Jakarta – Twelve junior high school principals were found to have charged extra fees aside from – hose that had been set between school boards and parents, an official of the Jakarta Education Agency said on Monday. "They have violated regulations, because the city education agency has given the period from July 29 to Aug.

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Jakarta – Over 70 lawyers have pledged to defend a coalition of five non-governmental organizations that has been reported to the police by the General Elections Commission (KPU) for defamation.

Palu – The level of heavy metals in Palu Bay has surpassed tolerable standards – ollowing the unchecked, daily dumping of liquid waste by local residents, an environmental study has found.

"At least seven kinds of metals have polluted the bay," a study conducted by Tadulako University's Environmental Research Center (PPLH-Untad) and the Palu administration said on Sunday.

Devi Asmarani, Kupang – The provincial legislature building on this eastern Indonesian island some 2,000km from Jakarta looks abandoned just days after new councillors took over.

Salim Osman – Retired colonel Poedjiyono is a picture of confidence as he entertains guests at his house in Margorejo on the outskirts of Surabaya.

The 59-year-old retired army officer speaks to them individually about their requests and offers them his counsel.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – The twin-engine Fokker swooped down in the afternoon heat, kicking up yellow dust that snaked across the bumpy airport tarmac.

President Megawati Sukarnoputri, dressed in her trademark flowery batik, emerged from the plane to the cheering hundreds in West Nusa Tenggara. She waved at the crowds before heading to the VIP room for some tea and kueh.

Slamet Susanto, Yogyakarta – The hopes of Tas (not her real name) of getting a decent job were shattered after she ended up in a karaoke bar on Batam island. The 14-year old girl, who had just finished elementary school in Pagedongan, Banjarnegara, Central Java, was lured to Batam by her own neighbor, Parwati, 25.

B. Raman – In looking at the car bomb explosion outside the Australian Embassy in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta last Thursday, one must avoid an over-interpretation and over-assessment of the blast, which caused the death of nine persons and injured more than 100 others, most of them civilians.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – "Oh my, we were just starting to recover and we have been thrown on the floor again," Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri was quoted as saying over the weekend in response to the bombing last week outside the Australian Embassy.

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Community-based movements have proven effective in overcoming reoccurring problems in neighborhoods as revealed by some subdistrict chiefs.

Jakarta – Fifteen former councillors in Depok municipality were named suspects on Friday in a Rp 9 billion (US$970,141) graft case. They will be summoned for questioning on Tuesday, Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Tjiptono said.

Slamet Susanto, Yogyakarta – Taufik Kiemas, the powerful husband of incumbent President Megawati Soekarnoputri, has continued distributing donations across the country, a move that has been criticized as a thinly veiled attempt to buy votes before the legal campaign period begins.

Jakarta – An Indonesian general indicted for war crimes in East Timor has been appointed to lead a probe into the shooting deaths of two American schoolteachers at a gold mine in Papua province two years ago, news reports said Saturday.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The government and the House of Representatives, and an alliance of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are divided over the contentious bill on the protection of migrant workers, and how to minimize violence against them.

Medan – Hundreds of students at North Sumatra University (USU) staged a protest on Friday in front of the USU rector's office, demanding that the rector punish two university police officers who, earlier in the morning, assaulted two students.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – Malaysian bomb-maker Azahari Husin stood by the bedside of his cancer-stricken wife and told her: "I have a greater cause in life. It is to serve God." These were his parting words to his wife, who had just given birth to their second child and found, soon after, that she was suffering from throat cancer.

Jakarta – Indonesia's Muslim leaders have called for a united stand against terrorism, which they said was tarnishing the nation's image.

Nahdlatul Ulama, the nation's largest Muslim organisation, urged the authorities to find those responsible for Thursday's blast which killed nine people and 'punish them severely'.

Relations between Indonesia and Australia are going through another testing time following the bomb attack outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta on Thursday. There is no doubt that the perpetrators were targeting Australia, either the property or the people inside it.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – The Golkar Party's central board has issued a circular ordering all regional chapters to support the reelection bid of President Megawati Soekarnoputri in the election runoff on September 20.

Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung said on Friday all party executives and members must adhere to the circular, otherwise they could face party sanctions.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – It was billed as the wedding of the year. President Megawati Sukarnoputri and her husband Taufik Kiemas were in the royal palace in Brunei for the marriage ceremony of its Crown Prince when news broke that a powerful car bomb had gone off outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta.

Leony Aurora, Jakarta – Syahromi got on his feet in a daze and saw a colleague, Anton Sujarwo, lying motionless near the door of the Australian embassy guard post where they worked as security guards.

Wedged in between Anton's body and pieces of glass was a little girl, with her clothes blown off. Syahromi carefully picked up five-year-old Elisabeth Manuela Bambina Musu.

Alan Boyd – Terrorism thrives on symbolism, and investigators did not need to look hard for signposts after Thursday's bombing outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta.

Jon Afrizal, Jambi – Many more schools were closed on Friday in Jambi province as choking haze continued to blanket the area.

Haze also enveloped other provinces in Sumatra and Kalimantan provinces, while local authorities in Central Kalimantan province even sought help from the central government.

Jakarta – Indonesian soldiers who killed a senior separatist leader in the conflict-hit province of Aceh are to receive a reward equivalent to US$16,000, an official said on Saturday.

East Aceh Regent Azman Usmanuddin said he would make good on an earlier promise to reward anyone who caught rebel leader Ishak Daud "dead or alive".

Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta – The Indonesian currency and stock markets staged a quick recovery on Friday, as hopes are high that the deadly bombing a day earlier will not undermine the economy or sabotage the presidential election.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Lack of coordination among security officers has been blamed for what has been seen as a poor early warning system, which is one reason they were unable to prevent Thursday's bombing outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta.

Sidney Jones, Singapore – Indonesia has more victims to mourn after yet another attack that killed and maimed ordinary civilians. The same criminals behind the Christmas Eve bombings, the Bali bombs, and the Marriott attack, and numerous equally lethal bombings in the Philippines, are the likely perpetrators.

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – On September 9, 2003, Governor Sutiyoso launched the distribution of 50,000 16-page manuals containing information on some antiterrorist tips in a ceremony at Plaza Senayan, Central Jakarta. The event was widely covered by the media and attended by hundreds of people.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta/Mark Forbes, Canberra – At least nine people have been killed and 182 injured by a massive bomb attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta, in the first direct terrorist attack against Australian interests.

Ibnu Mat Noor, Banda Aceh – The death of Munir has shocked activists and leaders in the nation's capital, as well as many Achenese, whose rights he fought for.

Many Achenese have said his presence in the war-torn province emboldened them, after living amid conflict for years.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – The House of Representatives will unlikely be able to finish deliberating the Indonesian Military (TNI) bill before ending its five-year term early next month, as many contentious issues remain unresolved, lawmakers say.

Tiarma Siboro and M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – The bulk of Muslim voters will choose Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono over Megawati Soekarnoputri in the September 20 election runoff on the basis of his personality rather than his religious affinity, scholars say.

Sidney Jones, Singapore – When I think of the people who had the most impact in bringing about a democratic Indonesia, Munir would be up there near the top. He was everything a human rights champion should be: principled, tough, smart, funny, and fearless. He stood up to people in power, he made them angry, he got threat after threat after threat, and he never gave up.

David Jenkins – General Benny Moerdani, who has died in Jakarta at the age of 71, was a special forces officer who went on to become the head of Indonesia's widely feared intelligence services and the architect of his nation's brutal subjugation of East Timor. He was for many years the second most powerful man in Indonesia, after his mentor, President Soeharto.

Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta – Jakarta stocks and rupiah closed lower on Thursday on the back of renewed security fears stemming from the deadly bomb blast in front of the Australian Embassy.

Jakarta – Thursday's bombing at the Australian Embassy, which killed at least seven people, drew strong nationwide condemnation, with many saying the latest terror attack would further tarnish the predominantly Muslim country's image.

Abdul Khalik and Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – It didn't take the police long to pin the blame for the deadly blast in front of the Australian Embassy here on Thursday on fugitive Malaysian bomb experts Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Moh. Top.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri called for calm and urged people to remain on the alert following Thursday's huge bomb blast in front of the Australian Embassy in Kuningan, South Jakarta.

Jakarta – At least seven were confirmed killed and over 180 injured in a bomb explosion outside the Australian Embassy on Thursday morning, just 11 days ahead of the presidential election. Officials said eight died and that some 150 from 182 victims had been released from hospital.

Irwan Firdaus, Jakarta – General Andi Muhammad Jusuf, a former Indonesian army chief who played a pivotal role in the rise to power of former dictator Suharto (news – web sites) nearly four decades ago, has died. He was 76.

The death of Indonesia's most outstanding human rights activist, Munir, while still in the prime of life, is a profound loss to the NGO community, civil society and the people of Indonesia.

Jakarta – General Andi Muhammad Jusuf, a former Indonesian army chief who played a pivotal role in the rise to power of former dictator Suharto nearly four decades ago, has died. He was 76.

Gen Andi, a retired four-star general, died late on Wednesday from kidney failure and other complications in the central city of Makassar, his doctor, Dr John Adam, said yesterday.

Tiarma Siboro and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – Condolences poured in on Wednesday for the family and relatives of top human rights campaigner Munir who died on board a Garuda flight to Amsterdam, while the precise cause of his death remained a mystery.

Munir's life and career exemplify that of a man who answers his calling to the end. The diminutive rights activist championed a great cause during an extremely difficult period in Indonesian history.

Andi Hajramurni, Makassar – Another former military chief, Gen. (ret) Andi Mohamad Jusuf, died on Wednesday, just a week after the death of Gen.(ret) L. Benny Moerdani on Aug. 29.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Six years after a banking bail-out that cost some US$60 billion (Rp555 trillion), Bank Permata, Indonesia's second-largest bank and the last of the nationalized banks taken over during the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, is up for grabs.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – In order to ensure fairness within the Indonesian Military (TNI) forces, several factions in the House of Representatives proposed on Wednesday that the TNI chief's position should be alternated regularly between the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Indramayu – Almost twenty-five percent of school buildings are damaged in Indramayu regency, West Java province, it was reported recently.

Almost 200 elementary school buildings, or some 25 percent of the total 869 school buildings in the regency, are on the brink of collapse due to old age and damage due to natural disasters, an official said on Wednesday.

Jon Afrizal, Jambi – The haze in Jambi and Central Kalimantan provinces worsened on Wednesday, prompting local authorities, particularly in Jambi province, to close several schools.