Irna Gustia/FW & LM, Jakarta – The Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI), claims the recent government-sanctioned sacking of around 1,000 workers from Sony Indonesia represents a political scandal.

Jakarta – Electronics giant Sony plans to lay off 928 staff who stopped work more than two months ago in a dispute over new working conditions, a company official said Friday.

Penny Crisp and Jose Manuel Tesoro, Jakarta – It was tough enough to bring down Suharto and sustained enough to help fell his successor. Now the issue of Indonesia's economy looms large again – as possibly the biggest threat to the survival of Abdurrahman Wahid.

Washington – The United States has said its arms embargo on Indonesia would remain in place, despite complaints that the measure is tying the Indonesian government's hands as it battles rampant religious violence.

John McBeth in Jakarta and Oren Murphy in Central Sulawesi – Two months ago, Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid ordered authorities to stop Muslim militants from landing in the northern Moluccas. They went anyway, and have since been blamed for some of the worst blood-letting since religious strife began there last year.

Jakarta – Fighting between local Malays and settlers from Madura broke out on Thursday in the Indonesian province of Central Kalimantan on Borneo island, leaving at least one dead, an official said.

Abdul Haerah HR/FW & LM, Jakarta – Twenty-nine members of the 711 Military District Command are being questioned intensively about inciting and participating in recent riots in Poso, Central Sulawesi. Seven of the accused directly participated, supporting various parties in a conflict which has claimed at least 211 victims.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – There is one small neighbourhood in Jakarta where thieves dare not go. Doors are often left unlocked and everybody knows everybody else. In a city where hunger is endemic, chickens roam freely. Children play soccer and teenagers strum guitars.

John O'Callaghan, London – An international group of human rights campaigners called on UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Wednesday to set up a tribunal to try Indonesian soldiers who terrorised civilians in East Timor.

Jakarta – The Indonesian navy has arrested a leader of a militant Muslim group and some 250 of his men who were fighting sectarian battles against Christians in eastern Maluku islands, a report said Thursday.

Jakarta – The Democratic People's Party (PRD) filed a Rp 5.5 billion (US$617,000) lawsuit with the Central Jakarta District Court on Wednesday against former president Soeharto in connection with the July 27, 1996 violence on Jl. Diponegoro in Central Jakarta.

Tom McCawley, Jakarta – Two bombs were discovered at the Indonesian attorney general's office in Jakarta on Wednesday, inflaming fears of political uncertainty and helping to drive the rupiah to its lowest closing price for more than a year.

D Tjiptono/SWA & LM, Jakarta – Around 50 students form the Student Executive Board (BEM) of the University of Indonesia (UI) demonstrated in front of the US Embassy on Tuesday, Independence Day, demanding the US government stay out of Indonesian domestic affairs.

B Sugiharto/SWA & LM, Jakarta – A violent clash in Surabaya between police and supporters of a charitable foundation forced to hand over their building to a local business has left 12 hospitalised. Local party officials have denied previous reports that members of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Task Force were involved in the clash.

Shoeb Kagda – High-level government audit has implicated senior members of the former Suharto administration of siphoning off billions of dollars of state funds. The report comes against the backdrop of a political showdown between President Abdurrahman Wahid and Indonesia's Parliament.

Associated Press in Manado – An intensive search yesterday failed to find any more survivors of a ferry disaster, as the few who were rescued described the ship's final moments.

Jakarta – Recent comments by the President that he will soon detain certain politicians who are fanning the flames of national disintegration in order to destabilise his presidency have created considerable confusion and controversy.

Jakarta – Controversy over recent comments by President Abdurrahman Wahid that certain political figures stirring trouble to destabilise his presidency will be detained has rounded off today with some denials, some confirmations and yet more fodder for denials and confirmations.

Jakarta – The publication in Gatra magazine this week of a list of prominent figures from NGOs, business and past and current governments who have allegedly sought to discredit the President and destabilise his presidency has stirred up immense interest, not least from those on it.

Andrew Marshall, Jakarta – The Newmont Minahasa Raya gold mine on Indonesia's Sulawesi island has restarted operations after protesting locals were persuaded to end a blockade of the site, Newmont said on Monday.

Vaudine England – Reza Pahlevi's shiny namecard describes him as the head of Laskar, or the Front to Defend Islam (FPI). That means he is mentor to and organiser of thousands of young Muslim men who, fired by a militant vision of Islam, have in recent months shown an increasing readiness to demonstrate, pressure and even attack enemies of the faith.

[The following is an excerpt from an interview with Revrisond Baswir, an expert on political economy at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta. He shared his views on reforms in the Indonesian Military (TNI) with The Jakarta Post's Agus Asip Hasani last week.]

Terry McCarthy, Jakarta – When President Abdurrahman Wahid moved into the presidential palace last October, his spirits and those of the country were riding high. After 32 years of Suharto's dictatorship and 18 months of interim rule by Suharto's former deputy B.J.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Denpasar – A gathering of prominent national figures made a strong call here on Saturday for the nation to recommit to the ideals of reform by recommending an absolute break from antidemocratic institutions and practices of the past, including putting former president Soeharto and his cronies on trial.

Jakarta – Police in Jakarta will deploy trained marksmen in a bid to combat rising crime in the Indonesian capital, a spokesman said yesterday.

"The move is show that the police are serious in fighting crime and to make people feel psychologically safe," said police spokesman Colonel Zainuri Lubis.

Jonathan Head, Jakarta – After 18 months, there is still no end in sight to the conflict between Christian and Muslim communities in the Moluccas. If anything, the outbreaks of fighting are becoming more destructive, with the increasing use of modern weapons.

Jakarta – Indonesia's leading politicans sat together on the island of Bali for two days last week dissecting the pros and cons of supporting Abdurrahman Wahid, their controversial president of eight months.

Irna G.W/SWA & LM, Jakarta – The high profile gathering of academics, community leaders and politicians taking part in the National Discussion Forum (FRN), currently being held at the Kartika Plaza Hotel, Denpasar, Bali were surprised by tens of students who staged a noisy protest.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – The Indonesian police have taken another significant step towards their long awaited split from the military – restructuring their ranks and replacing their military ranks with British style ranks.

Yeoh En-Lai, Bintan – About 100 villagers resumed their protest over the takeover of their land outside the main land entrance to the Bintan Beach International Resort yesterday morning, nearly six months after 91 were arrested for blockading it.

Jakarta – At least 87 pharmaceutical factories in Indonesia have stopped operation since the crisis began to jolt the country in the second half of 1997.

Jakarta – Occasional sniper fire and explosions punctuated a tense calm in the riot-torn eastern Indonesian city of Ambon Friday ahead of a midnight deadline for all Indonesian troops there to report to base, residents said.

Djoko Tjiptono/FW & Lyndal Meehan, Jakarta – After the Police handed in the findings of their investigations into the 27 July 1996 attack on the offices of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), the House decided to set up a special "connectivity trial".

Joanna Jolly, Ternate – "Before we go to the holy war field, we are trained magically. If our magic is strong and we have a true contact with God, we will not be killed or wounded," says Abubakar Wahid, the leader of Laskar Jihad, touching the row of sword cuts on his arms that, he says, prove that he is invincible.

Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid disclosed yesterday that a few days before former president Soeharto resigned on May 21, 1998, he had instructed the withdrawal of Rp70 trillion (US$8 billion) from foreign banks.

Lindsay Murdoch, Poso – Bodies are rotting by the road or floating down rivers. Nearly all have had their heads cut off, their hands tied behind their backs. Mosques and churches are destroyed. Houses and shops are burnt to the ground. Entire villages are packing up or have already left for makeshift refugee camps, the future unknown.

Richard Borsuk, Porsea – When Suharto was president of Indonesia, corporate big shots visiting their factories in the provinces were routinely welcomed by festive banners strung above the highway.

Richel Dursin, Bandung – In a classroom full of senior high school students, Budhi Setiawan was giving a lecture on reproductive health when a 16-year-old girl raised her hand and asked: Does kissing cause pregnancy?

Andrew Marshall, Jakarta – Canada's Newmont Mining Corp. said on Thursday it had evacuated women, children and non-essential staff from its gold mine in north Sulawesi after intimidation by protesting locals who have blockaded the site.

Jakarta – The Indonesian government Thursday unveiled a blueprint and timetable for a sell-off of state assets this year, including the communication giants, Telkom and Indosat.

[This is an opinion piece from Thursday's Asian Wall Street Journal. Mr. Van Zorge is principal and co-founder of Van Zorge, Heffernan & Associates, a political risk and government relations firm based in Jakarta.]

Max Lane – The 10 years to 1998 was a decade of escalating mass protest in Indonesia, climaxing in the 1998 mobilisations of hundreds of thousands of people across the archipelago which toppled the aging dictator, Suharto. But that decade will be nothing as compared to what is down the line during the next one.

A Andri/SWA & LM, Jakarta – The offices of the Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union (SBSI) on Jl. Yos Sudarso St Km 6.8, Medan, North Sumatra, were attacked today by a mob of assailants wearing vests marked with the emblem of the Indonesian Workers Union Federation (FSPSI).

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Troops in the Maluku Islands are to be replaced because they are taking sides in the sectarian strife there, military spokesmen said yesterday as a night curfew was imposed. The action came a day after the declaration of a state of civil emergency in Maluku – one step short of martial law.

Jakarta – Indonesia's state audit agency said yesterday that despite government efforts to tackle graft, millions of dollars had been wasted through corruption at major state companies and agencies in the fiscal year to end-March.

Nuruddin Lazuardi/FW & LM, Jakarta – The disgraced "Timber King" Bob Hasan has reportedly amassed US$263 million from an aerial mapping project conducted by his company, PT Mapindo Parama.

Yayus Yuswoprihanto/LM & FW, Jakarta – 500 workers from Gaspermindo (Indonesian Independent Workers Combined Union) rallied in front of the House of Reperesentatives building today, demanding sweeping improvements in the wages and conditions of workers.

Jakarta – Government efforts to end sectarian violence in Indonesia's Maluku islands by imposing a state of emergency hang on the neutrality of soldiers there, analysts said Tuesday.

Jakarta – The World Bank country director for Indonesia, Mark Baird, has apparently taken sides with President Abdurrahman Wahid over growing criticism against the government's economic policy.

A Andri/Swastika & LM, Jakarta – Representatives of Batak Toba tribe in North Sumatra have urged the government to immediately close down PT Inti Indorayon Utama to avoid further conflict with local people.