Mustaqim Adamrah, Jakarta – Local entrepreneurs are skeptical about the "abundant" business opportunities in the capital, citing that many sectors are untapped but marketing and licensi

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) has said it is confident of taking 20 percent of the vote in the 2009 general election.

Adisti Sukma Sawitri, Jakarta – Apathy about Jakarta's gubernatorial election kept a significant number of registered voters away from polling booths, surveyors say.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – Tensions on the border of Ngada and Manggarai regencies in Flores, East Nusa Tenggara, were still high Thursday in the wake of an arson attack on a church foll

In the efforts to encourage sex workers to take advantage of voluntary HIV counseling and testing (VCT) services, follow-up measures remain a problem.

Jakarta – Political activists are calling for a radical reform of the country's intelligence agencies to prevent extrajudicial killings and the suppression of information.

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – A professional study has slammed the government's efforts to reform the country's security sector, saying the military, police and intelligence bodies have been

Desy Nurhayati, Jakarta – Allegations made Wednesday by Australian Senator Ian MacDonald and president of mining company PT Newmont Minahasa Raya Richard Ness that an Indonesian environ

Dili – Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer arrived in East Timor on Thursday for a one-day visit on the anniversary of the tiny neighbouring nation's 1999 independence vote.

Jakarta – Police investigators defended Wednesday procedures used in the interrogation of a key witness in the Munir case who has now retracted his testimony.

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – Demands to implement sharia by a number of Muslim circles should not refer to the implementation of Islamic law, but instead focus on moral enhancement, Peop

Jake Lynch – Prime Minister John Howard's handshake with George W.

Desy Nurhayati, Jakarta – Indonesia's major Islamic organizations should be more involved in poverty alleviation programs rather than political activities, an Islam-focused conference c

Tony Iltis – Former East Timorese prime minister Mari Alkatiri has called for the withdrawal of Australian troops from his country.

James Balowski, Jakarta – New evidence has been presented in a judicial review of Garuda Indonesia pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto – who was acquitted last year for murdering renown

Jakarta – Hundreds of people living under the Jembatan Tiga expressway, which was recently damaged in a slum fire, protested Monday in front of the North Jakarta municipal office agains

Jakarta – The Indonesian government's programs to tackle deforestation are getting a much needed injection of funds, with several developed countries committing to providing financial s

An important witness in the Munir murder case is being closely guarded by police. His background story is confusing.

The case review on the Munir case may implicate high-ranking officials from the State Intelligence Agency (BIN).

We owe Munir the activist, who died on September 7, 2004. Yet after almost three years, it is still not clear who killed him.

The trial reviewing the case of Munir's alleged murderer, Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, will also determine the fate of some BIN (State Intelligence Agency) officials.

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – The retraction of testimony by a key witness in the murder of rights activist Munir Said Thalib might not do great harm to the prosecutors' case, two prominent l

Jakarta – The poor in this country must be able to rise up themselves, self-reliantly and demand their rights that the state guarantee their prosperity.

Anthony Deutsch, Bekasi – The downfall of former Indonesian dictator Suharto, one of the most corrupt and brutal rulers of the last century, swept in an era of political freedom and hop

Tom Hyland – Matius Bunai was last seen alive three weeks ago today when he left a church service in the town of Nabire in the Indonesian province of Papua.

Mark Forbes – They were meticulously planned, the fertiliser and TNT-powered blasts that ripped through Paddy's Bar, the Sari Club and the holidaymakers cavorting inside them on October

Adianto P.

Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo, Jakarta – The International Labour Organization (ILO) has called on Indonesia to commit to two international conventions in order to better protect its migrant

Jakarta – The Attorney General's Office (AGO) said Friday it had further evidence to implicate exonerated suspect Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto in the murder of human rights activist Mu

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Accompanied by her mother, "Dedek" sat nervously in the Banda Aceh Islamic Court waiting to hear if her request for a divorce would be granted.

Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – Poor city planning and rapid population growth have been blamed for increasingly hot weather in Jakarta over the last 130 years, a study says.

Jakarta – Major labor unions will very likely accept the 3-percent severance payment scheme drafted by the government in the regulation on dismissal benefits.

Andi Hajramurni, Makassar – Coral reef destruction in South Sulawesi has reached an alarming heights and today poses a real threat to the ongoing livelihoods of regional fishermen.

Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo, Jakarta – Changing electoral laws to allow non-party candidates to run could lead to a greater voter turnout in regional elections, a political observer said T

Defence has rejected claims from East Timor renegade Alfredo Reinado that Australian soldiers broke the necks of two wounded men and shot dead civilians during the raid on his hideout f

Mustaqim Adamrah, Jakarta – Non-governmental group the Urban Poor Consortium on Thursday said the housing solutions offered to squatters living under elevated roads by the city and Nort

Dili – As a veneer of calm descends on East Timor after Thursday's clashes, the political tension remains high.

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono denounced Thursday power-oriented initiatives to create new autonomous regions, which he said exhausted state resources withou

Gangs armed with steel darts and machetes clashed in the town of Metinaro in Timor Leste on Thursday.

This mountain town in Timor's eastern highlands has known its share of horrors and in recent weeks bad times returned with a wave of violent demonstrations and the alleged rape of an 11

Dili – East Timor Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has offered the disgruntled former ruling party Fretilin several seats in his cabinet, in an apparently conciliatory gesture, a report sai

Jakarta – Despite its high population and large economic size, Indonesia is among the least attractive countries for foreign retailers to invest in, according to a survey conducted rece

M. Azis Tunny, Ambon – A violent clash between the police and supporters of a gubernatorial election candidate in Ternate, North Maluku province, left 15 people injured Wednesday.

Just over a week ago, the people of Indonesia's western province, Aceh, celebrated the second anniversary of the end of thirty years of separatist hostilities.

Nani Afrida, Bener Meriah – Fatimah Inem Syam, 55, was just like any other woman in Aceh.

Jakarta – A telephone conversation between acquitted murder suspect Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto and former Garuda Indonesia President Indra Setiawan emerged Wednesday as the latest in

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – The defiance of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) to cooperate and help resolve the murder of rights campaigner and staunch military critic Munir Said Thalib i

Fadli, Batam – Batam's new Barelang Penitentiary has only been open two months, but it is already overcrowded.

Dili – Hundreds of machete-wielding youths clashed in an East Timorese town Thursday in the latest outbreak of violence following the appointment of a new government early this month, t

Dili – Hundreds of rampaging youths torched dozens of houses and clashed across East Timor on Thursday, leaving at least two people dead, the UN said, in violence sparked by the appoint