Ronna Nirmala – While other gubernatorial candidates have been busy touting fixes for Jakarta's transportation and urban planning woes, Hidayat Nur Wahid sees an opportunity to address

Michael Bachelard, Dili – Australia can expect a more aggressive line from East Timor's new president Taur Matan Ruak over maritime boundaries and oil and gas revenue, after he describe

Sidoarjo – Minarak Lapindo Jaya (MLJ), the Bakrie company handling the Lapindo mudflow, says that it has yet to pay Rp 1.023 trillion (US$127 million) in compensation for victims of the

Ezra Sihite – Responding to questions about Aburizal Bakrie's chance to win 2014 presidential election, the Golkar Party says its own recent survey shows its chairman's electability con

Agus Maryono, Banyumas – Debts of billions of rupiah to fund political campaigns are being blamed for corruption among regents and mayors across the country, with many owing money to a

Ade Mardiyati – Despite Raden Ajeng Kartini, Indonesia's pioneering women's right advocate, advancing the cause of feminism in this country, the truth of the matter is that Indonesian w

Guido Goulart, Dili, East Timor – Two former guerrilla leaders vied for East Timor's presidency Monday, each hoping to help steer the region's newest and poorest nation after UN peaceke

Meagan Weymes – Former guerrilla Taur Matan Ruak has won East Timor's presidential run-off by a wide margin, preliminary results showed Tuesday, in a pivotal year for the nation almost

Arientha Primanita – Despite holding a special meeting on Monday to prepare for massive rallies on May Day in Bogor, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono publicly tried to play down the p

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – The Gunung Leuser National Park (TNGL) Center said that provincial legislative councillors and private companies were believed to be involved in illegal forest

Damien Kingsbury – When East Timor's outgoing president, Jose Ramos-Horta, won office in 2007 by a crushing 69 per cent, many outsiders attributed the victory to his high profile as a c

Michael Bachelard, Dili – A military man recommended by the United Nations for criminal prosecution six years ago seems almost certain to become the new president of East Timor.

Esther Samboh, Jakarta – Indonesia's commercial banks booked Rp 15.5 trillion (US$1.68 billion) in net profits in the first two months of this year, a 40.6 percent increase from a year

Jakarta – Luxury vehicle owners are still mixing subsidized and non-subsidized fuels, like Premium and Pertamax, even though the government has urged financially-capable individuals not

Tunggadewa Mattangkilang, Balikpapan, East Kalimantan – Family planning authorities are urging the country's highest Islamic authority to declare vasectomies permissible under religious

Iman Mahditama, Jakarta – The Jakarta Police said Monday they would question two soldiers who were shot while allegedly as part of a motorcycle gang that carried out vigilante acts on J

Hotli SImanjuntak, Banda Aceh – A return to the polls in at least five of the 17 regencies and municipalities across Aceh is being demanded to address claims of "cheating" in the April

Novianti Setuningsih & Rizky Amelia – High-profile graft suspect Nunun Nurbaeti insists she facilitated the meeting between Miranda Goeltom and lawmakers in 2004 during her bid to s

The National Police finally announced on Tuesday that former health minister Siti Fadilah Supari had been named a suspect in a corruption case surrounding a Health Ministry project in 2

Jakarta – The Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) called on the police and prosecutors to apply the money laundering law as a legal basis for seizing the wealth of

Ezra Sihite – The government has been criticized for allocating Rp 30.2 billion ($3.3 million) in the state budget for meetings led by the president and vice president during 2012.

Surabaya – A rally staged by thousands of citizens affected by the Lapindo mudflow in East Java turned violent when protestors clashed with police officers on Monday.

On last Monday, voters in Aceh went to the polls to elect a governor, a deputy governor and 17 mayors and regents.

Muhammad Nazar, one of a number of candidates running for the Aceh governorship, was surprised when he was informed that he had barely gathered 8 percent of total votes in the unofficia

Lutfi Rakhmawati, Jakarta – Parishioners of HKBP Filadelfia in Bekasi, West Java, say that they have been intimidated for too long. On Sunday, enough was apparently enough.

Ezra Sihite – Presidential hopeful Aburizal Bakrie's popularity is growing, Golkar Party officials said on Monday, citing the results of a recent party-backed survey measuring the popul

Jakarta – The Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) praised the recently endorsed Elections Law, saying that the amended legislation carried provisions that could help impr

Meagan Weymes – Former military commander Taur Matan Ruak was ahead in an early count for East Timor's presidential run-off vote on Monday, according to the elections secretariat.

Farouk Arnaz – A convoy of Freeport Indonesia cars was on Saturday attacked twice on the road linking Tembagapura and the company's Grasberg mine, but no one was injured.

Michael Victor Sianipar – As the judicial review of the 2011 State Intelligence Law enters its final phase, the government is contending that the concerns of the civil rights groups cha

Michael Victor Sianipar – Millions of students across the country have entered what is arguably the most stressful week of their lives so far as national school exams began on Monday.

Dessy Sagita – The National Commission for Child Protection will file a class-action lawsuit against the cigarette industry and the government for failing to protect children from smoki

Ronna Nirmala – Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo sparked comments among Indonesian Twitter users on Monday after a photo of him giving the middle finger was spread on Twitter.

Jakarta – Despite its pledge to uphold transparency, the government has not done enough to promote open and transparent governance, a coalition of nongovernmental organizations says.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Police have arrested two former Free Aceh Movement members for allegedly masterminding a string of armed attacks in Aceh ahead of the province's recently-comp

Jakarta – With the presidential election only two years away, Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie has demonstrated his strong intention to become the party's presidential aspirant through m

Ezra Sihite, Agus Triyono, Robertus Wardi & Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Despite more than two years of lobbying and backroom deals, the only significant difference between the 2009 e

Rizky Amelia – Activists in the Sumatran province of Riau on Sunday called on the antigraft body to go after corporations that engaged in corruption in the forestry sector.

Jakarta – Because the government has failed to fulfill its promise of agrarian reform, the process of rural proletarianisation continues unabated.

Indra Harsaputra, Surabaya – The Madurese Shia leader who became a target of arson recently in the wake of mounting suspicion by mainstream Muslims about misleading practices, is now fa

Michael Bachelard – When pentecostal pastor Danny Nalliah thundered that the 2009 Victorian bushfires were caused by God's wrath at that state's decision to decriminalise abortion, he w

Rangga Prakoso – The Attorney General's Office is mulling the possibility of stopping an investigation into a high-profile graft case after the Supreme Court reversed its conviction of

Jakarta – The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS) has urged the National Police to look into alleged procedural violations committed by police officers duri

Jakarta – More than 69,000 registered voters in the capital of Aceh province, Banda Aceh, did not cast their votes in the April 9 regional elections (pilkada), according to an Aceh offi

Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandar Lampung – After having been delayed for six months, the inauguration of Khamanik as new Mesuji regent was held on Friday but the swearing-in ceremony took place

Mataram, Indonesia – Indonesian authorities said Saturday they had found a boat reported missing en route to Australia and that the dozens of asylum seekers it was carrying were believe

Amir Tejo, Surabaya – Activists on Friday demanded that East Java education office chief Harun revoke his statement that pregnant students would be barred from participating in next wee

Jakarta – Gay activist Dede Oetomo has made it to the latest screening phase for members of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM).

Ezra Sihite – Red tape, it turns out, can stick.

Margareth S.