The Indonesian justice ministry recommended to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2011 that Australian drug trafficker Schapelle Corby's jail term be cut by five years, an official told AFP Tuesday.

Corby, 34, was convicted in 2005 of smuggling more than four kilograms (nine pounds) of marijuana and is serving a 20-year jail sentence at the overcrowded Kerobokan prison on the resort island of Bali.

She filed for clemency in 2010 and the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights made its recommendation to Yudhoyono the following year, but its details were not disclosed at the time.

But a ministry official told AFP on Tuesday that it had suggested a five-year reduction and that the recommendation still stood.

"We suggested a five-year sentence cut for Corby by the Indonesian president," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Since she was convicted in May 2005, Corby, like many other prisoners, has had her sentence cut by three-to-five months every year.

Such reductions are standard practice and are awarded for good behaviour to mark Indonesia's Independence Day.

At the end of 2011 her sentence had been reduced by a total of 22 months, meaning she is currently due to remain in jail until 2023 if her sentence is not further reduced.

Her lawyer Iskandar Nawing has repeatedly called for Corby to be released immediately on health grounds.

He said earlier this month that Corby had been examined by an Australian psychiatrist in her cell, and found to have gone insane.

"I do hope President Yudhoyono will consider Corby's mental state and grant her an immediate release," he told AFP.

The president has the final decision on clemency, including the power to order an immediate release, but is under no obligation to respond to the ministry's recommendation or appeals by her lawyer.

Kerobokan is one of Indonesia's most notorious prisons, whose 1,000 inmates include 60 foreigners, 12 of whom are Australian.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Industrial output was flat for a second straight month in March, held back by a drop in manufacturing, according to a Federal Reserve report on Tuesday that suggested a cooling in factory activity.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected industrial production to increase 0.3 percent last month.

For the first quarter as a whole, industrial production rose at an annual rate of 5.4 percent, with manufacturing advancing at a 10.4 percent pace - the largest gain since the second quarter of 2010.

Last month, manufacturing activity was dragged down by a sharp decline in the production of nonmetallic mineral products. Auto production increased 0.6 percent after rising 0.8 percent in February.

Utilities output increased 1.5 percent after edging up 0.1 percent in February. Production at mines rose 0.2 percent after falling 4.0 percent the prior month.

Capacity utilization, a measure of how fully firms are using their resources, fell to 78.6 percent from 78.7 percent in February. That was 1.7 percentage points below its long run average.

Officials at the Fed tend to look at utilization measures as a signal of how much "slack" remains in the economy -- how far growth has room to run before it becomes inflationary.

(Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

The lead singer of disco group Boney M on Tuesday joined a rally in Seoul in support of North Korean refugees who fled to China and now face repatriation to their impoverished homeland.

Liz Mitchell, from the group who were hugely popular during the disco era of the late 1970s, shouted "Save my friends" as she joined around a dozen activists and defectors outside the Chinese embassy, witnesses said.

She also held a placard reading "Don't repatriate North Korean refugees" and delivered an envelope of cash donations for refugees.

Members of Boney M, whose hits include "Rivers of Babylon", will join a larger, candlelight rally Wednesday outside the embassy, according to concert promoter Btechnic.

Mitchell, 60, earlier called for China to be lenient on North Korean refugees.

"There should be some kind of leniency, giving these people a chance to live a life they have chosen," she was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency.

On Saturday the group will play a concert in the South Korean capital and donate part of its ticket sales to defectors, Btechnic said in a statement.

Defectors and activists have been staging hunger strikes or rallies outside the Chinese embassy in protest at Beijing's crackdown on fugitives from North Korea.

China has repatriated dozens of refugees this year, despite pleas from South Korea and international rights groups for Beijing to change its policy.

If repatriated, North Korean refugees face harsh punishment, but China says they are economic migrants and not refugees deserving protection.

Tens of thousands of North Koreans have fled poverty or repression in their homeland, almost all of them across the border into China.

Some hide out among -- or marry into -- the ethnic Korean community in China's northeast. Others try to travel on to Southeast Asian nations before flying to Seoul.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Celebrities including Alec Baldwin visited Capitol Hill Tuesday to shine their spotlight on federal funding for the arts.

Baldwin and others including actors Hill Harper, Melina Kanakaredes, Tiffani Thiessen and singers Ben Folds and Clay Walker are part of the artistic delegation for Americans for the Arts. The nonprofit organization works to advance arts and arts education across the country.

Baldwin told a news conference that the arts stimulate children's education.

With about $147 million in federal funding for the National Endowment for the Arts this year, the group hopes to increase funding to $155 million next year.

Folds, who met with Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., to press for funding, credited art programs at public schools for his success today. The musician said the arts provide children with a "well-balanced curriculum."

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's President Felipe Calderon criticized his Argentine counterpart Cristina Fernandez on Monday for planning to seize control of the country's leading energy company YPF.

Calderon said Fernandez's plan would damage chances for future foreign investment in Argentina and hurt YPF's controlling shareholder, Spain's Repsol, in which Mexico's state oil monopoly Pemex holds a 10-percent stake.

Fernandez earlier on Monday drew swift warnings from key trade partners after she said she would seek to expropriate Spanish company Repsol's 51 percent stake in Argentina's YPF .

"It definitely seems very sad to me that the government of Argentina, of our good friend Cristina Fernandez, has taken a step that is not going to do anybody any good," said Calderon, in response to questions from participants at a Young Global Leaders Summit, run in parallel with the World Economic Forum on Latin America.

"We all need investment and nobody in their right mind invests in a country that expropriates investments...I fervently hope that Argentina will rectify this step," Calderon added.

(Reporting by Elinor Comlay and Armando Tovar; Editing by David Brunnstrom)