BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) — Police in Indonesia’s most conservative province raided a punk-rock concert and detained 65 fans, buzzing off their spiky mohawks and stripping away body piercings because of the perceived threat to Islamic values. (more)
President Barack Obama’s campaign heads to the Pacific and Asian corners of the world this week where his public relations crew will produce a symphony of visuals for American voters. The nine day trip will include visits to San Diego, Hawaii, Australia, Bali and Indonesia. (more)
HONOLULU (AP) — President Barack Obama heads into a day of heavy diplomacy in his native Hawaii with some of the United States’ most important and complicated allies, the start of a nine-day tour of the crucial and growing Asia-Pacific region. (more)
BANDUNG, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian officials have warned people to stay more than a mile (two kilometers) from two craters on a smoking volcano spewing noxious gas. (more)
TOMOHON, Indonesia (AP) — Thousands of residents were evacuated after a volcano in central Indonesia erupted, spewing towering clouds of hot ash and debris and sending red-hot lava cascading down its slopes. (more)
An Indonesian MP who helped pass a tough anti-pornography law has resigned after being caught watching sexually explicit videos on his computer during a parliamentary debate. (more)
A woman flinches as she is about to be repeatedly caned for having an extramarital affair. (more)
“Let the Jews have Jerusalem. It is they who made it famous.” (more)
The liberal love affair with Islam is perplexing. While liberals tend to hate traditional Christianity for its more socially conservative worldview, they insist on vigorously defending Islam and its adherents. From Jon Stewart’s moralizing, to Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg’s outrage at Bill O’Reilly, to President Obama’s recent droning about the “spirit of tolerance” in the Indonesian Constitution (in spite of Indonesia’s laws prohibiting speech offensive to Islam), we are forever sermonized that there is a gulf between Islamist extremism and the “vast majority” of normal Muslims, whom we would apparently love to have as neighbors and run into at Whole Foods. (more)
With his remarks in Jakarta, Indonesia, President Obama made history once again. Sadly, it’s a most unenviable title. I believe he is the most anti-Israel president in U.S. history. (more)
Unlike some conservatives, I never had a problem with President Obama’s trips to India and Indonesia. Both countries, after all, are rising democracies and growing economic powers. And both countries have large Muslim populations. Indonesia, in fact, has the world’s largest Muslim population, with more than 200 million Muslims. (more)
(Via Ricochet.com) Michelle Obama’s handshake is in the news again. Two years ago it was the “terrorist fist jab” faux controversy. Today it’s Tifatul Sembiring’s unfortunate photo op. (more)
JAKARTA, Indonesia — The two houses where he spent part of his boyhood stand pretty much the way they did when he went back to Hawaii four decades ago. The two schools he attended have grown larger but, in spirit, remain unchanged. Some of his old friends can still be found around the neighborhood. (more)
President Obama said today that the United States is on “the right path” toward a better understanding of the Muslim world, though more work remains to be done. (more)
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — After two years of waiting, Indonesians are finally getting the chance to welcome back their adopted son. But the euphoria that swept the predominantly Muslim country after Barack Obama’s election victory has been replaced by a dose of reality. (more)
President Obama departed Washington, D.C. last week for a 10-day visit to India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan following the Democratic Party’s historic defeat in the 2010 midterm elections. It’s a routine foreign trip, like others the well-traveled president has made since he took office, unless it marks a new beginning of President Obama’s personal involvement in foreign policy. (more)
MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia (AP) — The most powerful eruption in a century from a volatile Indonesian volcano has killed at least 78 people and raised the death toll to 122. (more)
PADANG, Indonesia (AP) — Planes and helicopters delivering rescuers, medicine and other supplies landed for the first time Wednesday on remote Indonesian islands that were pounded by a 10-foot (3-meter) tsunami, sweeping away villages and killing at least 154 people. (more)
The House Ways and Means Committee has just approved a bill that would attempt, albeit modestly, to crack down on Chinese currency manipulation, a key cause of America’s trade deficit. The Ryan-Murphy currency bill (HR 2378) would allow the Commerce Department to treat currency manipulation as an illegal subsidy for the purpose of calculating countervailing duties intended as retaliation. This bill has to be passed by the full House of Representatives and then the Senate before becoming law, but already the prophets of doom are squealing about the dangers of starting a trade war with China. They are wrong. (more)
As the Julia Roberts movie opens, here’s everything a regular guy should know about Elizabeth Gilbert’s mega-selling book. Bryan Curtis on the author’s slick writing, magnetic personality, and surprising spirituality. (more)
