There are about 13 million children under the age of 5 in the country suffering from chronic malnutrition.

Budiarto Shambazy – On April 12, 1963 rebels in Brunei were involved in an armed contact with British troops in North Kalimantan.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – After heavy government lobbying, Indonesia's central bank (BI) has agreed to roll back lending restrictions imposed on the banking sector in the wake of the 1997-

The ongoing debate over whether President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will reshuffle his cabinet seems to have missed the point.

Joe Humphreys – It is the first such ballot since the country gained independence in 2002 – after 21/2 years of transitional rule by the UN, and a 24-year occupation by an often brutal

Damien Kingsbury – Those who view East Timor's politics as largely benign describe the mood before tomorrow's presidential election as "dynamic".

Fabio Scarpello – Fiery campaigner Ceu Lopes, 50, was active during her fledgling nation's 24-year struggle against the occupation by Indonesia.

It's five years on from independence, and as the troubled country gears up for Monday's elections, people there tell Joe Humphreys how they see the future.

Aboeprijadi Santoso, Amsterdam – Former president B.J. Habibie has often been synonymous with unpredictability.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Indonesia's politics of corruption has always been murky, with untold billions of dollars spirited from state coffers into politicians' personal accounts during s

A new security treaty with Indonesia could hamper Australia's ability to speak out about human rights abuses, a Sydney University report warns.

Paul Toohey – A failed effort to heal an injured child has led to the machete killings of three East Timorese women branded as sorcerers.

The administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono took another bold step in its war on corruption with Tuesday's arrest of the chief of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog), Widjan

Susie Berindra and Sidik Ramono – The government wants to strengthen the presidential system by simplifying the multi-party system.

Stephen Skinner – Timorese people are starving on our doorstep.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – The opening of a new US$1.1 billion gas pipeline would appear to mark a rejuvenation of Indonesia's until now woefully inefficient natural-gas sector and boost th

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has won high marks from both the United States and Australia for his government's efforts to combat terrorism, inclu

The Rp 1.38 trillion (US$152 million) loan syndication agreement between PT Semesta Marga Raya and a lender consortium led by state-owned Bank BNI and Bank Rakyat Indonesia for the cons

We have acted irresponsibly toward the 10,000 people in Sidoarjo, East Java, displaced by the mudflow.

Jeff Kingston – East Timor is an ill-starred land that has endured more than its share of violence, neglect and deprivation.

Dennis Shanahan – It used to be a proud boast of Australian troops on the ground in East Timor in the latest security assignment that they had never fired a shot.

Duncan Graham, Jakarta – Lawmakers pushing for tighter controls on Indonesia's rampant tobacco habit are facing heavy-duty hostility from the multibillion-dollar industry's powerful lob

Roy Callinan, Same – A few hours before dawn on Feb.

Damian Kingsbury – The decision by East Timor's courts to convict and jail former interior minister, Rogerio Lobato, on charges of manslaughter and arming gangs last year should come as

Hannah Beech, Dili – Every day, the fancy jeeps cruise past Palmira Pereira's shack on the northern coast of East Timor.

Fabio Scarpello, Denpasar – Indonesia's already faltering war against corruption risks grinding to a total halt if a new anti-corruption draft law now circulating in Parliament and exec

Damien Kingsbury – The assault in East Timor by Australian troops on outlaw Major Alfredo Reinado and his gang in Same, and the worsening of violence and destruction in Dili, has highli

Hamish McDonald – It was the week the Balibo inquest cut to the chase.

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – Street gangsters have a favourite place on Dili's waterfront.

Kalinga Seneviratne, Jakarta – Indonesia has taken the symbolic step of reconciling with its minority ethnic-Chinese community by recognizing Chinese New Year as a full-blown national f

At the beginning of this month's long overdue inquest into the deaths of the five Australian-based newsmen at Balibo in 1975, the Crown counsel heralded the hearings as the first "open,

The government's plan to build Indonesia's first nuclear power plant, tentatively set to begin 2011, is moving forward with the public given little or no chance to have its say.

It looks as though Indonesia is yet to be free of disasters.

The recent deadly flooding that submerged Greater Jakarta for one week left behind prolonged misery and remarkable damages.

Hamish McDonald – Australia's spooks are often aghast at the way highly classified intelligence material and techniques leak out into the public domain in the United States.

The Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF), set up by Indonesia and Timor Leste, has finally begun to show its face with its inaugural public hearings.

Brett Morris – On Monday, a commission set up by Indonesia and East Timor began its first hearing to further reconciliation between the two countries over the violence that occurred dur

The mudslinging between the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and State Secretary Yusril Ihza Mahendra poses yet another test for the government's graft fight.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Singapore's aggressive regional investment strategy has already taken bilateral relations with Thailand to an all-time low, but a rising tide of economic national

James Dunn – The current coronial enquiry into the death of Brian Peters at Balibo in October 1975 has brought back vivid memories of a crisis in which I myself played a part.

Anthony Hubbard – The New Zealand government didn't want to make a fuss about the death of Gary Cunningham.

New Zealand's shameful record over East Timor comes into focus again this week.

In between the nonstop television news coverage of the Jakarta floods this week was a report from Australia about a man plucked from a tree by a helicopter as floodwaters raged below.

Seth Mydans, Jakarta – Too many shopping malls in the city. Too many squatters on the riverbanks. Too many villas on the southern hillsides.

The massive flooding in Jakarta over the past few days is further proof that crisis brings out the best in most people.

After two days of heavy rain, floods paralyzed Jakarta and its buffer towns on Friday to a degree that surely exceeded the flooding of five years ago, which up to this point was conside

Hopes were high last September that peace would last in Poso after police executed three Christian men convicted of carrying out a series of killings in the Central Sulawesi town in 200

The nation's commitment to civil society is being tested again as the debate intensifies over the bill on national security, which includes a major revamp of the National Police.

Patrick Thronson – Americans lose part of the past in an obvious sense when a former president dies: A living link to our history is extinguished.

David Fullbrook – Cutthroat cost competition, overcrowded airports and perennial safety concerns, including a tragic accident involving an aged plane that killed at least 90 people on M