Vote postponed on Southwest congressmen's wildfire bill

India has ramped up purchases of Russian oil and revived alternate supplies from Africa, Iran and Venezuela to blunt a sharp crude shortfall from the crisis-ridden Middle East, analysts say.

India, the world's third-largest oil buyer, normally sources about half of its crude through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway that has seen only a trickle of traffic since the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28.

India's heavy import dependence, combined with modest oil reserves compared with major consumers like China, has prompted analysts to warn that India could be among the most vulnerable to a sudden oil price hike.

But while India is grappling with disruptions to cooking gas supplies, it has so far avoided the petrol shortages that have hit some neighbouring nations.

Ship‑tracking and import data show that India has partially plugged the gap by turning to old allies, expanding promising ties and reviving suppliers it had not tapped in years.

The biggest backstop has been Russian crude -- a fuel source New Delhi spent much of the past year trying to pivot away from under stiff US tariffs.

Indian refiners imported an average of nearly 1.98 million barrels per day (bpd) from Russia in March, according to trade intelligence firm Kpler -- a sharp jump from the previous two months.

Analysts say the surge was likely aided by a temporary US waiver granted in March covering Russian oil already at sea.

"Imports rose from approximately one million bpd in January and February," said Nikhil Dubey, an analyst at Kpler.

"This near‑doubling suggests that this additional volume was likely contracted following the sanction waiver," he told AFP.

- Useful purchase -

India likely purchased an additional 60 million barrels of Russian oil that will be delivered through April, two trade analysts said.

Washington's exemptions have drawn criticism from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who says they complicate efforts to choke off Russia's revenues more than four years into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

But Kyiv gained little leverage after US President Donald Trump last week extended the waiver on Russian seaborne oil by another month.

"The extension gives Indian refiners the runway they urgently needed," said Rahul Choudhary, vice‑president at Rystad Energy.

"Indian refiners will likely move quickly to lock in the additional barrels the extension unlocks before the May 16 deadline."

Other markets have also aided India.

Imports from Angola averaged 327,000 bpd in March, data from Kpler shows, nearly three times what India received in February.

Industry watchers say African crude purchases were made before the United States struck Iran and have proven to be useful.

"A lot of the uptick you're seeing from Angola in March or Nigeria in April comes because we were (already) looking at sources other than Russia," an official at a state‑run refiner told AFP, requesting anonymity because they were not authorised to speak with journalists.

"It's now come in handy because shipments from Iraq and most of the Middle East have fallen heavily."

According to Kpler, crude from both Iran and Venezuela began arriving this month.

Imports from Iran averaged 276,000 bpd as of mid‑April, while shipments from Venezuela stood at around 137,000 bpd, preliminary data from Kpler shows.

The purchases have proven to be a fortuitous windfall for refiners who largely steered clear of both suppliers previously to avoid US ire.

- Higher prices -

Despite the diversification, the road ahead looks difficult.

India's overall crude imports fell in March, sliding to 4.5 million bpd from 5.2 million in February, according to Kpler.

Analysts also cautioned that oil from the African nations has limits as a substitute.

"In a prolonged Iran conflict scenario, African crudes can partially backfill supply. However, they are unlikely to fully replace Middle Eastern barrels on a structural basis due to crude slate mismatches," said Dubey, explaining Indian refineries were configured for different grades than what comes from the African countries.

Higher prices are also a problem.

"The era of cheap oil is over for now, but access has been preserved. Either way, India doesn't have the luxury of walking away," said Choudhary, noting that April barrels were secured at between $5 and $15 above the Brent global oil benchmark.

State‑run retailers have yet to raise pump prices, with the government instead cutting excise duties on fuel.

Some analysts warn prices could rise by as much as 28 rupees (30 cents) per litre once voting in key state elections ends later this month.

The oil ministry acknowledged Thursday that government‑owned fuel companies were incurring losses but denied that a price hike was imminent.

"India is the only country where petrol and diesel prices haven't increased in the last four years," it said.

The government and state oil firms "have taken relentless steps in order to insulate Indian citizens from steep increases in international prices".

asv/abh/sco

Tibetans outside Chinese control vote on Sunday for a government-in-exile, an election of heightened significance as they brace for an inevitable, eventual, future without their revered spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

The India-based Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) -- condemned by China as "nothing but a separatist political group" -- is a key institution for the exiles, especially after the Dalai Lama handed over political power in 2011.

"Our votes matter," said Tenzin Tsering, 19, a first-time voter waiting to cast his ballot to push for greater youth representation.

"We need voices that reflect where our community is going, not just where it has been", he said, speaking in Bylakuppe in India's southern state of Karnataka, one of the largest Tibetan communities outside the Himalayan plateau.

Polling is due to take place in 27 countries -- but not China.

The 91,000 registered voters include Buddhist monks in the high Himalayas, political exiles in South Asia's megacities and refugees in Australia, Europe and North America.

The 90-year-old Dalai Lama, based in India since fleeing the Tibetan capital Lhasa after Chinese troops crushed an uprising in 1959, insists he has many more years to live.

But supporters of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate are acutely aware that self-declared atheist and Communist China said last year that it must approve the Buddhist leader's eventual successor.

The Dalai Lama says only his India-based office has that right.

Tibetan Buddhists believe he is the 14th reincarnation of a spiritual leader first born in 1391.

- 'Potential of young Tibetans' -

The five-year parliament, which sits twice a year, has 45 members from across the world: 30 representing three traditional provinces, 10 representing five religious traditions and five representing the diaspora.

Headquartered in Dharamsala in northern India, it functions as a representative body for an estimated 150,000 Tibetans living in exile worldwide.

Lines of red robed monks and nuns lined up to vote in the Indian hill town on Sunday.

The government's "sikyong", or leader, Penpa Tsering, was elected for a second term on February 1, after taking 61 percent in the preliminary round -- a high enough threshold to win outright.

Tsering, like the government, does not seek full independence for Tibet, in line with the Dalai Lama's long-standing "Middle Way" policy seeking autonomy.

Exiled voters represent only a fraction of ethnic Tibetans -- whom the CTA estimates at six million worldwide, compared with more than seven million China counted in its 2020 census.

Beijing, which in 1950 sent troops to the vast high-altitude plateau it calls an integral part of China, has condemned the elections as a "farce".

Its foreign ministry calls the exiled government an "illegal organisation that completely violates the Chinese constitution and laws".

Among younger voters, some were worried at the perceived underrepresentation of Tibet's next generation in the corridors of the exile government.

"I want to see fresh faces, leaders who represent the potential of young Tibetans," said 25-year-old Tenzin Pema, expressing her weariness at the sometimes divisive arguments between older political leaders.

More than half of voters, about 56,000, live in India, Nepal and Bhutan.

The remaining 34,000 are scattered around the world, including roughly 12,000 in North America -- including New York and Toronto -- and 8,000 in Europe, including Paris, Geneva, Zurich and London.

Results are expected on May 13.

str-pjm/abs

The US central bank is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged at its policy meeting next week, as energy prices stay high and supply chains snarled due to war in the Middle East.

The Federal Reserve's two-day meeting, starting Tuesday, could be chairman Jerome Powell's last at the helm of the independent institution.

But it takes place against a tricky backdrop. Powell's successor has faced a bumpy road to confirmation, while policymakers battle competing pressures as steeper fuel prices drive inflation and job market worries linger.

Fed officials are set to keep rates steady at a range between 3.50 percent and 3.75 percent, extending their pause since the start of the year.

"We still have a very high level of uncertainty on what's happening in the Middle East," KPMG senior economist Kenneth Kim told AFP, ahead of upcoming peace talks.

Oil and gasoline prices remain elevated even if they have peaked, meaning "there's certainly an energy shock that's still impacting both consumers and businesses," he said.

The Fed has a dual mandate of maintaining price stability and low unemployment. It tends to keep interest rates high to curb inflation or lower them to spur growth, meaning that current conditions pull officials in different directions.

Navy Federal Credit Union Chief Economist Heather Long expects Powell to be "non-committal" on the path of rates, as the full impact from the war on Iran remains unknown.

The oil price hikes came after US-Israeli strikes targeting Iran from February 28 sparked Tehran's retaliation in virtually closing the Strait of Hormuz -- a key waterway for energy transit.

- Containing inflation -

Fed officials will likely focus more on containing inflation than the jobs market this meeting, with the war entering its ninth week.

The strait is also a key passage for fertilizers, and disruptions threaten to hit food production.

Already, US consumer inflation reached its highest level in nearly two years in March at 3.3 percent as energy costs rocketed.

Fed Governor Christopher Waller, who earlier backed lower rates to support employment, indicated this month that a prolonged conflict could make it hard for the central bank to cut rates this year.

If there were high inflation and a weak labor market, one would have to balance risks on both sides.

This "may mean maintaining the policy rate at the current target range if the risks to inflation outweigh those to the labor market," he told an Alabama event.

KPMG's Kim said solid hiring recently "gives the Fed some cushion" to temporarily focus more on prices.

Analysts will monitor if the Fed signals in its post-meeting statement that rate hikes are a possibility.

- 'Critical juncture' -

The Fed is also taking its next steps under intense political scrutiny.

President Donald Trump has made no secret of his wish for lower interest rates, and regularly slammed Powell for not cutting them aggressively.

Beyond rhetoric, Trump has sought to oust Fed Governor Lisa Cook over claims of mortgage fraud. The Supreme Court is set to rule on whether he can fire her.

Meanwhile, Trump's choice of new Fed chairman -- Kevin Warsh -- has faced a bumpy road to confirmation.

Republican senator Thom Tillis on the Senate Banking Committee vowed to block Fed appointments until a Justice Department probe into the Fed and Powell is resolved, setting up a potential impasse on the panel Warsh needs to clear.

But the Department of Justice said Friday it would drop the investigation linked to renovation costs overruns, potentially paving the way for Warsh's ascendance.

Asked by journalists Saturday about the DOJ's move, Trump said he still wants to look into the cost of the Federal Reserve building renovations, which he has claimed is too high. 

"I tell you, I want to find out. I have an obligation to find out," he said.

Warsh has repeatedly pledged to remain independent if confirmed.

"We're at a critical juncture for the Fed," EY-Parthenon chief economist Gregory Daco told AFP.

"It may be that under Warsh, we're going to see less Fed transparency, less Fed communication than we had in the past," he said, referring to Warsh's confirmation hearing testimony.

Powell's chairman term expires May 15, and he originally intended to stay on the Fed's board of governors until the probe on him is completed.

All eyes are on his future plans at his scheduled press briefing Wednesday.

bys/sla/mjf

Tibetans outside Chinese control vote on Sunday for a government-in-exile, an election of heightened significance as they brace for an inevitable, eventual, future without their revered spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

The India-based Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) -- condemned by China as "nothing but a separatist political group" -- is a key institution for the exiles, especially after the Dalai Lama handed over political power in 2011.

"Our votes matter," said Tenzin Tsering, 19, a first-time voter, waiting to cast his ballot to push for greater youth representation.

"We need voices that reflect where our community is going, not just where it has been", he said, speaking in Bylakuppe in India's southern state of Karnataka, one of the largest Tibetan communities outside the Himalayan plateau.

Polling is due to take place in 27 countries -- but not China.

The 91,000 registered voters including Buddhist monks in the high Himalayas, political exiles in South Asia's megacities and refugees in Australia, Europe and North America.

The 90-year-old Dalai Lama, based in India since fleeing the Tibetan capital Lhasa after Chinese troops crushed an uprising in 1959, insists he has many more years to live.

But supporters of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate are acutely aware that self-declared atheist and Communist China said last year that it must approve the Buddhist leader's eventual successor.

The Dalai Lama says only his India-based office has that right.

Tibetan Buddhists believe he is the 14th reincarnation of a spiritual leader first born in 1391.

The five-year parliament, which sits twice a year, has 45 members from across the world: 30 representing three traditional provinces, 10 representing five religious traditions, and five representing the diaspora.

Headquartered in Dharamsala in northern India, it functions as a representative body for an estimated 150,000 Tibetans living in exile worldwide.

The government's "sikyong", or leader, Penpa Tsering, was elected for a second term on February 1, after taking 61 percent in the preliminary round -- a high enough threshold to win outright.

Tsering, like the government, does not seek full independence for Tibet, in line with the Dalai Lama's long-standing "Middle Way" policy seeking autonomy.

str-pjm/abs

From post offices and parks to stations and even the summit of Mount Fuji, Japan's vending machines are ubiquitous. But with the rapid pace of inflation cooling demand for their drinks, operators are being forced to rethink the business.

Last month beverage giant DyDo Group Holdings announced it would remove about 20,000 vending machines -- around seven percent of their stock nationwide -- by January 2027, in order to "reconstruct a profitable network".

Pokka Sapporo Food & Beverage, based in Nagoya, also said in March it would sell its 40,000-machine operation to Osaka-based Lifedrink Co.

"The strength of the vending machine business has been to sell at list prices," a spokeswoman for Pokka Sapporo told AFP.

But "a rise in list prices is pushing more people to look to shops that sell drinks at a discount", she said.

Tetsuharu Kawaguchi, 31, who works for a food delivery company, said cost was the leading factor in his decision to ditch vending machines -- which stock a host of Japan's favourite thirst-quenchers from iced tea to canned coffee.

From a machine, even "water... ends up being around 130 yen (80 cents). If you go to a convenience store, you can sometimes get it a bit cheaper, and places like drugstores often sell it for quite a low price", he explained.

While Japan was long haunted by deflation, it has more recently faced a surge in living costs.

Kazuhiro Miyashita of Inryo Soken, a research institute focused on the beverage industry, told AFP that increased costs for fuel and staff to keep machines stocked were eating into profits.

"If they can curb prices through cost-cutting, they may be able to hold their own against convenience stores."

Takayuki Ishizaki of Nomura Research Institute said that growing environmental awareness was also playing a part in the troubling situation for operators.

It "has led some people to stop buying drinks outside and instead bring their own bottles (to refill)", he said.

Despite the decline, vending machines -- where ramen noodles, cut fruit, kimchi and crepes are also on offer -- are unlikely to disappear anytime soon.

"Ultimately the overwhelming convenience of being able to find one just by walking a short distance practically anywhere (in Japan) is something that can't really be replaced," Ishizaki said.

"The move now is toward being more strategic and selective in terms of placement."

Taisuke Oguro, 27, a hairdresser in Tokyo, is holding out for their survival.

"In places where there aren't any convenience stores, I do think it's actually pretty handy to have one," he said.

kh/aph/dan/abs

Britain's parliament this week approved a bill to ban those aged 17 and under from ever legally buying tobacco products during their lifetime.

A first in Europe, the UK will be only the second country in the world to implement such a measure. Here are five things to know about the new landmark UK law. 

– What does it stipulate? –

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill legally bars anyone born on or after January 1, 2009 from buying cigarettes and other tobacco products in the UK, even after they become adults. 

It hands the government new powers to restrict the flavours and packaging of vapes and bans vaping in places where smoking is already banned, which is extended to children's playgrounds and areas near schools. 

Often containing nicotine, these products are popular among young people, partly due to the array of flavours and brightly coloured packaging on offer, according to critics. 

The government last June banned the sale of disposable vapes, which were cheap and also similarly marketed, while the new bill bans the advertising and sponsorship of all vapes and other nicotine products.

– Why make the changes? –

In 2024, the UK had around 5.3 million adult smokers, nearly 10 percent of the population, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Those aged 25-34 made up the highest proportion, the agency's figures showed. 

Although the number of smokers is at its lowest level in more than a decade, the habit remains the leading cause of preventable deaths in Britain, with 80,000 annually according to the government. 

A YouGov poll last year for the health charity Action on Smoking and Health found more than two-thirds of Britons support the so-called generational ban on tobacco sales. 

The charity's chief executive Hazel Cheeseman called the move "really symbolically important" because it signals the aim "to phase out the legal sale of tobacco over the lifetime of somebody who's currently 17".

"And that's a kind of shift in mindset." 

Cheeseman conceded it likely will not completely eliminate smoking among the cohort in the future, but expects it to "substantially decrease" rates.

– When will it come into force? -

The law will apply once the bill agreed by parliament earlier this week gets royal assent imminently.

The new rules will then take effect on different dates, some of which are still subject to consultation. 

The ban on sales to young people born after 2008 will begin on January 1, 2027, the year in which they turn 18 and become adults.

Thereafter, the legal minimum age to buy tobacco will be raised annually by one year, first to 19 years old, then 20 and so on. 

Christine Methnani, 66, a nurse in northern England, welcomed the law.   

"Teenagers will never start to smoke" after facing peer pressure, she told AFP.

"I see a lot of people who come into the surgery trying to give up smoking, but it's because they've been pressured into it as young teenagers."

– How will it be enforced? –

Smokers themselves will not be penalised. But any retailer who sells tobacco or related products, such as rolling papers, to a person born after 2008 will be liable for a fixed fine of £200 ($270). 

Some opponents of the law have warned it risks creating a black market. 

"Similar claims were made about previous tobacco control measures and were proven wrong," countered Alizee Froguel, policy manager at Cancer Research UK. 

"It's a common argument by the industry, but time and time again, that hasn't happened," she told AFP.

But Froguel acknowledged it was "likely" the industry would mount a legal challenge, noting it has "done that for the previous landmark laws on smoking in the past".

– What about globally? –

According to the British government, the UK will be the second country in the world to implement a generational ban, after the Maldives. 

The archipelago of 500,000 inhabitants in November banned the sale of tobacco to young people born after January 1, 2007. 

In France, Green lawmaker Nicolas Thierry has introduced a cross‑party bill to ban the sale of tobacco to anyone born after 2014. 

Similar proposals have been put forward in the US states of Hawaii and Indiana. 

New Zealand had been a pioneer, adopting plans for a ban for anyone born after 2008, but the centre-right National Party dropped the measure when it took power in 2023, before the ban had been implemented.

cla/alm/jj/yad/lga

© Agence France-Presse

(The Center Square) - A California man charged security with multiple weapons at a magnetometer screening area outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night before he shot one Secret Service agent at close range in the vest and then was apprehended.

A long gun and shell casings were recovered at the scene.

President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and members of Trump's cabinet were at the event and were deemed safe and Trump said that he spoke to the agent and he was OK.

“The vest did the job,” Trump said at a press conference on Saturday night.

Trump posted video of the attacker rushing the security area as well as photos of him in custody on social media.

Trump said that he believed the shooter was a "lone wolf" and that he is in a "dangerous profession" but that he wouldn't allow the assassination attempts to stop him from doing his job.

He went on to say that the Hilton was “not a particularly secure building” and that future dinners would be held in the new White House ballroom.

The event took place in the Washington, D.C. Hilton, less than 2 miles from the White House. The Hilton was also the place where John Hinckley Jr. shot President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said that charges would be filed on Saturday night against the attacker. Trump said that the attacker’s California apartment was being investigated.

Trump said that the event would hopefully be rescheduled within 30 days.

Minnesota star Anthony Edwards had to be helped to the locker room after suffering a knee injury shortly before half-time of the Timberwolves' NBA playoff game against the Denver Nuggets on Saturday.

Edwards was left clutching his left knee in pain after rising to block a shot by Denver's Cam Johnson and coming down awkwardly on that leg under the basket.

The All-Star guard was helped from the court and made his way to the locker room without putting weight on the leg and was later ruled out for the rest of the game.

Edwards, who battled a nagging right knee injury late in the regular season, had connected on just one of eight shot attempts for five points with three rebounds before he departed.

His injury piled the misery on the Timberwolves, who lost key contributor Donte DiVincenzo to a lower right leg injury less than two minutes into the contest.

DiVincenzo hit the court in pain after attempting a quick change of direction and immediately called for assistance.

He was seen in a wheelchair at half-time.

bb/pst

It was meant to be a glitzy Saturday night at a Washington ballroom featuring President Donald Trump, but the glamor was shattered by gunshots that left guests diving to the floor and the US leader bundled out by security personnel.

Trump was seated on the dais at the White House Correspondents' Association's annual dinner -- the first time he is attending as president -- when loud bangs disrupted the revelry and caused him and others on stage to look up in alarm.

Video captured by AFPTV, other news outlets, and AFP reporters attending the event showed a chaotic scene unfolding.

Moments after what sounded like gunshots, cries of "Stay down!" and "Get down!" were heard while guests, including correspondents, officials in the Trump administration and some members of his cabinet took cover.

Amid the chaos, the president was quickly surrounded by US Secret Service personnel, their weapons drawn, and they quickly rushed Trump off the stage and through a back curtain as the crowd crouched in shock.

The big band music stopped, and people in ball gowns and tuxedos turned quiet as agents swarmed around tables and over guests on the floor of the massive ballroom of the Washington Hilton, the very hotel where president Ronald Reagan survived an assassination attempt 45 years earlier. 

"Shots fired upstairs," said Mehmet Oz, Trump's administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, as he was being evacuated by security.

Also seen being rushed out of the ballroom was Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr -- whose uncle, president John F Kennedy, was felled by an assassin's bullet in 1963 in Dallas, Texas.

Alexandra Ingersoll, a correspondent for One America News, told AFP she was inside when the commotion began, and saw Secret Service spring into action to protect the president.

"I just ducked under the table and I was like 'I'm not going to risk this,'" she told AFP. "I didn't know if the shooter was neutralized or what was going on."

With still few details on what actually occurred, the entire ballroom was ordered evacuated, and several hundred guests made their way into the Hilton lobby and out into the chilly air.

Guests were seen hugging, making calls, texting friends and loved ones, and their news bureaux.

Later the Secret Service said in a statement that it was investigating a shooting near the main security screening perimeter for the event. 

"The president and the first lady are safe, along (with) all protectees," the agency said. "One individual is in custody."

It was not immediately clear whether the assailant fired shots, or security agents responded to the threat with gunfire of their own.

At about 8:40 pm (0040 GMT), an AFP reporter saw police officers racing through the streets surrounding the Hilton, lifting barriers, ushering passersby over to different streets, and clearing cars from the area as quickly as possible. A helicopter circled overhead.

A few minutes later, a motorcade left the Hilton, in the direction of the White House.

dk-aue-mlm/bys

Indonesian environmental activist Muhammad Rosidi shudders as he recalls the horrific moment two men on a motorbike threw acid through the open window of his car as he was driving on Sumatra island in February.

He was instantly consumed by a burning pain as the corrosive liquid ate into his hands, legs and groin.

"I knew right away it was acid. It felt like being doused in boiling water," the 43-year-old told AFP.

No arrest has been made weeks after the attack that Rosidi is convinced was triggered by his campaigning against illegal tin mining and smuggling in the Bangka Belitung islands off Sumatra.

He is one of an increasing number of activists and government critics rights groups say are being targeted in ever-more vicious attacks in the world's third-largest democracy.

The latest victim was 27-year-old Andrie Yunus, an activist from the KontraS human rights group who risks losing vision in one eye after two men on a scooter threw acid at him while he rode a motorbike in the capital Jakarta last month.

In an environment Amnesty International described this week as "rife with repression of dissent", protesters, journalists and even academics are also coming under threat.

"After the attack on Andrie, the threats actually increased... also death threats," Bhima Yudhistira Adhinegara, executive director of the CELIOS economic think tank, told AFP of his own experience.

He is being targeted for critiquing government programmes including President Prabowo Subianto's signature school feeding scheme, a major budget outlay.

A stranger recently texted Bhima to say that his name had appeared on the same hit list as Andrie's.

"We've been stepping up security... adding more CCTV and body protection. When going out, we don't go alone, we travel in pairs," he said.

- 'Hostility to criticism' -

Activists and observers say a climate of repression is taking root under a government that baulks at criticism under the leadership of ex-general Prabowo -- himself accused of human rights violations in the 1990s. He was never convicted, and he denies the accusations.

Andrie had been a vocal critic of what many perceive as the military's expanding role in government, and was attacked shortly after recording a podcast on the topic.

"We cannot separate the growing attacks on activists from the broader context of the current government's hostility to criticism," Amnesty International Indonesia spokesman Haeril Halim told AFP.

In a report this week, Amnesty said nearly 300 human rights defenders suffered intimidation or violence in Indonesia in 2025.

During mass anti-government riots last August, more than 4,000 people were arrested, it added, with hundreds assaulted by police and 10 civilians killed.

The media has also come under fire, with the Tempo media outlet receiving a rotting pig's head and six decapitated rats at its office last March in an apparent warning to stop asking uncomfortable questions.

"Attacks on critical civil society groups fighting for human rights are happening because democracy in Indonesia is steadily regressing," Arif Maulana, a human rights lawyer with the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, told AFP.

"The methods used... have become very serious threats to people's safety and lives," he said.

For Amnesty International Indonesia chief Usman Hamid, Indonesia "will truly become an authoritarian country if left unchecked".

The government denied claims of repression and said it welcomed criticism as "a valuable form of public participation that ensures the governance process runs smoothly".

Kurnia Ramadhana, a senior legal adviser in the Government Communications Office, pointed AFP to a recent poll by the Indonesian Survey Institute which found a vast majority of respondents were satisfied with the functioning of democracy and freedom of expression.

"Essentially, according to scientific data, the repression phenomenon, as found by Amnesty, is not proven," he said.

- 'Terrorism' -

The attack on Andrie sparked global outrage and calls for an independent investigation amid widespread fears of a cover-up in a country where such crimes are rarely punished.

Four military intelligence officers were arrested and the agency's chief resigned without his alleged role in the crime being disclosed.

Activists say the decision to try the four soldiers in a military court without the possibility of public scrutiny bodes ill for the pursuit of justice.

Kurnia insisted Prabowo was "making every effort to eliminate impunities for the perpetrators, even those from the military" in the Andrie case. 

The choice of acid as a weapon, said University of Indonesia criminologist Adrianus Meliala, is meant to send a message not only to the victim but also to warn others.

"Acid always leaves scars," he told AFP.

Rosidi still has nightmares and struggles with recurring infections, but he insists he will not be deterred.

"If no one is critical, who will care about our environment and our country?" he asked.

dsa/mlr/lga