Michael Bachelard – A mining company has boasted of an Indonesian government decision to free up 1.2 million hectares of virgin forest in Aceh for commercial exploitation.

Victims and family members are still waiting for the Indonesian authorities to provide them with truth, justice and full reparation almost eight years after the end to the devastating Aceh conflict, Amnesty International said in a new report released today.

Thirty-five women in Aceh's city of Lhokseumawe have been let off with a warning after the Shariah police caught them straddling a motorcycle and not wearing appropriate Islamic dress.

The Shariah police were conducting a raid on the main roads of Lhokseumawe on Friday, to monitor the administration's bylaw that prohibits female passengers from straddling motorcycles.

Imran MA, Lhokseumawe – Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) officers and Sharia police (Wilayatul Hisbah) began conducted raids on motorcycle riders on the main roads of Lhokseumawe city in Northern Aceh on April 12.

Nurdin Hasan – A plan to draft a bylaw on how Islamic men and women in Aceh's Bireuen District should dress as Muslims is a wasteful effort that nobody needs, activists say.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – The Bireuen Legislative Council in Aceh are preparing a draft bylaw on how Islamic men and women in the district should dress as Muslims.

Ezra Sihite & Nurdin Hasan, Jakarta/Banda Aceh – Military chief of staff Adm. Agus Suhartono has urged the people of Aceh to refrain from flying the Free Aceh Movement flag for at least the next two weeks while the Home Affairs Ministry reviews the provincial bylaw allowing for a change in its flag and symbol.

Nurdin Hasan – A teacher at an Islamic boarding school in Aceh sustained serious injuries after being beaten by the parents of a student he disciplined.

Rizky Amelia – The current furor over a decision by authorities in Aceh to adopt the flag of a defunct separatist group as the provincial standard highlights regional dissatisfaction with Jakarta's stewardship of the country, analysts say.

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – The President is telling the people of Aceh to follow the law and to only fly the Indonesian flag – and not a flag inspired by a former separatist movement – for the next two weeks.

"It is clear that the Red-and-White should be displayed throughout the whole motherland. It is our flag," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Friday.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Convoys of people drove through the streets of Banda Aceh on Thursday, brandishing the flag of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), despite a request from Aceh's governor.

Banda Aceh – Thousands of demonstrators rallied in Indonesia's Aceh on Thursday in support of local leaders' bid to adopt a separatist flag as the staunchly Islamic province's official emblem.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The central government has given the Aceh provincial administration 15 days to clarify Qanun (Bylaw) No. 3/2013 on the Aceh provincial flag and coat of arms by sending a letter to Aceh's governor and the Aceh Legislative Council (DPRA).

Ezra Sihite, Nurdin Hasan & Arientha Primanita – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has sent a government minister to Aceh to dissuade local officials from adopting a separatist symbol as the once-restive province's official flag.

Police in Aceh have arrested two men for allegedly raping and strangling a six-year-old girl to death.

Adj. Comr. Erlin Tangjaya, the head of the Aceh Police's detectives unit, told Indonesian news portal Kompas.com that two men, aged 20 and 19, were arrested after the girl's family reported her missing last week.

The head of the Lhokseumawe Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) and Shariah Police in Aceh has tested positive for marijuana use after slamming his car into a tree and a house on Sunday night, police said.

Environmental activists have condemned the Aceh administration following confirmation that it planned to reverse a logging ban imposed by the previous administration and clear up to 1.2 million hectares of protected forest across the province.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Activists in Aceh on Wednesday protested a local Islamic council's recent edict accusing a cleric in South Aceh district of blasphemous teachings.

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – The Judicial Commission (KY) said on Wednesday that it would launch a probe into a report that a judge, who was dismissed from his position a year ago, continues to hear cases in Nangroe Aceh Darussalam.

Jakarta – Environmental activists have called on the government to review the draft spatial planning bylaw proposed by the Aceh administration, which they say is putting the province's protected forests at risk.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – The Aceh government has removed a provision for the stoning to death of adulterers from its draft of the Qanun Jinayat, a set of bylaws that replaces elements of the Criminal Code with Shariah provisions for Muslims, which was endorsed by the Aceh Legislative Council in 2009.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Authorities in Banda Aceh rounded up dozens of people over the weekend, mostly women, for allegedly violating the province's ultraconservative Islamic bylaws on indecent conduct.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – After it was revealed that a group of young married women in Aceh had met to raffle off young men to sleep with, an ulema in the conservative province urged religious law enforcement officials to immediately address the issue.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Women's empowerment officials in the staunchly Islamic province of Aceh say they have uncovered a growing practice of women getting together to raffle off a man to sleep with.

Banda Aceh – An elderly Indonesian said Monday he had won a rare victory against a noisy mosque, despite being forced to withdraw legal action after an angry mob threatened to kill him.

A 75-year-old man in Aceh has filed a controversial lawsuit against local religious officials alleging that the noise from a nearby mosque's six loudspeakers has negatively impacted his life.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – A lawsuit filed by a Muslim named Sayed Hasan, 75, against a local mosque for the excessive use of its public address (PA) system in Kampong Jawa, Banda Aceh, has been met with condemnation by the local community. They have gone so far as to threatened to evict Sayed from the village if he continues with the lawsuit.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – A Muslim resident of Banda Aceh says he has received death threats since he made a series of requests that local mosques turn down the volume of their loudspeakers.

James Balowski, in Jakarta – Ignoring outrage and mockery at home and overseas, a town in Indonesia's northernmost province of Aceh is pressing ahead with a by-law banning female passengers from straddling motorcycles on the grounds that doing so reveals a woman's "curves".

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Islamic clerics in Aceh have demanded that the three police officers in the Simeulue district, who allegedly drugged and raped a 19-year-old woman, be caned for the reported offense.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – A 19-year-old woman was allegedly forced to take methamphetamine and then have sex with a police officer while two other cops watched in a case local police refuse to call rape.

Aceh Governor Zaini Abdullah declined to comment when asked about the bylaw that bans women from straddling motorbikes in Lhokseumawe.

Zaini did say that he had not been in contact with the Lhokseumawe administration to discuss the controversial ordinance. "I have not spoken with them, so I could not comment on this," Zaini said as quoted by tribunnews.com.

A network of women's and human rights organizations has called upon women living in the Aceh city of Lhokseumawe to ignore a bylaw banning female passengers from straddling motorcycles.

Ayi Yufridar, Lhokseumawe, Indonesia – Authorities in Indonesia's Aceh province are pressing ahead with a proposed Islamic law that would ban female passengers from straddling motorbikes despite reported opposition from the central government.

The head of Indonesia's most influential Islamic organization has come out in support of a bylaw banning female passengers from straddling motorcycles in the Aceh city of Lhokseumawe.

Feri Fernandes, Lhokseumawe – A local government circular banning women passengers from straddling motorbikes has been posted at public locations in the northern Acehnese town Lhokseumawe. The circular will be in effect for three months before being signed into law as a mayoral regulation.

Feri Fernandes, Lhokseumawe – The administration of the northern Acehnese town of Lhokseumawe has officially issued a circular banning women passengers from straddling motorbikes. The circular has been posted at busy city centres. Below are the contents of the circular.

Arientha Primanita, Bogor – The Indonesian government will review a plan to introduce a bylaw banning female passengers from straddling motorcycles in the Aceh city of Lhokseumawe.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – The number of incidents of violence as a result of Shariah law in Aceh increased in 2012 from a year earlier, a rights group noted on Thursday.

Margareth S. Aritonang and Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh/Jakarta – The Home Ministry says it will block a proposed bylaw from officials in Lhokseumawe, Aceh, to ban women from straddling motorcycles.

The bylaw (qanun) would contradict national laws and might infringe on the rights of women, Home Ministry legal chief Zudan Arif Fakrulloh said on Thursday.

Bagus BT Saragih and Hotli Simanjuntak, Jakarta – The administration of Lhokseumawe, Aceh, is planning to issue a bylaw banning women from straddling motorcycles, arguing that the practice is "improper" in a province governed by Islamic law.

Nurdin Hassan, Banda Aceh – The plan by the administration of the Aceh town of Lhokseumawe to issue a regulation that will ban female passengers from straddling motor bikes has sparked widespread criticism.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – The administration of the Aceh town of Lhokseumawe is set to issue a regulation that will ban female passengers from straddling motor bikes.

Irman I.P, Lhokseumawe – Ulema Consultative Assembly (MPU) chairperson Tgk H Asnawi Abdullah from the Northern Acehnese city of Lhokseumawe supports the plan by Lhokseumawe Mayor Suaidi Yahya to issue a regulation banning women from sitting astride motorbikes when riding as passengers.

Nurdin Hasan – Religious tolerance for all in Aceh is still a pipe dream for most minority groups living there, despite the peaceful everyday social interactions between people of all religions there.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Allegations of widespread proselytizing by Christian missionaries and the presence of illegal churches have prompted the Banda Aceh municipal administration to act quickly to prevent religious conflict from undermining peace in Aceh.

SP/Muhammad Hamzah, Banda Aceh – The military's top officer in Aceh has objected to calls to use the flag of a defunct separatist group as the official flag of the province.

Nurdin Hasan & Farouk Arnaz – Banda Aceh – Police in Aceh have blamed the leader of a supposedly heretical religious group for a brutal mob attack that left him and two others dead on Saturday, adding that there is no incriminating evidence against the attackers who also torched the victim's home.

Hotli Simanjuntak – Three people were killed and nine others injured when a sectarian attack broke out at Jambo Dalam village in Peulimbang district, Bireuen regency in Aceh on Friday night.

The attack was aimed at the house of Tengku Aiyub Syakuban, 60, after he was accused of disseminating heretical teachings.

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta, Indonesia – Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi said on Thursday that the lack of legal permits from the local administration had been behind the closure of nine churches in Banda Aceh, which had reportedly caused hundreds of Christians in the Aceh provincial capital to live in fear.