Adisti Sukma Sawitri, Jakarta – The involvement of non-governmental organizations and foreign donors in rebuilding the tsunami-ravaged province of Aceh has yet to provide women with a good standard of living, a new book argues.

It says widows are still struggling to feed themselves and their children without proper attention from either NGOs or the government.

Kampung Jawa – The tsunami of 2004 triggered the biggest humanitarian response in history, feeding the hungry, heading off epidemics and engendering the hope that out of a calamity that took 216,000 lives, a better Indian Ocean rim would emerge.

Banda Aceh – Oxfam International's staff in Indonesia's Aceh province knew something was amiss last March when they started seeing inflated bills for construction supplies.

Jakarta – Hundreds of tsunami survivors threw rocks at police in Aceh on Wednesday during a protest to demand housing and jobs at the Aceh-Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency (BRR) office.

Banda Aceh – Hundreds of Indonesian protesters vented their anger on Wednesday against the state body tasked with reconstructing tsunami-hit Aceh province, throwing stones at police and the agency's office.

Milla Sundstrvm, Helsinki – "Amid all the destruction and loss the mood was high. People were making bricks, digging fishponds, building fishing boats. And people were sitting in coffee shops late into the night just as if there had never been any war."

Banda Aceh – Indonesia's tsunami reconstruction agency pledged Wednesday to speed up aid to the homeless after police clashed with protesters at a blockade of its offices.

Some 1,000 survivors laid siege to the headquarters of the Aceh Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency (BRR) in the provincial capital Banda Aceh, complaining of the slow disbursement of aid.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – A new study recommends transferring the job of rebuilding Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam to the incoming provincial administration, in order to bypass problems in the current reconstruction programs.

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Prosecutors have named two staffers of the Aceh and Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency (BRR) as suspects in alleged corruption involving the publication of a book by the national agency.

Jakarta – A record-breaking increase in revenue has failed to alleviate high levels of poverty in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, according to a new report.

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – More than 2,000 displaced people from 14 regencies in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam braved a heavy rain Monday to stage a protest at the Aceh-Nias Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency (BRR) office in Banda Aceh (photo).

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Anticorruption watchdogs are urging an exhaustive probe of possible irregularities in rebuilding projects at the Aceh and Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency (BRR).

The Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) and the Aceh Working Group (AWG) said Friday the agency's alleged graft was "systemic", so the investigation must be thorough.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The Aceh-Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency (BRR) acknowledged Monday bypassing official procedures in carrying out several projects, but said its actions were justified under existing regulations governing emergency work in Aceh.

Jakarta – The Attorney General's Office is looking into a report of alleged irregularities in Aceh-Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency (BRR) projects.

"We are reviewing the newly released report," the office's deputy for special crimes, Hendarman Supandji, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

Banda Aceh – At least 75 percent of former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels are out of work after returning to their hometowns, the World Bank says.

Jakarta – The United Nations has lodged a complaint after Muslim morality police in Indonesia's tsunami-ravaged Aceh province broke into a UN diplomatic compound and peered through windows at sleeping foreign diplomats, an official confirmed Wednesday.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Former Acehnese rebels are calling for rights abusers from the province's civil war to be put on trial.

They argue that the thousands of people who were tortured during the 29-year conflict are a ticking time bomb that could disrupt the peace deal signed a year ago.

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono conferred honorary state medals Friday to former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari and three other foreigners for their role in bringing peace to Aceh.

Michael Morfit, Jakarta – The Free Aceh Movement, known locally as the Gerakan Acheh Merdeka (GAM), and Indonesia's government on Monday marked the first anniversary of a peace agreement that ended nearly 30 years of armed conflict in the resource-rich and historically turbulent province of Aceh at the northern tip of Sumatra.

Nurdin Hassan, Banda Aceh – Tens of thousands have rallied in Indonesia's Aceh, celebrating a full year of peace but calling on Jakarta to honour the pact which ended three decades of separatist warfare.

Fakhurradzie M. Gade, Banda Aceh – Thousands of protesters accused Indonesia's government Tuesday of failing to deliver on promises made when separatist rebels signed an agreement a year ago to end decades of fighting in Aceh province.

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – The formerly rebellious Free Aceh Movement(GAM) is dissatisfied with several articles in the newly enacted law on Aceh governance, but its leaders say the group will wait to see how the law is put into practice, and work through normal channels to amend it.

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – It is rare to get a behind-the-scenes look at historic events. But Tuesday's conference commemorating one year of the Aceh peace accord provided a rare glimpse into the process and gave the actors involved a chance to publicly pat themselves on the back.

Titis Setianingtyas, Jakarta – The First Minister of GAM (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka) Malik Mahmud Al Haytar has declared that the introduction of Syariat Islam in Aceh is not welcomed by the Acehnese.

Banda Aceh – Thousands of people from various regions of Aceh have began arriving in Banda Aceh to commemorated one year since the Helsinki agreement that falls on August 15 tomorrow. They plan to hold a peaceful action and joint prayers in at several locations in Banda Aceh.

Tiro – Eyes red with tears, Alamsyah Mahmud recalls how in 2001, Indonesian paramilitaries swooped on his village in Tiro, the birthplace of Aceh's rebel movement, rounding up people and torching homes.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – The Aceh-Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency (BRR) is coming under fire for allocating funds to security and intelligence operations by the Indonesian Military (TNI) in Aceh.

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Residents of Mane village in Pidie, Aceh, who lost family members and homes during the 30-year conflict between the government and the Free Aceh Movement have occupied the Aceh Reintegration Agency (BRA) office to press their compensation demands.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Almost a year after the signing of the Helsinki peace accord that ended 29 years of fighting in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, most people in the province believe conditions are improving, a survey reveals.

Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta – Indonesia plans to hold the first direct elections in once-volatile Aceh province by December 10, a government minister said on Thursday.

Jakarta – Some 90% of people in Indonesia's Aceh province say they agree with Islamic laws that punish gamblers with caning and force women to cover their heads in public, according to an opinion poll released Thursday.

Aceh is the first province in secular but Muslim-majority Indonesia to be allowed to implement laws based on the Islamic legal code, or Sharia.

Jakarta – A former senior separatist from Indonesia's Aceh said Thursday that a new generation of rebels could be spawned within a decade amid dismay over the implementation of a peace pact signed a year ago.

Rudy Madanir and Christine Tjandraningsih, Jakarta – A recent survey has found that the majority of people in Aceh are satisfied with the current condition in the northernmost Indonesian province and believe in lasting peace, a year after the government and the separatist Free Aceh Movement signed a peace deal in Helsinki.

Lhokseumawe – Around 1000 women from the Inong Aceh League demonstrated in the North Acehnese city of Lhokseumawe on Monday August 7.

Lam Kabeue – Rebels in Indonesia's Aceh province are trading their guns for chain saws and cashing in on a logging binge that is jeopardizing the future of the world's third largest tropical forest reserves.

Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has asked foreign monitors in Aceh to stay on through the province's crucial elections, planned for later this year, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has demanded the immediate revision of a number of articles of the Aceh Governance Law that are not in compliance with the Helsinki peace deal.

Thirty former members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), who were recently released from prison, arrived back home Tuesday in Banda Aceh, Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam.

Jakarta – Women and the poor are experiencing unfair treatment due to overzealous enforcement of sharia bylaws in Nanggroe Aceh Darusssalam, an influential think tank said.

Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta – Nearly 10 percent of more than 500,000 children under five years old living in tsunami-devastated Aceh and Nias Island are acutely malnourished and not 60 percent as earlier claimed, Unicef says.

Indonesia may well be the world's largest Muslim country, but only Aceh has the legal right to apply Islamic law in full. Aceh was granted the right as part of the search for a political solution to the long-running separatist conflict in the fiercely independent and deeply religious region.

Denmark – On Monday July 31, members of the Acehnese community residing in Denmark sent a special letter to the High Representative of the European Union Javier Solana and the secretary general of the United Nations Kofi Annan.

Banda Aceh – Two people in Indonesia's Aceh have been caned for adultery, the latest case of public punishments since courts in the province were allowed to implement Islamic sharia law. Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation but only Aceh has the right to adopt sharia law in the judicial system.

Jane Perlez, Masjid – For a moment, the villagers in this seaside community glimpsed a vision of a splendid future: houses with shady verandas, a new elementary school and an end to the squalid barracks that had been their world since the Asian tsunami swept all before it 19 months ago.

James Balowski, Jakarta – Less than two weeks after the House of Representatives passed the Aceh governance bill – which the government says will pave the way for greater autonomy in Indonesia's northern-most province – on June 21, the Aceh governor issued a decree declaring 16 Acehnese groups "illegal".

Radzie, Banda Aceh – The Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) is asking the Indonesian government to clarify a number of points in the Aceh Governance Law (UU-PA) that are not in compliance with the Helsinki Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The AMM's mission in Aceh is also to be extended until November 2006.

Fajran Zain, Indiana – Despite the House of Representatives' endorsement, the new law on Aceh governance is still being debated.

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – Despite opposition from former separatists and many other local people, legislators and analysts Thursday praised the passage of the Aceh governance law as a milestone in the effort to bring peace to the formerly rebellious province.

Banda Aceh – How do the readers of Aceh Kita regard the Law on Aceh Governance (UU-PA) that was ratified by the House of Representatives on July 11? Is it in accordance with the Helsinki Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) or has it in fact deviated from the agreement.

Lambaro Neujid – Former separatist rebels in Indonesia's Aceh have enjoyed a year of peace but, as they slowly try to build new lives for themselves, they are worried about the future.