Fadli, Batam – A drastic drop in Batam's tourist arrivals in the January-October period has forced dozens of entertainment establishments, such as karaoke and massage parlors, to close down. Based on data from the Batam Tourism Office, tourist arrivals started decreasing after the government started to crack down on gambling activities few months ago.

Urip Hudiono, Jakarta – To invite more private participation into public infrastructure development, the government has issued a new regulation providing more incentives and governmental support for the risk management of projects.

The US annual foreign aid bill, H.R. 3057, is now law. The legislation, signed by President Bush on November 14, continues US restrictions on some forms of military assistance for Indonesia.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Only two days after a raid that led to the death of one of Indonesia's most wanted terrorist suspects, police struck at a massive illegal drug factory near Jakarta.

Jakarta - TNI (Indonesian military) chief General Endriartono Sutarto has explained that the involvement of TNI soldiers in preventing terrorism is part of the responsibility of being a citizen. The duties being taken up by soldiers will be limited to preventative efforts in order that there are no more members of the public who fall victim to acts of terrorism.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – David S. was surprised when his wife brought home cans of food with World Food Programme (WFP) labels on them.

James Balowski, Jakarta – Ignoring widespread public opposition, the Indonesian armed forces (TNI) has announced it is reactivating its territorial command network down to the village level to "assist" local communities and police to "fight terrorism".

Jakarta – Hundreds of members of the Betawi Brotherhood Forum (FBR) and residents of Cilandak Barat, South Jakarta, stopped short of brawling on Monday afternoon over the establishment of a security post.

Outnumbered by residents opposing the establishment of the post 500 to 200 the FBR members left Jl. Terogong, near the Kristal Hotel, where the post had been erected.

Jakarta – Thousands of commuters were stranded on Tuesday morning at railway stations from Bogor to Jakarta as some 600 meters of cable to operate the electric trains was stolen on Monday night.

The route is the city's most popular line, transporting over 200,000 commuters from Bogor municipality, Bogor regency and Depok municipality to Jakarta every day.

Denpasar – Three men detained as part of Indonesian police raids last week in which a top Asian militant was killed have been named suspects over October's bombings on Bali island, an officer said on Wednesday.

They are the first suspects named in the wake of the suicide bombings at three restaurants on the Indonesian resort island on October 1, which killed 20 people.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) has reported threats made against its activists investigating illegal logging in Aceh to the National Police and the Ministry of Forestry.

Walhi chairman Chalid Muhammad said a number of persons unknown had told its Southeast Aceh activists to leave Kutacane in Southeast Aceh or they would "be risking their lives".

Urip Hudiono, Jakarta – Indonesia will miss the opportunity to attain a tax-based economy if it fails to address the main problems of complicated tax laws and tax officials with questionable integrity, analysts say. "The devil is in the details, in the fine print of the tax laws," economist Faisal Basri of the University of Indonesia said at a seminar on tax reform on Tuesday.

Imam Cahyono, Jakarta – The image of the Muslim-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) as a clean party committed to good governance with empathy for ordinary people was clear in the results of last year's legislative election, when it doubled its previous tally to gain about 7 percent of the vote.

Jakarta – A court in the Indonesian capital rejected a government multi-million-dollar pollution lawsuit against US mining giant Newmont and ruled the case should be settled by arbitration.

This week, the Jakarta administration will launch a large-scale crackdown on unskilled migrants who have entered the city after the Idul Fitri holiday. Governor Sutiyoso's administration has blamed migrants as the source of many urban problems.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Thousands of employees at state plantation company, PTPN II, here held a protest on Monday, demanding the government increase their wages and conditions after five years with no raises.

Theresia Sufa, Bogor – Hundreds of workers grouped under the Coalition of Bogor Workers demanded on Monday that the team in charge to assessing the minimum wage conduct a survey on living costs before determining the workers' minimum cost of living and regional wage.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The police said they would continue their investigation into five men who are suspected of being responsible for the recent beheadings of three schoolgirls in Poso, Central Sulawesi, despite a move by the local military to release them.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – At least 50,000 hectares out of a total of 216,000 hectares of forest in the Gunung Leuser National Park has been deforested since 1980, sparking concern over an environmental disaster in the area, a senior local government functionary said on Friday.

Illegal logging was to blamed for the rapid deforestation, said Langkat regent Syamsul Arifin.

Aboeprijadi Santoso, Amsterdam – Conventional wisdom about what happened in Indonesia during the second half of the 1960s generally held leading Army officers, in collaboration with some youth organizations, responsible for Indonesia's greatest human disaster after its independence, which included the killings, persecutions and imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of alleged commun

Jakarta – Having to dodge cars, three-wheeled taxis, motorcycles and carts appearing from nowhere could soon be a thing of the past for Central Jakarta residents, thanks to the municipality's plans to develop more sidewalks on city roads next year.

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – The Jakarta office of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS Jakarta) has registered over 28,000 new families that may be eligible to benefit from the government's cash assistance program.

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – As police widened the search for the followers of master bombmaker Azahari, an antiterror official warned on Saturday that Islamic militants could carry out widely dispersed attacks across the country following Azahari's death.

Local soap star Anjasmara is naked! And it's an Adam and Eve installation! Is it art or pornography? Everybody in this country seems to have jumped on that bandwagon, some condemning and some defending it.

ID Nugroho, Surabaya – A swarm of flies settled on a heap of rotting corn abruptly rose as Siti Maesaroh (not her real name), 17, walked passed the pile of garbage on Wednesday. She held her nose with the fingers of her left hand to keep out the stench, while she shooed away the flies with her right hand.

Fadli, Batam – A lot of folks' favorite fish, such as the selar and tongkol, are getting harder to find in Batam as hundreds of fishing boats that usually bring them in have curbed operations over the last couple of weeks due to soaring operational costs after a huge fuel price hike.

Several churches in Jakarta and West Java were closed down by force recently, prompting practitioners to conduct their prayers outside their church. This issue has also gained attention from the United States, which mentioned the restrictions on religious freedom in the State Department's 2005 International Religious Freedom Report released on Wednesday.

Malang/Semarang/Surakarta/Jakarta – Fingerprinting has confirmed the death of Azahari bin Husin, a bombmaker blamed for the deadliest terror attacks in the region, during a gun battle with police.

Tiarma Siboro and Eva C. Komandjaja, Jakarta – The death of Azahari bin Husin, one of the most wanted terrorists in Southeast Asia, has dealt a serious blow to the terror network, but officials and experts cautioned that it would not eliminate the terror threat in this country.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – One of Southeast Asia's most-wanted suspected terrorists has blown himself up – or been gunned down – only days after it was revealed that al-Qaeda's former Southeast Asian chief had escaped from US custody.

Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandarlampung – Environmentalists in Lampung lashed out at the Bumi Kedaton Safari Park (TWABK) management for treating animals under its care poorly.

Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta – Indonesia needs more cooperation from the public to track down Islamic militants who are sometimes regarded as heroes in the world's most populous Muslim nation, Jakarta's top counter-terrorism official said on Friday.

Jakarta – Around 80 truck drivers working for the Jakarta International Container Terminal at Tanjung Priok Port, North Jakarta, staged a rally at the City Council on Thursday to ask for support from the councillors for their demand that they be made permanent employees by PT Philia Mandiri Sejahtera (PMS).

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Despite the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom, discrimination on the basis of religious belief is a cause for concern in this country, according to the United States' 2005 International Religious Freedom Report.

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – Following intense opposition from the business community over proposed amendments to the tax legislation, the government pledged on Wednesday that it would soften its stance by agreeing to significantly review them.

Tantri Yuliandini, Jakarta – Some 600,000 workers in Greater Jakarta are likely to lose their jobs next year, following the implementation of new provincial minimum wage, the Employers' Association of Indonesia (Apindo) said on Tuesday.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – About 70 American congressmen urged President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to make "a clear legal move" to resolve the murder of noted rights campaigner Munir, who died in September last year of arsenic poisoning.

Rendi Witular, Jakarta – The government has expressed guarded optimism that the United States will not extend its 13-year military embargo on Indonesia.

Kompas – The head of the army's information office, Brigadier General Hotmangaradja Pandjaitan, has confirmed that they have already established an extra-structural organisation at every level of the TNI's (Indonesian military) territorial command, which will be tasked with and function in the same manner as the anti-terror desk at the coordinating ministry for political, legal and

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – An order from the military leadership to all 11 regional military commands to set up special counterterrorism desks has been criticized by right activists concerned the move could lead to the stifling of government critics.

Jakarta – Indonesia's military chief General Endriartono Sutarto has officially ordered the revival of a much-criticised community-based intelligence system to be used to fight terrorism, a report said.

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Sumedang – Darya still tends to his sheep and crops on his land located along the edge of a slope which is supposed to become part of dam in the Jatigede area of Sumedang regency, West Java.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) anti-terror desk which was established in each military regional command and the units below this command have begun to work, including the village military representatives whose duty it is to monitor terrorist activities.

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – Despite workers' demand for a 100-percent salary raise following the skyrocketing prices of basic necessities due to the fuel price hikes, the West Java administration did not bow to the demand, raising workers' minimum wage by less than 10 percent.

Ruslan Sangadji, Palu – The deadly clash between the police and followers of sect leader Madi almost two weeks ago, and the ensuing hunt for him, have caused hundreds of people to seek refuge in the Central Sulawesi capital of Palu.

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – The Indonesian government will have to look for alternative arms suppliers with the US appearing likely to extend its military embargo against the country, according to a senior minister.

Indonesia has criticised the United States for stalling efforts to restore full military ties between the two countries because of unresolved murders in its province of Papua.

Tantri Yuliandini, Jakarta – The city administration has raised the minimum wage for workers here from the current Rp 711,843 (about US$71) to Rp 819,100, effective next year, but the extra Rp 107,257 will hardly make a difference to worker and single mother of two adults, Asmawati.

Rendi A. Witular and Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – The police will intensify security measures at home, including by closely monitoring foreign citizens entering the country, as a precaution to prevent new terrorist attacks following the escape of international terrorist Omar al-Farouq from a US detention facility.

Mark Forbes, Jakarta – Indonesia has denied it refused to cut the sentence of the Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir because of Australian pressure. It had reduced the convictions of many others involved in the Bali bombings, it said. The Justice Minister, Hamid Awaluddin, made the claims amid pressure for a parliamentary inquiry into external interference in the decision.