Ex-PLN Chief Sentenced to Five Years

Jakarta Globe, Ronna Nirmala, December 21, 2011

Eddie Widiono at the Anti-Corruption Court on Wednesday. He was
sentenced to serve five years in prison. (JG Photo/Afriadi Hikmal)

Related articles

• Jail Term Sought for Ex-PLN Chief Eddie Widiono
• East Java to Experience Shortage of Gas
• State Gas Company Seeks to Thwart Price-Rise Plan

Former director of state power company Perusahaan Listrik Negara, Eddie Widiono, was sentenced to serve five years in prison by the Anti-Corruption Court on Wednesday.

Eddie was found guilty for his role in price fixing and corruption related to the project for Customer Information System – Master Plan of Information System (CIS-RISI) at the PLN Disjaya office in Tangerang.

He ordered the PLN General Manager to directly appoint Netway, without a tender, to handle the outsourcing project of CIS-RISI between 2004 and 2006.

The prosecutor had demanded a sentence of seven years.

Presiding judge Cokorda said Eddie was not acting professionally by approving the project in this manner. The court found that Eddie never used a traveler’s check worth Rp 850 million ($92,650) as accused.

The judge also ordered him to pay a Rp 500 million fine.

Indonesia Passes Land Acquisition Bill

Jakarta Globe, December 16, 2011

Indonesian members of parliament approved the final draft of a long-awaited
 land bill on Wednesday that investors hope will speed up land acquisition for
 government infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy.
(Antara Photo)     

         

Related articles

• Stocks Climb on Indonesia's Investment Grade Credit Rating
• Factbox: Indonesia’s New Land Law
• Indonesia Legislators Give Green Light to Land Bill
• Jakarta Bridge Breaks Apart In the Middle of Construction
• Indonesia Close to Passing Land Law to Speed Infrastructure

Jakarta. Indonesia’s House of Representatives on Friday approved a long-awaited land acquisition bill investors hope will give a big boost to government infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia’s top economy.

The bill is an attempt to break the bottleneck in infrastructure development that has long been seen as holding back growth in Southeast Asia’s top economy.

It also presents major investment opportunities in a country where roads, ports and airports are overloaded.

The House, also known as the DPR, on Wednesday signaled it would pass the bill. 

A day later, Fitch Ratings gave Indonesia an investment grade rating, which could act as a spur to much-needed investment. 

Fitch had cited weak infrastructure as one reason why it had delayed the upgrade.  

The controversial bill was passed despite a barrage of interruptions from members of the 560-strong parliament.

Shares in Indonesian construction, property and toll road firms have rallied this week on hopes the bill would be passed.

Bankers say the delay in passing the bill has been holding up the dispersal of loans to companies for infrastructure development this year.

The main toll road operator, Jasa Marga had described the impact of the delay on its business as like a race car waiting for a track.  

Sucorinvest sees the bill as positive for firms such as PT Wijaya Karya, PT Citra Marga Nusaphala Persada and PT Adhi Karya. 

Though the bill only applies to government projects, it is likely to benefit privately operated projects on government-bought land.

The government is relying on about $150 billion of private investment between 2010 and 2014 to overhaul its roads, railways and ports.

Without better infrastructure, analysts say the country’s growth may start to slow because of capacity constraints. 

Human rights groups say the bill disregards traditional land rights and could lead to more conflict over land and forced expropriation of property.

Reuters

Indonesia Legislators Give Green Light to Land Bill

Reuters

Fitch Upgrades Indonesia's Rating to Investment Grade

Jakarta Globe | December 15, 2011

Related articles

• BCA Sees Slowing Economy Eating Into Lending Growth
• Telco Sector Stable Although Margins on the Slide: Fitch
• World Bank Expects Slightly Slower Growth in Indonesia
• Indonesia’s Banks Are Stable: Moody’s
• Fitch Cuts Berlian’s Credit Rating

Indonesia’s sovereign debt rating was raised to investment grade by Fitch Ratings on Thursday, citing the country’s strong and resilient economy.

The rating assessor said it raised Indonesia’s long-term and local currency debt rating to BBB- from BB+, putting the country into investment grade after 14 years. The outlook of both ratings is stable, Fitch said.

“The upgrades reflect the country’s strong and resilient economic growth, low and declining public debt ratios, strengthened external liquidity and a prudent overall macro policy framework,” said Philip McNicholas, director of Fitch’s Asia-Pacific Sovereign Ratings group in a statement sent to the Jakarta Globe.

Indonesia lost its investment grade rating in December 1997, at the onset of the Asian financial crisis, which saw almost all of the country’s banking system collapse. Indonesia spent more than Rp 450 trillion to bail out lenders then.

Fitch Ratings also forecast Indonesia’s $700 billion economy to grow to an average of more than 6.0 percent per year through 2013, despite a less conducive global economic climate.

“Indonesia’s domestically-oriented economy and success in delivering relatively strong economic growth without the creation of external imbalances, or a reliance on short-term external financing suggests economic growth prospects should prove resilient to external shocks, as was the case in 2008,” Fitch said.

“Low public debt and positive real interest rates give the authorities policy flexibility to respond to any slowdown,” the ratings agency said.

Analysts and economists in Jakarta said other ratings agencies such as Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poors, which raised the country’s sovereign debt rating to one level below investment early this year, may soon join Fitch in upgrading the country’s rating next year.

Moody’s Investors Service raised the nation’s rating in January to Ba1 while Standard & Poor’s increased Indonesia’s long-term foreign-currency rating one level to BB+ from BB in April, with a positive outlook. The rating is one level below investment grade.

“We welcome this long awaited positive news. Technically, it should open up the restriction on a universe of domestic investments  which foreign funds are allowed to invest,” said Jeffrosenberg Tan, head of research at Sinarmas Sekuritas in Jakarta. 

“The investment grade does not mean a lot nowadays. Our rating should be a lot better than highly indebted developed countries. Judging from the relative strength of our sovereign balance sheet compared to developed counterparts, Indonesia should have been awarded a lot sooner then now,” Jeffrosenberg said.

Fitch also said that a strong foreign exchange reserve by Indonesia has put the country in a strong position to shield it from being hit by the impact of the Eurozone debt crisis.

“The strengthening of external finances through substantial reserve accumulation has insulated domestic economic and financial stability during recent periods of intensified portfolio capital flow volatility,” Fitch said.

Indonesia’s foreign exchange reserve stood at $113.9 billion as of the end of November of this year, compared with $95 billion early this year, according to data from Bank Indonesia.

The rupiah, which has been under selling pressure in recent weeks, traded at 9,135 against the dollar on Thursday, falling 0.5 percent from Wednesday's close at 9,090. Bank Indonesia officials have said that they will continue to intervene in the market to support the rupiah.

ICW to Report Freeport to US Department of Justice

Jakarta Globe, December 15, 2011

Related articles

• Freeport, Union Reach Deal To End Strike
• Exclusive: Freeport Indonesia Union to Sign Deal to End Strike
• Freeport Woes Prompt Explosives Maker to Seek New Clients
• Freeport Strikers Accused of Turning Off Investors
• Editorial: Freeport Workers Are Being Irresponsible

Anti-graft organization Indonesian Corruption Watch will report the subsidiary of US mining giant Freeport-McMoRan to the US Department of Justice next month for involvement in a bribery case.

“We’re drafting the report and we will send it in one or two months,” deputy chairman of ICW Adnan Topan Husodo said during a national seminar on corruption on Thursday.

He said that US law does not allow US companies operating in other countries to take part in bribery.

Human rights group Imparsial revealed that police received $64 million from Freeport between 1995 and 2004. National Police spokesman Gen. Timur Pradopo verified the payments, calling them “lunch money.” Timur promised an audit.

“Even though it is being called a grant from Freeport, it was not supposed to be given to the National Police,” Adnan said. “The security budget should be given to the state budget because the National Police are a government institution funded by the state budget, instead of by a private company.”

Adnan said receiving money outside of the state budget equaled bribery.

“Letting the police receive ‘security payments’ from private institutions will disrupt police independence,” he said.

Antara

Related Article:

US charges eight in Siemens foreign bribery case

WB clamps down on Vietnamese, Indonesian firms

The Jakarta Post, Viet Nam News, The Asia News Network, Thu, 12/15/2011

The World Bank announced on Tuesday its debarment of three companies and one individual for punishable practices under WB-financed water supply projects in Vietnam and Indonesia.

The companies include Vietnamese Social and Environmental Development JSC (SECO), Australian Kellogg Brown&Root Pty Ltd (KBR Pty) and Indonesian PT Amythas Experts and Associates. The World Bank also debarred Nguyen Xuan Doan, Managing Director of SECO, who was found to be involved in the same sector in Vietnam.

"This settlement shows the Bank’s work on integrity is resilient while we support companies to clean up their operations and therefore enforcing international compliance standards," said Leonard McCarthy, integrity vice president at the World Bank.

According to allegations, SECO engaged in a scheme to defraud World Bank clients and has been declared ineligible to participate in Bank Group-financed projects for the next five years.

KBR Pty, an Australian subsidiary of KBR Inc, was debarred for a period of two years with conditional release following an investigation by the Bank’s Integrity Vice Presidency (INT) into violations of the Consultant’s Guidelines under a local Bank-financed water supply project. KBR Pty misrepresented the availability of key consultants during contract negotiation and execution, which resulted in the company being awarded the contract and delays in execution.

Following the terms of the agreement KBR Inc will also implement remedial measures to its corporate compliance program to comply with the World Bank Compliance standards.

The World Bank also debarred Indonesian PT Amythas Experts and Associates for a period of three years for fraudulent practices in relation to a World Bank-financed community development and poverty alleviation project.

"We have to act with ever more vigilance when it comes to rooting out fraud and corruption," said McCarthy.

Amythas Experts will be required to implement a corporate compliance program in line with World Bank standards and meet other conditions as part of the settlement under the debarment that became effective on December 7. The period of debarment could be shortened if the company meets additional conditions of restitution and disclosure.

The three companies cannot be awarded a contract, or otherwise participate in new activities under World Bank Group-financed or executed projects during the debarment period.

They are eligible for cross debarment under the April 2010 Agreement for Mutual Enforcement of Debarment Decisions entered into by the African Development Bank Group, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the World Bank Group and the Inter-American Development Bank Group.

Related Article:

US charges eight in Siemens foreign bribery case

Bizarre Claim for $1 Trillion

Courthousenews, By DAN MCCUE, Monday, December 05, 2011

MANHATTAN (CN) - An American expatriate in Bulgaria claims the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, the Office of International Treasury Control and the Italian government conspired with a host of others to steal more than $1.1 trillion in financial instruments intended to support humanitarian purposes

The 111-page federal complaint involves a range of entities common to conspiracy theorists, including the Vatican Illuminati, the Masons, the "Trilateral Trillenium Tripartite Gold Commission," and the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Plaintiff Neil Keenan claims he was entrusted in 2009 with the financial instruments - which included U.S. Federal Reserve notes worth $124.5 billion, two Japanese government bonds with a combined face value of $19 billion, and one U.S. "Kennedy" bond with a face value of $1 billion - by an entity called the Dragon Family, which is a group of several wealthy and secretive Asian families.

"The Dragon family abstains from public view and knowledge, but, upon information and belief, acts for the good and better benefit of the world in constant coordination with higher levels of global financial organizations, in particular, the Federal Reserve System," Keenan claims.

"During the course of its existence over the last century, the Dragon family has accumulated great wealth by having provided the Federal Reserve Bank and the United States Government with asset assignments of gold and silver via certain accounts held in Switzerland, for which it has received consideration in the form of a variety of Notes, Bonds and Certificates such as those described ... that are an obligation of the Federal Reserve System."

Keenan says that with accrued interest the instruments are now worth more than $1 trillion. He says the family designated him as its principal in an effort to select certain registered and authorized Private Placement Investment Programs (PPPs) for the benefit of unspecified global humanitarian efforts.

In his remarkable complaint, Keenan claims that the U.S. government enormous amounts of money - delivered in gold and other precious metals - from the Dragon Family many years ago, and that the money was placed into the Federal Reserve System for the benefit and underwriting support of the dollar, "which was to become and currently remains the global reserve currency".

Keenan claims the conspiracy began with the illegal detention of two Japanese citizens, Akihiko Yamaguchi and Mitsuyoshi Watanabe, and the seizure of $134.5 billion in bonds they were holding in Italy, in June 2009.

Photo released by the Italian media after these bonds

were first seized (June 2009)

Yamaguchi can best be described as Keenan's predecessor in trying to place Dragon Family instruments in legitimate PPPs to advance the group's humanitarian aims, according to the complaint.

Keenan says he came to know both Yamaguchi and the Dragon Family through the Japanese man's efforts on the group's behalf, and that he introduced them to a bank in Cyprus with which they could do business.

Keenan says that in gratitude, Yamaguchi sought and was granted approval to execute a special power of attorney, whereby Keenan would also act on behalf of the Dragon Family to place their assets in PPPs.

It was then, he says, that he took possession of the instruments that are the heart of the lawsuit. For his assistance, Keenan says, he was to receive a profit share amounting to 30 percent of any particular PPP he arranged.

A month after the Japanese men were detained, an man named Leo Zagami, "a self-described 33rd degree Free Mason, who, as of April 2008, had reportedly claimed to be the leader of a breakaway faction of the Knights of Templar and high-level Freemasons centered around the elite of the Masons P2 (propaganda Due) Lodge in Monte Carlo," arrived on the scene, according to the complaint. (Parentheses in complaint.)

Zagami claimed to be a representative of the Vatican Illuminati and other European sect societies and "had been looking to make contact with certain Asian Secret Societies," the complaint states.

During a meeting in Japan, he says, he told a contact that Yamaguchi and Watanabe had been "set up" and that he had inside information about the seized instruments.

Subsequently, he introduced his contact in Japan to defendant Daniele Dal Bosco, a Vatican banker and associate of the P2 Masonic Lodge, who "would be able to 'cash the bonds seized by the Italian Treasury Police,'" according to the complaint.

The complaint alleges a complicated history with many moving parts and scores of internationally known and unknown characters, the sum of which is that Keenan claims he was entrusted with billions of dollars in bonds by the Dragon Family.

He claims that soon, he and Dal Bosco were in daily contact via Skype and they arranged to meet in Italy. During these conversations, Dal Bosco represented that he was not only financial advisor to Zagami, but also to the Vatican, Vatican City, Rome, and the treasurer for the P2 Masonic Lodge.

As a result, Keenan said, although he tried keep personal possession of the financial instruments with which he was entrusted, he nevertheless came to trust Dal Bosco, and turned the bonds over to him for "temporary safekeeping and custodianship".

Dal Bosco absconded with the bonds and sought assistance in selling the instruments "in the global marketplace through stealth, conversion and bribery," Keenan claims.

He claims that as the conspiracy continued to unfold, various high level officials repeatedly offered him a bribe of $100 million to "release" the instruments without disclosing their theft to the Dragon family, and to allow the instruments to be converted to a so-called UN "Sovereign Program" wholly under the auspices, protection and umbrella of the sovereign immunity enjoyed by the defendants.

Other defendants include UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon, Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Giancarlo Bruno, who is identified as head of the banking industry for the World Economic Forum, Italy's ambassador to the UN Cesare Maria Ragaflini, Ray C. Dam, president of the Office of International Treasury Control, and David A. Sale, the deputy chief of the council for the cabinet of the OITC.

Keenan seeks the return of the stolen instruments, punitive damages and court costs on multiple claims of fraud, breach of contract and violation of international law.

He is represented by William H. Mulligan Jr., with Bleakley, Platt & Schmidt of White Plains, N.Y.

Related Articles:

CONFIRMED: The Trillion-Dollar Lawsuit That Could End Financial Tyranny

Civil Action #8500, United States District Court for Southern District of New York, Nov 23, 2011

Silvio Berlusconi vows not to run for new term in 2013

Graft news report allegedly leads to death of journalist’s baby

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 12/14/2011

A journalist has alleged that a village head sent a mob to attack his home, leading to the death of his one-month-old baby, in retribution for a news report he made about alleged graft in his village.

Rote Ndao News journalist Dance Henukh said Wednesday he reported allegations of corruption surrounding the allocation of village funds (ADD) and resettlement and transmigration program funds totaling Rp 3.1 billion (US$341,000), implicating Kuli village head Yunus O Dillak in East Nusa Tenggara.

“Justice must be served so that there will be no threats against journalists in the future,” Dance, who lives in the same village, Rote Ndao regency, told The Jakarta Post over the phone.

“A number of people came to my house on Saturday at around 4 a.m. local time [2 a.m. Jakarta time] and threatened me,” he said. “They said that they would kill me and set my house on fire.”

Dance said he immediately informed the Rote Ndao Police about the threat.

However, the police disregarded his complaint because they said they did not have enough evidence to arrest those who threatened him because the people had already left when the police arrived on the scene, he said.

Dance said that the mob attacked his house on Sunday at around at 1 a.m., with stones and pieces of wood that damaged parts of the house.

“My baby died at around 3 a.m.,” Dance said.

According to Yemris Fointuna, the head of the Kupang chapter of the Independent Journalists Association (AJI), Dance’s baby died of shock and seizures and was buried on Sunday afternoon.

He said the mob returned on Tuesday and set his house on fire at 1:45 a.m., when he and his family were sleeping.

“I didn’t realize that my house was on fire until the roof collapsed and woke me from my sleep,” Dance told the Post.

He said he and his family immediately fled the house to save themselves and had no time to save their valuables. (drs)

EU warns Britain: financial rules apply to you too

Commissioner Olli Rehn says City of London will still be subject to regulation from Brussels

guardian.co.uk, Ian Traynor, Monday 12 December 2011

Olli Rehn: 'The UK’s excessive deficit and debt will be the subject of
 surveillance like other [EU] member states.' Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

The European commission on Monday underlined the negative impact of David Cameron's summit gambit by pledging that the City's financial institutions would be subject to new regulations hatched in Brussels.

Emphasising the EU's determination to dismiss Cameron's abortive attempt to secure exemptions for the City, Olli Rehn, the commission vice-president in charge of economic and monetary affairs, was scathing about the prime minister's campaign. This was rejected by the Brussels summit on Friday, triggering a British veto of German plans to anchor a new eurozone fiscal union in a renegotiated Lisbon treaty.

Cameron's move isolated Britain in Europe as seldom before, producing weekend headlines and comment across Europe that the UK was on the way out of the EU.

"We want a strong and constructive Britain in Europe, and we want Britain to be at the centre of Europe, and not on the sidelines," said Rehn, sounding more sorrowful than angry at what is seen in Brussels as Cameron's self-inflicted wound. "If [Cameron's] move was intended to prevent bankers and financial corporations in the [City of London] from being regulated, that is not going to happen. We must all draw lessons from the financial crisis, and that goes for the financial sector as well."

Launching a new set of economic convergence policies – known as the "six-pack" and which come into force on Tuesday – Rehn admitted that Britain's blocking of attempts to reopen the Lisbon treaty could create problems for the EU. Potentially, the move makes it legally more difficult to establish the eurozone's "fiscal compact" – the main result of last Friday's summit – by March.

Because of the British block, at least 23 and possibly 26 of the 27 EU states are now to agree a new international treaty among themselves as the answer to the eurozone debt crisis. The aim is for all eurozone countries to enact laws setting binding debt ceilings and with quasi-automatic penalties and fines for those countries breaking the rules. Germany, the architect of the new regime, wants to strengthen the key European institutions – the European commission and the European court of justice – giving them formidable powers of intervention in enforcing the new regime.

But on the central innovation – automatic fines for deficit sinners – Rehn conceded that it could be difficult to give the new regime as much clout as Berlin would like. The Germans want the commission to enforce the regime independently by recommending punishments for eurozone countries running excessive budget deficits. The penalty would be triggered automatically unless a qualified majority of eurozone governments then voted to overturn it. Rehn said the Lisbon treaty would need to be changed for this to happen – but it cannot be changed because of the British veto on Friday.

While eurosceptic Tory backbenchers may be pleased by the potential legal stalemate, the Cameron veto may be generating more unintended consequences. For months it has been British government policy to back EU efforts to stabilise the euro through an effective fiscal union. Cameron and the chancellor, George Osborne, have been stressing the "relentless logic" of fiscal union, supporting it strongly provided that Britain is not involved. Britain's veto and its resistance to having EU bodies involved in policing the fiscal compact could leave the new regime weaker, setting back attempts to stabilise the euro, which Britain says is also crucial for the UK economy.

"I regret very much that the UK was not willing to join the new fiscal compact, as much for the sake of Europe and its crisis response as for the sake of British citizens and their perspectives," said Rehn. "I would also like to remind you that the UK government has also supported and approved the six-pack of new rules tightening fiscal and economic surveillance, which enters into force tomorrow.

"The UK's excessive deficit and debt will be the subject of surveillance like other member states, even if the enforcement mechanism mostly applies to the euro area member states."

Related Articles:

EU veto a 'diplomatic disaster', claims Miliband

Eurozone countries go it alone with new treaty that excludes Britain

Ex-Officials Fingered in Bogor Villa Spat

Jakarta Globe, Vento Saudale, December 10, 2011

Former Home Affairs Minister Hari Sabarno during his ongoing trial
in the Anti-Corruption Court in Jakarta on Friday. (JG Photo) 

Related articles

• Bogor to Ban Karaoke Clubs in Hotels
• Water Shortages Threaten Villagers in Bogor and Lombok
• Commuters Left High and Dry by Rain and Floods
• Hospital Guards Allegedly Ditch Mentally Ill Man in Field
• Roads Cannot Keep up With Traffic Weight in Bogor

  

Bogor. Influential homeowners in Bogor are reportedly preventing the city’s administration from acting against 250 dwellings in the Puncak area that were built in breach of spatial planning rules, along with 12 buildings constructed without building licenses in a protected forest.

The Bogor district head, Rahmat Yasin, did not deny that the buildings were improperly sited.

“There certainly are those buildings, and they’re still there even though we have been trying to have them removed,” he said on Friday. “We will involve relevant parties soon.”

The district head agreed that the area was a vital rainwater infiltration area for Bogor as well as Jakarta, farther downstream.

“There has been a lot of research that demonstrates the decline of the Puncak area’s capacity as a rainwater infiltration area,” Rahmat said. “The area has been pinpointed as providing rapid runoff, which leads to flooding downstream.”

Although Rahmat did not want to reply with specific details when asked about influential homeowners who live in the area, his deputy, Karyawan Faturah, was more open.

“If we want to clean up this problem then we are going to need the assistance of the central government, because a large number of these dwellings belong to ‘people of influence’ in Jakarta,” he said.

In a 2009 survey, the spatial planning department of the Bogor district administration discovered 112 unauthorized holiday villas. In 2010 it identified another 163 of them, bringing the total to 275. The villas were built on land plots ranging from 0.1 hectares to two hectares.

The number of unauthorized villas was reduced to about 250 in late 2010, after a number of them were demolished in accordance with government orders.

There have been no demolitions in 2011, but Yani Hasann, head of the local spatial planning office, says he wants to recommence the demolitions in 2012.

“We are rechecking our data to determine which villas we need to demolish,” he said. “We will form a team to handle the demolitions, which will involve related agencies such as the forestry department.”

An additional 12 houses have been constructed in the Gede Pangrango protected forest area, and some of them belong to former government officials, according to the Bogor administration.

These former officials reportedly include Hari Sabarno, a former home affairs minister who is now on trial for corruption; Sutiyoso, a former governor of Jakarta; Jaja Suparna, a former military reserve commander; and HBL Mantiri, a former head of the Udayana Military Command.

Most of the unauthorized villas were built after the government passed the 2007 Spatial Planning Law, a 2008 presidential decree on spatial planning and 2008 Bogor bylaw on spatial planning. These laws all aim to prevent unauthorized development in Jakarta’s upstream catchment area because it aggravates flooding in the capital.

Newt Gingrich's gay sister backs Obama for 2012

Candace Gingrich-Jones says she disagrees with her brother on gay rights issues

guardian.co.uk, Reuters, Thursday 8 December 2011

Gingrich opposes gay marriage and did not attend his half-sister's
wedding. Photograph: Andrew Burton/Reuters

The gay half-sister of Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich has criticised his position on gay rights, saying she will support Barack Obama in the 2012 election.

Candace Gingrich-Jones, a gay rights activist, said in an interview with MSNBC that she and her older half-brother, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, were "mutually respectful" but disagree on gay rights.

"He is definitely on the wrong side of history when it comes to those issues," Gingrich-Jones said.

She said she would "work really, really hard to make sure that President Obama is re-elected next year no matter who the Republican candidate is".

Gingrich's campaign nearly sputtered to a halt last summer, but he has recently risen to the top of the polls in the Republican contest to choose a nominee to face Obama in the 2012 election.

Gingrich is known for his socially conservative views and has said he opposes gay marriage. Gingrich-Jones, a director at the Human Rights Campaign, a gay advocacy group, said he did not attend her wedding.

A spokesman for Gingrich was not immediately available for comment.

Related Articles :

Gingrich calls Palestinians an "invented" people

Who Controls America? Who Controls Wall Street? (72% are Jews)

Summary:

Of the fifty-one (51) senior executives of the major Wall Street banks, trade exchanges, and regulatory agencies, thirty-seven (37) are Jews or have Jewish spouses. This is a numerical representation of 72%. Jews are approximately 2% of the U.S. population.* Therefore Jews are over-represented among the senior executives of the major Wall Street banks, trade exchanges, and regulatory agencies by a factor of 36 times(3,600 percent).

Gingrich calls Palestinians an "invented" people

"The End of History" – Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)
(Subjects:Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Muhammad, Jesus, God, Jews, Arabs, EU, US, Israel, Iran, Russia, Africa, South America, Global Unity,..... etc.) (Text version)

"If an Arab and a Jew can look at one another and see the Akashic lineage and see the one family, there is hope. If they can see that their differences no longer require that they kill one another, then there is a beginning of a change in history. And that's what is happening now. All of humanity, no matter what the spiritual belief, has been guilty of falling into the historic trap of separating instead of unifying. Now it's starting to change. There's a shift happening."

Related Articles to Gay / Lesbian :

US to Weigh Gay Rights in Foreign Aid

Gay rights must be criterion for US aid allocations, instructs Obama

Obama says U.S. to stand up for gay rights abroad

Obama tells US officials to use overseas aid to promote gay rights

U.N. passes 'historic' gay rights resolution

Cameron threat to withhold UK aid to anti-gay nations

Europe to focus on democracy and human rights in aid projects

About the Challenges of Being a Gay Man – Oct 23, 2010 (Saint Germain channelled by Alexandra Mahlimay and Dan Bennack) - “You see, your Soul and Creator are not concerned with any perspective you have that contradicts the reality of your Divinity – whether this be your gender, your sexual preference, your nationality – or your race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, or anything else.”

"The Akashic System" – Jul 17, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Religion, The Humanization of God, Benevolent Design, DNA, Akashic Circle, (Old) Souls, Gaia, Indigenous People, Talents, Reincarnation, Genders, Gender Switches, In “between” Gender Change, Gender Confusion, Shift of Human Consciousness, Global Unity,..... etc.)  - (Text version)  New !

The Time for Talk Is Over, SBY Says on Anti-Graft Day

Jakarta Globe, Hangga Brata & Ezra Sihite | December 10, 2011

Related articles

• Anticorruption Efforts Start in the Classroom
• Editorial: Stop Corruption Before It Starts
• SBY Urges Religious Tolerance, Scolds Intimidators in Speech at Batak Church
• Edhie-Aliya Union is 'Love' Not 'Coalition': SBY
• Wedding ofPresidential Proportions, But SBY Will Not Take Any Days Off

In his International Anti-Corruption Day  speech on Friday, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the government would engage more with antigraft activists to plot the best way to rid the country of corruption.

“I will not give any more speeches. What I said at the Anti-Corruption Day celebration was enough,” Yudhoyono said at a ceremony in Semarang, which was attended by top antigraft activists. “Now, I want input from all of you so that efforts to prevent and eradicate corruption become more successful.”

Among those at the ceremony were Indonesia Corruption Watch chairman Danang Widoyoko, Transparency International Indonesia secretary general Teten Masduki and Alexander Lay of the Indonesian Legal Roundtable.

Yudhoyono said the government was also pushing for more bilateral agreements to allow the country to extradite corruption suspects and reclaim stolen assets stashed overseas.

“Indonesia does not want countries to become safe havens for corrupt Indonesians,” he said.

Justice Minister Amir Syamsuddin said that after the 2004 presidential instruction on the acceleration of corruption eradication was issued, Indonesia had enjoyed steady success in ridding the country of graft.

Since 2005, he said, the National Police have handled 1,961 corruption cases, saving more than Rp 679 billion ($75.4 million) in state losses.

The minister also applauded the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for successfully prosecuting 196 cases since its establishment in 2003.

More than Rp 800 billion in compensation and fines was gained from cases prosecuted by the KPK, as well as another Rp 151 trillion from the organization’s graft prevention efforts, according to Amir.

Not everything, however, was so rosy. Amir said more than 1,000 corruption cases had been dropped by the Attorney General’s Office in the past seven years. Since 2004, he said, the AGO has handled 8,394 cases, but only 6,831 have made it to prosecution.

Although the AGO managed to save more than Rp 13 trillion in stolen state assets since 2004, he said, that figure would have been higher if it took more cases to court and won.

Yudhoyono said Indonesia’s anticorruption efforts had helped lift the country’s economy, which has grown from Rp 500 trillion in 2004 to Rp 1,200 trillion in 2011.

While the all the figures offered by Amir and Yudhoyono make it sound like the country is making real headway in fighting corruption, not all of the numbers could be immediately verified.

Yudhoyono’s speech came after Transparency International Indonesia on Thursday criticized the government for failing to fight corruption.

In the group’s latest Corruption Perception Index, Indonesia improved slightly from 2.8 to 3.0, with 10 being the least corrupt. TI

Indonesia’s president, Natalia Soebagjo, dismissed the improvement as “insignificant.”

Indonesia aims to get at least a 5.0 in the 2014 Transparency survey, but Indonesian Institute of Sciences researcher Syamsuddin Haris said it should lower its goal.

Syamsuddin said the House of Representatives’ decision to select a relatively unknown lawyer, Abraham Samad, to chair the KPK was a political one.

“[Samad’s appointment] is a product of political compromise,” he said. “I suspect he was chosen because he is easier to tame than the other candidates.”

ICW deputy chairman Adnan Topan Husodo also criticized Abraham’s pledge to settle within a year cases left unfinished by the previous KPK leadership.

“This is too big of a promise,” he said. “Cases like Century and Nazaruddin will not be resolved in one year. The House is naive if it believes this because the KPK leadership is collective, so he has to deal with other KPK commissioners in setting KPK policy.”

In Malang, East Java, hundreds of students from Brawijaya University were collecting coins for Abraham, who promised to quit the KPK if he failed to keep his promise to resolve the cases.

“These coins will be his pocket money …  if in one year he is not able to live up to his promise,” said the university’s student body president, Arief Budi Laksono.

Additional reporting by

Rizky Amelia, Rangga Prakoso, Rahmat & Antara

Demonstrators protesting against the tax mafia during a protest to mark 

Anti-Corruption Day in from of the Corruption Eradication Commission in Jakarta

on Friday. (AFP Photo)