Readwrotes Blog

The Associated Press | Wed, 08/05/2009 11:11 AM | World South Korean women offer prayers in font of the cenotaph for Korean atomic bomb victims at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, western Japan, Wednesday. AP/Shizuo Kambayashi

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Tue, 08/04/2009 10:06 AM | Headlines Captain Indonesia: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono unveils the 2010 state budget proposal during the House of Representatives’ plenary session in Senayan, Jakarta, on Monday. JP/R. Berto Wedhatama President Susilo Bambang Yu-dhoyono says that the government will allocate Rp 327.6 trillion (US$33 billion) for the operation of state ministries and institutions during the 2010 fiscal year, but a number of lawmakers and experts say that this is not enough. The National Education Ministry will receive Rp 51.8 trillion from the budget, making it the highest single recipient of the state revenues. “The large allocation to the Department of National Education is mainly intended to finalize the execution of the compulsory nine-year basic education program,” Yudho-yono said during an extraordinary plenary meeting at the House of Representatives in Jakarta on Monday. “We also aim to fin...

The Associated Press , Kuala Lumpur | Wed, 08/05/2009 10:32 AM | World Human Rights Watch appealed to Malaysia on Wednesday to immediately drop charges against dozens of people arrested during a mass rally against a security law that allows for indefinite detention without trial. Twenty-nine people, including a 16-year-old, were charged Monday with taking part in an illegal rally and other related offenses. Some face up to three years in jail. Police had refused to give a permit for Saturday's rally, which an estimated 20,000 people attended anyway in downtown Kuala Lumpur. They protested against the Internal Security Act, saying the law had been abused to jail government critics without trial. Police crushed the opposition-led protest with tear gas and chemical-laced water and arrested almost 600. All have been released, but it is not clear if anyone else will be charged. New York-based Human Rights Watch in a statement admonished Prime M...

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 08/05/2009 9:08 AM | National President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will leave Jakarta on Wednesday morning for Aceh for two-day working visit at the archipelago's western most province. Accompanied by First Lady Ani Yudhoyono, the president will depart from Jakarta's Halim Perdanakusuma Airport at 10:30 and is scheduled to arrived at Sultan Iskandar Muda Airbase in Aceh in the afternoon. The president will officially open Aceh's 5th Cultural Week and 2009 International Expo at H. Dimurthala Lamppineung Sports Stadium on Wednesday. On Thursday, Yudhoyono will attend the inauguration ceremony of Sultan Iskandar Muda International Airport and official ceremony of several infrastructure project in Aceh. (dre)

By VOA News 05 August 2009 Journalists Laura Ling (in green) and Euna Lee (in red) before boarding plane back to US with former US President Bill Clinton Two U.S. journalists released from detention in North Korea are on their way back to the United States, accompanied by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who negotiated their freedom. A spokesman for Mr. Clinton says the former president, with journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, are en route to Los Angeles, California. The journalists' employer, Current Media, says the women are expected to arrive in the United States later Wednesday. On Tuesday, North Korea issued a pardon for Ling and Lee after Mr. Clinton met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. The journalists were arrested in March for crossing the Chinese border into North Korea while working on a story. They also were charged with committing hostile acts against the North Korean government. The...

By Michael Bowman Washington 04 August 2009 Customers pay for their purchases at the check out counter of the new JC Penney store in the Manhattan Mall during the grand opening in New York, 31 Jul 2009 American consumers spent more and saved less while their incomes fell, according to the latest U.S. government figures. Meanwhile, America's housing market is showing continued signs of possible recovery. Consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, making it one of the most closely watched economic indicators. The Commerce Department reports that Americans boosted spending 0.4 percent in June - slightly more than what economists had expected. It was the second consecutive monthly rise in consumer spending, and it was accompanied by a lower savings rate. Americans spent more despite lower incomes. Personal income fell 1.3 percent - the largest monthly drop in four years. Th...

By Dan Robinson Capitol Hill 04 August 2009 Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington before the Senate Judiciary Committee, 15 Jul 2009 The U.S. Senate is has begun what could be a week-long debate on the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. If confirmed by the Senate, Judge Sotomayor would become the first Hispanic and only the third woman to serve on the high court. Sotomayor is the daughter of Puerto Rican parents, who grew up poor in the Bronx, a section of New York City. She later attended prestigious universities and excelled in the legal profession before being nominated for the federal bench in 1991 by former Republican President George H. W. Bush. Last week, when the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13 to 6 to approve her nomination and send it the full Senate for a vote, only one Republican - Senator Lindsey Grah...

By Alisha Ryu Nairobi 04 August 2009 U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 24 Jul 2009 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has arrived in the Kenyan capital Nairobi Tuesday, the first stop on a seven-nation visit to Africa. She will be taking part in a forum that has been a centerpiece of U.S. trade, aid and investment policy in Sub-Saharan Africa for the past eight years. Hillary Clinton's first visit to Africa as secretary of state will officially begin on Wednesday, when she will speak at the ministerial opening ceremony of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act forum. Also known as AGOA, the act was signed into law in 2000 by Secretary Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, to expand benefits under an existing Generalized System of Preferences program. AGOA provides 41 eligible countries in Sub-Saharan Africa duty and quota free access to U.S. markets for certain African-made goods, es...