Asia Pacific News – INTERVIEW-East Timor anti-graft tsar sees long fight ahead (AlertNet)

INTERVIEW-East Timor anti-graft tsar sees long fight ahead (AlertNet)
Source: Reuters * Anti-corruption chief to be sworn-in next week * Graft said to be draining 20 percent of government coffers * “Getting one or two big fish will not be enough” By Rob Taylor …

East Timor anti-graft tsar sees long fight ahead (TVNZ)
High-profile prosecutions will not end widespread corruption in East Timor and a long public re-education campaign will be needed to fight graft and nepotism

Philippines mass murder charges sought (UPI)
MANILA, Philippines, Feb. 9 (UPI) — The Philippine Justice Department Tuesday recommended 57 counts of murder against Andal Ampatuan Sr. and 197 others in the Nov. 23 massacre of 57 people.

Philippines’ Arroyo signs law on 2010 spending budget (Reuters via Yahoo! Asia News)
MANILA, Feb 9 (Reuters) – Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed into law on Tuesday a measure that sets a budget of 1.541 trillion pesos ($33 billion) this year, up 8 percent from 2009, including stimulus spending on infrastructure and social services.

Army denies compensation claim in Dili death (The Age)
Australian Defence Force retracts claim that it gave the family of an East Timorese woman, 65, who died after an army vehicle hit her, compensation forms and advice on how to fill them out.

Indonesian president unlikely to be impeached (Asia News Network)
An ongoing inquiry into the controversial bailout of a troubled bank has appeared to clear Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of any wrongdoing, but analysts say it leaves the fate of his t …..

Colourful Philippine election season kicks off (AFP via Yahoo! News)
The Philippine election season kicked off on Tuesday with the world’s best boxer and the defiant wife of a dead dictator among the dizzying array of characters hoping to grab a share of power.

TIMOR-LESTE: Water supplies running on empty (AlertNet)
Source: IRIN Ask anyone in rural Timor-Leste what they want most and the answer is always water. “We don’t have any,” complained Filomena Brites, 35, who walks up to 3km four times a day to the nearest spring to fetch water from her home in Lisapat, a tiny village high in the coffee-growing hills of Ermera District.

Indonesia says to limit crude palm oil exports (The Malaysian Insider)
JAKARTA, Feb 9 – Indonesia plans to limit exports of crude palm oil (CPO) to encourage downstream work, the industry minister said on Monday, a move that a trade group doubts would easily lead to the hoped for surge in value-added products. The plan is unlikely to have any near-term impact on CPO supplies onto the world market and a senior Indonesian palm oil industry official questioned the …

Nearly 200 people indicted in Philippines massacre (AP via Yahoo! News)
Philippine prosecutors filed charges Tuesday against the head of a powerful clan and 195 others in the biggest and deadliest murder case since the country’s World War II war crimes trials.

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