Jakarta - A bus carrying 36 people plunged into a ravine in the Indonesian province of West Java early Monday, killing at least six people and injuring dozens of others, police said.

The accident took place at about 3 am (2000 GMT Sunday) when a passenger bus, moving at high speed, fell into a 200-metre ravine in Malangbong village in Garur district, about 150 kilometres south-east of Jakarta, the state-run Antara news agency reported.

Jakarta, Jan. 26 : Muslims in Indonesia have been banned from doing yoga if they engage in Hindu religious rituals during the exercise, the chairman of the country''s top Islamic body has said.

A report in The Telegraph said that about 700 clerics from the Indonesian Council of Ulemas (MUI) agreed to ban the practice of yoga over fears that the use of Hindu prayers could "erode" Muslims'' faith.

"The yoga practice that contains religious rituals of Hinduism including the recitation of mantras is "haram" (forbidden in Islam)," Ma''ruf Amin, a spokesman for the group, said.

Jakarta  - Indonesia has denied requests by the United Nations refugee agency for access to 193 Myanmar boat people stranded in the westernmost province of Aceh, the foreign ministry said.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said that the boat people appeared to be part of about 1,000 refugees from Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim minority held and later released by the Thai military late last year.

The Myanmar boat people were found adrift off Sabang island in Aceh province on January 7 and are now being sheltered at the naval base.

Jakarta - Indonesian Buddhists on Thursday urged authorities in Jakarta to close a newly opened Buddha Bar restaurant, saying the name was sacrilegious.

Buddhists in the North Sumatran city of Medan met on Thursday to discuss the presence of the Buddha Bar, the hip Paris-based franchise of restaurants, the state Antara news agency reported.

"We urge the Jakarta administration to take strong action against the use of the name Buddha to avoid angering Buddhists," Brilian Moktar, head of the Buddhist association in Medan, was quoted as saying by Antara.

Jakarta- An Indonesian court on Thursday jailed a man who falsely claimed to have invented a technology to turn water into fuel in a scandal that embarrassed President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Judges in Bantul district in Yogyakarta province found Djoko Suprapto guilty of defrauding a university of 1.3 billion rupiah (115,700 dollars) in research funds and sentenced him to three-and-a half years, said Joko Sutrisno, the court's administrative chief.

The court official said the defendant would appeal the verdict.

Jakarta - Two Indonesians have died of bird flu, the health ministry said Wednesday, bringing the death toll from the disease in the country to 115.

A 29-year-old woman from Tangerang, 40 kilometres west of the capital Jakarta, died on December 16 and tests showed that she was infected with the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, the ministry said in a statement posted on its Website.

On January 2 a 5-year-old girl from Bekasi, 30 kilometres east of Jakarta, died of bird flu after being treated in hospital since December, the ministry said.