Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – Saying good-bye is never easy, but it is especially difficult for President Megawati Soekarnoputri as she prepares to leave her childhood home, the Pres

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Acting coordinating minister for political and security affairs Hari Sabarno advised the new government to put law enforcement and rights promotion, p

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Some 300 members of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) were told to check out of the Mulia Hotel on Tuesday after its leaders realized, belatedly, that t

Dian Yuliastuti, Jakarta – Scores of students from a number of student and labour groups have demonstrated demanding that the new government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY)

Dana R. Dillon – One issue needs to stand out from all others for Indonesia's new president when he takes office today – terrorism.

Indonesia's incoming President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, takes office tomorrow with a promise of "a beautiful era", including better relations with the West.

Jayapura – Some 100 people protested in Jayapura on Monday, demanding president-elect Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono re-hold Papua's 1963 referendum.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Two Papuans were arrested on Monday for questioning over an attack that claimed five lives in Tinggi Nambut village, Puncak Jaya regency.

Hananto Wiryo, Mataram – The Cabinet of president-elect Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono must ensure that in designing its health programs focuses on servicing and reaching grassroots by truly

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Contrary to police findings, a joint government team comprising 14 agencies has concluded that Buyat Bay in North Sulawesi, where PT Newmont Minahasa Raya stoppe

Jakarta – There has been a jump in the number of East Timorese refugees returning home from Indonesia, where they have been living since East Timor's bloody breakaway in 1999, the UN re

Rusman, Samarinda – Thick haze from forest fires in Central and East Kalimantan provinces continued to blanket some cities in Kalimantan on Monday, but heavy downpours over the weekend

Indra Harsaputra, Malang – Set in the mountains, the picturesque and cool city of Malang, East Java, is now getting hotter according to locals and not, they say, for a good reason.

The City Population Agency will launch a two-week raid a week before and a week after the Idul Fitri holidays, targeting in-house maids, nannies and private company workers who do not p

Allan Behm – The pundits might want to dismiss Alexander Downer's thinking out loud on a security agreement with Indonesia as a volte-face or the cynical repackaging of a Keating legacy

Jakarta – President-elect Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) is being urged to form a clean and productive government.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – Gloom fell over Megawati Soekarnoputri's private residence in Kebagusan, South Jakarta, as a small group huddled around the television set, hours after

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Hundreds of members of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) checked in at the Mulia Hotel on Monday despite calls by their chairman Hidayat Nur Wahid to le

Banda Aceh – A senior separatist rebel on Tuesday was given 16 years in jail for treason in Indonesia's war-hit Aceh province.

Andi Hajramurni and Yuli Tri Suwarni, Makassar/Bandung – After two days of relative calm, violence broke out again in Aralle district, Mamasa regency, killing one man and injuring anoth

Veronica Brooks, Canberra – Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Tuesday headed to Jakarta to witness the swearing in of Indonesia's new president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, hoping

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Demonstrators rallied in Jayapura yesterday demanding that recently elected president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono allow international negotiators to end the dec

Jongker Rumthe, Manado – Three newly reelected North Sulawesi councillors stood trial at the Manado District Court here on Monday on charges of misusing some Rp 9.6 billion (US$1.06 mil

The prospect of an openly negotiated security treaty with Jakarta is welcome.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – A three-day evaluation of regional autonomy in Papua ended on Friday, with one of the most contentious issues raised being the appointment of civil servan

Indonesia's Megawati Sukarnoputri, under increasing fire in her last days as president for failing to admit poll defeat, has come under new criticism from the country's military chief o

Luhur Hertanto, Jakarta – Two days before his inauguration as president, some 100 students from the Indonesian Muslim Students Action Front (KAMMI) and the Greater Jakarta Student Execu

Indra Harsaputra, Surabaya – Yulianti, a bartender at a nightclub in Surabaya, had a busy couple of nights before Ramadhan started on Friday.

Jakarta – Chief Justice Bagir Manan said the country's first sharia court in Aceh, which applies Islamic law, or sharia, could not work effectively due to the absence of related bylaws.

M.

Andi Hajramurni, Makassar – Tension was still high on Sunday in a village in Aralle district, some 400 kilometers from the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar, after two people were repo

Jakarta – The streets of central Indonesia's Sulawesi town remained tense yesterday after new communal conflict erupted, leaving at least two dead, the top local police official said.

In an example of prudence in the search for justice, the underused Press Council issued on Friday a momentous decision that should reignite freedom of expression's dimming light.

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Observers demanded on Sunday a thorough investigation into officers allegedly involved in the escape of Adrian Waworuntu, a key suspect in the Rp 1.7 trillion (U

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta/Bogor – Outgoing President Megawati Soekarnoputri's decision to skip the inauguration of her successor Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will bac

Megawati Sukarnoputri has won plaudits for smoothing Indonesia's path to democracy, but in her final days as president the taciturn leader is in danger of leaving a lasting image as a s

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Papuans have called on president-elect Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to enforce the Special Autonomy Law for Papua to resolve the prolonged issues in the provin

A new security treaty between Indonesia and Australia would symbolise the increasingly close relationship between the two countries.

Tiarma Siboro and M.

Angela Gregory – Pacific countries are ignoring the brutality of Indonesian armed forces towards West Papuans, a regional peace and security conference has been told.

Rendi A.

Eka Saprianawati, Jakarta – The inauguration of president and vice-president elect Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Jusuf Kalla (SBY-JK) on October 20 will be greeted with demonstrations.

Dili – East Timor's future oil and gas revenues must have positive effects for the world's newest nation, which is taking measures to prevent the damage that similar oil bonanzas have i

Jakarta – Thick haze began disrupting flights in Central Kalimantan province on Saturday, with an airplane from PT Dirgantara Air Service (DAS) reportedly rerouted after it was unable t

Australia is considering talks on a new security treaty with Indonesia to replace a pact abandoned during the bloody fallout from East Timor's independence ballot in 1999, Foreign Minis

Indonesia – The situation in Tinggi Nambut village, Puncak Jaya regency remained tense on Friday, following the murder of five construction workers, all migrants from Makassar, South Su

Rita A.Widiadana, Denpasar – The number of foreign tourists visiting Bali has continued to increase over the past few months, thanks to the improved security situation.

Jakarta – The Islamic fasting month of Ramadan started yesterday and the Indonesian entertainment industry is grumbling over local edicts to close nightclubs, massage parlours and amuse

Tiarma Siboro and M.

Semarang/Medan/Banda Aceh/Indramayu – Millions of Indonesian Muslims, who account for some 85 percent of the total 220 million population in the country, began fasting dawn-to-dusk on F