Jakarta – National Police chief Gen.

Results of last week's elections in East Timor indicate that the territory's new 88-seat Constituent Assembly will have a total of 24 women members.

Dili – The Chief Electoral Officer of the East Timor's Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), Carlos Valenzuela, today presented the full and final results of the 30 August Constituent

Despite its decision to contest the election process, East Timor's UDT party congratulated Thursday the Fretilin party for its victory in last week's voting for the 88-member Constituen

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – With the police and military leaders repeatedly labelling him an agent of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), Mr Nasir Djamil knows it is no longer safe to

Lindsay Murdoch – The smugglers' plan went like clockwork.

Jakarta – Millions of Indonesia's poorest are among the worst hit by corruption since they feel powerless to stand up to greedy local officials and policemen, according to a high-level

Jakarta – The police physically abused two student activists arrested during a demonstration protesting the recent fuel price hike, their lawyer told a court here on Wednesday.

For Fretilin [East Timor Revolutionary Front] – the party most likely to win the recent Timor Lorosae (TL) elections – there are three main things which need to be maintained [from 1975

Jonathan Thatcher, Jakarta – A senior Indonesian official said the government wanted to change controversial laws giving greater autonomy to its provinces, warning that hurried legislat

Joanne Collins, Jakarta – Indonesia will unveil on Friday a draft budget constrained by a mountain of debt that has left President Megawati Sukarnoputri's government with barren coffers

Jakarta – There is increasing concern that Saudi billionaire Osama bin Laden and his terrorist organisation are looking to Indonesia as a potential springboard for their operations.

The Deputy President of the Dili District Court Rui Pereira dos Santoas stressed that the Timor Lorosae Judiciary will continue using Bahasa Indonesia and Tetun in all proceedings for a

The leader of East Timor's ASDT party, Fransico Xavier do Amaral, told Lusa Wednesday in Dili that he would not be a future candidate for president.

Jakarta – The gap between transparency and accountability within Indonesia's public sector is a major challenge to its economic reform program, according to Mark Baird, World Bank count

Jakarta – Minister of Manpower Jacob Nuwa Wea here on Monday criticized an International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention which permits as few as 10 employees to establish their own

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Millions of poor Indonesians are among the hardest-hit by corruption, as various unofficial levies charged by low-level officials are eating into their meagre e

Xanana's interview with Tempo magazine:

Tempo: At first you dithered on being nominated as president. But you changed your mind later. Why?

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – They are valuable for criminals on the run; handy for men who want to take a second wife, and indispensable for people with little tolerance and time for the In

East Timor's Defense Force would be willing to accept Indonesian military aid if the offer was made by Jakarta, the force's commander said on Monday.

Jose Ramos Horta said Monday in Dili he was "profoundly sad" about the "unhappy", "lamentable" and "incendiary" criticism of the East Timorese election process leveled by the leader of

Dili – The winners of last week's historic election in East Timor must listen to the people when drafting a constitution as a prelude to independence, two watchdog groups said Monday.

Lincoln Wright – Two star witnesses behind the allegation that Defence knew beforehand of the murder of five Australian journalists at Balibo in 1975 now maintain they never saw an inte

Banda Aceh – Ships using the Malacca Strait – one of the world's busiest sea lanes – should "seek permission" from separatist guerrillas in Indonesia's Aceh province, a rebel leader sai

Banda Aceh, – A provincial legislator and five other civilians have been killed in the restive Indonesian province of Aceh, police and residents said Sunday.

Jakarta – An East Timorese claimed on Saturday that members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) have made secret contacts with proindependence East Timorese, asking how the latter won their

Presenter: Sergio Vieira de Mello, head of UNTAET, the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor, has replied to the fraud accusations, made by UDT (Timorese Democratic Union) leader

Chris Brummitt, Nusakambangan Island – A group of Afghan refugees detained for two weeks after their ship sank off an Indonesian prison island threatened Saturday to go on a hunger stri

Annastashya Emmanuelle, Jakarta – Complicated bureaucratic procedures await street vendors who wish to claim their belongings after being confiscated by the city public order officials

Jakarta – The World Bank has warned the Indonesian government to seriously tackle corruption, saying that progress in stamping out loan abuse was the key to the bank's future lending st

Jakarta – Indonesia must properly punish the killers of three UN workers before the United States can resume full military ties, a senior US official said yesterday.

Jakarta – Desperate officials are scrambling to find funds, including taking commercial loans if necessary, to pay striking teachers demanding their six months' overdue salary.

Lindsay Murdoch in Liquica and agencies – East Timorese kept what the United Nations had called a date with democracy yesterday, voting in the first democratic election of their turbule

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – A military reformer, once tipped as a leading candidate to head the powerful Indonesian armed forces (TNI), died yesterday.

Jakarta – Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri has postponed a September 2 visit to rebellious Aceh province, an official said, citing technical reasons.

At the Toko Lay hardware store in central Dili, Charles Tan was checking a newly arrived generator to sell to the burgeoning construction industry.

Jakarta – Indonesian police on Wednesday released five key negotiators from the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) days ahead of President Megawati Sukarnoputri's visit to the troubled

Rowan Callick – The emergence of democratic government in an independent East Timor is a miracle.

Richard Lloyd Parry – Two years to the day after the 1999 referendum on independence, the East Timorese people vote again on Thursday in the first elections to a democratic national ass

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – Carlos first introduced himself as a driver. When none of Dili's dilapidated taxis could be found, he would always produce one.

Slobodan Lekic, Dili – Women nursed babies held in shoulder slings and people joked with UN monitors as they waited in long lines to vote Thursday in a election seen as a historic step

Jakarta – Indonesia's chief economics minister said on Thursday the haggard economy would be hard pressed to grow more than five percent next year, signalling more hardship ahead for mi

Five people arrested Thursday in the East Timorese capital had various weapons in their possession, the UN civil police spokesman said, adding that the operation had nothing to do with

Woodside Petroleum, Australia's biggest independent oil and gas group, is to evaluate competing proposals from Royal Dutch/Shell and Phillips Petroleum of the US in an attempt to resolv

Jakarta – Feared ex-militia leader Eurico Guterres declared Thursday a "day of mourning for East Timor" and said its people could end up second-class citizens like Australia's Aborigine

Christine T.

Washington – The State Department's top Asia hand is due in Jakarta this weekend in the latest sign of a new US drive to engage Indonesia – but the path to closer US relations with Sout

Jakarta – Britain is ready to resume sales of weapons to Indonesia, saying that it has accepted the assurances from the Indonesian Military (TNI) that these arms would not be used for i

Dili – Justice must come before amnesty for people guilty of human rights violations in East Timor, a lawyer working to establish a truth commission said Wednesday.

Jon Land – The August 30 election for East Timor's Constituent Assembly signifies an important step towards the conclusion of the United Nations transitional administration.