Jakarta - Trading on the Indonesia Stock Exchange was suspended for a second day Thursday although it might resume Friday if conditions allow, a cabinet minister said.

The Indonesian Stock Exchange halted trading Wednesday after the benchmark composite index fell by more than 10-per-cent to 1,451.669, its lowest level since September 2006.

Acting Finance Minister Sofyan Djalil told reporters after a cabinet meeting late Wednesday that Thursday's session also was cancelled and the suspension could be extended through Friday unless market conditions improved.

Jakarta - The Indonesia Stock Exchange halted trading on Wednesday after the benchmark composite index plunged 10.38 percent on fears about the global financial crisis.

Jakarta - Indonesia's central bank raised its benchmark interest rate 25 basis points to 9.50 per cent on Tuesday, signalling its commitment to fight inflation at the risk of slower growth, officials said.

Bank Indonesia Governor Boediono told reporters that the key rate was increased to suit high inflation and to anticipate the global financial crisis.

Inflation soared to 12.14 per cent year-on-year in September from 11.85 per cent in August, driven by resilient domestic demand and higher global commodity and fuel prices.

Indonesia's stock index plunged 10.02 per cent on Monday amid the global credit crisis. On Tuesday, the Indonesian composite index was down 1.76 per cent.

Jakarta - Government authorities warned climbers and residents to stay away from Mount Soputan volcano on Indonesia's Sulawesi island after it spewed smoke and flames from its crater, officials said Tuesday.

Volcanologists upgraded the alert status to the third of four levels after the 1,783-metre Soputan erupted Monday morning, sending smoke up to 1,000 metres into the sky and blanketing ash nearby.

Jakarta - Indonesia's environment minister called a Guinness World Records report "slanderous" for marking the nation's deforestation rate as the world's highest and claimed it used obsolete data, a media report said Tuesday.

The Jakarta Post reported that Indonesia has entered the Guinness Book for the second consecutive year as the nation with the highest rate of deforestation, with its forests clearing at the rate of about 52 square kilometres per day, or 300 football fields each hour.

Jakarta  - The Indonesian stock market plunged by 10.02 per cent Monday, sparked by falls of regional and international markets as investors feared the US bail-out would fail to resolve the financi