Flooding keeps students away from school, kills elderly man JAKARTA (JP): Major floods hit Riau and Aceh yesterday, drowning one villager, destroying dozens of houses and forcing hundreds of families to flee their homes. In the Riau town of Dumai, the floods affecting six subdistricts have kept thousands of students from school since Monday. Dumai regent Zainuddin Abdullah said floods hit the area every year although rivers were regularly dredged. "There have not been any reports of casualties.

Three intellectual property bills given to House JAKARTA (JP): The government submitted Thursday three bills on for revising the current laws on copyright, patents, and trademarks to the House of Representatives for its next deliberation session.

RP trade deficit rises MANILA (AFP): The Philippines' trade deficit for October 1996 was up 27.6 percent from a year earlier at 944 million dollars, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said here yesterday. The trade deficit in the first 10 months of 1996 was up 41.2 percent at US$10. 09 billion compared to the same period last year, the NSO said.

Cement plant in Minahasa JAKARTA (JP): PT Sulenco Bohusami Cement plans to build a cement plant in Minahasa regency, North Sulawesi, the company president said yesterday. Tidarwono Soedirman said in the province's capital, Manado, that his company planned to invest around Rp 300 billion (US$127 million) to build the cement plant on a 1,000-hectare site. He said the cement factory would use Chinese technology to produce about 2,000 tons a day.(hen)

Island dispute to go to court in the new year JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian and Malaysian officials will meet in Kuala Lumpur in the first weeks of 1997 to resolve technical details before jointly submitting the Sipadan-Ligitan dispute to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The two sides have formed technical teams to define the exact argument to be arbitrated by the ICJ. The Indonesian team will be led by the foreign ministry's Director General for Political Affairs Izhar Ibrahim.

Hundreds want to adobt abandoned babies JAKARTA (JP): Hundreds of people expressed their willingness yesterday to adopt seven babies abandoned by their parents at Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital, Central Jakarta. The hospital's public relations officer, Tini, said she received dozens of phone calls from people interested in adopting the babies. "The phone has been ringing since morning with couples asking about the babies," she said.

Unleaded gasoline From Neraca The government's effort to reduce air pollution in larger cities is to encourage use of compressed gas and unleaded gasoline. Consequently the government's program, known as the "Blue Sky Program", should receive full support from the society. The problem now is if car owners want to shift to gas, they must install a certain instrument in the engine, which is expensive.

Dispensaries and medicines From Republika Referring to the numerous complaints and writings doubting the right of dispensaries to substitute other medicine for doctors' prescriptions, I would like to inform the public as follows: * In line with good dispensing practices, dispensaries are allowed to substitute one brand of medicine for another brand, as long as the contents are the same. Dispensaries resort to this practice if the prescribed medicine is not available.

Sanrio show at Ciputra Mall JAKARTA (JP): Japanese Sanrio cartoon characters appear today at the Ciputra Mall, West Jakarta, on the first day of the Japanese Sanrio Festival. The festival, part of the mall's end-of-year celebrations, will run until Dec. 23. The mall's other celebrations will run until the New Year. The festival includes a Sanrio product display, activities and competitions like drawing, coloring in, origami and martial arts demonstrations.

Our middle class It is probably not too far off the mark to say that the findings of an ongoing study being made on this country's middle class only affirms what many Indonesians have always known, or at least have guessed.

RI firm to broadcast with Mindanao govt JAKARTA (JP): The government of the Autonomous Region in Moslem Mindanao, southern Philippines, and Indonesia's PT Ariobimo Ekakarma signed a cooperation agreement here yesterday to develop local and transnational television broadcasting services. The agreement was signed by Abdurahman U.Amin, the adviser to the regional governor of Mindanao and Ariobimo's president Sharif Cicip Sutardjo (far left).