Readwrotes Blog

Antara | Tue, 02/23/2010 4:29 PM | National Students from the Faculty of Law at North Sumatra’s Muhammadiyah University light candles as they attempt to study during an electricity blackout Tuesday. The local branch of the state power company PT PLN said rolling blackouts would continue until late 2011 when two new power plants would start operating. Antara/Irsan Mulyadi

The Jakarta Post | Tue, 02/23/2010 7:28 PM | Jakarta

Hans David Tampobolon , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 02/24/2010 9:38 AM | Headlines Two ruling coalition parties have demanded that Vice President Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati face due legal process for the policy to bail out Bank Century. This was despite last-ditch efforts to change the course of the parliamentary inquiry into the bailout. In its final report, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) accused Boediono and Mulyani of wrongdoing. “As such, we demand they face due legal process by the KPK [Corruption Eradication Commission] and other law enforcement agencies,” PDI-P spokesman Maruarar Sirait said at a meeting of the House of Representatives’ inquiry committee into the bailout. However, the demand is far from a done deal, as the findings of the inquiry committee must be presented for approval at a plenary session of the House on March 2. In previous cases, similar inquiries have floundered at...

The Associated Press , Beijing | Wed, 02/24/2010 9:22 AM | Sci-Tech China has rejected a news report that U.S. investigators traced hacking attacks against Google Inc. to two Chinese schools and said suggestions the government might be involved were irresponsible. A foreign ministry spokesman, Ma Zhaoxu, said Chinese law prohibits hacking and the government will take steps to stop it. At a regular news briefing Tuesday, Ma rejected a report by The New York Times last week that investigators traced hacking attacks on Google to Shanghai Jiaotong University and Lanxiang Vocational School in China. "Reports that these attacks came from Chinese schools are groundless, and accusations of Chinese government involvement are irresponsible and out of ulterior motives," Ma said. Google cited the hacking attacks in a Jan. 12 announcement that said it would no longer cooperate with Chinese government censorship of the Internet and might close its...

Aditya Suharmoko , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 02/24/2010 10:41 AM | Business The Industry Ministry wants more support from banks to boost lending in support of growth in the real sector, Industry Minister Mohamad Suleman Hidayat said as he planned to meet the central bank and bankers for talks on Wednesday. “I want banking support to industries to increase. In the 2008-2009 period bank lending to all sectors of industry increased between 18 percent and 19 percent. This had dropped from five or six years ago, when lending growth had reached 20 percent,” Hidayat said speaking to representatives of the foods and beverages industry in his office Monday night. He said he would arrange a meeting with Bank Indonesia (BI) and bankers on Wednesday to discuss the issue. “I will make a presentation that in the industry sectors we also have programs [to promote lending],” he said, as reported by detik.com. As of the end of last year the banks chan...

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Tue, 11/10/2009 12:23 PM | National The Indonesian Teachers Association (PGRI) has told its members to do away with conventional teaching methods and develop new teaching paradigms allowing for more active student participation. PGRI's representative for international affairs, Unifah Rosyidi, told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of an international seminar in Jakarta on Monday that it was high time Indonesia's teachers answered to the new demands and challenges of developments in education. "Education in the old days placed teachers in the center, but today, the learners, or students, are the center. Today, education is not just a matter of transfering knowledge, rather it is more about facilitating the students to get better, and to actualize themselves," she said. Monday's seminar on developing a child-friendly school invited hundreds of teachers and lecturers from schools and universities from...

The Associated Press , Jakarta | Wed, 02/24/2010 11:40 AM | Jakarta A retired Saudi Arabian school teacher stood trial on Wednesday charged with financing suicide bombings at two Jakarta hotels that killed seven and injured more than 50. Al Khelaiw Ali Abdullah, 55, denied any involvement in the July 17, 2009, attacks on the downtown J.W. Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels. "I'm not a terrorist. I'll fight it," Abdullah told reporters as he arrived at the South Jakarta District Court. Abdullah is charged with helping support terrorists by giving or lending money to perpetrators of a terrorist act. He faces a maximum 20 years in prison if convicted. Abdullah is the fourth alleged conspirator to go an trial this month over the hotel bombings that ended a four-year lull in terrorist attacks in this country with the world's largest Muslim population. Prosecutors contend that Abdullah provided money to one of the alleged chief p...