Jakarta - Police in Indonesia's Papua province said on Friday they were hunting suspected separatist rebels who raided a police post and stabbed the wife of an officer before making off with four guns and ammunition.

About 20 suspected rebels of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) attacked a police post in Puncak Jaya district on Thursday night and stabbed the wife of a policeman in the chest, said Papua police chief Bagus Eko Danto.

"The woman is in critical condition after she was stabbed three times with a sickle," he said.

He said the attackers were armed with traditional weapons such as sickles, arrows and other crude weapons.

Bagus said the attackers also stole 60 bullets.

Jakarta  - A fire gutted a boarding house in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta early Thursday, killing eight people local media reports said.

The fire broke out at about 3 am (2000 GMT Wednesday) and immediately engulfed the two-story boarding house in West Jakarta suburb of Palmerah, when the residents were sleeping, said Tatang, an officer from the city's traffic police.

Jakarta - An Indonesian court on Wednesday jailed two lawmakers for their

Jakarta- Indonesia's central bank on Wednesday cut its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points to 8.75 per cent to support growth amid a global economic slowdown.

The cut was higher than expected after Bank Indonesia reduced the rate by 25 basis points in December.

"For 2009 our monetary policy should pay more attention to efforts to support economic growth while continuing to rein in inflation and stabilise the financial sector," Bank Indonesia governor Boediono, who, like many Indonesians goes by only one name, said in a statement.

Bank Indonesia raised its key interest rate six times during 2008 to 9.5 per cent to curb inflationary pressures.

Taipei - A Taiwan man, fearing deportation of his Indonesian wife, hid her and their three children at home for seven years, an immigration official and a local news report said Wednesday.

Local authorities in Puli, central Taiwan, uncovered the secret of Liu Fan-jung, 43, a noodle maker, in August 2008.

Liu met his wife, an Indonesian of Chinese descent identified by her surname Chen, 14 years ago when she was visiting on a tourist visa, but overstayed to work illegally in Taiwan, the United Daily News said.

Liu and Chen met, fell in love and got married, but did not register with authorities, fearing she would be deported, which would put her on a blacklist, preventing her return for three years.

Munich  - Indonesia