John McBeth, Jakarta – For both admirers and critics of Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, the picture is disturbing: At the presidential palace in Jakarta there are signs of a new "royal court" in the making.

Yogyakarta – Surakarta-based radio station PTPN Rasitania was silent on Wednesday after it was forced to suspend broadcasting after airing a talk show that some accused of being blasphemous.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – Crime is shooting up and guns are the rage in Jakarta these days. Media reports here suggest that the increase is due to the increasing availability in Indonesia of firearms and other weapons for personal defence, such as tear-gas canisters.

Jakarta – Conflicts between local communities and timber companies will likely increase in the future because the people are now more aware of their rights, a senior government official said on Wednesday.

Indonesia's environmental monitoring agency, Bapadal, has been trying to get hard evidence to nail those responsible for the dangerous levels of haze that has covered the Riau province over the past week. Straits Times Correspondent Marianne Kearney, while in Pekan Baru, followed one attempt to catch the fire starters

Jakarta – The World Bank has questioned the decision by a Jakarta court to acquit the director of a politically linked company accused of involvement in Indonesia's multi-million dollar Bank Bali fraud scandal, reports said Wednesday.

Marina Carman – One hundred and fifty students staged a protest outside the office of the regional legislative assembly in Surabaya, Indonesia, on February 22. The students were angry at the Indonesian military's repression and domination of political life in the country.

Jakarta – Abortion is strictly prohibited under both the Criminal Code and the Health Law. But despite the legislation, women continue to seek abortions.

Vanya Tanaja, Dili – Whilst independence from Indonesian rule has been won, some things in East Timor have changed little. After the militia violence of September, many Timorese are worse off than ever and help is a long time coming.

Peter Johnston, Dili – On arriving in East Timor, one is struck by how little has been repaired in the months since the militia destruction. Very few buildings were not damaged in the post-referendum, Jakarta-sponsored orgy of violence and looting. Most remain in ruins.

Dili – The UN Transition Administration of East Timor (UNTAET) has denounced the "disinformation campaign" waged by militia groups in Indonesian West Timor, whose aim is to make East Timorese refugees afraid to return to their homeland.

Mark Dodd – United Nations peacekeepers have captured a suspected pro-Jakarta militiaman after a gun battle in highland country deep inside East Timor.

Vaudine England and Agencies, Pekanbaru – The end of Indonesia's rainy season is once again revealing the chaos created by allowing plantation owners and farmers to clear land by setting fires.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Indonesia's armed forces are allegedly targeting human rights activists in the violence-hit province of Aceh as President Abdurrahman Wahid asks for Malaysia's help to broker peace talks with separatist rebels.

May Sari – Attended by 50 of its leading members, the Indonesian National Front for Labour Struggle (FNPBI) held its national council meeting in Cisarua, West Java, on February 13-15.

Jakarta – President Abdurrachman Wahid has signed a law ratifying a convention of the International Labour Organization (ILO) on immediate prevention of abuse of child workers.

Wahid described the convention as important for Indonesia where, he said, there were still many cases of child workers "inhumanly" abused against the convention of the United Nations.

Jakarta – Leading politicians and observers said on Monday the attack on National Awakening Party (PKB) chairman Matori Abdul Djalil was politically motivated, speculating that it might be part of a larger conspiracy to destabilize the government.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – More than 10 senior military officers, at least one of them holding a three-star rank, threatened to quit the Indonesian defence forces (TNI) last week after complaining of "repeated presidential intervention" in military affairs.

Jakarta – Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights on Tuesday set up a team to probe the 1984 shooting in Jakarta's northern port area that left scores dead.

The commission's Secretary General, Asmara Nababan, told journalists here that team, composed of nine members and headed by Joko Sugianto, will investigate the 12 September 1984 shooting in Tanjung Priok.

Jakarta – The director of a politically linked company accused of involvement in Indonesia's multi-million dollar Bank Bali fraud scandal has been acquitted on a technicality, reports said Tuesday.

Djoko Tjandra, executive of PT Era Giat Prima (EGP), had been charged with corruption in "arranging and engaging in illegal transactions," the Jakarta Post daily said.

Jakarta – A new presidential decree will be issued allowing the government to take over Rp 4 trillion (US$540 million) in assets from former president Soeharto's seven foundations.

Eric Wright, Dili – The former colonial power of East Timor, Portugal, is creeping back through an open door, more than 25 years after fleeing ignominiously from the mainland. The Timorese, in dire need of cash and assistance to build their new country, are willing to accept the Portuguese gifts.

Mark Dodd, Dili – Heavily armed intruders from across the Indonesian border are believed responsible for a weekend attack in which one person was killed, another injured and a third person taken hostage.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – The baby sits in rags among the filth, a commodity for sale. A beggar pays a little money and buys a tragic bundle to cry when cars pull up at the traffic lights.

Mark Dodd, Dili – In the local Tetum language it is known as Uma Mutuk, or Burnt House, restaurant. It is arguably Dili's most popular eatery, and, like the mythical phoenix, its proud owners say their flourishing business has risen from the ashes.

Dili – A vice president of the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT), Jose Ramos Horta, said Friday he was "amazed" by a news report that Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid had suggested East Timor could yet opt for integration in Indonesia.

Marianne Kearney, Riau – Where there's smoke there is fire but in Riau province, central Sumatra, finding the source of the fire and who started it is not always easy.

On February 28, Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid appointed an unusual new advisor: former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) Commander Adm. Widodo approved a large-scale reshuffling of the military this week, shifting 74 officers and several top positions. In the most noteworthy transfer, he appointed an outspoken reformer, Lt. Gen. Agus Wirahadikusumah, as the head of the elite Army Strategic Reserve Command, known as Kostrad.

Jakarta – A loan scandal involving Indonesia's biggest textile magnate, Marimutu Sinivasan of the Texmaco Group, is turning into a major challenge for President Abdurrahman Wahid's four-month-old government.

Dili – More than 600 people are known to have been killed in East Timor last year , but the actual toll is likely to be higher, the United Nations said yesterday. No cases have yet gone to trial under East Timor's fledgling judicial system.

Marianne Kearney, Pekanbaru – Just across the Malacca Strait from Singapore, was yesterday enveloped in a blanket of haze as over 100 fires blazed for the third day this week.

Riau province in central Sumatra, which last year had one of the highest recorded number of blazing hot spots, has again become a fire centre.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – The Indonesian armed forces (TNI) plans to reduce the number of its extensive territorial commands in the country in a move that could diminish the military's political role further.

Jakarta – Indonesia's best-known writer, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, is a surprise critic of the country's new President, Mr Abdurrahman Wahid. Pramoedya dismisses the President as "part of the elite ... that implemented fascism and ran the country by terror ... everyone became afraid and those who wanted to live had to become a hypocrite".

Jakarta – Suspended Cabinet minister General Wiranto has denied that Lt-General Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the military's former chief of territorial affairs, proposed that he should seize power amid the political violence preceding the downfall of former President Suharto.

Mark Dodd, Dili – Australian and New Zealand peacekeepers based along East Timor's border with Indonesia have come under sustained fire from suspected militia in the most serious test so far of United Nations military readiness after the departure of Interfet.

Jakarta – The House Commission VIII in charge of mining and energy said it would ask the Mines and Energy Ministry to clarify the position with regard to higher fuel price and electricity tariff.

Jakarta – A visiting senior US official Friday called the prevailing situation in camps holding tens of thousands of East Timorese in Indonesian West Timor since September "untenable."

"The situation in West Timor [refugee camps] is untenable," US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Pickering told a press briefing here.

Singapore (AP) – Fires have broken out on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, where land-clearing blazes caused severe pollution in much of Southeast Asia in 1997, officials in Singapore said Thursday.

Banda Aceh – Six more bodies have been found at separate locations in the troubled Indonesian province of Aceh, as a handgrenade exploded in the office of the North Aceh district chief, injuring four people, police and residents said Friday.

Slobodan Lekic, Jakarta – While affirming Indonesia's "territorial integrity," the United States today urged President Abdurrahman Wahid not to use force in quelling a bloody separatist rebellion in the country's north.

Jakarta – People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien Rais said on Wednesday Indonesia did not need foreign advisors, thus President Abdurrahman Wahid's appointment of several foreign dignitaries in that role was merely a symbolic gesture.

Jakarta – The government and the House of Representatives budget committee agreed on Wednesday to raise the basic salaries of President Abdurrahman Wahid and Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri by 78 percent and 120 percent respectively.

Jakarta - Warning shots were fired on Thursday as mobs attempted to prevent police from clearing barricades from the streets in a town in Indonesia's easternmost province of Irian Jaya, police said.

In Indonesia, hundreds of drivers of the popular three-wheeled pedicabs took to the streets late last night.

According to reports by the official Antara News Agency, they were rallying against a local government decision banning them many of the streets in Jakarta.

Pip Hinman, Jakarta – Around 500 members of the People's Democratic Party (PRD) protested outside the Presidential Palace on February 21 to demand that the Indonesian government abandon its plans to cut fuel and electricity subsidies. PRD members travelled to Jakarta from all over the country.

Jakarta – Indonesia signed the protocol of the United Nations Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (UN-CEDAW) on Monday.

May Sari, Jakarta – Having failed to gain satisfaction from their employer or the Indonesian government, thousands workers from PT Kong Tai Indonesia protested outside parliament here on February 21.

Chris Latham – One hundred and fifty East Timorese refugees refused to leave the East Hills army barracks in Sydney on February 22. The government was determined to remove the refugees from the camp for a "voluntary" flight home on February 22.

James Balowski – "In a forest west of Dili, Filomena Amaral is about to learn the details of how her husband, a village schoolteacher and church leader, was tortured and killed. Photographs of her husband's shattered bones are needed as evidence in the event that his killers are ever brought to trial.