Slobodan Lekic, Jakarta – The widow of an American schoolteacher killed in a 2002 attack initially blamed on Indonesian soldiers urged the Bush administration Friday not to lift a ban o

Leony Aurora, Jakarta – Major players in the banking industry have welcomed Bank Indonesia's effort to speed up the sector's consolidation through a new policy on the injection of funds

There was little to talk about when the widely trumpeted first 100-day economic agenda of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's government ended.

Jakarta – Indonesian workers are unprepared for competition in regional labor markets among Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members, a business expert says.

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Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Activists slammed city councillors on Wednesday for requesting a monthly housing allowance of Rp 12.5 million each, saying they had broken their own electio

Evi Mariani, Jakarta – Permissiveness among youngsters abounds in big cities, with many of them having had sex at home without the knowledge of their parents, according to a study.

I Wayan Juniartha, Denpasar – It clearly was not an ordinary day.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Gen.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – In a bid to create a strong and modern military, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is contemplating up to a five fold increase in defense spending to an "ideal

Jakarta – To enforce the new law on the military, the government will start taking over all military businesses in an endeavor to make the Indonesian Military (TNI) professional and hel

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he wants his country to have a stronger and better equipped military to be able to deal with events such as the tsunami disaster.

It has been exactly one month since the magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami devastated parts of Aceh and North Sumatra.

Bogor – The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the European Commission (EC) launched a joint program on Tuesday to preserve the country's rapidly shrinking tropical forests a

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – The country's human rights record remained poor in 2004, with state-sponsored violence and the cycle of impunity still persisting, a rights group says.

M. Taufiqurrahman and Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – A National Police disciplinary hearing has decided to suspend Brig. Gen.

Vincent Lingga, Jakarta – The President's lack of leadership to act firm and fast in resolving the government's four-year dispute with Cemex over the Mexican company's investment in the

Iman D. Nugroho, Surabaya – Protected turtle species in East Java are on the brink of extinction due to the rampant poaching of their eggs, says an environmental expert.

Jakarta – Convinced that mining company PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (NMR) is guilty of polluting Buyat Bay in North Sulawesi, the government aims to seek financial compensation from the US

Yogyakarta – Dozens of disabled people in Yogyakarta staged a protest on Monday to demand equal treatment and an end to discrimination by the authorities, and the enactment of special l

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – he government-sanctioned fact-finding team, which is "assisting" the police investigators over the alleged murder of human rights campaigner Munir, has asked fo

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Jakarta – With US helicopters dropping noodles instead of bombs and soldiers carrying rice rather than guns, the United States was confident its enormous efforts to help Asian tsunami v

Damien Kingsbury, Melbourne – It is a truism in politics that a cathartic experience can result in unrelated change.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Pematang Siantar – North Sumatra has long been known for its large oil palm, cocoa and rubber plantations, but they have contributed little to the local people's wel

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – In a bid to speed up the investigation into the alleged murder of top human rights campaigner Munir, members of the government-sanctioned fact-finding team have

Jakarta – The development of Indonesian democracy after more than six years of transformation from an authoritarian regime has failed to usher in significant change in the country's pol

Philip Cornford, Banda Aceh – "They come as angels. They are our friends," said Almascaty after the fundamentalist's first meeting yesterday with an Australian army captain.

Vaudine England – Father Fernando, aged 70, is more comfortable speaking Indonesian or his native Italian, rather than English.

Sian Powell – The Indonesian military has a toxic reputation, based on a long history of gross human rights abuses across the archipelago, particularly in Papua, Aceh and the former pro

Jakarta – Ali Imron, who is serving a life sentence for the 2002 Bali bombings, testified in the trial of Abu Bakar Ba'asyir on Thursday that the cleric had not influenced his actions i

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Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has reiterated his support for press freedom, promising that the government would settle disputes with the media ou

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Employers, labor unions and the government have agreed to eliminate the high-cost economy in an endeavor to help repair the investment climate and improve

Abigail Abrash Walton and Bama Athreya – Aceh, so long isolated from international view by the Indonesian government and military, is now – tragically – at the center of world attention

Jakarta – Airport workers in 13 cities, including Denpasar, Surabaya and Yogyakarta, have canceled their plan to strike over the government's attempt to take over the management of thei

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – The recorded number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the capital doubled from 12,000 in 2003 to 24,000 in 2004, the Greater Jakarta AIDS Care Forum says.

Jakarta – Despite a health ministry circular instructing pharmaceutical industries to "self-assess" the prices of their products in order to make them more affordable to the public, mos

Devi Asmarani – Thousands of residents were forced to flee to safety while traffic flow in Jakarta was disrupted.

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Batam, Riau Islands – Some 5,000 workers on Batam staged another protest on Tuesday, demanding Riau Islands acting governor Ismeth Abdullah's resignation over his failure to improve wor

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – A vice presidential office circular criticizing recent hearings between the government and the House of Representatives has received a strong reaction from leg

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Jakarta – Environmentalist Ahmad "Puput" Safrudin blasted the Jakarta administration's policy to allow aggressive conversion of open and green space in the city into building premises,

Jim Lobe, Washington – Aside from improving Washington's image in South and Southeast Asia, the administration of US President George W Bush is hoping to achieve something more concrete

Jakarta – The official ban on US weapons and military equipment sales to Indonesia is unfair and "punishes" the country by hampering its military's tsunami relief and recovery efforts,

Geneva – The Indonesian ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Makarim Wibisono, Monday was elected chairman of the UN Human Rights Commission despite concerns by some campaigners

The scale of the tsunami disaster and continuing health risks in Indonesia's Aceh province are almost beyond comprehension.