Jakarta – Indonesia's central bank said on Friday it expects to keep raising interest rates to help ease inflationary pressures stemming from the battered rupiah, but hoped the rise would not be too high.

Chris McCall and Reuters in Jakarta – Beleaguered President Abdurrahman Wahid won a much-needed boost yesterday when two cabinet ministers opted to stay in his Government and leave the party of his most ferocious political enemy.

Surabaya – More than 5,000 supporters of President Abdurrahman Wahid, armed with sickles, machetes and bamboo spears, blocked Ketapang Port in Banyuwangi, some 290 kilometers east of Surabaya, on Thursday, demanding that the House of Representatives (DPR) withdraw the memorandum it issued on February 1, censuring President Abdurrahman Wahid.

Jakarta – Army Chief of Staff Gen. Endriartono Sutarto dismissed on Thursday speculation that there would soon be a major reshuffle in the Indonesian Military (TNI).

Ambon – There is still gunfire every night in Ambon, the capital of the Moluccas, and sometimes a shattering bomb blast. Once a thriving commercial city, it is now a deadly maze of Christian "red" areas and Muslim "white" ones, a pattern of demarcation that has spread to the neighbouring islands.

[The following is an article based on a conference paper by sociologist George J. Aditjondro, a lecturer at Australia's Newcastle University. It was originally published in two parts with the second appearing on March 17.]

Newcastle – Recently, the move to push Megawati Soekarnoputri into the presidential seat has become stronger.

Jakarta – Lawyers for the Indonesian timber tycoon Mohamad "Bob" Hasan, a close associate of former president Soeharto, say they will appeal after Hasan was sentenced to six years' jail for corruption.

Marianne Kearney, Madura – There seems to be no safe haven for the thousands of Madurese refugees who are fleeing the brutal ethnic violence in Central Kalimantan.

Those who have returned to rural Madura in the hope of finding solace and refuge with their kinsmen face increasing problems of overcrowding and poverty.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The presidential office yesterday denied that the US$300,000 sent to President Abdurrahman Wahid while he was on an overseas trip in Saudi Arabia was obtained improperly, saying it had come from its own coffers.

Jakarta – Indonesian vice president Megawati Sukarnoputri no longer supported President Abdurrahman Wahid and was ready to replace him, despite mistrusting her new allies, according to a senior official of her party.

Jakarta – Police stormed a top-security prison here early yesterday, killing one inmate and injuring three others as they quelled a riot over plans to transfer 50 prisoners to other jails, police said.

Chris McCall and agencies in Jakarta – Indonesians are bracing for more economic misery as their currency crumbles, sparking fears of a repeat of its 1997 collapse.

Supporters of President Abdurrahman Wahid yesterday staged their own demonstration outside the presidential palace, where thousands on Monday called for him to resign.

Jakarta – Thousands of Indonesian students Wednesday abandoned a sit-in at parliament demanding the resignation of President Abdurrahman Wahid, amid rumours his supporters were descending on the complex.

As police squads looked on, some 2,500 students marched out of the back entrance of the sprawling complex after two nights camping in the grounds.

Chris McCall, Ambon – They are the shock troops of a crusade to defend the Christian faith and they are mostly still at school.

Jakarta – A large number of President Abdurrahman Wahids loyalists left East Java for Jakarta yesterday as their rivals mounted protests to demand the resignation of the national leader.

Jakarta – The Jakarta Student Executive Boards' (BEMs) call for a national strike received a mixed response from both the people and university students nationwide, and life practically went on as normal in all cities in the country on Monday, despite student demonstrations in several places.

Jakarta – No bullets or tear gas were fired when more than 10,000 protesters, mostly students, besieged Merdeka Palace on Monday, intensifying the pressure on President Abdurrahman Wahid to resign.

Rallies against the President also took place in several towns across the country, but the students' call for a national strike did not materialize.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Investors took fright yesterday as thousands of protesters blockaded the tightly guarded palace of President Abdurrahman Wahid and his most senior minister warned the country was on the brink of collapse.

Jakarta – Monday's mass student rally was marked by the hijacking of several buses with their drivers being forced to transport protesters to the scene of the demonstration.

Karawang, West Java – Army chief of staff Gen. Endriartono Sutarto warned on Monday that the Indonesian Military (TNI) would take control of security affairs from the National Police if the political situation deteriorates into chaos.

Carol Giacomo, Washington – The United States has assured Indonesia that it would not back a military coup against Jakarta's politically embattled civilian government, US and Indonesian officials said on Monday.

Secretary of State Colin Powell has declared that such a move by Washington would be "unthinkable," a senior US official told Reuters.

Jakarta – The government decided on Monday to raise fuel prices for industries by 50 percent up to 100 percent on April 1 but keep kerosene and fuel prices at gas stations unchanged until October to protect the poor.

Marianne Kearney, Madura – After escaping rampaging Dayak mobs, hiding in the forest for days with her 15-month-old daughter, Ms Biah thought she had survived the most traumatic part of her two-week exodus from Kalimantan.

But when she returned to her uncle's village in Madura, she found that the worst was yet to come.

Melinda Liu – Terrified, the victims hid in the jungle. At long last the police came, announcing over loudspeakers that it was safe to come out. So some 300 Madurese-Muslims whose families had settled in Borneo over the last four decades-emerged from the bush. That was the worst mistake many of them would ever make.

Joe Cochrane – The scenes from Borneo last week were both horrific and horrifyingly familiar. Gangs of local Dayaks in the Indonesian province of Central Kalimantan hunted down ethnic Madurese with spears and machetes.

Hearts were ripped out of corpses; bodies, even those of children, were decapitated. As many as 500 people, almost all Madurese, may have died.

Haidir Anwar Tanjung/FW & GB, Pekanbaru – Twenty villagers representing 439 families came to Riau Provincial Legislative Council to file a complaint over the seizing of their customary land by a giant pulp and paper company.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – With unrest, bomb attacks and separatist violence affecting various parts of the country in recent times, many people have condemned the weaknesses of the Indonesian Military's (TNI) intelligence gathering system.

Blood. countless gallons of blood soaked deep into the clay of a soccer field. There have been two heavy thunderstorms in the four days since 118 children, women and men – Madurese refugees huddled together and promised safe passage – were systematically butchered on the high-school playing field in Parenggean, a logging town deep in central Kalimantan.

Jakarta – Despite mounting political support for the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) chairperson, Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri, to lead the country, there have been signs of an effort to unseat her from the party's top post, PDI Perjuangan secretary general Soetjipto said on Sunday.

Jakarta – Student groups traded accusations on Saturday of being used by the political elite ahead of the massive antigovernment rally planned on Monday.

Jakarta – Women in this city are often harassed sexually when they take the extremely crowded public trains.

"Almost every day a man will try to press his body against me," Yurike [not her real name], a teacher who takes the train almost every day, said. "If I get angry, they just say 'if you don't want to get touched, don't take the train'," she said.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – They wanted perfect noses, fuller lips and voluptuous breasts. What they ended up with instead were grotesque snouts, disfigured lips and breast cancer.

Jakarta – The House of Representatives Commission II for home and legal affairs selected 11 members on Friday for the new General Election Committee (KPU) who are to be the organizers and adjudicators of the 2004 general election.

The eleven passed a screening conducted over three consecutive days by the House Commission.

Jakarta – All economic reform targets stated in the latest Letter of Intent (LoI), which has been agreed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have basically been completed, according to a senior government official.

Jakarta – The Attorney General's Office will not stop the investigation into the riotous 1984 incident in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, regardless of the peace pact made between victims and military officers.

Jakarta – The United States has reiterated its continuing support for Indonesia to resolve its internal conflicts by peaceful and democratic means.

"The United States strongly supports a peaceful, democratic, constitutional political process in Indonesia," according to a statement by the American Embassy in Jakarta on Thursday.

The country's long and brutal economic crisis is sending increasing numbers of people living in the capital insane, a local newspaper said on Friday.

Jakarta – Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Amien Rais said on Friday that should Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri replace Abdurrahman Wahid as President, she will survive until 2004 if she can maintain a corruption-free coalition in her cabinet.

Jakarta – Some 1,000 activists grouped in the University of Indonesia Student Executive Body (BEM-UI) began a campaign on Friday for a general strike on Monday to put pressure on President Abdurrahman Wahid, also known as Gus Dur, to resign.

Complex and enduring rivalries over natural resources are the real cause of the horrific violence in Kalimantan, writes John Walker.

The recent spate of killings of ethnic Madurese in Central Kalimantan has again exposed how poorly equipped many Australian media are for either accurate reporting or informed analysis of events in Indonesia.

Jakarta – Police fired warning shots on Friday to disperse hundreds of Dayaks who burned at least seven police traffic posts in the Borneo city of Palangkaraya to avenge the killing of four of their tribesmen by police.

Jakarta – President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid arrived home after midnight on Thursday, an hour after some 4,000 youths from different camps rallied peacefully in front of the Merdeka Palace.

The Garuda Airbus carrying the beleaguered President and his entourage landed at Halim Perdanakusuma airport in East Jakarta 40 minutes into midnight amid tight security cordon.

Jakarta – Former minister of mines and energy Ida Bagus Sudjana revealed on Wednesday that ex-president Soeharto told him to "protect" a company belonging to the latter's son, Bambang Trihatmodjo.

Jakarta – The legal battle between the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) and the mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia opened on Wednesday at the South Jakarta District Court.

Shefali Rekhi – Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid might well hold on to power, despite the criticism against him in the wake of the Kalimantan crisis, because the forces opposing him are weak.

"Those who are against Gus Dur don't have support from the major parties, especially from the PDI-P," said Dr Abubakar Eby Hara, a lecturer at East Java's Jember University.

John McBeth – In jumper, skirt and sandals, Dita Sari looks more like a rural schoolteacher than a trade unionist.

Jakarta – Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri should treat mounting support from Islamic political parties with suspicion as the parties might be courting her favour in return for short-term gains, political observers said.

Pip Hinman – The recent well-publicised report by Global Alliance for Workers and Communities on sexual harassment of women workers in Nike factories in Indonesia is hardly earth-shattering news. By now, Nike's legendary exploitation of its global 550,000-strong workforce is well known.

Purwokerto – Some 200 supporters of President Abdurrahman Wahid from Banyumas took to the streets here on Tuesday, burning the Golkar Party flag.

The President's supporters also demanded House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung and People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien Rais stop their efforts to unseat Abdurrahman.

Max Lane – Despite the humiliating forced resignation of Indonesian President Suharto in May 1998, the political machine that he built during his 33-year reign has remained virtually intact.