Religion Don Abu

Downplaying the rise of radical Islam in Indonesia has led to disaster.
In downtown Jakarta bookstores you can pick up a slim volume called Saya Teroris? Sebuah Pleidoi by Fauzan al-Anshari for little more than a dollar. It gives an account of the life, times and beliefs of the self-styled Sheik Abu Bakar Bashir, identified as the spiritual guru of the Jemaah Islamiah network allegedly behind the bombing of the Kuta Beach resort.
Abu Bakar is, of course, a conspiracy theorist. According to him, the world is engaged in a war between the forces serving the will of Allah and the ‘spider's house’ of the US - Great Satan - and allies such as Australia. As Allah's will produced the fall of Soeharto and encouraged the revival of pure Islam on Indonesian soil, Indonesia must, like Afghanistan, now be the target of the great global Satan.
· Hell to Pay for Conspiracy Theorist [SMH]

Drugs Building Trust: Hell to pay on the Cross

I've had enough. After five years in an office perched over the Piazza Diavolo in the broken heart of Kings Cross, I've decamped to the cool marble splendour of the city's optimistically named Trust Building.
Unlike Argentina, there'll be no crying for the Cross. To be deprived of the regular mounds of vomit on the doorstep, the pong of urine, the robberies and the wretched denizens is no great sorrow.
The drug dealing is so open that it makes a mockery of the tough-guy law and order braggadocios of Messrs Costa and Carr.
· Cost of Crime [SMH]