Small advertising booths display packs of A Mild Limited Edition cigarettes at 7-Eleven outlets around Jakarta. These days, Sampoerna, the A Mild manufacturer, offers them in a little tin rather than the usual cardboard box. The tin is plain, free of pictures of oral cancer, blackened lungs or that ubiquitous shirtless man puffing smoke before a pair of floating skulls. "Many customers are looking for the cigarettes in the tin, but we are out of stock," Herdiansyah, an employee at a 7-Eleven outlet in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, said last week.

A security guard stopped the black Pajero Sport Exceed SUV right before it entered the Pertamina gas station on Jalan Abdul Muis in Central Jakarta and initiated a brief exchange. Upon hearing what the guard had to say, the SUV's driver turned around and sped away. This station did not sell subsidized diesel fuel. "It happens a lot," station employee Agung said last week.

The lawsuit hearing over the import of white sugar lasted only a quarter of an hour at the East Jakarta State Administrative Court (PTUN). On Tuesday two weeks ago, presiding judge Haryati merely read a challenge by the defendant's legal team, appearing for the Trade Ministry.

The small room in Terminal 3 of Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta Airport was empty and unkempt. Two long chairs were stacked near objects that were beginning to gather dust. A plane replica with 'Mandala' inscribed on it faced the corner of the room. Signs of announcements of ticket refunds and a call center number were affixed on the glass room divider. The words 'Tigerair Mandala' were no longer present.

LANNY Bambang took several Muslim garments off the rack at the Dian Pelangi boutique in Kemang, South Jakarta, on Thursday three weeks ago, and held them up against herself before a mirror. The wife of the former East Kalimantan Police chief finally decided on several long gowns and a blouse. "That comes to Rp9,600,000," the cashier said.

The Indonesian Navy's seizure of the Bina Marine 75 tugboat as it towed a barge loaded with illegal tin exports caused Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi to make an unscheduled trip to Batam, Riau Islands. Sitting in Sriwijaya Air economy class, Lutfi was accompanied by the director-general of international trade, Bachrul Chairi; the president commissioner of the Indonesia Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (ICDX), Fenny Widjaja; the head of the Commodity Futures Trading Supervisory Agency and a representative of the directorate-general of customs.