Jakarta – To enforce the new law on the military, the government will start taking over all military businesses in an endeavor to make the Indonesian Military (TNI) professional and help improve the welfare of its personnel.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he wants his country to have a stronger and better equipped military to be able to deal with events such as the tsunami disaster.

It has been exactly one month since the magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami devastated parts of Aceh and North Sumatra.

Such time should be sufficient for us to assess and absorb the implications of this unprecedented calamity, not only for those directly in the path of the disaster, but also for the rest of the nation.

Bogor – The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the European Commission (EC) launched a joint program on Tuesday to preserve the country's rapidly shrinking tropical forests and improve the living standards of communities in forested areas.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – The country's human rights record remained poor in 2004, with state-sponsored violence and the cycle of impunity still persisting, a rights group says.

M. Taufiqurrahman and Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – A National Police disciplinary hearing has decided to suspend Brig. Gen. Samuel Ismoko, the national police operations chief, for one year for discriminatory practices against suspects under his investigation.

Vincent Lingga, Jakarta – The President's lack of leadership to act firm and fast in resolving the government's four-year dispute with Cemex over the Mexican company's investment in the state-controlled Semen Gresik Group (SGG), could cost the government half a billion dollars and longer delays in the return of foreign direct investment.

Iman D. Nugroho, Surabaya – Protected turtle species in East Java are on the brink of extinction due to the rampant poaching of their eggs, says an environmental expert.

"People are tempted to take the eggs due to their high price," said researcher Ninil R. Miftahuljannah.

Jakarta – Convinced that mining company PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (NMR) is guilty of polluting Buyat Bay in North Sulawesi, the government aims to seek financial compensation from the US-based firm.

Yogyakarta – Dozens of disabled people in Yogyakarta staged a protest on Monday to demand equal treatment and an end to discrimination by the authorities, and the enactment of special legislation to ensure their rights were protected.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – he government-sanctioned fact-finding team, which is "assisting" the police investigators over the alleged murder of human rights campaigner Munir, has asked for information from intelligence agencies about a Garuda pilot, who they suspect could be working on behalf of another state institution.

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – The many promises and projects offered by the government during last week's Infrastructure Summit apparently were not enough to ease the fears of cautious investors, who still want to see the promises translated into real action amid the country's weak bureaucracy and rampant corruption.

Jakarta – With US helicopters dropping noodles instead of bombs and soldiers carrying rice rather than guns, the United States was confident its enormous efforts to help Asian tsunami victims would boost its tattered image in the Muslim world.

Damien Kingsbury, Melbourne – It is a truism in politics that a cathartic experience can result in unrelated change. Conflict, chaos or natural disaster has been the handmaiden to many political changes, not least Indonesia's monetary crisis producing democratization.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Pematang Siantar – North Sumatra has long been known for its large oil palm, cocoa and rubber plantations, but they have contributed little to the local people's welfare over the centuries.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – In a bid to speed up the investigation into the alleged murder of top human rights campaigner Munir, members of the government-sanctioned fact-finding team have recently fixed their sights on 11 transcripts containing testimonies of witnesses questioned by the police.

Jakarta – The development of Indonesian democracy after more than six years of transformation from an authoritarian regime has failed to usher in significant change in the country's political landscape, with corruption and power abuse still dominant, a study has found.

Philip Cornford, Banda Aceh – "They come as angels. They are our friends," said Almascaty after the fundamentalist's first meeting yesterday with an Australian army captain.

Vaudine England – Father Fernando, aged 70, is more comfortable speaking Indonesian or his native Italian, rather than English. A resident of Aceh for almost two decades, he runs the Catholic church and adjacent school, serving a flock of mainly Chinese-Indonesians.

Sian Powell – The Indonesian military has a toxic reputation, based on a long history of gross human rights abuses across the archipelago, particularly in Papua, Aceh and the former province of East Timor.

Jakarta – Ali Imron, who is serving a life sentence for the 2002 Bali bombings, testified in the trial of Abu Bakar Ba'asyir on Thursday that the cleric had not influenced his actions in carrying out the attack.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – A rift between President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his deputy, Jusuf Kalla, has reached a critical stage and if not kept in check could hamper the way to effective governance, analysts say.

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – Foreign creditors grouped in the Consultative Group for Indonesia (CGI) have reiterated their calls for the government to intensify measures to fight corruption and curb illegal logging, in a bid to restore their confidence in the country.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has reiterated his support for press freedom, promising that the government would settle disputes with the media out of court.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Employers, labor unions and the government have agreed to eliminate the high-cost economy in an endeavor to help repair the investment climate and improve workers' welfare.

Abigail Abrash Walton and Bama Athreya – Aceh, so long isolated from international view by the Indonesian government and military, is now – tragically – at the center of world attention.

Jakarta – Airport workers in 13 cities, including Denpasar, Surabaya and Yogyakarta, have canceled their plan to strike over the government's attempt to take over the management of their pensions. Instead, they will hold a peaceful demonstration.

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – The recorded number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the capital doubled from 12,000 in 2003 to 24,000 in 2004, the Greater Jakarta AIDS Care Forum says.

Jakarta – Despite a health ministry circular instructing pharmaceutical industries to "self-assess" the prices of their products in order to make them more affordable to the public, most drugs remain beyond the reach of the poor, according to the Indonesian Health Consumer's Empowerment Foundation (YPKKI).

Devi Asmarani – Thousands of residents were forced to flee to safety while traffic flow in Jakarta was disrupted. Jakarta's main Ciliwung River overflowed after heavy rain flooded densely populated neighbourhoods in north, west and east Jakarta.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – Despite assurances from the President, Vice President and other top government officials that their money was safe here, some investors at the Infrastructure Summit on Tuesday remained concerned whether the reform commitments could be translated into action by the country's weak bureaucracy.

Batam, Riau Islands – Some 5,000 workers on Batam staged another protest on Tuesday, demanding Riau Islands acting governor Ismeth Abdullah's resignation over his failure to improve workers' welfare.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – A vice presidential office circular criticizing recent hearings between the government and the House of Representatives has received a strong reaction from legislators, who said it could harm relations between the two state institutions.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Corruption is widespread throughout the country's 32 provinces, with the tsunami-devastated Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam province being among the worst offenders, an anticorruption watchdog has revealed.

Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – Several human rights campaigners welcomed on Tuesday the appointment of Indonesia's Makarim Wibisono as a new chairman of the UN Human Rights Commission and asked the government to soon take action to improve the country's human rights record.

Jakarta – Environmentalist Ahmad "Puput" Safrudin blasted the Jakarta administration's policy to allow aggressive conversion of open and green space in the city into building premises, citing that the disappearance of the space contributed to the worsening air quality in the city.

Jim Lobe, Washington – Aside from improving Washington's image in South and Southeast Asia, the administration of US President George W Bush is hoping to achieve something more concrete from its aid efforts in the aftermath of the December 26 tsunami that killed more than 175,000 people along the coasts of the Indian Ocean.

Jakarta – The official ban on US weapons and military equipment sales to Indonesia is unfair and "punishes" the country by hampering its military's tsunami relief and recovery efforts, Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono said Tuesday.

Geneva – The Indonesian ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Makarim Wibisono, Monday was elected chairman of the UN Human Rights Commission despite concerns by some campaigners that his country has done too little to tackle its own abuses.

The scale of the tsunami disaster and continuing health risks in Indonesia's Aceh province are almost beyond comprehension. Getting desperately needed emergency aid to the survivors, wherever they are, is now an overwhelmingly urgent humanitarian priority.

Sumitomo Corporation Chairman Kenji Miyahara, who is also vice chairman of the powerful Nippon Keidanren (Japanese Economic Federation) talked to The Jakarta Post's Kornelius Purba on Sunday about Japanese investors' views and expectations about Indonesian investment prospects. He is in Jakarta to attend the two-day Infrastructure Summit on Monday and Tuesday.

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – A chief executive officer of a state cement firm in East Java once said that the most devastating factor that could affect the firm's production cost lay not in fuel spending nor workers' wages, but on congested highways.

Patsy Spier, Washington – one of the survivors of a 2002 military-style ambush on a group of contract teachers in the Indonesian province of Papua, spoke out today about the attempts by the Bush administration to resume full military ties with Indonesia before the government in Jakarta accounts for military crimes in East Timor and fully cooperates with a US investigation into the P

Josh White, Jakarta – Indonesia's defense minister on Sunday called on the United States to ease its restrictions on military relations between the two nations and to help train Indonesian military leaders, reaching out during the period of cooperation that has emerged in the wake of the devastating tsunami last month.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The governments of Indonesia and the United States see the possibility of improved military ties following the significant role of US troops in tsunami relief operations in Aceh.

The United States has given its clearest signal yet that it may consider lifting the arms embargo imposed on Indonesia in 1999. A partial lifting of the embargo came soon after the tsunami struck the coast of Sumatra, with the US military offering spare parts for Indonesia's Hercules C-130 transport planes.

Urip Hudiono, Jakarta – The public debate continues on how Indonesia should respond to the debt moratorium offer from the Paris Club creditor countries, as the offer itself is still vague in what it implies.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Several weeks before the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) convenes a national congress in March, disgruntled party members are beginning to flex their muscles to block the reelection of PDI-P leader Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Eva C. Komandjaja, Jakarta – The need for the government to set up a special body to control and monitor the performance of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) has become urgent, a police/intelligence ethics activist has said.

Jakarta – Flooding over the past week around the country drove people from their homes and damaged infrastructure and crops.

Hundreds of people in Palembang, South Sumatra, who live on the banks of the Musi River had to seek refuge after the river burst its banks and inundated their houses.