The authorities in Indonesia's Aceh province have ruled out pursuing espionage charges against a Scottish woman detained for the past month, the prosecutor handling their case said.

Haze from forest and ground burning drifted back over Indonesia's Central Kalimantan province, ending the reprieve brought by several days of rain, the meteorology office said.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – President Megawati Sukarnoputri has turned up the heat on Attorney-General M.A.

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – Police attempts to impress the public on the seriousness of legal action against their own officers alleged to have committed crimes seem doomed to failure as

Nani Farida, Banda Aceh – Aceh police detectives are questioning 20 colleagues from the elite Mobile Brigade (Brimob) for their alleged role in an arson attack on 80 shophouses in Keude

Jakarta – Indonesia is increasingly serious about confronting apparent efforts by Al-Qaeda to establish a terrorist beachhead in the world's most populous Muslim nation, the US ambassad

Banda Aceh – Two soldiers and one teacher were killed in the latest round of violence in Aceh, provincial military spokesman Maj. Zaenal Mutaqin said here on Tuesday.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – On the eve of his return home, Australia's ambassador to Indonesia, Ric Smith, has sought to rebut a series of "myths" which he believes are straining the relat

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – Indonesia and East Timor agreed on Tuesday to convert Indonesian assets in East Timor, mostly corporate assets, into equity investment in the newly born

Muhammad Nafik and Ainur R.

Jim Lobe – A group of Indonesian human rights organizations is urging the United States Congress to maintain tough conditions on renewing US training of the Indonesian military (TNI) ev

Jakarta – A bomb exploded in Indonesia's volatile Ambon city as police tried to defuse it on Wednesday, wounding six people including two police officials.

Bill Guerin – Al-Habib Muhammad Rizieq bin Hussein Syihab, leader of the pro-Suharto radical Muslim group FPI (Defenders of Islam), and his storm troopers may, after two years of appare

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – The inclusion of foreigners in the planned monitoring commission to ensure peace in the war-torn province of Aceh will be discussed in the coming peace

Kafil Yamin, Jakarta – Long stretches of parched paddy fields and vegetable farms lining the road are a testament to the drought that has hit Java and other parts of Indonesia.

Indonesian-based Australian journalist John Martinkus explores the fine line between journalism and activism.

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – The inauguration of Sutiyoso and Fauzi Bowo as, respectively, Jakarta governor and deputy governor for the 2002 to 2007 term took place smoothly on Monday w

Jakarta – The government is determined to scrap the visa-free facility accorded to nationals of 48 countries in an effort to prevent more of its misuse, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hass

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Murmurs of discontent within President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) are growing louder by the day.

Jakarta – Indonesia's military police chief said on Tuesday two officers from the special forces were the main suspects in last year's killing of a top Papua separatist leader.

An East Timorese man, wounded in an attack on a refugee-packed compound in Dili in April 1999, told a court here that Indonesian soldiers were among the attackers.

Karen Polglaze, Canberra – Australian ratification of the Timor Gap Treaty could increase the risk of political instability in East Timor, a parliamentary committee was told today.

Jakarta – Nearly 400 displaced East Timorese sheltering in West Timor have been forced to eat leaves for the past month as they cannot afford to buy rice, a government official says.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The Indonesian government and Parliament have agreed on the need to set up a new body to advise the President on defence and international security issues, Chie

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – A leader of East Timor's parliamentary opposition has described an agreement regulating conditions for US troops in the territory as "an affront to East Timorese s

Semarang – Because the price of tobacco has plummeted to only 5,000 rupiah per kilogram in the last period, the economic conditions for tobacco farmers in the central tobacco plantation

Nani Farida, Banda Aceh – Thousands of the have-nots staged a peaceful rally in front of the Aceh provincial legislature building on Monday, demanding the administration disburse billio

Sri Wahyuni, Yogyakarta – Golkar Party cadres from the party's founding organizations piled more pressure on party chairman Akbar Tandjung on Saturday to quit his post to rid the party

At least three people, including a woman and her grandson, were killed in the latest violence in the troubled Indonesian province of Aceh, witnesses and the military said.

Jakarta – East Timor said on Monday it wants its land border with Indonesia to be gradually de-militarised and hopes all frontier disputes with its former ruler can be solved by next ye

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – More than three decades after an abortive coup blamed on the communists, Indonesians are still unable to come to grips with this bit of their nation's history.

Jakarta – Indonesia will prosecute eight of 13 members of a radical Muslim group arrested for raiding nightspots in the capital as the police chief warned people against taking the law

Jose Ramos Horta knows a thing or two about Indonesia, about suppression, and about independence.

Matthew Moore, Yogyakarta – A new regional group intended to strengthen Indonesia's brittle relations with its neighbours held its inaugural meeting at the weekend, and Australia's Fore

As global stock markets slide and a lack of leadership on international reform colored the annual meetings last week of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank annual meeti

East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao called Monday for Portugal to strengthen the "bridge" connecting his country and the European Union, adding that Lisbon's backing would be invaluab

Matthew Moore – Indonesia's President Megawati Soekarnoputri made headlines last week by not turning up at the site of a disused well in east Jakarta for an annual ceremony.

Many were shocked but few surprised to learn last week that the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) had paid "protection money" to members of the military to secure IBRA propert

Jakarta – Indonesian police arrested seven members of a Muslim group yesterday over recent vigilante-style raids on nightspots in Jakarta.

Uli Schmetzer, Jakarta – The investigation into the deadly ambush of a convoy of American teachers in Indonesia has become bogged down by a long list of suspects in a nation where terro

Jakarta – Around 500 members of the Islamic Defenders Front militant group attacked several nightspots in the Indonesian capital yesterday, damaging three cars but causing no serious in

Jill Jolliffe, Bazartete – Ever since Lysistrata and her sisters refused sex to their warmongering husbands in ancient Greece, women have had a special role to play in brokering peace.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Kornelius Purba, Yogyakarta – Indonesia, as the host, opened a two-day meeting of the Southwest Pacific Dialogue Forum here on Friday to seek reconfirmation of

Robert Go, Jakarta – Indonesia lacks strong, respected leaders who can guide it out of the current political and economic crises, according to the findings of a recent survey.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The Indonesian government should probe reports that a Singaporean extremist helped fund a plot to assassinate President Megawati Sukarnoputri, said lawmakers an

Denise Leith – On 31 August, 2002 fourteen employees of the Freeport mining company were shot on the road leading to the company town of Tembagapura high in the mountainous interior of

Padang, West Java – Thousands of workers and students trying to get to Padang, the capital of West Sumatra, were left stranded on Thursday when public transportation drivers went on str

Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo – My native East Timor became the 191st member of the United Nations last week.

Nani Farida, Banda Aceh – New lawyers representing two foreigners suspected of violating immigration law in war-torn Aceh called on the local police and the prosecutor's office to be ca

Yogyakarta – East Timor's Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta said on Saturday he doubted allegations Australian troops tortured pro-Jakarta militiamen and shot one in the head during a p