Jakarta - Indonesia imposed an import ban on pork, in addition to increasing surveillance at all entry points for travelers with flu-like symptoms, to prevent the spread of swine flu, a cabinet minister said Monday. "The import of pork will be temporarily halted until a further progress concerning the swine flu, or until the condition was safe," said Aburizal Bakrie, the coordinating minister for people's welfare.

Jakarta  - Nine people died and at least four others were missing and feared drowned after a ferry boat sank off Indonesia's Sumatra island, media reports said Sunday.

Survivors said the ship carrying around 60 people when it went down on Saturday afternoon in strong winds a kilometre off Dumai, Riau province, as it ferried guests to a wedding, detik. com online news portal reported.

Nine bodies and 43 survivors had been rescued Sunday morning.

Jakarta - Indonesia's Golkar Party on Wednesday named its chairman, Vice President Jusuf Kalla, as its presidential candidate, breaking away from the ruling coalition of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Golkar announced Tuesday that coalition talks with Yudhoyono's Democratic Party had collapsed because it did not agree with the terms.

Kalla has been asked to set up a team for his campaign for the July 8 presidential election and approach other parties to discuss a possible coalition, said a Golkar deputy chairman, Syamsul Muarif.

Jakarta  - A German traveller reportedly went missing when travelling from East Kalimantan province to West Kalimantan on the Indonesian part of Borneo island, a police official said Thursday.

Jason Clint Richard, born in Schwarzwald, reportedly left the East Kalimantan capital, Samarinda, in January, a West Kalimantan police spokesman said.

Brigadier Joko Marwoto said that according to a report from the Foreign Ministry, the man went missing when travelling on foot from Samarinda to Pontianak in West Kalimantan.

Jakarta  - The Indonesian outlet of the hip Paris-based Buddha Bar said Wednesday that it had changed its name after protests by Buddhists who complained that the name was sacrilegious.

The restaurant and lounge has been renamed Bataviasche Kunstkring after the Dutch-era building that houses it after a request from the Religious Affairs Ministry, manager Henry Marheroso said.

"There's been no change in concept or design because there's no regulation banning it," Marheroso said.