The Next Step for Microfinance: Taking Deposits

Some 30 years ago, the field of microfinance was born from a radical concept: poor people, when lent small amounts of money, will pay it back in a timely manner. In the meantime, that money can be put to use in ways that help boost income—goat farming, say, or carpet weaving—and, ostensibly, raise a family’s standard of living. Now another radical concept is starting to take hold: that the thing people really need, more than business loans, is a safe place to save their money.

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Experts: Many young Muslim terrorists spurred by humiliation

At first, no one seemed to notice the young man who walked into the hotel lobby at around 7:45 that Friday morning. He wore a baseball cap, a backpack and dragged a wheeled suitcase behind him. He casually checked his watch as he calmly walked toward a hotel restaurant filled with Western business executives

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Report: Children’s DNA used to ID terror suspect

Indonesian authorities are reportedly conducting DNA tests to determine if a man killed in an 18-hour raid last week is the country’s most wanted terror suspect, Noordin Top. Police have been hunting for Noordin for the past six years, accusing him involvement in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing and attacks on the Marriott hotel in Jakarta in 2003 and Australian embassy in 2004. He is also the main suspect in last month’s twin hotel bombings in Jakarta which killed seven people and the two suspected bombers, and wounded more than 50.

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Hotel bomb suspect hunt triggers gunfight

Indonesian security forces hunting for a suspected al Qaeda-linked militant bomb-maker accused of masterminding last month’s suicide attacks against two luxury hotels in Jakarta were locked in a gun battle Friday, according to police. A police spokesman confirmed to CNN that members of Indonesia’s elite Detachment 88 anti-terror unit were engaged in a firefight following a raid on a house in Temanggung, central Java, 500 kilometers southeast of Jakarta. But the spokesman would not confirm local media reports suggesting that Noordin Top — the suspected leader of a splinter faction of the al Qaeda-linked militant group Jemaah Islamiyah — or any of his associates had been arrested

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Official: Wreckage of missing Indonesian plane believed found

Authorities have identified what is believed to be the wreckage of a Merpati Nusantara Airlines plane that disappeared shortly after takeoff in eastern Indonesia over the weekend. The three were arrested in the western Iranian city of Marivan, the deputy governor of Kurdistan province, Iraj Hassanzadeh, told the Fars News Agency

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Slum tourism: Visitors see the ‘real’ Jakarta

Hidden in the alleyways behind Jakarta’s fancy malls and in between the high-rise apartment buildings is what Ronny Poluan, a former film maker, calls the "real Jakarta." It is not far from the glitz and glam that dominates the capital’s skyline, yet it is a side of the city that few foreigners ever see. “I want them to (have an) authentic view,” Poluan, who runs “Jakarta Hidden Tours,” said as he took a group of Australians through the winding maze of a central Jakarta slum.

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