Free Republic

BEKASI, Indonesia -- Days after rumors spread across this industrial city that Christians were conducting a mass baptism, hard-line Islamic leaders called for local mosques to create a youth guard to act as moral police and put a quick stop to forced conversions. They started training early Saturday morning, around 100 young men turning out in a field in Bekasi wearing martial arts uniforms. Leaders stressed that there was no plan to arm them, but they do not shy away from saying they'll act essentially as thugs.

Two-year-old Indonesian boy Ardi Rizal puffs on a cigarette in the yard of his family home in Sumatra. The chain-smoking toddler has cut back to 15 cigarettes a day thanks to "therapy focused on playing", a child welfare official has said. (AFP/Ahmad Naafi/SRIWIJAYA POST/File)

BANDUNG, Indonesia – Young Barry Obama is struggling with his pingpong shot. Or rather, 12-year-old Hasan Faruq Ali is struggling to play left-handed in imitation of the character he is portraying in a new Indonesian film, "Little Obama." ... The film tells the story of Obama's childhood in Jakarta, where he lived with his mother and Indonesian stepfather from age 6 to 10. "It's about his friendships, his hobbies, just a childhood story," said screenwriter and co-director Damien Dematra. "It's not about politics, it's just the story of a boy."

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Nine people have been indicted in federal court on charges they accessed President Barack Obama's student loan records while employed for a Department of Education contractor in Iowa. The U.S. attorney's office says a grand jury returned the indictments Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Davenport.

(Reuters) - Indonesian police have arrested a couple who made meatballs from the flesh of protected monkeys, an animal conservation group said on Wednesday. The pair poached dozens of rare Javan langurs, also known as silver-leaf monkeys, from Baluran National Park in the east of Java island, according to a statement released by Indonesia-based animal protection group ProFauna.

TAMPA, Florida – A Florida coffee house is brewing up a buzz by selling the rarest type of coffee in the world—‘Cat Poop Coffee’. ‘Cat Poop Coffee’ comes from the Indonesian Civet which resembles a cat and eats coffee cherries off of trees. The beans end up in the animal’s feces and the next step is to sift them by hand. The end result is a coffee bean considered a delicacy and only 500 pounds are made each year. The coffee is one of the rarest in the world. The Tampa coffee shop, shown in the attached video, paid $190...

Indonesia Left to Right: Lolo Soetoro, Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro, baby Maya Soetoro, and 9 year old Barry Soetoro This registration document, made available on Jan. 24, 2007, by the Fransiskus Assisi school in Jakarta, Indonesia, shows the registration of Barack Obama under the name Barry Soetoro made by his step-father, Lolo Soetoro. Name: Barry Soetoro Religion: ..... Islam Nationality: ..... Indonesian How did little INDONESIAN, Barry Soetoro, (A.K.A. Barack Obama) get around the issue of nationality to become president? Someone who tells lies is a L __ __ r?

The evidence would indicate young Barack Hussein Obama was adopted by Indonesian citizen Lolo Soetoro after Soetoro and Obama's mother were married. The most convincing evidence is the Hawaii divorce papers filed in 1980 as Stanley Ann Soetoro vs. Lolo Soetoro. This document lists the couple as having two children. One is under the age of eighteen. That would be Maya Soetoro who was born in 1970. The other child is listed as over eighteen and in need of educational support. That would be Barry Soeroto (Barack Hussein Obama.) There are no other know children related to this marriage.

JAKARTA (AFP) – Four calves of the world's rarest species of rhino have been found in remote jungle on Indonesia's Java island, giving hope to efforts to save them from extinction, an official said Tuesday. "Four Javan rhinos of six to seven months age were seen by scientists on the beach near the jungle during a recent field survey," Agus Primabudi, the head of the Ujung Kulon National Park in West Java, told AFP. Alerted to the presence of humans, the baby rhinos fled into the park to where two adult rhinos aged roughly 35 to 36, believed to be...

JAKARTA (AFP) – Drinkers in Indonesia are facing the daunting possibility of a dry festive season, with hotels, restaurants, bars and clubs across the Muslim-majority nation hit by an extreme shortage of alcohol. Many top brands have disappeared from shelves while prices for lesser known and even poor quality labels have skyrocketed after a government crackdown on a flourishing black market in booze. The measures are the latest in Indonesia's anti-corruption fight, with the finance ministry moving against alleged collusion between customs agents and illegal importers trying to bypass stiff import duties as high as several hundred percent. With the...

WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline)-The former deputy Pennsylvania attorney general who challenged Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's qualifications to be president has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

(Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania – 09/29/08) - Philip J. Berg, Esquire, the Attorney who filed suit against Barack H. Obama challenging Senator Obama’s lack of “qualifications” to serve as President of the United States, announced today that he filed his Opposition and Brief to Obama and Democratic National Committee [DNC] Joint Motion to Dismiss in the case of Berg v. Obama, No. 08-cv-04083

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Former Indonesian President Suharto, the U.S. Cold War ally who led one of the 20th century's most brutal dictatorships over 32 years that saw up to a million political opponents killed, died Sunday. He was 86. Suharto had been ailing in a hospital in the capital, Jakarta, since Jan. 4 when he was admitted with failing kidneys, heart and lungs. Finally toppled by mass street protests in 1998, Suharto's departure opened the way for democracy in this predominantly Muslim nation of 235 million people and he withdrew from public life, rarely venturing from his comfortable villa on...

An 8-year-old boy was fatally wounded in eastern Indonesia when a Komodo dragon grabbed him by the waist and shook him violently before fleeing. The rare attack by one of the giant lizards occurred during the weekend in a national park on Komodo Island, Sky News reported Monday. The boy had gone behind a bush to relief himself when he was grabbed by the animal. The boy's uncle threw rocks at the lizard until it released him but the child bled to death within half an hour. A search was under way for the Komodo dragon. National park spokesman Heru...

A millionaire couple accused of keeping two Indonesian women as slaves in their luxurious Long Island home and abusing them for years have been indicted on federal slavery charges. The women, prosecutors said, were subjected to beatings, had scalding water thrown on them and were forced to repeatedly climb stairs as punishment for perceived misdeeds. In one case, prosecutors said, one of the women was forced to eat 25 hot chili peppers at one time. One of the women also told authorities they were forced to sleep on mats in the kitchen and were fed so little, they had to...

JAKARTA (AFP) - A passenger jet burst into flames on landing in the central Indonesian city of Yogyakarta on Wednesday, witnesses told local radio. "The plane is burnt. The fire came suddenly from the front wheel," one witness, Hariman, told ElShinta radio. There was no immediate mention of casualties, and the number of passengers aboard the jet was not immediately known. The Detikcom news website said the plane was a jet from the country's flag carrier Garuda Indonesia. Another passenger who escaped the blaze told ElShinta radio there were still passengers aboard as the fire raged. Indonesia's flight safety record...

Satellite images from May 2006 until Feb 2007 showing the extent of the continuing mud flow in Indonesia. http://www.crisp.nus.edu.sg/coverages/mudflow/index.html Sobering problem: The overflow is very close to their largest city, and shows no sign of stopping. Has already cut one large gas pipeline, hundreds of smaller water and electric lines, and is undermining the main expressway in and out of the city in that direction. Obviously, the homes and businesses under the mud are destroyed: But those nearby are no safer.

An hour before dusk and the newest law enforcers in the Indonesian province of Aceh - its Sharia police - are getting ready for the evening patrol. They line up on the back of the pick-up truck, women on one side, men on the other, wearing uniform baseball caps and clutching walkie-talkies. Aceh is the only Indonesian province allowed to apply Sharia, or Islamic, law. But with the province preparing for its first election since last year's peace deal ended years of separatist violence, the Sharia police's role has become increasingly controversial. As the truck moves through the early evening...

Survey reveals Muslim views on violence Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta Up to 1.3 percent of Indonesian Muslims nationwide admit using violence against people or objects they consider contradictory to their beliefs, a survey found, with more than 40 percent ready to wage war for their faith. Acts of violence in the survey on religion and violence by the Center for Islamic and Social Studies (PPIM) ranged from 0.1 percent of respondents admitting their involvement in demolishing or arson of churches constructed without official permits, to 1.3 percent who committed "intimidation" against those they considered had blasphemed Islam....

Strong earthquake rattles Indonesian capital Report: No risk of a tsunami from latest quake Wednesday, July 19, 2006; Posted: 7:53 a.m. EDT (11:53 GMT) JAKARTA, Indonesia -- A strong earthquake has rattled the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, just days after a major quake triggered a deadly tsunami in the region. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties from Wednesday's 6.2 magnitude quake. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no risk of a tsunami, Reuters reported. The quake was centered 40 kilometers (24 miles) beneath the Sunda straits, said Budi Waluyo, according to an official at Indonesia's...