Jayapura – Thousands of Papuans who are members of the National Committee occupied the building of West Papua People's Assembly in Kotaraja Papua, Jayapura, Monday, February 20, 2012.

Bangkok – The Southeast Asian half-island nation of Timor-Leste is falling short on most Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), experts warn.

Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jakarta – Indonesia is liable to fail to meet its Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) target in reducing mother and infant mortality rates by 2015, given the lack o

Hans David Tampubolon, Jakarta – Infrastructure development in Indonesia remains inefficient despite a significant increase in government spending on development projects over the last

Alex Munro – A Chadstone resident has been leading a team of volunteers spreading light throughout some of the most remote parts of East Timor.

Jakarta – The government's plan to boost capital spending for infrastructure is set to get a major boost as the House of Representatives is scheduled to endorse the long-awaited land ac

Jakarta – Indonesia's House of Representatives on Friday approved a long-awaited land acquisition bill investors hope will give a big boost to government infrastructure projects in Sout

Indonesian members of parliament approved the final draft of a long-awaited land bill on Wednesday that investors hope will speed up land acquisition for government infrastructure proje

Olivia Rondonuwu – Indonesia's parliament is likely to pass a long-delayed land bill next week, a move that investors hope will speed up land acquisition to spur infrastructure developm

Jakarta – A police officer who was assaulted by villagers in Papua died after being treated in hospital, the police said Monday, two days after two other officers were shot dead by unkn

Evi Mariani, Washington, DC – US President Barack Obama is expected to raise human rights issues in Indonesia's Papua during his second visit to Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest econ

Ulma Haryanto – The government on Friday defended Indonesia's sliding performance in the recently released 2011 Human Development Index by the United Nations Development Program.

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) launched the 2011 Human Development Index (HDI) on Wednesday.

Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jakarta – Indonesia will likely fail to achieve the standards defined by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 due to corruption, poor management and bud

We are already in the 21st Century where the global village is the basic premise for international cooperation and enlightenment, and the arena in which to resolve issues peacefully for

Dion Bisara – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono vowed on Monday to boost spending on infrastructure next year at the cost of subsidy cuts on programs including fuel and electricity to

Hasyim Widhiarto, Jakarta – The government's effort to regulate land ownership dated back to 1945, soon after Indonesia gained independence from its Dutch rulers.

Hasyim Widhiarto, Jakarta – When negotiations over land acquisition for public infrastructure turns ugly, the use of threats as a regular last resort is inevitable.

Joe Cochrane – To many Indonesians, Timor-Leste is a country redolent with bad dreams, the result of the problematic past when it was the country's 27th province and the traumatic birth

Idries de Vries – Recently, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono urged private investors to help Indonesia overcome its endemic infrastructure problems, as the central government itself d

Brian Knowlton, Washington – A frank evaluation by the World Bank's internal auditors of a decade of efforts to help East Timor underscores the challenges facing international organizat

Indonesia is willing to discuss the "Papua" issue with the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

Faisal Maliki Baskoro – For several days, hundreds of frustrated truck drivers have had to eat and sleep on the road to the port city of Merak, Banten.

Camelia Pasandaran, Bogor, West Java – Attempts to develop Indonesia have "failed" because of five "illnesses" that plague the nation, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Monday.

Vento Saudale & Zaky Pawas, Jakarta – Angered over the dismal conditions of the nation's pockmarked roadways and the attendant traffic snarls and safety hazards they create, residen

Dion Bisara – A long wet season and regulatory bottlenecks at the provincial level were blamed for slow budget spending last year, the Finance Ministry said on Tuesday.

Ririn Radiawati Kusuma, Jakarta – In its continuing efforts to boost infrastructure development, the government is offering three projects on Java Island to foreign and domestic investo

Shirley Christie, Jakarta – A draft bill to regulate land acquisition for public projects was sent to the president last week and would reach the legislature before the end of the year,

Camelia Pasandaran, Jakarta – Bringing down the high cost of living in Papua, which is paradoxically the country's least-developed province, is a key factor in boosting development ther

Nurfika Osman, Jakarta – Women participating in the anti-poverty National Program for Community Empowerment, or PNPM, have jumped to its defence after its effectiveness was questioned e

An Australia-based Papua specialist says it remains to be seen whether an increase in state funding for Indonesia's Papua region will have any benefit for indigenous people.

Mustaqim Adamrah, Jakarta – A two-day special ministerial meeting to review progress on meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the Asia-Pacific region ended Wednesday, with

Robin McDowell, Jakarta – The jumpy video shows a prisoner lying in a jungle clearing in eastern Indonesia moments after troops allegedly sliced open his abdomen with a bayonet, sending

Dessy Sagita – Culturally entrenched gender inequality and a lack of bargaining power has kept much of Asia, and Indonesia in particular, from meeting the UN Millennium Development Goal

Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – East Timor's President Jose Ramos Horta has attacked international aid agency AusAID for forcing the closure of what he says is one of his country's few succes

The Australian government is standing by its aid program in East Timor after a scathing assessment of the performance of donors by Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao.

Dessy Sagita – A lack of commitment by regional governments has hampered efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, the Coordinating Ministry for People's Welfare said on Thur

Febriamy Hutapea – The House of Representatives on Monday opened its first session of the year by calling on the government to pay closer attention to Papua, which lags far behind other

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – The government has been urged to make a "breakthrough" in its children- and health-related programs, with Indonesia's infant mortality rate currently among the

Dili – Tiny East Timor reached a new low in the UN's annual measurement of human development, falling even further down the list of 182 countries measured for overall quality of life.

Timika, Papua – Vice President-elect Boediono, making his first ever visit to troubled Papua, said here on Monday that development in the region would be given special attention by the

Anita Rachman – The government is likely to fall short of its mark in efforts to reduce the illiteracy rate to 5 percent by the end of the year – and officials are blaming a lack of mot

Jakarta – Indonesia's infant and child mortality rates have declined, but maternal mortality rates remain "among the highest in East Asia", a World Bank report said.

Jakarta – The government admitted Wednesday that water services across the archipelago are unlikely to meet the 2015 target set by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Indah Setiawati, Jakarta – The success of a water supply management scheme does not depend on whether it is privatized, but on its operator's corporate performance, a research publicati

Anita Rachman – Nine years after Indonesia took up the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs, the country still had a long way to go in proving its commitment to achievi

Banda Aceh – Achievements toward the Millennium Development Goals in Aceh remain far from the expected target of 2015, national program coordinator Ivan A. Hadar said Monday.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Manokwari – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited West Papua on Thursday, pouring hundreds of billion of rupiah in projects around the province.

Martin Lundqvist, Hong Kong, China – "Witch hunting" has historically been, and still is, a common phenomenon in Papua among the indigenous people.

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – Indonesia is unlikely to meet its target for access to drinking water set in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) because of contaminated groundwater in citi