Robert Go, Seminyak – Bearing an ornately carved "dragon blowpipe" and a wooden cigarette box, souvenir seller Dewa Nyoman steps more lightly on his beach route now that Indonesia's general election has passed without trouble.

Eva C. Komandjaja, Jakarta – Since its launch on January 15, city residents have warmed to the busway as shown by the increasing number of passengers over the last three months.

Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta – Imagine trying to run a country where your political party controls less than one tenth of the seats in parliament.

Indonesia's former chief security minister, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, will face that challenge should opinion polls prove right and he wins the country's first direct presidential election this year.

Surabaya – About 1,800 workers from household appliance company PT Kyung Dong Indonesia (KDI) in Sidoarjo staged a protest on Thursday at the East Java gubernatorial office on Jl. Pahlawan, Surabaya.

They demanded Governor Imam Utomo to prevent the closure of the company.

Thousands of children have been forced into prostitution by their parents and others on the Indonesian island of Java, an International Labour Organisation study has found.

Child trafficking for prostitution is one of five labour sectors researched in support of Indonesia's National Action Plan to prevent and eliminate the worst forms of child labour.

Indonesia's Golkar party, the former political machine of retired dictator Suharto, looks set to reassume dominance on the country's political landscape. Just six years after being ousted from office, Golkar is poised to win this month's legislative election. It's now eyeing a prize unthinkable just a few years ago – winning the presidential elections.

Jakarta – Construction of what is billed as the world's tallest tower began in the Indonesian capital yesterday.

Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso oversaw the start of work on the Jakarta Tower in the Kemayoran district on the site of the city's former airport.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – The government is considering an amendment to Law No. 62/1958 on citizenship that will scrap all regulations that discriminate against Chinese-Indonesian.

Astrid Felicia Lim, Jakarta – If SBY [recently resigned coordinating minister for politics and security Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and presidential candidate for the military backed Democratic Party) becomes president, then responsibility for the military operation in Aceh, the investigation of human rights violations and reform of the military will be obstructed.

Indonesian police have officially declared jailed Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir a suspect in terrorism cases, the attorney general's office said.

A defence lawyer said Bashir was now unlikely to be freed from prison on April 30 after serving a sentence for lesser offences.

Andreas Harsono, Jakarta – For nearly 50 years, the Indonesian military held 20 percent of the county's parliamentary seats – but now the time has come for these unelected officers to leave the legislative building for good – and find a new place in the country's changed political landscape.

Presidential hopeful Akbar Tanjung came under fire at a lunch with the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club Wednesday, struggling to answer questions on corruption and details of his promise to fix the economy.

Tanjung started out strongly at an event whose audience was peppered with foreign diplomats keen to see the Golkar Party chairman in action.

Jakarta – A candidate in last week's legislative elections in Indonesia won nearly 800 votes despite having died three months ago, poll officials said Tuesday.

"It's a bit ridiculous," said Andi Mappinawang, an election committee member in South Sulawesi province where the mix-up occurred. "Maybe the voters didn't know that he had died," he said.

Jakarta – The General Elections Commission (KPU) turned down on Monday a demand for a nationwide reelection by a score of political parties contesting the legislative election.

KPU chairman Nazaruddin Sjamsudin said that the political parties failed to come up with a strong case, as they could only cite a small number of irregularities in polling stations.

Derwin Pereira – Numbers don't lie. With 60 per cent of the votes tallied in the legislative election, Indonesia's two giants Golkar and the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) are neck and neck for the top position.

Robert Go, Seminyak – In the wake of criticism, Indonesia's major political parties began retracting their demands for a re-election yesterday.

Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta – The results to date of the count in the legislative elections appear to more or less reflect the amount of work put in by the political parties during the campaign, and how much they forked out on advertising.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Golkar Party officials supervising the party's convention have expressed concern about possible money politics during unreported meetings of leaders of the party's regency chapters with presidential candidates.

Marianne Kearney – As his bus inches through a densely packed crowd of supporters decked out in yellow T-shirts, yellow bandanas and flags decorating their motorbikes, presidential hopeful and indicted war-crimes suspect Wiranto waves and smiles.

Alisa P., Jakarta – On April 12, Aceh Papua Solidarity (Solidaritas Aceh Papua, SAP) held a press conference at the offices of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) which was attended by most of the democratic groups who are involved in SAP.

Jakarta – The liquidation of Bank Dagang Bali (BDB) and Bank Asiatic, caused in part by a number of lending irregularities, point to the fact that the painful and costly efforts to restructure the banking sector have yet to bear fruit.

Jakarta – Minister of National Education Abdul Malik Fajar rejected on Monday a plan to require senior high school graduates to undergo compulsory military service.

Malik said there was no urgency in implementing the program, which has been adopted by several Southeast Asian neighbors.

Ruslan Sangadji, Palu – More than 300 additional paramilitary police arrived in the religiously-mixed regency of Poso, Central Sulawesi, on Monday after an new attack on a church over the Easter weekend injured seven Christians.

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – After a week-long rally triggered by relatively trouble-free legislative elections, the Jakarta stock market plunged on Monday on fears of political instability following news that several politicians may reject the general election results.

Urip Hudiono, Jakarta – The move by Bank Indonesia (BI) to close two small banks last week could trigger nervous depositors to shift their funds from smaller to larger banks, experts said.

Jakarta – Around 4,000 former employees of defunct aircraft manufacturer PT Dirgantara Indonesia (DI) have demanded that the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) investigate alleged human rights abuses during the company's controversial massive retrenchment last year.

Irvan NR, Palu – Christians here lashed out at security forces for failing to protect them from Saturday's Easter shooting by unidentified gunmen in Poso regency, Central Sulawesi, despite recent police reinforcements.

Bambang Nurbianto and Evi Mariani, Jakarta – At least 25 families of 50 evicted fishermen in Ancol Timur survived on their boats on Sunday after the North Jakarta municipality demolished their houses a day earlier.

The Golkar party of former Indonesian dictator Suharto has regained the lead in Indonesia's general election – one week after the polls. It's still not clear when the computerised count will end, but Golkar now has a thin lead over President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – Major parties said on Sunday it was too early to reject the results of the April 5 elections and called on the public to remain calm while waiting for the manual count.

Former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid has alleged fraud in the computerided tally of election results and said 16 parties would meet to discuss whether to accept the outcome of Monday's poll.

Jakarta – The number of political parties rejecting the legitimacy of the legislative elections has grown and so have their demands. Not satisfied with a recount, they are now calling for a new election.

Devi Asmarani, Surabaya – The rising star of Islamic-based parties in Indonesia is making waves by eroding the vote base of established secular giants.

But the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), formed to woo devout Muslims six years ago, downplayed its religious credentials to win support.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – In a bid to provide stronger legal grounds for press freedom, the Constitutional Commission has proposed the inclusion of the issue in the newly amended 1945 Constitution.

Jakarta – Two men opened fire at a church during an Easter service in an eastern Indonesian town and lightly wounded seven people, including a four-year-old girl, police said on Sunday.

Jakarta – The economy grew at a snappy 4.8 percent in the first quarter of this year, driven mainly by strong consumer spending, according to Bank Indonesia Governor Burhanuddin Abdullah.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The government has dismissed unemployment data and projections from the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) as inaccurate and misleading, saying it had launched various programs to cope with the unemployment time bomb.

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – With the country's poultry farmers yet to recover from the devastating impact of bird flu, they now face a new threat: an influx of much cheaper chicken eggs and meat smuggled from neighboring Malaysia.

Sian Powell, Jakarta – A politician soon to be elected in Indonesia has been linked to extremist Islamic organisations, including Bali bombing group Jemaah Islamiah.

Devi Asmarani, Surabaya – With another sweeping victory already at hand in this politically strategic province, the Nation Awakening Party (PKB) looks set to secure again a top five position nationwide.

This will give the party leverage as a kingmaker ahead of the presidential election in July, according to observers.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – Three days after it knocked her flat, President Megawati Soekarnoputri was still waiting patiently for the truck carrying the nation's votes to arrive.

Jakarta, Kompas – Support from the political "roots" of presidential candidates continues to be a big factor in getting votes in elections.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – The palace is plotting. With her political life on the edge as her party teeters on the brink of defeat, President Megawati Sukarnoputri is fighting back with a game plan to keep the top job and destroy her foes in the July presidential election.

Deddy Sinaga, Jakarta – The 2004 General Election observers from European Union (EU) countries have said that they considered the election went well and peacefully despite some weaknesses during the election, including the work performance of General Election Commission (KPU).

Andrew Burrell – Remember these initials: SBY. They belong to Indonesia's new presidential frontrunner, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, whose prospects were boosted even further by his fledgling party's astonishing performance in Monday's parliamentary elections.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – What a difference a week makes in politics! Seven days ago, Golkar and the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) carried the banner of the Big Two. Their dominance was unquestioned.

Patricia Reaney, London – More than 300 of the world's rarest and most exotic creatures, including flying foxes in the Comoros Islands and yellow-eared parrots in the Colombian Andes, are completely unprotected, scientists said on Wednesday.

All could disappear in future decades because global efforts to protect them are inadequate, the scientists believe.

Jakarta – Indonesia's fight against terrorism is being hampered by a US military embargo, President Megawati Sukarnoputri said Wednesday.

"I seek the understanding of the West in tackling this issue. We need resources," she told Singapore's Channel NewsAsia in an interview due to air Wednesday evening.

Sian Powell, Jakarta – Australians who mourned the dead at the first commemoration of the Bali bombings will remember the man who is now the favourite in Indonesia's presidential race.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, then Indonesia's chief security minister, moved many to tears as he stood under the hot Bali sun, and spoke of the tragedy that had ripped apart so many lives.

General Wiranto, a possible presidential candidate from the Golkar Party, gave student protesters the slip in Surabaya on Saturday.

The former chief of the Indonesian military was taping a talk show on the campus of Airlangga University while dozens of students from various groups in Surabaya held a protest in front of the building.