by nate on Wednesday, December 30th, 2009 | Indonesia, News, World | No Comments

Former Indonesian President, Mr. Abdurrahman Wahid or popularly named “Gus Dur” passed away yesterday (12/31) around 18.45 pm at Jakarta, Indonesia. Mr. Wahid served as President between 1999 and 2001.

Wahid has been the spiritual leader of Nahdlatul Ulama or NU, one of the largest Muslim organizations in Indonesia. At a time when Muslim organizations favored conservative Islamic Shariah laws, Wahid was successful in keeping NU, with around 40 million members, out of politics. Later in, Wahid founded National Awakening party and Wahid Institute to propagate his vision.

Gus Dur’s brother, Sholahudin Wahid, or Gus Sholah, has confirmed the information on the passing away of the Indonesian statesman. Zuhairi Misrowi, from the Islamic organization Nahdlatul Ulama said Wednesday the late statesman would be buried in the family grave at Tebu Ireng Cemetery in Jombang.

“That is Ansyari’s cemetery. Gus Dur’s grandfather is also buried there,” Zuhairi said. Nearby residents have begun praying at al-Munawwaroh Mosque, which is next to Gus Dur’s home in Ciganjur, Jakarta. Maman Imanulhaq from the National Awakening Party (PKB) said Gus Dur passed away after undergoing a dental operation at the hospital. For several years Gus Dur has suffered from complicated illnesses, including diabetes and strokes.

As as sign of respect to its former Premier, Indonesian flags would be flown at half mast for a week.

Tags: Abdurrahman Wahid, condolence, Gus Dur, Indonesian Former President, Indonesian Leader, Indonesian Politic leader passed away, islamic leader, spiritual leader, Wahid Institute

by nate on Monday, December 7th, 2009 | Family, Health, Indonesia, Love, Love Story, News, World | No Comments

“To help these children is a privilege for me and my wife because it’s giving back to society … giving back what has been blessed to us.”

-Budi Soehardi

They are cheerful-looking and photogenic, but close to all have a very sad story,” said Budi Soehardi, founder of the West Timor orphanage.

Soehardi, a 53-year-old Indonesian pilot living in Singapore, and his wife, Peggy, look after 47 children at the orphanage. They have a personal relationship with each one, and consider them part of their family. The couple named many of the children since they entered the orphanage as babies – some of them tiny victims and refugees from the conflict in East Timor.

Soehardi has three children of his own but says there is no difference between what he supplies for his biological children and those living at the orphanage. They all get clean living spaces, vaccinations, food, clothing and vitamins from the United States.

“Mr. Budi is like my own father,” said Gerson Mangi, 20, a resident at Roslin Orphanage. Mangi, who came to the orphanage when he was 12 years old, had no means to attend school after his parents died. Now, thanks to the educational training at Roslin and a private sponsor, he is in medical school.

link to Facebook to support Mr. Budi Soehardi

continue to read the story

Tags: Budi Soehardi, Budi Suhardi, children, CNN hero, East Timor, helping children, Indonesian pilot, orphanage, Singapore Airlines, Timor Timor

by bintangkecil on Friday, October 2nd, 2009 | Indonesia, News | 1 Comment

It could pass 1,100; many still trapped.

Rescue workers pulled victims, some screaming in pain, from the heavy rubble of buildings felled by a powerful earthquake that a government official said killed at least 777 people. The United Nations put the death toll at 1,100 and said it was likely to rise.

The brunt of Wednesday’s 7.6-magnitude earthquake, which originated in the sea off Sumatra, appeared to have been borne in Padang, where a government official said most of the deaths occurred. The region was jolted by another quake Thursday, causing damage but no reported fatalities.

More than 500 buildings — including hotels, schools, hospitals and a mall — were destroyed or damaged in Padang, a coastal city of 900,000 and capital of West Sumatra province. Thousands of people were believed to be trapped in the rubble, said Rustam Pakaya, head of the Health Ministry’s crisis center.

At the United Nations, UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said Thursday that the latest figures “suggest the death toll has risen already to 1,100″ and likely would go higher, given the number of people injured and believed to be trapped in collapsed buildings.

Holmes’ office said a team from various UN agencies is assessing damage and emergency relief needs.

More photos since Wednesday:

Read about how a teen return home and found her family dead from the earthquake.

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by wildcherry on Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 | Indonesia, News | No Comments

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE.

JAKARTA, Indonesia – The U.S. Geological Survey says another powerful earthquake has shaken western Indonesia. The 6.9 magnitude struck at 08:52 a.m. local time (0152GMT) Thursday on Sumatra island, about 180 miles (280 kilometers) from the epicenter of a more powerful quake on Wednesday.
Rescue efforts are under way around the area worst hit by Wednesday’s quake, the regional capital of Padang on West Sumatra. At least 200 people died there and thousands are said to be trapped under collapsed buildings throughout the province.
There were no immediate reports of damage from Thursday’s quake.

Tags: indonesia earthquake, indonesia earthquake sep 2009, sumatra earthquake, sumatra earthquake 2009, sumatra earthquake news video

by bintangkecil on Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 | Indonesia, News | No Comments

A strong earthquake has struck off the coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra island near the city of Padang, damaging buildings. The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake had a magnitude of 7.6 and was centered 960 kilometers northwest of Jakarta. It struck in the early evening local time (1016 UTC) at a depth of more than 80 kilometers.

The massive earthquake killed at least 75 people Wednesday, according to a Red Cross disaster report, citing an official report from the country’s vice president.

Distance:
45 km (30 miles) WNW of Padang, Sumatra, Indonesia
220 km (135 miles) SW of Pekanbaru, Sumatra, Indonesia
475 km (295 miles) SSW of KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia
960 km (590 miles) NW of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia

Thousands may be trapped by collapsed buildings and houses, said Rustam Pakaya, the head of Ministry of Health’s crisis center.

He said 75 people were seriously injured.

The quake caused widespread power and phone outages, making it difficult to assess the scope of the damage.

It struck at around 5 p.m. local time, about 33 miles (53 kilometers) from Padang, the capital city of West Sumatra. Padang is home to more than 800,000 people.

The earthquake, which had a magnitude of 7.6, according to the U.S Geological Survey, caused widespread power and phone outages, making it difficult for authorities and aid organizations to evaluate damage.

“Bridges have gone down, phone lines are in total disrepair; it’s difficult for us to assess the situation,” she said. The organization had said it would send assessment teams to the area Thursday morning.

“We know there’s no electricity tonight… many of the families will be spending the night outdoors, in pitch black. I’m very afraid of what might happen next,” she said, referring to the possibility of aftershocks.

State-run Antara news agency cited Pakaya as saying he had received reports that part of a hospital had collapsed and that people were buried under the debris.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued an alert for Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Thailand, but there were no initial reports of large waves generated by the quake. The quake was felt around the region, with some high-rise buildings in the neighboring city state of Singapore evacuating their staff.

Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelago. It is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

Indonesian 7.6 Earthquake felt in Singapore, see video below:

Photos from the earthquake in West Sumatra, Indonesia:

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by bintangkecil on Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 | Indonesia, News, World | No Comments

Who is Noordin M. Top?

For those who don’t know anything about him, he is Indonesia’s most wanted Islamist militant as well as one of Asia’s most wanted criminals. He is accused in a string of deadly terror attacks (bombing in Bali, bombing in 2 luxury hotels in Jakarta, etc.)
Unfortunately, he was not killed in the last week’s shootout as initial media reports suggested. He remains at large, police stated.

Tests comparing the body’s DNA with that of members of Noordin Muhammad Top’s family came back negative, said Eddy Saparwoko, head of the national police victim identification unit. The body was found to be that of a florist linked to Noordin who police said was a member of a terrorist cell that led last month’s twin suicide hotel bombings in Jakarta.

Indonesian National Police chief spokesman Maj. Gen. Nanan Sukarna shows a portrait of Ibrohim, a terrorist suspect who was killed in a police raid on a militant hide out in Central Java, during a press conference at the main police hospital in Jakarta, Indonesia, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009. The suspected militant slain during a 16-hour siege with counterterrorism forces last week was not Indonesia’s most-wanted militant Noordin Muhammad Top, police said Wednesday. Sukarna identified Ibrohim, who was a florist at the J.W. Marriott Hotel and Ritz-Carlton, as “a planner and arranger of the hotel bombings.” (AP Photo/Irwin Fedriansyah)

Noordin, a Malaysian national, has been blamed for masterminding a series of deadly al-Qaida-funded attacks in Indonesia since 2003 and is a prime suspect in the July 17 hotel attacks that killed seven people.

Last month’s strikes ended a four-year lull in terrorist attacks in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. Bombings have killed more than 250 people in Indonesia since 2002, most of them on the resort island of Bali, where a 2002 attack killed 202 people.

“The DNA test didn’t match with Noordin’s family,” Saparwoko said at a nationally televised press conference Wednesday.

Local media had reported that Noordin, a self-proclaimed al-Qaida commander who has eluded capture in Indonesia and Malaysia since 2001, was slain in a gunbattle with security forces.

But Saparwoko said the man who died in the shootout at a farmhouse in central Java on Saturday was a florist, identified only as Ibrohim. He made floral arrangements at the J.W. Marriott Hotel and Ritz-Carlton hotels, where suicide bombers attacked last month during breakfast, killing themselves and wounding more than 50 others.

Chief national police spokesman Nanan Sukarna identified Ibrohim as “a planner and arranger of the bombings” and said that five other suspects in the blasts remain at large, including Noordin.

Ibrohim, the father of four children, began working in Jakarta’s luxury hotels in 2002 after gaining “an important position in the Noordin M. Top’s network,” Nanan said. He began working in 2005 for Cynthia Florist, which operated two shops at the American hotel chains.

Police say Ibrohim met Noordin several times in the run-up to the July attacks and had advanced preparations to kill President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, including a would-be suicide bomber and a car rigged with hundreds of pounds (kilograms) of explosives.

In April, Ibrohim began scouting the targets and smuggled explosives in through a basement cargo dock a day before the strikes, Nanan said, showing newly released security camera footage.

The grainy images show a lone man driving a small pickup truck into the J.W. Marriott Hotel and unloading what police said were three containers of explosives, apparently after skirting all security checks.

The video also showed Ibrohim leading the suicide bombers, one of them an 18-year-old high school graduate, through the hotels on July 8, apparently in a rehearsal for the attacks plotted from two rented safe houses on the outskirts of Jakarta.

“We know him. He worked as a third-party florist,” said Allan Orlob, head of security for the J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels.

Ibrohim resigned the morning of the bombings, Orlob told The Associated Press on Wednesday, and left only a letter to his employer in which he asked that part of his last paycheck be used to reimburse several people who loaned him money.

Noordin, 41, is also accused of orchestrating a bombing of the J.W. Marriott Hotel in 2003 and a massive explosion outside the Australian Embassy in 2004, attacks in the capital that killed more than 20 people.

Source: AP

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by wildcherry on Saturday, August 8th, 2009 | Indonesia, News | 1 Comment

Latest update: A police raid averted an assassination plot against Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, authorities said, as they waited for official DNA confirmation of the death of suspected terrorist Noordin M. Top in another raid. Police sources have told Al Jazeera that tests on a body recovered after a shootout in Indonesia are likely to confirm that it is not that of the main suspect wanted for hotel bombings in Jakarta. Indonesian government able act quickly this time in catching Asia’s most wanted terrorist! I applauded their effort in making Indonesia a safe country once again.

“JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) — Noordin M. Top, one of Asia’s most wanted terrorism suspects and linked to several Indonesian bombings in the past decade, was killed Saturday, ending a six-year manhunt, two law enforcement sources tell CNN.

He was killed during an 18-hour firefight with an Indonesian anti-terrorism unit, Detachment 88, in Indonesia’s Central Java town of Temanggung, a security forces source and a police source said.

Top, a Malaysian-born explosives expert, is believed to have been behind the twin hotel bombings in Jakarta last month. A statement attributed to him claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing attacks against the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels where seven people and the two suspected bombers were killed, and more than 50 were wounded.

It was the first major terrorist attack in Indonesia in more than three years.

Top was also suspected in the 2004 attack on the Australian Embassy in Jakarta where 16 people were killed and more than 200 wounded, national police chief Bambang Hendarso said.

Top, who was to turn 41 next week, was reportedly an officer, recruiter, bomb-maker and trainer for a small splinter group of the militant organization Jemaah Islamiyah, which has ties to al Qaeda. He allegedly was involved in a previous attack on the Marriott in Jakarta in August 2003, as well as attacks on a Bali nightclub in 2002, and the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, according to the FBI.”

Source: CNN,CNN2

Tags: asia most wanted terrorist, indonesian bombings, jakarta bomb, jakarta bombing, noordin M. Top, ritz carlton bomb suspect, ritz carlton bombing

by rachel_82 on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 | Entertainment, Indonesia, News | 3 Comments

I condemned the people that go ahead to do this. An update from the local government says the suspects disguised as hotel guests while bringing in the explosives materials. They then constructed the bombs inside their hotel rooms. That explains how the security couldn’t detect the bombs in the cars.

Have anyone of you been to these hotels? Anyone has personal story about this incident?

Cries and screams are heard after two bombs exploded in Jakarta. Those two bombs hit J.W. Marriot and Ritz-Carlton, Mega Kuningan, Jakarta. A young lady ran out from the hotel asked for help. From the other side of the hotel, many foreigners made calls to book the soonest airlines ticket to leave the city. Nine people reported dead and at least fifty people are injured from the incident.

Policemen and paramedics are still in the location to do further investigation. The bomber was suspected to go the underground tunnel that connects those two hotels. The tunnel was made as a shortcut for their employees that needs to go back and forth to both hotels. As of now, they’re suspecting that there are still bombs inside the hotels.

Police said the bomb at the Marriott likely came from the basement beneath the coffee shop on the ground floor, which would have been busy at breakfast time.

More news from CNN.com

Here is another video from a local TV in Indonesia:

Key attacks in Indonesia, history of Jemaah Islamiyah

Police said it was too soon to say who might have been responsible, but Islamic militant network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) has been blamed for a string of suicide attacks on local and Western targets in Southeast Asia in recent years.

The bombings were the first major attack in Indonesia since a series of suicide bombings on the resort island of Bali in 2005 blamed on JI. Here is a chronology of key attacks in Indonesia since 2000, and events in JI’s history:

1993: Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir and Abdullah Sungkar found JI while in exile in Malaysia from dictator Suharto’s regime.

December 24, 2000: Improvised bombs disguised as Christmas gifts delivered to churches and clergymen kill 19 people and injure scores more across Indonesia.

December 30, 2000: Twenty-two people killed in a series of bombings in the Philippines blamed on Al-Qaeda-trained bomb expert Fathur Rahman al-Ghozi, alias Randy Ali.

June 2001: Mohammed Iqbal bin Abdurraham, aka Abu Jibril, arrested in Malaysia. US State Department freezes his assets two years later, saying he had been JI’s “primary recruiter and second-in-command.”

January 15, 2002: Al-Ghozi arrested in the Philippines. He escapes in July 2003 and is killed in a shootout with police three months later.

October 12, 2002: Bombs at crowded nightspots in the resort island of Bali kill 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.

Three men - Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra - are convicted of carrying out the bombings and sentenced to death but the suspected mastermind, Malaysian Noordin Mohammad Top, is at large.

August 5, 2003: A car bomb tears through the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta, killing 12 people and wounding 149 others.

August 11, 2003: Key JI leader Hambali, accused among other things of plotting to blow up US airliners, is captured in Thailand and handed over to US custody.

September 9, 2004: A suicide car bomb kills 10 outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta.

March 3, 2005: Bashir is sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison after being found guilty of a “sinister conspiracy against the state.” He is released in June 2006 and his conviction is later overturned on appeal.

May 28, 2005: Twin bomb blasts kill 22 in a market in the Central Sulawesi town of Tentena in an attack bearing the hallmarks of JI.

The bombings come as JI moves to provoke a “holy war” between Muslims and Christians amid a local sectarian conflict that claims around 1,000 lives.

October 1, 2005: Three suicide bombers detonate explosives at tourist spots on Bali, killing 20.

Police track down alleged bomb-maker Azahari Husin, a compatriot and ally of Noordin, and kill him in a volley of gunfire on November 9 on Java island.

June 9, 2007: Police arrest self-proclaimed JI leaders Zarkasi and Abu Dujana in Java. Both men are sentenced to 15 years in prison in April 2008.

June 28-July 2, 2008: Police round up 10 members of an alleged cell linked to Noordin in South Sumatra.

November 9, 2008: Bali bombers Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra are executed by firing squad.

July 17, 2009: At least nine people are killed and 41 injured, many of them foreigners, when bombs exploded in the Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott hotels in Jakarta. Police said it was too soon to say who might have been responsible. A third explosion was reported near a shopping complex several hours later, but police later denied that it was also caused by a bomb.

Source: asiaone.com

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by nate on Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 | Humour, Indonesia, Knowledge, World | No Comments

As we all knew about Obama’s childhood in Indonesia, amazingly he still remembers the language. Watch this video when he said,” Thank you, how are you?” to one of the reporter/guest in the room. He said he was living in Menteng (the name of an area in Jakarta, Indonesia).

Tags: obama, Obama childhood, Obama shows off, Obama speaks Indonesian

by winstonian on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 | Indonesia, Knowledge, Life, News | 1 Comment

Local boys at Pasadena’s Art Center put together this design game on what it would be like if The Big One actually hit Southern California. Obviously it’s at http://aftershock.net It’s the most real thing to the earthquake that I’ve seen and the peeps there have really brought together the experience of a 7.8 magnitude quake.

There’s also dropcoverholdon.org offering a highly delectable game designed to capture the imagination and practicality of a heavy quake.

Tags: aftershock.net, dropcoverholdon.org, earthquake, Southern california earthquake