JAKARTA: University students rallied on Friday to demand that Indonesia's general election commission accelerate the vote count from last month's parliamentary election. The protesters warned that further counting delays could postpone the November presidential election and trigger protests by dissatisfied voters. On Thursday, at least 23 demonstrators and policemen were injured in a clash in front of the electoral commission's building. Protesters were demanding that the ruling Golkar Party be disqualified from the election and that the Indonesian military end its involvement in politics. That was the first bloody clash since June 7, when Indonesia held its first democratic election in 44 years.

Controversial director dead

LOS ANGELES: Film director Edward Dmytryk, a member of the Hollywood ten who served prison time during the Red scare-era witch hunts of the 1940s and was blacklisted until he named names of his communist comrades,died on Thursday night at the age of 90. Dmytryk, who worked with some of Hollywood's biggest stars, had been ill for a year. Dmytryk was a rising young director at RKO Pictures in 1945 when he joined the communist party. He said he stayed ``only a few months,'' but two years later the House committee on un-America activities called him and nine other Hollywood figures to a hearing. All refused to answer questions about party membership. They were convicted of contempt and sentenced to a year in prison. When Dmytryk finished his sentence, he admitted that he had been a party member. He hadn't done it before, he said in 1988, ``because they would call me a coward; they'd say I was doing it simply to stay out of jail.'' In 1951, Dmytryk returned to the House committee and identified 26 people as communists. ``I didn't feel guilty about talking,'' he said later. ``I knew (the accused) would call me a rat. But I did what I wanted to do. I have never regretted.'' Dmytryk directed The Caine Mutiny, Raintree County,The Young Lions, The Carpetbaggers and other films.

7 face arrest for Korean blaze

SEOUL: South Korean police on Friday were to seek arrest warrants for seven people, including two nursery school teachers, after 19 children and four adults died in a dormitory blaze, detectives said. Six of the seven, who are all in police custody, are to be charged with involuntary homicide, while some are accused of flouting crucial safety regulations which police believe cost the lives of the 23 victims. ``We expect to ask prosecutors to issue arrest warrants for the seven on charges of manslaughter and violating construction laws within hours,'' a detective said.