Indonesia Arrests 11 Suspects of US Embassy Attack Plot
Indonesian police detained 11 people, suspected of planning terrorist attacks on the US embassy and other targets, in four provinces in Java, the Jakarta Post reported on Saturday.
The suspected terrorists were members of a new group called Haraqah Sunni for Indonesian Society, or Hasmi, the Jakarta Post quoted National Police spokesman Suhardi Alius as saying.
“The targets of the group were allegedly American embassy offices in Surabaya and Jakarta; Plaza 89, in front of Australian embassy and [US mining giant] Freeport headquarters in Jakarta, and the Srondol Mobile Brigade headquarters in Semarang,” Suhardi said.
Officers of the anti-terror squad confiscated several live bombs, high explosive materials, bomb parts and bomb-making manuals in the raids, Suhardi said adding that the police are investigating whether the group has ties with other terrorist organizations.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, has been battling terrorists since the 2002 bombings of two Bali nightclubs, which killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.
Berlusconi Says ‘Obliged’ to Stay in Politics
Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Saturday he intended to stay in politics, a day after receiving a four-year prison term for fraud.
A Milan court on Friday convicted Berlusconi, 76, of tax fraud and sentenced him to four years in jail in connection with the media magnate’s Mediaset television company.
“I feel obliged to stay in the political field and to reform the justice system so that what happened to me doesn’t happen to other citizens,” Berlusconi told Italy’s Canale 5, the flagship of his media empire.
The statement came as a surprise as on Wednesday Berlusconi said he would not run for prime minister next year.
The Mediaset case has been one of the most high-profile and controversial trials involving Berlusconi’s business activity.
According to the prosecution, Mediaset was involved in a scheme to acquire the rights to broadcast movies on Berlusconi’s private television networks via shell companies, evading tax payments through false accounting and financial reports.
Berlusconi denounced the judges as biased and politicized.
The court ruled that Berlusconi, together with other defendants in the case, is to pay Italian tax services 10 million euros and imposed on the tycoon a five-year ban on running for political office.
Both the ban and the jail term will come into force if the sentence is upheld by a higher court. Berlusconi’s lawyers said they will lodge an appeal by November 10.
Russian Observers to Monitor U.S. Presidential Elections
Russia intended to send observers to monitor the U.S. presidential elections due in November, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday.
The Russian government would send some members of its Parliament to the U.S. as part of the 57-member monitoring delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told reporters during a news briefing.
The presidential elections in the U.S. will be held on Nov 6.
Russian monitors would also include diplomats from Russian Embassy in Washington and employees with Russian consulates general in several U.S. cities, Lukashevich said.
The senior Russian diplomat accused the U.S. authorities of preventing a full-fledge international monitoring of the presidential elections, according to a statement published on the ministry’s website.
“Elections in the U.S. could hardly be called flawless from the point of generally-accepted standards and criteria,” Lukashevich said.
He pointed out at the “obsolete and non-direct character” of the U.S. presidential elections, as well as the lack of nation- wide system of accreditation for international observers.
Via PL