Jakarta – President-elect Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is expected to take office on Wednesday and before long he will have to start working and fulfilling the promises he and running-mate

Gary LaMoshi, Denpasar – The month between Indonesia's presidential vote and Wednesday's inauguration of the country's first directly elected president brings to mind the classic Clint

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – Saying good-bye is never easy, but it is especially difficult for President Megawati Soekarnoputri as she prepares to leave her childhood home, the Pres

Dian Yuliastuti, Jakarta – Scores of students from a number of student and labour groups have demonstrated demanding that the new government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY)

Rofiqi Hasan, Jakarta – Scores of students in Denpasar, the provincial capital of Bali, held a demonstration on Wednesday October 20 to coincide with the inauguration of President Susil

Jakarta – A labor union is protesting the government's plan to close down fertilizer manufacturer PT Asean Aceh Fertilizer (AAF), calling for efforts to seek alternatives.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Acting coordinating minister for political and security affairs Hari Sabarno advised the new government to put law enforcement and rights promotion, p

Suwarjono, Jakarta – Journalists have returned to a "period of gloom" at the new presidential palace. The freedoms which were enjoyed during the presidencies of B.J.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Some 300 members of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) were told to check out of the Mulia Hotel on Tuesday after its leaders realized, belatedly, that t

Indonesia's incoming President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, takes office tomorrow with a promise of "a beautiful era", including better relations with the West.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – Gloom fell over Megawati Soekarnoputri's private residence in Kebagusan, South Jakarta, as a small group huddled around the television set, hours after

Allan Behm – The pundits might want to dismiss Alexander Downer's thinking out loud on a security agreement with Indonesia as a volte-face or the cynical repackaging of a Keating legacy

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Hundreds of members of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) checked in at the Mulia Hotel on Monday despite calls by their chairman Hidayat Nur Wahid to le

The prospect of an openly negotiated security treaty with Jakarta is welcome.

Veronica Brooks, Canberra – Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Tuesday headed to Jakarta to witness the swearing in of Indonesia's new president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, hoping

Andi Hajramurni and Yuli Tri Suwarni, Makassar/Bandung – After two days of relative calm, violence broke out again in Aralle district, Mamasa regency, killing one man and injuring anoth

Hananto Wiryo, Mataram – The Cabinet of president-elect Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono must ensure that in designing its health programs focuses on servicing and reaching grassroots by truly

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Contrary to police findings, a joint government team comprising 14 agencies has concluded that Buyat Bay in North Sulawesi, where PT Newmont Minahasa Raya stoppe

Jongker Rumthe, Manado – Three newly reelected North Sulawesi councillors stood trial at the Manado District Court here on Monday on charges of misusing some Rp 9.6 billion (US$1.06 mil

Rusman, Samarinda – Thick haze from forest fires in Central and East Kalimantan provinces continued to blanket some cities in Kalimantan on Monday, but heavy downpours over the weekend

Indra Harsaputra, Malang – Set in the mountains, the picturesque and cool city of Malang, East Java, is now getting hotter according to locals and not, they say, for a good reason.

The City Population Agency will launch a two-week raid a week before and a week after the Idul Fitri holidays, targeting in-house maids, nannies and private company workers who do not p

Jakarta – President-elect Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) is being urged to form a clean and productive government.

In an example of prudence in the search for justice, the underused Press Council issued on Friday a momentous decision that should reignite freedom of expression's dimming light.

Luhur Hertanto, Jakarta – Two days before his inauguration as president, some 100 students from the Indonesian Muslim Students Action Front (KAMMI) and the Greater Jakarta Student Execu

Tiarma Siboro and M.

Eka Saprianawati, Jakarta – The inauguration of president and vice-president elect Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Jusuf Kalla (SBY-JK) on October 20 will be greeted with demonstrations.

A new security treaty between Indonesia and Australia would symbolise the increasingly close relationship between the two countries.

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Observers demanded on Sunday a thorough investigation into officers allegedly involved in the escape of Adrian Waworuntu, a key suspect in the Rp 1.7 trillion (U

Jakarta – The streets of central Indonesia's Sulawesi town remained tense yesterday after new communal conflict erupted, leaving at least two dead, the top local police official said.

Andi Hajramurni, Makassar – Tension was still high on Sunday in a village in Aralle district, some 400 kilometers from the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar, after two people were repo

M.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta/Bogor – Outgoing President Megawati Soekarnoputri's decision to skip the inauguration of her successor Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will bac

Indra Harsaputra, Surabaya – Yulianti, a bartender at a nightclub in Surabaya, had a busy couple of nights before Ramadhan started on Friday.

Indonesia's Megawati Sukarnoputri, under increasing fire in her last days as president for failing to admit poll defeat, has come under new criticism from the country's military chief o

Rendi A.

Megawati Sukarnoputri has won plaudits for smoothing Indonesia's path to democracy, but in her final days as president the taciturn leader is in danger of leaving a lasting image as a s

Rita A.Widiadana, Denpasar – The number of foreign tourists visiting Bali has continued to increase over the past few months, thanks to the improved security situation.

Jakarta – Thick haze began disrupting flights in Central Kalimantan province on Saturday, with an airplane from PT Dirgantara Air Service (DAS) reportedly rerouted after it was unable t

Australia is considering talks on a new security treaty with Indonesia to replace a pact abandoned during the bloody fallout from East Timor's independence ballot in 1999, Foreign Minis

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – After many delays, state prosecutors finally submitted the file on Abu Bakar Ba'asyir to the South Jakarta District Court on Friday, charging him with mastermind

Jakarta, Kompas – In examining the Draft Law on the Fundamentals of Intelligence, the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) has the potential to became a body which will be inseparable fro

Jakarta – The Islamic fasting month of Ramadan started yesterday and the Indonesian entertainment industry is grumbling over local edicts to close nightclubs, massage parlours and amuse

Semarang/Medan/Banda Aceh/Indramayu – Millions of Indonesian Muslims, who account for some 85 percent of the total 220 million population in the country, began fasting dawn-to-dusk on F

Jakarta – The central bank expects the rupiah to strengthen against the US dollar leading up to the year-end on the back of a better economic outlook and high hopes for the new governme

Tiarma Siboro and M.

Jakarta – Parts of Indonesia have been enveloped in one of the worst days of haze this year, officials said, as residents donned face masks to ward off thick, choking fumes.

Martin Jenkins, Jakarta – In Indonesia, much debate has recently centered on how the government should tackle the problem of rising fuel subsidies as the price of crude oil on the inter

Andi Hajramurni and ID Nugroho, Makassar/Sidoarjo – Police here named at least 14 of 75 South Sulawesi legislative council members as suspects on Thursday in a graft case, while East Ja

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Director of the National Police economic crimes division Brig. Gen.