Bali Island, Indonesia  - Residents and tourists on the popular Indonesian resort island of Bali on Thursday celebrated the annual Day of Silence, a Hindu New Year observance during which the island shuts down and people are banned from the streets.

The New Year, called Nyepi, is one of the most important religious events for Balinese Hindus, and this year, they welcomed the Saka New Year of 1931.

Jakarta - Indonesian authorities in Papua province released one of four Dutch journalists detained for allegedly violating immigration laws, an immigration official said Wednesday.

Elske Schouten, the NRC Handelsblad newspaper's Jakarta correspondent, was released overnight but the three others were still not allowed to leave the province, said Raden Hendiartono, the head of the Jayapura immigration office.

Jakarta - Government prosecutors on Tuesday demanded prison term ranging from seven years to 15 years for five suspected Islamic militants on trial for allegedly plotting to bomb a cafe and kill a Christian priest.

Prosecutors told the South Jakarta court that the defendants were guilty of violating the country's tough anti-terrorism laws, enacted just weeks after the October 2002 bombings of two nightspots on the resort island of Bali that killed at least 202 people.

Bali Island, Indonesia - Government authorities on Bali ordered the island's airport and all seaports closed Thursday and told visitors not to try to enter the resort island when local residents are observing their Lunar New Year, also known as the Day of Silence.

"Both domestic and foreign tourists who want to go to Bali on Thursday are advised to change their schedule because it will be a day of absolute silence without lights, work, traffic, etc," I Putu Suardhika, Bali's provincial administration spokesman, said Tuesday.

Banda Aceh, Indonesia - Recent killings of former rebels-turned-politicians in Indonesia's Aceh province were not politically motivated, the province's deputy governor said Tuesday.

Four members of the Aceh Party, the political wing of the former separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), have been killed in the past two months by unknown assailants, sparking fears of further violence ahead of the April 9 general elections.

The Aceh Party is one of six local parties allowed to contest for provincial legislative seats under a 2005 peace pact between the government and GAM, which ended decades of conflict in the province.

Jakarta - An Indonesian airplane with 112 people on board made an emergency landing at Batam airport, just south of Singapore, on Monday due to an engine problems, officials and passengers said.

A Boeing 737-200 jetliner belonging to Sriwijaya Airlines, one of the Indonesian private carrier, was bound for Jakarta from Tanjungpinang airport of Bintan island, airport and company official said.

An airline official said the plane with 122 passengers and crew onboard managed to land safely at Batam island, just south of Singapore, and no one was injured.