Graft suspect to be rainstalled Regent
BOGOR: Agus Utara Effendi is scheduled to be installed on Monday for a second term although West Java Police have named him a suspect in a bribery case involving Rp 1.2 billion (US$141,176.47).
Bogor Regency Council chairman of Commission C on finance, Rachmat Yasin, said that Agus' legal status would not halt his installment.
"We must make a distinction between his political affairs and his legal affairs because he has not yet been convicted in the bribery case. It is for the court to decide whether or not he is really guilty," he said over the weekend.
Council secretary Dase Rochmana said that the letter that officially endorses Agus as regent and Albert Pribadi as deputy regent was already signed by home minister Hari Sabarno.
However, six non-governmental organizations rejected his appointment, saying that an official at the home ministry had said that there was no such letter issued by the ministry.
Agus is suspected of bribing Bogor councillors to accept his 2001 accountability report. -- JP
;JP;DMR; ANPAj..r.. Greater-Bekasi-robbery Father robbed, daughter raped JP/8/Robbed
Father robbed, daughter raped
BEKASI: Sumarna, 39, a resident of Cibuntu, Bekasi, suffered two bitter experiences on Sunday morning after his house was robbed and his 11-year-old daughter was raped.
His daughter was alone at her room, while the rest of the family were in deep sleep, when a robber broke into the house through the ceiling.
The robber threatened the girl with a machete, took away jewelry, a cell phone and Rp 5.5 million (US$647) in cash. He dragged the girl out of the house and raped her before fleeing the scene.
Sumarna was shocked when he found out what had happened to his daughter and reported the incident to the Cibitung Police.
An officer of the subprecinct said police were still tracking down the suspected robber. -- JP
;JP;BBY; ANPAj..r.. Greater-fire Fire razes seven houses JP/8/fire
Fire razes seven houses
JAKARTA: Fire razed seven houses in Papanggo subdistrict, Warakas district, East Jakarta, on Sunday. The fire was thought to have been caused by a kerosene stove in one of the houses.
A firefighter with the North Jakarta Fire Department, Zainuri, said that the fire started at 10:25 a.m. in the densely populated neighborhood near Tanjung Priok seaport. Ten fire trucks were sent to the location.
"The fire was eventually extinguished at 11:50 a.m.," he told The Jakarta Post.
Most big fires in the capital are caused by seemingly minor incidents such as a short circuit and kerosene stoves that get knocked over or blow up. Fires get bigger and are difficult to extinguish immediately because poor access and overcrowding hampers firefighters in reaching the location. -- JP