Persecutors prepare execution site for Bali bombers

Antara , Cilacap, Central Java Wed, 07/23/2008 9:10 PM National
Persecutors has prepared an execution site for the three militants convicted over the 2002 Bali bombings, as the Bali provincial prosecutor office and Denpasar district prosecutor office had completed the dossiers related to the execution, an official has said.
"We were just checking the location (for the execution)," said the Bali prosecutor office's assistant for general crime Ida Bagus Wiswantanu here on Wednesday, on the way back from a survey in Nusakambangan Island.
Wiswantanu, who was accompanied by section head of general crime at the Denpasar district prosecutor office Wayan Suwela, refused to reveal the location arguing that it would infringedthe law.
"I cant tell where exactly the location because it must a secret location according to the law," Wiswantanu told reporters.
He also refused to reveal the time of execution saying "it is not on my capacity to make a comment on the matter."
Attorney General Hendarman Supandji has previously said that the execution of the three militants convicted over the attacks that killed 202 people, might took place before the Islamic fasting month.
The three, Ali Ghufron, Imam Samudra and Amrozi Nurhasyim, have said they would not launched an appeal to the president for clemency -- their only remaining way to avoid the death sentence-- because such a request requires an admission of wrongdoing.(**)

Anwar Ibrahim arrested

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta Wed, 07/16/2008 6:10 PM Headlines

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was arrested outside his home in Kuala Lumpur at 1.05 p.m. Wednesday, according to his office.
Anwar Ibrahim was arrested upon returning home from the Anti Corruption Agency, after giving a statement in relation to a police report regarding the suppression of material facts in a case involving him in 1998, his office said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post.
"As he entered the neighborhood of his home, a contingent of ten police cars, half unmarked and half patrol, forced the two cars in Anwar Ibrahim's entourage to stop," the statement said.
"An officer approached Anwar Ibrahim and demanded that he accompany the police in an unmarked vehicle to the Kuala Lumpur Police Headquarters."
His lawyers were not permitted to travel with him to the police station.
His lawyer Sankara Nair told Malaysian The Star online service, that the police had told Anwar that he was being arrested for investigations for alleged "carnal intercourse against the orderof nature".
The Star reported that Anwar arrived at the city police headquarters in a white Pajero at 1.15 p.m. Wednesday after being arrested in front of his house in Bukit Segambut.
The arrest took place less than 15 hours after Anwar Ibrahim appeared live on Malaysian television for the first time since 1998, to announce to millions of viewers his intention to standfor election. He also promised that upon the formation of a new government, he would lower the domestic price of fuel by 50 sen.
"These events are deeply disturbing to us and indicate that this entire episode is a repeat of the actions taken against Anwar Ibrahim in 1998," the statement said.
On June 28, his 23-year-old former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan lodged a police report alleging that Anwar had sodomized him.
Anwar was due to issue a statement at Kuala Lumpur Police Contingent Headquarters (IPK KL) at 2.00 p.m based on an agreement reached with the police on Tuesday.
The statement also said that during the last few weeks the government-owned media had demonized and vilified the former deputy prime minister.
"His staff have been harassed and we see a conspiracy being hatched to thwart the political change that is imminent in Malaysia.
"Under no circumstance will the people of Malaysia and the international community tolerate any harm to Anwar Ibrahim. We remind Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi of the promise he made to ensure Anwar Ibrahim's protection."(**)

Study finds Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand face high risk from arsenic contamination

The Associated Press , Bangkok Fri, 07/11/2008 9:26 PM Headlines
Myanmar's cyclone-devastated Irrawaddy delta and Indonesia's Sumatra island face high risks of arsenic contamination in groundwater that could cause cancer and other diseases in residents, according to a study released Friday.
Using a digitalized model that examines geological features and soil chemistry in Southeast Asia, researchers writing in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Geoscience mapped several likely hotspots that had never been assessed for arsenic risks.
"Obviously, there is concern," said Michael Berg, one of the five authors, who is a senior scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology in Dubendor, Switzerland. "If you look at our data, there is risk of arsenic in the ground water."
Arsenic, especially in drinking water, is a global threat to health, affecting more than 70 countries and 137 million people. The country worst affected is Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of people are in danger of dying from cancers of the lung, bladder and skin.
Odorless and tasteless, arsenic enters water supplies from natural deposits in the ground or from agricultural and industrial practices. Arsenic is poisonous when consumed in high doses, but even smaller amounts can cause cancer, skin problems and abnormal heart rhythms.
Berg and the other authors determined a high risk of arsenic contamination exceeding World Health Organization guidelines in Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta, a low-lying area hit by a May cyclone that killed at least 84,537 people.
Their models also found that 38,610 square miles (100,000 square kilometers) of Sumatra's east coast was at risk as well as the Chao Phraya river basin in central Thailand - although the dangers in the Chao Phraya were lower because residents in the area tap deeper aquifers.
Researchers said regions with organic-rich sediment containing silt and clay have a higher likelihood of arsenic contamination.
"These are very young sediments. Only in young formation do we find that arsenic can be released from the sediment," Berg said, adding that arsenic in soil that is much older has been mostly washed away.
Berg said he hopes the maps they developed could serve as "a red flag" for authorities to take precautions before building wells or other water facilities in areas deemed at high risk of arseniccontamination. Until now, testing for arsenic has been rare in many regions because it is costly and time consuming, he said.
"Maps pinpointing areas vulnerable to arsenic contamination can guide households at risk of arsenic contamination, as well as scientists and policy makers to initiate early mitigation measures and protect populations from chronic arsenic poisoning," theauthors wrote.
Lex van Geen, a geochemist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory who has studied arsenic contamination in Bangladesh and did not participate in the study, said it should be lauded for drawing attention to areas where little research has been done on the arsenic threat, such as Myanmar. But he said the digital models do not identify areas well below the surface where water quality is good.
"Using the mapping based on surface geology will identify settings where arsenic could be high in shallow groundwater," van Geen said. "What it can't tell you is how deep you might have to go to reach the low arsenic water, which is really what matters from a mitigation point of view." (***) from http://www.thejakartapost.com

Authorities execute man who killed 42 women and girls in ritual slayings

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta Fri, 07/11/2008 4:58 PM National
Officials in North Sumatra have executed a man convicted of killing 42 women and girls in a series of ritual slayings he believed would give him magical powers, an official said Friday.
Ahmad Suradji, 57, was executed by firing squad late Thursday in Galang subdistrict, Deli Serdang regency, the head of the North Sumatra Prosecutor's Office, Gortap Marbun, told detik.com newswire on Friday.
Suradji was execute despite a last-minute appeal by Amnesty International, a UK-based human rights advocacy group that opposes capital punishment in all cases.
"He appeared resigned to his fate," Attorney General Office's spokesman Bonaventura Nainggolan told Elshinta radio on Friday. "We fulfilled his final wish to see his wife."
Suradji was arrested in May 1997 following the discovery of a body in a field near his house in Lubukpakan, a village in North Sumatra province. Forty-one other corpses were later found nearby.
Police have said the victims came to Suradji because they believed he had supernatural powers. The victims were believed to have been seeking his help in making their husbands or boyfriends faithful, find a partner or get rich.
He lured them to a field and buried them up to the waist, telling them it was part of the ritual. He then strangled them and buried their bodies with the heads pointing toward his house. He has told police he believed the 11-year killing spree would boost his magical powers.
Suradji's wife, Tumini, was also sentenced to death for assisting with the murders, but her sentence was later reduced to life in prison.
Elshinta reports said authorities were forced to cancel a plan to bury in a public cemetery because up to 100 relatives of his victims were waiting at the cemetery to disrupt the funeral.
As of Friday morning, his body remained at the morgue of Deli Serdang Public Hospital. Later in the day, the body was buried at a cemetery in Sei Semayang village, Sunggal subdistrict.
Indonesia resumed executions in June 2008 after a 14-month hiatus, when two Nigerians were put to death for drug trafficking.
Authorities do not release official statistics on the death penalty, but at least 112 people are known to be on death row in Indonesia. The time and place of executions are never made public before they occur.
The deputy attorney general for general crime, Abdul Hakim Ritonga, said previously that the authorities were preparing to execute five people in July, including Suradji. One of them isalso a sorcerer, who was convicted of killing eight people. The other three are Islamic militants.(**) from. www.thejakartapost.com

South Sumatra terrorist suspects linked to Noordin

South Sumatra terrorist suspects linked to Noordin
The Jakarta Post , Jakarta Fri, 07/04/2008 11:08 AM Headlines

Police said Thursday the nine terror suspects arrested in South Sumatra recently had connections to fugitive Jamaah Islamiyah figures Noordin Moh. Top and Mas Slamet Kastari.
National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Abubakar Nataprawira said the police's anti-terror squad captured nine people in the South Sumatra capital of Palembang during a series of raids Tuesday and Wednesday.
The raids followed the June 28 arrest of MH, who was wanted in Singapore for terrorism, in Sekayu district in the South Sumatra regency of Musi Banyuasin.
"We arrested MH following a tip-off from Singapore," Abubakar said as quoted by Antara news agency.
The police flew the nine suspects, identified only by their initials, from Palembang to Jakarta on Thursday.
Under tight police escort, the suspects, with their faces masked, arrived at the Mobile Brigade detention center in Depok, south of Jakarta, at about 11:10 a.m. local time.
In a raid on a house in Palembang on Wednesday, police discovered and seized eight partly assembled bombs and 13 fully built bombs, along with 50 kilograms of explosive materials.
Noordin was responsible for a series of bomb attacks in the country between 2002 and 2005, along with his Malaysian partner Dr. Azahari bin Husin, who was killed in a raid in Malang, East Java, in 2006. Kastari is a Singapore-based JI leader who escaped from a maximum security prison in the country last February.
Abubakar said MH admitted he had assembled the bombs and trained the other suspects to make them.
Suspects AT, SG and AM were also allegedly involved in assembling the explosives.
Police found during questioning that the South Sumatra terror network was connected with members of the Noordin-led group, which was captured in Semarang and Wonosobo in Central Java in 2006.
Terrorism analyst Noor Huda Ismail of Sekurindo Global Consultants said the South Sumatra group was made of old faces who had built a new network.
He suspected the group had found new sources of explosive supplies in Thailand and the Philippines as the traditional ones had come under police watch.
"The arrests only reveal that the Indonesian, Thai and Philippine borders are porous enough that the terrorists can easily bring explosives into Indonesia," he said.
The fact that the suspected terrorists operated in Palembang, which is not a JI stronghold, should serve as a warning that terrorism remains a real danger, he added.
Riau Islands Police chief Brig. Gen. Sutarman said the recent arrests indicated that the terrorist network had moved its base from Java to Sumatra.
He said Batam Island could be the next target of an act of terrorism, due to the communications network in place there.
Fadli contributed to the story from Batam. from www.thejakatapost.com

Chinese state media announce new talks with Dalai Lama representatives

Chinese state media announce new talks with Dalai Lama representatives
The Associated Press , Beijing Sun, 06/29/2008 8:33 PM World
Chinese state media say Beijing will hold a new round of talks with representatives of the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, in July.
Xinhua News Agency said Saturday that the "relevant central government department will meet personal representatives of the Dalai Lama" in early July, but did not give a specific date.
Xinhua quoted an unidentified government spokesman as saying China hopes the Dalai Lama "would treasure this opportunity and give positive response to the requirements of the centralauthorities."
The last meeting was held May 4 in the southern city of Shenzhen.(**) From http://www.thejakartapost.com/

Spain wins first major in 44 years

The Associated Press , Vienna Mon, 06/30/2008 3:36 AM Sports

Big-game flops no more, Spain won the European Championship 1-0 over Germany on Sunday for its first major title in 44 years.
Fernando Torres scored in the 33rd minute and the Spaniards never backed down against such a formidable opponent. Their last significant title came in the 1964 Euros at home.
In beating a team that makes a habit of appearing in championship finals, the Spaniards put to rest a reputation for underachieving. Always loaded with talented players, Spain has spent four decades falling short of expectations.
That all changed at these Euros, where the Spaniards swept their first-round games, eliminated World Cup champion Italy in a penalty-kicks shootout in the quarterfinals, then routed Russia 3-0 in the semifinals.
Against the highly accomplished Germans, they weren’t intimidated. They got the one goal they needed—from a slumping striker, no less—and set off chants of “ES-PANA,” and “Ole, Ole Ole” at the final whistle.
The entire Spanish squad ran over to the huge rooting section of red and gold, exchanging hugs, while many of the spent Germans collapsed to the turf.
When Spain goalkeeper and captain Iker Casillas accepted the trophy on a stage, the Spanish fans began chanting the melody to their national anthem, which has no words. Thousands of camera flashes went off as the players jumped in place, then headed onto the field to show off their prize.
Germany has won three Euros and three World Cups, but was no match in this final. Captain Michael Ballack, questionable before the game with a calf injury, started, but hardly was noticeable—except when he left for several minutes to have a bloody right eye treated.
Torres, who had 33 goals for Liverpool this season but has been invisible in Euros, came through off a brilliant feed from Xavi Hernandez.
Germany goalkeeper Jens Lehmann, at 38 the oldest player in the competition, charged from his net when he saw that defender Philipp Lahm was beaten on the right side. But Torres chipped the ball over the sliding Lehmann and into the gaping net.
The crowd of 51,428 at Ernst Happel Stadium, split almost equally between Germany and Spain, might have expected the Spaniards to go into a protective shell. Instead, and even without leading scorer David Villa (leg injury), they continued to carry the attack and were far more dangerous than Germany the rest of the way.
Indeed, Lehmann, who helped the Germans to third place in the 2006 World Cup, kept it close with several tough saves.
A crowd of about 68,000 packed Vienna’s downtown fan zone to watch the final, police said. In Germany, flags fluttered from balconies and car antennas across the country. In Berlin, an estimated 400,000 fans watched the game on large outdoor screens.
Spain has never made a World Cup final and was in one other Euros final, aside from the 1964 triumph. That was a loss to France in 1984.
With two of the world’s top clubs, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, the nation has tons of talent. What it has lacked is fortitude.
No one can say that anymore. (***) From http://www.thejakartapost/