Suharto Died

Second former President of The Republik of Indonesia, Suharto died peacefully today in Jakarta, Indonesia, aged 86 after having been in a critical condition since January 4th. Flags are showing at half-mast today and a seven day mourning period has been declared.
His body will be moved to Java's royal city of Solo tomorrow for the funeral. He will be laid to rest in the Suharto family mausoleum, which is about 21 miles northeast of Solo.
"We, the whole family, thank everyone who has prayed for our father," said Suharto's eldest daughter Siti Hadijanti Rukmana, also known as Tutut, sobbing during a news conference.

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Benazir Butho Tewas

Pemimpin Oposisi dari Pakistan People Party, Benazir Bhutto tanggal 27 Desember kemarin tewas setelah tertembak di leher dan dadanya. Pihak kepolisian Pakistan menyatakan Benazir baru saja meninggalkan area kampanye sejauh 50 meter dengan mobilnya ketika tertembak. Pelakunya kemudian meledakkan diri dengan bom. Sebelumnya, Bhutto berkampanye di Rawalpindi, Pakistan, di depan ribuan pendukungnya.

Benazir Bhutto memang menjadi target bom bunuh diri dalam dua bulan terakhir. Sebelumnya pada 18 Oktober silam, ledakan bom juga mengguncang parade kepulangan Bhutto ke Karachi. Ini setelah dia diasingkan selama delapan tahun. Insiden itu menewaskan lebih dari 140 warga.

Wasif Ali Khan, anggota Pakistan People`s Party mengatakan Benazir Bhutto meninggal di Rumah Sakit Umum Rawalpindi, Kamis (27/12) pukul 18.16 waktu setempat. Adapun massa pendukung Bhutto yang marah berkumpul di depan rumah sakit. Mereka melampiaskan kemarahan dengan memecahkan pintu kaca unit gawat darurat rumah sakit tersebut. Sejumlah pendukung setia lainnya menangis sambil meneriakkan slogan-slogan mengecam Presiden Pervez Musharraf.
Tak lama kemudian, Nawaz Sharif, pemimpin oposisi Pakistan selain Bhutto, tiba di RS Rawalpindi. Di depan pendukung Bhutto, dia berjanji akan melanjutkan perjuangan wanita mantan Perdana Menteri Pakistan itu.

Benazir Bhutto meninggalkan tiga anak, yakni Bilawal, Bakhtwar, dan Aseefa. Mereka adalah buah pernikahannya dengan Asif Ali Zardari.

Ayah Benazir yaitu almarhum Zulfikar Ali Bhuto adalah juga mantan Perdana Menteri Pakistan sebelum Ziaul Haq dan tewas ditiang gantungan pada masa Ziaul Haq berkuasa dengan tuduhan melakukan kejahatan terhadap lawan politiknya. (28-12-07)

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End Year Vacation

Actually I want to go to Bali with my family in this end year vacation but unfortunately all planes there was fully booked. Bali is the most popular tourist destination in Indonesia. It is a land of soaring majestic volcanoes, of emerald rice fields clinging on hillsides and sculpted in tiers, of idyllic beaches and modern resorts. Despite overwhelming foreign influences, the Balinese have managed to reach a harmonious balance between preserving their culture, their natural environment and accommodating today’s changing world. The Hindu Bali religion pervades all aspects of Balinese society and shrines and temples dominate the landscape. Ceremonies, festivals, age-old dances and the arts are also an inseparable part of their life and culture.

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YouR HearT, YouR EmotioNs

The human heart is the seat of all human emotions. A heart that is full of evil emotions and thoughts is but a favourite place for Satan. Those hearts that are disbelieving, doubtful and mischief-mongering are, according to the Quran, hearts that have been sealed. God Almighty says in His book: `thus do we seal the hearts of transgressors' (10:75) and: `I will cause terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve' (8:12) The Quran makes many such references to the human heart. The Book of Allah proclaims numerous merits of a sound heart, a contended heart full of unbounded love and deep understanding of God and mankind, His creation. For instance the perfect Book of Allah proclaims: `Lo, it is in the remembrance of Allah that hearts can find comfort' (13:28) And Allah admonishes all Muslims that: `He united your hearts in love' (3:104) and that He: `put your hearts at rest' (3:127)Scientific research has conclusively proved that there is a vital link between the state of one's thinking and one's physical well-being. A healthy heart will undoubtedly keep a mind healthy and vice versa. A person's character is built on his thoughts, in other words, we are what we think. Allah our merciful Lord through His benevolence has given us the choice and power to govern our thoughts and thereby build a character that is worthy of praise. An immoral character grows from the seeds of immoral thoughts while a virtuous character grows from the seeds of virtuous thoughts. As mentioned earlier, the heart is where all kinds of good or bad thoughts are born. Therefore, it is imperative to cultivate a pure and clean heart. A recent article in the famous American magazine Psychology Today dated February 1989 illustrates the relationship between the heart and the soul in the following words:`Scientific medicine has made extraordinary progress against heart disease, by denying one of mankind's most romantic notions - that our emotions centre in the heart. By treating the heart as an unfeeling pump, surgeons have been able to create pacemakers and work their way up to the ultimate in high-tech medicine - the artificial heart. Even as Barney Clark and other courageous patients were using psychology and hard data to discover that trouble in the heart may come in part from sickness of the soul. Spiritual need may be the underlying crisis among people prone to heart attacks. Harvard cardiologist, Herbert Benson agrees. Dr. Benson has shown how using a repetitive prayer produces sharp reductions in heart beat and blood pressure. At the University of Maryland, psychologist, James Lynch continues to explore the psychological side of high blood pressure. Blood pressure goes up when we talk and down we listen to another person.'Different states of heart:The following quotation from the Bible creates a striking resemblance between one's mind and heart: `As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is' (Proverbs 23:7). We know there are various states of mind and likewise there are different states of heart. According to the Oxford Dictionary the heart is the seat of all emotions, soul, mind, courage, etc. When one is thankful to a person, one thanks him from the bottom of one's heart and when one is stricken with grief, it is heart-rending. If a person is courageous, we call him lion-hearted and to describe sincerity we say it is heart-felt. An unexpected piece of news or an event can break one's heart and to understand the essence of matter, is to get to the heart of the matter. When you like a person deeply beyond description, you say he is a man after my heart. Lest we forget to mention the change of heart, it is one of the rare human traits that has not been bestowed to any other creature. Some people have a change of heart too often and others have a heart made of rock.A sincere Muslim is one who examines his heart from time to time to see if this feelings towards others are tender, his motives are honest, he is loving towards others and his heart is in constant search for truth and love of God. Such a heart is an epitome of love, kindness, courage, affection, honesty, truth, sincerity and humility. Hadhrat Jesus, son of Mary, (peace be upon him), is reported to have said: `Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy mind.' The Prophet of Islam (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), has also described the importance of a pure and sincere heart. According to the most reliable book of Hadith, al-Bukhari, he told one of his companions: `In the body there is a piece of flesh, when it is healthy, the whole body is healthy, and when it becomes unhealthy, the whole body gets unhealthy, and lo that piece is the heart.' This succinct quotation illustrates that a human heart is the fountain-head of all our emotions. If one's heart entertains pure thoughts then all of one's deeds will be upon the road to virtue, but if one's heart if full of vicious thoughts and ideas, then one is bound to follow the path of vice.Thoughts and ideas are born in a heart like seeds in a garden that soon sprout into full grown plants. Purity of heart stimulates the growth of the tree of virtue. The crux of the matter is that if one's heart is in good shape, then one's hands, feet, tongue, mind and eyes will be in good shape as well. In our day-to-day contact with others, one should always remember the following formula: `to handle yourself, use your head, to handle others use your heart.'A beating heart:How many times does a heart have to beat? At least 70 times every minute, for an average of 75 years. In round numbers, that turns out to be 100,000 times a day, or three billion times in a lifetime. Sometimes two hearts beat one, some are lonely, some half hearted and some are broken. Some are saddened, some are, like a bird, gladdened and some are worn upon your sleeve. Our daily conversation is full of wonderful references to our heart: `his heart was in his mouth', or `his heart was not in it', or `deep in the heart of Ontario', or `heart of the matter.' `Heart' is used as a symbol of love. It is said that we subconsciously remember the beat of our mother's heart from when we were in the womb. Did you know that when zoo-keepers have an orphaned baby monkey, they help its chance of survival by keeping it attached to a bundle of blankets with a mechanism that produces the `thump-thump' of a mother's heart-beat?All praise belongs to Allah!wrote by brother Zakaria Virk

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Peace and security on a Global Level

This a nice topic from Friday Sermon that the Holy Qur’an addresses all nations of the world on the basis of humanity:“O mankind We have created you from male and female; and We have made you into clans and tribes that you may recognise one another. Verily, the most honourable among you, in the sight of Allah, is he who is the most righteous among you. Surely, Allah is All Knowing, All-Aware.” (49:14)This is the Islamic teaching of brotherhood. A righteous believer is enjoined to adhere to this teaching and indeed to propagate it. This alone can foster love, affection and equality. Peace and security can only be guaranteed in the world when the false and oppressive notion of supremacy for some nations is eradicated.Peace and security cannot be established until people of each race and each nation are able to ascertain that they are the children of Adam and are created by a male and female and are indeed equal. If one is better than the other, it is in terms of righteousness alone. However, whose righteousness is most excellent, only Allah knows, no one can adjudge this for themselves.Islam says that all mankind is like a family and it can only look after the peace and security of each other only if it lives like a close-knit family. The apparent differences in mankind are only for identification as to who is European who is Asian and who is African. As humans we are all the same and a person in Africa has the same sentiments as those of a person in Europe. Peace and security can only prevail when each others’ sentiments are cared for. These are the measures for durable peace and security that Islam presents, otherwise no matter how many Security Councils are formed durable peace cannot be maintained.This teaching did not just remain theoretical; the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be on him) put it all in practice. He loved the poor and the disadvantaged, freed the slaves, assigned the deprived their rights. At his farewell sermon, the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be on him) openly declared, “All of you are equal. All men, whatever nation or tribe they belong to, and whatever station in life they may hold, are equal…….an Arab possesses no superiority over the non-Arab, nor does a non-Arab over an Arab.”

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Global Warming

Recently, peoples afraid about global warning which has made increase the average temperature on the Earths. The reason of global warming is still controversy until now.Debate concerning causes of increased global average air temperature since the mid-1800s, whether this warming trend is unprecedented or within normal climatic variations, predictions of additional warming, what the consequences are, and what actions should be taken. Individuals, corporations, and political organizations are involved, so the debate is vigorous in the popular media and on a policy level. The controversy focuses on the warming after World War II.But I think we all agree that the burning of fossil fuels and industrial pollutants and un control forest depilatory has a big contribution to this thing.

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