JAKARTA, Oct 22, 2007 (AFP) - Ministers and senior officials from around 40 countries are to hold informal talks in Indonesia this week aimed at setting the stage for a global climate change summit on Bali later this year.

The three-day meeting beginning Tuesday in the hill town of Bogor outside Jakarta will bring together diplomats from key carbon-emitting nations to test the waters for more substantive talks in Bali, officials here said.

JAKARTA, Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) - Three Muslim militants on death row for their involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings will not seek clemency from the Indonesian president, their last avenue of appeal, a report said Monday.

'We do not want a (presidential) pardon,' Imam Samudra was quoted as saying by Kompas online. 'A pardon is a democratic law that we oppose.'

JAKARTA, Oct 13, 2007 (AFP) - Ten people jailed over the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings were among 50,000 Indonesian prisoners Saturday hoping for sentence cuts to mark the major Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr, official media reported.

The 10 were among thousands of inmates recommended by provincial justice offices for sentence reductions traditionally granted to celebrate the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.

LONDON, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - British Foreign Secretary David Miliband paid tribute Friday to the victims of the 2002 Bali bombings including 28 Britons, and vowed no let-up in the fight against 'evil' terrorists.

'Today we remember the 202 people killed -- 28 of them British -- in the appalling terror attack in Bali five years ago,' he said in a statement on the fifth anniversary of the attacks on the Indonesian resort island.

SYDNEY, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - Australian Prime Minister John Howard Friday said he would complain to Jakarta about a 'disgusting' incident in which Indonesia's counter-terrorism chief hosted a party attended by a Bali bomber.

Mubarok, who is serving a life sentence for the October 2002 nightclub bombings which left 202 people dead, reportedly attended a party for 20 reformed Islamic extremists in the home of Brigadier-General Surya Dharma.

KUTA, Indonesia, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - Teary-eyed relatives and friends of victims of the 2002 Bali bombings held a moment's silence on Friday to honour the 202 people killed in the blasts five years ago.

Scores of people, from countries such as Australia which lost 88 people, Japan and New Zealand placed flowers at Kuta's 'ground zero' of the explosions that ripped apart a nightclub strip on the resort island, sparking a deadly inferno.

'This atrocity is now forever a tragic chapter in our nation's story,' Australian Prime Minister John Howard said in a statement.

SYDNEY, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - Southeast Asia has made huge progress in the 'war on terror' since the 2002 Bali bombings, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Friday, the fifth anniversary of the blasts.

As survivors and the families of those killed held a memorial service in Sydney, Downer praised Indonesia for the crackdown it carried out in the wake of the worst terror attack in the region.

JAKARTA, Sept 24, 2007 (AFP) - Indonesia's Supreme Court has rejected final appeals from all three Islamic militants on death row for the 2002 Bali bombings, meaning they face execution by firing squad, a report said Monday.

A request by one of the bombers, Amrozi, for a case review -- the final legal avenue for appeal under Indonesian law -- was rejected earlier this month. Now his two accomplices have also had their requests rejected, Supreme Court spokesman Nurhadi told the online Detikcom news agency.

JAKARTA, Sept 7, 2007 (AFP) - Indonesia's Supreme Court rejected an appeal from one of the three Islamic militants on death row for the 2002 Bali bombings, reports said Friday.

Lawyers for the three have said their appeal would be based on another court ruling that anti-terror laws introduced after the bombings, which were used to convict the three, could not be applied retroactively.

Supreme Court spokesman Djoko Sarwoko told state news agency Antara the appeal panel had rejected that ruling as a base for Amrozi's appeal.

DENPASAR, Indonesia, Aug 14, 2007 (AFP) - Dry holidays may be looming for tourists on the Indonesian resort island of Bali with an alcohol shortage already hitting hotels and bars, officials and industry workers said Tuesday.

The shortage comes as the island reported its first human bird flu death on Monday, triggering fears that a tourism recovery, finally gaining momentum in the wake of bombings by Islamic militants in 2002 and 2005, could stall.