Ambon – Muslims from two villages on Ambon island Tuesday attacked a nearby Christian hamlet, torching empty houses, residents here said.

"Suli Bawah, where most of the houses have already been vacated by their occupants, was attacked early this morning," a local journalist said from Ambon, some 20 kilometres west of Suli.

Mark Dodd, Dili – East Timor is facing an acute shortage of qualified teachers, with teacher-pupil ratios in some schools as high as 100 to one, according to the country's independence leader, Mr Xanana Gusmao.

Banda Aceh – Indonesian police shot dead three civilians Monday in the village of Julok in East Aceh Regency in Aceh Province, the representative of a joint committee set up by the government and a major separatist group said Tuesday.

Jeremy Wagstaff and Puspa Madani, Jakarta – Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid swore in new army and navy commanders after failing to persuade increasingly assertive generals to accept one of his favored officers as deputy commander of the army.

Chaidir Anwar Tanjung/GB, Pekanbaru – Villagers from the Sungai Rangau area, Tanah Putih subdistrict, Bengkalis, Riau province, Sumatra, have virtually taken over the local oilfields mined by international mining giant Caltex. After seizing 37 vehicles, the villagers moved on to occupy five oilfields, halting operations completely.

Nurul Hidayati/PT & GB, Jakarta – Civil unrest has flared in Bontang, East Kalimantan, Monday. Locals blockaded the American-owned Tanjung Santan Unocal Terminal oil refinery, clashed with security forces and 23 locals suffered gun shot wounds.

Jakarta – Settlers sought refuge at military and police posts yesterday as the Indonesian police, with orders to shoot on sight, began restoring order in a remote Irian Jaya town following the slaughter of 40 people in the latest violence.

Jakarta – In a meeting marked by blood and tears, detained East Timorese militia leader Eurico Guterres wept Monday as he accused the Indonesian government of failing to appreciate his efforts to keep East Timor within Indonesia, police said.

Canberra – The Labor Party and Australian Democrats are urging Australia to change its national boundaries with East Timor to help the struggling country gain financial independence.

Negotiations began today in Dili between Australia and the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) over the Timor Gap treaty.

Yogyakarta – Minister of Defense Mahfud M.D. said his ministry in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights and the Attorney General's Office is currently drafting a bill to enable military personnel to be tried under a civil court if they are indicted for violating civil laws.

Jakarta – Indonesia's President Abdurrahman Wahid is expected to come under mounting pressure from the country's largest political party to impose a state of civil emergency in restive Aceh province when he meets parliament this week, a report said Monday.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Troops with shoot-on-sight orders were yesterday patrolling a remote valley in Irian Jaya, where 40 people are believed to have died in violence triggered by the killing of two indigenous people by police at a separatist flag-raising ceremony.

Ambon – Sporadic attacks occurred at several locations across Saparua and Ambon islands in Maluku province over the weekend, leaving one dead.

Budi Sugiharto/Hendra & AP, Surabaya – Labor action is disrupting Surabaya, with around 15 thousand laborers demanding to directly speak to the Mayor of Surabaya. The laborers, who took over the mayoral offices today at 10.30am, are demanding an increase in the minimum cost of living allowance.

Mark Dodd, Dili – Indonesian authorities have told the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees that thousands of refugees are likely to be repatriated amid unconfirmed reports that militia gangs are losing control of the border refugee camps.

Pro-Indonesia East Timorese militia leaders in West Timor told two key Indonesian ministers Sunday they would tell the United Nations how the Indonesian military trained and armed them last year if their leader Eurico Guterres, who is currently being detained in Jakarta, is not released.

Sydney – Foreign Minister Alexander Downer renewed an invitation Sunday to Indonesia's President Abdurrahman Wahid to visit Australia after the Indonesian parliament last week vetoed the trip.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Eurico Guterres, the well-connected militia leader, was questioned by four Indonesian prosecutors yesterday about his role in an East Timor massacre last year and more recent violence in West Timor.

James Conachy – A week after the September 28 Jakarta court ruling that former Indonesian dictator Suharto was "medically unfit" to stand trial, the government of President Abdurrahman Wahid is seeking to have the decision overturned.

Dili - A small group of New Zealand soldiers shot and killed an armed militia member near Suai, East Timor, last night. The New Zealand Defence Force said in a statement today that none of the soldiers were injured in the 11pm incident about 4.5km north of Suai, where New Zealand troops are based near the West Timor border.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Timorese militia leader Eurico Guterres was arrested yesterday, two days after being named as a suspect in the violence that followed last year's independence vote in East Timor.

Jakarta – Coordinator of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) Hendardi said on Wednesday that the police were likely to soon release most of the suspects in the bombing of the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) building.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – A protest organiser who hired demonstrators to rail against fuel price rises became the target of the mob he had rented when he failed to pay them and they missed out on a free lunch.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – Defence Minister Mahfud M.D. yesterday conceded that army elements were behind the spate of violence in Indonesia to destabilise the government. He said that the problems in outlying provinces like Aceh and Maluku and the recent explosions in the capital were the doing of generals linked to former president Suharto.

Jakarta – Hundreds of students of privately-run Krisna Dwipayana University mobbed four members of the student paramilitary regiment (Menwa) and razed two campus facilities to the ground on Wednesday. The violence erupted at the end of a peaceful protest by the students demanding the abolition of Menwa in their campus in Jatiwaringin, East Jakarta.

Makassar – The conflict between the Alauddin State Islamic Institute (IAIN) and the South Sulawesi gubernatorial office continued on Wednesday with the detention of six civil servants by the students.

Jakarta – Experts and activists strongly criticized the Indonesian Military (TNI) for alleged unaccountable profits gained from commercial activities in the private sector and called for a transparent account of the matter.

Dini Djalal, Banda Aceh and Lhokseumawe – Aceh is a war zone. Children are so accustomed to explosions and gunfire they make a game of dropping to the ground to avoid injury.

Jon Land – Nothing can highlight more the failure of the Indonesian government to rein in the pro-Jakarta militias operating in West Timor than the sham weapons handover that began on September 22. The first three-day "persuasive" phase of the handover has been followed by an equally farcical "forceful" seizure of weapons by Indonesian security forces.

Max Lane – The release of Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) documents on East Timor for the period 1974-76 has provoked former Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and former Australian ambassador to Indonesia Richard Woolcott to try to defend their abandonment of democratic principles in relation to East Timor.

Mark Dodd, Malibaka – It is only 8am but the sun is scorching, and the 23 East Timorese refugees squat in the shade at the Malibaka River checkpoint after crossing back into their homeland. Australian soldiers offer water and search their belongings for hidden weapons, but those returning are mostly old men, women and children. Nothing suspicious is found.

Makassar – Chaos and brutality continued here on Tuesday as thousands of students protesting the fuel price hike vandalized the governor's office, burned more cars and clashed with provincial administration civil servants.

Jim Mcilroy, Jakarta – One thousand peasants from various regions of Indonesia rallied and marched here on September 24 to demand government action on human rights and economic justice.

James Balowski – Some 30 people were injured and at least 46 arrested in Jakarta on September 27 in a series of clashes between anti-Suharto and pro-Suharto protesters and the police, following the dismissal of corruption charges against the former Indonesian president.

Jakarta – The government will take to court four regents from East Kalimantan for allegedly selling forest concessions, a senior official of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said on Tuesday.

It was the movement which finally toppled the dictator Suharto in 1998 which made Romawaty Sinaga realise that workers and students had to unite to achieve any lasting fundamental change.

Jakarta – An armed group set fire to 10 houses in a pre-dawn attack on a village in Indonesia's troubled Aceh province. More than 1,200 people fled the village of Paya Tampah, in the Bandar Baru sub-district of East Aceh after the attack, which took place about 2 am on Sunday.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Indonesia is set to clear the former armed forces chief General Wiranto over last year's violence in East Timor, despite intense international pressure for his prosecution.

Jakarta – Former leader of East Timor's Aitarak militia Eurico Guterres warned here Monday that his supporters in West Timor could try to take over an East Timor district if he was arrested.

Robert Go, Jakarta – The new revenue-sharing formula between Jakarta and regional governments presents a medium-term Pandora's box, but its immediate effect is the reduction of the central government's ability to jumpstart the economy at the national level.

Jakarta – Indonesia's reformist government is reviewing official histories of key moments in the country's past that it says were misrepresented by former President Suharto's regime.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – They arrived without warning in two minibuses, brandishing clubs, swords and guns and wearing black masks. JeJe's nightclub, the most popular place for foreigners to meet in Jakarta, was packed with 600 patrons.

Jakarta – Under international pressure to rein in troublesome militias, Jakarta extended security operations to disarm the West Timor population but on Monday firmly laid the blame for the problem with the international community.

Maryadi/BI & GB, Pontianak – Hundreds of truck drivers at the Dwikora port in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, went on strike Monday. The drivers have conveyed their demand for an increase of 100% to the tariff for the rental of transport vehicles at the port to the Indonesian Expedition and Forwarder Group (Gafeksi) in Pontianak.

Jakarta – The first day of the fuel price hike passed without major public upheaval on Sunday, despite a few protests in Jakarta and Bandung, and rumors of bigger demonstrations in other towns.

In Jakarta, about 1,000 people from several labor unions protested in front of the Presidential Palace demanding that the government cancel the fuel price increase.

Chong Chee Kin, Dili – In a soft, quavering voice, Mr Jose Armando pleaded for a job in front of a group of journalists who had stopped at Kampung Baru, a village in the capital of Dili in East Timor.

Jakarta – An angry mob has killed a man in Central Java for sleeping at his fiancee's house, while another man was stabbed to death after dancing erotically with a woman.

Jakarta – The city administration is having trouble providing jobs for some 40,000 government employees whose ministries were closed down by the central government.

According to the deputy governor for administrative affairs, Mr Abdul Kahfi, his office would be very selective in recruiting government employees from dissolved ministries.

Bagus Kurniawan/BI & GB, Yogyakarta – Thousands of students from the Muhammadiyah High School in Yogyakarta, Central Java, have staged a rowdy protest on Monday at the Provincial Legislative Council building demanding the police take responsibility for the shooting of a student.

Jakarta – Five Indonesian students were injured when police opened fire on a protest against a rise in fuel prices, in Indonesia's South Sulawesi province, witnesses said.