Jakarta – While Indonesia's economy has been making significant improvement in a number of key areas, progress remains relatively fragile, the chief representative of the International

Debbie A.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Every Monday and Thursday at 5 pm, office clerk Danial Erwin makes his most important calls of the week – to his bookie, to check winning numbers.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – As the death toll from Sunday night's grisly fire in a South Sumatra karaoke club climbs, building experts admit that many karaoke bars, entertainment centre

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Political observers with the National Institute of Sciences (LIPI) urged the House of Representatives (DPR) on Tuesday to give the public a chance to critique

Max Lane, Jakarta – On June 25, the Jakarta Media Centre was packed to overflowing.

Jakarta – Indonesia's chief security minister, on a fact-finding mission to Aceh province, said the government wanted to end a separatist war there peacefully but at the same time he is

Vice President Hamzah Haz has pointed a finger of blame at disgruntled generals who, he implied, have been destabilizing the restive province of Aceh by penetrating the Free Aceh Moveme

Jakarta – A baby was shot and killed and its mother left fighting for her life in violence which claimed at least 10 lives in the war-ravaged Indonesian province of Aceh on Sunday and M

The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has denied a report that claims it was in cahoots with Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terrorist network.

Lely T.

Wahyu Dhyatmika, Jakarta – People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Amien Rais has guaranteed that this August's MPR Annual Session would not become a special session to topple President Me

Thomas Freitas, Dili – Activists from the NGO La'o Hamutuk and others were disappointed by Manuel Carrascalao's statement in Tuesday's edition of STL that "Foreigners can not come here

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – Dozens of people claiming to represent thousands of East Timorese refugees sheltering in camps in West Timor rallied at the gubernatorial office in the regiona

The Indonesian government has raised the import duty on sugar by up to 30 per cent to protect local sugar cane farmers from cheaper imports.

Jakarta – A choking and dangerous haze that has been blanketing the Indonesian city of Pontianak in the early morning has caused delays in flight arrivals and departures, officials said

Nana Rukmana, Cirebon – Hundreds of street vendors and becak (pedicab) drivers occupied the municipal office here on Monday, in protest over their forced eviction from areas around shop

Maria Ressa, Manila – Intelligence officials tell CNN that Osama bin Laden wanted to move the base of operations for his al Qaeda terrorist network from Afghanistan to Southeast Asia in

Tom McCawley, Jakarta – Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia's chief security minister, arrived in the troubled Aceh province on Tuesday as Jakarta considered declaring a civil emergency

The European Union is to give humanitarian aid worth nearly euros 2 million to East Timorese refugees still living in camps in Indonesian West Timor, it was announced Tuesday in Brussel

East Timor's parliament approved a draft bill Tuesday on maritime borders, paving the way for the ratification of the potentially lucrative Timor Sea oil and gas treaty, signed in May b

Robert Go, Jakarta – Every 30 minutes, one Indonesian woman dies while giving birth and out of 100 babies born here, six won't reach the age of five – statistics that show the sorry sta

Jakarta – Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri yesterday defended her party's decision not to seek a parliamentary inquiry into alleged graft by the Speaker, saying legislators ha

Jakarta – With the new academic year drawing near, some 13,000 junior high school graduates across South Kalimantan are facing the possibility of having to give up their formal educatio

Dili – UN Police officials today announced they have seized two trucks loaded with sandalwood apparently destined for sale outside East Timor.

Renewed clashes in the troubled Indonesian province over the past few days have also claimed the lives of three civilians in a grenade blast, and three more rebels, officials said.

Jakarta – The post of Indonesian ambassador to Australia remains unfilled because of a political struggle in Jakarta over who appoints the country's diplomats.

Jakarta – Traditional food supplements for children are selling well in Indonesia's capital city with parents convinced of their benefits despite many containing ingredients not suitabl

Catharine Munro – To walk into the world of Yunus Makasau is to enter a wonderland of exotic creatures stolen from across the – vast and sprawling Indonesian archipelago.

Bernie K.

Jakarta – The National Commission on Human Rights has launched an investigation into last year's massacre of 31 residents in Langsa, Aceh, Antara reported on Saturday.

Jakarta – As the government continued to secure more support for its plan to intensify military operations in Aceh, experts warned that an increased military presence in Aceh would not

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – The city administration have turned a deaf ear to the warnings of experts that future floods could be worse if they fail to maintain or even expand the numb

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Cities around Indonesia are increasingly drowning under a sea of rubbish as local governments struggle to cope with the mountains of garbage produced every d

Patricia Nunan, Bangkok – Indonesia's Supreme Court has overturned a controversial bankruptcy ruling against the Jakarta branch of a Canadian insurance company.

Dili – Amnesty should not be offered to those responsible for crimes against humanity during the violence that surrounded East Timor's 1999 bid for independence, said Bishop Carlos Xime

Jakarta – Indonesian police questioned the local franchise holder of fast-food chain McDonald's for seven hours on Monday over a suspected graft scandal involving millions of dollars.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Around 300 foreign vessels believed to be from Thailand are looting fish stocks in North Sumatran waters and robbing local fishermen of their livelihoods, accor

Banda Aceh – At least two civilians and two suspected guerillas were killed in the latest violence to hit Aceh, residents and the military said yesterday.

East Timor's minister of health has said that his country has all the conditions necessary for the outbreak of an Aids epidemic and urgent measure are needed to prevent this.

Jakarta – At least 1,800 hot spots have emerged in fire-prone areas of Sumatra and Kalimantan this year with the dry weather, satellite images revealed.

Reporter: Ross Coulthart

Producer: In collaboration with Max Stahl of Gillan Films

The Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) yesterday transferred six trainer aircraft to its Indonesian counterpart, and will deliver another 13 more by the end of the year, Singapore's

Robert Go, Jakarta – The Indonesian government will dig out 900 billion rupiah from its cash-strapped coffers to counter El Nino-induced droughts that could devastate this year's harves

Jakarta/Kupang – The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Friday that 1,500 East Timorese children, placed in orphanages across Indonesia in 1999, had not yet b

Manila – The authorities in the Philippines said yesterday that they had received reliable reports that an Indonesian detained since March was involved in deadly bomb blasts in Manila a

Nana Rukmana, Cirebon – Thousands of sugarcane growers and workers at sugar plants in Cirebon, West Java, rallied on Friday to demand the government reduce sugar imports blamed for the

Jill Jolliffe, Maubisse – Like most country folk in East Timor, the 18,000 people of the Maubisse district are enthusiastic about independence, but worried about their future.

The Indonesian government has asked parliament to approve "emergency" funds of more than 111 million dollars to help the military and police operate in areas of conflict like Aceh.

Rendi A. Witular and Adianto P.