Bali, Indonesia - A court in Indonesia's resort island of Bali on Thursday sentenced an Australian man to eight years in prison for having sex with boys.

The court in Buleleng district found Philip Robert Grandfield, 62, guilty of having sexual contact with five boys aged between 15 and 17 last year.

Grandfield said he was relieved by the verdict but nevertheless would appeal.

"I thought I might be sentenced to death," he said.

GMR Infrastructure Ltd announced on Wednesday that its unit GMR Energy, through its subsidiaries, has bought Indonesia's PT Barasentosa Lestari.

In a disclosure to the Bombay Stock Exchange, the group said that said it has acquired 100 per cent stake in Indonesia-based PT Barasentosa Lestari through its wholly-owned subsidiary, GMR Energy, for an undisclosed amount.

It further added that the Indonesian firm holds a license providing a 30-year mining authorization over two coal blocks in the country.

Jakarta  - A series of religious edicts issued by Indonesia's council of Muslim scholars has triggered controversy, exposing sharp divisions between conservatives and liberals in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

In January, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) issued a fatwa, or religious edict, banning Muslims from practising yoga that includes Hindu rituals, such as chanting.

It also ruled smoking in public and abstaining from electoral voting are sinful.

Jakarta - Indonesia must crack down on forest clearing after tigers killed six people in less than a month on Sumatra island, the global conservation group World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said on Wednesday.

Three people were mauled to death by Sumatran tigers over the weekend, bringing to six the number of people to have been killed in Jambi province by the endangered beasts since late January, officials said.

New Delhi, Feb 24 : To enhance growing defence cooperation between India and Indonesia, Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor is on a four day goodwill visit to that country from today.

During his visit, General Kapoor will interact with Indonesia's defence and army officials and visit their important training establishments.

The visit assumes special significance in the light of enhanced defence cooperation in consonance with India's "Look East Policy" and growing relationship with ASEAN.

London, Feb 23 : A new study has revealed that severe fires in Indonesia, responsible for some of the worst air quality conditions worldwide, are not only associated with drought, but also with changes in land use and population density.

"During the late 1970s, Indonesian Borneo changed from being highly fire-resistant to highly fire-prone during drought years, marking the period when one of the world''s great tropical forests became one of the world''s largest sources of pollution," said Robert Field of at University of Toronto.