BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Oct 12, 2008 (AFP) - Pink from floor to ceiling and with hot pink windows and doors, the office of the Aceh Transitional Committee (KPA) looks more like a perfumery than the nerve centre of a former rebel army.

DENPASAR, Indonesia, Oct 12, 2008 (AFP) - Survivors, relatives of the victims and government officials on Sunday marked the sixth anniversary of Bali bombings by Islamic extremists.

Free Aceh Movement (GAM) founder Hassan di Tiro was greeted by thousands of cheering supporters and former guerrillas as he flew into the capital of the war-torn and tsunami-scarred Indonesian province for a two-week visit.

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Oct 11, 2008 (AFP) - The founder of Aceh's separatist rebel movement returned to Indonesia Saturday after nearly 30 years in exile and after a war that killed more than 15,000 people.

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Oct 11, 2008 (AFP) - The founder of Aceh's separatist rebel movement made an emotional homecoming Saturday after nearly 30 years in exile and a war that killed thousands of people.

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Oct 11, 2008 (AFP) - Tens of thousands of people packed the capital of Indonesia's war-torn Aceh province Saturday for the emotional homecoming of the founding father of its separatist rebel movement.

JAKARTA, Oct 10, 2008 (AFP) - Indonesia congratulated Martti Ahtisaari for his Nobel Peace Prize Friday, praising the former Finnish president for helping resolve the long-running war in Aceh, a presidential spokesman said.

JAKARTA, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - Trading on the Indonesian stock market was suspended due to 'irregularities' Wednesday after the main index plummeted more than 10 percent in mid-morning trade, officials said.

The exchange said trading had been halted for an 'indefinite period' after the market nosedived in response to sharp falls on Wall Street overnight.

JAKARTA, Oct 3, 2008 (AFP) - Three Indonesian Islamists on death row over the 2002 Bali bombings which killed more than 200 people will be executed by the end of the year, a report said Friday.

SYDNEY, Oct 2, 2008 (AFP) - The three Bali bombers awaiting execution in Indonesia are mass murderers and cowards and deserve what is coming to them, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Thursday.

NUSAKAMBANGAN, Indonesia, Oct 1, 2008 (AFP) - An Islamic militant on death row over the 2002 nightclub bombings on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali pledged 'retribution' Wednesday if his execution goes ahead.

Amrozi, 47, and fellow militants Mukhlas and Imam Samudra face a firing squad over the attacks which killed 202 mainly foreign holidaymakers.

JAKARTA, Sept 30, 2008 (AFP) - With their daughter perched at the front of the motorbike and their son squashed between them, Purwanto and his wife set off from Jakarta for the 15-hour overnight ride home for their holidays.

JAKARTA, Sept 24, 2008 (AFP) - Indonesia has pulled all Chinese-made dairy products including well-known brands such as Snickers and M&M's chocolates from its stores amid fears of chemical contamination, officials said Wednesday.

DENPASAR, Indonesia, Sept 18, 2008 (AFP) - The Indonesian holiday isle of Bali is up in arms over a new pornography bill which some say threatens Hindu traditions and the bikini-clad tourism industry.

SEOUL, Sept 17, 2008 (AFP) - South Korea has signed an initial deal to lease 25,000 hectares (61,750 acres) of Indonesian coastal waters to grow seaweed for bioethanol fuel, the government said Wednesday.

The letter of intent was signed between the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and its Indonesian counterpart.

JAKARTA, September 15, 2008 (AFP) - At least 21 people were killed in a stampede in Indonesia on Monday as they crowded an alley to receive a cash handout for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, police said.

The bodies of 21 people had been collected from the scene of the stampede in Pasuruan, East Java province, Antara state news agency reported.

JAKARTA, September 15, 2008 (AFP) - At least 21 people were killed in a stampede in Indonesia on Monday as they crowded an alley waiting for a cash handout for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a report said.

The bodies of 21 people had been collected from the scene of the stampede in Pasuruan, East Java province, Antara state news agency reported.

TIMIKA, September 15, 2008 (AFP) - An explosion near an airport belonging to US mining giant Freeport in Indonesia's eastern Papua province could be linked to an earlier mortar blast, police said Monday.

The Sunday night explosion was the second in three days on the property of the Freeport Indonesia copper and gold mine, which has long been a source of tension in the province.

JAKARTA, September 13, 2008 (AFP) - A Nigerian was shot dead by Indonesian police after he tried to escape a drug arrest in the second police killing of a citizen of the African country in as many days, a report said Saturday.

JAKARTA, September 12, 2008 (AFP) - A Nigerian was shot dead by police during a raid on suspected drug traffickers in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, police said Friday.

The Nigerian, identified in press reports as Oliver Uchechukwu Osondu, was shot as he resisted arrest during a police raid on Jakarta's outskirts, city police spokesman I Ketut Untung Yoga Ana told AFP.

JAKARTA, September 12, 2008 (AFP) - The two ideas sound like a joke: make fuel from water as global oil prices soar, and produce three crops from a single planting of a new rice strain called 'Super Toy HL-2'.

JAKARTA, September 11, 2008 (AFP) - The old faces of Indonesia's elite look set to dominate next year's presidential election but new blood is needed to end the poverty and corruption plaguing the country, outsider presidential hopefuls said on Thursday.

JAKARTA, September 11, 2008 (AFP) - Indonesian authorities issued a tsunami alert on Thursday after a strong 7.6-magnitude earthquake in the country's east, but lifted the warning less than one hour later.

JAKARTA, September 11, 2008 (AFP) - Indonesian authorities issued a tsunami alert on Thursday after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake in the country's east.

The quake happened at a depth of 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) at 2200 GMT, 122 kilometres northwest of Ternate city in North Maluku province, the meteorology and geophysics bureau said.

SINGAPORE, September 11, 2008 (AFP) - Indonesian authorities issued a tsunami alert on Thursday after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake in the country's east.

The quake happened at a depth of 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) at 2200 GMT, 122 kilometres northwest of Ternate city in North Maluku province, the meteorology and geophysics bureau said.

VIENNA, September 10, 2008 (AFP) - Indonesia has officially left the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the cartel announced Wednesday after a meeting in Vienna.

VIENNA, September 10, 2008 (AFP) - Oil producer group OPEC said Wednesday that Indonesia had suspended its membership of the cartel.

JAKARTA, September 8, 2008 (AFP) - An Indonesian Islamic hardliner on trial over an armed attack on a rally for religious tolerance objected Monday when a police officer introduced seized copies of Playboy magazine as evidence.

Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) leader Rizieq Shihab said the magazines had no connection with his trial.

YOGYAKARTA, September 8, 2008 (AFP) - An Indonesian court ruled Monday that it will proceed with the trial of a pilot charged with deliberately crashing a passenger jet in 2007, killing 21 people including five Australians.

JAKARTA, September 7, 2008 (AFP) - With his sculpted abdominals proudly displayed on his Facebook profile, male model Adrian Maulana cuts a very different figure to the ex-generals and dynastic heirs who dominate Indonesian politics.

JAKARTA, September 7, 2008 (AFP) - With nearly half the world's human bird flu deaths, concern is building over Indonesia's refusal to share virus samples and its health minister's increasingly strident denunciations of global 'conspiracies'.

JAKARTA, September 6, 2008 (AFP) - Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said Saturday he is on track to meet a mid-September deadline to recruit enough members of parliament to topple the government.

KUTA, September 6, 2008 (AFP) - Security forces are on high alert but for tourists to Bali it is business as usual as Indonesia prepares to execute the three Islamists convicted over the 2002 bombings.

JAKARTA, September 4, 2008 (AFP) - A decision by Indonesian palm oil companies to reject a moratorium on land clearing is threatening to wipe out more than 8,000 orangutans in the next three years, activists said Thursday.

SINGAPORE, September 3, 2008 (AFP) - A leading Singapore retailer desperate to buy a kidney for a transplant operation was Wednesday sentenced to one day in prison and given a fine in the city-state's first organ-trading case.

BANDA ACEH, September 3, 2008 (AFP) - A plan to test election candidates in Indonesia's Aceh province for their knowledge of the Koran will go ahead despite objections from national parties, officials said Wednesday.

JAKARTA, September 1, 2008 (AFP) - More riches belonging to late Indonesian dictator Suharto's son may be seized by the state, a prosecutor said Monday after 134 million dollars were appropriated last week.

JAKARTA, August 30, 2008 (AFP) - Indonesia has seized 134 million dollars from a firm linked to Suharto's youngest son, reports said Saturday, in the latest move to bring the ex-dictator's family to account for alleged graft.

JAKARTA, August 28, 2008 (AFP) - The Indonesian military's links to human rights abuses while helping foreign mining firms are being exposed in a lawsuit by local villagers against US energy giant ExxonMobil, analysts said Thursday.