John Aglionby, Medan – Dozens of uncontrolled forest fires are breaking out every day across western Indonesia, blanketing much of south-east Asia in a polluted haze and raising fears that there could be a repeat of the smog crisis of two years ago.

Vaudine England – Getting a small box of books out of the cargo office at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport was how one friend learned about corruption in Indonesia.

As soon as she got out of her taxi near the warehouse, the touts arrived, waving cardboard folders that carried all the documents she required, insisting she pay for their help.

Jakarta – Former Indonesian president Suharto was discharged from hospital and returned home Friday after 10 days of treatment for a minor stroke, witnesses said.

Jakarta – About 80 workers, representing thousands of fellow workers at PT Tripatra Caltex Pacific, in the Sumatra province of Riau, yesterday reported a string of military cruelties to the House of Representatives (DPR).

They said, military personnel has shot workers at two separate demonstrations, on July 15th and 23rd, causing dozens of workers to be injured.

Geraldine Yeo and Yeoh En-lai – Bustling Batam became a ghost-town yesterday as residents stayed indoors and shops stayed shut after at least nine people died in ethnic clashes that started over the weekend.

Singapore – Singapore was enveloped Thursday by haze from raging plantation fires largely in the Indonesian island of Sumatra, the meteorological service department said. It said the hazy conditions were expected to prevail over the next two days.

Andreas Harsono, Jakarta – Indonesian presidential front-runner Megawati Sukarnoputri broke her long silence after winning the parliamentary elections here and spoke for 80 minutes Thursday in a speech that answered critics on issues ranging from Islamic law to separatist movements in East Timor, Irian Jaya, Maluku and Aceh.

Vaudine England, Jakarta - Efforts by the Muslim-based political parties to offer a new presidential candidate are gathering steam, partly to avoid having a woman in the top job and partly to avoid what Muslim leaders label a "polarisation" of society.

Ambon – Clashes between Christians and Muslims in Indonesia's troubled Ambon island killed 24 people, hospital sources said Wednesday.

They died in fighting between late Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon, the hospital sources said, adding that most died of gunshot wounds. It brings the number killed in fighting there this week to at least 34.

Paris – Jakarta secured a pledge of $5.9 billion in foreign aid on Wednesday, despite demands from human rights groups that cash be held off pending a vote on self rule for the East Timor territory which Indonesia invaded in 1975.

Sigit Widodo and Andrea, Jakarta – Around two thousand people demonstrated at the National Election Commission (KPU) offices bringing the traffic on Jalan Imam Bonjol to a complete stop.

Jeremy Wagstaff and Puspa Madani, Jakarta – More than half of Indonesia's political parties – all but one of them without a seat – have refused to ratify last month's election, citing allegations of fraud. While delaying by at least a week official release of the results, the setback, analysts and politicians say, isn't likely to do any lasting damage to the political process.

Michael Shari, Jakarta – Eko S. Budianto, deputy chairman of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA), thought there was something fishy about the small group of Western and Indonesian visitors from a foreign hedge fund who walked into his Jakarta office recently. He had never heard of the fund, which had an acronym for a name and was registered in a Caribbean tax haven.

Army chief Wiranto has brokered a deal to end the impasse. It means Megawati's in, Habibie's out – and Wiranto is in charge

Ati Nurbaiti and Santi W.E. Soekanto, Jakarta – Fifteen-year-old Ranti wept with pain when an elderly man deflowered her at a brothel in Jakarta, but she managed to stop crying upon being told he would pay her Rp 700,000 (US$106).

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri has launched a scathing attack on President B.J. Habibie, accusing him of being blinded by greed and trying to cling to power without listening to the Indonesian people.

Semarang – The long standing economic crisis in Indonesia since July 1997 has affected the lives of children nation wide, evidenced by the fact that around 10 million of them are suffering from malnutrition.

Jakarta – Experts are concerned by the increasing number of child prostitutes to be found on almost all major streets of Surabaya, the country's second largest city.

Jakarta – The Independent Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) joined other observers on Thursday in denouncing the newly submitted bill on state security, which it said would kill democracy in the country.

Jakarta – An Indonesian stringer for the US magazine Time on Friday answered a police summons in connection with a Time article which alleged the family of former Indonesian president Suharto was sitting on a 15-billion dollar fortune.

Jakarta – Abdurrahman Wahid came up on Wednesday with yet another surprising move when he praised President B.J. Habibie – whom he had often criticized for his links to Golkar and the past regime – as amenable to change and as less conservative than many people thought.

Jakarta – An aunt of a man injured in the Semanggi incident, a relative of a missing person and a friend of a Trisakti University student who was shot dead have established a group for victims of state violence.

State Violence Victims Solidarity (SKKN), announced on Tuesday, groups relatives and friends from several cases.

Jakarta – Speculation was rife on Tuesday over the health of former president Soeharto after he was rushed to the Pertamina Hospital in South Jakarta.

Hospital officials and his family were quick to play down the significance of the visit, stating that the 78-year-old was merely undergoing a routine medical check up.

Jakarta – Around 2,000 workers staged a demonstration at the Manpower Ministry, demanding the government revoke its labor regulations deemed detrimental to them.

Susan Sim, Jakarta – Indonesia's top generals are laughing off a report in an international magazine which alleged that they had cut a deal to support opposition leader Megawati Soekarnoputri for the presidency.

Chris McCall, Tual – Nearly 40 people displaced by communal violence in Indonesia's remote Kai islands have died of malnutrition or disease in crude refugee camps that dot the once idyllic archipelago, local aid workers say.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – A reshuffle of top officers in Indonesia's armed forces has prompted speculation that General Wiranto, the Defence Minister and armed forces chief, sees himself as the country's new vice-president.

Jakarta – Malnutrition? Intellectual confinement? None of these remotely describe the experiences of seven young political activists from the Democratic People's Party (PRD) who are incarcerated at Cipinang Prison, East Jakarta.

Yudha Kartohadiprodjo, Jakarta – At a quick glance, Budiman Soedjatmiko, 29 years old, could be mistaken for a compliant yuppie waiting for the next business deal or a young university lecturer waiting to teach.

Bespectacled and usually dressed in a light colored, short-sleeved shirt, he displays a calm composure while warmly greeting friends. But compliant he is not.

Keith B. Richburg, Jakarta – Some 38 days after Indonesians voted in the country's first free election in a generation, the final tabulation of the results was announced Thursday, and they confirmed what political analysts and others here long suspected – the party of opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri finished first in the crowded field.

Amy Chew, Jakarta – Indonesia's military will back presidential frontrunner Megawati Sukarnoputri if she picks armed forces chief General Wiranto as her vice presidential candidate, military sources said on Thursday.

Susan Sim and Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – President B.J. Habibie has rejected opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri's claim to a popular mandate following last month's general election, insisting that it is misleading to assume that the party with the most votes will win the presidency automatically.

Singapore – Indonesian opposition leader Amien Rais said here Wednesday that it was too early to declare a winner in the race for the presidency and witheld his support for frontrunner Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Jakarta – A 10-day training course on crowd control given by the US government to the Indonesian Police will be useless, and would be used by local officers only to break up student and worker demonstrations here, lawyers and students said on Monday.

Jakarta – Hundreds of Muslim students in Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi, took to the streets on Monday voicing their rejection of Megawati Soekarnoputri's presidential bid.

Documents at the Australian Archives show the Federal Government turned a blind eye to the indiscriminate slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Indonesians after an alleged communist coup, writes David Jenkins.

The case of (temporarily non-active) Attorney General, Lt. General Ghalib, is increasingly slipping from the rails of justice as political elements tend to appear on the surface.

Secret records of the US State Department and CIA provide evidence that the massacre of Indonesia's communists in 1965 was not a result of spontaneous uprisings but a deliberate campaign by General Soeharto. Marian Wilkinson reveals that the records show the US and Australia knew what was happening – but continued to back the army in its bloody takeover.

Jakarta – Residents of Koja, an area on the northeast coast of Jakarta, are threatening to use force to take over land that was seized from them in 1995 by a state-owned company with close ties to former president Soeharto's eldest daughter, Siti Hardiyanti 'Tutut' Rukmana.

Keith B. Richburg, Jakarta – Following her apparent victory in democratic elections last month, Megawati Sukarnoputri has declared that the Indonesian people have given her the mandate to lead the country.

Since May last year, there have been constant calls for a thorough investigation into the wealth of former Indonesian President Suharto and the corruption, collusion and nepotism that characterised his thirty two year rule.

The true story of the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people linked to the Indonesian Communist Party has remained buried since 1965. Now with the fall from power of President Soeharto, Indonesians are beginning to confront their own holocaust, writes Louise Williams.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Exactly one month after Indonesia's groundbreaking general election, just 59 per cent of votes have been counted in Jakarta.

Tangerang – Jailed labor activist Dita Indah Sari of the Democratic People's Party (PRD) left the women's penitentiary here on Monday after spending two years in prison.

Jakarta – Thousands of bank employees and bus drivers staged separate demonstrations in Jakarta yesterday, demanding greater rights for workers.

Sander Thoenes, Jakarta – Former President Suharto yesterday filed a multi-billion dollar libel suit against Time magazine in a case that highlights the new government's failure to pursue corruption charges against him.

Jakarta – An unidentified group yesterday attacked an office of the Democratic People's Party (PRD), following last week's shooting of PRD activists by security officials.

Yogyakarta – The office of the People's Democratic Party (PRD) in Yogyakarta, came under attack on Saturday evening (3/7) 23.30, by an unidentified group of people who were armed with machetes. Aside from damaging the office, the attackers also wounded a PRD activist, Endik, on his arm and left hip.

Sigit Widodo, Jakarta – Dita Indah Sari, chairperson of the Indonesian Centre for Labour Struggle (PPBI) – which is affiliated to the People's Democratic Party (PRD) – was released from the Tangerang Women's Prison on Monday, July 5. Upon being released, Dita went pay a visit to her mother's grave, Nonya Lili Fernandes.

Jakarta – In a bid to cast off their image as ruthless supporters of the authoritarian New Order regime of ex-president Soeharto, police have begun to don new uniforms and are now conducting charity programs to help the poor.

In conjunction with the 53rd anniversary of the National Police, the Jakarta Police is providing medical assistance to impoverished people.