Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Activists slammed city councillors on Wednesday for requesting a monthly housing allowance of Rp 12.5 million each, saying they had broken their own electio

Evi Mariani, Jakarta – Permissiveness among youngsters abounds in big cities, with many of them having had sex at home without the knowledge of their parents, according to a study.

I Wayan Juniartha, Denpasar – It clearly was not an ordinary day.

Nani Afrida and Dedy Ardiansyah, Banda Aceh/Meulaboh – As the sun rose over the devastated city of Banda Aceh on Wednesday morning, Maizul, a 40-year-old school teacher, was standing in

Banda Aceh – Indonesia has buried more than 100,000 tsunami victims, mostly in mass graves, a month after the disaster, the government said on Thursday.

Alan Sipress, Lhoknga – Ali, a scruffy Acehnese truck driver turned tsunami refugee, said he wasn't sure who provided him with a sack of rice, bottled water, a blanket and a few other m

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – In a bid to create a strong and modern military, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is contemplating up to a five fold increase in defense spending to an "ideal

Meidyatama Suryodiningrat and Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The wheels of diplomacy and bureaucracy are notoriously slow.

There was little to talk about when the widely trumpeted first 100-day economic agenda of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's government ended.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Gen.

Slobodan Lekic, Jakarta – The widow of an American schoolteacher killed in a 2002 attack initially blamed on Indonesian soldiers urged the Bush administration Friday not to lift a ban o

Tony Hotland and Ruslan Sangadji, Banda Aceh – The Acehnese have long dreamed of peace and prosperity in their homeland, which has seen decades of conflict and, at the end of last year,

Leony Aurora, Jakarta – Major players in the banking industry have welcomed Bank Indonesia's effort to speed up the sector's consolidation through a new policy on the injection of funds

Many seats were left empty in badly damaged schools across Indonesia's Aceh province as children began lessons for the first time since the tsunami struck one month ago, killing thousan

It has been exactly one month since the magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami devastated parts of Aceh and North Sumatra.

An Indonesian ministerial team departs for Finland today to meet Free Aceh Movement or GAM's leadership-in-exile, but though both sides expressed optimism, there is scant hope the talks

Tiarma Siboro and Rendi A.

Santi Soekanto, Aceh – Nina recounted her story to me in the Lamsujen refugee camp in Lhoong subdistrict, Aceh Besar, on January 3. This is what she said: "Assalam mualai'kum.

Sonny Inbaraj, Bangkok – East Timor's Nobel laureate Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo is appealing for peace to be given a chance in tsunami-hit Aceh as an Indonesian top-level team meets wit

Meulaboh – The two-faced attitude of United States troops in the province of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami has been revealed.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – The country's human rights record remained poor in 2004, with state-sponsored violence and the cycle of impunity still persisting, a rights group says.

Vincent Lingga, Jakarta – The President's lack of leadership to act firm and fast in resolving the government's four-year dispute with Cemex over the Mexican company's investment in the

M. Taufiqurrahman and Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – A National Police disciplinary hearing has decided to suspend Brig. Gen.

Jakarta – To enforce the new law on the military, the government will start taking over all military businesses in an endeavor to make the Indonesian Military (TNI) professional and hel

Bogor – The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the European Commission (EC) launched a joint program on Tuesday to preserve the country's rapidly shrinking tropical forests a

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he wants his country to have a stronger and better equipped military to be able to deal with events such as the tsunami disaster.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – he government-sanctioned fact-finding team, which is "assisting" the police investigators over the alleged murder of human rights campaigner Munir, has asked fo

Jakarta – International financial institutions paid about $35 million in the late 1980s to build the highway that meanders from Jakarta's international airport to the city, crossing pic

M.

Rebels fighting for the independence of Aceh province are willing to engage in peace talks with Indonesia but say the country is not serious about negotiations, a senior guerrilla said

Jakarta – The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday that health conditions in the disaster area of Aceh were improving, and that no major epidemics were likely, but all parties

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta – The government said on Monday it would use some unconventional methods to cope with post-tsunami legal issues related to citizen documentation as well as for

Jakarta – Almost half a million Acehnese may suffer depression, anxiety and sleep disorders due to last month's tsunami disaster, but only five psychiatrists are on hand to treat them,

Jakarta – Convinced that mining company PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (NMR) is guilty of polluting Buyat Bay in North Sulawesi, the government aims to seek financial compensation from the US

Iman D. Nugroho, Surabaya – Protected turtle species in East Java are on the brink of extinction due to the rampant poaching of their eggs, says an environmental expert.

Yogyakarta – Dozens of disabled people in Yogyakarta staged a protest on Monday to demand equal treatment and an end to discrimination by the authorities, and the enactment of special l

The Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, or GAM) was founded on 4 December 1976 by Hasan di Tiro – a descendant of the last sultan of Aceh.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Papuan leaders urged the central government to cancel a plan for direct elections in the newly created, but controversial West Irian Jaya province, as they bel

The military chief in Indonesia's Aceh province described foreigners providing relief aid for tsunami survivors in the region as insolent for refusing to follow directives given by loca

Jakarta – The government said on Sunday that the emergency situation in tsunami-ravaged Aceh is now nearly over, and that foreign troops should gradually be replaced by civilians.

Matthew Moore, Banda Aceh – More than three weeks after the tsunami that wiped out much of Aceh's west coast, aid was continuing to arrive in a chaotic manner.

Jay Solomon and Andrew Higgins, Banda Aceh – Government authorities here said they are investigating claims by an Indonesian anticorruption watchdog that the number of refugees in some

Banda Aceh – Villagers cross a river on a makeshift ferry as Indonesian soldiers work to reconstruct a bridge which was swept away by last month's tsunami in Loknga, near Banda Aceh.

Jakarta – An American journalist will be deported from Indonesia after immigration officers said he entered the country illegally, despite granting him a visa when he arrived three week

Barbara Demick, Banda Aceh – From behind a rickety wooden crate on which he has spread out cans of Coca-Cola and cigarettes, Mohammed Yunus warily eyes the bare legs of a blond woman in

Damien Kingsbury, Melbourne – It is a truism in politics that a cathartic experience can result in unrelated change.

Rendi A.

Jakarta – With US helicopters dropping noodles instead of bombs and soldiers carrying rice rather than guns, the United States was confident its enormous efforts to help Asian tsunami v

Philip Cornford, Banda Aceh – "They come as angels. They are our friends," said Almascaty after the fundamentalist's first meeting yesterday with an Australian army captain.

On 20 January, Filip Karma, a West Papuan, went on trial in Jayapura for rebellion.