Jakarta - Five Australians jailed for immigration offenses after landing a small plane in Indonesia's eastern-most province of Papua have been acquitted on appeal, their lawyer said Tuesday.

In January, a court in Merauke district sentenced the Australians to two and three years in prison respectively after convicting them of landing a plane illegally and entering Indonesia without visas in September.

"The appeals court accepted our argument that our clients obtained permission to land," defence attorney Efrem Fangoihoy said.

Fangoihoy said his clients could leave Indonesia as early as Wednesday.

They were released from prison and put under city arrest last week pending a decision on their appeals.

Kuala Lumpur, Mar 7: A 60-year-old man, who was raised as a Christian but has a Muslim father, was declared non-Muslim by the local Sharia court.

Mohammad Shah, who was baptised as Gilbert Freeman, carried a Malay name on his identity card. He had sent a plea to the court to remove the incorrect name.

However, the application was rejected by judge Mohd Nadzri Abdul Rahman Ibrahim, who was satisfied and did not have any doubts that Shah was a non-Muslim before.

"I believe a name does not reveal a person''s religion, although it normally provides a picture of someone''s religion," the NST online quoted Nadzri, as saying.

New Delhi, Mar 6 : The Supreme Court will on March 30 hear a petition filed by Bollywood actor-turned-politician Sanjay Dutt seeking a stay on his conviction under the Arms Act in connection with the 1993 Mumbai blasts case

A bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan issued notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and sought its reply on the plea of Dutt.

On Thursday, Dutt, who was named by the Samajwadi Party as its candidate for the forthcoming general elections, moved the Supreme Court.

Beijing  - Human rights activist and self-taught lawyer Yuan Xianchen was sentenced to four years in prison for "inciting subversion of state power" after criticizing socialism and advocating democracy in articles and interviews with foreign media, a human rights group said Friday.

Hong Kong  - Hong Kong officials are considering whether to send home an illegal immigrant who lived undetected in the wealthy former British colony for 28 years, a news report said Friday.

Wong Shen-chee, who is now 71, arrived from Indonesia in 1981 on a 90-day visitor visa and has never left the high-rise city of 7 million since, the South China Morning Post reported.

Singapore  - A Singapore court sentenced a 35-year-old man to three months in jail Thursday for hitting a schoolboy who accidentally stepped on his foot in a packed bus, a news report said.

Ismail Atan punched the boy three times on his forehead in a public bus in September, the online edition of Straits Times newspaper said.