Readwrotes Blog

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 07/23/2009 2:29 PM | Headlines Indonesia is celebrating its very own Children's Day today - a day commonly associated with games, bright colors and laughter. However, for some children, life is far from being rosy or filled with f*tes and fairs. Some of them are even forced to beseech the nation's top man to help them in their struggle to obtain justice. "The children arrested for allegedly gambling at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport will send letters to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono tomorrow," Dhoho A. Sastro, a director at the Community Legal Aid Center (LBHM) said Wednesday. Back in May, the airport police arrested 10 children who were tossing coins in the airport to make ends meet and supplement their family incomes, on top of shoe-shining for a living after school. Those children were then kept in a penitentiary center for almost a month after being roughly treated by the police...

Meidyatama Suryodiningrat , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 07/22/2009 11:34 AM | Headlines Was it Jamaah Islamiyah (JI)? Or was it, as President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said based on his intelligence — “not gossip or rumor” — a group “who may not be from the network we currently know of”? After the initial shock of the attack, compounded by the confusion of Yudhoyono’s own statement of a plot to sabotage the election and his re-nomination, the conventional wisdom behind the attack quickly turned to the traditional nemesis of JI. Ansyaad Mbai, head of the antiterrorism desk at the Office of the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, has now gone on record as saying Indonesia’s most wanted man, Noordin M. Top, is connected to Friday’s twin bombings. So is Noordin M. Top the Nosferatu that Yudhoyono was referring to when he said Friday that “the state will not allow them to escape to become Draculas and spread ...

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 07/23/2009 3:20 PM | Headlines Police investigations to identify Friday's suicide bombers hit a dead-end after DNA tests conducted on the parents of the suspected bombers failed to match. The heads of the suicide bombers were found at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels, which were badly damaged by the bombs. "We have compared the DNA from the suspected families of the bombers with that taken from the heads, and there is no match," National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Nanan Soekarna told reporters in Jakarta on Wednesday. Nanan then showed two sketches of the men believed to be the bombers. One of the men was a teenager between the age of 16 and 17, while the other was older and is believed to be between 20 and 40 years old. The test was conducted on the families of two men, Ibrahim and Nur Said, alias Nur Hasbi. The media has speculated that the men were the suicide bombers responsible for Fri...

By VOA News 24 July 2009 U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has offered to try to speed U.S. approval of military equipment sales to Iraq. Iraq's PM Nouri al-Maliki (file photo) Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell says a meeting Thursday between Gates and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at the Pentagon focused on the equipment Iraq needs to improve its security forces. Morrell provided no specifics on the weapons systems discussed. But he said the talks covered air, land and sea systems, and that the U.S. wants to see Iraqi forces modernize in a variety of ways. Mr. Maliki also met in Washington Thursday with the speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry. The Iraqi leader said these meetings come at a time of successful security-related developments in Iraq. U.S. combat troops withdrew from Iraqi cities less than one month ago on ...

By Jim Malone Washington 23 July 2009 Pres. Barack Obama arrives in Cleveland, 23 Jul, 2009, for a scheduled visit to Cleveland Clinic and a meeting on health care reform The ongoing national debate about how to reform the U.S. health-care system has become the top political issue in the country in recent weeks. President Barack Obama is making a renewed effort to take charge of the debate, mindful of public opinion polls that suggest growing doubts about his handling of the issue. Her name is Molly Secours, a health-care activist from Tennessee who fought a battle against cancer two years ago that almost sent her into bankruptcy even though she had health insurance. "What we are looking for, what we are asking for, what we are begging for, what I am begging for is a current health reform package so that people like me can receive adequate health care and are not fiscally and physically ruined b...

By Mil Arcega Washington 24 July 2009 The benchmark Dow Jones industrial average of the top US companies broke the 9,000 point mark Thursday on strong earnings reports and an improving housing picture. Wall Street extended its recent gains Thursday after a new housing report showed sales of previously owned U.S. homes rose at an annual pace of 3.6 percent in June. It was the third straight month of rising home sales. "The markets are reacting to the news today in the context of other things they've been seeing and reading in recent weeks, and that's that the economy does appear to have hit a bottom," said David Resler, chief economist at Nomura Securities. Investors reacted positively to earnings reports from Ford, Ebay, AT&T and higher sales of Apple's new iPhone. Resler says the positive earnings give a much needed confidence boost for the struggling U.S. economy. "I think...

By Peter Fedynsky Moscow 23 July 2009 Vice President Joe Biden has expressed support for the NATO aspirations of Georgia, but rejects any military option for re-integration of that country's two breakaway regions recognized as independent by Russia. Biden's statement coincides with a Kremlin reminder of its objections to military aid for Georgia. Visiting US VP Joe Biden speaks at the Georgian parliament in Tbilisi, 23 Jul 2009 In an address to Georgia's Parliament, Biden recalled the country's difficult journey toward freedom, beginning with a declaration of independence in 1918, followed by decades of Soviet occupation and renewed sovereignty in 1991. The U.S. vice president noted that sovereign democracies have a right to choose their own partnerships and alliances. "We understand that Georgia aspires to join NATO. We fully support that aspiration and, members of parliament; we will...

By Al Pessin The Pentagon 23 July 2009 The commander of U.S. forces in Asia said North Korea will likely continue to be at the top of his successor's list of concerns after their change-of-command in October, but that other issues, including the continuing growth of China's military, will also need attention. The commander, Admiral Timothy Keating, spoke with VOA Pentagon Correspondent Al Pessin on Thursday. VOA's Al Pessin (left) interviews Admiral Timothy Keating, 23 Jul 2009 Admiral Keating has about three months remaining in what will be 2 1/2 years at Pacific Command. But he does not expect the list of concerns to change much during his remaining time. "North Korea is clearly going to be at the top of that list. We are watching as carefully as we can across the spectrum of intelligence agencies and diplomatic initiatives. And we are prepared to respond should they tragically e...