Not too long ago there was a time when the public, and journalists in particular, lived with a collective daily dose of fear.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The Indonesian government is expected soon to ratify the international bill on human rights, a move that could improve the country's image in the glob

Jakarta – Teachers and academics doubt the government's planned national final exam will be able to narrow the gap in education between schools across the country.

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Dili – East Timor's leaders want national consensus on how to deal with Indonesian atrocities committed in 1999, but will move to set up a Truth and Friendship Commission with Jakarta r

Indonesia has urged the global community to heighten vigilance to ensure rampant corruption does not swallow billions of dollars of tsunami aid as it promises a March deadline to begin

Ken Guggenheim, Washington – Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz praised "a new era" of democratic rule in Indonesia, but said no decision has been made yet about lifting restrictio

Laksamana.Net – The government has reportedly accepted a proposal to divide resource-rich and rebellious Papua province into five provinces by 2009, despite the Constitutional Court's r

Teams collecting corpses in the Indonesian province of Aceh have estimated it will take at least another six months to find all the tsunami victims, the Red Cross said.

Thousands of Indonesians left homeless by the tsunami will be able to move into newly-finished barracks next week, but despite the promise of shelter, food and water, many instead want

Jon Lamb – A 30-second television advertisement screened on January 26 during the Australian Open tennis tournament has returned to the limelight the theft of East Timor's oil and gas r

Indonesia's capital Jakarta and five provinces have been placed under alert for a possible dengue epidemic following a growing number of fatalities and infections, officials said.

Zely Ariane has been the secretary-general of the Peoples Democratic Party (PRD) since 2003.

Dili – The port authorities of the East Timorese and Portuguese capitals signed an accord Wednesday for broad bilateral cooperation.

Geneva – Donor countries are failing to provide enough funds for temporary housing and job creation for survivors of December's Indian Ocean tsunami, a senior United Nations official sa

Banda Aceh – The United Nations on Tuesday pronounced the often chaotic relief effort to aid Indonesian tsunami victims a success but warned that the toughest part of the operation was

Indonesian soldiers prevented an Associated Press journalist from traveling in tsunami-wracked Aceh, a war-torn region that was off limits to foreigners before the disaster.

Jay Solomon,Medan – Textile trader Shie Hok Lai lost everything when the tsunami destroyed his shop and home in Indonesia's Aceh province December 26., but the ethnic Chinese businessma

An Indonesian prosecutor sought an eight year jail sentence for hardline cleric Abu Bakar Bashir for allegedly engaging in terrorism acts linked to a series of deadly bombings in recent

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – What's in a name? Lawmakers on Monday questioned the move by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to create a new Ministry of Communications and Information.

Nana Rukmana and Rusman, Indramayu/Samarinda – Central government needed to inject more funds into the Indramayu regency because the administration was short of money to run the local e

Hera Diani, Jakarta – Religious leaders have confessed that strict law enforcement and harsh punishments are more effective than religious teachings in combating corruption.

Jakarta – The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries has focused its efforts on sea supervision and the issuance of permits in an effort to stop illegal fishing during the first 100

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – The government has set up a team tasked with reviewing Indonesia's membership of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) due to the cou

John Mcbeth – Moulding tragedy into a political turning point in disaster-stricken Aceh presents both a glittering opportunity and a dangerous pitfall for President Susilo Bambang Yudho

The measure of a nation's greatness lies in its ability to reconcile its diversity.

Veronica Brooks – East Timor's bid to establish a viable oil and gas exploration industry has received robust early interest from multinational petroleum companies, according to the nat

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was behind his deputy Yusuf Kalla's successful bid to take the leadership of the country's largest political party Golkar, a report said.

Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono explained to UN General Secretary Kofi Annan last night, Friday February 4, that the Indonesian government will not be internationalising th

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he was cautiously positive about reaching a deal with East Timor on how to share lucrative energy reserves beneath the Timor Sea.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The government is altering the rules on how regional elections should be carried out in the resource-rich provinces of Aceh and Papua, a move which so

Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called for equal treatment before the law for Malaysian employers who failed to pay the salaries of their Indonesian workers.

Jambi – Pancakarya residents in Limun district have their own way of fighting illegal loggers, by declaring 400 hectares of forest area as the village's restricted forest.

Diane Farsetta – "I hope that, as a result of our efforts, as a result of our helicopter pilots' being seen by the citizens of Indonesia helping them, that value system of ours will be

Hera Diani, Jakarta – In what looks like a return to the New Order bullying of the press, the government's draft of the new Criminal Code contains numerous articles that could threaten

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Residents of Sukabumi Selatan subdistrict in West Jakarta will likely win the battle against 51 illegal denim processing plants, which have been blamed for

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