Padang – Some 7,000 members of the Padang Market Traders Association (KPP) held a protest against the Padang municipality's plan to build a shopping mall on the site of the Goan Hoat bu

Kenji Hall, Jakarta – Human rights groups on Tuesday called on the United States not to ease restrictions on ties with Indonesia's military saying it continues to commit "brutal human r

Samarinda – The state has suffered at least Rp 267.4 billion (US$29.6 million) in losses from 15 graft cases in East Kalimantan in recent months, in which 21 people have been named susp

Rendi A. Witular and Zakki P.

Evi Mariani, Jakarta – "I don't know what to say," novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer, overwhelmed by the moment, finally uttered at his 80th birthday party with family and friends on Sunda

The public furor over the 8.14 percent increase in tap water rates charged by PAM Jaya could scare off investors intending to submit bids for 91 infrastructure projects over the next fe

Jim Lobe, Washington – As US President George W.

East Timor's new Catholic bishop has opposed a deal between Timorese and Indonesian leaders to drop trials over atrocities during the country's 1999 independence process, saying it lack

The number of people believed killed in December's tsunami disaster rose to nearly 295,000, six weeks after the catastrophe, as Indonesia again increased its number of dead.

The Indonesian government's plan in Aceh to register and relocate more than 100,000 people displaced by the tsunami to semi-permanent camps threatens their right to return home, Human R

Tensions are rising between militant Islamic groups working in tsunami-struck Aceh and local residents as the outsiders seek to force hardline views on the traumatised local community.

Matthew Moore, Lamno (Aceh) – Almost everyone is on a hopeless search, but one family breaks the circle of doom.

Achmad Sukarsono, Banda Aceh – Aid groups, foreign armies and Indonesian officials have prevented disease and starvation from engulfing tsunami-hit Aceh province, but closer cooperation

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – After declaring that his declining popularity did not really matter to him, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono invited two chief editors to his office

Jane Perlez, Jakarta – After a 13-year break, the Bush administration is acting to mend relations with the Indonesian military, the largest in Southeast Asia and a potentially crucial p

Leony Aurora, Jakarta – The World Bank expects investment in Indonesia to grow by 15 percent this year, but warns that further measures to improve the investment climate must be taken t

Rendi A.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – While the legal battle involving Total E&P Indonesie – a local affiliate of French oil giant Total SA – and its contractors is only in its early sta

Jakarta – The Indonesian Armed Forces (Tentara Nasional Indonesia – TNI) is still failing to respect human rights enforcement.

After years of much talk and effectively no action at all, Jakarta's administrators seem at long last to have arrived at the realization that the problem of pollution in the Indonesian

Theresia Sufa, Bogor – Three teachers for an entire elementary school could be considered a lot in Bogor, because many schools in the regency only have one teacher for over 200 students

Bagus Kurniawan, Yogyakarta – Opposing planned fuel (BBM) price increases by the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice-president Jusuf Kalla (SBY-JK), scores of demo

Hera Diani, Jakarta – Watch out all you lovebirds out there – there is now a chance that lip-locking in public could send you to jail for 10 years and cost you as much as Rp 300 million

Chris Brummitt, Banda Aceh – With the birth of her first child just one month away, Wadiana Wahab worries about the world her baby will enter.

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – A group of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has condemned the central government for its failure to involve the public in drafting a master plan to rebuil

Public kissing and cohabitation may become crimes in Indonesia in future as the world's largest Muslim nation seeks to overhaul its Dutch-inherited criminal laws, an official said.

Rendi A. Witular and Eva C.

Jakarta – The first 100 days of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's administration have passed.

Yenni Djahidin, Washington D.C. – A soon-to-be published study recommends that the United States remove its restrictions on the Indonesian military (TNI).

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – The government will raise fuel prices by up to 30 percent in the first quarter of this year in a bid to lower the fuel subsidy.

M.

Jakarta – Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda will host a meeting with his East Timor counterpart Ramos Horta to have talks on the planned establishment of the commission for tr

Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expressed concern on Friday over internal bickering in the Democratic Party, one of the parties that supported him for the presidency.

Irwan Firdaus, Banda Aceh – An Indonesian anti-corruption activist detained on allegations of stealing aid in the tsunami-ravaged province of Aceh was hospitalized Friday after complain

Jakarta – Experts testified at the graft trial of suspended Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh on Thursday and stated that the defendant violated administrative procedures in the purchase of

Sarah Crichton – The Federal Court has ruled it cannot hear a US oil company's multi-billion dollar compensation claim against the Commonwealth for loss of rights to vast oil and gas re

Jakarta – A prominent human rights group in Aceh on Friday criticized Finnish mediator Martti Ahtisaari for allegedly backing the Indonesian government's side and its proposal to resolv

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The Ministry of Defense is drafting a review of Defense Law No. 3/2002 and Indonesian Military (TNI) Law No.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) Army headquarters (HQ) is to deploy 40 company units, amounting to around 6,000 personnel, in Aceh in order to carry out the program of "TNI Buil

Chris Brummitt – Aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, Indonesia The United States wants to boost military ties with the Indonesian military on the back of the two countries' close cooperatio

Andreas Harsono, Banda Aceh – The Indonesian Red Crescent – claiming there is an oversupply of "do-gooders" who "do not speak the language" – has said it wants all foreign doctors helpi

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The government should offer a power-sharing arrangement to the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in governing oil and gas-rich Aceh as part of an effort to end

Urip Hudiono and Fadli, Banda Aceh – With the emergency relief stage in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam officially declared to have ended, the government will now commence with rehabilitation

Letta Tayler, Bukit Barisan mountain range – The armed rebels huddled in the drizzle in their remote mountain hideout, a cluster of bamboo platforms and tattered tarps in a mosquito-inf

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – The City Council is set to endorse the draft bylaw on air pollution on Friday, but clean air is still long way off in Jakarta, long listed as one of the wor

It all sounds very good, but what does it all mean?

Indonesia's vice president said he believed the current talks with Aceh separatist leaders will bring an end to decades of armed conflict in Indonesia's tsunami-hit province, a report s

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he was unperturbed by criticism of his early performance, indicating he was prepared to take unpopular measures to fix the sluggish ec

Indonesia has rejected a suggestion by Singapore's mentor minister Lee Kuan Yew, that it considers an instrument such as the island's Internal Security Act, to fight terrorism.

Katherine Arie – Just weeks after the December 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami left over 230,000 people dead or missing in Indonesia's Aceh province, a decades-old conflict bet