October 20, 2009 JAKARTA: Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was sworn in as Indonesia's president today after winning an historic second five-year term. The former General and servant of a dictator swore on the Koran to uphold the constitution during a ceremony in the national assembly in Jakarta, the capital that was watched throughout the vast archipelago of 234 million people. "By Allah I swear I will adhere to the constitution as faithfully as possible, and will commit myself to the country and the people," the 60-year-old President said.Yudhoyono's election win in July, with promises of economic growth and political reform, confirmed the remarkable political stability which has developed in Indonesia under his leadship, eleven years after the fall of the longstanding dictator, Suharto. He defeated Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) leader Megawati Sukarnoputri, the former president, and the Golkar Party's Jusuf Kalla to become the first Indonesian leader to be re-elected. His centrist Democratic Party won the most seats in parliament in April general elections just eight years after it was founded.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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