November9, 2006: After two years of negotiations, the government has agreed to a treaty with Australia to cover police, military and nuclear cooperation, as well as counter- terrorism, people smuggling and drug trafficking. This will make coordination on these matters much easier, and make it more difficult for terrorists and other criminals to operate between Indonesia and Australia.

November 8, 2006: A Moslem man from Sulawesi, has gone on trial for the beheading of three Christian schoolgirls last year. Christians in Sulawesi are liable to resume violence against Moslems if the three men recently indicted, for killing the schoolgirls, are not convicted. Christians believe the courts are lenient on Moslems who kill Christians, at least compared to the punishment given Christians for similar crimes.

November 7, 2006: In Papua, three local tribal separatists were sentenced to long prison terms after being convicted of killing three people in a 2002 attack outside a gold mine. Even though the FBI got involved in the investigation (because two of the dead were Americans), many still believe the trial was a cover-up to protect the soldiers who really did the killing.

November 3, 2006: Police in East Timor's capital quickly intervened to prevent All Souls Day rowdiness from turning into a major disturbance. Stone throwing gang members were quickly dispersed. The police are at least able to deal with large groups of gang members, but it's the small groups of thugs that have much of the city, and countryside, terrorized.