Sydney – Australian Prime Minister John Howard was forced to acknowledge Thursday the testiness of his country's relationship with Indonesia as a new diplomatic spat brewed.

Yemris Fointuna, Atambua – East Timorese refugees living in Atambua, East Nusa Tenggara, have destroyed some 700 hectares of protected forests in the regency of Belu for agricultural pu

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The Indonesian media, assessing President Megawati Sukarnoputri's first 100 days in office, said she did not live up to expectations and that her administration

Jakarta – Indonesians working abroad often become victims of extortion at the airport when they return home, a minister said in a newspaper report Wednesday, vowing to replace the relev

Jakarta – Central Bank Governor Sjahril Sabirin was convicted of fraud for his role in allowing an illegal payment to PT Bank Bali, said state prosecutor Jan Mere.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Former Defence Minister and military chief General Wiranto yesterday denied having misused 10 billion rupiah (S$1.7 million) from the state food logistics ag

Jakarta – Indonesia's state-owned electricity company, PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), is seeking foreign loans to avert a likely power shortage in the main islands of Java and Bali

United Nations – The Security Council decided Wednesday that the UN-administered territory of East Timor should become independent on May 20 next year.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – In line with the planned establishment of an independent East Timor early next year, Indonesia and East Timor have agreed to demilitarize their border areas to

Jakarta – Chief of the Udayana Military Command overseeing Bali, East and West Nusa Tenggara, Maj. Gen. Willem T.

Jakarta – The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Tuesday that it has helped repatriate 188,646 East Timorese refugees from Indonesia's West Timor in the past two years.

Banda Aceh – At least four people have been killed and three badly wounded in the latest violence to hit the restive Indonesian province of Aceh, the military and residents said Wednesd

John Aglionby, Jakarta – Megawati Sukarnoputri, Indonesia's president, marked 100 days in office yesterday with the threat of national disintegration, unchecked corruption and rapidly d

Jakarta – Indonesia's navy said on Wednesday it would not detain any asylum seekers found on boats in the country's waters and would even feed needy refugees before they resumed their j

Melbourne – Jakarta has failed to renew a key agreement that allowed Australian and Indonesian police to cooperate directly on stemming the flow of illegal immigrants to Australia, acco

Jakarta – Indonesia's cash-strapped state television station is to start carrying advertising for the first time since it was set up almost 40 years ago, a report said Wednesday.

Hong Kong – East Timor's future president Xanana Gusmao has recalled his fury when Australia refused to accept temporarily a handful of East Timorese students fleeing persecution in Ind

Setiyardi, Timor Lorosae – Floating hotels are a symbol of high living, an irony in stark contrast to widespread poverty in Timor Lorosae.

Disparity between the lifestyles of UNTAET personnel and the people of Timor Lorosae is sowing the seeds of social envy.

Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta – Indonesian police on Monday forcibly evicted 100 Middle Eastern asylum seekers, some of them screaming hysterically, who had been holed up at the UN refugee

Jakarta – Former minister of defense/Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen.

More than 3,200 East Timorese refugees returned home from Indonesia during October, the UN High Commission for Refugees said Monday in Dili, underlining it was the biggest one-month inf

Jakarta – The Indonesian government has decided to halt humanitarian assitance to East Timorese refugees in West Timor at the end of the year, a senior minister said in remarks publishe

Presenter: The commemoration of East Timor's newly-gained independence has been scheduled for 20 May [2002], however, the chief minister of the provisional government, Mari Alkatiri, sa

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Police deny allegations they forced asylum seekers at gunpoint on to a boat that subsequently sank, drowning about 350 people – but they admit "rogue" officer

Fitri Wulandari, Jakarta – The government will write a new book on Indonesian history in a response to the public's rising demand for the truth, an official said on Thursday.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – The government's city clean-up programme has put thousands of street vendors, beggars, becak drivers and traffic wardens out of work, and left many of them h

Jakarta – The new US Ambassador to Indonesia said on Thursday that Washington fully understood the position which President Megawati Soekarnoputri had taken with regard to the US attack

Ibnu Mat Noor, Banda Aceh – At least four people were shot dead in separate villages in Aceh, three of whom were believed to be members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), military and pol

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – House Speaker Akbar Tandjung said on Wednesday that protests and threats against Westerners had prompted unprecedented numbers of business travelers and hol

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – National Assembly chairman Amien Rais has quietly begun lobbying for the coveted presidential seat in 2004, making regular tours of Indonesian provinces as par

Jupriadi, Makassar – Muslim students in Makassar ignored explicit warnings from police, attacking and severely injuring two non-Muslims on Wednesday.

Fitri Wulandari, Jakarta – Teachers, long deploring small pay and being treated as "cash cows" by corrupt officials, are calling for a law that provides legal protection.

Fitri Wulandari, Jakarta – Infant formula producers denied allegations on Wednesday that they had exploited breast-feeding experts to promote their products."Instead of taking advantage

Jakarta – House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung met on Tuesday night with Taufik Kiemas, president Megawati Soekarnoputri's husband, to seek support to block a move aimed at e

Jakarta – Indonesian police said on Thursday they were investigating a report that policemen pointed their guns at asylum seekers who wanted to get off an overcrowded boat that sank las

Jakarta – The House of Representatives finally approved on Tuesday a long-awaited new oil and gas law, which will end the decades-old lucrative monopoly of state oil and gas firm Pertam

Virginia Marsh – If all had gone to plan, divers would now be laying a pipeline along the seabed linking Darwin to the substantial gasfields off its shores and a decades-old dream would

Max Lane, Jakarta – The most right-wing elements among politically organised Islam have sought to use the US "war on terrorism" to seize the political initiative in the world's most pop

A UN official of East Timor4s transitional administration Wednesday criticized Indonesia for its repeated delays in bring to trial military officers and officials indicted for human rig

Jo Ellis, Cairuhi – Australian solidarity activists have spent nearly two weeks here helping East Timorese counterparts begin an ambitious educational program which will involve local p

Robert Go, Jakarta – Potholed roads, crumbling hospitals, torn school books – that is the bleak picture in store for Indonesia if the government fails to sell immediately some of its as

Shoeb Kagda, Jakarta – As emerging market assets lose their shine in the current global environment, Indonesia faces an uphill task in implementing its privatisation programme, but not

Apriadi Gunawan and Fadly, Medan/Batam – Five underage women identified as IM, A, FY, E and W had no idea that they would be traded as prostitutes in a red light district in Dumai, Riau

Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta – The House of Representatives budget committee approved on Monday a government proposal to increase fuel prices by an average 30 percent starting January next

Jakarta – Indonesia's parliament, under pressure from powerful labour unions, said on Tuesday it had postponed a plan to pass a draft labour law this week due to fears of fresh unrest i

Badri Jawara, Palu – Central Sulawesi Provincial Police confirmed on Monday that six people of the 42 detained for questioning were interrogated over Saturday's sectarian clash in Tabal

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Amien Rais expressed his support on Monday for several legislators' suggestions to set up a special comm

Jakarta – The House of Representatives rushed to pass the special autonomy bill on Papua (Irian Jaya) into law at midnight Monday after a last-ditch effort to solve the contentious issu

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Parliament is set to pass seven laws this week in a plenary session starting today – although public disapproval is loud on bills including Irian Jaya autonom