A scavenger in Batam has confessed to killing an acquaintance and eating his organs in an effort to gain mystical powers.

Harun, 28, was arrested for allegedly killing 28-year-old Fahmi in October 2009 at Batam’s Legenda Malaka housing complex.

“I’m sorry for killing him,” he told SCTV on Monday, adding that he had not gotten “any power at all” from the ritual.

Harun told police he chose Fahmi as his victim because he hated him.

The chief of the Tanjungpinang main naval base, Commodore SM Dorojatun, has confirmed units under his command had been alerted to a terror threat in the Malacca Strait, one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.

He said the Singapore Navy had recently issued a warning that a terror group was planning to attack tankers passing through the Malacca Strait.

"We received the information two days ago from Singapore`s Navy and Indonesian intelligence agents," Dorojatun said here on Friday.

Oil and gas industry service vessel provider Miclyn Express Offshore Ltd has lodged a prospectus seeking to raise $297.6 million to $365 million in an initial public offer.

The company is offering about 161 million shares at a price of between $1.85 and $2.30 per share, Singapore-based Miclyn Express said in a statement on Wednesday.

Miclyn Express operates a shipyard at Batam, Indonesia and expects to commence trading on the Australian stock exchange on April 6.

Muslim legal arbiters in this Riau Islands city on Tuesday rejected a recently floated idea to levy a tax on prostitution to increase the local government’s income.

“Such taxation would create the impression that prostitution was legal. Of course we strongly reject it,” said Usman Ahmad, the head of the Indonesian Ulema Council in Batam.

Riki Syolihin, a member of Batam’s legislative council, had said that the island, a popular weekend destination for visitors from nearby Singapore, could make Rp 6.4 billion ($685,000) in additional revenue every year if prostitutes were charged a 10 percent income tax.

Riki, a lawmaker from the National Awakening Party (PKB), suggested that the income tax be applied to prostitutes at rehabilitation centers, which he claimed functioned as brothels.

Batam`s Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) rejects the city government`s plan to tax commercial sex workers because it would mean the legalization of prostitution, a spokesman said.

"Taxing commercial sex workers to increase the city government`s revenue implies legalizing their activity. And therefore, we firmly reject the idea," Usman Ahmad, chairman of MUI`s Batam branch, said here Tuesday.

Although the taxes on commercial sex workers were expected to yield as much as Rp6 billion per year for the city`s treasury, the money was "not good for the community." he said.

A senior immigration department official said on Sunday that it would re-evaluate the government’s decision in January to scrap the one-week tourist visa, following an outcry by foreign tour agents who market packages for Batam and Bintan islands.

On January 25, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights announced that the $10 visa on arrival for foreigners staying in Indonesia for a week or less would no longer be issued, and immigration officials would only issue a 30-day visa for $25.

But the issue has sparked such controversy in Singapore that on Sunday the Straits Times reported it was causing panic among travel agents there, and in Taiwan, who had already sold short-stay packages to Batam and Bintan islands in Riau and would have to pay the difference in price out of their own pockets.