Jakarta – Police and soldiers used sticks to break up anti-government protests by hundreds of students today in two cities.

Louise Williams, Jakarta – The International Monetary Fund's rescue package for Indonesia is expected to be delayed until later this week after private talks reportedly stalled over pol

Jenny Grant, Jakarta – Two East Timorese men could face the death penalty if found guilty of trying to topple the Government through terrorism.

K.T.

Michael Shari in Jakarta, with Joyce Barnathan in Hong Kong – The 60 Indonesian blue-chip company executives summoned to Bank Indonesia, the country's central bank, on Oct.

Seth Mydans, Kuala Lumpur – Tigers and elephants are fleeing the burning jungles. Birds are falling from the murky skies. Schoolchildren are fainting at their desks.

Jakarta – The number of cities covered by the thick haze from rampant forest and bush fires nearly doubled yesterday, amid uncertainty over when the annual monsoon rains would arrive.

Jakarta – The worst drought in half a century has devastated crop harvests by as much as 40 percent, the government said Friday.

Jakarta – Outspoken Muslim scholar Amien Rais has suggested a national poll be held to determine whether the majority of Indonesians want President Suharto re-elected next year for a re

Chris Johnson, Singapore – Choking yellow-grey smog over Southeast Asia has already closed factories, cancelled flights and lengthened queues in doctors' waiting-rooms.

Lewa Pardomuan, Jakarta – Thick smog from rampant forest and bush fires spread to more cities in Indonesia on Sunday while uncertainties over the start of the annual monsoon rains linge

Stephen Spencer, Canberra – The federal ALP has moved to dramatically recast major areas of its foreign policy, in what it frankly admits is a recognition that some areas, in particular

John McBeth with Fanny Lioe in Jakarta – On October 10, two days after Indonesia announced it was going to seek the International Monetary Fund's help in salvaging its economy, Jakarta

Lewa Pardomuan, Jakarta – Indonesia's state-owned aircraft manufacturer Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara (IPTN) said on Thursday it had found counter-trade deals beneficial and denied

Louise Williams, Jakarta – The Indonesian Government has warned that forest fires and smoke haze are getting worse, and monsoon rains are expected to be further delayed, while another f

Louise Williams, Jakarta – In a new effort to arrest the slide of the rupiah, Indonesia's Central Bank has announced that commercial banks may lend hundreds of millions of US dollars fr

Karen Polglaze, Jakarta – Indonesia's military has tried to link Nobel Peace Prize co-recipient Jose Ramos Horta with an alleged terrorist group.

Karen Polglaze, Jakarta – East Timorese independence advocate and Nobel Peace laureate Jose Ramos Horta today rejected accusations by the Indonesian military that he was linked to a cla

Canberra – Nobel peace laureate Jose Ramos Horta Tuesday accused the Australian government of covering up Indonesia's involvement in the deaths of five Australian journalists in East Ti

The East Timor Human Rights Centre (ETHRC) is concerned for the safety of Manuel Afonso and Lino Xavier Nunes who are currently in detention at POLRES (Regional Police Headquarters) in

Trevor Royle – Traditionally Britain's foreign interests have been dominated by a mixture of strategic initiatives to protect national interests and direct action, as the Foreign Office

Lewa Pardomuan, Jakarta – Military helicopters flew rice and noodles to famine-stricken areas in Indonesia's remote Irian Jaya province on Monday as government officials said food short

Sydney – The president of the Timorese Democratic Party (UDT) said here Sunday he was asked by the Indonesian military to kill Australian journalist Hamish McDonald in 1975.

Don Greenlees – The Federal Government is facing a political contest over human rights after a decision by the ALP to call for the first time for a "right of self-determination" for Eas

Jacqui Birchall, East Timor – The path of most despair - Site of death and oppression since 1975, East Timor had little to offer one intrepid traveller – except perhaps the satisfying k

A report into the death of five Australia-based journalists at Balibo in East Timor 22 years ago will be examined today at a seminar at the University of NSW Law School.

With Indonesia's President Soeharto nominated by his Golkar party this week for a seventh five-year term, his unopposed re-election by a largely hand-picked assembly seems certain, barr

Jim Della-Giacoma, Jakarta – Indonesia's ruling Golkar party has predictably nominated ageing President Suharto to lead the country into the next century, but the question of who will s

Jakarta – President Soeharto denied press reports yesterday that a food shortage has forced people in Lampung and Java to eat cassava for their daily meals.

Jakarta – Another 17 people have died in drought stricken Irian Jaya, taking the toll to 462, a report says.

Sydney – The Indonesian army has arrested in the last days dozens of youths, in several raids to villages aimed at discredit the armed rebel movement, a resistance leader told Lusa on T

President Suharto has earned plaudits for deregulating various aspects of Indonesia's economy. But he can't complete the job without challenging some powerful vested interests.

There will be many redundancies in the industrial sector if businesses are forced to close down because of the present tight money policy, said Adi Putra Tahir, who heads the Organisati

James Dunn – Timor watchers would have detected a touch of irony in a news item from Jakarta earlier this week.

Jakarta – At least 416 people in Indonesia's remote Irian Jaya province have died of famine and disease and nearly 90,000 face serious food shortages because of a severe drought, relief

Sydney – Five Australian journalists killed in East Timor were deliberately targeted by Indonesian troops and not caught in crossfire as had been thought, a report said on the 22nd anni

Sander Thoenes and Quentin Peel, Jakarta – Indonesia may walk out of talks with Portugal over the status of East Timor unless progress is made soon, Ali Alatas, Indonesia's foreign mini

Louise Williams, Jakarta – Rising prices, cutbacks in health services and lay-offs resulting from economic reforms to be pushed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will hit Indones

I see this strike as the first action in a wave of actions that could hit the Suharto regime as a direct result of the crisis engulfing the Indonesian economy.

Jenny Grant, Jakarta – Popular Muslim figures have criticised the Government for failing to provide moral leadership in a time of economic and social crisis and warned it could face mas

Craig Skehan and Louise Williams – In an attempt to secure political asylum for a colleague, jailed East Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao has written a letter acknowledging th

Four thousand five hundred workers at PT Prima Buana Tex which is located in Anggadita, Klari sub-district, West Java held a protest demonstration Monday to complain of inhumane treatme

Louise Williams, Jakarta – Thousands of workers from Indonesia's state aircraft manufacturer held mass demonstrations yesterday, following rumours of impending lay-offs, as an Internati

Louise Williams, Jakarta – Hot, dry winds across Indonesia have caused a dramatic fourfold increase in forest fires and new smog warnings, after last week's light rains and initial succ

Quentin Peel and Sander Thoenes, Jakarta –

President Soeharto and his family are the most reluctant to make the necessary sacrifices because of their business interests, contends George J. Aditjondro.

Military authorities in East Timor have seized a cache of 20 homemade bombs and detained two rebels accused of planning to destroy the territory's capital, Dili, an Indonesian newspaper

Up to thirteen East Timorese men are believed to be still in detention in Semarang and Dili following two recent incidents involving home-made bombs.

[From Media Indonesia 10 Ooctober and Kompas 11 October 1997, Summarised.]

A number of hotels in Kuta tourist complex, Bali, were burned down in a series of fires that engulfed four hotels and a group of tourist cottages.