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<HTML>    JAKARTA Indonesia AP  Sporadic rioting rising crime and continued student protests have worsened a retail slump in Indonesia according to the Indonesian Retailers' Association.    The increasingly uncertain situation on Jakarta's streets has resulted in many people leaving work earlier and reduced the likelihood of night shopping once a favorite pastime among affluent Jakarta residents.    ``I think some of the retailers also feel very much that their volumes will go down'' association chairman Steve Sondakh told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview released Tuesday.    ``They are naturally going to shorten their operating hours'' said Sondahk who is also a direct of the Hero supermarket chain one of Indonesia's biggest retail groups.    Consumer activity has already been hit by a deep recession caused by Indonesia's worst economic crisis in 30 years.    Sondakh said retail sales on average have already fallen between 30 percent and 40 percent from a year ago with the electronics sector being the hardest hit. Sales there are down an estimated 60 percent.    The rise in lawlessness which has grown out of the unrest on the streets is also adding to retailers' woes. Crime has steadily increased in Jakarta with several foreign embassies advising their citizens to avoid the city of 11 million altogether.
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<HTML>    KUALA LUMPUR Malaysia AP  A key police witness in the Anwar Ibrahim trial told the court Tuesday that he had tried and failed to win business favors from the former deputy prime minister but that was not why he was testifying against him.    The former police intelligence officer Amir Junos took the witness stand as the trial stumbled along amid the three-month jail sentence for a defense lawyer held in contempt of court.    The lawyer Zainur Zakaria who won a reprieve from a higher court that stayed his imprisonment pending an appeal hearing Friday was present in the court Tuesday.    Judge Augustine Paul handed down the sentence Monday after Zainur refused to apologize for an affidavit he had filed on behalf of Anwar seeking the removal of two prosecutors on grounds that they were allegedly fabricating evidence.    Anwar was arrested Sept. 20 two weeks after he was fired as deputy prime minister and finance minister. His subsequent jailing and beating while in custody has attracted international concern over the case.    Anwar is being tried on four counts of corruption. He will be tried on another corruption count as well as five counts of sexual misconduct at a later date.    Anwar denies the charges calling them part of a political vendetta orchestrated by his former mentor Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.    Monday's sideshow interrupted the main trial when a stumped defense team asked for an adjournment to recover from the blow.    Resuming Tuesday to defend Anwar against allegations that he abused his power to cover up alleged sexual misdeeds lawyer Christopher Fernando asked Amir whether he held a grudge against Anwar because his request had been denied.    ``I have no intent to come to the court and exaggerate and embellish my testimony in an effort to embarrass Anwar'' he said.    He had earlier admitted during cross-examination to asking Anwar for equity in a securities firm and business deals for his friends.    Amir was called as a witness by the prosecution to prove allegations that Anwar had directed the police to harass and intimidate two people who had alleged that Anwar had sex with his secretary's wife and had sodomized his chauffeur.
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<HTML>    MELBOURNE Australia AP  A helicopter rescue team on Tuesday reached a three-man television crew that had been stranded on a remote Arctic island for more than two weeks rescuers said.    The helicopter sent by international medical emergency company AEA International SOS landed on frozen Wrangel Island at about 0200 GMT said company spokesman Mark Crawford.     UR; MORE
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<HTML>    SINGAPORE AP  The British-American Tobacco Company said Tuesday its Singapore subsidiary will halt all manufacturing because of a significant drop in local and global demand.    The Singapore facility  which produces tobacco products for domestic and export markets  was no longer viable and its closure will result in significant cost savings said a statement from BAT.    The plant will cease all manufacturing operations by June 1999 and more than 300 employees will be laid off.    The London-based company says its non-manufacturing activities which include the import and sale of tobacco products in Singapore will not be affected by the closure.    British-American Tobacco Company said the cost of winding the plant down will likely result in a loss for the financial year ending Dec. 31 but the company is optimistic about future prospects for the streamlined business.
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<HTML>    SAN FRANCISCO AP  Jerry Rice complained about the San Francisco 49ers' erratic play and offered to jump start the offense. Instead it was Terrell Owens who provided the spark.    Owens caught a 79-yard touchdown pass from Steve Young and Garrison Hearst ran for 166 yards in 20 carries to go over 1000 yards rushing for the second straight season as San Francisco beat the New York Giants 31-7 Monday night for their 15th straight regular-season home win.    But the win was costly. The 49ers lost star defensive tackle Bryant Young midway through the fourth quarter to a right leg injury. Replays showed the leg bent backwards as he collided with linebacker Ken Norton Jr. as they closed in for a tackle. He was wheeled off the field on a gurney.    ``That's a devastating blow to our team'' said Young. ``Bryant Young is the man. We're going to have to close ranks and keep marching ahead.''    Said Owens: '' It was kind of somber in the locker room. Every week we have adversity and we have to overcome it.''    The victory clinched a 16th straight winning season for the 49ers 9-3 and kept them a game behind first-place Atlanta in the NFC West with four remaining.    The Giants 4-8 started fast but then faded much like they have this season after winning the NFC East last year. Kent Graham had a 48-yard completion to Ike Hilliard on their first play and three plays later Gary Brown bolted 11 yards up the middle for a touchdown.    New York with the second-worst offensive ranking in the league couldn't sustain its advantage against a 49ers team that fell behind for the seventh time in nine games.    Owens who finished with five catches for 140 yards turned a short flat pass from Young into a score to pull into a 7-all tie with 2:39 left in the first period.    The fleet Owens now perhaps the 49ers' most dangerous receiver blew past Conrad Hamilton near the line of scrimmage and pulled free of Sam Garnes' grasp at the 30. Suddenly he was running free down the left sideline and into the end zone.    ``I gave'em a little juke here and there to get free'' Owens said.
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<HTML>    MONTREAL AP  Quebec's pro-independence government was re-elected but won only 43 percent of the popular vote likely dampening its zest for holding a secession referendum soon.    The outcome of Monday's election means a new term of up to five years for Quebec's charismatic premier Lucien Bouchard who says he will call a referendum on independence whenever he feels the separatist side can win.    But he may need to wait a while for what he calls the ``winning conditions.'' His Parti Quebecois retained its majority in the legislature but was narrowly outpolled in the popular vote by its anti-separatist rival the Quebec Liberal Party.    With 94 percent of the 23000 polling stations reporting late Monday the separatists had 42.8 percent of the votes to 43.6 percent for the Liberals and 12 percent for a third party Democratic Action.    The separatists were on track to win 77 of the legislature's 125 seats the Liberals 46 and Democratic Action one with one seat to be filled later because the separatist candidate recently died.    The outcome was a virtual replay of 1994 when the separatists won 77 seats to 47 for the Liberals while each receiving about 44 percent of the popular vote.    Bouchard's main rival was Liberal party leader Jean Charest who tried to persuade voters that the province would prosper only if the decades-old threat of secession was abandoned.    Charest 40 became an early favorite when he quit federal politics in March to enter the Quebec race; in English-speaking Canada he was viewed as the potential savior of national unity.    But despite his family roots in Quebec he was widely perceived by the province's French-speaking majority as more of an outsider than Bouchard and less likely to do battle for the province in any confrontations with the federal government.    Bouchard 59 has maintained high popularity ratings despite overseeing painful spending cuts over the past three years in a drive to erase Quebec's deficit. Among Francophones he has never lost the mythic aura he gained when after losing a leg and almost dying from a flesh-eating disease in 1994 he came back to lead the separatists to near-victory in a 1995 referendum on secession.    Though Bouchard has served in the federal Cabinet and federal Parliament this was the first time he ever ran as a party leader in Quebec. He was appointed premier without an election in 1996 after his predecessor Jacques Parizeau resigned following the 1995 referendum.    There were 5.2 million eligible voters Monday and turnout was more than 80 percent even though this was the fourth province-wide vote in the past five years.    Analysts had suggested that a landslide separatist victory  approaching 50 percent of the popular vote  would lead to pressure from Parti Quebecois militants to hold a secession referendum quickly. Monday's results were considered more likely to prompt a cautious approach from Bouchard and perhaps a wait of a year or two before considering a referendum.    The separatists have lost secession referendums twice before once by a big margin in 1980 and just narrowly in 1995.    Bouchard anxious to avoid a third defeat said he would call another referendum only when he was convinced the separatists would win. In the meantime he says he would seek more autonomy for all 10 provinces particularly in regard to control over social programs.    Many Quebeckers supported Bouchard even though they oppose secession. Polls suggest only about 43 percent of Quebec voters would support independence now and about two-thirds do not want a referendum on secession in the next few years.    To woo these voters Bouchard tried to portray the election as the choice of the most competent leadership with the thorny question of a referendum to be addressed at a later date.    The Liberals' chances clearly were hurt by the relatively strong showing of Democratic Action whose leader 28-year-old Mario Dumont retained his seat in the legislature. His party which appeals to many young voters favors greater autonomy for Quebec but stops short of advocating outright secession.    About 83 percent of Quebec's 7.4 million people are French speakers. The rest are divided among English-speakers with long-term roots in Canada and more recently arrived immigrants from southern Europe Asia and elsewhere.    The long-term crusade for Quebec independence stems from a feeling among many French Quebeckers that their culture is different from the rest of Canada plus a yearning to manage their own affairs and have their own national symbols.
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