Jakarta – The Indonesian economy, battered by two years of financial and economic crisis, will post growth of four percent in 2000, up from 0.2 percent this year, the Asian Development

Jakarta – Almost half of the country's mangrove forests have disappeared since 1982, causing land abrasion by the sea and threatening biota living in that environment, activists said on

Jakarta – The spokesman for the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) yesterday defended the military's business ventures, saying it would be impossible to survive on state funds alone.

Vaudine England – The latest phase in the Government's continuing reshuffle signals a further consolidation of power by President Abdurrahman Wahid.

Mark Dodd, Dili – The East Timorese leader, Mr Xanana Gusmao, and a senior United Nations official will hold a public meeting in Dili today to discuss the the country's number one socia

Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid said April 25 that foreign submarines must not sail through Indonesia's territorial waters without permission.

Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid faced anger among coalition parties within his already fractious six-month-old government yesterday after he fired two key financial ministers.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – The long-awaited trial of 24 soldiers charged with the massacre of 58 civilians in West Aceh last July has been called a show that will be hampered by its co

Jakarta – Some 1,000 teachers of kindergarten to high school across Jambi staged a noisy rally in front of the provincial legislative building on Saturday.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – A man described by his friends as a "likable mafioso" has been scooped up in recent legal moves against people suspected of attacking Megawati Sukarnoputri's

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Thousands of becak drivers took to the streets of central Jakarta yesterday to demand that their pollution-free form of transport again be allowed to ply Jak

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – National Assembly (MPR) chairman Amien Rais said that Indonesia's highest legislative body will not hold a special session this year amid speculation that seve

Jakarta – The government has started seizing assets belonging to former President Suharto, a spokesman for the Attorney-General's Office said yesterday.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – In the face of strong public criticism, the Attorney-General has reorganised staff and departments to give greater priority to the corruption case against for

Klaten – President Abdurrahman Wahid rebuked criticism of his support for the revocation of MPRS Decree No.

Associated Press in Banda Aceh – A landmark trial of soldiers accused in the massacre of 57 students and teachers in strife- torn Aceh province resumed on Saturday amid tight security a

Agence France Presse in Jakarta – Armed forces commander Admiral Widodo Adi Sudjipto reassured the nation yesterday that the military had no desire to return to politics, and would dism

Jakarta – Conduct will soon be added to grades to determine whether an Indonesian student achieves a pass mark, press reports said yesterday.

Jakarta – As a compromise to the intense calls for independence, resource-rich Irian Jaya is offering to remain within Indonesia if it retains a bigger portion of its own wealth, an ini

Batujajar, Bandung – While suggesting that dialog between the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) should continue, the Indonesian Military (TNI) have decided to send troops to t

Vaudine England, Jakarta – The fate of Kartini bin Karim acquires special symbolic importance today.

Jakarta – The Indonesian government is shifting two-thirds of the judges in Jakarta to other courts outside the island of Java in response to public pressure and criticism of some court

Nicole Winfield, United Nations – The first militia leaders accused of serious crimes in East Timor are expected to be brought to trial before international and East Timorese judges by

Jakarta – Five non-governmental organizations criticized on Friday the government's draft of the law on the establishment of an anticorruption body, arguing it did not give enough power

The Laskar Jihad, a 10,000-strong force, is preparing to travel to Indonesia's Maluku province in a stated attempt to end the simmering sectarian violence between Muslims and Christians

Banda Aceh – Two policemen and a civilian were killed in the latest violence in Indonesia's strife-torn province of Aceh, police and witnesses said yesterday.

[The following is a sidebar from the Red Cross 2001 World Disasters Report. The writer is a medical doctor who has worked in Afghanistan and East Timor.]

Jakarta – Thousands of teachers in Jakarta and other cities yesterday continued to protest over their low salaries, threatening to boycott this month's national exams, despite the gover

Jakarta – Head of the feared Pemuda Pancasila organization Yorrys Raweyai, who was on Tuesday arrested by police, yesterday admitted the Jakarta Military Command had ordered him to mobi

Jakarta – Political divisions are slowing economic reform in Indonesia, but this is unavoidable given the size of the nation's political transformation, State Enterprises Minister Laksa

Jakarta – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Wednesday that an independent body to oversee the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) must be established in a bid to ens

Palu – Sectarian riots continued sporadically in the Central Sulawesi town of Poso on Tuesday despite the heavy presence of security personnel.

Jakarta – A senior police officer has been removed from his post and up to 1,000 police and soldiers are being deployed ahead of the expected human rights trial today of soldiers in Ind

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Six months after becoming Indonesia's first democratically elected president, Mr Abdurrahman Wahid, is facing mounting criticism from some of his once stronge

Banda Aceh – At least eight people were killed and 18 others injured in the latest violence to rack the troubled Indonesian province of Aceh, police and residents said yesterday.

Sydney – An Australian soldier facing expulsion from East Timor for trying to be a "spymaster" was well-intentioned but misguided, former Interfet commander Major General Peter Cosgrove

May Sari, Jakarta – A three-day strike by 1800 workers employed at the PT Isanti shoe factory in Semarang, Central Java, forced the company to grant 23 out of their 25 demands on April

Tempo, Jakarta – The existing forest resource management system, which has been regularly exploited and abused, will be replaced by a balanced and sustainable forest management system.

Jakarta – State companies remain highly vulnerable to exploitation as cash cows for political groups like they were under previous political administrations, informed sources said on Mo

Jakarta – Standard and Poor's said Tuesday it had downgraded Indonesia's long-term foreign currency issuer credit rating to "selective default" from CCC+ in the wake of last week's debt

Jakarta – State Minister of Women's Empowerment Khofifah Indah Parawansa revealed on Monday that 30 percent of 3.5 million babies born in the last two years had serious malnutrition.

Jakarta – At least 16 foreign mining companies have delayed their activities due to uncertainty in security or financial problems, a senior government official said on Monday.

Bogor – After a one-day delay, thousands of members of Laskar Jihad (Jihad Force) vacated the military-style training camp in Munjul village under tight police security in the early hou

Hongkong – President Abdurrahman Wahid said Indonesia, China and India should go forward together with the help of Japanese and Singaporean "capital, know-how and technology" to create

Jakarta – Underpaid teachers will see a 300-per-cent increase in allowances, reports said yesterday as teachers in parts of the country began a three-day strike to demand better pay.

Jakarta – Two witnesses on Tuesday testified in favor of Time magazine in a hearing of the 27 billion dollar defamation suit filed against the the US weekly by former Indonesian strongm

Jakarta – Some 10,000 teachers Tuesday flooded the grounds of the national parliament compound here in a mass protest to demand at least a 100 percent increase in their salaries.

Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid returned from a nine-day foreign tour on Monday amid rumors of intensive backroom dealings between major political parties to try to remove him fro

Dili – Portuguese national guardsmen serving with the UN police force in East Timor were called Friday to the BNU bank in Dili, to control a crowd dissatisfied with a revised exchange r

Dili – Bishop Carlos Belo would be shocked if he knew. It is well after midnight and the streets of Dili are deserted, except for a few stray dogs.