The ouster of President Abdurrahman Wahid and his replacement by Megawati Sukarnoputri has opened up a new, and likely volatile, era in Indonesia.

Surabaya – Tens of thousands of people lined the streets of East Java's Tapal Kuda area on Tuesday to welcome home former president and influential Muslim cleric Abdurrahman Wahid.

The crowds, comprising people from all walks of life, continued to pour into Situbondo's main square in the center of the coastal city, some 160 kilometers east of Surabaya, on Tuesday morning.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Police turned up the heat in their search for former dictator Suharto's youngest son yesterday by announcing they had two suspects who had confessed the playboy had paid them to kill the judge who sentenced him to jail.

Pip Hinman – With Megawati Sukarnoputri freshly installed as president, and the country's armed forces, the TNI, in the ascendancy, the US government is moving swiftly to strengthen military ties with Indonesia.

Jakarta – Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) and the Indonesian Accountants' Foundation (YAI) urged the government on Tuesday to revise political party laws to allow party financial management to be more accessible to public scrutiny.

Urgent solidarity action is needed from supporters of democracy worldwide to secure the release of activists held by police for organising against the Indonesian regime.

Particularly urgent is the case of the Bandung 19, who have imprisoned as political prisoners by the authorities in police headquarters in the West Javanese city since as far back as June 15.

Jakarta – The World Bank's private sector arm said on Wednesday it had temporarily frozen all funding to Indonesia mainly because of a court ruling over one of its debtors.

Jakarta – Indonesia said on Wednesday tax collection in the first seven months of 2001 was above target, raising hopes the government would be able to meet the full year tax revenue target crucial to help plug its budget deficit.

Max Lane – An intense struggle is underway within the Indonesian elite over how to divide up the spoils after the ousting of President Abdurrahman Wahid. On August 3, 12 days after Megawati Sukarnoputri was elected president by the People's Consultative Assembly, it was announced that it would still be another week before she would announce her cabinet.

[A number of problems feature in the controversy surrounding the resumption of US-Indonesian military ties, writes Dr. Kusnanto Anggoro, senior researcher at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and lecturer in the postgraduate studies program at the University of Indonesia, Jakarta.]

Ian Timberlake, Jakarta – Petrus Hariyanto sees the fate of his tiny political party as a symbol of what's to come under Indonesia's new president, Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Tim McGirk, Jakarta – When the scorpion tanks clattered to a halt outside the Istana Merdeka palace in Jakarta, Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid was relieved. "Maybe they're here to protect the palace," he remarked.

Pramoedya Ananta Toer – I don't blame President Sukarno for my arrest in the early 1960s. I blame the army. But being a political prisoner in the early 1960s was very different from being a captive of later regimes. Sukarno's political opponents were free to visit their families, to go out walking within a limited area if they wanted to. We were at least treated with respect.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – In a quirk of history, two very different Indonesian women won honours recently.

Megawati Sukarnoputri became President, and 28-year old Dita Indah Sari won a newly created gong – a women's category added this year to the annual Magsaysay Emerging Leaders awards, presented by a Philippine foundation in honour of former president Ramon Magsaysay.

Jakarta – Human rights activists applauded on Sunday the renewed presidential decree on the establishment of an ad hoc tribunal to try suspects of gross human rights abuses in the 1984 Tanjung Priok and 1999 East Timor bloodshed.

Jakarta – Ousted president Abdurrahman Wahid returned to Indonesia yesterday after medical tests in the United States, insisting those who pushed him from power last month would eventually face the consequences of breaching the nation's Constitution.

Jakarta – Deposed Indonesian president Aburrahman Wahid turned 61 Saturday, 12 days after a humiliating impeachment by the national assembly cut short his tumultuous 21-month rule. Aides said Wahid was celebrating at home with family and friends over a meal of 'nasi tumpeng,' a traditional saffron rice cake used for birthdays in Indonesia.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Two fatal bombings, the assassination of a top judge and a jail breakout – all took place within the first 10 days of Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri's presidency. Security, or the lack of it, is the burning issue in the country, which has been going through a period of turbulent political transition for three years.

Jakarta – Political parties have submitted their candidates for the new Cabinet but the lineup will not be announced until next Thursday, largely due to a power struggle within Megawati's own party.

Jakarta – A play highlighting human rights issues will be staged at Taman Ismail Marzuki arts center in Central Jakarta to mark the International Week of Disappeared Persons which falls on August 30.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – People who like to eat out at KFC would never have imagined that it had something to do with Cipinang Penitentiary in East Jakarta.

Jakarta – The much-awaited Cabinet line-up will not be unveiled until next week, accentuating apparent horse trading among major political parties for key positions and leaving the financial markets bearish.

Tomi Soetjipto, Jakarta – A bomb blast ripped through the ground floor of a busy shopping centre in the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Wednesday evening, injuring at least five people, police and witnesses said.

John McBeth and Dini Djalal, Jakarta – Sadly for Indonesia, the dramatic events of July 23 that saw Abdurrahman Wahid sacked as president and Megawati Sukarnoputri installed in his place may be only one of many more upheavals attending Indonesia's progress towards a stable and more representative government.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – A lawsuit seeking to dissolve former president Suharto's political party, Golkar, was thrown out by the Supreme Court yesterday. The move comes amid growing fears that President Megawati Sukarnoputri's tenure will see a resurgence of groups and individuals linked to Suharto's New Order regime.

Pip Hinman – At 4am on July 22, a tent occupied by hunger strikers in the Sumatran town of Lampung was doused with petrol and set alight by thugs, suspected to be military personnel in plain clothes.

Kanis Dursin, Bekasi – Indonesia is the biggest rice importer in Asia. This is sadly ironic, because almost 70 percent of the country's 213 million people are farmers.

On 23 July, Vice President Megawati was installed as Indonesian president after the People's Assembly sacked the man it had appointed two years ago. The same state organ that intrigued against her then has now promoted her, with the full backing of a regenerated military.

Max Lane – In October 1999, when Megawati Sukarnoputri won the consolation prize of being elected Abdurrahman Wahid's vice-president, tens of thousands of her supporters paraded around the streets of Jakarta celebrating.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – American officials are trying to recall a published history of how the United States supported anti-communist moves that brought former president Suharto to power and left as many as one million Indonesians dead.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The fate of Indonesia's Nation Awakening Party (PKB) looks increasingly uncertain as internal politicking threatens to divide it and its iconic founder Abdurrahman Wahid quits the political scene.

Analysts agree that without deposed president Mr Abdurrahman to draw in voters, the party may have little appeal left for its constituents.

Manila – A Chinese agricultural scientist and agovernment official are among the seven winners of the 2001 Ramon Magsaysay Awards for excellence, the award foundation said on Monday.

Hamzah Haz, leader of Indonesia's largest Muslim political party, was elected Vice-President on Thursday. In its editorial yesterday, The Jakarta Post wondered if he could work amicably with President Megawati Sukarnoputri, known for her nationalist and secular outlook. Below is an extract of the editorial, entitled "An Unlikely Duet".

Enrique Soriano and Devi Asmarani – Deposed and dejected, Mr Abdurrahman is helped down the stairs of the presidential palace on Thursday before catching a flight to the US for medical treatment.

But former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid's last day at the Istana on Thursday was marked instead by heartfelt farewells from supporters and journalists.

Associated Press in Jakarta – Police in the Indonesian capital were yesterday questioning 18 witnesses and working with intelligence agencies to determine whether deposed president Suharto's youngest son was involved in the assassination of a prominent judge.

Craig Skehan – The Australian Prime Minister, Mr Howard, said yesterday he was impressed by the "warmth and spontaneity" of an invitation for him to visit Indonesia from the nation's new President, Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri, when he spoke to her by telephone.

Jakarta – Indonesian journalists are mounting a campaign to dissuade new president Megawati Sukarnoputri from re-opening the Information Ministry, closed by her reformist predecessor Abdurrahman Wahid in 1999, local media reports said on Saturday.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Politicians will dominate the new Indonesian Cabinet. Their empowering will be a form of payback for the support they gave President Megawati Sukarnoputri during the impeachment process against Mr Abdurrahman Wahid.

Kanis Dursin, Jakarta – The unreserved support of new President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) for the vice presidential bid of Hamzah Haz, chairperson of the Muslim-based United Development Party (PPP), came as a surprise to many.

Reuters in Jakarta – New President Megawati Sukarnoputri left Jakarta yesterday for the provinces, putting the critical task of forming a coalition cabinet on hold and reinforcing perceptions that she will not be a hands-on leader.

Jakarta – Indonesia's new president Megawati Sukarnoputri stayed away Friday from the commemoration of a 1996 brutal military-backed raid on her party's former headquarters, which left at least five dead and scores missing. Megawati spent her fifth day as president travelling to West Java and Central Sulawesi instead.

Just 48 hours after banding together to oust Abdurrahman Wahid from the country's presidency on charges of "incompetence" (a most extraordinary article of impeachment) and install Megawati Sukarnoputri as his successor, Indonesian lawmakers' unanimity disappeared and it took a once again fractious People's Consultative Assembly two days and three rounds of voting to elect the leader

International reactions to Megawati Sukarnoputri becoming Indonesia's new president on July 23 were swift but measured.

America is still looking mainly for military allies in Southeast Asia – as if the cold war never ended. This is the central message of a new report issued this month by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) on what the Bush administration should be doing in the region. It's likely to alarm Southeast Asians.

Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta – Indonesian legislators on Thursday elected an unlikely deputy for their first female president – a Muslim politician who has said women are not fit to lead the world's largest Muslim nation.

Jakarta – The Indonesian rupiah spiked to around 9,800 to the dollar on Thursday and the stock market gained 1.40 percent, welcoming Muslim politician Hamzah Haz as the country's new vice president.

Hanoi – The United States is watching the Indonesian military closely after the rise to power of President Megawati Sukarnoputri. Its officials have yet to decide whether to increase limited ties with Jakarta's armed forces, according to a senior US State Department official.

G.K. Goh, Jakarta – Abdurrahman Wahid's farewell to his followers Thursday was much like his 21 months as Indonesian president – chaotic, confusing and sadly anti-climactic. About 1,500 people attended a rally outside the presidential palace near Jakarta's famous Independence Monument and crowded around a small wooden stage to listen to his parting words.

Jakarta – The World Bank yesterday welcomed the appointment of Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri as Indonesia's new president, and urged her to assemble a strong economic team to tackle the country's daunting problems.

"This is a time of great challenge and opportunity for Indonesia," bank president James Wolfensohn said in a statement two days after Ms Megawati's appointment.

Jakarta – Hamzah Haz, who became Indonesia's ninth vice president on Thursday, is a seasoned lawmaker and politician and the first in more than three decades to come from a Muslim party.