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.

Jakarta - The Indonesian Supreme Court sentenced a former senior official from Garuda Indonesia airlines to one year in jail for aiding in the murder of a prominent human rights campaigner who was poisoned on a flight to Amsterdam four years ago, state-run media said Wednesday.

The Supreme Court overturned the lower court's acquittal of Rohainil Aini, the former secretary to the chief pilot of national carrier Garuda Indonesia, linked to the murder of Munir Said Thalib.

The court sentenced Rohainil to one year in prison, saying that she had been proven guilty of falsifying an assignment letter enabling an off-duty Garuda pilot, Pollycarpus Budi Priyanto, to travel on Munir's flight.

Jakarta - Rescuers on Tuesday stopped the search for about 260 people still missing after a ferry sank off Indonesia's West Sulawesi province earlier this month, an official said.

Thirty-five people were rescued, including the ship's captain, and nine others found dead after the ship sank in stormy seas on January 11 off the port town of Majene, said Colonel Jaka Santosa, a navy officer who led the search operation.

Santosa said an estimated 262 people were still missing and believed to have gone down with the ship.

Jakarta - Police in Indonesia's Central Java province have arrested a shop owner after 14 people died after drinking a homemade alcohol brew he sold, reports said Tuesday.

The victims - all young men - died after drinking a concoction of 90 per cent alcohol, ginseng, vanilla extract and fermented tea, the Koran Tempo daily quoted police chief Benone Louhenapassy in the provincial capital Semarang as saying.

Another person who consumed the drink was critically ill in hospital, the daily said.

Jakarta - Police have named the captain of a passenger ferry that sank off the Indonesian province of West Sulawesi a suspect for negligence in the accident that left more than 220 people missing and believed dead, officials said Monday.

Only 35 people including the captain were known to have survived, and nine bodies were found after the accident, leaving more than
220 others unaccounted for.

South Sulawesi police spokesman Heri Sabuansuari said the captain, identified only as Sabir, was a suspect for negligence that caused loss of life.

If found guilty, Sabir could face to a maximum of five years imprisonment.