Jakarta – The city administration has secretly increased tapwater rates by between 4 and 16 percent, depending on the level of water consumption and customer classification.

Prime Minister John Howard has declared tension between Indonesia and Australia a thing of the past after he toured tsunami-struck Aceh, saying he was stunned by the scale of the devastation.

[Indonesia's Secret War in Aceh. By John Martinkus, Random House. 340 pages, $32.95 (pb).]

Theresia Sufa, Bogor – The Cibinong District Court sentenced on Tuesday four members of the Oman Rahman religious community to jail term ranging between three years and five years for assembling and storing bombs at a house in Cimanggis, Depok municipality.

Jakarta – The Jakarta administration's decision to change three city hospitals into corporate entities in a bid to boost their professionalism, has received a negative reaction from several hospital staff and local residents.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – The House of Representatives (DPR) said on Monday it planned to deliberate 55 bills this year, including three bills on the ratification of an international convention to suppress terrorism and transnational crimes.

New York/Jakarta – The US has provided tsunami-hit Indonesia with spare parts for five of its 24 US-made C-130 cargo planes without lifting its long-standing ban on weapons sales to its military, the Dow Jones Newswires reported on Tuesday quoting an US official as saying.

Jakarta – Aceh administration secretary Tantawi Ishak testified at the graft trial of Abdullah Puteh on Tuesday that the suspended governor had not returned all of the Rp 7.75 billion (US$861,111) transferred to his account.

Zakki P. Hakim, Jakarta – Indonesia's exports last year reached an historic high of US$69.71 billion, or up 11.49 percent from the year before, boosted by strong sales of non oil and gas commodities including palm oil, electronics, clothing, coal and tin.

Those who regularly follow the summaries of the Supreme Audit Agency's reports on the state budget accounts would find nothing surprising in the latest findings related to the government's 2003 budget accounts.

Firebrand Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir told his terrorism trial that religious extremists were wrong to stage attacks in Indonesia because the world's largest Muslim-populated country was not at war with anyone.

Bashir said if Muslims wanted to wage jihad or holy war against the United States, they should go to countries like Afghanistan.

Baradan Kuppusamy, Kuala Lumpur – Despite the devastation inflicted on South and Southeast Asia by the December 26 tsunami, the disaster has been unable to make compassion-fatigued Malaysia balk at its latest order: the deportation of all undocumented workers back to their tsunami-hit countries.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Responding to public pressure for justice, the House of Representatives said on Monday it would reopen the Trisakti and Semanggi cases, which allegedly involved high-ranking military officers. Agustin Teras Narang, chairman of House Commission III for law, legislation and human rights, said the commission would soon reopen the cases.

Desperate positivism. That could be a way of describing the reactions toward the recently concluded talks in Helsinki between Aceh separatist leaders (GAM) and Indonesian government representatives.

The two-day meeting provided little substance in terms of progress on ending the ongoing hostilities. Calling the talks positive may be clutching at straws.

Jakarta – After a rigorous debate between the President and lawmakers over the replacement of the Indonesian Military (TNI) chief, a Presidential aide disclosed on Monday that a reshuffle of the military's top leadership would take place in February.

Jakarta – Aceh's treasurer testified at the graft trial of Abdullah Puteh on Monday that he had transferred some Rp 7.75 billion (US$855,555) into the suspended governor's personal account to buy a Russian-made helicopter in 2002.

Indra Harsaputra, Surabaya – The trade of protected animals is still flourishing in the country, despite warnings from environmentalists that certain species could become extinct due to the activity.

Hera Diani, Jakarta – A report released on Monday by a human rights watchdog said that human rights abuses perpetrated by the state continued to be widespread over the past year, with the government still placing heavy emphasis on security while denying people their civil rights.

Multa Fidrus, Tangerang – The Tangerang regency council is summoning two developers to answer allegations their coastal reclamation projects have irrevocably damaged the environment and destroyed the life of a fishing community.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – Gobble ... gobble ... gobble ... is the onomatopoeic phrase often used in cartoon stories whenever characters eat their food in a hurry. It is also the sound a turkey makes.

Natural gas reserves in Indonesia have risen by 7.45 trillion standard cubic feet (TCF), thanks to new reserves found in either new sites or existing fields, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources has revealed.

Indra Harsaputra, Surabaya – Most coastal areas in East Java, similar to tsunami-hit coastal regions in Aceh and North Sumatra, are susceptible to disasters like tsunami, warns an official.

Murray Hiebert in Washington and Timothy Mapes in Jakarta – The administration of US President George W. Bush is expected to begin pressing Congress to permit the resumption of American training for Indonesian armed-forces officers in a step to repair military ties disrupted more than a decade ago over human-rights abuses by Jakarta's army.

Ambon, Maluku – A communal clash between two gangs of warring youths reignited in Central Maluku late on Saturday, leaving five buildings damaged and one totally destroyed.

The youths from the Hitu Lama and Hitu Messing subdistricts have been feuding for months. It was not known what had sparked the dispute.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The appointment of Army Special Forces (Kopassus) commander Maj. Gen. Sriyanto Muntrasan as the new commander of the high profile Siliwangi Military Command overseeing West Java drew strong criticism from a human rights group and expert.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – After winning the largest number of seats in the House of Representatives in the 2004 legislative election, the Golkar Party is preparing its mammoth political machine to grab the lion's share of top regional administration posts.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) announced on Saturday its first major reshuffle in a year, affecting 42 high-ranking officers, including Commander of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) Maj. Gen. Sriyanto Muntrasan, who has been named as Siliwangi Military Commander overseeing West Java and Banten provinces.

Semarang – Tayu police station in Pati regency, Central Java was attacked and wrecked by a crowd of about one hundred people late on Thursday following the death of two motorcyclists who were being pursued by the police.

Urip Hudiono, Jakarta – Global acknowledgement of the country's macroeconomic stability, as evident in the recent upgrading of Indonesia's debt rating, would boost positive sentiment in the rupiah, possibly to below the Rp 9,000 level, according to the central bank.

Gary LaMoshi, Denpasar – History will judge the cataclysmic earthquake and tsunami that devastated Aceh last month as the defining event of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's first 100 days as Indonesia's president.

Outrageous is one word to describe a beating Indonesian soldiers meted out to anticorruption activist Farid Faqih in Banda Aceh, an outspoken critic of the military, who now faces charges of stealing donated goods from the Iskandar Muda Airport.

Pekanbaru – Hundreds of students from different universities took to the streets on Thursday to protest at what they claimed were extravagant allowances and payments for Pekanbaru city administration executives and city councillors.

Jakarta – Dozens of journalists protested on Friday against a House of Representatives Commission, which summoned three editors after its members were questioned by journalists about a possible graft story.

The House of Representatives' Commission III for legal affairs on Friday summoned the editors of two daily newspapers and two radio stations.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, struggling to cope with the tsunami disaster as he completes 100 days in office, has apologised to Indonesians for failing to fulfil a range of pledges including an end to corruption.

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – Today marks the 100th day of the administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. According to many assessments, his government has yet to produce results in terms of the economy, having failed to bring improvement to the country's investment and business climate.

Jakarta – Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who is being tried on charges of involvement in acts of terror, and his lawyers walked out of the courtroom on Wednesday in protest against the judges' decision to allow the prosecution to read out the sworn statements of four witnesses in their absence.

Ray Rangkuti, executive director of the Independent Election Monitoring Committee (KIPP):

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – Hundreds of Punclut residents, environmentalists and artists protested on the streets of Bandung on Thursday, rejecting the planned construction of a hotel and resort in Punclut, a water catchment area in North Bandung.

Although the Jakarta administration has continued to carry out measures to fight flooding, dredging 13 rivers, maintaining sluice gates and setting up early warning systems and emergency response teams, it could not stop the annual floods. The Jakarta Post asked residents about their opinion of the administration's flood-mitigation efforts.

Jakarta – Improving the economic welfare of communities living in forested areas would do little to reduce the widespread illegal logging across the country, environmentalists say.

Slobodan Lekic, Jakarta – The widow of an American schoolteacher killed in a 2002 attack initially blamed on Indonesian soldiers urged the Bush administration Friday not to lift a ban on military ties with Jakarta until the case if fully resolved.

Leony Aurora, Jakarta – Major players in the banking industry have welcomed Bank Indonesia's effort to speed up the sector's consolidation through a new policy on the injection of funds into other banks, but urge for more incentives.

There was little to talk about when the widely trumpeted first 100-day economic agenda of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's government ended. It is not even an exaggeration to say that the government miserably failed to capitalize on its strong political mandate to launch bold, if unpopular, measures to accelerate the process of regaining foreign investor confidence.

Jakarta – Indonesian workers are unprepared for competition in regional labor markets among Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members, a business expert says.

Prasetiya Mulya Business School Dean Sammy Kristamuljana told the first Indonesian Business Conference on Wednesday that on paper the concept of cross-border labor competition sounded great.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Against a background of perhaps excessively high public expectations of sweeping change, the administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been criticized by some analysts for failing to bring about significant progress in its first three months.

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Activists slammed city councillors on Wednesday for requesting a monthly housing allowance of Rp 12.5 million each, saying they had broken their own election vows to live modestly.

Evi Mariani, Jakarta – Permissiveness among youngsters abounds in big cities, with many of them having had sex at home without the knowledge of their parents, according to a study.

I Wayan Juniartha, Denpasar – It clearly was not an ordinary day. The morning sun radiated a warm glow that softly embraced the spacious patch of plush green grass in front of the office of the local education agency in Renon. At the same time, a light drizzle wet the ground while a strong breeze set the nearly pine trees swaying gently.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto said on Wednesday that any decision on the reshuffling of the military leadership rested solely with the President.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – In a bid to create a strong and modern military, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is contemplating up to a five fold increase in defense spending to an "ideal level" of 3-5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) compared to the current 1 percent.