Indonesia Uses 3-Month Bond Yield

Bank Indonesia.

The Indonesian government said Friday that it will use the yield of its three-month bonds as a reference in deciding the yield of its existing IDR142.79 trillion ($16.4 billion) in bonds that bear variable coupons.
Previously the reference was the yield of the three-month Sertifikat Bank Indonesia note issued by the central bank. The central bank stopped auctioning those money market securities late last year to reduce fund inflows, making it necessary for the government to use another rate as a reference.
At the most recent auction Tuesday, the three-month bonds were yielding 5.12%, significantly lower than the yield of Bank Indonesia's latest three-month note of 6.367%. The government will again auction three-month bonds next month.

Japan Faces Its Next Chore

A picture shows wrecked cars littering a street in Natori, Miyagi prefecture on March 16, 2011 after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The official toll of the dead and missing following a devastating earthquake and tsunami that flattened Japans northeast coast has topped 11,000, with 3,676 confirmed dead, police said on March 16.

Where do you even start? Do you start by carting away the Chokai Maru, the 150-foot (45-meter) ship that was lifted over a pier and slammed into a house in this port town?
Do you start with the thousands of destroyed cars scattered like discarded toys in the city of Sendai? With the broken windows and the doorless refrigerators and the endless remnants of so many lives that clutter the canals?
In the first days after a tsunami slammed into Japan’s northeast coast on March 11, killing well over 10,000 people, it seemed callous to worry about the cleanup. The filth paled beside the tragedy. Now, nearly two weeks later, hundreds of communities are finally turning to the monumental task ahead.
The legacy of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coastline in 2005, gives an idea of both the immensity of the job and the environmental hazards Japan could face for years to come.
“In Katrina, you had debris that had seawater, sewage, chemicals, gasoline, oil, that was all mixed together in a toxic soup,” said David McEntire, a disaster expert at the University of North Texas. “And you’re going to have similar problems with the disaster in Japan.”
Three years after Katrina, which spawned enough debris to cover Britain, the U.S. government had said the mess was not even close to being cleaned up. The mess looks endless in Japan, and hauling it away seems unimaginable.
The cost? No one really knows, though the crisis is emerging as the world’s most expensive natural disaster on record, with Japanese officials saying losses could total up to 25 trillion yen ($309 billion). The World Bank says reconstruction could take five years.
So there’s nothing to do but start. Mayumi Hatanaka began with the knee-high mud that had flooded into her little seafood restaurant in the small seaside city of Shiogama.
“It’s been four days, and we’ve been working, working,” she said, standing beneath a sign that promised food “Straight From The Fishery To You.”
She and her daughter were scraping the muck down their driveway and into the street. The thick, dark goo looked almost volcanic. Workers hired by the city used a gargantuan truck-mounted vacuum, normally used for well-drilling, to hose it up. The noise of the pump and the sucking splutter of the hose nearly drowned out her voice, and she had to shout to be heard.
Simply carving out an aisle in the restaurant took three days, Hatanaka said, so she has no idea when she’ll be able to reopen. “I think we’ll never finish,” she said, only briefly willing to set aside her shovel before getting back to work.
Much of the official cleanup effort so far has been to support rescue teams. Soldiers and city crews have cleared streets of debris so rescuers can get through, and some buildings have been pulled apart in search of survivors.
Now, with little chance left of finding anyone still alive, the concern is to avoid accidentally clearing away corpses with the debris. Takashi Takayama is a city official in Higashimatsushima, a port town brutalized by the tsunami, leaving nearly 700 people dead.
He said the city, where the Chokai Maru ship was thrown ashore, is still cleaning up — and footing the bill — from a major earthquake in 2003.
“I don’t know how long it will take,” he said. “The last time it was just parts of houses that were destroyed. Now it’s the whole house. So I don’t know how we’ll do it.”
With city workers desperately overworked, officials turned to a local association of construction companies to help. Those private contractors helped clear the roads and have started piling up debris in small hills, soon to be small mountains, on city land near the port.
Japan is a country where separating trash into its various components is almost sacrosanct: There are the burnables, the food items, the array of different recyclables. Takayama is already dreading the arguments when disaster-weary residents refuse to categorize their garbage properly.
“Sorting everything out will be the first challenge,” he said.
A 2004 tsunami, which killed 230,000 people in 14 Asian and African countries, left thousands of cities and towns facing a task similar to Japan’s today. In Indonesia, the United Nations employed 400,000 workers to clear 1.3 million cubic yards (1 million cubic meters) of debris just from the urban areas of the hard-hit city of Banda Aceh.
Many of the countries affected by that disaster were less developed than Japan and lacked sophisticated waste disposal systems. In the initial cleanups, some burned debris in the open air, dumped it in makeshift landfills and used other environmentally risky methods, polluting wells, inland waterways and the nearby seas.
Japan will presumably use state-of-the-art incinerators and sanitary landfills, though technological prowess doesn’t guarantee there won’t be problems. In the United States, there were allegations of corruption by cleanup companies after Hurricane Katrina, including claims that hazardous debris was improperly dumped in landfills.

Apple's iPad 2 Hits Overseas Stores after U.S. Sellout

An employee (R) looks at customers stand in line outside Apples flagship 5th Avenue store to purchase iPad 2 tablets in New York, March 16, 2011.

Hundreds of customers lined up outside Apple stores in Australia and New Zealand on Friday for the international launch of the iPad 2, which has flown off the shelves in the United States leaving the company struggling to meet demand.
Analysts forecast some 1 million devices may have been sold in the first weekend of the launch in the United States, but many warn that it’s not clear how supply constraints will affect availability following the Japan earthquake and tsunami.
Apple plans to roll out the new iPad on Friday to 25 markets including France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, and Spain. The iPad 2, a thinner and faster version that features two cameras for video chat, was introduced in the United States on March 11.
But some would-be buyers have expressed frustration at how difficult it has been to secure one of the wildly popular tablet computers, sparking speculation Apple misjudged demand.
“If it wasn’t for the iPad, I wouldn’t be in Australia right now,” said Alex Lee, a backpacker from Canada, who was the first in the queue outside the glass-fronted Apple store in Sydney’s central business district.
He said he diverted his travels from Singapore to attend the launch. “It’s like a habit. I’ve also lined up on Regent Street in London for the iPhone”, added Lee, who had a folding chair and blanket and had spent two nights waiting.
Blue-shirted Apple staff in Sydney handed out trays of sandwiches to those in the queue, some of whom had bedded down on blankets overnight before being awoken by bright sunshine. The iPad 2 goes on sale at 5 p.m. local time (0400) GMT in New Zealand and at 0600 GMT on the east coast of Australia, before sales kick off in other markets.
Its retail price in Australia starts at A$579 ($568), against $499 in the United States. Chief Executive Steve Jobs said in a statement on Tuesday the company was “experiencing amazing demand for iPad 2 in the U.S.” and added “We appreciate everyone’s patience and we are working hard to build enough iPads for everyone.”
Fiona Martin, a spokeswoman for Apple in Australia, declined to comment on whether there was enough stock to meet demand. “We don’t comment on speculation, we’ve got plenty down there for all those folk that are in the queue.”
In New Zealand, a shop assistant at JB HiFi , one of Wellington’s major electronic shops, said there had been a constant stream of people asking about the iPad. “We haven’t even seen it, we don’t know how many we’re getting, but there’ll be big demand you can bet,” said the assistant.
A prospective buyer, 22-year-old student Ian MacDonald, said he had held off buying the first generation iPad because it lacked a camera and he wanted any bugs ironed out.
“This version looks way better, with the cameras and it beats all the other tablets because there are so many apps (applications),” he said.
In addition to Friday’s rollout, Apple said the iPad 2 will be available in Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and additional countries in April. Japan supply concerns
Analysts are concerned that Apple will face shortages of key components for the iPad 2 because of the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan two weeks ago. Several key components in the new version of Apple’s popular iPad come from Japan, including the battery and the flash memory used to store music and video on the device, according to IT research house iSuppli .
Apple delayed sales of the iPad 2 in Japan, but has said that had nothing to do with any component shortages. “We expect Apple to face increased pressure in meeting iPad 2 and iPhone 4 demand in the second quarter,” Stifel Nicolaus analyst Doug Reid wrote recently.
“Although it is early to gauge the extent of component supply shortages, we see risk to our iPad and iPhone unit estimates in the June quarter.”
That said, the wait time on delivery of online orders has shortened to 3-4 weeks in recent days from as high as 6-7 weeks, suggesting component shortages have not reached critical levels. The iPad two also faces increased competition.
Samsung Electronics and Motorola have tablets on the market and Blackberry-maker Research In Motion and Hewlett-Packard Co are set to release tablets in coming months.

Japan's Top 11 Cars?

Honda NSX

March has been the worst month in generations up north. Most of the happenings fall outside the scope of a motoring publication but we can at least pay gentle homage to the country and people who have brought us so many wonderful wheels.
But which are the most wonderful-est? What are the top, say, 11, mainstream Japanese cars of all?
Mazda RX-7: Mazda said it would give up on the Wankel engine over its dead body and it was a close-run thing. The original 1979 RX-7 coupe was probably the best, with styling unlike anything else and high-spinning rotary performance to boot. Datsun 2000: Once they'd flung the Fairlady name (at least in export markets) and added a lively two-litre engine, Datsun had the best low-cost roadster in the world until the MX-5. It wasn't an MGB rip-off, either, despite what the Anglophiles say. The Fairlady 1500 prototype made its debut in 1961, six months before the "B" hit showrooms. Mazda MX-5: The classic English roadster - not as it really was but as we always wished it had been. Superb. Datsun 240Z: For a company that wound up destitute and homeless in the late 1990s - and had to be taken in by Renault - Nissan has produced a surprisingly high number of the great Japanese cars. In 1970 many claimed the 240Z was an E-Type rip-off; to today's eyes, the Zed looks thoroughly original and a decade more modern. Later Zs porked up but the years do not condemn the lithe original.
Datsun 1600: This was an attempt to build a BMW 2002 rival. To reduce the risk, they built an actual BMW 2002 (well, very nearly). Furthermore, they did it at a Datsun price. The 1600, or 510 series, was first seen in 1968, is still sought after and is still used in motor sport. Toyota Celica 4G: The first front-drive Celica, the fourth-gen of 1985, had sublime handling at a time when front-wheel-drive was considered as unsporting as a three-speed auto (a Saab or Subaru of the time told you why). The refreshingly styled newcomer also had an a jewel of a two-litre engine that thought the new, unpopular, low-octane unleaded was actually rocket fuel. Honda NSX: A Japanese Ferrari competitor, albeit from a company that missed the point about why people bought Ferraris. Most weren't going to buy a Honda, no matter how good. That was a reflection on them, not on Honda's accomplished, mid-engined, Ayrton Senna-tweaked NSX. Nissan Skyline GT-R: Love or hate Godzilla, you can't deny the power of the reptilian beast.
Toyota Corolla: The benchmark for affordable quality and consistency in every language. Obama reputedly said of the US's Big Three: "Why can't they make a Corolla?" Quite.
Subaru Impreza WRX: Largely responsible for convincing young Australians that V8 engines were, you know, like, so yesterday. The Lancer Evo is almost as impressive. Toyota 2000GT: Mainstream? Well, it was the best-known Japanese car in the world in 1967, courtesy of a star turn in the Bond film You Only Live Twice (the convertible version was produced just for the film).
The 2000GT was really a Japanese industry group effort that ended up wearing Toyota badges. A beautiful and capable one at that. Imagine China today suddenly coming up with a credible 911 competitor. The 2000GT was that much of a shock.
See! If you count the Evo, slipped in here with the WRX, Japan has produced such an abundance that even its Top 11 has 12 cars in it.
That's without mentioning all the ones you've been shouting out, like those great versions of the Honda Civic or perhaps the first Lexus. Or any of the many ultra-quirky fun machines. Get well soon, Japan.

How Far Indonesia Gets Involved in Supporting Libya

A Mirage 2000-5 jet fighter takes off at the aerial military base 126 - Capitaine Preziosi in Solenzara, Corsica, the French Mediterranean island, for a mission in Libya on March 24, 2011. Blasts and anti-aircraft fire rattled the Libyan capital for the sixth day as France hailed the allied air raids against Moamer Kadhafis forces and promised they would go on indefinitely.

The Indonesian government fully supports any effort to protect civilians in Libya where armed conflict is raging following a UN Security Council resolution allowing the use of all necessary measures to protect civilians in the country.
"In principle, as the president has earlier instructed to our foreign ministry, what is the most important to do is to give priority to the safety of civilians," Julian Aldrin Pasha said here on Thursday. He stated the Indonesian government would give support and assistance to any mission if it was aimed at protecting civilians.
"That’s why the Indonesian government will definitely support any action aimed at creating global peace, security, and tranquility including in Libya."
The United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1973 last Thursday, imposing a no-fly zone above Libya and authorizing all member states to use all necessary measures to protect civilians. Two days later, the United States, Britain and France launched missile strikes on Libya from the Mediterranean Sea.
By Wednesday western warplanes had flown more than 300 sorties over Libya and more than 162 cruise missiles had been fired in the mission. The allied forces accused Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi of causing a misery to his people.
Many circles denounced the decision by the allied forces, saying the attack was a form of foreign intervention in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation.

Liz Taylor Buried Near Beloved Jackson

Family members leave the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California after the funeral of screen legend Elizabeth Taylor, March 24, 2011.

Film icon Elizabeth Taylor was laid to rest Thursday in the same celebrity cemetery as her long-time friend Michael Jackson — and demonstrated a keen sense of humor to the end.
The legendary actress, who died Wednesday aged 79, was sent off with an hour-long private ceremony at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park, where generations of Hollywood stars are buried.
But her last wishes were respected, and announced after the service had finished. “The service was scheduled to begin at 2:00 pm, but at Miss Taylor’s request started late,” said a statement by her publicist.
“Miss Taylor had left instructions that it was to begin at least 15 minutes later than publicly scheduled, with the announcement: ’She even wanted to be late for her own funeral,’” it added.
The film legend and violet-eyed beauty, famed as much for her stormy love life as her five-decade Oscar-winning film career, died early Wednesday from congestive heart failure at Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai hospital. Tributes poured in from Hollywood and beyond for the actress, who won two Oscars — including for the 1966 classic “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” — and was arguably the last great star of cinema’s golden era.
But Thursday’s funeral was reserved for a few dozen family and friends, brought in a fleet of black stretch limos to the verdant cemetery, where stars including Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, and Jean Harlow are also interred. Irish actor Colin Farrell — a “close friend” — gave a recital of the Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem “The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo,” while other readings were done by her children and grandchildren, said her publicist.
Taylor’s grandson Rhys Tivey performed a trumpet solo of “Amazing Grace,” while Rabbi Jerry Cutler officiated at a “multi-denominational” service. Taylor converted to Judaism when she was in her 20s.
Forest Lawn is where Jackson was buried following his death in June 2009 aged 50, from an overdose of the powerful sedative propofol. Taylor attended that private ceremony.
During their lives, the pop icon and Hollywood legend were at times inseparable, with homes near each other in the plush Bel Air and Beverly Hills neighborhoods west of Hollywood.
“I don’t think anyone knew how much we loved each other,” Taylor said after his death. “I loved Michael with all my soul and I can’t imagine life without him. We had so much in common and we had such loving fun together.”
The TMZ celebrity news website published a copy of Taylor’s death certificate, which gave Forest Lawn as the burial location. The certificate listed her causes of death as: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which it said she had for 10 years; congestive heart failure, which she had for five years; and cardiopulmonary arrest, against which was noted five minutes.
In tribute to Taylor, the association representing New York’s Broadway theaters said they will dim their lights Friday in remembrance of the Hollywood goddess, whose long career included spells on the stage. At the same time it emerged that ailing actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, 94, had been rushed to hospital after hearing the news of Taylor’s death.
“She was watching the news yesterday morning, she was inconsolable. She said to her husband: ’Celebrities always go in threes, we’ve had Jane Russell, now it’s Elizabeth, I’m next,’” said her spokesman.

New Suzuki Swift

Suzukis fourth-generation Swift.

These days, it's getting difficult to tell a new car from the model that came before it.
Cut-throat competition means car makers are scared to take risks; when they come up with a successful formula, they're loath to tinker with it. The new Suzuki Swift is one such example.
When it returned to Australian shores in 2005, the Swift was poles apart from the car that came before it, the largely unloved Ignis. It turned heads like no other small hatch on the road and, in its first year, it quadrupled the sales of its predecessor.
So after taking a leap of faith on a bold new look and coming up trumps, Suzuki has done the smart thing and made the 'new' Suzuki Swift look like the old one. But the new Swift is actually a bigger step forward than it appears, with more room, more frugal engines and better protection for occupants.

Japan Death Toll Tops 10,000

Japan Ground Self Defense Force members search for earthquake and tsunami victims in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan on March 25, 2011.

The death toll from a massive earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan’s northeast coast topped 10,000 on Friday, two weeks after the disaster struck, Kyodo news reported. The National Police Agency, responsible for compiling statistics from different prefectures affected, could not immediately confirm that figure.

There are fears of a much higher toll from the disaster, which flattened entire towns along the Pacific coast of the country’s main island of Honshu. In its report on Thursday, the National Police Agency said that 9,811 people had been confirmed dead and 17,541 officially listed as missing — a total of 27,352 — as of 9:00 pm (1200 GMT) as a result of the March 11 catastrophe.
A total of 2,779 people have been injured. The quake has become Japan’s deadliest natural disaster since the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, which killed more than 142,000 people. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes and have taken shelter in emergency

Mini LNG Terminals to be Built in Indonesia

President Director of state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina, Karen Agustiawan

State oil and gas company PT Pertamina and state electricity company PT PLN have signed a contract for the development of eight small-scale liquefied natural gas recipient terminals in the eastern parts of Indonesia.
Pertamina President Director Karen Agustiawan and PLN President Director Dahlan Iskan signed the contract in the presence of State Enterprises Minister Mustafa Abubakar here on Thursday.
Mustafa said the construction of LNG terminals would help the country reduce the use of fuel oils and slash state subsidy. According to him, the government expected to save Rp847 billion in oil subsidy by operating the eight LNG terminals.
The project would also help accelerate the development of eastern Indonesia, he said. "PLN and Pertamina are the first to speed up evenly distribution of development gains (in the country)."
Karen meanwhile said the eight LNG terminals which would have a combined capacity of 182 million cubic feet per day (MMSCFD) would be built between 2012 and 2015. The eight mini LNG terminals will be built in Tanjung Batu (East Kalimantan) with a capacity of 25 MMSCFD, Batakan (East Kalimantan) 15 MMSCFD, Pasanggaran (Bali) 25-30 MMSCFD, and Pomalaa (Southeast Sulawesi) 25 MMSCFD expected to start operations in 2012.
Karen said the Bontang refinery in East Kalimantan would supply gas to the four LNG terminals. The other LNG terminals will be built in Mataram (West Nusa Tenggara) 15 MMSCFD and Banjarmasin (South Kalimantan) 6 MMSCFD expected to start operations in 2013 and Gorontalo (North Sulawesi) 6 MMSCFD, Halmahera (North Maluku) 60 MMSCFD in 2015.
Dahlan Iskan said the gas supplies from the eight LNG terminals would overcome problems related to the use of fuel oils during the peak load. "To date, there is no other way but to rely on fuel oils."

Riau Urged to Stop Conflict between Humans and Elephants

In this Thursday, May 7, 2009 file photo, conservationists and officials inspect the carcass of an elephant suspectedly poisoned to death by poachers near Pekanbaru, Riau province, Sumatra island, Indonesia. Two endangered elephants found dead on Indonesias Sumatra island are believed to be the victims of poachers targeting the animals for their prized ivory tusks, a park official said Monday, March 29, 2010.

The Riau World Wide Fund for Nature is trying to put an end to the conflict between humans and elephants (elephas maximus) by rehabilitating and restoring their habitats at the Balai Raja fauna reserve, Bengkalis district, a conservationist said.
"We keep encouraging the government to rehabilitate the habitats of the wild elephants at Balai Raja," Syamsidar, WWF-Riau media relations officer, said here on Thursday.
Syamsidar said that Balai Raja in 1990 covered 16,000 hectares when it was run as a fauna reserve but now it has been much reduced to 120 hectares of secondary forested land.
He also said that even with the remaining area, it was still converted into human settlements and palm oil plantations causing the elephants to become marginalized creating conflicts with human beings.
In a latest incident last week, she said, a wild female elephant and her baby had been made paralyzed by poisoning near a human settlement. Those elephants were in weak condition.
Head of Region III of Riau Nature Resource Agency (BKSDA)B. Hutomo said that that the location where the two elephants had been paralyzed was also a passage of the beasts for a long time.
As more people came to live near the area, the beasts might feel disturbed and fought the human beings from time to time, he added. In last week’s incident, the elephants could become dehydrated as humans kept them away from water sources. Hutomo said that the agency was trying to cure elephants, and drive them back to their habitats.

Floods Inundate Three Villages in E Java

Floods caused by the overflowing of Lamong river in Dawarblandong subdistrict, Mojokerto district, East Java, caused inundation of three villages on Thursday.
The flood waters had submerged Talun, Banyulegi and Pulorejo villages since early Thursday but it would naturally recede in the next two to three days, head of Banyulegi village Zainuri said.
The flood waters came too sudden and inundated a number of houses, causing some families to take refuge to buildings on higher ground such as mosques and the village community centers.
A local resident, Suparno, said Lamong river usually overflowed and caused flooding of three villages as they were low lying. But there were no reports of fatalities.

West Java to Observe Earth Hour

The "Earth Hour" campaign by turning off electricity for an hour on March 26, 2011 throughout West Java, will save a total of 661.54 megawatts (MW), a local official said here Thursday.
"If only 10 percent of West Java followed the instruction, 661.54 MW would be saved, " head of the West Java environmental management agency Setiawa Wangsatmadja noted.
He added that Earth Hour is a global campaign that invites people in the world from individuals to governments to support reducing CO2 emissions that cause damage to the earth.
"For this year’s Earth Hour environmental campaign, the agency appealed to all people in West Java to turn off their lights and all electronic equipment for one hour from 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm, because it is a peak hour," Setiawan said. The agency asserted that West Java province fully supports Earth Hour environmental campaign 2011.
"Symbolically, the campaign will be conducted at several locations that are icons of West Java such as Gedung Sate, Bandung City Hall as well as Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) and Padjadjaran university campuses," Setiawan said.

800,000 Foreign Workers Still in Libya

In this image taken during an organized trip by the Libyan authorities, men gather at a mass funeral for people killed in coalition bombings, officials said, in Tripoli, Libya, Thursday March 24, 2011. The cause of deaths could not be verified. French fighter jets struck an air base deep inside Libya and destroyed one of Moammar Gadhafis planes Thursday, and NATO ships patrolled the coast to block the flow of arms and mercenaries. Other coalition bombers struck artillery, arms depots and parked helicopters.

Some 800,000 foreign workers are still in Libya, according to an estimate by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
Laurence Hart, the IOM mission chief in Tripoli, told AFP: "Based on IOM estimates, there are about 800,000 foreign workers of various nationalities still in Libya."
He added that he was not in a position to say how many of them wanted to leave the country but said the organisation had received requests for aid to help repatriate their citizens from the embassies of a number of African countries.
The IOM asked the Libyan authorities at the beginning of March for permission to send a humanitarian mission to the country where tens of thousands of immigrants were awaiting to be evacuated.
"We have still not received a reply," said Hart, who is currently away from Libya. Since February 20, some 280,000 people have fled the violence in Libya, 151,000 to Tunisia and 118,000 to Egypt, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Earth Hour Aims for Hope in Darkened World

The full moon rises behind the statue of Mahathma Gandhi in Hyderabad on March 19, 2011. Full Moons vary in size because of the oval shape of the Moons orbit. It is an ellipse with one side (perigee) about 50,000 km closer to Earth than the other (apogee). Nearby perigee moons are about 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than lesser moons that occur on the apogee side of the Moons orbit. According to US Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. The full Moon of March 19 occurs less than one hour away from perigeea near-perfect coincidence that happens only 18 years or so.

Lights will go out around the world Saturday with hundreds of millions of people set to take part in the Earth Hour climate change campaign, which this year will also mark Japan’s earthquake and tsunami.
From across the Pacific, to Australia, Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas, iconic landmarks such as the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, New York’s Empire State building and the Eiffel Tower in Paris will go dark.
“Earth Hour is like a New Year’s Eve,” Earth Hour co-founder and executive director Andy Ridley told AFP from the group’s Sydney office.
“It’s meant to be a celebration — it’s a bit different this year because of the Japan stuff — but it’s meant to be about hope and the future.”
Ridley said in Sydney and other cities, some Earth Hour events would hold a minute’s silence to mark the devastating 9.0-magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami in Japan this month that left more than 25,000 people dead or missing.
The disaster followed a deadly earthquake in New Zealand’s Christchurch and massive floods in Australia in January, which devastated thousands of homes and ruined crops and infrastructure.
“It’s been a bad start to the year, and I guess it’s an opportunity to take a moment and think about that,” Ridley said, adding that the campaign had a different focus in every location and not all events would mention Japan’s catastrophe.
The Earth Hour movement, which aims to raise awareness about climate change by switching off lights for 60 minutes, hopes to bring people together to think about what they can do to reduce harmful carbon pollution blamed for rising temperatures.
Environmental group WWF International helped initiate Earth Hour in Sydney in 2007, and by 2010 the energy-saving event had grown to engage hundreds of millions of people in 4,616 cities and 128 countries and territories.
“We didn’t imagine right at the beginning... it would be on the scale that it is now,” said Ridley.
“And the fact that it is so cross-cultural, beyond borders and race and religion,” he added, saying the event would never have grown so successfully without social networking sites such as Facebook.
This year organisers are focussing on connecting people online so they can inspire each other to go beyond the hour and make commitments to help the environment in their daily lives.
To do this they have created an online platform connected to the 14 top social media sites around the world, including Facebook and Twitter, which people will be easily able to access from mobile phones. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard this week backed Earth Hour.
“Earth Hour has become a special symbol of the determination of so many people to make a difference,” said Gillard, who is facing stiff opposition to her plan to introduce a tax on carbon pollution in Australia.
Ridley said that despite the growth of the event, which organisers said was the largest voluntary action ever witnessed in 2010, the ideals of the global movement had not changed.
“When we first started this we were trying to effectively take the temperature, we were trying to prove or see whether, contrary to some commentators, whether or nor people cared (about climate change),” he said.
“I think there is a massive consensus for action, not just on climate change.
“The idea of this is not to engage in the ’why we can’t do anything’ debate but absolutely talk about what can be done.” The first lights going off Saturday will be in Fiji and New Zealand’s Chatham Islands, before cities and landmarks around the world follow suit.
Other iconic structures due to go dark include the Sydney Opera House, Indonesia’s National Monument, London’s Eye and Brazil’s Christ the Redeemer statue.

Indonesia Claims to be Ready to Deal with Coup

Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said the government was prepared to deal with any party trying to stage a coup by military or non-military means.
"If a coup really happens, we are ready to cope with it with military power," Purnomo said on the sidelines of an international defense dialog here on Wednesday.
He said he had never received a report about a number of retired army generals seeking to topple the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono with the help of an Islamic hardline group.
"We (the government) have never heard about it. We have never received reports about anybody planning a coup," he said.
But he also said the government would keep monitoring developments in the field and use its security apparatus to check the truth of the foreign media’s report. Purnomo said if the coup report was true, the government would deal with the plotters with military power.
"For now, the government will not take any action until all detailed data and information about the issue have been collected," he said.
Al-Jazeera television station recently reported that a number of retired three-star generals in Indonesia had been behind the recent anti-Ahmadiyah campaign and violence against followers of the small Islamic sect. It said the generals secretly supported the hardline group because they had the same goal, namely unseating President Yudhoyono from power.
"They have come just to give support," chief of the Islam Reform Movement, Chep Hernawan, said according to Al Jazeera on Tuesday. "They said the jihad must continue. We must not stop until the liar steps down," he said.
Chep said the retired generals approached him at the end of January or around a month before violence against Ahmadiyah followers in Cikeusik, Pandeglang, Banten. He said the generals were fed up with all the lies President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s government had been telling the people.
"The three-star generals asked what issue would be used to topple President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The Century case has failed. Perhaps the Ahmadiyah issue," he said.
Based on his confession,. Al Jazeera journalist Step Vassen said the generals supported the hardline Islamic group. They considered Yudhoyono to be too weak and reformist.

Why Sleep is The Key to Success

 It is one of our most basic functions, as important as the in and out of our breath. Our need for sleep is primal, yet the pace of life means it's often pushed to the periphery, sacrificed at the altar of work, friends, study and fun.
But now science is beginning to show that getting the right amount of sleep might be the key to making the rest of our lives run more smoothly.
Increasingly, research is indicating that the quality and quantity of our sleep affects every part of our lives, from success in work and school to our likelihood of developing problems such as obesity or mental illness.
Writing in the journal Frontiers in Neurology last year, American researchers highlighted the growing body of research confirming that students who have insomnia, inadequate sleep, daytime sleepiness, irregular sleep patterns or poor sleep quality do not perform as well in school as others.
Many sleep researchers now advocate the introduction of staggered start times for older high-school students - one of the most under-slept groups in society after shift workers.
But the most cutting edge of sleep research is beginning to show it seems also to be linked to mental illness.
Nicholas Glozier is at the forefront of such research in his work as a professor of psychiatry and sleep research at the Brain and Mind Research Institute at the University of Sydney.
He says lack of sleep is one of the most common problems for which people seek help from GPs, with about one-third of women and one-quarter of men saying they have trouble falling or staying asleep.
The average Australian sleeps for about 8¼ hours a day - much less than that and you may not be getting enough. The average sleep period for a teenager is about seven hours. People who get six hours or less a night are at risk of illnesses such as bipolar disorder, anxiety and panic disorder.
Professor Glozier published research late last year that followed 20,000 people aged 17 to 24 for a year. It found those who slept less than five hours a night were three times more likely than normal sleepers to become psychologically distressed.
A big question for researchers is whether sleep deprivation is a cause or effect of mental illness.
"One of the real issues with sleep research at the moment is it is a bit like where psychiatry was 15 years ago," he says. "We really don't know whether [improving sleep] is going to impact on other health outcomes."
In the next 15 years - provided research is well funded by governments and universities - Glozier says we will be on our way to finding some of the answers.
One researcher who has conducted an Australian-first trial into sleep and teenagers is Amanda Gamble, a psychologist and research fellow with the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research.
For many of the teenagers Dr Gamble sees, sleep has become a stressful part of life. It causes fights with parents and absences from school. One patient's parents were so desperate, they would spray their child with water in the mornings to force them up.
"For most of these teenagers, falling asleep and staying asleep has made them feel incredibly out of control and it's quite a frightening thing," she says. "If you can't control a basic bodily process that happens every single day, there's no escaping it."
But there is light at the end of the tunnel. Her research, unpublished, has shown that through a four-session program using cognitive behavioural therapy, not only were patients getting to sleep earlier and sleeping longer, they also became less depressed and anxious. She is recruiting teenagers for a larger version of the study.
For some, sleep is as simple as rolling into bed and snoring within minutes. But those who lie awake for hours can attest to the way sleep deprivation can creep into every crevice of life. But now science is catching up and beginning to reveal the intricate connections between how we sleep and how we live.
INSOMNIA CAUSES:
Medical
* Obstructive sleep apnoea
* Narcolepsy
* Drug or alcohol addiction
* Restless legs syndrome
* Depression and anxiety disorders
* Neurological conditions — dementia, Parkinson's
* Hormone changes — menstruation, menopause
Behavioural or social
* Increased working hours
* Shift work
* Major life event — divorce, bereavement, job loss
* Jet lag
* Poor "sleep hygiene" — irregular sleeping times, caffeine before bed, inadequate exercise



It is one of our most basic functions, as important as the in and out of our breath. Our need for sleep is primal, yet the pace of life means it's often pushed to the periphery, sacrificed at the altar of work, friends, study and fun.
But now science is beginning to show that getting the right amount of sleep might be the key to making the rest of our lives run more smoothly.
Increasingly, research is indicating that the quality and quantity of our sleep affects every part of our lives, from success in work and school to our likelihood of developing problems such as obesity or mental illness.
Writing in the journal Frontiers in Neurology last year, American researchers highlighted the growing body of research confirming that students who have insomnia, inadequate sleep, daytime sleepiness, irregular sleep patterns or poor sleep quality do not perform as well in school as others.
Many sleep researchers now advocate the introduction of staggered start times for older high-school students - one of the most under-slept groups in society after shift workers.
But the most cutting edge of sleep research is beginning to show it seems also to be linked to mental illness.
Nicholas Glozier is at the forefront of such research in his work as a professor of psychiatry and sleep research at the Brain and Mind Research Institute at the University of Sydney.
He says lack of sleep is one of the most common problems for which people seek help from GPs, with about one-third of women and one-quarter of men saying they have trouble falling or staying asleep.
The average Australian sleeps for about 8¼ hours a day - much less than that and you may not be getting enough. The average sleep period for a teenager is about seven hours. People who get six hours or less a night are at risk of illnesses such as bipolar disorder, anxiety and panic disorder.
Professor Glozier published research late last year that followed 20,000 people aged 17 to 24 for a year. It found those who slept less than five hours a night were three times more likely than normal sleepers to become psychologically distressed.
A big question for researchers is whether sleep deprivation is a cause or effect of mental illness.
"One of the real issues with sleep research at the moment is it is a bit like where psychiatry was 15 years ago," he says. "We really don't know whether [improving sleep] is going to impact on other health outcomes."
In the next 15 years - provided research is well funded by governments and universities - Glozier says we will be on our way to finding some of the answers.
One researcher who has conducted an Australian-first trial into sleep and teenagers is Amanda Gamble, a psychologist and research fellow with the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research.
For many of the teenagers Dr Gamble sees, sleep has become a stressful part of life. It causes fights with parents and absences from school. One patient's parents were so desperate, they would spray their child with water in the mornings to force them up.
"For most of these teenagers, falling asleep and staying asleep has made them feel incredibly out of control and it's quite a frightening thing," she says. "If you can't control a basic bodily process that happens every single day, there's no escaping it."
But there is light at the end of the tunnel. Her research, unpublished, has shown that through a four-session program using cognitive behavioural therapy, not only were patients getting to sleep earlier and sleeping longer, they also became less depressed and anxious. She is recruiting teenagers for a larger version of the study.
For some, sleep is as simple as rolling into bed and snoring within minutes. But those who lie awake for hours can attest to the way sleep deprivation can creep into every crevice of life. But now science is catching up and beginning to reveal the intricate connections between how we sleep and how we live.
INSOMNIA CAUSES:
Medical
* Obstructive sleep apnoea
* Narcolepsy
* Drug or alcohol addiction
* Restless legs syndrome
* Depression and anxiety disorders
* Neurological conditions — dementia, Parkinson's
* Hormone changes — menstruation, menopause
Behavioural or social
* Increased working hours
* Shift work
* Major life event — divorce, bereavement, job loss
* Jet lag
* Poor "sleep hygiene" — irregular sleeping times, caffeine before bed, inadequate exercise

Coup Attempt Masterminded by Indonesian Generals Denied

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Djoko Suyanto said there was no such thing as a coup attempt, masterminded by several generals.
"I indeed have heard of the information since ten days ago but there is no such thing," he said here Wednesday on the sidelines of the Jakarta International Defense Dialog (JIDD).
Djoko said Indonesia has been within the corridors of democracy corridor. "It is not that we have already developed democracy in our country," he said.
He stated the stages of democracy had been determined and regulated in laws. According to agreements further stages would be done along with the House of Representatives through political platforms, he said.
"Let us just follow the stages. Our democracy is leading to maturity. So, if we still find shortcomings here and there that is a mere part of the process," he said.
"This means," Djoko said "there have been laws and political processes as stages of democracy that have agreed upon in the framework of reform. We all know it, so let us just follow it," he said.
Al Jazeera television station reported on Tuesday that a number of retired three-star generals had been behind campaign against Ahmadiyah and the violence against members of the small Islamic sect recently.
The generals had secretly supported a hard-line organization because of their common goal of toppling the present government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono who they considered too weak and too reformist.

Decree on Sunda Strait Bridge Project Expected in April

A presidential decree on the Sunda Strait bridge project is expected to be issued in April, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Hatta Rajasa said.
"It is hoped the decree will be finalized next month," he said at the presidential office here on Wednesday after accompanying President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in a meeting with board members of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin).
He stated the draft decree had long been discussed and passed the stages of discussion and therefore it was hoped it could be finished soon.
"If the draft is finished we will then harmonize it with the ministry of justice and then it will be referred to the President. Unless corrections are needed the draft after that will be considered final," he said. According to Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto, ministers had been asked to discuss the draft for a week.
"Hopefully, in the next two weeks it will be signed. The instruction just now is that it must be done quickly. The Presidential decree among others regulates the executing authorities and methods for appointing the management later or investors," he said.
The construction of the bridge is scheduled to be started in 2014 and finished in less than 10 years.

The Korean Company to Invest in Indonesia's Petrochemical Industry

South Korean retail company Lotte Group plans to invest around US$5 billion in the Indonesian petrochemical industry, a minister said. The company was currently looking for a suitable location for its production facility to produce raw materials for petrochemical industry, Mohamad Suleman Hidayat said here on Wednesday.
"It is in the process of choosing Merak (Banten) or Tuban (East Java) as the location (for its production facility)," he said.
He said if the company realized its investment plan in Indonesia this year, the country would have naphta and condensate plants in the next five years. According to him, the government was making an effort to attract investors to build oil refineries capable of producing raw materials for the petrochemical industry such as naphta and condensate to meet rising demand from the chemical industry.
Lotte Group consists of over 60 business units employing 60,000 people engaged in such diverse industries as candy manufacturing, beverages, hotels, fast food, retail, financial services, heavy chemicals, electronics, information technology, construction, publishing, and entertainment.
Lotte has major operations by Shin Kyuk-Ho’s family located in Japan and South Korea with businesses in China, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, India, the United States, Russia, the Philippines and Poland.

Indonesia MUST Learn This from Japan

Now you see it...: This stretch of the Great Kanto highway was wrecked by deep chasms in the March 11 earthquake - but was repaired in just six days

It's a great concern for Jakartans if they find damaged highways or even toll roads because of poor construction that they need to be repaired over and over using people's tax.

A great lesson offered by Japan to the world is they can survive from the recent catastrophe as they realize a good will is always needed to develop its people before they develop their country - a precious lesson that Indonesia should take to combat corruption rattling and hampering its development.
The picture of gaping chasms in a Japanese highway demonstrated the power of the March 11 earthquake. Now the astonishing speed of reconstruction is being used to highlight the nation’s ability to get back on its feet.
Work began on March 17 and six days later the cratered section of the Great Kanto Highway in Naka was as good as new. It was ready to re-open to traffic last night.
Many workers returned to their jobs the day after the quake and subsequent tsunami and some businesses in the worst-hit regions have already reopened.
The Japanese recovery has prompted some investors, including American Warren Buffett, one of the world’s richest men, to declare that the disaster which has left 23,000 dead or missing represents a ‘buying opportunity’ in the money markets.
Meanwhile, mothers in Tokyo were warned yesterday not to give tap water to their babies.
Cars with loudspeakers toured the streets of the capital after levels of radiation from the damaged nuclear plant at Fukushima, nearly 150 miles away, reached more than twice the safety level for children aged a year or less.
Supermarkets were quickly emptied of bottled water in many parts of the city. Parents were also told to ensure that milk was not from cows in the Fukushima district.
Tokyo residents said they had growing concerns about radiation.
‘If they’re saying it’s harmful for children because their bodies are smaller and dangerous iodine can accumulate in their thyroid glands, we can understand that,’ said 29-year-old department store worker Yasuke Harade.
‘But can we really believe it when they say that it’s OK for adults to drink the water? Can we cook our rice in tap water, can we drink tea, coffee? They’re telling us we can, but what is the truth?’
To add to the fears, two strong earthquakes shook the devastated east coast yesterday, and black smoke billowed once again from the crippled plant. The ‘Fukushima Fifty’, the team of courageous employees working inside the plant, and firemen spraying water on the complex were ordered to evacuate immediately.
It was not known when efforts to restore the plant’s cooling mechanism would be restarted. The scare followed reports that small amounts of radiation had travelled as far as Iceland.