Jakarta - Leaders of Indonesia's political parties Monday intensified talks to form alliances for the July presidential election July, as criticism over widespread irregularities in last week's parliamentary polls mounts. The Democratic Party of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the big winner of Thursday's election, is expected to ink a coalition pact with other parties by this weekend.

Final election results are not expected until May, but first counts put the Democrats ahead with about 20 percent of the votes.

London, April 13 : Conservationists have recently discovered a new population of orangutans in a remote area of Indonesia, giving a rare boost to one of the world’s most endangered great apes.

A team surveying mountainous forests in eastern Borneo counted 219 orangutan nests, indicating a “substantial” number of the animals, Erik Meijaard, of the US-based charity The Nature Conservancy, told the Guardian.

“We can’t say for sure how many,” he said, but even the most cautious estimate would indicate “several hundred at least, maybe 1,000 or 2,000 even”.

Jakarta/Jayapura, Indonesia  - Indonesians went to the polls Thursday for parliamentary elections amid concerns of logistical problems and alleged widespread fraudulent voter lists.

Voting began at 7 am (2200 GMT Wednesday) in Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua in the sprawling archipelago nation of more than 17,000 islands spanning three time zones.

Hours before polls opened, violence hit Papua, home to a low-level separatist insurgency, leaving one person dead, Papuan police chief Bagus Eko Danto said.

Jakarta - A light airplane crashed Thursday morning in Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua, and all four of its crew members were feared killed, news reports and officials said.

The Avia Star aircraft was en route from the capital Jayapura to Wamena district, carrying cargo and four crew members. It crashed at about 7 am (2200 GMT Wednesday) on Pike Mountain, said Papua police chief Bagus Eko Danto.

Bagus told Elshinta private radio that so far two bodies had been founded and a search was underway for the other two. He said the plane broke into pieces.

Jakarta/Jayapura  - Indonesians begin voting Thursday in parliamentary elections amid concerns of logistical problems and alleged widespread fraudulent voter lists.

Voting began at 7 am (2200 GMT Wednesday) in Indonesia's easternmost Papua province in the sprawling archipelago nation of more than 17,000 islands spanning three different time zones.

Banda Aceh  - In Indonesia's Aceh province, stories about young unmarried couples arrested by religious patrol officers make frequent headlines in local newspapers with tabloids exposing details of the offenders' sexual trysts.

Staunchly Muslim Aceh has imposed some aspects of sharia, or Islamic law, since 2002 under an autonomy scheme granted by the central government as part of attempts to pacify a clamour there for independence.