Jakarta – Gold mining firm Newmont Minahasa Raya in Minahasa, North Sulawesi, resumed operations early on Friday after a blockade of the company's ore crusher by protesters ended.

Jakarta – The worker's union of one of the 11 Nike subcontractors in Indonesia on Friday denied the allegations aired by antiexploitation activists at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

Bandung – Activists demanded on Friday that West Java Governor R. Nuriana be suspended to facilitate the legal process of the local high court relating to alleged corruption involving Rp 209 billion (US$25.2 million) within his administration.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Indonesia yesterday signed its latest set of reform pledges with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to obtain US$400 million in fresh funds. But this time, the country has more say in the programme and will tailor it to changing conditions.

Jose Manuel Tesoro and Dewi Loveard, Jakarta – Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri's sunny smiles at the August 26 induction of Indonesia's new cabinet made it seem as if the past three days had never happened.

Jakarta – General Abdul Haris Nasution, an Indonesian independence hero who narrowly escaped assassination in 1965, died yesterday at 81.

The retired five-star general, former army chief and Cabinet minister died in Jakarta's Gatot Subroto military hospital, Antara reported. The cause of death was not specified, but Gen Nasution went into a coma after a recent stroke.

Jakarta – State-owned PT Timah Tbk, the world's largest integrated tin maker, said protests at its main Bangka island plant had halted operations at two units, and warned the situation could be serious.

John McBeth, Jakarta – The day before Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid announced his new "All-the-President's-Men" cabinet, Golkar party Chairman and House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tanjung decided there was nothing to keep him in Jakarta and boarded a plane for the United States to attend to personal and business matters.

Budi Sugiharto/GB, Sampang – An angry mob has destroyed around 85% of the local legislature in Sampang on the island of Madura, East Java. Tensions have been mounting all week as protests rejecting the election of a new Regent have steadily grown larger and more confrontational.

Kuala Lumpur – A Malaysian businessman working in the North Sumatra capital of Medan has been kidnapped for ransom, reports said yesterday quoting his wife.

Marianne Kearney, Indonesia – In A bid to halt rampant illegal logging, Indonesia's Forestry Minister has announced a proposal to put a ban on all log exports from Indonesia until it can guarantee a sustainable logging industry.

Simon Montlake, Jakarta – The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency plans to restructure 70% of its major debt cases by the end of this month, Irwan Siregar, a senior IBRA executive, said Wednesday.

IBRA is managing loans with a nominal value of about IDR260 trillion, which it has taken over from the devastated banking sector.

Chris McCall, Jakarta – Unions threatened nationwide protests yesterday after the Government vowed to press ahead with controversial fuel price increases next month.

It will be the first across-the-board increase since May 1998, when a similar move triggered a nationwide wave of bloody rioting which ended former president Suharto's 32-year reign.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – The Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden has established links with Muslim radicals in Indonesia who are behind attacks on Christians in the Maluku islands, according to Western intelligence sources in Jakarta.

Jakarta – The joint team set up by the Attorney General's Office to investigate rights violations in East Timor has ignored the real offenders, a watchdog said on Saturday.

Jakarta – Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid yesterday appointed 16 judges to the Supreme Court in support of reform of the country's judicial system.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – As the Indonesian government considers extending a civil emergency for the strife-torn region of the Malukus, local groups warn that fresh violence could erupt at any time.

Aulia Andri/Swastika & Ari P, Medan – The abduction of four activists from the Consortium for Agrarian Reform (KPA) while protesting outside the General Assembly in early August remains a tug of war between the Jakarta City Police and the KPA, with the KPA believing that the abduction was committed by police officers.

Soraya Permatasari, Jakarta – An Indonesian commission said there were signs that some listed firms, including noodle giant Indofood and some cement companies, might be in violation of an anti-monopoly law that took effect on Tuesday.

Jakarta – Seven people, including four women, were accosted when some 100 members of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) attacked cafes and bars in Tebet, South Jakarta, on Friday evening, a police officer said on Saturday.

Jakarta – Dozens of older men and women belonging to the Victims of New Order Human Rights Abuse Association (Pakorba HAM) met French human rights activist, Danielle Mitterand, here today.

Chaidir Anwar Tanjung, Pekanbaru – Protected forests at Bukit Suligi in Kampar regency, Riau province on Sumatra's west coast, are being plundered without local authorities lifting a finger and even supporting the illegal industry.

Susan Sim, Jakarta – If history is written by victors and it is left to fiction to lionise the defeated, then General Wiranto and his nemesis, Attorney-General Marzuki Darusman, cannot have crafted a better outcome than the one dictated by the hard realities of Indonesian politics.

Jakarta – Dozens of students in Lampung province took to the streets yesterday to protest against a government plan to increase fuel prices and a rise in public transport fares, reports said.

They gathered at a main intersection in the provincial capital, Bandar Lampung, causing traffic jams, the state Antara news agency said.

Jakarta – An international rights group on Saturday welcomed Indonesia's naming of 19 suspects in the violence that ravaged East Timor after its independence vote last year, but said "serious obstacles" remained in bringing them to justice.

Chris McCall and Staff Reporters – They were among the men to fear in Dili in the bloody weeks before and after last year's independence vote.

Chris McCall, Jakarta – Jakarta yesterday finally named a string of top military and police officers among 19 suspects involved in last year's East Timor bloodbath, but received a suspicious response.

Jakarta – Three Indonesian student activists who picketted the national assembly last month, have related how they and a fellow protestor were abducted at gunpoint and held incommunicado for 13 days, reports said Saturday.

Jakarta – Indonesian investigators were condemned by rights activists Friday for omitting top Indonesian generals and notorious militia leaders from a list of suspects in last year's bloodshed in East Timor.

Jakarta – Indonesia on Friday named three generals as suspects in its probe into the violence that followed last year's East Timor independence vote but immediately came under pressure to go higher up the military chain of command.

Jakarta – The Cabinet's new economic team is not seeking major changes in the International Monetary Fund-sponsored economic reform program, Bank Indonesia acting governor Anwar Nasution said here on Thursday.

Jakarta – With former president Soeharto's appearance as a defendant in his corruption trial in doubt, judicial experts disagreed on Thursday over the legality of trying him in his absence.

Nenden NF/Hendra & LM, Yogyakarta – A 70% rise in economy class railway fares, implemented Friday, are likely to prove extremely burdensome for the poor.

Maryadi/BI & AH Detik, Pontianak – A student protest at the Malaysian Consulate in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, today, Thursday 31 August 2000, has ended with four students being beaten and arrested.

Jakarta – Student reformists who helped topple former Indonesian president Suharto two years ago reacted with anger and disgust Thursday at his failure to show up at the start of his corruption trial.

Mark Landler, Jakarta – The corruption trial of Indonesia's fallen leader, Suharto, got under way here this morning in the converted auditorium of a government ministry building that was crowded with spectators and ringed by police officers, but missing one man: the accused.

Jakarta – Former Indonesian president Suharto's failure to attend the opening of his own trial Thursday had been widely expected but public patience is wearing. Economists, political analysts and a former judge warned of further social unrest if the "stage show" continues.

Djoko Tjiptono/Swastika & LM, Jakarta – Around 40 representatives of the Indonesian Scavenger's Association (IPI) staged a noisy protest at the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) offices in Jakarta Wednesday. They complained that they had been arbitrarily and forcible evicted by the North Jakarta Police and PT Green Garden.

Djoko Tjiptono/Swastika & LM, Jakarta – Around 200 victims of the 27 July incident gathered at Central Jakarta's famous HI Roundabout Wednesday demanding the Jakarta Provincial government reject Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso's accountability speech.

Jakarta – Indonesia's first democratically-elected government will put its reform image on the line Thursday by bringing former president Suharto to trial for corruption. The case will open amid doubts that the former strongman will show up at the court, and assurances of a pardon if found guilty.

Budi Sugiarto/BI & LM, Bojonegoro – For the past nine days journalists from several media organisations in Bojonegoro, East Java, have boycotted all reports and announcements from Bojonegoro Police and have now taken legal action. The beating of a local journalist at a demonstration and the contemptuous response of the police have angered the press.

Jakarta – Indonesia will set up a new agency to oversee state companies in a bid to speed their privatization, chief economics minister Rizal Ramli said yesterday.

Jakarta – Following are summaries of a government report, obtained by Kyodo News, on the flow of funds at seven charity foundations created and chaired by former Indonesian President Suharto while in power.

The information is contained in the indictment on corruption charges filed against Suharto, scheduled to be read by the prosecution during the trial Thursday.

Jakarta – University of Indonesia (UI) students marked the first day of going back to campus after a long holiday by boycotting classes on Monday, following the university's decision not to cancel a policy on an extra school fee.

Denpasar – One person was killed and six others injured yesterday when police opened fire to disperse protesters on the resort island of Bali.

The unrest occurred in the district of Jembrana, 95 kilometer west of Denpasar, when the protesters rallied against the inauguration of a new administrator in Negara, the capital of Jembrana.

Pip Hinman, Sydney – Romawaty Sinaga, the international officer of the militant Indonesian National Front for Workers Struggle (FNPBI), in Australia to meet other trade unionists, has appealed for greater assistance for the emerging independent union movement in her country.

Jakarta – Indonesia's huge public debt is likely to derail its economic recovery, the IMF's Jakarta representative John Dodsworth said Tuesday, urging the new cabinet to make the debt burden its main focus.

Susan Sim, Jakarta – As pep talks go, it was not particularly stirring, but symbolic nonetheless. Work as a solid and compact team; do not be like the previous Cabinet. Your ministries are vital to the nation's economic recovery.

Medan – Two bombs exploded separately in an area near Jl. Bahagia in Medan Tenggara district in the early hours of Sunday morning. There were no casualties but one person was slightly injured. Several buildings, however, were damaged from the incident.

Malangke – At least 1,400 residents from eight villages in West Malangke and Baebunta district in North Luwu regency left their homes on Sunday to escape communal clashes in the area that first erupted on Thursday.