Readwrotes Blog

By Kurt Achin Seoul 08 July 2009 South Korea has issued security warnings after the disruption of major Internet sites by an apparent cyber attack. Several U.S. Web sites have also been affected. Reports are emerging in South Korean media that intelligence officials suspect North Korea may have had a hand in the disruption. South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted parliamentary intelligence committee lawmakers as saying North Korea may be behind the apparent cyber attack. Wednesday marks the 15th anniversary of the death of the North's revered first leader, Kim Il Sung. In past years, North Korea has used the occasion to show defiance or superiority toward the South. South Korean authorities began to notice the Internet disruption Tuesday evening. By Wednesday, Korea Communication Commission official Lee Myung-su said the attack program had spread far and wide. He says 18,000 personal computers have be...

By VOA News 08 July 2009 Google headquarters in Mountain View, California (File) Google Incorporated, the owner of the popular Internet search engine, is developing its own computer operating system in a direct grab for a market long dominated by software giant, Microsoft Corporation. Google made the announcement on its Web site. The company said its software will be based on its Chrome Internet browser and be available to consumers in the second half of 2010. Google said the computer operating system will initially be designed for low-cost laptops called netbooks. The company said the new operating system's key features will be "speed, simplicity and security". The move further intensifies Google's competition with Microsoft, whose Windows system currently runs about 90 percent of the world's personal computers. Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

By Phil Mercer Sydney 08 July 2009 Climatologists say an El Nino weather pattern is developing, increasing the chances of further more drought and forest fires in Australia and Indonesia. Australia's weather bureau reports that the weather pattern could be bad news for the nation's farmers as the drier conditions arrive during harvest times. An El Nino pattern takes place every two to seven years and is seen by scientists as part of a natural climate cycle. It occurs when waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean heat up. The movement of moist, warmer air away to the east leads to drier conditions in the western Pacific, affecting much of the Asia-Pacific region. In Australia, the eastern and most heavily populated parts of the continent are likely to see below average rainfall and increases in daytime temperatures, which would damage harvests. Australia is the world's fourth-largest wheat exporter. The...

By VOA News 08 July 2009 Group of Eight (G8) leaders pose for a family photo at the summit in L'Aquila, central Italy, 08 Jul 2009 Group of Eight leaders meeting in Italy say they deplore the deadly post-election violence in Iran and they call the arrests of journalists unacceptable. U.S. officials say the G8 leaders issued a strong and significant statement on Iran following a working dinner Wednesday night. The officials say the leaders are losing patience with Iran's refusal to meet its international obligations to give up its suspected nuclear weapons program The leaders did not threaten any new sanctions Wednesday. French President Nicloas Sarkozy said all eight agreed to give negotiations with Iran a chance until September, when another major summit convenes. The G8 statement also demands Iran let foreign embassy employees work unhindered and it condemns Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad'...

By VOA News 08 July 2009 Chinese paramilitary police patrol in Urumqi, 08 Jul 2009 Large numbers of security forces patrolled the capital city of China's Xinjiang province Wednesday in an attempt to stop a third day of ethnic violence. Chinese authorities said the situation was under control Wednesday, following clashes between Muslim Uighurs, Han Chinese and security forces. But there were reports of Han mobs assaulting Muslim Uighurs throughout the city, even as helicopters hovered overhead. Ethnic Han Chinese residents armed with makeshift weapons and vowing revenge on Uighurs were seen roaming the streets for a second day. The city's top Communist Party official, Li Zhi, said anyone found guilty of murder in connection with the violence will be executed. Urumqi mayor Jerla Isamudin told reporters Wednesday that more than 100 people killed by rioters on Sunday had been identified. The official death toll from...

By Al Pessin The Pentagon 08 July 2009 US Marine Colonel Lawrence Nicholson (c) (File) The commander of U.S. Marines who have launched a major offensive in southern Afghanistan said his forces have removed Taliban fighters from a large section of one of their main strongholds and that U.S. troops are already working with the Afghan Army and local leaders to begin to establish stability in the region. But Brigadier General Lawrence Nicholson told reporters by telephone that he needs more Afghan forces for the operation. General Nicholson said he has enough Marines to complete his mission, although he would like to have more. Speaking on a noisy telephone connection, Nicholson said what he really needs is more Afghan troops. There are more than 90,000 in the Afghan Army, but currently, he has only about 650 of them to work with 4,000 Marines in the Helmand Province offensive. "I'm not going to s...

By Ayaz Gul Islamabad 08 July 2009 Two separate missile strikes by unmanned U.S spy planes in northwestern Pakistan are reported to have killed at least 45 suspected militants. A similar attack a day earlier in the same area, which borders Afghanistan, had left at least 14 extremists dead. The drone attacks came as the Pakistan army said one of its air strikes has wounded the Taliban leader in the Swat valley. The suspected U.S drone missile attacks targeted militants in the South Waziristan border region where the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, is believed to have set up terror training camps. Tribal witnesses and local officials say that the first strike took place before dawn and it hit a Taliban training camp. The second attack came hours later when several missiles targeted a large group of Taliban fighters traveling in another part of the border region. The Pakistani government h...

By VOA News 08 July 2009 Authorities in Iraq say at least 12 people were killed in a series of attacks Wednesday, mainly in and around the northern city of Mosul. Iraqi officials say a car bomb exploded near a Shi'ite mosque on the outskirts of Mosul, killing nine people and wounding others. A second blast in a nearby village also caused injuries. At least 22 people were wounded in the two explosions. And police in central Mosul say at least seven people were wounded Wednesday when a gunman threw an explosive device at a police patrol. Mosul has been the scene of a number of deadly attacks since U.S. combat troops formally withdrew from the city last week. In other violence, Iraqi police and witnesses say at least three people have been killed and 18 wounded in a bombing south of Baghdad. Authorities say the blast in the town of Musayyib appeared to target a wedding party. Some information for this report was prov...

Dicky Christanto , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 07/08/2009 9:37 PM | Presidential Election University of Indonesia political expert Maswadi Rauf said Wednesday’s presidential election proceeded well thanks to a last minute ruling by the Constitution Court that allowed people not listed on the official electoral role to cast a vote using their identity cards. “Without the ruling, the election could have possibly been postponement due to the problems with the official electoral role,” he told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday. He did however call on the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the Elections Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) to follow up the losing candidates’ claims that election violations were committed. “The KPU and Bawaslu should conduct a joint investigation into various indications of election violations to lend more credibility to this election,” he said. It was reported that hundreds of patients and staff at a hospital in Makassa...

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 07/08/2009 9:40 PM | Presidential Election Vice presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto held Wednesday evening a press conference at Megawati Soekarnoputri's home on Jl. Teuku Umar, Jakarta, without Megawati, to criticize the day’s election process. In the press conference, Prabowo was accompanied by various members of Gerindra and the PDI-P including Fadli Zon, Gayus Lumbuun, Suhardi, Mahendradatta and Arif Budimanta. Prabowo criticized survey institutions for releasing their quick counts before the end of election day, saying they unfairly shaped public opinion. Everyone must await the official election results from the General Elections Commission [KPU], which will be announced on July 18, he added. "The vote counting [by the KPU] is still underway. People must be patient to wait the official outcome," he said. "I think this election was far from democratic.”

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 07/08/2009 9:42 PM | Presidential Election A quick count by the General Elections Commission (KPU) on Wednesday evening showed incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and running mate Boediono have a commanding lead in the presidential election, securing 60.72 percent of votes. Megawati Soekarnoputri and her vice presidential running mate Prabowo Subianto were in second place with 29.67 percent, while Jusuf Kalla and Wiranto will likely come third with 9.62 percent. As of 7.30 p.m, the KPU had received more than 4,000,000 votes from the Polling Stations Working Committees (KPPS) via short message service (SMS). (ewd)

Erwida Maulia , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 07/08/2009 10:08 PM | Presidential Election Likely president elect Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is leading the polls according to the results of all major quick counts, says he will prioritize efforts to pursue economic recovery in the short term. Responding to journalists, Yudhoyono said that although Indonesia's economy was working well amid the global economic crisis, it would remain his priority to ensure it continued to do so, as the crisis was not over yet. "We have to do more to maintain our economic momentum, in achieving positive growth this year, in controlling unemployment," Yudhoyono said Wednesday night at his private residence in Cikeas, south of Jakarta, after several quick count results indicated that he might very well have won the presidential election in a single round. "And I have to complete the existing programs we have started five years ago when I was e...

Sean Yoong , The Associated Press , Kuala Lumpur | Wed, 07/08/2009 10:59 PM | World Malaysia announced Wednesday it will abandon the use of English to teach math and science, bowing to protesters who demanded more use of the national Malay language. Malay will be reinstated in state-funded schools starting in 2012 because teaching in English caused academic results in those subjects to slip, Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said. The news comes after months of high-profile demonstrations by politicians and linguists, especially from the ethnic Malay majority, who say a six-year-old policy of using English undermines their struggle to modernize their mother tongue. English was once the medium of instruction in most schools in Malaysia, a former British colony. Nationalist leaders switched to Malay less than two decades after independence in 1957. In 2003, realizing that poor English skills hurt graduates competing for work against people...

Dicky Christanto , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 07/08/2009 11:42 PM | Presidential Election Vice presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto claims he has received many reports of irregularities in Wednesday’s presidential election. "As many as 5,000 ballots where voters marked the Megawati Soekarnoputri and Prabowo box have been declared broken by local officials. It happened in Tanjung Priuk," Prabowo told a press conference Wednesday. He blamed several state institutions for failing to guard the election neutrally, but refused to name which ones. He said a joint team from the Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle (PDI-P) and the Great Indonesian Movement (Gerindra) Party had been deployed to collect more evidence on the alleged irregularities. "Then we will talk about legal action to resolve the problems," he added.

Andi Hajramurni , The Jakarta Post , Makassar | Wed, 07/08/2009 11:47 PM | Presidential Election Presidential hopeful Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s (SBY) campaign team has claimed it has lost around 10 percent of votes in South Sulawesi after a controversial statement was made by Andi Alifian Malarangeng. Diza Rasyid Ali, head of the provincial SBY camp said Wednesday the team had expected to secure as much as 40 percent of votes in the province, but quick counts show the frontrunners received closer to 30 percent. “Pak Alifian's [Andi Mallarangeng] statement has been misused by certain people and decreased the number of votes SBY should get,” Diza told the Jakarta Post. Data from the Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI) shows that SBY received 27.27 percent of the vote, down from the 40 percent previous surveys expected them to get. Jusuf Kalla and Wiranto got 66.93 percent, while Megawati Soekarnoputri and Prabowo Subianto received only 5.79 percen...

Indonesian presidential candidate and current President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono salutes during a press conference at his residence in Cibubur, on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia, 08 Jul 2009 Early, unofficial results from the Indonesian presidential election give President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono the margin of victory he was looking for. Sample tallies from polling stations across Indonesia say President Yudhoyono won 52 percent of the vote, which would be enough to prevent a run-off election. His challengers, Vice President Jusuf Kalla and former President Megawati Sukarnoputri both won just over 20 percent. Hundreds of Indonesian voters in this south Jakarta neighborhood waited until their names were called by an election official before casting their ballots for president. The process was orderly, even festive, as ballots were cast and fingers dipped in purple ink to prevent voter fraud. For some, voting was an act of empowerment. One voter says by voting she hopes to bring ch...

JAKARTA: The recent Constitutional Court ruling allowing unregistered voters to cast their ballots using ID cards is a breakthrough, but it may not solve all the ongoing issues with the electoral roll, a panel of experts say. "The ruling solves only half the problem. It doesn't solve the issue regarding multiple entries and fake names," a member of the Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu), Bambang Eko Cahyo, said at a discussion Tuesday. He claimed to have received dozens of reports about people whose names were registered multiple times on the electoral roll. Director of the Indonesian Civilized Circle (Lima), Ray Rangkuti, said the sudden ruling not only failed to completely resolve the mismanagement of the electoral roll, but it would not lead to an increase in registered voters either. "Voters planning to use their IDs to cast ballots are being treated as a last priority. The verdict only allocates a one-hour period for them to vote," he said. ...

Wed, 07/08/2009 11:07 AM | Headlines With a bundle of election documents in his left hand, Supangat Arifin, 58, was busy directing six men erecting a makeshift tent in a parking lot in front of the Kalibata Memorial Park in South Jakarta on Tuesday morning. Starting the work on 9 a.m., Supangat, who chairs a polling station working committee (KPPS) in community unit (RW) 08, Duren Tiga subdistrict, said he wanted to complete preparing the polling station (TPS) early and perform another "important" duty. "I wanted to finish this job before noon so that I can remind people to cast their votes tomorrow *today*," said the retired banker. In the April legislative elections, Supangat had to handle 350 registered voters but in today's presidential elections the grandfather of four is now responsible for 650 voters. "In the last *legislative* elections, only 200 out of 350 voters participated. My biggest concern now is how to get all ...

Wed, 07/08/2009 11:08 AM | Presidential Election JAKARTA: The General Elections Commission (KPU) will not print extra ballots despite a possible surge in registered voters on election day. Following a Constitutional Court decision Monday night to allow unregistered voters to show ID cards or passports to cast ballots in Wednesday's presidential election, authorities are anticipating a surge in voter numbers. KPU member I Gusti Putu Artha said the commission did not have the time to print additional ballots and distribute them to regions. "Even if we decided to print more ballots, it would be impossible to deliver them to the respective regions," he said Tuesday at the KPU office in Jakarta. On Monday, the Constitutional Court revised articles in the 2008 presidential election law, allowing unregistered voters to show their ID cards to vote in the July 8 polls. Candidates Jusuf Kalla and Megawati Soekarnoputri and civil society gro...

Wed, 07/08/2009 11:08 AM | Presidential Election SEMARANG: More than 200 books entitled Malapetaka Demokrasi (Democracy Disaster) aimed at discrediting incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono were found in Semarang on Tuesday, just a day before the presidential election. The Semarang Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) collected the books, which were found stacked on the pavement. "We have collected the books. So far, we cannot hold anyone accountable as the book has no publisher. There are four names mentioned as writers and researchers, but we suspect they may not be real names," Bawaslu member Rahmulyo Adi Wibowo told The Jakarta Post. Rahmulyo said he suspected the books were distributed in other areas. The first chapter of the book claims irregularities during the April 2009 legislative elections will filter down until the presidential elections. The second chapter outlines tricks employed by the Yudhoyono team to win t...

Adianto P. Simamora , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 07/08/2009 11:08 AM | Presidential Election The Indonesian Research Institute (LRI) has released a new survey predicting Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Jusuf Kalla will meet face to face in a runoff election. The LRI president director, Johan Silalahi, said the institute predicted the presidential election would end in a runoff as no candidate would be able to win an outright majority of votes on Wednesday. "We predict Yudhoyono and Kalla will win more than 30 percent of the votes each while Megawati will take about 20 percent," he told reporters Tuesday. The prediction was based on the institute's recent national survey and internal poll which analysed tens of thousands of respondents from the 15 most-populated provinces. The LRI published a series of ads in several newspapers on Tuesday suggesting that the election would be decided in a runoff vote. The Indonesian ...

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 07/08/2009 11:08 AM | Headlines More than 176 million people are eligible to vote today to decide if incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will win in one round, or Jusuf Kalla or Megawati Soekarnoputri can push it to a second round. All the surveys put Yudhoyono as front-runner, but many still doubt if he can get over 50 percent of the votes, which would obviate the need for a second round and authorize him to govern for another five years. The National Election Commission (KPU) will directly release preliminary voting results based on SMS from officials at polling stations several hours after the closing of the voting, although complete and official results will only be announced at least a week after that. A number of pollsters, including the Indonesian Survey Institute, the Indonesian Survey Circle, LP3ES, Johan Polling, and Cirrus have confirmed they will release their versions of quick counts in...

Aditya Suharmoko , The Jakarta Post , JAKARTA | Sat, 07/04/2009 10:22 AM | Headlines The central bank cut its benchmark interest rate Friday for the eighth straight month to 6.75 percent to accelerate bank lending, strengthening the already sound macroeconomic framework, and promoting a more robust real sector. The rate cut however leaves "limited" room for the central bank to cut its rate further ahead, Bank Indonesia (BI) said in a statement. BI has cut its rate by 275 basis points from 9.5 percent in November 2008 as inflation has slowed. "The cut is expected to facilitate the acceleration of lending," acting BI Governor Miranda S. Goeltom said in a press conference. "Latest data shows bank lending is quite high. It is expected banks can accelerate credit expansion." As of April, lending reached Rp 1,780.9 trillion, increasing from Rp 1,745.6 trillion in January, according to BI data. Judging by its ke...

Irawaty Wardany , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Tue, 07/07/2009 10:13 AM | Headlines The Justice and Human Rights Ministry has found irregularities to the tune of Rp 3 billion (US$292,000) from Visa on Arrival (VOA) fees at the Ngurah Rai Internatonal Airport in Bali between October 2008 and May 2009. “We received a report from the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) auditor several days ago that there is a disparity between the issuance of VOA fees with its financial report,” Justice and Human Rights Minister Andi Mattalatta told a media conference Monday. He said there were two types of visa-on-arrivals, for periods less than and longer than a week, which cost US$10 and $25 respectively. “The report showed most of the visas issued were for more than seven days, but the payments are listed as being only for a week, so there is a discrepancy here,” Andi said. The visa-on-arrival process is now available for people from 63 countries at immigration chec...

Andi Haswidi and Aditya Suharmoko , The Jakarta Post , Tokyo/Jakarta | Tue, 07/07/2009 10:16 AM | Headlines Japan and Indonesia signed a new currency swap agreement Monday on which the latter will have access to an additional 1.5 trillion yen (US$15.7 billion) of reserves as a precautionary measure in the event of a financial crisis. “This currency swap scheme will serve as our second line of defense,” said Finance Ministry’s head of fiscal policy agency, Anggito Abimanyu, in Tokyo, representing the Indonesian government. Anggito was speaking to reporters following a meeting with Naoyuki Shinohara, Japan’s vice finance minister for international affairs, earlier in the day. Anggito said although the yen was relatively lower than the US dollar in terms of value, the large currency reserve would help Indonesia with significant leverage in warding off currency speculators. In Jakarta, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati confirmed the agree...

Wimar Witoelar , Jakarta | Tue, 07/07/2009 10:00 AM | Headlines Now that the campaign is subsiding, pundits and political scientists will study the official presidential and vice presidential debates for a long time. Did the three presidential debates and the two vice presidential debates change voters’ minds? Probably not, as not much substance was put forward in the debates. The candidates are not people who have had much practice debating. Megawati Soekarnoputri never had to debate as silence is her most effective political weapon. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono does not debate, he courts people with politeness and presence. Jusuf Kalla attempts to debate, but his forte is making deals based on shared interests. The 2009 Presidential televised debates were formal contests with rules as strict as Wimbledon tennis. No shouting during rallies, stay within the limits of good behavior. So between the lackluster styles of the candidates and the tightly ...

Hotli Simanjuntak , The Jakarta Post , Banda Aceh | Mon, 07/06/2009 9:46 AM | Headlines The presidential and vice presidential debates, particularly on the peace-maker issue, have considerably influenced the Acehnese and led them to rethink their preferred candidates. The change in the political preference is mainly due to the establishment of peace by the government in the country’s westernmost province, which both President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his rival Vice President Jusuf Kalla have claimed credit for during their political campaigns. According to Asmara Nababan, former National Commission of Human Rights (Komnas HAM) secretary general, the establishment of peace in Aceh had given Yudhoyono the edge rather than Kalla. Both the Aceh Party, which was established by former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels, and Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party, won the most votes in the April 9 legislative elections. “Most Aceh Party voters are likely ...

Adianto P. Simamora and Andra Wisnu , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Tue, 07/07/2009 9:53 AM | Headlines Finding a way out: Presidential and vice presidential candidates arrive at the Constitutional Court on Monday to attend a meeting concerning the dispute over electoral roll. Among those present at the meeting were (from front left) presidential candidate Megawati Soekarnoputri, her rival Jusuf Kalla and Constitutional Court chief Mahfud MD. JP/J. ADIGUNA The three candidates contesting Wednesday’s presidential election have promised to ensure a fair election to curtail the possibility of disputes over the results. The commitment was made during a two-hour meeting with the Constitutional Court on Monday. “The three presidential hopefuls agree to run the election democratically with the hope that they will not have to come to the constitutional court office to dispute the election after the fact,” court chief Mahfud MD said after the mee...

By Sonja Pace L'Aquila, Italy 08 July 2009 The G8 summit opens in Italy with leaders of the world's most powerful economies meeting on issues including the global recession, regional security, Iran, world hunger, and aid to developing nations. US President Barack Obama, left, is greeted by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, 08 Jul 2009 World leaders have arrived in this medieval town in central Italy and one of the orders of business was to take note of the summit venue - an area stricken by a powerful earthquake just three months ago and still suffering from widespread devastation. German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited the village of Onna, which was almost completely leveled by the quake. U.S. President Barack Obama was visiting the center of L'Aquila, also heavily damaged and still off limits even to local residents because it remains unsafe. ...

By Stephanie Ho Beijing 08 July 2009 Chinese President Hu Jintao has abandoned plans to attend a G-8 summit meeting in Italy, to rush home to deal with violent ethnic clashes in the northwestern region of Xinjiang. President Hu's return was announced by China's state-run television. The Chinese government statement says due to the situation in Xinjiang, President Hu left Italy earlier than planned. State Councilor Dai Bingguo now will represent China at the gathering of the world's leading industrialized nations. Heavily-armed special police officers face off a crowd of Uighur residents after they staged a protest in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, China, 07 Jul 2009 Heavy security is seen throughout Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi. After ethnic violence sparked by a violent clash on Sunday that left more than 150 people dead. The unrest began Sunday with a demonstration b...