The United States yesterday called for a political solution of the conflict in the Indonesian province of Aceh, with a top Pentagon official arguing that Indonesia's military should be "pushed to get out of the way" if it tries to sabotage attempts at a negotiated settlement.

Banda Aceh – A massive world outpouring of aid to tsunami-stricken Aceh had relief agencies rushing to reach survivors, but many are now questioning if the region is "over-aided".

United Nations figures showed at least 100 NGOs have flooded into the northern Indonesia province after the tsunami left a half-million homeless.

Indonesia's army and the Free Aceh separatist movement, GAM, have agreed to an unconditional ceasefire in the province so devasted by the tsunami. The Army Chief of Staff General Ryamizard Ryucudu says the armed forces have killed 120 GAM fighters over the last two weeks. The figure has been disputed by a GAM spokesperson who claims the ceasefire is largely holding.

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.

Astrid Felicia Lim, Jakarta - National Intelligence Agencey (BIN) chief Syamsir Siregar says that foreigners in Aceh definitely have specific interests other than the humanitarian mission. Based on BIN's data, as well as thousands of volunteers the number of foreign troops presently in Aceh has reached 19,000 personnel.

Suliyanti, Jakarta - People's Representative Assembly Commission I for Defense and Foreign Affairs is urging the military (TNI) to remain resolute and on guard against the armed separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

Fedhly Averouss Bey, Jakarta - The Aceh Working Group (AWG) opposes the plan to form the Special Authority Agency for Aceh because it has the potential to turn the Acehnese people into 'objects'.

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, most drugs remain beyond the reach of the poor, according to the Indonesian Health Consumer's Empowerment Foundation (YPKKI).

Devi Asmarani – Thousands of residents were forced to flee to safety while traffic flow in Jakarta was disrupted. Jakarta's main Ciliwung River overflowed after heavy rain flooded densely populated neighbourhoods in north, west and east Jakarta.

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 their pensions. Instead, they will hold a peaceful demonstration.

Ian Fisher, Banda Aceh – Business is coming back to Banda Aceh, a city hit hard by the tsunami, and not all of it fits into neat moral boxes.

The United Nations said the destruction in Indonesia's Aceh province, the worst-hit area in the December 26 Asian tsunami, is "truly staggering" after relief teams reported back to the General Assembly.

Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra was already hard to access and closed to foreigners for two years because of a separatist rebellion before the tsunami.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – Despite assurances from the President, Vice President and other top government officials that their money was safe here, some investors at the Infrastructure Summit on Tuesday remained concerned whether the reform commitments could be translated into action by the country's weak bureaucracy.

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 from its aid efforts in the aftermath of the December 26 tsunami that killed more than 175,000 people along the coasts of the Indian Ocean.

[Interview with US Deputy Secretary of State Paul Wolfowitz. Sections not directly related to South-East Asia and Aceh have been edited out - JB.]

Newsmaker: Paul Wolfowitz

Jakarta – Indonesia's armed forces have allowed unprecedented access to Aceh province since it was devastated by last month's tsunami, but relations with the thousands of foreigners involved in the aid effort could quickly turn sour if the military feels its control there is being threatened, some analysts warn.

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, citing that the disappearance of the space contributed to the worsening air quality in the city.

Ellen Nakashima, Aceh Besar – A rebel commander, Muharram Idris, said he knew the risk when he sent his men down from the mountains on a rescue mission after the tsunami crashed ashore. Evading Indonesian military patrols, they slogged for hours through the mud to the seaside villages closest to their hideouts in the hills, bringing all the supplies they could.

Sian Powell, Jakarta – Accelerating hostilities in the tsunami-devastated Indonesian province of Aceh have killed as many as 110 people since the Boxing Day disaster, separatist rebels claim, including more than 80 unarmed civilians.

Philip Cornford in Banda Aceh, Cynthia Banham and agencies – The infamous former pro-Indonesian militia commander in East Timor, Eurico Guterres, yesterday denied he had visited Banda Aceh to organise a militia to fight against rebels from the Free Aceh Movement, known as GAM.

Max Lane – On December 26, one of the worst earthquakes in a century sent a massive tsunami travelling at 800 kilometres per hour out from an epicentre off the island of Sumatra. This tsunami hit a series of countries around the Bay of Bengal and down to the tip of Sumatra, Aceh.

Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – Several human rights campaigners welcomed on Tuesday the appointment of Indonesia's Makarim Wibisono as a new chairman of the UN Human Rights Commission and asked the government to soon take action to improve the country's human rights record.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Corruption is widespread throughout the country's 32 provinces, with the tsunami-devastated Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam province being among the worst offenders, an anticorruption watchdog has revealed.

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 legislators, who said it could harm relations between the two state institutions.

Dili – Police in East Timor detained a man after an exchange of gunfire between security forces and an armed group near the border with Indonesian West Timor, officials said Wednesday.

Six armed men opened fire on a police patrol Tuesday after being spotted by patrolling officers in the district of Ermera, about 50 kms southwest of Dili, a police source told Lusa.

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 workers' welfare.

Jane Perlez and Evelyn Rusli, Kling Meria – Like many of the hundreds of thousands of survivors left homeless by the recent tsunami, Mohamed Adan, his wife and their six children confront an unpalatable choice about where to go now. But here in Aceh that decision must be made at the intersection of natural calamity and civil war.

John Mcbeth – Nationalism, often tinged with conspiracy theories and a measure of xenophobia, is never far from the surface in Indonesia.

Marianne Kearney – A military-backed militia group responsible for widespread killing and looting when Indonesia pulled out of East Timor has established a base in tsunami-devastated Aceh. The local leader of Laskar Merah Putih, or Red and White Troops, says the group is ready to defend the province from separatists.

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Dozens of members of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) moved swiftly out of the pickup trucks as they arrived at the mosque in Ajun residential area in tsunami-battered Banda Aceh.

A brief prayer started their work on Sunday to locate and remove the corpses around the area and to clean up the mosque.

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, Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono said Tuesday.

Jakarta – Former East Timor governor Abilio Soares vowed on Wednesday to continue his challenge against the retroactive application of the rights tribunal law despite his acquittal of all charges arising out the 1999 atrocities in the former Indonesian province.

Josh White, Jakarta – Indonesia's defense minister on Sunday called on the United States to ease its restrictions on military relations between the two nations and to help train Indonesian military leaders, reaching out during the period of cooperation that has emerged in the wake of the devastating tsunami last month.

Andi Hajramurni, Banda Aceh – At least six people in Banda Aceh, including two children, have died of tetanus over the past several days, while 30 others have been hospitalized with severe infections.

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – A chief executive officer of a state cement firm in East Java once said that the most devastating factor that could affect the firm's production cost lay not in fuel spending nor workers' wages, but on congested highways.

Sumitomo Corporation Chairman Kenji Miyahara, who is also vice chairman of the powerful Nippon Keidanren (Japanese Economic Federation) talked to The Jakarta Post's Kornelius Purba on Sunday about Japanese investors' views and expectations about Indonesian investment prospects. He is in Jakarta to attend the two-day Infrastructure Summit on Monday and Tuesday.

Matthew Moore, Banda Aceh – Muharram believes the foreign presence in Aceh will help GAM's cause.

The scale of the tsunami disaster and continuing health risks in Indonesia's Aceh province are almost beyond comprehension. Getting desperately needed emergency aid to the survivors, wherever they are, is now an overwhelmingly urgent humanitarian priority.

The secretary of state for defence's visit to East Timor, due to start tomorrow (Tuesday 18 January), has been postponed until the end of the month. Jorge Neto is now expected to visit the country on 30 January, during which he will sign the Military-Technical Cooperation Programme for 2005 with the Timorese authorities.

John Aglionby – Rahmatun is almost inaudible over the drone of the low-flying aid helicopter. Pointing upwards, the softly spoken 14-year-old eventually makes herself understood. "That's what I want to do when I grow up," she says. Her smile implies she is aware that this is not the standard career choice of a devoutly Muslim teenage girl in Aceh. "I want to be a pilot.

Patsy Spier, Washington – one of the survivors of a 2002 military-style ambush on a group of contract teachers in the Indonesian province of Papua, spoke out today about the attempts by the Bush administration to resume full military ties with Indonesia before the government in Jakarta accounts for military crimes in East Timor and fully cooperates with a US investigation into the P

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The governments of Indonesia and the United States see the possibility of improved military ties following the significant role of US troops in tsunami relief operations in Aceh.

The United States has given its clearest signal yet that it may consider lifting the arms embargo imposed on Indonesia in 1999. A partial lifting of the embargo came soon after the tsunami struck the coast of Sumatra, with the US military offering spare parts for Indonesia's Hercules C-130 transport planes.

Jakarta – Flooding over the past week around the country drove people from their homes and damaged infrastructure and crops.

Hundreds of people in Palembang, South Sumatra, who live on the banks of the Musi River had to seek refuge after the river burst its banks and inundated their houses.

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 that his country has done too little to tackle its own abuses.

Eva C. Komandjaja, Jakarta – The need for the government to set up a special body to control and monitor the performance of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) has become urgent, a police/intelligence ethics activist has said.

Urip Hudiono, Jakarta – The public debate continues on how Indonesia should respond to the debt moratorium offer from the Paris Club creditor countries, as the offer itself is still vague in what it implies.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Several weeks before the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) convenes a national congress in March, disgruntled party members are beginning to flex their muscles to block the reelection of PDI-P leader Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Dili – Australia and East Timor will resume in March talks to resolve their dispute over shared maritime boundaries and the carving up of Timor Sea hydrocarbon revenues, Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said Monday.