Jakarta - Indonesia's central bank on Wednesday lowered its benchmark interest rate half a percentage point, its third-straight monthly cut, to support growth amid the global economic downturn.

Bank Indonesia Governor Boediono said the key overnight lending rate was cut to 8.25 per cent from 8.75 per cent.

Jakarta- The speaker of an Indonesian provincial council died Tuesday after protestors carrying a mock coffin stormed into his office and attacked him, a report said.

Abdul Aziz Angkat, speaker of the North Sumatran provincial council, was meeting with other councillors when hundreds of protestors stormed the plenary room and beat him, the state Antara news agency said.

Angkat was rushed to a hospital but died of a heart attack, Antara said.

Police arrested six protestors after the attack.

Jakarta - The Indonesian Navy on Tuesday rescued 198 boat people from Myanmar drifting off the coast of the north-western province of Aceh, an official said.

They were the second batch of boat people belonging to Myanmar's Rohingya ethnic minority to be picked up off Indonesia after 193 people were rescued early last month off Sabang island on the northern tip of Aceh.

The rescues came as the Rohingya flee impoverished, military-run Myanmar and Thailand has been accused of mistreating the migrants and casting them adrift at sea.

Jakarta - Indonesia's consumer price index in January fell 0.07 per cent against the previous month, driven by declining costs in several key sectors, the government announced Monday.

Ali Rosidi, deputy chairman of the Central Bureau of Statistics, said the January deflation was due to price declines in the group transport, communications, housing, electricity and financial services.

Indonesia's export value reached 8.7 billion dollars in December, down 9.6 per cent from November, bringing the yearly total to 136.8 billion dollars.

Jakarta  - Landslides, flash floods and high waves have killed at least 18 people on Indonesia's Java and Sulawesi islands, officials and media reports said Monday.

The flash floods, triggered by incessant rains, caused the Bengawan Solo River to burst its banks, submerging thousands of homes Monday in the East Java district of Bojonegoro.

The floodwaters inundated homes in dozens of villages over the weekend in the upper regions of the river in central Java's Solo regency and nearby areas.

Jakarta - A landslide triggered by heavy