An Indonesian court imposed an 18-year jail sentence on a man who supplied Islamic militants with the explosives used in a McDonald's restaurant bombing.

Arman, alias Galaxi, was found guilty on Monday of assisting the bombing at Makassar in South Sulawesi on December 5, 2002 and of illegal possession of firearms.

Jakarta – Indonesia has extended the detention of four Muslim students deported from Pakistan because they are suspected of links to an accused terror kingpin and several bombings, police said on Friday.

Jakarta – The newly elected chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Mr Taufieqqurrochman Ruki, has vowed to develop it into a credible institution.

Once the organisation is established, the KPK will focus on eradicating corruption in the civil service, law enforcement institutions and the private sector, he said on Wednesday.

Jakarta – President Megawati Sukarnoputri's son, Mohammad Rizki "Tatam" Pratama, has decided to withdraw from a business project in the Jakarta Fairground after intense scrutiny by legislators, The Jakarta Post reported yesterday.

Jakarta – The House of Representatives passed on Thursday the long-awaited state treasury bill into law, which Minister of Finance Boediono claimed will greatly improve the management of state funds and assets and thus help prevent corruption.

Jakarta – The House of Representatives (DPR) has removed one major hurdle to judicial independence by placing all courts under the direct supervision of the Supreme Court, but a noted legal expert warned that an independent and clean judicial system was still a long way off.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The idea was to ease traffic along Jakarta's busiest streets by encouraging people to abandon their cars, but a new bus system due to start running next month is already causing headaches.

Evi Mariani, Jakarta – A hearing on evictions between Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso and House of Representatives Commission II for home affairs turned into a farce on Thursday as commission deputy chairman Abdul Rachman Gaffar, who presided over the hearing, prevented invited evictees and urban observers from criticizing Sutiyoso.

Samarinda – The condition of East Kalimanatan forests has now become cause for worry, in view of continuing illegal logging activities, while bids of conservation have not been very effective, sources said on Wednesday.

Jakarta – More than 100 university students rallied outside the Supreme Court on Thursday, demanding the court to process the case against Speaker of the House of Representatives Akbar Tandjung for his corruption conviction which he has appealed to the Supreme Court.

Shawn Donnan and Taufan Hidayat – From the perspective of Hansen Kurniawan's cookie shop in Jakarta's Pasar Minggu market, the International Monetary Fund's performance in Indonesia is easy to grade.

Given this country's poor record in industrial relations in the past, it is not surprising that the new Law on the Settlement of Industrial Disputes, which the House of Representatives endorsed this week, is viewed with suspicion by activists in certain segments of the labor movement.

Jakarta – A former police general will head Indonesia's first five-member anti-corruption commission, dubbed a "super agency", given its authority to summon and investigate state officials and members of parliament without seeking presidential approvals.

Klaten – Hundreds of supporters of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) occupied and seized the party's local office in Klaten regency, Central Java, on Wednesday.

The incident was in protest against the dismissal on December 13 of the chief of the party's security, Haryanto Wibowo, by Harry Purnomo who chairs Klaten's PDI-P office.

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – The huge increase in the number of cases reported of rape and domestic violence against women and children is an indication of the growing level of willingness among the victims to speak to women's organizations about it.

Jakarta – Indonesia's peak Islamic body has put a religious ban on terrorism and suicide bombings. The Indonesian Council of Ulemas issued a binding religious decree, or fatwa, on the attacks after its annual meeting on Tuesday.

Jakarta – An Indonesian human rights group on Thursday accused President Megawati Sukarnoputri of giving the national intelligence agency too much power.

The executive director of Imparsial, Munir, said the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) had recruited regional officials, including village chiefs, as their agents and set up regional offices.

Fedhly Averouss Bey, Jakarta - The Centre for Electoral Reform (Cetro) and Indonesian Human Rights Watch (Imparsial) have stated that they reject holding the 2004 general elections in Aceh while it is under the status of a military emergency. At the very least there needs to be a break in the military emergency if [the government] still wishes to organise elections in Aceh.

Leony Aurora, Jakarta – It looked like just another rally on Wednesday, when about 50 people holding cardboard posters stood inside the Ministry of Health compound in South Jakarta, chanting their demands.

Jakarta – House Commission IV for settlement and telecommunications failed on Wednesday to endorse the controversial water resource bill, ordering the Ministry of Settlement and Infrastructure to promote the draft among other state ministries and the public sectors that have opposed the bill.

Yuli Tri Suwarni and Apriadi Gunawan, Bandung/Medan – Labor protests erupted separately in Bandung and Medan on Wednesday after their respective 2004 minimum wage pay increases were apparently much less than they had hoped.

Kasparman Piliang, Padang – At least one man was killed, and three kiosks and a local community health center (Puskesmas) were set ablaze during a clash between residents from two villages in West Sumatra, witnesses said on Wednesday.

Tangerang – Hundreds of workers of shoe producer PT Dongha Perkasa staged a rally at the Tangerang Municipal Council building on Wednesday starting at around 10:30 a.m., demanding their right to better welfare.

Kafil Yamin, Jakarta – Some Indonesians see the presidential candidacy next year of former strongman Suharto's daughter, Siti Hardianti Rukamana – on the heels of that of her father's former military chief Wiranto – as a sign of the failure of reforms in the post-Suharto era.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Employers can no longer arbitrarily dismiss their workers as a new bill on industrial dispute settlement that the House of Representatives endorsed on Tuesday allows a dismissed worker to directly bring his or her case to court.

Max Lane – Most of the 24 parties which gained registration for the 2004 general elections trace their origins back to groups or parties that were participants in the New Order political system rather than its opponents. There are just a few partial exceptions.

Jakarta – Central Jakarta police arrested 54 protesting students, six of them girls, just as they were dispersing after staging an anti-election rally at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta on Tuesday afternoon.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Distressingly little has changed in Indonesia from the previous received wisdom that the country's leaders could use state-owned enterprises, including financial institutions, as their personal piggy banks.

Rampant illegal mining in Indonesia is inflicting annual losses of Rp3.3 trillion ($389.38 million) on the state, a government official said Tuesday (16/12/03).

"The losses exclude environmental destruction, pollution and other forms of damage whose impacts are far greater than the material losses," Muzani Syukur was quoted as saying by state news agency Antara.

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – Despite a declining trend among most recorded crimes in the city, the number of rape cases has significantly soared – by 25 percent – this year. Women's rights activists, as well as police, blame legal limbo as one of the main factors behind such an astounding rise.

Urip Hudiono, Jakarta – Two witnesses for the adhoc human rights trial of Col. Sutrisno Mascung and 10 of his subordinates gave on Tuesday testimony contradictory to his own previous statements regarding the massacre in Tanjung Priok in 1984.

Dewi Santoso, Jakarta – A legislator expressed concern on Tuesday about a price war among the country's generic medicine producers, fearing it would prompt drug trade in the black market.

Joseph Kirschke, Jakarta – It's not the cool tile floors, the open courtyard, or the rendering of Picasso's "La Guernica" hanging on the wall by the front door.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Chief Justice Bagir Manan said on Monday the country's failure to speed up reform within the judiciary was the result of conflicting laws and regulations.

Bagir said that the law making process was often dominated by a conflict of interests among influential groups.

Kasparman Piliang, Padang – Despite controversy, President Megawati Soekarnoputri's husband Taufik Kiemas will soon be bestowed with a customary title by leaders of a clan in West Sumatra province.

Eony Aurora, Jakarta – A group of lawyers will sue at the Cibinong District Court, Bogor regency, on Tuesday large companies for allegedly producing untreated toxic waste that had polluted the air and groundwater in Munjul, east of Jakarta.

Indonesian lawyers have complained that police had refused them permission to see six students who were deported from Pakistan on suspicion of terror links.

The six include Rusman Gunawan, a younger brother of top Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror suspect Hambali.

Mataram – Indonesia's human resources development index (IPM) remains low among 175 countries in the world and it is worrying, chairwoman of the Family Planning Board (BKKBN) Sumarjati Arjoso said on Tuesday.

"Of 175 countries in the world, Indonesia is in 112th place ," Sumarjati said in her speech read out by general secretary of the Central BKKBN, L. Sudarmadi, here.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – A military court here began the trial on Monday of 18 police officers charged with attacking protesters in Medan, North Sumatra, three years ago killing two students.

The two victims were shot dead during the May 1, 2000, incident, when police attacked the HKBP Nomensen University.

Dewi Santoso, Jakarta – The education of women plays a more pivotal role than the use of contraceptives in curbing population growth, an expert said on Monday.

Sociologist Imam B. Prasodjo of the University of Indonesia said he had noticed in recent surveys that the availability of contraceptives did not automatically lower the fertility rate.

Multa Fidrus, Tangerang – Some 1,000 public minivan drivers in Tangerang municipality drove around the city in convoy before staging a protest on Monday in front of the municipal administration and Tangerang Council building over the relocation of a bus terminal from Cimone to Poris Plawad.

Corruption and weak law enforcement are the price which Indonesians are paying for reforms, former Indonesian president B.J. Habibie was quoted as saying.

[Intel: Inside Indonesia's Intelligence Service Ken Conboy, Equinox Publishing, Jakarta, 2004 253 pp.]

Samarinda – The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) criticized councillors on Friday for their poor performance in carrying out investigations into rampant illegal logging in the province.

Jakarta – About a dozen women Golkar Party members demanded on Friday that their party keep its promise to allocate a 30 percent quota for women to be listed as its legislative candidates.

Ainur R. Sophiaan, Surabaya – The East Java administration has proposed a salary increase of more than 100 percent for provincial legislative council members, prompting enraged criticisms that the local officials lacked a genuine sensitivity toward the impacts of the prolonged economic crisis.

Jakarta – Indonesia's justice system is turning young offenders into hardened criminals because of a lack of funds to set up juvenile detention centres, a top policeman has admitted.

National detective chief Erwin Mappaseng said young people were being locked up alongside adult criminals and repeat offenders.

Suherdjoko, Semarang – A coalition of street children, housewives, students and activists took to the street for a rally here on Friday against rampant people trafficking across the country.

Many Indonesians are asking just how unwell former president Suharto really is, amid mounting speculation that he's stagemanaging his daughter's political comeback. In September 2000, a court ruled Mr Suharto was mentally and physically unfit to stand trial on corruption charges.

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – At least 67 textile companies have had to stop operations in the West Java capital of Bandung this year due to drastic decreases in orders and rising operational costs, businesspeople said on Friday.

The closures had forced around 10,000 workers to lose their jobs, they added.