Hestiana Dharmastuti, Jakarta - Around 2500 people from Aceh Papua Solidarity (Solidaritas Aceh Papua, SAP) will hold a demonstration rejecting the extension of the military emergency in Aceh. The demonstrators will hold a long march from the Hotel Indonesia roundabout to the offices of the Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security and the Presidential Palace.

Louise Williams – The quest for justice for East Timor's victims of human rights abuses under Indonesian military occupation is in effect over. The Government in Dili is making reconciliation with its former ruler an absolute priority.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – The betting game is on: Who will be Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri's running mate in the 2004 presidential election? Clearly in recent months, the incumbent's choices have narrowed down to three: security czar Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Muslim moderate leader Hasyim Muzadi and possibly a leading Golkar figure.

Just four years after the vote for independence in East Timor, the country's first lady, Kirsty Sword Gusmao, believes the country's peace is still too fragile to enter into the politics of the region.

Nethy Dharma Somba and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jayapura/Jakarta – Three more people were reported dead on Thursday, following an attack by unknown assailants in the Papua regency of Paniai, three days ago, bringing the total number of dead to four, with two others missing and three others in the hospital.

Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta – Indonesia warned against foreign meddling on Friday after the United States, Europe and Japan expressed concern over Jakarta's decision to extend martial law in rebellious Aceh province.

The separatist movement in Indonesia's Papua province took a major blow this week after the military claimed it killed 10 separatist rebels, including leader Yustinus Murib. But church leaders in Papua say they too have been targetted by the special forces, Kopassus, and subjected to surveillance, intimidation and even murder.

Rob Taylor, Jakarta – Indonesian special forces troops have ambushed and killed 10 alleged separatists in Papua, including a top rebel leader, after they attacked a village in the latest round of independence-linked fighting.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Having consistently failed to reach its privatization targets, and battered once again by a bank lending scandal, the Indonesian government is seeking to sell off yet another of its crown jewels – a major chunk of the state-owned gas distribution and marketing company PT Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN).

John McBeth, Singapore – The US is funding, training and arming specially screened Indonesian policemen in a new pilot program that will ultimately leave Indonesia with a self- contained, 400-strong counterterrorism unit capable of tackling everything from bomb investigations and terrorist acts to hostage-taking and armed assaults.

In Indonesia it's been claimed 10 separatist rebels, including a local leader, have been killed by special Kopassus troops in a pre-dawn raid in Papua. The military says it's killed the leader of the local Free Papua Movement (OPM) Yustinus Murib, in an ambush along with nine of his supporters.

Louis Beckerling – East Timor president Xanana Gusmao warned Asian business leaders yesterday that if people in the poorest countries of the region were left without food, there could be no peace and security.

Dili – East Timor's governing Fretilin party has lost electoral support but retains majority backing after nearly 18 months in power, according to the country's first political poll, sources told Lusa Thursday.

Pete Thomas: What footage will you be broadcasting?

Mark Davis: It's a rather extraordinary video that was sent to us last week from the Balian valley, from an OPM rally, which is documenting reports that have been coming out all this year from church groups, but of course no journalists are allowed in there at the moment.

Tony Sitathan, Jakarta – Idris Kemal, a senior security guard at the famous 1001 Nightclub in the Kota district of West Jakarta, popularly known as Chinatown, has been having restless evenings of late. He listens intently to the evening prayer call followed by the rolling of drums from a mosque nearby symbolizing the end of the fasting day for Ramadan.

For several years stories have been circulating, mostly unpublished, concerning claims that Australian soldiers were engaged in acts of torture of militia prisoners in East Timor in 1999. All of those claims were dismissed by internal defence force inquiries but no details of the allegations or the evidence have ever been publicly available.

Jakarta – Indonesia's environment minister on Wednesday branded illegal loggers as terrorists after a flood disaster blamed on tree-felling killed an estimated 190 people in North Sumatra.

Nabiel Makarim criticised the army and police for involvement in the practice, which is rampant across much of the huge archipelago.

Jakarta/Medan – Government officials have joined environmental activists in blaming inconsistent forest management and poor law enforcement as the main causes of rampant deforestation that resulted in the flash flood which killed at least 103 people on Sunday. Hundreds are missing following the flood in Langkat regency, North Sumatra.

Geneva – Indonesia, Guatemala and Serbia-Montenegro won an award Wednesday for failing to address a massive problem of homelessness and slums, while Scotland was praised for its "rare" protection of the right to housing, an advocacy group said.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – The Constitutional Court on Tuesday held its first session to hear lawyers of groups of people seeking a legal review of three laws: On electricity, on oil and gas, and on the government debt instrument.

Jakarta – Indonesian lawmakers are investigating a claim that the son of President Megawati Sukarnoputri is part of a real estate scam involving state land – an allegation that has surfaced as she prepares for election next year.

Kupang – A top East Timorese community leader in Indonesia, Armindo Soares, said a lot of East Timorese refugees who participated in the repatriation program returned to Indonesia.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – In a show of distrust of their current House of Representatives legislators, a large group of Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) rank and file members have proposed new names for the legislative candidates for the 2004 election.

Jakarta – At least 12 people have been killed in clashes between security forces and separatist rebels in Indonesia's troubled Papua province, local media reported on Wednesday.

Eight rebels were killed and several were injured after troops raided a camp in the Wamena region on Wednesday morning, an army officer told El-Shinta radio.

Linda Mottram: Australian troops in East Timor are preparing for the pull out of UN peacekeepers next year. They're handing over key duties to the country's new military, though there are warnings from East Timor's leaders that the country's fledgling forces are not yet capable of defending their own borders.

Our Correspondent Mark Bowling reports from Dili.

Deborah Snow – Fresh allegations of torture by Australian troops in East Timor will be made in tonight's SBS Dateline program, with former militia members claiming they were beaten, kicked, and had their heads forced down excrement-filled toilet bowls during interrogation.

Jerry Norton, Banda Aceh – It looks like its going to be a long haul for Indonesian security forces fighting separatist rebels in Aceh.

The government is expected to announce on Thursday an extension of martial law in the province, and security officials in the provincial capital of 400,000 are careful to avoid predicting when it and the military campaign will end.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Experts criticized on Tuesday the government's decision to extend military offensive in troubled Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, arguing that the five-month operation had served as a proof that security approach could not resolve the Aceh question.

Jakarta – Gunmen apparently belonging to a separatist rebel group in Indonesia's Papua province attacked construction workers in a remote village, killing one of them and leaving five others missing, police said Tuesday.

Kirsty Sword Gusmao, the Australian-born first lady of the world's newest nation, once shared two of her husband's big dreams for an independent East Timor then, when the long battle had been won, to settle down to a rural life growing pumpkins and breeding animals.

July 6 was the anniversary of one of the shameful events in Australia's relationship with Indonesia. In July 1998 on Biak's tiny island just north of Australia – the Indonesian military carried out a massacre of more than 100 people, mostly women.

["A Woman of Independence". By Kirsty Sword Gusmao. Macmillan, 321pp, $30.]

Atambua – The Belu district government said it was treating the 26 East Timorese seeking asylum in Atambua as foreign nationals.

"We will never treat them as if they are former East Timorese refugees. They came to this district as foreign nationals in dire need of protection," chief of the Belu police resort Adjunct Chief Commissioner Agus Nugroho said here Saturday.

Sudrajat and Hanibal – Due to criticisms of human rights violations, TNI will no longer guard sites of vital national interest.

A good intention does not always become a blessing for others. On the contrary, it can become a "hot potato" which one is reluctant to receive.

Andi Hajramurni, Makassar – Councillors, labor leaders and businesspeople failed to reach an agreement here on Thursday over whether to raise minimum wages of workers in South Sulawesi province next year.

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – Net profits at the publicly-listed Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), the country's second largest bank in terms of assets, plunged by 45 percent in the first nine months of this year due to a huge loan scandal.

Jill Jolliffe – Today's pilgrimage to Balibo by the families of the five television reporters killed in an Indonesian attack on the East Timorese border town 28 years ago is a turning point in their unfinished mourning and in their quest for the truth about the killings.

Keith Suter – The largest loss of life ever sustained by the Australian media industry took place on October 16, 1975, at the East Timor village of Balibo. Five journalists were killed. All the governments that had citizens involved in the deaths have refused to reveal all that they know.

A high-level Acehnese separatist rebel who was reported killed by the Indonesian military last month has made a public appearance and thanked the army for saving his life.

The military reported last month that Dailami, 32, and his wife were shot dead during an exchange of fire with troops.

Jakarta/Bandung/Cirebon – Two JW Marriott Hotel bombing suspects, who were arrested on Wednesday morning, told police that their cohorts were planning more bomb attacks in the country, National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said here on Thursday.

Jakarta – Indonesia described on Friday the recent decision by the US Senate to hold back on educational training for the country's armed forces as a "domestic matter" for American politicians.

Jim Lobe, Washington – Two weeks after President George W Bush announced that he was ready to normalize military ties with Indonesia, the US Senate approved an amendment to the 2004 foreign-aid bill banning training for Indonesian army officers.

Jakarta – The Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) Commander Maj. Gen. Sriyanto Muntrasan denied on Thursday allegations that his troops intimidated witnesses of the 1984 Tanjung Priok tragedy not to testify against him.

He urged any witnesses to file a legal complaint with the Military Police if they received such threats during the ongoing trial.

Amy Chew, Semarang – Jakarta's Chinatown was ablaze and the city's shopping centres were being looted by mobs. On the streets students were baying for President Suharto's blood.

In desperation, Mr Suharto ordered his army commander to "neutralise" the protesters and seize power to stave off the collapse of his dictatorship.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Despite the thoroughgoing political disgrace that the Suharto family has seemingly endured since Indonesia's political and financial bubbles burst in 1998, his avaricious children seem to have endured their downfall rather well. At least three remain locked into a stream of profits from the remnants of enterprises in place before the collapse.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Next year's general elections will result in the same unqualified, corrupt leaders heading the nation, political analyst Arbi Sanit said on Thursday. And these same leaders had designed the law to ensure that was the case, he said.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Jakarta governor Sutiyoso is feeling the heat again, this time for evicting tens of thousands of squatters from government or privately owned land around the capital.

The mop-up operation has in fact been going on all year. But the authorities, joined by unidentified stick-bearing thugs, have stepped up activities since September.

Kupang – The leaders of two ex-East Timorese refugee organizations have urged the Indonesian government to refrain from deporting 26 East Timorese asylum seekers currently staying in Atambua, East Nusatenggara, citing humanitarian considerations.

Waingapu – East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao has expressed anger over attitude of the country's citizens seeking asylum in Atambua, Belu district, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), a military officer said on Thursday.

Jakarta - Although the initial suit was rejected by the panel of judges, the case against Presidential Decree Number 28/2003 on the declaration of a dangerous situation at the level of a military emergency in Aceh will continue.