M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Reform-minded political parties should form an opposition in the House of Representatives if a candidate with military background gets elected in the July 5 presidential election, a respected Muslim scholar says.

Khairul, Banda Aceh – When contact by Fpdra.com by phone, the general chairperson of the Acehnese Democratic Women's Organisation (Oraganisasi Perempauan Aceh Demokratik, ORPAD), Raihana Diani, said that they reject a presidential candidate originating from the military.

Endy M. Bayuni, Cambridge, Massachusetts – First Golkar won the April 5 general election. Now, the political machinery that kept dictator Soeharto in power for over 32 years has named Gen. (ret) Wiranto, one of Soeharto's protege, its candidate for the presidential election in July.

Ambon – Twenty-two people have been killed and scores badly injured in a major outbreak of Muslim-Christian violence in the eastern Indonesian city of Ambon, medical staff said on Monday. The violence which flared on Sunday after a parade by Christian separatists was the worst since a pact in February 2002 ended three years of sectarian fighting in which some 5,000 people died.

Evi Mariani, Jakarta – Since the establishment of a special desk to handle cases of violence against women at the Jakarta Police headquarters in 1999, the number of reports filed have been steadily increasing.

The police data reveals that there were 107 cases filed in 2002, but the number increased by 25 percent to 134 cases in 2003.

ID Nugroho, Surabaya – The government's controversial plan for a mega nuclear power plant (PLTN) on Madura island, East Java, has been thrust back into the spotlight by a group of students.

The students from Madura's Trunojoyo University (Unijoyo) began a hunger strike on Thursday to pressure the National Atomic Energy Agency (BATAN) to cancel its plan.

Imran Rusli and Apriadi Gunawan, Padang/Medan – Local residents blamed on Sunday illegal logging as the main cause of Friday's landslide in Pasaman regency, West Sumatra, that buried a bus and killed at least 39 of its passengers.

It is tempting to shrug off the decision by Golkar, the Indonesian party that did best in this month's general election, to choose General Wiranto as its candidate for the presidential poll in July.

Indonesian police postponed plans to question jailed Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir as a terrorism suspect after he and his lawyers complained that the summons was legally flawed.

"Allahu Akbar!" (God is greatest) shouted about 50 supporters of the elderly cleric Monday as police announced the delay outside Jakarta's Salemba prison.

One of Indonesia's most senior Muslim scholars has warned that a failure to release jailed cleric Abu Bakar Bashir could result in an Islamic backlash. The Vice-Chairman of Mohammadiyah says Indonesian authorities have come under international pressure to keep the cleric behind bars.

Presenter/Interviewer: Marion MacGregor

James Irwin, Singapore – Some cracks are appearing in Australia's refusal to renegotiate the Timor Sea Treaty with East Timor – the latest being the emergence of past testimony from a key member of the Australian negotiating team, Dean Bialek, that his country should negotiate in good faith with East Timor and not deplete resources in disputed areas.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – Devastated by her party's defeat in the legislative polls, President Megawati Sukarnoputri is getting ready to work the ground.

Over the coming months, expect the 55-year-old leader to leave her palace cocoon to crisscross the vast archipelago with one mission: to win precious votes.

Jakarta – Senjata Kartini (Sekar), a women's non-government organisation, is opposed to presidential candidates from military circles.

Sian Powell – Despite enduring 32 years of brutal military rule, Indonesia has not lost its respect for gold braid and epaulettes.

Two of the three front-runners in the presidential race are former generals, and both served the monolithic New Order regime that finally crumbled in 1998.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Almost three years after he was impeached by parliament, Indonesia's nearly blind and erratic former president, Abdurrahman Wahid, insists he still has a shot at the presidency.

Robert Go, Jakarta – The two generals who will run in July's presidential election both have strong leadership skills, but the question is – are they both good for business in Indonesia? Mr Anton Supit hesitated a moment when asked to define how former armed forces chief Wiranto and ex-security czar Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono were different.

By anyone's standards, it's been a long day. The flight to Australia, the burden of intermittent media commitments, the trip to Sydney's Taronga Zoo with two screaming toddlers. It's her birthday, too, and no call yet from hubby, President Xanana Gusmao. Yet Kirsty Sword Gusmao, first lady of the fledgling nation of East Timor, is undaunted.

Alan Ramsey – Five years ago a brilliant man hanged himself. Five weeks ago a distinguished army officer put his career on the line in an extraordinary letter to the Prime Minister. Both men were driven by remarkably similar circumstances. Each felt betrayed by the closed, insiders' culture of Australia's intelligence community. One succumbed and took his life.

Sydney – Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer accused East Timor of trying to stir up sympathy over its claims for a greater share of oil and gas revenues from the Timor Sea oil reserves.

Alan Boyd, Sydney – Benefactor or bully? Australia has been portrayed as both in its protracted standoff with tiny East Timor over US$30 billion worth of deep-sea oil and gas reserves. So uneven is the contest, between the richest and poorest nations on the southern rim of the Pacific, that Canberra was always going to come off worse in the public relations battle.

Teuku Agam Muzakir, Lhokseumawe – Around 2,000 people here staged a rally on Thursday, demanding that martial law, which was strongly opposed by a number of human rights groups, be further extended in May.

Andreas Harsono, Jakarta – In mid-May 1998, as rioters were ransacking business areas and looting properties owned by Chinese Indonesians in Jakarta, Gen Wiranto, then Indonesia's military chief, was approached by his number two, Lt Gen Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Alison Roberts,Lisbon – East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao has launched a fierce attack on Australia's attitude in its dealings with the fledgling country.

Mr Gusmao said there was an unequal struggle with Australia to secure oil and gas resources.

Alisa Newman Hood – Barely two years after achieving independence, East Timor is learning to navigate the stormy seas of new nationhood in more ways than one. Its population, the most destitute in Asia, continues to suffer the typical scourges of the desperately poor: widespread unemployment, illiteracy, high infant mortality and short life expectancy.

Nani Farida, Banda Aceh – Aceh is not just about the bloody prolonged fighting between separatist rebels and the Indonesian Military, with all of the unrecorded brutalities and countless devastations of people and their lives.

A rich cultural trove, Aceh is also blessed with natural resources and rain forest stretching across its lands and hills.

Indonesia has joined the race to build the world's tallest tower. Work has begun on the Jakarta Tower in Kemayoran, the site of the city's airport. The project is due to be completed by 2009, at a cost of more than 300 million US dollars. But while the Jakarta authorities say it will enhance the city's image, the project faces widespread opposition.

Tom Allard – Australia can do business with Wiranto, the former general accused of crimes against humanity who emerged yesterday as a candidate for Indonesian president, says the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer.

Australia's ambassador to Indonesia, David Ritchie, met Wiranto in January.

Hobart – The East Timorese were fuming over Australia's plans to steal their oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea, Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown said today.

Australia and East Timor began talks earlier this week to establish a permanent maritime boundary in the oil-rich Timor Sea.

Jakarta – The United States will be able to accept former military chief Wiranto if he is elected Indonesian president in the upcoming election even though he has being indicted in East Timor for crimes against humanity.

"We can work with anybody that comes out from a free(election) process," US

Ambassador Ralph Boyce said on Thursday.

Sydney – Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer rejected appeals to settle a maritime boundary dispute with East Timor in international courts Thursday and lashed critics who accuse Canberra of bullying its impoverished neighbour.

Lisbon – President Xanana Gusmao of East Timor said Thursday that his country's "unequal struggle" with Australia over disputed offshore hydrocarbon resources bore parallels with Dili's independence fight against Indonesia.

Hugh White – Our key agencies got the big questions right and called the issues as they saw them.

Let's test the recent claims made by Australian Army intelligence officers about the handling of intelligence over East Timor in 1999.

Nani Farida, Banda Aceh – A number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Aceh called on the martial law administration on Wednesday to investigate possible irregularities in the controversial Ladia Galaska highway project.

Tony Parkinson/Matthew Moore, Jakarta – Indonesia risked international embarrassment if former military chief Wiranto was elected president this year, East Timorese Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta warned yesterday.

Rowan Callick – Was it to be the plain old criminal or the polished war criminal?

Max Lane – Despite what some media may tell us, the 2004 Indonesian election results indicate that there is no nostalgic swing to the past, but instead a popular rejection of the elit politik.

Jakarta – The International Federation of Journalists has reiterated its demand for the release of RCTI television cameraman, Fery Santoro, who has spent almost 10 months as a hostage of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

Bhimanto Suwastoyo, Jakarta – Indonesian military chief Wiranto won a decisive victory early Wednesday in the contest for the Golkar party's presidential nomination but faces a much tougher battle for the top job.

The party founded by former dictator Suharto picked the strongman's former adjutant Wiranto, who has been indicted in East Timor for crimes against humanity.

Dean Yates, Jakarta – The entry into Indonesia's presidential race of a former general indicted for abuses in East Timor will jolt the frontrunner but also makes life tougher for incumbent President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Jakarta – With retired General Wiranto's surprise victory at Golkar's presidential convention early Wednesday, Indonesia now has two ex-military men contesting its upcoming direct presidential polls scheduled on July 5.

Aloysius Bhui, Jakarta – Golkar party's decision to choose retired general Wiranto as its nominee for the country's first-ever direct presidential election on July 5 raises hopes that Indonesia will have a new leader who can hasten the pace of economic recovery, despite some misgivings about alleged human rights abuses in East Timor during his term as military chief, analysts said.

Cynthia Banham – A report by a US think tank claiming the Bali tragedy could have been avoided if ASIO had not blatantly disregarded threat assessments has been dismissed by the Federal Government as flawed.

Patrick Walters, John Kerin and Misha Schubert – ASIO deliberately withheld counter-terrorism intelligence from the Australian Federal Police based on the spy agency's "idiosyncratic calculation of the national interest", according to a new study by a leading US think tank.

Tanya Nolan: Indonesia's only two-thirds of the way through counting the ballots cast in this month's parliamentary elections, and as we just heard, the Golkar Party of former President Suharto is still leading the race with just over 21 per cent of the vote.

And it's been tipped as a similarly close race for the upcoming presidential elections on July the 5th.

Mark Forbes, Canberra – A senior army officer may sue the Howard Government over his treatment after warning of widespread failings in the intelligence system.

Jon Lamb – The recently formed Movement Against the Occupation of the Timor Sea (MKOT) staged a series of peaceful demonstrations in Dili on April 14-16, demanding an end to the theft of East Timor's oil and gas resources.

John Kerin and Steve Lewis – A classified document warning intelligence analysts of the risks of providing advice challenging a "pro-Jakarta lobby" in the bureaucracy was circulated within Australia's defence agencies in the late 1990s, a former senior analyst has told The Australian.

Nani Farida, Banda Aceh – The newly formed national anticorruption body is seeking to question Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam Governor Abdullah Puteh for his alleged role in graft cases as local authorities have been wholly unable to summon him.

Teuku Agam Muzakir, Lhokseumawe – Entering Buket Nibong village in Jrat Manyang subdistrict, Tanah Jambo Aye district, North Aceh regency, is like being in a no-man's-land. More than 450 inhabitants have fled the area to escape the battles between the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the rebel Free Aceh Movement (GAM) that have been raging since 1999.

A. Junaidi and Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Activists and researchers have urged an end to the involvement of militia groups in Nanggroe Aceh Darrusalam in the operation against rebels, saying the military is virtually pitting civilians against each other.