Activists displaying the freshly severed heads of two dogs outside the Jakarta offices of Indonesia's Election Commission (KPU) yesterday in a gruesome protest against the commission's alleged incompetence in organising upcoming polls.

Jakarta – A coalition of non-governmental organizations called on the government to immediately appoint a minister to represent them in the discussion of the bill on the protection of migrant workers and their family members with the House of Representatives (DPR) before their tenure expires.

Danang Sangga Buwana, Jakarta – Monday March 8 is International Women's Day (IWD), and a number of groups from the pro-democracy movement held actions to commemorate the day.

Nurul Hidayati, Jakarta – Around 1000 activists from Greater Jakarta are expected to commemorate International Women's Day at the Hotel Indonesia roundabout on Monday March 8.

Triyono Wahyu Sudibyo, Semarang – Scores of women's activists have demanded that the quota of women representatives in the National Election Commissions list of legislative candidates be raised to 50 per cent. They consider that the current 30 per cent quota has not been effective.

Budi Hartadi, Surabaya – International Women's Day (IWD) was also commemorated in Surabaya, East Java. Around 100 students from the Poor People's Front for Struggle demonstrated in front of the governor's offices at the Grahadi State Building on Jalan Gubernur Suryo on Monday March 8.

Jafar G. Bua, Palu – International Women's Day was also commemorated in Palu. Interestingly, women in Palu protested against the marriage law and the issue of polygamy.

Bagus Kurniawan, Yogyakarta – In commemorating International Women's day which fell on Monday March 8, women from a number of different groups in Yogyakarta accused the political parties participating in the elections of not fighting for the rights of women. They also rejected discrimination and violence against women in Aceh and West Papua.

Verrianto Madjowa and Dian Yuliastuti, Manado – International Women's Day (IWD), which falls on March 8, was also commemorated in Manado, North Sulawesi. Distributing leaflets, scores of women's activists gathered at the Manado National Unity Park.

Jakarta – Couples caught kissing passionately in public in Indonesia could spend five years in jail.

Campaigning starts this week for Indonesia's general election, with a resurgent Golkar party that backed former dictator Suharto hoping to capitalize on disenchantment with President Megawati Sukarnoputri's administration.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam) slammed the Attorney General's Office on Friday for declaring that there were no serious human rights violations in the 1998 May riots.

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – Playing down public criticism and without the knowledge of its partner in the project, the Jakarta Public Works Agency will start widening sections of Jl. Sudirman and Jl. Thamrin, Central Jakarta, early next month to allow more space for private cars.

Jakarta – A group of teachers representing schools in Kampar regency threatened to return to the streets on Monday unless Home Minister Hari Sabarno approved the proposed dismissal of regent Jefri Noer and his deputy A. Zakir by, at the latest, Saturday.

Jakarta – Indonesia's intelligence chief Hendropriyono has sparked off a controversy by allowing himself to be listed as a national campaigner for the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) in the coming election.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The Electoral Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) said misuse of state facilities by government officials for party interests might be widespread ahead of the general election, but sadly it had no power to take action against it.

Moch. N. Kurniawan and Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Just 30 days ahead of the April 5 legislative election, only 47 percent of the country's population is actually aware of that date, according to a survey by the International Foundation for Election System (IFES) and the Polling Center.

Jakarta – Indonesia Military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto and Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) chief Maj. Gen. Ng Yat Chun ended on Friday their two-day talks on defense cooperation between the two neighbors.

Fitri Wulandari, Jakarta – After being considered a pariah nation for years by power investors, Indonesia has started to regain investor confidence, largely due to the successful resolution of disputes with independent power producers (IPPs), a senior official said on Friday.

Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Friday that the government had succeeded in retaining market confidence three months after the expiration of the Fund-backed special lending program.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – The House of Representatives (DPR) wound up its seven-week long session on Friday with only about 50 legislators showing up at the plenary meeting to hear the closing speech of House Speaker Akbar Tandjung.

Gary LaMoshi, Denpasar – President Megawati Sukarnoputri herself closed the book on the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency last Friday, thanking IBRA officials for their work. According to most observers and by virtually every measure, it was not a job well done.

Syaiful Amin, Yogyakarta – On Friday March 5, at least 100 students from a number of schools of higher education held an action warning against the reemergence of the New Order [regime of former President Suharto].

Gunawan Mashar, Makassar – Actions protesting rotten politicians and political parties are still happening. In Makassar, at least 500 students warned of the dangers posed by rotten politicians and political parties.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – The collapse of the rupiah in 1998 left Indonesian telecommunication companies barely able to pay their dollar-denominated debts, let alone fund new investment.

Jakarta – Indonesian environmental activists filed a police complaint against plans to build a road network through a huge conservation area in Sumatra island.

Indro Tjahyono, coordinator of the Network for Forestry Conservation, said he filed the complaint in Jakarta against Infrastructure Minister Sunarno and the governor of Aceh province, Abdullah Puteh.

Smoke was hampering rescue efforts after a blaze at an Indonesian gold mine in which at least 12 people, mostly illegal miners, are feared to have died, an official said.

An Islamic militant who shielded a key member of the Bali bombings plot has been jailed for nine years, the last in a series of trials arising from the atrocities that left 202 people dead.

Jakarta – Although optimistic, the chief of the Indonesian armed forces (TNI), General Endriartono Sutarto, has said that there is no guarantee that the 2004 general elections will proceed without security disturbances.

Jakarta – A consultant with the World Bank in Central Sulawesi rejected on Tuesday a statement that a bank-funded project in Donggala regency in 2002 was marred by corruption.

Urip Hudiono, Jakarta – Prominent religious leaders, businesspeople and activists have agreed to step up efforts against corruption by not supporting candidates in the election that have shown an unwillingness to stop corruption.

They publicly announced the agreement during a one-day conference entitled "Building a Union Against Graft" here on Tuesday.

Kurniawan Hari and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Ansor, a youth group of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country's largest Muslim organization, has announced that it will not support the possible presidential candidacy of former NU chairman Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid.

Cirebon – The National Mandate Party (PAN) is open to and will allow the ex-members of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) to join the party. The precondition being that ex-PKI members - who's political rights were recently rehabilitated by the Constitutional Court - are not allowed to resurrect the ideology of communism.

Rais Hidayat, Jakarta – Several youth organizations were closely tied with the ruling Golkar party under New Order regime. They were its right arm, ready to guard any of its events and to mobilize support. They gained considerable influence, even if some of it was out of fear or resentment.

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – Police have arrested another 30 suspected illegal loggers in Kalimantan, an island adjacent to Malaysia, and seized almost 30,000 cubic meters of logs during an operation conducted from February 19 to February 28.

Jakarta – Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto pointed to the Army leadership as the party responsible for the controversy over the purchase of four Russian-made MI-17 helicopters.

Jakarta – The husband of Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri yesterday accused the security minister of behaving like a child for complaining about being shut out of Cabinet meetings.

Jakarta – As the election draws close, political parties are now openly touting their possible presidential and vice presidential candidates in the hope of drumming up enough support to grab power.

Indonesia goes to the polls in next month, with President Megawati Sukarnoputri expected to retain power. But this time around, the president's campaign is doing little to influence a small group of once-loyal supporters.

Chinese Indonesians, who have traditionally shunned politics to focus on business, are now showing a new willingness to get politically active.

Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – The printing of ballot papers may be moved further back as film printing firms have still not finished the templates for the ballots, which will greatly delay the delivery of the election materials to all the polling stations.

Apriadi Gunawan and Ridwan Max Sijabat, Medan – The government has not yet tended to poor labor conditions at state-owned oil palm plantations in North Sumatra, leaving the majority of workers underpaid and uninsured.

Lee Kim Chew – Indonesia's biggest political parties expect to hang on to the votes they won in the 1999 polls, but two emerging Islamic parties are confident of making gains in April's parliamentary elections.

Hong Kong – Indonesia is seen as the most corrupt country in Asia for the third year running, followed by India and Vietnam, a survey of foreign businessmen showed on Tuesday.

Singapore was seen as the least corrupt among 12 countries and territories in the region, the study by Hong Kong-based Political & Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd says.

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – A rise in non-oil and gas exports drove the overall export figure in January slightly higher by 0.74 percent compared to the same period last year, raising hopes that export could help accelerate economic growth to 4.8 percent this year.

Fitri Wulandari, Jakarta – The consumer price index (CPI) fell 0.02 percent in February from the previous month as the rice harvest and a stronger rupiah resulted in lower prices for foodstuffs and lower education and recreation costs. The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) also reported on Monday that year-on-year inflation during the month was 4.6 percent, the lowest in four years.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – One of Indonesia's worst outbreaks of dengue fever for years has struck more than 19,000 people, killing at least 336 and prompting a flurry of Government promises to fight it.

Eva C. Komandjaja and Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – The City Council urged the Jakarta Administration on Monday to cut down on the bureaucratic red tape on disbursements for impoverished dengue fever victims, who are unable to get timely or professional medical treatment without the money.

Almost a third of Indonesia's state primary school buildings need repairs and some are so decrepit they threaten children's safety, a senior education ministry official said.

"I estimate that about 30 percent of our primary schools are suffering from various degrees of damage and decay," said Indra Jati Sidi, director general for elementary education.

Sri Wahyuni and Slamet Susanto, Yogyakarta – Sleman Regent Ibnu Subiyanto reassured teachers and students here on Monday that state-run Ambarrukmo Elementary School would not be demolished until a replacement building was provided.

"Students, teachers and parents should not worry about the plan," Ibnu told journalists at his office.

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – The government announced on Monday its plan to develop several infrastructure projects worth more than Rp 200 trillion (US$23.5 billion) over five years in the telecommunications and transportation sectors, as well as in the gas pipeline sector.