Pekanbaru – Hundreds of students from different universities took to the streets on Thursday to protest at what they claimed were extravagant allowances and payments for Pekanbaru city administration executives and city councillors.

Shirley Shackleton – I have studied the TNI (the Indonesian military) for 30 years and what is happening in Aceh has striking similarities to what happened in East Timor. The TNI terrorised the East Timorese for a quarter of a century and they have done the same to Acehnese citizens for 31 years.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, struggling to cope with the tsunami disaster as he completes 100 days in office, has apologised to Indonesians for failing to fulfil a range of pledges including an end to corruption.

Gary LaMoshi, Denpasar – History will judge the cataclysmic earthquake and tsunami that devastated Aceh last month as the defining event of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's first 100 days as Indonesia's president.

East Timor's charismatic president Xanana Gusmao today made an emotional visit to the Indonesian prison where he was held for four years as a rebel before his country was granted independence.

Semarang – Tayu police station in Pati regency, Central Java was attacked and wrecked by a crowd of about one hundred people late on Thursday following the death of two motorcyclists who were being pursued by the police.

Jakarta – East Timor President Xanana Gusmao in a three-day visit here Friday sought to mend bilateral ties with Indonesia, hand humanitarian assistance to tsunami victims and express opposition against US military embargo.

Jakarta – Indonesia and Timor Leste (East Timor) have agreed to establish a permanent border crossing (PLB) for traditional communities that live on the border between the two countries to strengthen kinship ties and to preserve peace.

Astrid Felicia Lim, Jakarta – The Timor Leste (East Timor) government has promised to lobby the US government in its congress, in February 2005 about withdrawing the embargo on Indonesian military requirements.

M. Taufiqurrahman and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The government admitted on Thursday that the management of public donations for the tsunami survivors in Aceh and North Sumatra had been tainted by malfeasance.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Tsunami-devastated Aceh, which only a month ago was a war zone, has now become the testing ground for a concerted push to persuade the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which has been fighting for independence, to lay down its arms.

Jakarta – The House of Representatives' Commission II for home and regional affairs has recommended the government delay the direct elections of local executive heads in tsunami-ravaged Aceh.

Commission member Abdul Gafur said on Thursday the proposed delay be imposed until the conditions improved in Aceh.

Although the Jakarta administration has continued to carry out measures to fight flooding, dredging 13 rivers, maintaining sluice gates and setting up early warning systems and emergency response teams, it could not stop the annual floods. The Jakarta Post asked residents about their opinion of the administration's flood-mitigation efforts.

The Pentagon and the Indonesian government are using the tragic tsunami that struck Aceh to call for US support including weapons and training – for Indonesia's brutal military.

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – Today marks the 100th day of the administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. According to many assessments, his government has yet to produce results in terms of the economy, having failed to bring improvement to the country's investment and business climate.

Jakarta – Improving the economic welfare of communities living in forested areas would do little to reduce the widespread illegal logging across the country, environmentalists say.

Jakarta – Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who is being tried on charges of involvement in acts of terror, and his lawyers walked out of the courtroom on Wednesday in protest against the judges' decision to allow the prosecution to read out the sworn statements of four witnesses in their absence.

Ray Rangkuti, executive director of the Independent Election Monitoring Committee (KIPP):

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – Hundreds of Punclut residents, environmentalists and artists protested on the streets of Bandung on Thursday, rejecting the planned construction of a hotel and resort in Punclut, a water catchment area in North Bandung.

Jayapura – Papua police have arrested seven suspected Papuan rebels in the past five days in Tolikara regency, some 700 kilometers southwest of Jayapura, the Papuan capital.

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 on military ties with Jakarta until the case if fully resolved.

There was little to talk about when the widely trumpeted first 100-day economic agenda of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's government ended. It is not even an exaggeration to say that the government miserably failed to capitalize on its strong political mandate to launch bold, if unpopular, measures to accelerate the process of regaining foreign investor confidence.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto said on Wednesday that any decision on the reshuffling of the military leadership rested solely with the President.

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 into other banks, but urge for more incentives.

I Wayan Juniartha, Denpasar – It clearly was not an ordinary day. The morning sun radiated a warm glow that softly embraced the spacious patch of plush green grass in front of the office of the local education agency in Renon. At the same time, a light drizzle wet the ground while a strong breeze set the nearly pine trees swaying gently.

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.

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 election vows to live modestly.

Julian Lee – The organisers of an advertising campaign that ambushed the Australian Open to highlight disputed maritime boundaries in the Timor Sea have pledged to dog John Howard at public events to further their cause.

Since August 2004, the Indonesian army has been conducting military operations in Puncak Jaya, in the Central Highlands of West Papua. According to reports from the area, crack troops of the Indonesian armed forces, KOPASSUS, as well Mobile Brigade (Brimob) troops of the Indonesian Police have been used in the operations.

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 level" of 3-5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) compared to the current 1 percent.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Against a background of perhaps excessively high public expectations of sweeping change, the administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been criticized by some analysts for failing to bring about significant progress in its first three months.

Meidyatama Suryodiningrat and Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The wheels of diplomacy and bureaucracy are notoriously slow. Apparently not so in the case of this weekend's peace talks between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the government, in Helsinki.

Tony Hotland and Ruslan Sangadji, Banda Aceh – The Acehnese have long dreamed of peace and prosperity in their homeland, which has seen decades of conflict and, at the end of last year, tsunamis that left more than 166,000 people killed or missing and presumed dead.

Alan Sipress, Lhoknga – Ali, a scruffy Acehnese truck driver turned tsunami refugee, said he wasn't sure who provided him with a sack of rice, bottled water, a blanket and a few other meager provisions, just that they were foreigners.

Banda Aceh – Indonesia has buried more than 100,000 tsunami victims, mostly in mass graves, a month after the disaster, the government said on Thursday.

Nani Afrida and Dedy Ardiansyah, Banda Aceh/Meulaboh – As the sun rose over the devastated city of Banda Aceh on Wednesday morning, Maizul, a 40-year-old school teacher, was standing in front of a classroom at one of the city's schools.

Jakarta – Indonesia's president on Thursday offered concessions to separatist rebels in tsunami-devastated Aceh province if they agree to a cease-fire in upcoming peace talks.

Wellington – New Zealand said on Thursday it will ask Indonesia to investigate claims that its military officers have been accepting bribes to place wealthy people on refugee flights out of tsunami-ravaged Aceh.

Chitra Ramaswamy – Human rights activists and church organisations predict that, without international attention and intervention, West Papua is in danger of becoming the next East Timor.

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

Prasetiya Mulya Business School Dean Sammy Kristamuljana told the first Indonesian Business Conference on Wednesday that on paper the concept of cross-border labor competition sounded great.

Sonny Inbaraj, Bangkok – East Timor's Nobel laureate Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo is appealing for peace to be given a chance in tsunami-hit Aceh as an Indonesian top-level team meets with Acehnese rebels later this week at talks in Finland.

An Indonesian ministerial team departs for Finland today to meet Free Aceh Movement or GAM's leadership-in-exile, but though both sides expressed optimism, there is scant hope the talks would end decades of conflict in the province.

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.

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 help improve the welfare of its personnel.

M. Taufiqurrahman and Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – A National Police disciplinary hearing has decided to suspend Brig. Gen. Samuel Ismoko, the national police operations chief, for one year for discriminatory practices against suspects under his investigation.

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 and improve the living standards of communities in forested areas.

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.

Tiarma Siboro and Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – The government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) are ready to resume peace talks in Helsinki later this week, with both sides planning to send high-level officials, according to people familiar with the talks.

Many seats were left empty in badly damaged schools across Indonesia's Aceh province as children began lessons for the first time since the tsunami struck one month ago, killing thousands of their classmates.

Santi Soekanto, Aceh – Nina recounted her story to me in the Lamsujen refugee camp in Lhoong subdistrict, Aceh Besar, on January 3. This is what she said: "Assalam mualai'kum. My name is Nina Maulidia Rizka. Call me Nina. I am now 11 years old. I was born in a beautiful village, called Gleebruek, in the sub-district Lhoong, Aceh Besar District.