Jakarta  - An

Jayapura, Indonesia - Thousands of independence supporters rallied in Indonesia's Papua region Friday to call for a boycott of next week's national legislative elections, activists said.

The protestors gathered in the Papuan provincial capital, Jayapura, and three other districts - Nabire, Wamena and Biak - to demand a referendum on self-determination for the easternmost province.

Activists said the rallies coincided with the launch of a pressure group called International Lawyers for Papua in the United States.

Jakarta  - Indonesia's central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 7.5 per cent Friday to stimulate growth amid the slowing global economy.

Bank Indonesia has reduced the rate by 175 basis points so far this year and has cut it for five-straight months.

"The global economy is still grappling with uncertainty even though there has been positive sentiment related to the G20 agreement to push for improvement in the global capital and financial markets," Bank Indonesia said in a statement.

Jakarta -

Jakarta - Mental hospitals across Indonesia are prepared to treat politicians who may need psychiatric therapy after they lose next month's legislative elections, the Health Ministry said Thursday.

More than 600,000 candidates are vying for some 18,000 seats in national, provincial and district legislatures in the April 9 elections, the third democratic polls since the fall of former autocratic president Suharto in 1998.

, April 2 : Archaeologists, in Indonesia, have recovered a rare 12th-century stone statue of Lord Ganesha, which is the only one in the country in which the elephant-headed deity is depicted as riding atop a mouse.

According to a report in the Jakarta Post, a research team from the Mpu Purwa Historical Object Preservation Center in Malang, East Java, recovered the statue.