‘Chemical Ali’, Saddam Hussein’s cousin, executed in Iraq
Ali Hassan al-Majid, a former Iraqi official known as “Chemical Ali”, has been executed by hanging, a government spokesman has announced.

Majid, an enforcer in Saddam Hussein’s regime and his cousin, had earlier been sentenced to death four times for genocide and crimes against humanity.

Earlier this month, he was sentenced to death for ordering the gas attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988.

It is believed that about 5,000 people died in the attack.
In Picture: Ali Hassan al-Majid — also known as “Chemical Ali”

Christian-Muslim Mayhem in Nigeria Kills Dozens
DAKAR, Senegal — Armed with guns, machetes, torches and bows and arrows, Christian and Muslim antagonists in central Nigeria’s religiously volatile city of Jos have been fighting for three days in sporadic clashes that have left dozens dead, witnesses and local news accounts said Tuesday.

It was difficult to ascertain a precise number of casualties in Jos, the scene of frequent religious violence over the past decade. Estimates of the death toll ranged from 30 to 300, as the city was still consumed by mayhem Tuesday evening, with security forces descending on Jos in an attempt to contain it.

I believe Balibo should not be banned. Let anyone in Indonesia who want to watch it just have a look at it. I myself am not interested in seeing documentary-like movie. It’s not a Suharto era. It’s an era of post-reformasi. And the most important of all, it’s the era of internet, of Youtube. You cannot ban people to see what they want to see. via CSM
A movie that depicts Indonesian war crimes in East Timor has become a lightning rod for free-speech activists in Indonesia, who have defied a government ban on its screening.

Last Tuesday, censors ordered the organizers of an annual film festival in Jakarta to yank “Balibo,” an Australian movie set in East Timor in 1975 that dramatizes the plight of five slain journalists. Government and military officials have said the film is propaganda and could inflame the public and upset bilateral relations.

But, in a move that underscores Indonesia’s still halting democratic transition a decade after it pulled out of East Timor, an independent journalists’ association screened the movie last Thursday to a packed audience in Jakarta. And film festival officials say they are trying to overturn the ban and screen it this week.

Who says that only the (mostly uneducated) Muslims who show intolerance towards other’s religious followers? The (educated) Swiss Christians do as well. They even cannot stand to see a minaret.
The “Yes” vote – to amend the constitution in favor of banning minarets – stunned experts who had predicted the measure would be rejected. It also sent ripples of anxiety across the country’s Muslim community, which makes up about six percent of Switzerland’s population.

Some 57.5 percent of voters backed the initiative, which was championed by the nationalist Swiss People’s Party. The party argues that minarets are a symbol of Islamic political power. There are only four minarets in Switzerland and they will not be affected by the ban.

Public opinion polls ahead of the election predicted that the measure would be rejected, and the Swiss government had urged citizens to vote against it.
Some Swiss leaders justifies the move arguing that the minaret is a symbol of disintegration rather than integration.
The minaret “is a political symbol against integration; a symbol more of segregation, and first of all, a symbol to try to introduce Sharia law parallel to Swiss rights,” Ulrich Schluer said in a telephone interview. Schluer is one of the leaders of the Egerkingen Committee, which authored the bill, and member of parliament with the conservative Swiss People’s Party.

Well, what if Muslims in other parts of the world, where they are in majority, are having similar opinion against their Christian counterparts? What would Westerners think?

Susno Duadji, the ‘mastermind’ of Police vs KPK brouhaha finally fired from his current position as Kabareskrim (chief detective). Indonesian officials still don’t have I-am-responsible-I-resign mentality like in Japan. You should push them hard to make their superior sack them.
Indonesia’s chief of detectives, whose role in a corruption scandal sparked a public outcry, has been moved aside to a “non-job”, a police spokesman said on Tuesday.

The scandal, which arose from a power struggle between the country’s respected Corruption Eradication Commission, or KPK, and other law enforcement agencies, has forced President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to promise he will address legal reform.

Such reform is seen as crucial for curbing graft, attracting investment, and lifting growth.

Susno Duadji, chief of detectives in the national police, was one of several officials allegedly involved in an attempt to frame two deputy chiefs at the KPK.

Is President SBY Brave Enough to implement what Tim 8 (president-made fact finding commission) advices? Many people pessimistic, including me. SBY was not known as decisive personality, unlike his former VP Jusuf Kalla, nor is he possibly now. So, don’t expect any extraordinary happenings will take place next Monday when SBY will announce his decision. He’s known as the play-safe president. via JP
To anyone expecting heads to roll, the President warns that no one should press him to act beyond his authority, following the recommendations of his team investigating the controversial KPK case.

“We don’t want our efforts to settle the issue leading to more serious problems,” said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Wednesday at the State Palace.

“And don’t force me as President to take measures beyond my authority,” he added.

He was opening a meeting on the team’s final report with a number of Cabinet ministers, the National Police chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri and Attorney General Hendarman Supandji.

The President is to announce Monday his decisions regarding the recommendations of his fact-finding team.
I am sure, the time SBY annouces his response to Tim 8 recommendation on Monday, everything will be business as usual. No Kapolri BHD will be fired. No Kejakgung Hendarman Supandji will be thrown out of office. Despite he has constitutional power to do so. Beaurocracy reform will be just as retorical as the words stands.

Hate crime bill is important in America a country where its citizen comes from a multi-cultural, races, ethnicities, sexual orientation and religious background. A law is needed to handle that potentially inhospitable environment.

Although a ethnic-based conflict took place a few times in Indonesia, like anti-Chinese riot, Ambon and Poso Muslim-Christian strife, etc I don’t think such law is really need to be set up here. If you walk on the streets in Java or other islands, you’d rarely find such ethnic-based hate-crime.

What Indonesia needs the most is a stern law on corruption. I strongly support a capital punishment or death penalty for any government officials who nowadays regard a corruption act as a sort of achievement. Corruption is the mother of all crimes in Indonesia. The sooner such law is set-up, the better. What do you think?
President Obama signed major civil rights legislation on Wednesday, making it a federal hate crime to assault people based on sexual orientation, gender and gender identity. The new measure expands the the scope of a 1968 law that applies to people attacked because of their race, religion or national origin. The U.S. Justice Department will have expanded authority to prosecute such crimes when local authorities don’t.

The provision, called the Matthew Shepard & James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act is attached to a defense authorization bill. It is named after Matthew Shepard, a gay college student tortured and killed in 1998, and James Byrd Jr., a black man who was chained to a pickup truck and dragged to his death the same year.