Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Indonesia's National Assembly Speaker and presidential hopeful Amien Rais has unveiled a star-studded list of potential running mates for next year's elections.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Forum on the Environment (Walhi) said on Thursday it would file a lawsuit against 20 companies and seven local governments in Riau later this week over forest fires and their disastrous effects on the environment in the province.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Indonesia's top bureaucrat has launched a stinging attack on the very team under his leadership. He says most of the country's four million civil servants are unproductive and unprofessional.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – State-owned social security company PT Jamsostek is encouraging employees to check their participation in the social security schemes as many employers were found to be dishonest in registering their employees with the mandatory insurance programs.

Zakki Hakim and Fifi Yulianti, Jakarta – City officials, accompanied by police and security personnel, Thursday barged into homes in a densely populated Jakarta residential neighborhood checking for residents' ID cards.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – The House of Representatives endorsed the controversial education bill on Wednesday despite the absence of the largest faction, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).

Prangtip Daorueng, Jakarta – The Indonesian government is once again using nationalistic propaganda and media censorship to gain public support for its military offensive in Aceh, but journalists and activists say Jakarta would do well to learn from its previous mistakes in East Timor.

Nana Rukmana, Indramayu, West Java – Over 45,000 hectares of rice plants in the Indramayu and Cirebon regencies, known as the rice belt of West Java, have withered following the early arrival of the annual drought, predicted to last until November.

Lhokseumawe – A military tribunal on Thursday found three low-ranking soldiers guilty of beating villagers unconscious during the military's offensive against separatist rebels in Aceh province, and sentenced them to short jail terms. They are the second batch of soldiers found guilty of the same crime during an operation in Lawang village on May 27.

Jakarta – About 10,000 youth, mostly high school students, rallied outside parliament yesterday, urging legislators to pass a controversial Bill to regulate religious teaching in private schools.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) found human rights and humanitarian law violations in its preliminary inquiry into the imposition of martial law in conflict-ridden Aceh.

Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta – The government is reviewing a presidential decree on public procurements to reduce corruption, but the effort has met with stiff resistance from various sides, including business associations.

Jakarta – The government team sent to Sweden to secure that country's cooperation in the war against GAM has handed over evidence to the Swedish government which its claims proves that Free Aceh Movement (GAM) leaders in Sweden are involved in separatist and terror acts in Aceh.

Jakarta – Thousands of children are being trafficked for prostitution in Indonesia and parents or other family members are often to blame, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said on Thursday.

Andrew Burrell – Four Indonesian state electricity workers arrived in the small village of Bendo in central Java last week on a routine job to replace some power cables. Minutes later, three of them had been bashed to death by a frenzied mob and their bodies burnt.

Indonesia's Ministry of Environment has called on PT Freeport Indonesia (FI), the operator of the giant Grasberg copper-gold mine in West Papua province, to completely improve the system of its tailing disposal by the year 2004 or face legal proceedings.

Haidir Anwar Tanjung, Pekanbaru – Choking haze plaguing the main island of Riau and the Riau archipelago, bordering Singapore and Malaysia, has reached an alarming level, raising health concerns and disturbing traffic in the province.

Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – The government said on Tuesday it would investigate two companies which, according to environmental group Greenpeace's recent investigative report, have been allegedly involved in the supplying of illegal logs from Indonesian rainforests to build the UK's new home ministry office building in London.

Tangerang – Some 400 workers from wood processing company PT Tambun Kusuma staged a rally at the Tangerang legislative council on Tuesday amid fears that the management would lay them off.

The protesters accused the company of looking for shortcomings on the part of its workers by claiming that 40 percent of them held fake school diplomas.

A total of six generals have nominated for the Governor's race in East Java. Three are former regional commanders: incumbent Governor Imam Utomo, Haris Sudarno and Joko Subroto.

The other three are Mohammad Dayat and Deddy Sudarmaji, both former East Java police chiefs, and former vice governor of Jakarta and retired officer Abdul Kahfie.

Lhokseumawe – An Indonesian military court on Monday found three soldiers guilty of beating civilians in war-torn Aceh and sentenced them to four months and 20 days in jail – about half what prosecutors had demanded.

Jakarta – International and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have demanded that the martial law administrator in Aceh to give the media the greatest possible access and lift any restrictions on journalists reporting on the conflict in the province.

Jakarta – Choking, thick haze that has sporadically hit mainland Riau and Kalimantan has spread and reached other islands, raising health concerns.

Jakarta – Tarmidi Suhardjo, former chairman of the Jakarta chapter of the ruling party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), has officially thrown in his lot with the Pioneer Party (Partai Pelopor).

Abdurrahman Wahid was president of Indonesia from 1999 to 2001. With his pluralistic style and attempts to implement frameworks to eliminate corruption, he perhaps came to the helm in Indonesia before the country or even his own administration was ready for his personal brand of reform.

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – Extortion and blackmail are commonplace in the police here against a backdrop of poor law enforcement and flourishing corruption, an independent police watchdog says.

Fitrian A. and Israr Ardiansyah, Jakarta – Indonesian forests constitute one of the world's megacenters of biological diversity. However, these forests – 10 percent of the world's remaining tropical forests, second largest to Brazil – are being increasingly degraded, leaving ever fewer natural resources and causing significant ecological damage.

Jakarta – The annual choking haze has reached alert levels on mainland Riau, including the provincial capital of Pekanbaru, with authorities warning residents to stay indoors as much as possible.

Jakarta – The sale of counterfeit medicines not only threatens consumers but also the pharmaceutical industry as the distribution of such drugs is now out of control. Moreover, the country's inadequate legal infrastructure and weak law enforcement have allowed such counterfeit drugs to flood the market.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – "Because I'm brown, that's why I want to be white." Westerners might still like the bronzed look, but in Indonesia women such as Yusniar are demanding soaps and lotions, creams and even injections that promise to make their brown skins a few shades lighter.

Jakarta – British attempts to convince the Indonesian Air Force to abandon its use of the HS-Hawk warplane in the war in Aceh have been shot down in flames.

Air Force spokesman Eddy Hardjoko said Thursday that the British-made Hawks would remain part of its arsenal, saying the warplanes had only been used to provide air cover for soldiers, not combat.

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta – Following an attack on the office of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) by the Pemuda Panca Marga (PPM) group last week, about 20 of the group's members paid a visit to the Tempo news magazine office on Wednesday to protest the way the weekly described the nationalistic group.

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – For many Jakartans, being choked by highly polluted air while sitting in a seemingly endless traffic jam is daily occurrence and irritant.

And things are going to get worse, with air pollution set to increase in the future rather than improve mainly due to the growth in the number of motor vehicles.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and A'an Suryana, Jakarta – A visiting British minister warned on Wednesday that the use of HS-Hawk warplanes in the current military offensive against rebels in Aceh could damage military cooperation between the two countries.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Countrywide risk factors, legal risk, a weak banking sector and weak capital markets, community violence and the like, affect sentiment over doing business in Indonesia, but there are few factors more important on would-be investor's score cards than a regular and reliable supply of electrical power at an affordable price.

Fitri Wulandari, Jakarta – State-owned electricity company PT PLN said that power reserves on Java and Bali had been depleted, but stopped short of saying there could be more blackouts in the future.

Jakarta – Still smarting from the loss of Sipadan and Ligitan islands, the government plans to resettle people from densely populated areas to 88 uninhabited islands on borders with neighbouring countries.

With incentives such as subsidies to start fishing and palm oil businesses, Jakarta hopes to persuade 300,000 people over a period of five years to make the move.

Sari P. Setiogi, Jakarta – Indonesia is rated the world's third worst country in its commitment against and law enforcement on women and child trafficking, with an estimated population of 230,000 women and child sex workers trafficked throughout Indonesia.

Jakarta – Some 5,000 people from the group, "Society Concerned with National Education" staged a rally in front of the House of Representatives here on Thursday, rejecting a House plan to approve the bill on education.

Wayne Arnold (New York Times) – Between separatist rebellions, corrupt courts, slumping tourism and rising youth unemployment, Indonesia has plenty to worry about.

Jakarta – Sony Electronics Indonesia Ltd has ended its Indonesian operations and is offering severance pay to its 884 workers.

Indonesia's Golkar Party which was used by former President Suharto to impose decades of authoritarian rule, is undergoing a makeover. The party is even considering appointing one of Indonesia's most respected Islamic scholars, a man who played a central role in Suharto's overthrow, as its presidential candidate.

Presenter/Interviewer: Tricia Fitzgerald

International environmental organisation Greenpeace says Indonesia has the world's highest rate of forest loss and may see much of its lowland forest disappear by 2010.

In a new report, 'Partners in Crime', Greenpeace has investigated the links between Britain and Indonesia's timber barons. The report says the findings are alarming.

Moch. N. Kurniawan and Apriadi Gunawan, Jakarta/Medan – More provinces in Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi islands are showing hot spots, a strong indication of forest fires, with haze already shrouding some areas of these provinces.

Jakarta – On June 3 a number of press and non-government organisations from the Coalition for Violence Against Journalists (Koalisi Antikekerasan terhadap Wartawan) declared their concern over the repressive situation facing the press and the safety of journalists during the military operation in Aceh.

Washington (Agencies) – The following is a summary of results for Indonesia from the 2003 Global Attitudes Survey by the Washington-based Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

Pip Hinman – Since Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri declared martial law in Aceh on May 19, defence minister Robert Hill and foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer have been repeating ad nauseum that it is in Australia's "national interest" to support the "territorial integrity" of Indonesia.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – Average incomes across Bali are down 40 per cent, one in five Balinese is out of work, and children are increasingly dropping out of school, according to the first surveys on the impact of last October's bombings on Bali and neighbouring East Java and Lombok.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Tourist arrivals in Bali have recovered only to a third of the level that tourism experts had said it would. The monthly visitor figures for the resort stand at 60,000.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – The British government has questioned the use of HS-Hawk warplanes by Indonesia during the military operation against rebels in Aceh, saying the pre-purchase deal restricted the planes from offensive missions.