Let's start with the Indonesian variety:
"Indonesia files terror charges against cleric" by Aubrey Belford, New York Times / February 3, 2011
JAKARTA, Indonesia — One of Indonesia’s most senior radical Muslim clerics could face the death penalty after prosecutors formally lodged terrorism charges against him yesterday.
Abu Bakar Bashir, an elderly cleric long accused of being a terrorist ideologue, was charged with coordinating and financing a militant group that was violently suppressed by the police last year after it set up an armed training camp in the northern Sumatran province of Aceh.
Prosecutors lodged the case file with the charges, which contain a maximum sentence of death, on the same day that defense lawyers mounted a constitutional challenge to Bashir’s long detention since his arrest last August.
A lawyer for Bashir, Mahendradatta, said the case against Bashir was based on flimsy evidence and accused authorities of deliberately delaying the cleric’s trial in order to keep him detained.
“He’s already getting old, why do they have to detain him? This is proof that their true purpose is to keep Ustad silent,’’ Mahendradatta said, using an honorific term for some Muslim men.
Bashir, who leads an Islamic organization called Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid, was being persecuted to please the United States, Mahendradatta said.
Related: Using Indonesia to Push the Agenda
“Now, everybody knows that Ustad is just a kitty, not a tiger,’’ the lawyer said. “A kitty, just some ordinary guy who speaks anti-America, anti-something, like that, but doesn’t have any power to execute his speech.’’
Suitable for framing though.
The authorities, however, said Bashir played a central role in the operation of a short-lived coalition of militants, calling itself Al Qaeda of the Veranda of Mecca, which stockpiled weapons and carried out training in Aceh’s jungle-covered mountains.
Oh, Al-CIA-Duh again.
The police wiped out the group’s training camp last year.
Then there really ought be NOTHING to WORRY ABOUT, huh?
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Maybe we should try an Indian exchange:
"New money reviving ages-old tradition in India" by Rama Lakshmi, Washington Post / February 5, 2011
MUNDUR, India — Indians embrace a Western lifestyle and a culture of lavish spending, but minor Hindu festivals are now being celebrated in big cities, thanks to corporate sponsorships -- a critical bridge between globalization and God....
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Good Lord, where can a man get some peace?
Cambodia urging UN to halt clash at Thai border
Thai, Cambodian clashes continue
North, S. Korea agree to widen talks
Korean military talks end abruptly as North walks out of discussions
That sure was a quick conversation.
Related:
"No gifts for N. Koreans on leader’s birthday" by Associated Press / February 17, 2011
SEOUL — North Korea’s food shortage is grave, and the country is probably looking to stockpile food to distribute to citizens next year, said a South Korean intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to reporters....
Those are the kinds of things I am looking for in my newspaper, dear readers.
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The rest not so much.
"Eleven vacationers from the United States, Britain, Australia, Japan, Russia, France, Sweden, and Switzerland died along with their Vietnamese tour guide yesterday in Vietnam’s deadliest tour boat accident since the country opened to foreign visitors 25 years ago....
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Also see: Myanmar picks president with military ties
