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The Indonesian Attorney-General's Office has confirmed that the three Bali bombers have been executed by firing squad for their involvement in the 2002 bombings which killed more than 202 people, including 88 Australians. A spokesman for the Attorney-General, Jasman Pandjaitan, said all three men have been declared dead. Earlier news emerged from inside the Bali bombers' prison on Nusakambangan Island in Central Java that the three men - Imam Samudra, 38, Amrozi, 47, and Mukhlas, 48 - were killed. All three were shot at the same time by three separate firing squads about 12:15am (local time), before a medical team...

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Stephen Smith has heightened speculation the Bali bombers will be executed overnight, issuing a special terror warning to school leavers. All signs are pointing to the execution early Australian time tomorrow of Islamic militants Amrozi, his brother Mukhlas and Imam Samudra. "The Government is particularly aware that in mid to late November and early December, a large number of Australian school graduates may well travel to Indonesia, particularly Bali for what has become known as schoolies week,'' Mr Smith said. "We ask those young graduates and their parents to very carefully bear in mind the travel advice...

Expanding Afghan War Awaits New President An expanded U.S. military involvement awaits a new U.S. president in Afghanistan where the unfinished business of September 11 has flared over the past three years into a major insurgency. A raft of assessments and reviews now underway in Washington point to a fundamental rethinking of the Afghan war. But whoever is elected Tuesday will face choices on the size of the military buildup, how to strengthen the central government, how far to go in dealing with insurgent sanctuaries across the border, how to help stabilize Pakistan, and whether and how to reconcile...

Randall Lee lost his two brothers and a pregnant sister-in-law in the 2002 Bali bombings. But from the ashes of the tragedy he found his wife, Jessica O'Grady, a survivor of the horrifying blasts. This is the Geelong electrician's story and his thoughts on the impending execution of the bombers. IT IS a strange feeling -- after six long years -- knowing that the men who caused so much pain and anguish will meet justice. It won't be cause for celebration for me when the perpetrators of the Bali bombings in 2002 are executed. Sure, I will share a few...

BOYOLALI (Indonesia) - For the skullcapped students of the Darusy Syahadah Islamic school, there is no question that the three radical jihadis behind the 2002 bombings on Indonesia's Bali island are heroes. Sheltering from the equatorial sun on the steps of the school's mosque, the students crowd to offer their approval of bombers Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra. Authorities said this week the three bombers will face the firing squad by early November for their role in the attack, which killed 202 people. 'They're holy warriors, that's how I respond, they're holy warriors,' said Sir Muhammad Royhan Syihabuddin Ar-Rohmi, a...

FBI Warns of Potential Terror Attacks The FBI and Department of Homeland Security today issued an analytical "note" to U.S. law-enforcement officials cautioning that al-Qaida terrorists have in the past expressed interest in attacking public buildings using a dozen suicide bombers each carrying 20 kilograms of explosives. Authors with the U.S. Office of Intelligence and Analysis added that they have "no credible or specific information that terrorists are planning operations against public buildings in the United States." The FBI and DHS analysts said they were releasing the note because "it is important for local authorities and building owners and...

THREE Islamic militants convicted of carrying out the 2002 Bali bombings will be shot dead on their prison island early next month. The bombers will be put to death in "early November'' on Nusakambangan Island, off Central Java, where their high-security jail is located, a spokesman for Indonesia's Attorney General's office said today. He also indicated that the Attorney General did not believe there were valid grounds for any further legal appeals by Amrozi, his brother Mukhlas and Imam Samudra. "Indonesia's Attorney General is stating that the legal efforts in the terrorism criminal case, on behalf of the defendant Amrozi...

SECURITY forces are on high alert as Indonesia prepares to execute the three Islamists convicted over the 2002 bombings. But local survivors and foreign visitors are united in their determination not to dwell on the October night when 202 people, mostly tourists including 88 Australians, were killed when bombs ripped through packed bars. And the overwhelming feeling on the mainly Hindu island of temples, rice paddies and tropical beaches is that the government should not wait another day before standing the bombers before a firing squad. "The execution will deliver a message that the government is serious about upholding the...

THREE death-row Bali bombers will be executed "as soon as possible," Indonesia's attorney general said today after the Islamic militants declined to seek clemency from the President. Hendarman Supandji said he hoped that so-called "smiling assassin" Amrozi, his brother Mukhlas and Imam Samudra would be executed before the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan in September. The three bombers face death by firing squad for their roles in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians and three New Zealanders. "We want it as soon as possible," Mr Supandji he said. "Legally they can be executed because they...

Petraeus: Al Qaida Trying to 'Come Back In' U.S. military officials said there will be no significant reduction in coalition troops in the Baghdad area as part of an effort to stop the Al Qaida offensive in northern Iraq. They said Al Qaida was trying to reenter Baghdad and reverse its losses in 2007. "Al Qaida is trying to come back in," U.S. military commander Gen. David Petraeus said. "We can feel it and see it, and what we're trying to do is rip out any roots before they can get deeply into the ground." Read More Militants Assert...

THREE Bali bombers on death row over the 2002 bombings could soon be executed after a dramatic end to their final appeal today. Their lawyer Fahmi Bachmid today withdrew from their last-ditch legal appeal, bringing it to an abrupt end. Outside court, Chief Judge Ida Bagus Putu Madeg said the judges would now treat the appeal, known as a judicial review, as if it had "never existed". "With this, whatever happened in the previous hearings is considered to not exist," Madeg told AAP after the hearing for convicted terrorist Imam Samudra. "We will not convey this (case) to the Supreme...

ISLAMIC cleric Abu Bakar Bashir has returned to his hardline rhetoric with a call for followers to beat up Western tourists and for young Muslims to die as martyrs. In the sermon, organised by an Islamic youth organisation and delivered a few kilometres from the home village of convicted Bali bombers Amrozi and Mukhlas, Bashir likened tourists in Bali to "worms, snakes, maggots", and specifically referred to the immorality of Australian infidels. The address was caught on video by an Australian university student. "The youth movement here must aspire to a martyrdom death," said the cleric, who was convicted of...

AUSTRALIA will not appeal to Indonesia to stop the execution of three men convicted of playing key roles in the 2002 Bali bombings, Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said today. Amnesty International has called on Australians to lobby Indonesian authorities to save the men, as part of its on-going campaign against capital punishment. Amrozi Nurhasyim, Ali Ghufron (alias Mukhlas) and Imam Samudera face imminent execution by firing squad for their involvement in the terrorist attacks that killed 202 people including 88 Australians. Mr Downer said despite Australia's opposition to capital punishment, the Government would not intervene. “The Australian Government won't...

THE three Bali bombers on death row have requested that they are beheaded rather than shot, one of their lawyers has said. Amrozi, Ali Ghufron alias Mukhlas and Imam Samudra narrowly avoided execution last month when their lawyers announced they would file an appeal over their death sentences, meted out for the 2002 attacks which left 202 people dead. Lawyer Mahendradatta said the appeal, known formally as a demand for a case review, would be submitted to authorities within the next two weeks. But he told reporters that another demand would be filed to the constitutional court, asking that they...

THE Bali bombers responsible for killing 88 Australians could have less than three weeks to live. The three killers -- Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, Imam Samudra and Ali Gufron -- will be shot at dawn on August 22, barring any 11th-hour appeals. Relatives of the men were told of the execution date last week. The evil trio will be taken from their cells on the island jail of Nusakambangan, off the south coast of Java, and driven to the nearby beach where they will be blindfolded and shot. Amrozi, 43, dubbed the smiling assassin, Samudra, 36, and Gufron, 46, also known...

THE three Bali bombers on death row will be executed by firing squad at the end of the month, according to the Denpasar prosecutors office. Lawyers for Imam Samudra, 36, Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, 43, and Ali Ghufron, alias Mukhlas, 46, had not lodged expected appeal documents, clearing the way for execution within weeks. Bali's Denpost newspaper today quoted officials as saying time had run out for the men convicted over the 2002 truck bomb blasts at the Sari Club and Paddy's Bar that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. The reported execution timetable could not be immediately confirmed by AAP...

Hardline Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir walked out of a Jakarta jail today after serving time for links to the 2002 Bali bombings. Bakir planned to return immediately to an Islamic school in central Java once dubbed the "Ivy League" of militants. Wearing his trademark white skullcap and shawl, a smiling Bashir was surrounded by supporters shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) and by media before getting into a car and being driven away. Seen by the West as the spiritual head of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah (JI) regional militant network, Bashir was convicted of being part of a...

Protesters storm bombers' jail by Benito Lopulalan in Denpasar 12oct05 SOME 1000 protesters stormed a prison where convicted Bali bombers are being held, shouting for their deaths, on the third anniversary of the attacks on the Indonesian island. The angry demonstrators at Denpasar's Kerobokan jail managed to remove the prison's main steel door from its hinges but police stopped them getting inside, an AFP correspondent reported today. "Kill Amrozi, kill Amrozi!" the crowd yelled, referring to one of three people sentenced to death by firing squad for the 2002 nightclub bombings, which killed 202 people and dealt tourism on the...

CHAPELLE Corby is suffering cruel abuse and racial taunts in jail as Indonesian authorities move to keep her in prison for life. The Indonesian Government yesterday backed the prosecution bid to toughen Corby's 20-year jail sentence for smuggling 4.1 kilograms of marijuana into Bali's airport last October. "The 20 years in jail handed down by the Denpasar District Court is too light," Indonesian Attorney-General Abdul Rahman Sale told the Bali Post newspaper. "She deserves to be sentenced to life." As the reality of the marathon jail term sank in, Corby, 27, issued a heartfelt thank you to the nation....