21 die in Indonesia after drinking herbal remedy

Indonesian police are investigating the deaths of 21 people after they drank a concoction labeled as a herbal remedy, a spokesman said Friday.

Lt. Col. Yatim Suyatmo said officers had yet to determine whether the brew was deliberately poisoned or inadvertently contaminated during production.

The victims in the town of Jambi on Sumatra island all died over the last two weeks, he said, adding that the drink was made in a local factory.

Scores of companies in Indonesia produce pills and drinks labeled as herbal remedies or tonics. The government, which is seeking to regulate the sector, say many contain unspecified chemicals.

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Indonesia deforestation threatens elephants - WWF

Deforestation in a single Indonesian province is releasing more greenhouse gases than the Netherlands, and the loss of habitats is threatening rare tigers and elephants, the WWF conservation group said on Wednesday.

It said that Riau province, covering one fifth of Indonesia's Sumatra island, had lost 65 percent of its forests in the past 25 years as companies used the land for pulpwood and palm oil plantations. Big peat swamps had also been cleared.

The changes meant Riau was "generating more annual greenhouse gas emissions than the Netherlands," according to the report by WWF and partners RSS GmbH -- a German forest monitoring group -- and Japan's Hokkaido University.

At the same time, the number of Sumatran elephants and tigers in the province plunged as the forests vanished, it said.

Trees store carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, as they grow and emit it when they burn or rot. Peat swamps are also big natural stores of carbon. Worldwide, deforestation accounts for about 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.

The report said Riau accounted for average annual carbon emissions equivalent to 58 percent of Australia's yearly emissions, 39 percent of British emissions or 122 percent of the Netherlands' emissions.

The main companies operating in Riau were Singapore-based Asia Pulp & Paper and Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Ltd (APRIL), it said.

Both have previously denied using timber from illegal sources. Staples Inc, the largest U.S. office supplies retailer, said on Feb. 8 that it stopped doing business with Asia Pulp & Paper because of environmental concerns.

The WWF said the Indonesian government promised at a 190-nation U.N. climate conference on the Indonesian island of Bali in December to provide incentives to protect remaining forests.

In the past 25 years, elephant populations in Riau fell 84 percent to only 210 animals, while tiger populations were estimated to have tumbled by 70 percent to perhaps just 192 individuals, the report said.

"Sumatra's elephants and tigers are disappearing even faster than their forests," said WWF International's Species Programme Director, Susan Lieberman. Driven from forests, they came more often into conflict with people and were killed.

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Magnitude 6.6 quake hits Indonesia - USGS

A 6.6 magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia off the coast of Sumatra island on Sunday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

The earthquake, which struck at 1446 GMT, was 96 miles (154 km) southwest of Padang, Sumatra, and was centred at a depth of 21.7 miles (35 km), the USGS said.

Indonesia's meteorology and geophysics agency said that authorities have issued no local tsunami warning.

Indonesia suffers from frequent earthquakes. The archipelago lies on an area of intense seismic activity where a number of tectonic plates collide.

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Indonesia graft busters detain 2 Cen. Bank officials

JAKARTA - Indonesia's anti-corruption agency on Thursday detained two senior central bank officials, but the governor, named a suspect by the graft body last month, was left alone for now.

Johan Budi, a spokesman for the Corruption Eradication Commission, told Reuters that two officials had been detained, but declined to give further details.

He said the agency expects to question central bank governor Burhanuddin Abdullan next week in connection with a report from the Supreme Audit Agency, which found evidence that a foundation linked to Bank Indonesia had illegally paid lawmakers and funded legal assistance for top central bank officials.

Abdullah, whose five-year term as governor ends in May, has denied any wrongdoing and said on Tuesday he does not wish to be considered for a second term.

Rusli Simanjuntak, who is head of the Bank Indonesia office in Surabaya, was one of the two officials detained on Thursday, according to his lawyer Otto Cornelis Kaligis.

The other official was Oey Hoey Tiong, the central bank's director for legal affairs, Kaligis said.

"The agency said the reason for detention was to prevent the loss of evidence, whereas my client has already accounted for everything," Kaligis told Reuters.

"My client was very cooperative, he has not hidden any evidence and yet they decided to detain him."

Kaligis said that under Indonesian law, his client can be held for up to 40 days.

Political analyst Indria Samego said the detentions mark a breakthrough in Indonesia's efforts to eradicate corruption.

"This is an entry point to start cleaning up public institutions," Samego told Reuters.

Experts consistently rate Indonesia as among the world's most corrupt nations and foreign executives cite graft as a key factor hurting attempts to attract badly needed investment.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono won the first direct presidential vote in October 2004 on a pledge to end corruption.

Since Yudhoyono's anti-graft campaign started, officials ranging from governors and former ministers have been jailed on corruption charges. But some critics argue the anti-graft campaign has not taken on some powerful vested interests.

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Many Indonesians cheer Obama in Democrat race

JAKARTA - The 2008 U.S. presidential election is being watched closely by millions around the world but few are more fired up than Indonesians, who can lay claim to Democratic hopeful Barack Obama as nearly one of their own.

Indonesian students watch news on the U.S. presidential primary election on television screens set up at the U.S. Ambassador's residence in Jakarta February 6, 2008. (REUTERS/Crack Palinggi)

In the capital Jakarta where Obama, 46, spent part of his childhood, U.S. expatriates and Indonesians crowded around television sets on Wednesday to watch the results of nominating contests across 24 states thousands of miles away pouring in.

At the end of the biggest day of U.S. presidential voting before the November election, Obama won 12 states to Clinton's eight in a hard-fought duel for the Democratic nomination.

On the Republican side, John McCain won nine states but failed to knock out rivals Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney.

"I think it's exciting being in Indonesia at this time. A lot of Indonesians are fired up about Obama," said Barry Dols, 41, an Obama supporter and teacher based in Jakarta from New Jersey.

"They think he knows the region."

The senator from Illinois spent part of his childhood in Indonesia after his American mother, Ann Dunham, married Muslim Indonesian Lolo Soetoro following the end of her marriage to Obama's Kenyan father.

Soetoro brought his new family to Jakarta in 1967 when Obama was six. Four years later Obama left Jakarta to live with grandparents in Hawaii.

"I prefer Obama because he is from a minority. So far, there is no leader coming from a minority," said Samuel Moeloek, 28, a management graduate at Parahiyangan University in the West Java city of Bandung.

In Asia, few events were organised for locals interested in watching the outcome of "Super Tuesday" live, since the final results came in the middle of the working day.

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Americans living overseas could vote at special polling booths set up in selected areas of their countries, or they cast ballots online -- for the first time ever.

An estimated 6 million expatriates are eligible to vote. Democrats abroad can vote online through Feb 12 and 22 delegates representing them will go to the August convention in Denver.

"If this super Tuesday does not generate a clear leader, then going into the convention without a nominee ...That's hardly ever happened," said Lisa Lumbao, a member of Democrat party in Manila. "So if that happens, then our votes, our 22 delegates ...could make a difference. We're like the 51st state."

Many expatriates who had gathered at the U.S. Ambassador's residence in Jakarta -- decked out with red, white and blue curtains -- hoped the eventual president, whether Democrat or Republican would improve their nation's image in the region and beyond.

"I think the president has to be incredibly internationally aware and bring global stability and improve relations and the image of the U.S.," said Richard Mau, a hotel marketing executive based in Jakarta, who is backing Obama.

"He needs think about how the U.S. is perceived. The U.S. is not perceived as well as it could be in this region."

Jakarta has close security ties with Washington, but many policies of President George W. Bush's administration, particularly in the Middle East, are unpopular in the predominantly Muslim nation.

Ari Bassin, a Clinton supporter, said he was just happy with the strong interest in the election.

"In a country where apathy runs so deep in politics, it's heartening to see this kind of passion," Bassin said.

"You have a lot of first-time voters, especially minority voters, and that can change the face of politics in the U.S."

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Indonesian dies of bird flu, doves might be source

JAKARTA - A 32-year-old Indonesian man who had tested positive for bird flu has died, a health ministry official said on Wednesday, adding the victim might have picked up the virus from doves in his neighbourhood.

The man, from Tangerang west of Jakarta, died on Tuesday at Jakarta's Persahabatan hospital, said Toto Haryanto from the ministry's bird flu centre.

His death takes the country's toll from the H5N1 bird flu virus to 101.

Chickens are seen at a market in Jakarta in this January 13, 2007 file photo. A 32-year-old Indonesian man who had tested positive for bird flu has died, a health ministry official said on Wednesday, adding the victim might have picked up the virus from doves in his neighbourhood. (REUTERS/Supri/Files)

"He lived only 500 metres away from a flock of doves his neighbour kept as pets. We believe that's where he got the virus," Haryanto told Reuters by telephone.

Contact with sick birds is the most common way of contracting the virus, which is endemic in poultry populations in most of Indonesia.

The country's death toll hit 100 on Monday when two separate laboratory tests confirmed a 23-year-old woman from East Jakarta had died of bird flu.

Although H5N1 remains an animal disease, experts fear the virus could mutate into a form easily passed from human to human. Millions of people could die because they would have no immunity against the new strain.

Not including the latest death, bird flu has killed 223 people in a dozen countries since the virus reappeared in Asia in late 2003, according to World Heatlh Organisation data.

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Indonesia's Suharto has state funeral in royal city

GIRIBANGUN, Indonesia - Former Indonesian President Suharto, whose 32 years in power were marred by graft and rights abuses, was buried near the royal city of Solo in a state funeral with full military honours on Monday.

Tens of thousands of people lined the roads in Jakarta and around Solo in Central Java, hoping to catch a last glimpse of the man who came from a humble background but ruled his subjects like a Javanese king.

Soldiers carry the coffin of former Indonesian president Suharto as they leave his residence in Jakarta January 28, 2008. (REUTERS/Resmi Malau)

The body was flown from the capital to Solo, then driven to the family mausoleum at Giribangun, 35 km northeast of the city, close to the burial grounds of Solo's kings.

Ousted in 1998 in a student-led protest amid social and economic chaos, Suharto died in hospital on Sunday aged 86 after suffering multiple organ failure.

Praised by many as a visionary who helped modernise his country, he was also heavily criticised for widespread corruption and human rights abuses.

"Father is only human, who has weaknesses and strengths and is not exempted from mistakes. If he has done good, may Allah multiply the goodness. If he has made mistakes, may Allah forgive," Suharto's eldest daughter, Siti Hadijanti Rukmana, also known as Tutut, said at the funeral.

"Ladies and gentlemen, if father has made any mistakes, please forgive him. Farewell father," she said, tears running down her face.

INTO THE GRAVE

Suharto's coffin was lowered into his grave, next to that of his wife, who died in 1996, and one salvo was fired at the funeral ceremony, led by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

"I on behalf of the nation and the Indonesian military, surrender the body and soul of Haji Muhammad Suharto to the soil of the motherland," said Yudhoyono.

Tens of thousands of people, many with handheld TV cameras and cellphone cameras in their hands, turned out to see the funeral procession.

Some waved as the hearse went by, others threw flowers. In the cemetery, the air was heavy with the scent of jasmine.

"We feel a great loss because he has brought progress to this nation. In terms of his wrongdoings, well, every human makes mistakes," said Sukiman, who came to watch with his wife.

At the family mausoleum, police and soldiers lined the streets, and flags flew at half-mast.

Suharto, the son of a minor official from a small village in central Java, married Siti Hartinah, a member of one of Solo's royal families.

The Suharto family mausoleum at Giribangun, built on a hilltop surrounded by trees, is only a few hundred feet from the Mangkunegaran royal family's tomb where the first, second, and third Mangkunegaran kings were buried.

National television broadcast the funeral live, accompanied by a famous Indonesian song mourning the loss of a war hero.

DEBATE OVER LEGACY

Suharto's admission to hospital in a critical condition earlier this month sparked a national debate over his legacy.

Some Indonesians argued his errors should be forgiven, while others urged the state to press ahead with a civil suit against him for graft, and to consider legal proceedings for rights abuses. Suharto and his family had denied any wrongdoing.

Human Rights Watch urged the Indonesian government to hold accountable those responsible for the Suharto regime's human rights abuses.

"Suharto has gotten away with murder -- another dictator who's lived out his life in luxury and escaped justice," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

"But many of Suharto's cronies are still around, so the Indonesian government should take the chance to put his many partners in human rights abuse on trial."

Suharto rose to power after he led the military in 1965 against what was officially called an attempted communist coup. Up to 500,000 people were killed in an anti-communist purge in the months that followed.

Over the next three decades, Suharto's armed forces committed numerous human rights abuses, killing student activists, criminals, and opponents to the regime in the rebellious provinces of Aceh and Papua, as well as in East Timor, which Indonesia invaded in 1975.

An Indonesian NGO, the Commission for Disappeared Persons and Victims of Violence, or Kontras, expressed its condolences at Suharto's death but also called on Indonesians not to forget the past.

"The death of Suharto should create momentum for the government to work harder to uncover the truth and try the perpetrators" of human rights abuses and corruption, Kontras said in a statement.

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6.2-magnitude quake off Sumatra, Indonesia

JAKARTA (Reuters) - A strong earthquake has struck Indonesia's Nias island west of Sumatra island, causing panic and some damage, but no reports of casualties, an official at the country's meteorology agency said on Wednesday.

The magnitude 6.2 quake struck just after midnight, 172 km west of Sibolga at a depth of 12 km, the U.S. Geological Survey said in a bulletin on its Web site.

"The epicentre was on Nias island and caused panic, as well as cracking several houses, although there were no immediate reports of casualties," said Andri Gsetiaji at the meteorology agency in Jakarta.

A weaker aftershock later struck about 80 km southwest of Gunungsitoli, the capital of Nias, the official added.

Indonesia suffers frequent earthquakes since it lies on an area of intense seismic activity where a number of tectonic plates collide.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there were no immediate tsunami warnings or watches in effect.

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