The Australian Army is considering further action against a SAS soldier accused of kicking a militia corpse in East Timor after the case against him collapsed in a military court.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Indonesia is bracing itself for more hardship following Tuesday's Jakarta hotel bomb attack. As well as the death toll of at least 14 Indonesians and one foreigner, there may be serious consequences for an economy that had been on the mend.

Deborah Snow – The case against a former senior SAS soldier charged with kicking a militiaman's corpse in East Timor in October 1999 is set to collapse, with crucial witnesses backing away from their original accounts.

A severed head found at the scene of Jakarta's deadly hotel bombing belonged to a member of the Jemaah Islamiyah extremist network, Indonesian police said.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) concluded its Annual Session on Thursday with a call for President Megawati Soekarnoputri to create a clean government.

MPR chairman Amien Rais also reminded both the government and lawmakers that some reform agendas had not been attained, more than five years after the movement was launched in 1998.

As the Bali verdicts begin to unfold, the investigation is still fresh into the bombing of the Marriott hotel in Jakarta this week. While Indonesian police are saying they believe it was the work of Jemaah Islamiah, an investigation has been launched into the possible involvement of the country's armed forces.

Jakarta – Although the hopes and interests of society with regard to the 2004 general elections are very positive and indicate an attitude of enthusiasm, society feels pessimistic about whether the elections will be able to change their lives.

A'an Suryana, Jakarta – Close to tears, veteran politician Akbar Tandjung handed in his application form to contest the race for the Golkar party's candidate for the 2004 general elections.

Ari A. Perdana, Jakarta – The wounds have yet to heal. The pain caused by several bombing incidents in the last few years had yet to become relief while yet another explosion hit the country. The issue here is not about where it happened – it was in one of Jakarta's business districts.

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – The city administration is doing almost nothing to prevent Jakarta's rivers from becoming industrial and household dump sites. City Environmental Management Agency (BPLHD) environment impact protection head Ridwan Panjaitan claimed the condition of the rivers was worsened by the absence of a sewerage system in the city.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – A survey by the Washington-based Pew Research Centre last December revealed some startling facts about Muslim attitudes in Indonesia towards terrorism. It suggested some 25 per cent of 220 million Indonesians felt terrorism was a legitimate weapon in defending Islam.

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Lhokseumawe – The martial law administration in Aceh probably had not anticipated that people in the province would suffer when troops drove them into refugee camps in a bid to split them from the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels.

Atambua – Former Chief of the Integration Fighters Legion (PPI) Joao da Silva Tavares has called on all East Timorese people to continue reconciliation process.

The only way to create stability in East Timor is to reconcile all East Timorese people, Tavares who is also a former chief of Bobonaro district between 1976 and 1989 told newsmen here Friday.

United Nations – A UN official said today that an international tribunal to try Indonesian soldiers accused of massacring East Timor civilians is a possibility, given the light sentences meted out so far.

"The UN has been closely monitoring the conduct of the trials that had taken place in Indonesia and the secretary general is considering its options," a UN official said.

Rowan Callick – Australia's biggest investor in East Timor is reconsidering its role after losing a bizarre court battle against its former joint-venture partner, a local businessman.

Jakarta – Hundreds of university students grouped in the Greater Jakarta University Students' Executive Body (BEM) staged a rally in front of the parliament here Wednesday demanding the discontinuation of the ongoing annual People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) session.

Indonesia, hit on Tuesday by its second high-profile terrorist bombing in less than a year, is acquiring a reputation as a soft target for international terrorism. The country's oil, large Muslim population and strategic location are all contributing factors. But as important as anything are the cumulative effects of chronic misgovernment.

At the Marriott Hotel bomb site in Jakarta, investigators have been sifting for clues into the attack, but suspicion has already fallen on regional terror network, Jemaah Islamiah because of a mounting series of parallels to the Bali bombings.

There are fears the Jakarta bombing has shaken the commitment of President Megawati Sukarnoputri to Indonesia's five year experiment with democracy. Two major terrorist strikes in twelve months has prompted a senior government minister to argue that some of Indonesia's new found civil liberties may have to be sacrificed.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The blasts that rocked the Indonesian capital came a day after the reopening of Paddy's bar which was devastated in the Bali bombings.

Now, Indonesians are wondering how they will pick up the pieces of an economy which had just begun to show signs of recovery from the earlier attack, the Iraq war and the Sars outbreak.

Indonesia's police chief linked the deadly bombing of a Jakarta hotel to the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror network and warned of fresh attacks by the al Qaeda-connected group.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – Two weeks ago, I received a phone call from a long-standing and well-placed informant in Indonesia. He passed me critical information that the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terrorist network was planning a major strike in Indonesia this month.

Former Indonesian military chief general Wiranto, who is accused by rights groups of war crimes in East Timor, said he would contest next year's presidential election on a ticket from the party of former dictator Soeharto.

"I'm ready to be the sixth president of Indonesia in 2004," Wiranto was quoted by the official Antara news agency as saying yesterday.

An Indonesian court on Thursday found an Islamic militant called Amrozi guilty of the Bali bombing last October and sentenced him to death.

Palu – A powerful bomb exploded again on Thursday morning, in the sectarian conflict-torn city of Poso, Central Sulawesi province.

The explosion killed Bahtiar, alias Manto, 20, from Kayamanya and damaged buildings, Antara reported. The bomb exploded at 9am local time.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Three student activists were acquitted on Wednesday by the Central Jakarta District Court on charges related to a rally that was held last January 22.

"I couldn't believe it. I thought I would be punished," said Rico Marbun, one of the defendants.

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Some 300 bajaj (three-wheeled motorized vehicles) were parked at the City Council compound on Wednesday in a noisy and smoky protest against the administration's plan to replace them with the Kancil (four-wheeled vehicles).

MPRS Decree Number XXV/1966 on the Dissolution of the Indonesian Communist Party and Prohibitions on Marxist, Leninist and Communist Teachings is still being maintained as law. However for the families who have been affected by this "collective sin" as a result of this decree, the issue is not one of the decree being revoked or not(1).

There are renewed calls for an international tribunal to re-investigate crimes committed in East Timor against independence supporters in 1999. A Jakarta tribunal has sentenced the last of 18 defendants to appear on charges related to a wave of militia violence backed by the Indonesian military.

Presenter/Interviewer: Sonya De Masi

Indonesian troops have shot dead another eight suspected separatist rebels in Aceh province, the military said.

Troops shot dead five men believed to be Free Aceh Movement (GAM) guerrillas during a clash at Meukek in South Aceh district on Wednesday, said military spokesman Ahmad Yani Basuki. A marine was shot and wounded in the 30-minute clash, he added.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The Indonesian Navy is currently questioning four Marine soldiers over their alleged involvement in the murders of a businessman and his Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) bodyguard last month.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, the country's two largest Muslim organizations, led a chorus of condemnation against the bomb attack on JW Marriott Hotel and called on people to remain calm.

Bandung – West Java Governor Danny Setiawan asked workers from state-owned aircraft company PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PT DI) on Wednesday to cease their daily protest rallies against their suspension to curb potential security disturbances.

The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) agreed to cut short its Annual Session from 10 days to seven in an attempt to save the state budget Rp 6 billion from the total allocation of Rp 20 billion . However, the Rp 2 billion-per-day event is still too expensive in the eyes of ordinary people.

The United States said it was disappointed with the work of an Indonesian tribunal into atrocities in East Timor, after it jailed a convicted general for just three years – a sentence branded by activists here as "a joke."

[The following is a statement issued by Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific on August 6.]

Following a July 31 meeting in Jakarta between security and defence chiefs on both sides, the Australian government reiterated its support for closer military ties with the Indonesian armed forces (TNI), including the discredited Kopassus special forces.

Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta – The deadly bomb blast at the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta on Tuesday will undoubtedly hurt confidence in the an economy that had just started to recover as nervous investors and tourists shun the country, experts said.

Indonesian share prices and the rupiah currency plunged after a huge explosion in a luxury hotel in Jakarta's business district.

Jakarta stocks ended down 3.06 per cent yesterday with the composite index finishing at 488.53 points, its lowest close in more than two months.

Matthew Moore – There have been five explosions in Jakarta this year, only one of which police have solved – and that was a bomb exploded by a member of its own bomb squad.

And yet, despite all of these bombings, most of the news about Indonesia's campaign against its home-grown terrorist threat has been good. At least it was until yesterday.

Matthew Moore, in Jakarta, Sean Nicholls, Tom Allard and agencies – A massive lunchtime car bomb at a prestigious Jakarta hotel killed at least 14 people and wounded 150 yesterday in an attack that appeared to be aimed at foreigners.

Dili – Australian banker Kirk McNamara has been cleared of petty theft charges. On Monday a Dili court dismissed accusations raised by the brother of Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – President Megawati Soekarnoputri may breath a sigh of relieve, at least for the time being, as there are no prospects that she will be unseated by legislators in the same way that former president B.J. Habibie was unseated in 1999.

There seems to be little doubt that the Marriott hotel was targeted because it is US-owned and frequented by foreigners. Jakarta's American expatriates held their July-4th celebrations at the hotel, and it was a popular lunch spot for western businessmen. But will those same businessmen now reassess their commitment to Indonesia?

Presenter/Interviewer: Deborah Steele

Jim Lobe, Washington – International human rights groups have denounced as inadequate the three-year prison sentence announced Tuesday in Jakarta against the most senior military officer indicted by Indonesian prosecutors for serious abuses committed against East Timorese civilians in connection with the 1999 plebiscite on independence.

Jill Jolliffe and agencies, Jakarta – An army general was found guilty of crimes against humanity by an Indonesian court yesterday over bloodshed during East Timor's independence vote in 1999, ending a series of court cases that rights groups have largely branded a whitewash.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – With Indonesia's power needs hovering on the critical, a mothballed specter from the unlamented Suharto past – a 1,320-megawatt coal-fired plant in central Java – is being resurrected along with more than two-score other Suharto-era plants that were halted when the aging dictator fell from power in 1998.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Despite a prosecution request for the acquittal of Maj. Gen. Adam Damiri, the ad hoc human rights tribunal decided on Tuesday to slap a three-year jail term on the military bigwig for his involvement in the 1999 mayhem in East Timor.

Jakarta – On July 28, the government of South Kalimantan (Borneo) and Indigenous Dayak commmunity leaders strongly denounced Placer Dome, a Vancouver- and Sydney-based mining company, for its plans for mining operations in one of the last protected tropical forests in Indonesia.

Max Lane – The 2004 election campaign has started. There have been two important initiatives. The first relates to the major establishment parties, those with substantial numbers of MPs in the parliament. The second is the creation of the left-wing People's United Opposition Party (Partai Persatuan Oposisi Rakyat, or Popor).

Jakarta – A wealthy Indonesian businessman once implicated in a bank scandal that led to the downfall of former president B.J. Habibie jumped to his death from a hotel window yesterday.

Mr Marimutu Manimaren, 46, a commissioner of the troubled Indonesian conglomerate Texmaco, leapt from the 56th floor of Aston Hotel in downtown Jakarta, said police Major Kusdiantoro.