Multa Fidrus, Tangerang – By now most Jakartans have either seen or heard about the special report on TransTV on meatballs made from rats. The report aired on Dec. 31 and Jan.

Jakarta – When it comes to the forestry industry, development and conservation always seem to be at loggerheads.

As reported in this paper, hundreds of containers containing goods meant for Aceh tsunami survivors have been languishing in Indonesian ports for at least nine months.

The Australian Government has been accused of bullying and short-changing East Timor.

Nigel Wilson – Maritime boundary negotiations between Australia and East Timor have been put on hold for 50 years under a deal to share the Timor Sea's petroleum riches that will delive

[Joseph Nevins: A Not-So-Distant Horror: Mass Violence in East Timor. Cornell University Press. Reviewed by Maire Leadbeater.]

Dan Box, John Kerin – East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri has declared that the fledgling nation does not need Australia's help to deal with border skirmishes.

Canberra – Australia and East Timor today signed off on a deal to share revenue from the Timor Sea's lucrative energy reserves, resulting in a potential $US10 billion windfall for the t

Woodside Petroleum on Thursday welcomed the Timor Sea gas agreement between Australia and East Timor but said the Greater Sunrise gas project would remain on hold for now.

Semarang – A group of Timorese-Indonesians living in Central Java demanded on Wednesday a thorough investigation into an incident on Friday in which three former militia members were ki

Jakarta – A "procedural error" meant the government lost up to Rp 1.7 trillion (about US$180 million) in unpaid rent from the Hilton Hotel, the Attorney General's Office (AGO) was told

Hera Diani and Anissa S.

Tiarma Siboro and Tony Hotland, Jakarta – A government's plan to go ahead with an earlier administration's plan to split the province into five has met with strong opposition from Papua

Foster Klug, Washington – The US government is welcoming Indonesia's arrest of a dozen suspects in the 2002 ambush killings of two American teachers.

Tedi Hikmah, Jakarta – The non-government organisation Indonesian Human Rights Watch (Imparsial) has again raised questions about the investigation of gross human rights violations that

Jakarta – A lawyer apologized to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Wednesday for publicly accusing his son and aides of receiving Jaguar cars as gifts from a business tycoon.

Jakarta – Chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Megawati Soekarnoputri has vowed to be the voice of opposition in keeping the government in check.

Tedi Hikmah, Jakarta – A non-government organisation concerned with upholding human rights, Indonesian Human Rights Watch (Imparsial), believes the government of President Susilo Bamban

Jakarta – A draft bill on languages being considered by the education ministry will not forbid the use of foreign languages in public, minister Bambang Sudibyo says.

Luhur Hertanto, Jakarta – There is cause for concern. The level of work-related incidents in Indonesia appears to still be high.

Triono Wahyu Sudibyo, Semarang – Fuel price increases at the end of last year are still resulting in "casualties".

Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandar Lampung – Ten-year-old Sururi helped his father unload empty containers and dozens of kilograms of fresh fish caught during two nights at sea.

The current furor over rice imports flared up when late last year the trade minister gave clearance to the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) to import over 70,000 tons of rice to supplemen

Nana Rukmana, Indramayu – Thousands of houses in 12 villages in the West Java regency of Indramayu have been inundated by floodwaters, and residents fear the flooding will lead to crop

Suherdjoko, Semarang – A joint study by three Yogyakarta universities has found that 97 districts in 27 of Central Java's 35 regencies and cities are at risk for landslides.

Chris Brummitt, Jakarta – Indonesia has banned three films about its long and bloody occupation of East Timor, saying allowing local audiences to see them could "reopen old wounds" as t

Ruslan Sangadji, Palu – Already shaken by religious violence and terrorist attacks, residents of Poso regency in Central Sulawesi were forced to take cover late on Monday when rival pol

Tom Allard – Australia and Indonesia are poised to sign a security treaty that will pave the way for a new era of close relations between the two nations.

Jakarta – The House of Representatives (DPR) confronted on Monday Transparency International Indonesia over Transparency International's recent report, which singled out the legislative

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Jakarta – Jakarta's factory workers and laborers will be getting a pay raise this month, but it falls short of accommodating higher-priced commodities amid soaring inflation.

Dmli – The Timorese dioceses of Dmli and Baucau and 12 non-governmental organizations today criticized in Dmli the initiative of the Government to sign Thursday an agreement to share pe

Dili – East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said Wednesday that his country's police force had acted in self defence when they shot dead three former pro-Jakarta militiamen near the

Dili – Police in East Timor who shot dead three ex-militiamen trying to enter the country last week were acting in legitimate self-defense, Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said Wednesday.

Journalists and freedom of expression advocates in East Timor are calling for international opposition to a new law that would punish defamation with jail time and unspecified fines.

Nigel Wilson – The Maritime Union of Australia is threatening an international industrial campaign to force oil giant ConocoPhillips to employ more East Timorese on projects north of Da

Jakarta – The Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR) on Wednesday denounced the shooting of three Indonesians by Timor Leste border police last Friday (Dec. 6).

Damien Kingsbury, Indonesia expert and Associate Professor of International and Political Studies at Deakin University, writes:

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Despite current unfavorable economic indicators, optimistic 2006 budget parameters set by the Indonesian government assume the country's US$280 billion economy wi

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – After living in a tent in a tsunami refugee camp for months, Cut Samsidar left Aceh Besar regency for Medan two months ago to work as housemaid.

Olle Tornquist, Oslo – Donors often say that the major obstacle in the post-tsunami relief and reconstruction work is poor co-ordination of the organizations involved.

Freeport-McMoRan, an American company that operates a giant open-pit copper and gold mine in Papua, is a major contributor to Indonesia's economy.

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Tantri Yuliandini, Jakarta – A woman in Tangerang, Banten, was sentenced to five years in jail for torturing her five-year-old daughter, and another mother was accused of burning her tw

Fadli, Batam – The number of foreign tourists visiting Batam city last year fell short of expectations with only 1,005,000 vacationing in the city between January and December last year

Bambang Parlupi, Jakarta – Air pollution in Jakarta is causing increasing concern, with air quality failing to improve significantly from year to year.

Bambang Parlupi, Jakarta – As Jakarta's population has grown to over 11 million, the city has failed to balance this expansion by increasing the size of its greenbelts, or open green sp

Atambua – Around 1,500 protesters burned pictures of East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao on Monday following the killing of three former pro-Jakarta militiamen by East Timor police ne

Slamet Susanto, Banjarnegara – Rescue workers on Saturday called off the search for bodies buried in the Banjarnegara landslide disaster, with the total death toll now at 58.

[Jalan Raya Pos, Jalan Daendels (Jalan Raya Pos, Daendels' Highway). Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Lentera Dipantara, October 2005, 145 pp.]