Readwrotes Blog

www.chinaview.cn 2009-07-05 18:49:26 JAKARTA, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Fourteen people were killed and dozens others wounded after a mini bus collided with a train in Klaten of Central Java on Sunday, local media reported. The collision occurred at 10:35 a.m. (0335 GMT), when a Yogyakarta-Surakarta train slammed into a minibus, which was carrying 35 passengers to attend a wedding ceremony, at an illegal rail crossing in Klaten, the Jakarta Post reported. The train pushed the bus up to over 20 meters, local TV quoted a survivor as saying. All surviving victims had been transferred to nearby hospitals, said Eko Budiyanto, spokesperson of state-owned railway company PTKAI for Yogyakarta area. Editor: Wang Guanqun

Thomson Reuters 07.05.09, 11:27 PM EDT JAKARTA, July 6 (Reuters) - Indonesia's stock exchange (IDX) is considering an initial public offering (IPO) in order to raise funds for its expansion, the Jakarta Post reported on Monday, quoting the president director of the exchange. 'We hope the plan will unfold throughout the next three years of my tenure,' said Ito Warsito, newly appointed president of the exchange, the Post reported. IDX is currently owned by 119 securities houses, each with an equal voting right. Ito said the plan would take som

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Mon, 07/06/2009 1:09 PM | Headlines President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's rivals in next week's presidential election claim the incumbent is clutching at straws to retain his presidency, after Yudhoyono's recent statement that his rivals were using black magic against him. "It's very surprising that a former general with a doctorate could make such a statement," Alvin Lie, a member of Vice President Jusuf Kalla's campaign team, told The Jakarta Post in Jakarta on Saturday. "It shows he's panicking. It's also a sign he has lost his self-confidence and rationality." Yudhoyono made the statement Friday night during a gathering with the Nurussalam Islamic prayer group at his home in Cikeas, Bogor, West Java. Yudhoyono told the gathering, as quoted by detik.com, that "in this period of campaigning, there are many people out there who use black magic". SBY also

SUMEDANG, Indonesia, July 6 (UPI) -- Officials in Indonesia's West Java province have declared a state of emergency in the fight against AIDS. West Java Gov. Ahmad Heryawan said Tuesday at a coordination meeting of the provincial AIDS commission that the infection rates for AIDS and the virus that causes it, human immunodeficiency virus, are higher among homemakers than for sex workers in the province, The Jakarta Post reported Monday. "This is very concerning, particularly because most of the people living with HIV/AIDS here are in their productive ages," Heryawan said. The governor cited a report by the AIDS commission that put the number of homemakers in the province diagnosed with HIV/AIDS at 295, while the same report said 259 cases of the disease have been diagnosed among sex workers. Heryawan said nearly 85 percent of HIV/AIDS cases in West Java, about 3,838 people, are between the ages of 15 and 49.

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Mon, 07/06/2009 1:58 PM | City About 70 elderly persons at a privately run old folks' home might not be able to vote in the presidential election, just as in April's legislative one. When The Jakarta Post visited the shelter Sunday, some expressed their hope of a better nation. "I still have faith in this country's future. A big-hearted president is needed to run this country," said Maria Giok, 71, during her spare time in the afternoon at an old folks' home in Jelambar, West Jakarta. Although she has faith, she will give up her vote due to the absence of a polling station at Wisma Mulia, Yayasan Bina Daya Wanita, which is occupied by 76 people aged between 65 and 92. "I will not vote," she said, adding no one would accompany her to a nearby polling station. Frans Nedy, an officer at the home, said most of the shelter's occupants would not vote for various reasons. &quo

Irawaty Wardany , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Mon, 07/06/2009 8:39 AM | National Well-known poet WS Rendra was rushed to hospital last week for a heart attack and is being monitored at the Cardio Vascular Unit (CVC) of the Intensive Coronary Care Unit (ICCU) of the Harapan Kita Heart Hospital in West Jakarta. “His condition is stable but we continue to monitor his blood pressure,” a nurse at the Harapan Kita Hospital, Dea, told The Jakarta Post on Sunday. Rendra, nicknamed Peacock, was brought to the hospital on June 30. When the Post contacted Rendra’s wife, Ken Zuraida, about the noted poet and playwright, she could not comment further. Rendra, whose real name is Willibrordus Surendra Broto Rendra, was born in Surakarta, Central Java on Nov. 7, 1935. He has produced several noted works including; Empat Kumpulan Sajak (Four Poems 1961-1978), Ia Sudah Bertualang (He had traveled 1963), Blues Untuk Bonnie (Blues for Bonnie,1971), Saja

Niken Prathivi , The Jakarta Post , Denpasar | Mon, 07/06/2009 2:18 PM | Bali There may be doubts concerning the pros and cons of Bali's spatial planning draft, however, experts urged the provincial administration and councilors to hasten the deliberation process to avoid further uncertainty. Indonesian Architect Association (IAI) of Bali branch chief Ketut Rana Wiarcha told The Jakarta Post last Saturday that the revised bylaw could become an umbrella for the island's spatial development, especially with a blossoming investment.. "If the draft meets its deadline to be deliberated, then so be it. Afterwards, we must focus on a few articles that need further explanation and supporting regulations." "Should we keep postponing the deliberations, we will remain uncertain." Wiarcha cited the administration's permit issuance on spatial plan, which could end up causing massive environmental damage, to name one possib

Mon, 07/06/2009 1:55 PM | Opinion A few days ago, some friends and I were having a rather lively and heated discussion concerning the appropriateness of us foreign visitors being critical of certain behaviors of Indonesian people. The behaviors to which I am referring to are those which endanger the health, safety or quality of life of all people in Indonesia, native and foreign alike. What gave rise to the discussion was that I had recounted how, a few days previously, I had witnessed a young girl, perhaps of junior high school age, pull her motorcycle to the side of the road and throw a large plastic bag of garbage away. As she was riding away, I slowed my motorcycle and said, in a loud enough voice for her to hear me, "Whoa! Whaa!" She looked at me with a very guilty look on her face and drove away. After telling this story, one friend told me he does not feel we expatriates have any right to be either judgmental or critical of the Indone

Mon, 07/06/2009 2:20 PM | Opinion I would like to thank Matheos Viktor Messakh for his fine article titled "Mahabharata's heroes return" in the July 1 issue of The Jakarta Post. It's high time that some attention is paid to the nostalgic longings of those of us Indonesians who are now decidedly well past our fifties, but who, in our very youthful years (and here I'm talking about the 50s and early 60s!) mostly had comics from Indonesia, created by Indonesians, to enjoy. Most of the comics that appeared on the Indonesian market in the 1950s were published by Toko Melodie, located on Jl. A.B.C. 19, Bandung and these were generally wayang stories about the heroes of Mahabharata and Ramayana. The attentive reader and ardent fan of classic Indonesian comics may have noticed that on the second photograph in the article, a cover of one of the several Wayang Purwa issues, depicting Batara Guru or Lord Shiva, is shown. The Wayang Purwa series

Panca Nugraha , The Jakarta Post , Mataram | Mon, 07/06/2009 1:58 PM | The Archipelago West Nusa Tenggara is striving to meet its target under the Land of One Million Cattle (BSS) program, declared this year and targeting the goal of 1 million head of cattle by 2013. The province has so far delivered calves to meet the demands of four other provinces over the past three months. During this period, 789 calves were sent to South Sulawesi, 455 to South Kalimantan, 456 to Jambi and 300 to Papua. "This is the first batch, because we're set to deliver 8,500 calves this year," Rosyadah, head of the provincial animal husbandry agency's livestock breeding and development division, told The Jakarta Post recently. Despite the growing demand for calves from across the country, the provincial administration has reduced the overall consignment quota. In 2008, the province sent 13,700 calves to five provinces. The reduction in quota