesty International report said today.

Dili – Seven people were wounded after a suspected member of a pro-Indonesian militia threw a hand grenade in the border area between East and West Timor, a spokesman for the international peace force here said.

Jakarta – Teachers at elementary and junior high schools in remote areas of Central Sulawesi province say they are so badly paid they cannot afford staple foods amid these tough economic times.

Jakarta – Indonesian police are to go on the offensive against separatist rebels in the troubled province of Aceh following an increase in attacks on security forces in the province.

"We will not yield to armed civilians in Aceh. They will be dealt with sternly," national police chief General Rusmanhadi told the Media Indonesia daily.

Geneva – More than 119,000 East Timorese have now returned to the territory – most of them from Indonesian West Timor, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said here Tuesday. With the exception of three minor incidents since Friday, UNHCR staff had also reported an easing of conditions in some militia-controlled camps in West Timor, spokesman Paul Stromberg said.

Jakarta – The Central Kalimantan prosecutor's office said on Saturday it had enough evidence to name former public works minister Radinal Moochtar a suspect in a corruption case.

The case is linked to an unsuccessful government project to develop one million hectares of unproductive peat land into rice fields and a housing complex in 1996.

Jayapura – A House of Representatives delegation said here on Saturday no foreign country would recognize an independent Irian Jaya.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – An independent Indonesian commission, which has made surprising headway investigating human rights abuses committed during East Timor's post-ballot violence, has come under fire from the high-ranking generals it has named as being connected with the violence.

Still, the Indonesian team of lawyers has vowed to press on with their investigation.

Jonathan Manthorpe – The evidence is building that Indonesia 's new, reformist president, Abdurrahman Wahid, is prepared to shield the country's repressive military from its past misdeeds and cater to its rampant nationalism in order to preserve the fledgling democracy.

Kupang – A pro-Jakarta East Timor militia chief accused the Indonesian government on Friday of abandoning its own supporters, but said he would not disband his group, which is accused of terror in the territory.

Atambua – One week after the commander of pro-Indonesian militias ordered his forces to disband, militias remain present here but their power is fading, aid workers say.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – The man who was a role model to Indonesia's new generation of human rights lawyers is now defending the country's top generals, adding to growing controversy over investigations into the military's role in wiping out East Timor.

Jakarta – The offshore debt of the Indonesian government in the fiscal year ending next March is estimated to reach 71.9 billion dollars, a report said here Saturday.

Jakarta – The commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) yesterday in Jakarta revealed it's new investigation results from East Timor, concerning the violence which was conducted before and after the UN sponsored plebiscite. The results show evidence that the militia were paid by local administrators and the military.

Jakarta – Indonesia should post Gross Domestic Product growth of 1.8% in the year to March 2000, according to a draft of the government's latest letter of intent to the IMF, obtained Friday.

Jakarta – Indonesian police and soldiers set fire to dozens of houses and shops on Friday in the troubled Aceh province to avenge the killing of a soldier, a report said.

A soldier was found dead in the Lammeu area of Pidie district on Friday morning, prompting security authorities to send troops to the area to search for the assailants, the Detik online news service said.

Michael Richardson, Dili – Now that the East Timorese independence coalition no longer has a common enemy to hold it together, there are signs that it is starting to fracture.

Lindsay Murdoch – Eurico Guterres looks a beaten man. Gone are his thug bodyguards and the copy-cat red beret uniform of Indonesia's elite Kopassus forces. Gone also are his bravado and threats to kill.

Instead, the militia leader – who ordered mass murders and the destruction of East Timor – is living under an assumed name in a seedy hotel in north Jakarta.

Jakarta – Dozens of policemen in Central Java were injured in two days of protests by villagers trying to attack a rubber plantation, the official Antara news agency said Thursday.

Two police trucks were set ablaze on Wednesday along with a police post and a telecommunication center at the Ciseru-Cipari plantation in Cilacap, about 270 kilometers southeast of the capital.

Reuters in Jakarta – Indonesia's parliament on Thursday backed away from the idea of allowing any referendum for the troubled province of Aceh.

Separatists are demanding a referendum on independence for the Sumatran region and a special parliamentary committee earlier recommended holding a vote of some kind in the province.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – The armed forces are smarting under a welter of rights abuse allegations. They have warned that local and international efforts to call the generals to account will not only fail but could threaten the nation's state of relative calm.

Daniel Cooney, Jakarta – State investigators demanded yesterday that army generals be tried for human rights abuses in East Timor after President Abdurrahman Wahid said he would not block their prosecutions by the Indonesian courts.

Paul Daley, Canberra – Continued European bans on arms sales will seriously hamper Indonesia's "internal repression" but could prompt Jakarta to forge new military relationships with China and Russia, a top-secret Australian intelligence paper reveals.

Dan Murphy, Jakarta – Indonesia's economy is finally showing signs of life thanks to a peaceful presidential election, a new president who has proved acceptable to the majority of the Indonesian people, and black gold.

Asip Agus Hasani, Yogyakarta – One manifestation of the military's dwi fungsi or dual function are its territorial institutions which span from provincial to village level: Military regional commands (Kodam), military resort commands and district commands at the regional level (Kodim), district level commands (Koramil) and village guidance bodies (Babinsa), comprising noncommissione

Dili – A commander of one of East Timor's anti-independence militias has admitted he was behind one of the territory's most horrific massacres and claims he was acting on the orders of Indonesian special forces.

David Nason – The Australian consortium behind the failed Dili Lodge hotel venture in East Timor hoped to reap an annual profit of nearly $7 million, while initially operating tax-free and paying wages of less than 60c an hour for local staff.

Jakarta – East Timorese militia supremo Joao da Silva Tavares has officially disbanded an umbrella organization for pro-Indonesian militias ordering them to hand over all arms, a report said here Tuesday.

Associated Press, Banda Aceh – Violence again marred the fasting month of Ramadhan in Aceh as three students and four police personnel were severely injured in separate incidents in Jeumpa Aceh regency over the weekend.

Brian Toohey – Not so long ago, Major General Zacky Anwar Makarim had good reason to smile when he saw a member of the Australian embassy enter his Jakarta headquarters. He could be fairly confident the visitor was bearing gifts. Anwar had little to offer in return, but this did not diminish the Australians' determination to prove they were generous allies.

Joanne Collins, Kupang – Pro-Jakarta militiamen armed with pistols and clubs threatened UN aid officials in Indonesian West Timor on Friday, preventing them from entering camps for East Timorese refugees.

Hamish Mcdonald, Dili – The Australian commander of the United Nations peacekeeping force in East Timor has appealed for the international community to continue to pressure Indonesia to allow the remaining 100,000 displaced people in West Timor to return home.