Jakarta – Hundreds of protestors Wednesday demonstrated at the Australian embassy here Wednesday, hurling abuse, tomatoes and stones at the premises over the perceived arrogance of Australian troops in East Timor.

Jakarta – Thirty MPs from Indonesia's Aceh province Wednesday urged the nation's highest legislative body to give the troubled region a broad-based autonomy along the lines proposed for East Timor.

Pravit Rojanaphruk – Suharto may be gone but respect for human rights and freedom of speech is still a long way off in the country he ruled with an iron fist for 32 years. A shameful chapter in history near its end as East Timor inches toward independence.

Dili – The United Nations said Wednesday it had uncovered no evidence to support allegations that pro-Jakarta militia engaged in mass murder in East Timor.

"We've heard horrendous stories for which so far there's not a shred of evidence," Michel Barton, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA) in Dili told Reuters.

Jakarta – Thousands of students and taxi drivers were in an uproar yesterday over the dropping of the Soeharto probe and later staged a rally demanding the government continue its probe into the case.

Sydney – Australia has begun talks with East Timorese leaders over the Timor Gap treaty under which Australia and Indonesia share oil revenue from the Timor Sea, officials said Wednesday.

Joanna Jolly, Dili – By 9am the crowd outside the stadium in East Timor's capital Dili has already begun to swell in anticipation of the arrival of the day's first refugees being flown back from Indonesian West Timor.

Jakarta – Indonesian Armed-Forces Commander General Wiranto accepted the nomination by President B.J. Habibie as his running mate for the October 20 presidential election, a local newspaper reported Thursday.

Jakarta – Some 2,000 supporters of Indonesian opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri swamped a major roundabout in central Jakarta on Wednesday to back her bid to become the country's fourth president.

The supporters were from different groups that began pouring into the roundabout from various directions around noon.

Five hundred members of TNI battalions who are East Timorese met last Wednesday to pledge their loyalty to the pro-integration struggle by joining the PPI, the Force to Struggle for Integration, in a ceremony attended by Udayana military commander, Major-General Adam Damiri.

"I naturally welcome your dedication," said Adam, "but not as members of the TNI."

Melbourne – Independent East Timor will be a western-style democracy with open institutions and a diversified economy driven by exports of coffee, oil, gas and tourism, the man likely to be its first leader has promised.

Andi Jatmiko, Liquica – Dozens of anti-independence militiamen who fled East Timor are secretly returning with plans to launch a guerrilla campaign against the international peacekeepers charged with keeping them out.

Dili – Australia and Indonesia Monday traded accusations over a border clash between the multinational forces in East Timor and Indonesian troops, as Australia called for urgent top-level talks to defuse the row.

Vaudine England, Jakarta and Switzerland – Two probes into allegations former president Suharto amassed ill-gotten wealth have been dropped due to lack of evidence, the Government said yesterday amid howls of protest.

Melbourne – The East Timorese people were prepared to accept the risk of armed struggle against Indonesia and now accept the high cost of their freedom, resistance leader Xanana Gusmao said Monday.

Jakarta – Gunmen shot dead two policemen in the troubled Indonesian province of Aceh on Tuesday while another was killed the previous day, reports said.

Paula Doran – Paul Morris has just served his fourth, and probably his last mission with the United Nations. He says the humanitarian organisation betrayed the trust of the East Timorese and did not treat its local staff properly.

Yenni Kwok – As Australian-led troops struggle to restore order and peace to East Timor, another battlefront is raging in Jakarta as local media fuel the fires of contempt among Indonesians for anything Australian.

Ian Hunter, London – Australian special forces and navy divers were scouting the terrain of East Timor and Indonesian forces deployments inside the territory months before the actual landing of United Nations-approved peacemakers last month, a senior Australian defence source has revealed.

Jakarta – The Indonesian government announced on Monday it has issued a regulation on the establishment of a human rights tribunal which would also cover alleged atrocities committed in East Timor.

Amy Chew, Jakarta – Indonesia's former ruling Golkar party said on Monday it had approached presidential frontrunner Megawati Sukarnoputri about possible cooperation but had been rebuffed.

Susan Sim, Jakarta – Indonesia's two leading presidential candidates – Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri and Mr Abdurrahman Wahid, also known as Gus Dur – continued to confound political pundits here with an apparent show of their solidarity last Friday when they travelled together to East Java to visit the graves of their fathers.

Paul Daley – Australian intelligence agencies have new evidence that Indonesian military officials are systematically covering up their East Timor atrocities, with a program to intimidate and kill pro-integration militiamen who carried out much of the carnage.

Dili – An Interfet foot patrol has shot dead a militia fighter near the East Timor border with Indonesian West Timor, an Australian army spokesman said Sunday.

Singapore – Pro-Indonesian militias are undergoing training in guerilla warfare with the aim of killing Australian soldiers spearheading a multinational force in East Timor, Singapore's Sunday Times said.

Jakarta – Families of Indonesian veterans of East Timor protested at the Australian embassy here on Saturday, burning an effigy representing Australian soldiers.

Agence France Presse, Cassa – The armed men involved in a fatal clash with international peacekeepers in East Timor were from a feared militia that has committed a series of atrocities, witnesses said yesterday.

Tom Fawthrop and Marianne Kearney, Kupang – More than 230,000 East Timorese refugees in West Timor camps are being pressed to declare whether they want to return home or stay in Indonesia.

Jakarta's Ministry of Transmigration has been preparing a resettlement plan to absorb more than 250,000 East Timorese, with promises of two hectares of land and a house.

Jakarta – At least ten people have been killed and scores injured in renewed clashes between Muslims and Christians in an island in the riot-torn Indonesian province of Maluku, reports said Friday.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – The most open secret in Jakarta's murky political world is about the meeting which presidential frontrunner Megawati Sukarnoputri had with chairman of the ruling Golkar party, Akbar Tanjung.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the party which obtained the largest votes at the last general elections, says it has no intention to mobilize the masses no matter what the result of the presidential election on October 20 as non-violence has become its policy.

Medan – Five people were seriously injured on Thursday in a clash between riot police and workers demanding a pay rise near the Indonesian city of Medan, witnesses and hospital sources said.

Dili – Indonesian commandos are conducting covert operations inside East Timor aimed at sabotaging the international peacekeeping effort, foreign military officials say.

Lewa Pardomuan, Jakarta – Violence between Indonesian troops and separatists is hurting the local economy and scaring off investors in the northern Sumatran province of Aceh.

Rene Flipo, Maliana – The few people who greeted the first international peacekeepers to arrive in the devastated and deserted town of Maliana yesterday recounted tales of terror, massacres and forced deportations.

Agencies in Jakarta – Opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri's chances of becoming Indonesia's next president weakened yesterday as a political rival won a key post and her party's main ally pondered withdrawing support.

Several hundred Megawati supporters demonstrated in central Jakarta, demanding the country's legislature select her as the next leader.

Jakarta – Muslim leader Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid Thursday emerged as a strong contender to be Indonesia's next president in a race with opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri and incumbent B.J. Habibie.

Tim Dodd – General Wiranto knows who to blame for Indonesia's problems. It's a man in a black dinner suit with a mobile phone who is secretly directing the host of dark forces tearing at the unity of the nation.

Jakarta – Indonesia's military on Wednesday urged the country's new national assembly to endorse East Timor's independence vote and formally free the territory it invaded in 1975.

Police Brigadier General Taufiequrochman Ruki, reading out the views of the 38-strong parliamentary faction of military and police MPs said the military favored letting East Timor go.

Sydney – East Timorese resistance leader Jose Ramos Horta launched a bitter attack on former Australian prime minister Paul Keating on Tuesday, accusing him of betraying the people of East Timor.

Susan Sim, Jakarta – In an extraordinary display of the lobbying skills of Golkar leaders, party chief Akbar Tandjung was set to be elected Speaker of Parliament (DPR) without a vote being cast last night.

Tom Allard – The Indonesian Foreign Minister told his Australian counterpart, Mr Downer, as early as February that Indonesia was arming pro-integration groups.

According to an article in the Bulletin magazine, the Indonesian Foreign Minister, Mr Ali Alatas, told Mr Downer arming of the groups was "legitimate".

United Nations – Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday proposed a United Nations transitional authority for East Timor that would oversee all aspects of civilian life and include some 10,000 peacekeepers and police.

Vaudine England and Agencies, Jakarta – Soldiers and riot police lounged in makeshift camps under flyovers and in central parks across Jakarta as their leaders held festivities to mark Army Day at the palm tree-lined grounds of Cilangkap military headquarters.

The multinational force in East Timor (Interfet) was wise to avoid a firefight earlier this week with members of the resistance force, Falintil, by backing away from demands that the guerillas surrender their weapons. This is a directive that must be backed by the resistance leader, Mr Xanana Gusmao, if loss of life and suspicion of Interfet among East Timorese is to be avoided.

Dili – Falintil resistance fighters will be allowed to retain their weapons in their camps pending further disarmament negotiations, despite a UN mandate to disarm all groups, an Interfet spokesman said Tuesday.

By James Balowski

Slobodan Lekic, Dili – Stung by criticism of alleged bias, the commander of the international peacekeeping force in East Timor demanded today that pro-independence rebels hand in their weapons.

Jakarta – Thousands of Indonesian students in the capital and other cities in Java and Sumatra Tuesday marked the 54th Indonesian Armed Forces Day with mass protests demanding the military return to barracks, witnesses and reports said.

Vaudine England and agencies, Jakarta – All bets are now off for the forthcoming presidential poll in the wake of several startling, democratic events in the country's highest political body, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).