Readwrotes Blog

  Deadly landing: Rescue teams search the site of the Libyan Afriqiyah Airways plane crash in Tripoli. The plane with 104 people on board crashed on landing Wednesday at the airport in the Libyan capital. – AP/Abdel Meguid al-Fergany Associated Press, Tripoli | Wed, 05/12/2010 7:15 PM | World  A Libyan plane crashed Wednesday on approach to Tripoli's airport, killing at least 96 people and leaving a field scattered with smoldering debris that included a large chunk of the tail painted with the airline's brightly colored logo. A 10-year-old Dutch boy was the only known survivor. Afriqiyah Airways said its Airbus A330-200 arriving from Johannesburg, South Africa was carrying 104 people - 93 passengers and 11 crew. Libyan Transport Minister Mohammed Ali Zaidan said rescuers were still searching for the rest of the victims. The Royal Dutch Tourism Board said 61 of the dead came from the Netherlands. "Afriqiyah Airways announces that our flight 771 had...

 The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 05/12/2010 8:49 PM | Business Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati installed on Wednesday 24 new second echelon officials in the last inauguration ceremony she presided over before her departure to Washington DC. The ceremony looked like a farewell party, with Mulyani handing over her unfinished jobs, particularly the landmark bureaucratic reform, to all the Finance Ministry employees. “I put my hope in you, because this will be the last time I install new officials. I want you all to become my representatives, face, dreams and hopes. As you have been with me for a long time and know my character well, I believe you understand what I want,” Mulyani said as quoted by kompas.com A journalist covering the event could not hold back tears, while many Finance Ministry officials opted to look down. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has approved Mulyani’s resignation, which will allow her to take the World Bank managing directo...

  Hand, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 05/11/2010 1:49 PM | Headlines  Wistle blower: Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji. JP The House of Representatives Commission III on Law on Human Rights plans to establish a working committee to follow up on the recent arrest of former National Police chief detective Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji. “Today, we are going to establish the names for the committee membership, while tomorrow we will schedule our agenda,” one of the commission deputy chairmen, Fahri Hamzah from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), told reporters after an internal meeting at the House in Senayan, South Jakarta, on Tuesday. One of the commission members, Ahmad Yani from the United Development Party (PPP), said that the first person that the committee would summon was National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri. “Some of the commission members will also leave to visit the National Police headquarters today,” he said. Susno was arrested on Tuesday ...

 Aditya Suharmoko, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 05/12/2010 6:35 PM | Headlines The police’s counterterrorism squad shot dead on Wednesday two terrorist suspects who allegedly involved in the bombings at the Australian Embassy and JW Marriott hotel in 2004 and 2003 respectively during a raid in Cikampek, West Java. National Police Chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri confirmed the raid, the latest in the police’s crackdown on the terror network responsible for a series of bomb attacks in the past eight years. Bambang identified the two dead suspects as Maulana and Saptono. "There were ammunitions, weapons found during the raid. We will announce the details later," he said after a Cabinet meeting at the State Palace. "They have long become our target. And they did plan for the next strikes." Police shot dead long-time fugitive Dulmatin and two of his bodyguards in two separate raids in Ciputat in March. At about the same time the police raided a...

 Associated Press, Brussels | Wed, 05/12/2010 10:34 PM | Business European Union officials urged a crackdown on widespread government overspending, calling Wednesday for much closer economic coordination between EU nations to curb the acute debt crisis that has threatened to sink their shared currency. The plan by the EU's executive commission advocated unprecedented scrutiny of countries' spending plans even before they go to their national parliaments - and new financial penalties for rule breakers. That would deepen the ties that bind 16 nations in Europe's currency union and would curtail some nations' power over their own economies in an attempt to keep more reckless spenders like recently bailed-out Greece from dumping their debts on all eurozone members. EU Economy Commissioner Olli Rehn said the EU's moves would ensure that national governments' spending plans were "consistent with European objectives." They will also ...

  Sharing blessings: A Hindu man sprinkles holy water to other followers during the celebration of Galungan, which celebrates the victory of dharma (good) over adharma (evil), at a temple in Ubud, Bali, on Wednesday. Antara/Nyoman Budhiana Antara | Wed, 05/12/2010 1:40 PM | Archipelago

 Kurniawan Hari | Sun, 05/09/2010 10:35 AM | Headlines Last weekend, officials from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) kicked off the nationwide census, a program that has taken root since 1930 during the Dutch colonial administration. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his family became the first household to be visited by census officials. The President, well-mannered as always and neatly dressed in brown batik, was accompanied by his wife Kristiani Yudhoyono and son Edhie Baskoro. They welcomed the census fieldworkers to their spacious home in Puri Cikeas, Bogor, West Java located southeast of the capital. It must be the best time for the media to check the authenticity of the demographic record about the President, be it his religion (rumors swirling during last year’s campaign period had it that his wife was in fact a Christian), his education or even details of his marriage. But none of the publications appeared to be interested in such issues. As ...

 The Jakarta Post, Tasikmalaya, West Java | Wed, 05/12/2010 9:55 PM | National The ongoing census has found 10 citizens in West Java who are aged above 100 years old, with three of them women living in Cogreg village in Tasikmalaya regency. Antara state news agency quoted West Java‘s Central Statistics Bureau (BPS) head Lukman Ismail as saying on Wednesday that Minah, 120, and her neighbors Kalsem, 115, and Suki, 107, looked healthy when field officers registered them. Lukman said field officers had verified the age of the 10 people, who could be the oldest living citizens, with their neighbors, relatives and community figures. The national census started on May 1 and will finish on May 31, involving over 700,000 field officers. The 10 yearly program started early in Bali so as not to disrupt five regional elections which took place simultaneously on the resort island.