Jakarta – Hundreds of people raided a state-owned fish pond in West Javan city of Karawang on Tuesday and got away with 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of newly-harvested prawns worth some 2,500 dollars, reports said Wednesday. Some 500 people were involved in the two-hour raid on the pond, owned by the central government's state secretariat Tuesday.

Surabaya – Riot police scuffled with protesters and fired warning shots Wednesday when about 4,000 students staged one of the biggest protests so far against Indonesia's president over skyrocketing food prices.

Jakarta – Some 100 students demonstrated outside the attorney general's office here Wednesday demanding that ousted Indonesian president Suharto answer allegations in court of amassing billions while in power.

Jakarta – Mobs looted warehouses and stores of rice, sugar and instant noodles for the third straight day Wednesday in the Indonesian provincial capital of Pontianak, sources and press reports said. "The looting is continuing, this time in downtown Pontianak in the central market area," a staff member at the police information office told AFP by telephone.

Jakarta – At least five people were injured early Tuesday as Indonesian riot police beat student protestors who were demanding that President B.J. Habibie step down and hand over power to a transitional authority. The riot police, using tear gas, chased the 250 protestors out of the parliament compound, hours after they had arrived there for an overnight vigil.

Jakarta – Anyone caught disrupting Indonesian government moves to beat food shortages could face execution, Justice Minister Muladi warned Tuesday as anger mounted over price hikes and the scarcity of vital supplies.

Jakarta – Police detained at least 74 people after a second day of rioting in Central Java in which scores of ethnic Chinese-owned stores and cars were torched or damaged Tuesday, Antara news agency reported. Thirty-two high-school students were among those held for questioning after rioting and looting in the town of Kebumen.

Jakarta – An international rights body Tuesday called on the Indonesian government to stop trying to discredit reports of gang rapes of ethnic Chinese women during May riots here, saying they were scaring off potential witnesses.

Kevin Sullivan, Jakarta – Eleven-year-old Ipan, a cheerful little beggar in a buzz cut and a dirty T-shirt, knocks on car windows and sings and pleads for money with his 4-year-old sister, Tuti, holding tight to his side in her fading flowered dress.

Jakarta – Thousands of protesters rampaged through a central Java town Monday, burning and looting Chinese-owned shops and cars, while at least 2,000 students in the capital tore down the gates of Indonesia's parliament.

Jakarta – It has now been revealed that in his final days as president, Suharto ordered armed forces commander General Wiranto to finish off the reform leader, Amien Rais, along with thousands of students who had planned to march to the presidential palace to call for his resignation. This was revealed by a member of his personal staff, Prof Dr.

Jakarta – Indonesia's fallen president Suharto went on television late Sunday to deny allegations that he had accumulated a fortune worth billions of dollars during his 32 years in power.

Surabaya – Three people were injured and 32 others arrested when a clash erupted between troops and hundreds of villagers pillaging a teak forest near the town of Ngawi, 150 kilometres (95 miles) west of here, resident sources said Saturday.

Jakarta – Indonesian police were on standby to stem industrial unrest at three factories in a West Java city Saturday, a day after a pay dispute at Indonesia's largest polyester producer turned violent.

Jakarta – A group of activists Friday burned caricatures of former president Suharto, his family and close associates in front of parliament, to protest their alleged involvement in bank scams and graft.

Jose Manuel Tesoro, Batam – Before he ruled all of Indonesia's 13,000 islands, he was in charge of just one. B.J. Habibie came about Batam the same way he later got the country. It was handed to him by a patron high in government. Not Suharto but one of the ex-president's longtime cronies: Ibnu Sutowo, head of state oil company Pertamina, which once managed the island.

By Farhan Haq, New York – The US Senate's passage this week of restrictions on arms sales to Indonesia and demands for further political reforms have pleased some pro-democracy activists, who welcome the signs that Washington plans to keep some pressure on Jakarta.

Dewi Loveard, Jakarta – For a man whose visage was once seen everywhere, former president Suharto has dropped dramatically out of sight since his resignation on May 21. Suharto watchers now spend their time guessing which mosque he is likely to select for his Friday prayer session that week. The last sighting was on Aug.

Jakarta – A second general has denied an allegation by a former security guard of Indonesia's founding president Sukarno that he and three other generals forced Sukarno to hand over power to Suharto on March 11, 1966, reports said Friday.

High school students arrested for their part in a violent riot this week in troubled Aceh province said they were asked to riot by strangers.

How do you keep a fleet of buses and cars on the road when the cost of spare parts has skyrocketed by over 300 per cent? The answer: Find parts from other vehicles. "Motor cannibalism" has kept the transport industry alive in the crisis – but only barely.

Don Greenlees – The slow wheels of Indonesian justice, rusted to a standstill after 32 years of Suharto rule, have finally begun to turn, bringing friends, business allies and even the children of the former president closer to a legal reckoning.

Jakarta – A group of white collar workers marched in central Jakarta Thursday demanding that the government suspend income taxes if it cannot control spiralling inflation. The 30 office workers marched down the sidewalk of the main Thamrin street waving placards reading "Lower prices," and "We should not subsidize the rich," witnesses said.

Already pummeled by the general Asian economic collapse and the downturn in crude oil prices, Indonesia is facing yet another crisis – impending famine. The Indonesian newspaper "Kompas" reported on August 28 that rice supplies in Rengasdengklok, Jatirage, Plumbonsari, and Cilamaya are depleted.

Jakarta – As Indonesia sinks deeper into its worst economic crisis for decades, rice has increasingly become the favorite target of looters and robbers, reports said here Thursday.

Jakarta – Indonesian armed forces will return to the troubled province of Aceh to restore security after two days of mob riots following a troop withdrawal, army chief General Wiranto said Wednesday.

Jakarta – The government was strongly urged Tuesday to reinvestigate the Lampung incident in February l989, which resulted in scores of deaths. Munir, coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), who demanded the reinvestigation, said the death toll could be nearly eight times higher than the Armed Forces' (ABRI) account.

Louise Williams, Jakarta – Indonesian security forces opened fire on rioters in the northern Aceh city of Lhokseumawe yesterday, killing two, and injuring at least a dozen. The shootings threaten the Habibie Government's reconciliation efforts in a province already angered by serious human rights abuses under the former Soeharto regime.

Bandung – Undaunted by the government's continued recognition of a rival camp, Megawati Soekarnoputri of the splintered Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) vowed on Tuesday she will lead her supporters at the general election next year.

Jakarta – Indonesian authorities have finally given approval for the citizens of Yogyakarta to install the popular head of the region's royal family as their governor, reports said Wednesday.

Jakarta – Indonesia's armed forces are an "inseparable part" of the country's reform drive and will not tolerate threats to the process, an influential general said here Wednesday.

"ABRI (the armed forces) will be an inseparable part of the reform process and any action which threatens reform must be stopped," Lieutenant General Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said.

Jakarta – About 100 housewives, many with young children, on Wednesday gathered at Jakarta City Hall to demand serious government action to control soaring prices of basic goods.

Max Lane – On August 26, 200,000 people rallied in Yogyakarta to protest against the refusal of the Indonesian government to ratify Sultan Hamengku Buwono X as governor of Yogyakarta.

By Max Lane and Pramono (in Jakarta) – The frequency of protest actions in Indonesia has increased markedly over the last week. Worsening economic conditions, general anger over the lack of any real changes under the Habibie regime and students' return to campus after a three-month break are a volatile mixture.

Jenny Grant, Jakarta – Villagers on the islands of Flores are eating leaves and jungle fruit because they can no longer afford rice.

East Nusa Tenggara Governor Piet Alexander Talo said 13,000 Flores residents were eating tamarind leaves and mangrove fruits. "When people are starving, we should not try to cover it," Mr Talo said.

Surabaya – Over 1,000 university students demonstrated peacefully here yesterday against soaring prices of basic commodities. "The government has failed to bring down the prices of basic commodities," student leader Muhaji said during the demonstration, the first large-scale protest here since former President Suharto resigned on May 21.

Jakarta – A government investigation shows that funds in charitable foundations linked to ousted Indonesian president Suharto were misused and diverted to private firms, a senior minister said Tuesday.

Jakarta – Indonesian anti-corruption NGOs and the World Bank will set up a joint team to probe leakages of project funds made available by the bank to Jakarta, the NGOs said here Tuesday.

"The World Bank will investigate corruption, collusion and nepotism together with the NGOs," said Kastorius Sinaga from the Concerned Citizens Movement on National Assets (Gempita).

Jakarta – The crippling economic crisis that has engulfed Indonesia since July has forced 90 percent of the country's book publishers to halt operations, a report said here Tuesday.

Louise Williams, Jakarta – Hundreds of ethnic Chinese business families fled the central Javanese town of Cilacap over the weekend after mobs torched warehouses, sunk fishing trawlers and attacked shops and homes.

Christopher Torchia, Jakarta – Mobs burned buildings, stoned police cars and attacked ethnic Chinese in northern Indonesia on Monday in the biggest riot since deadly unrest in May helped oust former President Suharto.

Jakarta – Shots were heards as hundreds of onlookers Monday pelted and yelled insults at troops pulled out of the troubled Indonesian province of Aceh, where soldiers fighting Islamic separatists have been accused of human rights abuses.

Jakarta – If life had gone the way he planned nine months ago, Dr B.J. Habibie would be planting tulips, writing a book or two about aeroplanes and just pottering around his retirement home in the northern German town of Hamburg today.

Greg Torode, Jakarta – Police in the central Javanese city of Cilacap reportedly have been ordered to shoot rioting fishermen if need be. Rioting flared for a second time on Saturday night as thousands of fishermen attacked and looted bosses' homes and public buildings over labour disputes.

Gerry van Klinken – As Nazi Germany blamed the Jews for its economic ills, as Hansonite Australia blames Asians, so now Habibie's Indonesia is moving from mere rhetoric against the Chinese to real acts of terror.

Jakarta – A kidnapped political activist plans to file a lawsuit against ex-president Suharto's son-in-law for his involvement in the abduction and torture of scores of activists, press reports said Sunday.

Jakarta – About 100 protesters from the province of Irian Jaya picketed the Foreign Ministry yesterday, demanding independence for the former Dutch colony. The crowd, waving separatist "West Papua" flags and wearing "West Papua" T-shirts, sang traditional songs and brandished placards reading: "Stop colonialism in West Papua" and "Remember West Papua is a free nation".

Student demos were once more in the focus of the public during the last three days. This time they voiced dissatisfaction over rice prices, stopped military trucks recruted to transport rice and demanded abolishment of the Armed Forces' (ABRI) dual role.

Louise Williams, Pidie – "Did they hurt you, Mama?" the old woman's children and grandchildren asked, when she was dumped back in her rice farming village by soldiers from Indonesia's elite special forces.

Jakarta – The government has officially recognized Budi Hardjono as the new chairman of the conflict-ridden Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI). Budi was elected to the party's leadership on Wednesday during a congress marred by violent clashes and allegations of political intrigue.