Police seize 100,000 pirated discs in Glodok JAKARTA (JP): The police seized about 100,000 illegal video compact discs, laser discs, audio compact discs and digital video discs in a raid on a shopping plaza in the Glodok commercial district Tuesday. The raid was conducted by the police economic detective division and officials from the Ministry of Information. Col. S.

Agricultural sector must be revitalized soon: Wiranto TEGAL, Central Java (JP): Given the economic crisis, the agricultural sector must be revitalized as soon as possible to meet the nation's food needs, Minister of Defense/Armed Forces (ABRI) Commander Gen. Wiranto said here yesterday.

Amexcard service I was an American Express card member until a few weeks ago. In 1977, I obtained my Amexcard in Brighton, England, when there were no Amexcard activities and operations in Indonesia. For 21 years I was a member in good standing until my withdrawal nearly three weeks ago. In January 1998 Amexcard charged an annual fee of US$175 for a gold card. At the time, this was equivalent to about Rp 1.9 million.

Bakrie's banks to merge JAKARTA (JP): Four private banks under the Bakrie Group, Bank Nasional, Bank Nusa International, Bank Angkasa and Bank Nasional Komersial, are set to merge soon. Chief commissioner of PT Bakrie Capital Indonesia Nirwan D. Bakrie said the planned merger had received the endorsement of Minister of Finance Fuad Bawazier. The company is the holding firm for the four banks.

Agents qualify for honors JAKARTA (JP): Fifty-three agents of PT Asuransi Jiwa Sewu New York Life have qualified to become members of the US$1 million round table (MDRT) for 1998. The company said yesterday that MDRT was the premier international life insurance association of qualifying sales professionals which had accommodated about 19,000 members from 450 life insurance companies in over 50 countries worldwide.

AFP sells U.S. properties SINGAPORE (Reuters): Asia Food & Properties Ltd (AFP), an arm of Indonesia's Sinar Mas group, said yesterday it had completed the sale of several U.S. properties for a total cash consideration of US$265 million. It said in a statement the properties, located in Texas and California, were owned by its subsidiaries and affiliates of a wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary, Octagon Overseas Investment Corp. The estimated aggregate net book value of the properties as at Jan.

Three to be questioned over Games sticker row JAKARTA (JP): State Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Agung Laksono will reportedly summon three executives of the 19th SEA Games underwriting subcontractor to answer questions on their alleged involvement in a Rp 1 billion scam involving fund-raising stickers.