Turkey lifts two-year ban on YouTube

BBC News, 30 October 2010 Last updated at 22:11 GMT

Turkey has lifted its ban on YouTube, two years after it blocked access to the website because of videos deemed insulting to the country's founder.

The decision to ban YouTube was widely
criticised by many Turks, including the president

Transport Minister Binali Yildirim, who is in charge of internet issues, said the government had been in contact with Google, which owns YouTube.

Mr Yildirim said there was no longer any reason to ban the website, because the offending videos had been removed.

Insulting Mustafa Kemal Ataturk or "Turkishness" is illegal in Turkey.

The video clip prompting the ban was reportedly posted by Greek users of the website and dubbed Ataturk and Turks homosexuals.

The move was nevertheless widely criticised by many Turks, including by President Abdullah Gul, who asked officials to find a solution.

'Third party'

Speaking on Turkish television on Saturday, Mr Yildirim said the ban had been lifted after "common sense prevailed".

"But we didn't get here easily - we have been through a lot in the process," he told NTV.

"I hope that they have also learned from this experience and the same thing will not happen again. YouTube will hopefully carry out its operations in Turkey within the limits of law in the future," he added.

In a statement, YouTube said that it had received reports that some users in Turkey were once again able to access its content.

"We want to be clear that a third party, not YouTube, have apparently removed some of the videos that have caused the blocking of YouTube in Turkey using our automated copyright complaint process," it explained.

"We are investigating whether this action is valid in accordance with our copyright policy," the company added.

In 2007, Turkey's parliament adopted a sweeping law that allowed a court to block any website where there was "sufficient suspicion" that a crime had occurred.

The eight crimes listed include child pornography, gambling, prostitution, and "crimes against Ataturk".

In June, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe said the law was being used to block access to more than 5,000 sites, making internet censorship in Turkey amongst the heaviest in the world.

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Indonesia proposes ASEAN-UN cooperation integration

Antara News, Friday, October 29, 2010 23:30 WIB

Hanoi, Vietnam (ANTARA News) - Indonesia has proposed the integration of cooperation between members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United Nations to create measured and comprehensive cooperation.

"The President has proposed a concept to increase the UN-ASEAN relations to make it comprehensive as it has so far been sector," Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said after accompanying President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in a ASEAN-UN summit at the National Conventional Center, here on Friday evening.

Marty said so far the ASEAN member countries only cooperated with UN missions individually. He said no integrated cooperation between ASEAN members and all the UN missions had been held so far.

In view of that he said Indonesia had suggested an integrated cooperation. That way, the ASEAN and the UN could build cooperation in various fields comprehensively.

Marty said the comprehensive and inter-sectoral cooperation would ease evaluation on every progress made or weaknesses found.

He said the idea was what Indonesia would promote during its ASEAN chairmanship in 2011.

"Just now the UN Secretary General responded it positively. So we will work to achieve it," he said.

President Yudhoyono attended the 3rd ASEAN-UN Summit at the National Conventional Center, flanked by Marty Natalegawa and Coordinating Minister for Economic affairs Hatta Radjasa.

Before the meeting all the ASEAN leaders and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon held a group photo session. At the photo session President Yudhoyono stood between Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei Darussalam.

The ASEAN-UN Summit was part of the 17th ASEAN Summit.

Indonesia Wants Asean Version of the Euro Currency

Jakarta Globe, Daniel Ten Kate | October 28, 2010             

Hanoi. Indonesia is pushing fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to adopt a common currency stance ahead of next month’s Group of 20 summit to aid progress on a broader policy initiative.

Indonesia wants to replace the rupiah
with a common Asean currency. 

“We have encouraged Asean to develop a common perspective on the currency situation,” Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told reporters in Hanoi today. “We must ensure that there are no inadvertent imbalances caused by efforts by some countries to protect export industries by artificially maintaining currencies at an exceptionally low level.”

Asean will send a representative to the meeting of G-20 leaders in Seoul, where leaders will discuss a plan to avoid “competitive devaluations” among members. Asean countries are meeting in the Vietnamese capital this week along with China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Russia.

China’s restraint of the yuan and the falling dollar has prompted countries such as South Korea, Brazil and Thailand to take steps to weaken their currencies to boost competitiveness.

Some countries are considering new measures after G-20 finance chiefs meeting in South Korea agreed Oct. 23 to refrain from weakening currencies to boost exports.

Indonesia, Asean’s largest economy and a G-20 member, wants the 10-nation bloc to have “common ideas” on currency policy as the issue will become “more and more relevant” before the Seoul summit, Marty said. Asean’s five biggest economies have seen their currencies rise the most in Asia outside Japan this year.

Indonesia’s rupiah has gained 5 percent this year and touched 8,896 on Oct. 26, the strongest since June 2007. The central bank will “guard” the rupiah at its fundamental level and buy foreign currencies to control the local currency’s volatility, Central Bank Governor Darmin Nasution said on Wednesday.

Thailand removed a 15 percent tax exemption for foreigners on income from domestic bonds last month. Thai Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij warned on Oct. 25 that regulators are “keeping an eye” on speculative inflows.

Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz told Bloomberg Television Oct. 26 she favors a gradual strengthening of the ringgit. The Philippine central bank takes steps so that the peso doesn’t “gyrate in a very wide range,” Governor Amando Tetangco said in an e-mail yesterday.

China has kept the yuan’s rise to about 2 percent since a June pledge to introduce more flexibility, arguing anything other than a gradual appreciation would cause social and economic turmoil. The U.S. Federal Reserve has weakened the dollar by moving toward buying more assets to address unemployment and weak inflation.

Bloomberg

ASEAN+3 agrees to form joint rice reserves

Antara News, Wednesday, October 27, 2010 01:33 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - ASEAN member states and China, Japan and South Korea (ASEAN+3) have agreed to form joint rice reserves in anticipation of climate change-induced food scarcity.

The agreement was reached at the 10th meeting of ASEAN+3 agriculture and forestry ministers (AMAF+3) held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Oct 23-25, Indonesian Agriculture Minister Suswono said here on Tuesday.

"AMAF+3 has agreed to formalize ASEAN plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve (APTERR) into a permanent institute to address food and humanity emergency in the ASEAN+3 region," he said.

Under the agreement, each ASEAN+3 member state was required to build rice reserves according to their respective condition, he said.

In total, the joint rice reserves from ASEAN+3 member states would reach 787 thousand tons with 400 thousand tons and 300 thousand tons respectively from China and Japan, he said.

Indonesia itself had agreed to set aside 12 thousand tons as rice reserves and the rest from other member states, he said.

Given the joint rice reserves, if any of the member states faced food scarcity they could benefit from the rice reserves to meet their domestic needs, he said.

But he added that the absence of agreement from Singapore which still had to consult their parliament posed an obstacle to the effort to formalize APTERR.

The AMAF+3 agriculture and forestry ministers gave the AMAF+3 Senior Officials Meeting until the next two months to complete the APTERR agreement, he said.

"Hopefully, the agreement could be signed and implemented as soon as possible," he said.

At the 32nd AMAF meeting, the ministers attached the significance of joint response, mitigation and adaptation to address the impact of climate change.

"Indonesia underscored the need to form a climate change center and expressed its readiness to host the center," he said.

Saudi woman jailed for disobeying father set free

RNW, 26 October 2010

A Saudi woman jailed for disobeying her father has been freed after more than six months in prison, Saudi media reported on Tuesday.

Samar Badawi, who was thrown in prison without formal charge or trial by a Jeddah judge, was released on Monday on the order of the governor of the Mecca region, Prince Khalid al-Faisal, the reports said.

Badawi's release came after a concerted campaign by human rights activists inside and outside Saudi Arabia for King Abdullah to intervene in the case, which they said was an example of the abuses of the country's rigid guardian system for women.

Under the system, a Saudi woman must have the permission of her official "mahram" or male guardian -- her father, husband, brother or son -- for matters such as travel, work and marriage.

Badawi, a 32-year-old divorced mother, had filed her own case asking the court to remove her father as her guardian, saying he had mistreated her since childhood and had denied her permission to remarry.

Badawi had fled her father and lived in a shelter for women.

The judge instead accused her of being disobedient to her father and sent her to prison on April 4.

Governed according to a strict version of Islamic sharia law, Saudi Arabia's judges are all Muslim clerics who have broad powers to set charges and punishments according to their own interpretations of Koranic law and tradition.

Prince Khaled, a powerful member of the Saudi ruling family, recommended Badawi be released and proposed her case be sent to a reconciliation committee, according to Arab News.

Badawi was released into the oversight of a new official guardian, her uncle, according to the reports.

Myanmar gets new flag, official name, anthem

Antara News, Monday, October 25, 2010 18:28 WIB

Yangon (ANTARA News/Reuters) - Myanmar`s ruling military changed the country`s flag, national anthem and official name on Thursday, just over two weeks before the country`s first election in 20 years, state media said.

The new state flag of the Republic of the Union
of Myanmar is hoisted at the mast at the City
Hall of Yangon, former capital and commercial
city of Myanmar, October 21, 2010.
(REUTERS/Aung Hla Tun)

The changes were outlined in a new constitution published in 2008 but the government had not announced a date for their introduction.

The country`s new name is the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, instead of the Union of Myanmar.

The military, which has ruled since a 1962 coup, changed the country`s name in English from Burma to Myanmar in 1989, a year after widespread protests against military rule were crushed, and a year before the last election.

That election was won by the party of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi but the military ignored the result. Suu Kyi has spent 15 of the past 21 years in detention.

The new flag has a horizontal band of yellow at the top, dark green in the centre and red at the bottom, with a white star in the middle. There has been no official explanation as to what the colours or the star represent.

Nor has there been any explanation as to why the changes, which include a new state seal, were being made.

Officials in various government departments told Reuters they were ordered to change the flags.

"We were caught by surprise when we got the order at short notice. There was also an order that the old flags must be burnt," said one official who declined to be identified.

The order stipulated that the old flag had to be lowered by someone born on a Tuesday and the new flag had to be raised by someone born on a Wednesday, he said.

"It must have been instructed by astrologers," he said.

Myanmar`s secretive military rulers, who will retain ultimate power no matter who wins the Nov. 7 parliamentary election, are widely believed to consult astrologers.

Several dozen passers-by watched the formal ceremony to change the flags at Yangon City Hall.

One, who declined to be identified, said the change was akin to putting old wine in new bottles: "The label has changed but what is really needed is a change of the wine."

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Pope seeks religious liberty in Muslim Mideast

Reuters, VATICAN CITY , By Philip Pullell, Sun Oct 24, 2010 6:16am EDT

(Reuters) - Pope Benedict called on Islamic countries in the Middle East on Sunday to guarantee freedom of worship to non-Muslims and said peace in the region was the best remedy for a worrying exodus of Christians.

He made his a appeal at a solemn mass in St Peter's Basilica ending a two week Vatican summit of bishops from the Middle East, whose final document criticized Israel and urged the Jewish state to end its occupation of Palestinian territories.

In his sermon at the gathering's ceremonial end, the pope said freedom of religion was "one of the fundamental human rights that each state should always respect."

He said that while some states in the Middle East allowed freedom of belief, "the space given to the freedom to practice religion is often quite limited."

At least 3.5 million Christians of all denominations live in the Gulf Arab region, the birthplace of Islam and home to some of the most conservative Arab Muslim societies in the world.

The freedom to practice Christianity -- or any religion other than Islam -- is not always a given in the Gulf and varies from country to country. Saudi Arabia, which applies an austere form of Sunni Islam, has by far the tightest restrictions.

The Pope said all citizens in Middle Eastern countries would benefit from greater freedom of religion and backed a call by the synod participants for Muslims and Christians to open an "urgent and useful" dialogue on the thorny issue.

In Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest sites, any form of non-Muslim worship takes place in private. Converting Muslims is punishable by death, although such sentences are rare.

Services and prayer meetings often are held in diplomats' homes, but access to these is very limited, so Christians meet to worship in hotel conference rooms -- at great risk.

PEACE WILL STOP CHRISTIAN EXODUS

Trying to bring about a Middle East peace with a two-state solution was a main theme of the synod participants and the pope took up their plea in his homily.

"Peace is possible. Peace is urgent. Peace is an indispensable condition for a life worthy of the human person and of society. Peace is also the best remedy to avoid immigration from the Middle East," he said.

In its concluding message, issued on Saturday after two weeks of meetings, the synod said Israel cannot use the biblical concept of a promised land or a chosen people to justify new settlements in Jerusalem or territorial claims.

Many Jewish settlers and right-wing Israelis claim a biblical birthright to the occupied West Bank, which they call Judea and Samaria and regard as a part of historical, ancient Israel given to the Jews by God.

In a response, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said theological disputes over the interpretation of the holy scriptures disappeared with the Middle Ages, adding: "It doesn't seem like a wise move to revive them."

(Additional reporting by Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem, Diana Elias in Kuwait, and Raissa Kasolowsky in Dubai, Editing by Michael Roddy)

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ASEAN ministers support RI candidacy for FAO top post

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sun, 10/24/2010 3:19 PM

ASEAN ministers on agriculture and forestry had thrown support to the candidacy of Indonesian scientist Indroyono Soesilo to run for top post at UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The support was given during the 32th Asean Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry (AMAF) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia ended on Sunday.

"The meeting noted and supported the candidacy of the Director General of FAO from Indonesia and will convey to the Ministry of Foreign Affair for consideration," the conclusion of the meeting made available to The Jakarta Post said.

The election to replace current FAO director general Jacques Diouf would be held in June 2011.

Indroyono is currently the deputy senior minister to Coordinating Public Welfare Minister Agung Laksono.

The Phnonm Phen meeting was attended by among others Pehin Dato Yahya, Brunei Darussalam Minister of Industry and Primary Resources, Chan Sarun, Cambodian Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Suswono, Indonesian Minister of Agriculture, Indonesia, Datuk Seri Noh Bin Omar, Minister of Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry of Malaysia and Theera Wongsamut, Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives of Thailand.

The Meeting also agreed that the 33rd Meeting of AMAF would be held in 2011 in Indonesia.

Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, joined the FAO in 1949. In 1985, Indonesia received an FAO for achieving rice self-sufficiency.

Minister Chan from Cambodia noted that significant progresses and achievements had been made in strengthening regional food security.

WikiLeaks Defends Iraq Documents Release as Exposing 'Truth'

Jakarta Globe, Robin Millard | October 24, 2010

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange speaks during a news conference on the internet release of secret documents about the Iraq War in London on Saturday. Wikileaks released nearly 400,000 classified U.S. files on the Iraq war on Friday, some detailing gruesome cases of prisoner abuse by Iraqi forces that the U.S. military knew about but did not seem to investigate. (Reuters/Luke MacGregor)

London. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has defended the unauthorized release of 400,000 classified US military documents on the war in Iraq, saying they revealed the "truth" about the conflict.

The mass of documents from 2004 to 2009 offer a grim snapshot of the conflict, especially of the abuse of Iraqi civilians by Iraqi security forces.

"This disclosure is about the truth," Assange told a news conference in London Saturday after the whistleblowing website published the logs on the Internet.

"The attack on the truth by war begins long before war starts, and continues long after a war ends," he said, adding that WikiLeaks hoped "to correct some of that attack on the truth."

He claimed the documents revealed around 15,000 more civilian deaths than were previously known about.

The heavily redacted logs appear to show that the US military turned a blind eye to evidence of torture and abuse of Iraqis by the Iraqi authorities.

Assange said the documents showed the war had been "a bloodbath on every corner."

Washington and London warned that releasing the documents could endanger the lives of coalition troops and Iraqi civilians, although the rights ministry in Baghdad said the logs "did not contain any surprises."

In an announcement which could further concern the United States, WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said the website would soon release a further 15,000 secret files on the war in Afghanistan which had been held back for line-by-line reviewing and redacting.

WikiLeaks enraged Washington by releasing 92,000 documents on the Afghan war in July, and drew criticism from rights groups who said the inclusion of Afghan informants' names put lives at risk.

The files published Friday contain graphic accounts of torture, civilian killings and Iran's hand in the Iraq war, documenting years of bloodshed and suffering following the 2003 US-led invasion to oust dictator Saddam Hussein.

In one document, US military personnel describe abuse by Iraqis at a Baghdad facility that was holding 95 detainees in a single room.

It says "many of them bear marks of abuse to include cigarette burns, bruising consistent with beatings and open sores... according to one of the detainees questioned on site, 12 detainees have died of disease in recent weeks."

Other reports describe Iraqis beating prisoners and women being killed at US military checkpoints.

WikiLeaks made the files available several weeks ago to selected newspapers and television channels, including Al-Jazeera, Le Monde, The New York Times, Der Spiegel and The Guardian.

British newspaper The Guardian said the leaks showed "US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers whose conduct appears to be systematic and normally unpunished."

It said "US and UK officials have insisted that no official record of civilian casualties exists but the logs record 66,081 non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities."

The Iraqi government has said that as many as 85,694 Iraqi civilians and members of the security forces perished in the conflict between January 2004 and October 2008.

US officials have frequently dismissed the Iraqi numbers as too high.

The Guardian said WikiLeaks is thought to have obtained the material from the "same dissident US army intelligence analyst" who is suspected of leaking the material on Afghanistan. WikiLeaks has not revealed its source.

US soldier Bradley Manning, 22, is in US custody facing charges he gave WikiLeaks classified video showing a July 2007 US Apache helicopter strike in Baghdad that killed several people.

He is also suspected of possible involvement in the leak of classified documents related to the war in Afghanistan.

On Iran's role in the Iraq conflict, the latest files show Tehran waging a shadow war with US troops in Iraq and Tehran allegedly using militias to kill and kidnap US soldiers.

The documents describe Iran arming and training Iraqi hit squads to carry out attacks on coalition troops and Iraqi government officials, with the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps suspected of playing a crucial role, The New York Times and The Guardian reported.

Phil Shiner of Public Interest Lawyers told the London news conference that some of the deaths documented in the reports could have involved British forces and could now be the subject of legal action in British courts.

"Some of these deaths will be in circumstances where the UK have a very clear legal responsibility," he said.

The US-based Human Rights Watch called for Iraq to probe mistreatment by its own forces, and said the United States should investigate if it committed wrongdoing by transferring prisoners to Iraqi hands.

A Pentagon spokesman said the documents were "essentially snapshots of events, both tragic and mundane, and do not tell the whole story."

Britain's Ministry of Defence also condemned the unauthorized release, saying it made the job of British and allied troops "more difficult and more dangerous."

Agence France-Presse

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RI to present vision, mission at ASEAN Summit

Antara News, Sunday, October 24, 2010

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia will present its vision and mission as the ASEAN chair at the 17th ASEAN Summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, presidential spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said here on Saturday.

At the summit Indonesia will receive the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN from Vietnam.

"At the closing segment of the summit the Indonesian President will present the country`s vision and mission in its chairmanship of ASEAN for 2011," he said in a written statement recieved by ANTARA.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said Indonesia`s active participation in Hanoi would be very important to prepare the foundation for Indonesia`s chairmanship in 2011 because every time the country becomes the ASEAN chairman it also becomes its leader.

"In view of that Indonesia must consider carefully what it would achieve during its chairmanship to increase ASEAN cooperation and ASEAN community`s role in the global community," he said.

While in Vietnam President Yudhoyono would attend the summit which is themed "Towards ASEAN Community: From Vision to Action."

President Yudhoyono, according to Faizasyah, would use the opportunity to fight for the various interests of the country and ASEAN including the realization of the ASEAN Community through progress and concrete steps in the three pillars namely ASEAN Political and Security Community, ASEAN Economic Community and ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community.

The activities during the summit include ASEAN Leaders Retreat, the ASEAN Summit and a summit with counterparts from partners (China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, New Zealand and Russia), the Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle Summit, the ASEAN +3 Summit, the East Asia Summit and the ASEAN-UN Summit.

Among the agenda to be discussed are efforts to achieve ASEAN Community in 2015, ASEAN Plus, regional architecture, ASEAN Connectivity and other regional as well as international issues.

Bahrain holds parliamentary elections after waves of unrest

English.news.cn, 2010-10-23, Editor: Xiong Tong

Bahrain's Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa casts his vote for a new parliament at the Riffa poling station, south of the Bahraini capital Manama October 23, 2010. Amid sectarian tensions, Bahraini voters began Saturday their third elections since a parliamentary system was introduced in the island Gulf kingdom in 2001. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

MANAMA, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- Amid sectarian tensions, Bahraini voters began Saturday their third elections since a parliamentary system was introduced in the island Gulf kingdom in 2001.

Ten voting stations were open Saturday morning till night for about 318,000 registered voters to choose a new parliament consisting of 40 members. The results were expected to be announced on Sunday.

Bahrain is the smallest Gulf Arab nation with a 1.3 million population.

Two months before the elections, Bahrain's majority Shiites who have long complained of discrimination went on street riots to protest against the Sunni-dominated government. The security forces detained more than 250 people and accused 23 Shiite activists of trying to topple the government.

The elected parliament can make policies and supervise the government. But the powers were limited because its bills need to be passed by a 40-strong consultative council appointed by the king which can block legislation from the parliament.

People queue to cast their vote at a polling station during parliamentary elections in Riffa, south of the Bahrani capital Manama October 23, 2010. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

Bahraini women wearing traditional dresses cast their votes for a new parliament at the Riffa poling station, south of the Bahraini capital Manama October 23, 2010. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

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SBY to sign agreements during ASEAN trip

Mustaqim Adamrah and Erwida Maulia, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sat, 10/23/2010 11:26 AM

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is set to sign at least two memorandums of understanding (MoUs) at the 17th ASEAN Summit in Hanoi next week.

“Yes, we’ll sign an MoU on defense cooperation with Vietnam,” Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told a press conference on Friday at the ministry.

The ASEAN Summit will be held from Thursday until Saturday next week.

Presidential spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said the two MoUs were expected to be signed next Wednesday when he pays a courtesy call to Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

“The first is on defense, and the other one, which is still being drafted, is on maritime and fisheries,” Faizasyah said, adding that both countries might cooperate in development of military industries.

Marty said Yudhoyono would also have bilateral meetings with leaders from South Korea, China, New Zealand and the Philippines on the sidelines of the summit.

“The Indonesian President will have a bilateral meeting with the South Korean president to discuss the future of bilateral cooperation in the defense industry,” Marty said.

The bilateral meeting with the South Korean leader would follow up earlier talks between Indonesian Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro and his counterpart Kim Tae-young when they met in Jakarta in August.

Purnomo earlier said Indonesia and South Korea were working together to build a jet fighter prototype by 2020. The project, initiated in 2006, is part of the government’s program to revitalize the Indonesian Military.

During the ASEAN summit Vietnam will officially hand over the chairmanship role to Indonesia, which will lead the regional grouping for the next year.

“We’re laying the foundation for Indonesia’s chairmanship in ASEAN in 2011,” Marty said.

The ASEAN Summit, he said, would also discuss key issues, such as preparations for the ASEAN community in 2015, maritime security and the new regional architecture of ASEAN — the expanded East Asian Summit.

The expanded East Asian Summit will welcome the US and Russia as new members of the expanded

summit.

Prior to his trip to Hanoi, Yudho-yono is scheduled to fly to Shanghai next Monday to visit the Shanghai World Expo, attend a business forum and witness the signing of some agreements between Indonesian and Chinese businesses.

“The President will especially visit Indonesia’s booth in the Shanghai Expo, which is said to have been visited by 6 million people,” Faizasyah said.

“This visit to China will focus on how we can woo investment from the country. There has been a decline in the bilateral trade between us as an impact of the economic crisis. We expect to use the forum to bring in investment and open the Chinese market for our products.”

Faizasyah said the President, who would leave Shanghai for Hanoi on Tuesday, would not hold any bilateral meetings with Chinese leaders due to the fact that Vice President Boediono had met with Chinese officials during his visit earlier this week.

Yudhoyono is expected to arrive back in Jakarta on Saturday evening or Monday morning, Faizasyah said.

12 kids fathered by Saudis in Indonesia return to Kingdom

ARAB NEWS, Oct 23, 2010 00:03

JEDDAH: The Saudi Embassy in Jakarta has been able to return 12 children born out of relationships between Saudi men and Indonesian women to the Kingdom last year, according to local Arabic daily Al-Watan on Friday.

“These children were the result of illegal marriages between Indonesian women and Saudi men who visited Indonesia for business or tourism,” Saudi Ambassador Abdullah Al-Khayyat said. He added that after making sure that the children belonged to Saudi fathers, the embassy contacted the men and provided them with support so they could be reunited.

The ambassador said the embassy took good care of the children and gave them air tickets to travel to Saudi Arabia with their fathers. He also said the embassy liaised with the authorities concerned in Indonesia and the Kingdom to facilitate the return of the children to their home country and also made efforts to heal the rifts between the fathers and mothers.

The ambassador said Saudis were not allowed to marry foreign women, except with permission from the Ministry of Interior, but said these cases were rare.

He said there were still a few children left and added that the embassy was trying to rectify their situation.

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